Former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley on Wednesday stepped up her attacks against Donald Trump, lashing out at the former president as toxic, chaotic, self-absorbed and lacking moral clarity.
“The Breakfast Club” host Charlamagne tha God asked the Republican presidential candidate to explain how Trump changed politics for both good and bad.
Most of her answer focused on the bad.
“He’s made it chaotic. He’s made it self-absorbed. He’s made people dislike and judge each other,” the former UN ambassador said. “He’s left that a president should have moral clarity and know the difference between right or wrong. And he’s just toxic.”
Haley gave Trump credit for breaking some things that she said “needed” to be broken, such as bureaucracy.
“But he doesn’t know how to fix things again,” she said. “And it’s not OK to just break. You’ve got to fix it, make it better. And he hasn’t done that.”
Pressed by Charlamagne tha God for a positive contribution to politics by Trump, Haley praised the former president for tapping into the voices of voters who “felt unheard, unseen.”
Haley has in recent weeks escalated her attacks against Trump, pointing to his string of gaffes and flubs as signs that he is “confused” and questioning if he is “mentally fit” for the job.
Haley, who finished third in the Iowa caucuses and second in the New Hampshire primary, where she was essentially the sole remaining alternative to Trump, is hoping for a better finish when the primary process reaches her home state of South Carolina on February 24.
However, polls show her well behind the former president, with the current FiveThirtyEight average giving her just 31% of the vote compared with 66% for Trump.