Americans are smart enough not to elect former president Donald Trump if he's convicted in any of the four federal and state criminal cases against him, Nikki Haley has said.
"First of all, he's innocent until proven guilty. But you are implying that the American people are not smart. The American people are not going to vote for a convicted criminal. The American people are going to vote for someone who can win a general election. I have faith in the American people. They know what they need to do," Haley said in a political chat show Sunday.
Haley distanced herself from a pledge she made at the Republican primary debate late last month to support the eventual nominee, even if it were Trump, saying the pledge was a symbolic gesture.
"What you saw were candidates on that stage said that they would do exactly what they signed and pledged to do which is support the Republican nominee. That's what we are saying. I don’t think President Trump is going to be the nominee. I think it's going to be me. But I will tell you that any Republican is better than what Joe Biden and Kamala Harris are doing," Haley said.
The latest polling shows Trump comfortably leading by between 36 and 46 points above his nearest competitor, Governor Ron DeSantis of Florida. Haley is currently polling between four and eight percent of the vote, in fourth place behind entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy.
Trump has so far avoided giving Haley one of his trademark derogatory nicknames, a sign, observers have suggested, that he does not see her as a major political threat.
Haley is one of about half-a-dozen high profile former Trump administration officials to have publicly broken with and criticized their former boss, with others including former vice president Mike Pence (who is also in the running for the GOP nomination, and polling fifth behind Haley), and former national security advisor John Bolton. Trump's supporters have attacked these former officials as Judas Iscariot-style figures for turning their backs on the former president.
Trump is facing four separate criminal indictments against him in Florida, the District of Columbia, New York and Georgia related to his alleged mishandling of classified information, a suspected attempt to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election, and criminal falsification of business records related to alleged hush money payments to a former adult film star.
Trump has denied wrongdoing in all of the cases, and accused President Joe Biden and the Democrats of illegally using the criminal justice system to go after political opponents after Russiagate, two impeachments and other machinations failed to bar him from taking another shot at the presidency.