Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley unleashed on the GOP frontrunner on Friday, calling Donald Trump “totally unhinged” while taking aim at the Republican National Committee for briefly considering a resolution to officially name Trump the presumptive nominee.
The former South Carolina governor, who was once pushed as Fox News’ preferred Trump alternative in the GOP race, also sparred with the network’s hosts over her criticism of the ex-president.
Appearing on Fox News’ America’s Newsroom, Haley was asked to react to RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel calling on her to drop out of the race and whether she’s spoken to McDaniel lately.
“I let her know how disappointed I was,” Haley responded. “Let’s look at the last 48 hours. First of all, you had election night, Trump gets on stage and throws a temper tantrum, talking about revenge, but says nothing about the American people.”
Blasting Trump’s threat to “ban” anyone from MAGA if they donate to Haley’s campaign, the former UN ambassador went on to accuse the former president of being behind the effort to name him the nominee after just two states have voted. The plan, which was proposed by key Trump ally David Bossie, was withdrawn on Friday morning after Trump denounced it on social media.
“They got so much pushback that he had to backtrack from it,” Haley exclaimed. “I mean, he’s totally unhinged!”
Fox News anchor Dana Perino pushed back, asking Haley if she was sure Trump was behind the resolution since he took to Truth Social to say he had no interest in going down that route.
“Well, it was his people that pushed it forward. I know how much he has pushed on Ronna. Ronna has made it very clear that he was pushing her to stop debates,” the ex-governor answered. “He pushes them to do things. And I think they got some major blowback and that’s why he had to walk it back. Look, you can’t bully your way through this process.”
Perino’s co-anchor Bill Hemmer, meanwhile, circled back to Haley’s description of Trump as “unhinged,” pointing out that the ex-president won the vast majority of Republican votes in the New Hampshire primary.
“To date, 109 counties have voted and you have won two. One of those by a single vote. When do you start winning Republicans?” Hemmer wondered.
Haley, for her part, disagreed with Hemmer’s suggestion that she had little pathway to the nomination going forward. Saying that she “will win Republicans,” Haley pointed to her strength with independent and moderate voters before noting that she saw a surge in support in the final weeks of the New Hampshire primary, which ended with her losing to Trump by 11 points.
“We’ll do better than that in South Carolina,” she insisted.