Republican Presidential candidate Nikki Haley suggested in an interview on Wednesday that United States forces “need to align” with non-European countries including Russia to enhance global security.
The former UN Ambassador for Trump was asked which regions of the world the U.S. should pay more attention to. Haley first said the U.S. needs Arab countries “to kind of join with us” on opposing Iran.
“You see Saudi Arabia making deals with China, that’s not good for us. We need them to be with us, and then we need to align with others, Russia, Australia, Japan, Israel,” Haley added.
“We need to start focusing on the allies that we have besides the Europeans and make sure that we have more friends — one, for our needs, so that we’re not dependent on an enemy for energy or medicines or anything else, and then two, to make sure that we build those alliances so that the world is more safe.”
On Saturday, Haley’s campaign said she misspoke by including Russia with the other countries.
“This is completely ridiculous, she obviously misspoke,” said a Haley spokesman on Saturday. “No one one has been tougher on Russia than Nikki Haley.”
Haley responded to the gaffe and called the country an “enemy” and referred to President Vladimir Putin as a “thug.”
On Saturday, a spokesman for Never Back Down, the super PAC supporting Ron DeSantis, called Haley’s remark “almost as bizarre as her aligning with woke Disney,” a reference to Haley’s critiques of DeSantis’ ongoing dispute with the Mouse, whose jobs she has said her home state “will happily accept” should it choose to leave Florida.