Nikki Haley criticized Donald J. Trump on Friday, saying, “America can do higher than Donald Trump and Joe Biden,” after a Manhattan jury had ordered the previous president to pay $83.3 million for defaming the author E. Jean Carroll.
It was the most recent iteration of Ms. Haley’s new assault line in opposition to Mr. Trump, portraying one other Trump presidency as simply as unhealthy for the nation as one other 4 years of President Biden. Ms. Haley, the previous governor of South Carolina, started making comparable statements after Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida dropped out of the race on Sunday, leaving her because the final severe menace to Mr. Trump’s candidacy.
“Donald Trump desires to be the presumptive Republican nominee and we’re speaking about $83 million in damages,” Ms. Haley wrote on social media, including that Mr. Trump’s authorized troubles continued to be a distraction. “We’re not speaking about fixing the border. We’re not speaking about tackling inflation.”
Ms. Haley is making ready for what will be the last stand of her presidential marketing campaign, dealing with off in opposition to Mr. Trump subsequent month in a essential major in her residence state of South Carolina. Ms. Haley has largely averted commenting on Mr. Trump’s authorized instances, however the former president leads her by broad margins in polls, and he or she seems to be turning up the warmth in an effort to catch him.
Mr. Trump lashed out on social media quickly after the decision, attacking the civil trial as a “Biden Directed Witch Hunt” even supposing Ms. Carroll sued Mr. Trump in 2019, earlier than he had left workplace and whereas Mr. Biden was simply one in every of many Democratic presidential candidates.
The decision was a rare second for a front-runner in a presidential nominating contest. A jury penalized Mr. Trump $83.3 million for defamation simply three days after he had gained a second nominating contest — in New Hampshire, by 11 share factors. Mr. Trump additionally faces 91 felony counts in 4 separate prison instances.
“Completely ridiculous,” Mr. Trump wrote on his social media platform, Reality Social, of the decision, including, “Our Authorized System is uncontrolled, and getting used as a Political Weapon. They’ve taken away all First Modification Rights. THIS IS NOT AMERICA!”
Surrogates for Mr. Trump’s marketing campaign additionally criticized the decision. Consultant Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia wrote on social media that Mr. Trump “was denied a good trial in NY the place judges are actually political” activists. Consultant Elise Stefanik of New York, who’s seen by many to be within the working to be Mr. Trump’s vice chairman, stated the trial was an effort by Democrats to weaponize the justice system and “bankrupt” Mr. Trump.
Ms. Carroll accused Mr. Trump in 2019 of raping her in a division retailer dressing room many years earlier. Final Could, a special Manhattan jury awarded her $5 million after discovering Mr. Trump accountable for sexually abusing her and for defaming her in a social media publish.
Senator Chris Coons, Democrat of Delaware, a nationwide co-chair of Mr. Biden’s re-election marketing campaign, stated in an interview on CNN that the decision “tells you one thing about” Mr. Trump’s character, including that “that is somebody who thinks that presidents ought to have immunity to permit them to do no matter they need.”
