Haley Campaign Press Release - Haley on ABC This Week: Vladimir Putin is Not Cool

COLUMBIA, S.C. – This morning Nikki Haley joined Jonathan Karl on ABC's This Week to discuss Trump's failure to call out Putin on Navalny's death, Trump's antipathy toward NATO, and his attempted takeover of the Republican National Committee to pay his legal fees.

On Trump's failure to call out Putin on Navalny's death…

"This goes back to the fact we need to remind the American people that Vladimir Putin is not our friend. Vladimir Putin is not cool. This is not someone we want to associate with. This is not someone that we want to be friends with. This is not someone that we can trust. And so when you hear Donald Trump say in South Carolina a week ago that he would encourage Putin to invade our allies if they weren't pulling their weight, that's bone chilling because all he did in that one moment was empower Putin. And all he did in that moment was he sided with a guy that kills his political opponents, he sided with a thug that arrests American journalists and holds them hostage. And he sided with a guy who wanted to make a point to the Russian people, don't challenge me in the next election or this will happen to you too… It's actually pretty amazing that he, not only after making those comments, that he would encourage Putin to invade NATO, but the fact that he won't acknowledge anything with Navalny either he sides with Putin and thinks it's cool that Putin killed one of his political opponents or he just doesn't think it's that big of a deal. Either one of those is concerning. Either one of those is a problem."

Haley on Trump's antipathy toward NATO…

"I'm worried about a lot of things if Trump is re-elected. That is one of them. You know, first of all, understand that NATO is a 75-year success story. This alliance, keep in mind Russia has never invaded a NATO country because Russia has typically been very intimidated by this alliance. China is even intimidated by this alliance. So keeping NATO strong is important. Adding more friends to the fold is important. This is not the time to leave an alliance. This is not the time to side with a thug and not side with our friends who stood with us after 9/11. We have to make sure that we stand firm because when we stand firm with our friends, our enemies stay on their heels. When we start to show any weakening of those alliances, that's when our enemies move. That's why we're seeing China on the march. That's why we're seeing Iran want to build a nuclear bomb. That's why we're seeing Russia start to move towards Poland and the Baltics. It is not something to play with when you talk about NATO. This is something where we should be doubling down and saying that this alliance will only get stronger. And that's what I'll promise I do as president, is we not only will strengthen NATO, we will strengthen alliances with India, Australia, Japan, South Korea, the Philippines. We will add to the fold. This is about America having more friends, not less friends."

Haley on the RNC being Trump's "piggy bank"...

"It should be a wake up call for Republicans all over this country. I mean you look at the fact that we saw in his campaign reports that he used $50 million of campaign contributions to pay for his personal court cases. Then he tried to get the RNC to name him the presumptive nominee. We don't anoint kings in America. So when he got pushback on that they started to walk it back. Now he's trying to control the RNC by putting his daughter-in-law as the co-chair and putting his campaign manager as the director of operations. Now when you look at that, the part I worry about is the RNC is now going to be the piggy bank for Trump's legal fees. The RNC is almost broke already. Now you go and see he's looking for other avenues to pay his legal fees. The RNC, you can hang up winning the House and the Senate or having any resources for us to win any other races if all they're doing is thinking about how they're going to pay his court fees."