In the wake of January 6th, former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley said the following about Donald Trump:

“He’s not going to run for federal office again,” Haley said.

But what if he does? Or at least, what if he spends the next four years threatening to? Can the Republican Party heal with Trump in the picture?

“I don’t think he’s going to be in the picture,” she said, matter-of-factly. “I don’t think he can. He’s fallen so far.”

This was the most certainty I’d heard from any Republican in the aftermath of January 6. And Haley wasn’t done.

“We need to acknowledge he let us down,” she said. “He went down a path he shouldn’t have, and we shouldn’t have followed him, and we shouldn’t have listened to him. And we can’t let that ever happen again.”

She said at the time that the GOP should not “go back to the way it was before Donald Trump,” but told Tim Alberta, “I’m deeply disturbed by what’s happened to him… The person that I worked with is not the person that I have watched since the election.”

Even in a follow-up op-ed responding to criticism of that interview, Haley still said, “Most of Mr. Trump’s major policies were outstanding and made America stronger, safer and more prosperous. Many of his actions since the election were wrong and will be judged harshly by history.”

However, in April, she said she would support Trump in 2024 if he ran.

Trump himself recently said of Haley, “Well, every time she criticizes me, she uncriticizes me about 15 minutes later. I guess she gets the base.”

Now she’s openly embracing Trump as an essential part of the GOP’s future.

Haley spoke to The Wall Street Journal ahead of a speech Tuesday night, and she touted Trump’s “strong legacy”:

He has the ability to get strong people elected, and he has the ability to move the ball, and I hope that he continues to do that. We need him in the Republican Party. I don’t want us to go back to the days before Trump.

As for the big lie Trump pushed — which led to the January 6 riots she condemned him over — Haley said, “There was fraud in the election, but I don’t think that the numbers were so big that it swayed the vote in the wrong direction.”

The post Months After Saying Trump ‘Let Us Down’ on 1/6, Nikki Haley Now Says ‘We Need Him in the Republican Party’ first appeared on Mediaite.

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