Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley suggested a need to “align” the United States military with non-European countries, including Russia, to increase global security, a comment her campaign characterized as a lapse. It was featured but came amid millions approving of the Joe Biden administration—military aid to help Ukraine prevent Russian aggression.
Asked Wednesday by WMUR-TV for a segment on areas of the world she thought America could pay more attention to, Haley — who served the Trump administration as ambassador to the United Nations, first “Arab world”, added that the US needs Arab countries “to join us” in opposing Iran.
“Saudi Arabia is making deals with China; it is not good for us. We need them to be with us, and then we need to align with others, Russia, Australia, Japan, Israel,” Haley said.
“We have to start focusing on the allies that we have apart from the Europeans and make sure that we have more friends – one, for our needs so that we don’t become enemies for energy or drugs or whatever.” And then two, we build those alliances to ensure the world is safer.”
On Saturday, Haley’s campaign said the candidate misspoke.
“It’s ridiculous, she missed it,” spokesman Ken Farnaso told The Associated Press on Saturday. “No one has been tougher on Russia than Nikki Haley.”
