Nikki Randhawa Haley, the Indian-American Governor of South Carolina, has come down hard on Republican front-runner Donald Trump, calling him a “bully”, and predicting that he cannot defeat Democrat Hillary Clinton in the race to the White House even if he were to win the Republican nomination.
Her comments came just ahead of the “Super Tuesday” primaries in 12 States even as a new CNN poll put Trump at 49 per cent nationally, against Marco Rubio’s 16 per cent and Ted Cruz’s 15 per cent, in yet another pointer to the long-held belief that it’s going to be a Trump-Clinton face-off in November.
Haley, who has endorsed Rubio, claimed in an interview to ABC News on Sunday that the Florida Senator alone had the potential to defeat Clinton since Trump’s “negatives are so high” and “his cap (of support) is at 35 per cent”.
For Trump, the presidential bid is just “one more project” that is bound to end up like his other failed projects, Haley remarked, listing Trump University, Trump Vodka, Trump Airlines and Trump Mortgage among them.
Asked if Rubio was not stooping low by resorting to a Trump-style offensive in recent days, Haley defended the Senator, commenting: “I think he hit back and he showed that he’s willing to lead. He’s willing to fight. And he’s going to have the passion to do it.”