MILWAUKEE — Nikki Haley used a prime-time address at the Republican National Convention to deliver a “strong endorsement” of Donald Trump and encourage his lingering skeptics to cast their ballots for him in November, putting on a show of party unity just three days after the attempt on the former president’s life.
“President Trump asked me to speak at this convention in the name of unity. It was a gracious invitation, and I was happy to accept,” Haley said Tuesday night.
Then she played her part.
Haley delivered her pitch for Republicans to put aside their differences and rally behind their nominee. She called for a unified Republican Party to “save” the country. And she attacked President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, turning particular attention to the latter as the former faces growing calls to step aside from the Democratic ticket.
“You don’t have to agree with Trump 100 percent of the time to vote for him. Take it from me,” Haley said. “I haven’t always agreed with President Trump. But we agree more often than we disagree. We agree on keeping America strong. We agree on keeping America safe. And we agree that Democrats have moved so far to the left that they’re putting our freedoms in danger.”
Haley’s full-throated support of Trump on Republicans’ biggest stage accelerated what had been a slow detente between the former rivals for the GOP nomination since the former South Carolina governor exited the race in March.
Trump, a bandage on his right ear, watched Haley’s speech from a box with several of his children, his running mate, Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio), Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) and Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, who served as the former president’s press secretary. He sat with his lips pressed together for most of her remarks, letting out a laugh when she talked about their disagreements and applauding when she spoke of a unified party.
But Haley — who warned Trump when she suspended her campaign that he would have to work to win over her voters — also signaled that she did not fully believe his MAGA base was up to that task.
“To my fellow Republicans: We must not only be a unified party, we must also expand our party,” Haley said. “We are so much better when we are bigger. We are stronger when we welcome people into our party who have different backgrounds and experiences. And right now we need to be strong to save America.”
And her message of unity didn’t reach all the MAGA faithful in Fiserv Forum. While many attendees stood and applauded Haley as she took the stage, light boos echoed through the arena.
“Too little, too late,” said one person in the Illinois delegation. A convention official turned to her while Haley was speaking and said “no boos.”
Haley was not initially invited to speak at the convention, even as she released her delegates and encouraged them to support Trump. And Trump had not publicly made overtures to her supporters since she ended her bid against him.
But Trump and his team changed course just a few days before the convention. Haley was added to the lineup the same day a gunman opened fire at Trump’s rally in Butler, Pennsylvania — killing one, severely injuring two and leaving the former president wounded but safe. She delivered her remarks just before another also-ran, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.
Haley has a long and complicated history with Trump. She backed Florida Sen. Marco Rubio in the 2016 GOP primary, then went on to serve in Trump’s administration as his ambassador to the United Nations. She said she wouldn’t run against Trump if he decided to seek a second term — and then became the first major Republican to launch a campaign against him. On the trail, she kept her critiques of him to a minimum — until the field winnowed. Then the mudslinging between her and Trump began. Haley hammered Trump as a “bully” who threw “temper tantrums” and said both he and Biden were too old to lead the country. Trump derided her as “Birdbrain” and “just a bad candidate.”
When Haley dropped out after Super Tuesday — ceding the nomination to Trump — she declined to endorse him, saying it was up to the former president to “earn the votes of those in our party and beyond who did not support him.” Her supporters and non-Trump voters looking to send a message to the three-time nominee kept casting ballots for her in subsequent primaries. Then, two months after she exited the race, she turned around and said she would vote for him in November, saying that while he “has not been perfect,” Biden “has been a catastrophe.”
Many of Haley’s backers had held out hope of the near-impossibility that Trump would pick her as his running mate, as a way to smooth over any lingering tensions within the party and to appeal to independent voters and women, especially in the suburbs, who voted for Haley in droves. On Monday, he selected Vance.
Her supporters across the country watched her speech Tuesday for signs of how to proceed as they weigh whether to back the Republican ticket.
“I think she proved we agree on more than we don’t,” said Kimberly Rice, a former New Hampshire House speaker pro tem who co-chaired Haley’s campaign in the state. “I definitely think she sold it.”
Others watched simply because they were at Fiserv Forum.
Kelley Koch, chair of the Republican Party of Dallas County, Iowa, saw Haley and all the other Republicans come through trying to win votes last year. She rolled her eyes when asked what she thought of Haley’s speech.
“Needed to for her career,” Koch said.
Still, Koch said she didn’t appreciate the booing that came from some in the crowd when Haley took the stage.
“Didn’t like that,” Koch said. “We need unity.”
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