Haley Hits Trump for Silence on Navalny

Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley criticized Donald Trump on Sunday for neglecting to weigh in on Friday’s prison death of Alexei Navalny, an anticorruption campaigner who had opposed Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Speaking on ABC’s “This Week,” Haley said Trump’s silence shows that he “either 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.” Haley is Trump’s final opponent for the GOP nomination ahead of the November presidential election.

Speaking of Trump, Haley said, “He sided with a guy that killed his political opponents. He sided with a thug who arrests American journalists and holds them hostage,” referring to the imprisonment of Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, who has been detained in Russia since March on an espionage claim that he, the Journal and the U.S. government vehemently deny.

Navalny, who was 47, died Friday in a remote Russian prison colony. Russian officials allege Navalny collapsed after a walk. His team, however, claim he was murdered. Both President Biden and Haley have said that Putin is ultimately responsible for Navalny’s death. Trump has weighed in on a range of other topics in the past few days, but not Navalny’s death.

Navalny was serving more than 30 years in prison on charges that he and his supporters said were fabricated. He was detained after returning from Germany, where he was recovering from what German doctors said was poisoning with a Soviet-era nerve agent, Novichok. Navalny blamed his poisoning on the Kremlin, which denied involvement in any attempt to harm him.

Haley also criticized Trump on Sunday for earlier comments he made that suggested Russia should attack any NATO member that doesn’t contribute sufficiently to military defense. Haley called on lawmakers to pass an aid package that would replenish funds for Ukraine to continue defending itself against Russia.

The Senate recently passed a bill that would authorize $95.3 billion in aid for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan, but it faces an uncertain fate in the House, where Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) has said the measure is insufficient because it doesn’t address security problems at the U.S. Southern border.

“Congress is failing because they’re making this sound like you have to choose between Ukraine and Israel or a secure border,” Haley said. “They are lying to the American people. That’s a false premise. We can do both.”

Haley also criticized Biden for failing to sell Americans on the need to support Ukraine, Israel and other countries.

“When you don’t talk about those things with the American people, they are going to distance themselves from it,” she said. “And so Joe Biden has failed on that front. That has emboldened our enemies.”

At the end of the ABC interview, Haley declined to say whether she would support Trump if he ultimately emerged as the GOP nominee.

Write to Dave Michaels at [email protected]