COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — Republican presidential hopeful Nikki Haley suggested in an interview that United States forces “need to align” with non-European countries including Russia to enhance global security, a remark her campaign characterized as a gaffe.
Asked by WMUR-TV for a segment Wednesday on regions of the world to which she felt the U.S. could pay more attention, Haley — who served the Trump administration as United Nations ambassador, first said “the Arab world,” saying the U.S. needs Arab countries “to kind of join with us” on opposing Iran.
“You see Saudi Arabia making deals with China, that's not good for us. We need them to be with us, and then we need to align with others, Russia, Australia, Japan, Israel,” Haley added.
“We need to start focusing on the allies that we have besides the Europeans and make sure that we have more friends — one, for our needs, so that we're not dependent on an enemy for energy or medicines or anything else, and then two, to make sure that we build those alliances so that the world is more safe.”
On Saturday, Haley's campaign said the candidate misspoke when she included Russia with the other countries.
“This is completely ridiculous, she obviously misspoke,” spokesman Ken Farnaso told The Associated Press on Saturday. “No one one has been tougher on Russia than Nikki Haley.”
Asked to comment on the interview, Haley in a statement to AP called the…
