On Saturday, Nikki Haley took a jab at former President Donald Trump as he campaigned in her home state of South Carolina.
Trump addressed about 200 people in the state capitol building in Columbia, South Carolina, flanked by Governor Henry McMaster and U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham.
However, Haley, a former South Carolina governor who served as Trump’s ambassador to the United Nations, was conspicuously absent from the event.
On Saturday, Haley, who is expected to launch her presidential campaign in the coming months, tweeted, “It’s time for a new generation to lead.”
She shared a clip from an interview she gave to Fox News earlier in January in the tweet.
It's time for a new generation to lead. pic.twitter.com/vDG8eWtUpC
— Nikki Haley (@NikkiHaley) January 28, 2023
The video included Haley’s response to a question about her statement to the Associated Press in 2021 that she would not seek the Republican Party’s nomination if Trump decided to run in 2024.
The “survival of America matters,” Haley said, adding that it is “bigger than one person.”
“And when you’re looking at the future of America, I think it’s time for new generational change. I don’t think you need to be 80 years old to go be a leader in D.C.,” Haley said. “I think we need a young generation to come in, step up, and really start fixing things.”
Haley is 51 years old, Trump is 76, and Vice President Joe Biden is 80.
In that interview, Haley stated that she was nearing a decision on whether to run for President.
She added that she had made the comments about backing Trump’s 2024 candidacy “before we surrendered to Afghanistan, it was before we saw this high inflation and high crime, it was before we saw drugs infesting all of our states, it was before we saw our foreign policy in disarray, so a lot has changed.
“And when I look at that, I look at the fact if I’m this passionate and I’m this determined, why not me?”
According to a Saturday report in The Dispatch, Haley could make her presidential bid for 2024 official as soon as February.
“She’s definitely positioned to launch,” Dave Wilson, president of the Palmetto Family Council in Columbia, South Carolina, told the outlet. “The rocket is fueled and ready. I think we’re just in the countdown now.”
Trump traveled to New Hampshire and South Carolina on Saturday, attempting to deflect criticism that his campaign was off to a slow start.
“I’m more angry now and I’m more committed now than I ever was,” he told a small crowd at the New Hampshire Republican Party’s annual meeting in Salem.
