Nikki Haley Comes Out Swinging at Donald Trump

Republican presidential hopeful Nikki Haley went after former President Donald Trump head-on Wednesday night, completely dismissing his claim that the 2020 election was stolen.

Haley, while speaking during the fifth GOP primary debate, hosted by CNN in Des Moines, Iowa, attacked the former president for attempting to overturn President Joe Biden's win in 2020, and bashed him for calling the January 6, 2021, siege on the U.S. Capitol a "beautiful day."

"I think January 6 was a terrible day," Haley said. "And we should never want to see that happen again. And I think we have to always be strong on the fact that we want fair elections."

Haley went on to say that while there were "discrepancies" during the 2020 election at the state level, at the end of the day, "Trump lost it."

"Biden won that election," she continued. "And the idea that [Trump's] gone and carried this out forever, to the point that he's going to continue to say these things to scare the American people, are wrong."

"We've seen a lot of states come together and do more election integrity bills," Haley added. "We need to do more than that ... But at the end of the day, I will always defend and fight for the Constitution. That's what we should do as Americans."

A clip of Haley's comments was posted to X, formerly Twitter, by the account Republicans Against Trump.

The comments perhaps represented the strongest stance Haley has taken against the former president, who again chose to sit out Wednesday's debate despite meeting CNN's criteria. Throughout the night as well, Haley repeatedly called on Trump to participate in the primary events to answer for his "record" and answer the questions most important to voters.

Haley also called Trump's legal argument for presidential immunity "absolutely ridiculous." The former president, who faces federal felony charges accusing him of unlawful attempts to remain in power after losing the 2020 election, has argued that he is clear of criminal charges because his actions related to the indictments filed against him were performed within his scope as president.

The former South Carolina governor also blamed Trump for dividing the American electorate, and called for a new leader to bring "sanity back to America."

"You look at the last few years, and our country is completely divided," Haley said. "It's divided over extremes. It's divided over hatred ... And now we have leaders in our country that decide who's good and who's bad, who's right and who's wrong. That's not what a leader does. What a leader does is they bring out the best in people and get them to see the way forward."

"We don't need this chaos anymore," she added. "We need someone who's going to be a new generational leader that brings sanity back to America."

Newsweek reached out to Trump's campaign via email for comment Wednesday night.

Haley's polling numbers have been steadily climbing since receiving full support from GOP megadonor Charles Koch in November, including in a recent poll from The Detroit News showing Haley beating Trump in a key swing state during a hypothetical matchup against Biden.

According to polling group FiveThirtyEight, as of Wednesday, Trump was leading on average across national primary polls at 61.3 percent. DeSantis and Haley are polling neck-and-neck for second place, at 12.5 percent and 11.5 percent, respectively.

Update 01/10/24, 11:38 p.m.: This article was updated to include additional information.