President Joe Biden defended Donald Trump’s 2024 Republican rival Nikki Haley after the former president accused her husband, who is deployed in Africa, of being absent from the campaign.
Meanwhile, former U.N. Ambassador Haley questioned why more Republicans haven’t spoken out against Trump’s comments.
‘Where is her husband? Oh, he’s gone,” Trump said Saturday at a rally in Haley’s home state of South Carolina. ‘What happened to her husband? Where is he? He is gone.’
During a stop on her campaign bus tour in South Carolina on Monday, Haley said of Trump: “He’s behaving inappropriately for a president.”
It is striking that Trump’s wife and former First Lady Melania was completely absent from his campaign. She has not appeared publicly alongside him since the former president announced his candidacy in 2020.
Major Michael Haley serves in the South Carolina Army National Guard and is currently deployed to the Horn of Africa. The couple’s children, Rena and Nalin, have been campaigning with their mother during her husband’s absence.
‘Why is there silence in the Republican Party? Where is everyone?’ she wondered when speaking to Politico about Trump’s comments about her husband.
President Joe Biden defended Nikki Haley and her husband against Donald Trump who questioned during a rally in South Carolina why Major Michael Haley was not on the campaign trail while deployed to Africa
Major Michael Haley is deployed to the Horn of Africa as his wife and former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley runs for the Republican presidential nomination
Haley added, “Where are the Republicans in defense of our men and women in uniform who sacrifice for us and protect our country?”
But President Biden, a Democrat, quickly showed his support for Major Haley’s service.
“The answer is that Major Haley is currently overseas serving his country,” Biden posted on X, formerly Twitter, on Sunday.
“We know he thinks our troops are ‘suckers,’ but this man wouldn’t be doing his country any favors if it punched him in the face,” the president added.
Haley and her husband both lashed out at X this weekend after Trump condemned him while he was deployed in Africa.
“Michael is being deployed to serve our country, something you know nothing about,” Haley wrote on X in response to a video of Trump’s comments.
“Someone who consistently disrespects the sacrifices of military families has no business being commander in chief,” the 2024 hopeful added.
Major Haley added his own response by tagging Trump and several media outlets in an X-post with an image of a wolf with the message: “The difference between humans and animals? Animals would never allow the dumbest to lead the pack.”
Trump appeared to be referring to reports of Haley’s affairs with two men in 2008 when he said at his rally, “He knew it, he knew it.”
Nikki Haley said her 2024 rival ‘has no business being commander in chief’ after he disrespected her husband, who is a National Guard major
‘Where is her husband? Oh, he’s gone,” Trump said at a rally in South Carolina on Saturday. ‘What happened to her husband? Where is he? He is gone.’ Former UN Ambassador. Nikki Haley’s husband, Major Michael Haley (left) is currently deployed to the Horn of Africa
DailyMail.com last month revealed new details about the men’s claims about affairs with Haley, who was a member of the South Carolina House of Representatives at the time.
Haley denied both allegations of an affair.
While her husband is deployed as a staff officer with the 218th Maneuver Enhancement Brigade in the Horn of Africa, the couple’s two children, Rena and Nalin, have gone on campaign missions with their mother.
Trump made several attacks on Nikki Haley at a rally in her home state of South Carolina on Saturday – and called out her husband for not campaigning with her despite being deployed to Africa
Major Haley posted a meme featuring a wolf on his X account with the message: ‘The difference between humans and animals? Animals would never allow the dumbest to lead the pack’
At her own rally Saturday, Haley responded to Trump’s attacks with, “If you mock the service of a combat veteran, you don’t deserve to have a driver’s license, let alone be president of the United States.”
“Donald, if you have something to say, don’t say it behind my back; get on the debate stage and say it to my face,” the former South Carolina governor added.
That same day, Haley posted photos of daughter Rena, 25, and son Nalin, 22, in front of her tour bus in South Carolina.
“It’s hard to become president,” she captioned the post. “It’s even harder to do when I feel like I’m missing my rock, Michael. But I am so grateful and proud to my children that they are part of this with me!’
Rena’s husband Joshua Jackson has also appeared alongside the family at times during the campaign.
At another point during Trump’s rally on Saturday, the former president claimed he only appointed “Tricky Nikki” Haley as his ambassador to the United Nations because he wanted Henry McMaster to replace her as governor in South Carolina.
“She did her job, she was doing well, she was doing well. But I didn’t put her there because I wanted her there at the UN,” Trump said. “I wanted to take your lieutenant governor who’s sitting here and make him governor, that’s what I wanted. And I wanted you to have Peggy as First Lady.”
Trump also claimed that “Birdbrain” Haley came to his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida with her husband and vowed never to go against him.
While Major Michael Haley is deployed, the couple’s children, Rena (left) and Nalin (right), have gone on campaign with their mother