- Thursday, December 26, 2024
The Indian American said that Trump is the best bet for the country and that the Republicans are united to defeat President Joe Biden
By: Shajil Kumar
REPUBLICAN leader Nikky Haley has endorsed Donald Trump as the party’s candidate for the presidential election, delivering the message of unity.
The 52-year-old Indian American had unsuccessfully challenged Trump, 78, for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination and described him as unfit for office.
But last week, she instructed her 97 delegates to vote for Trump at the convention as she called for unity in the party.
“I’ll start by making one thing perfectly clear. Donald Trump has my strong endorsement,” Haley said in her address to the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee.
This once-in-four-year convention had earlier nominated Trump as its presidential candidate. Trump will deliver his acceptance speech on Thursday.
With his right ear bandaged after Saturday’s assassination attempt, Trump applauded from his box in the arena, where sat alongside running mate Senator J.D. Vance.
Vance, himself a former Trump critic, will headline the convention’s third night on Wednesday.
Haley told thousands of delegates and party leaders that Donald Trump is the best bet for the country and that the Republicans are united to defeat incumbent President Joe Biden.
“Let us join together as a party. Let us come together as a people – as one country – strong and proud. Let us show our children and the world that even on our worst day, we are blessed to live in America,” said the former South Carolina governor and the US Ambassador to the United Nations.
Haley used her speech to defend the former president’s foreign policy record and speak directly to voters who disagree with him on certain issues.
“There are some Americans who don’t agree with Donald Trump 100 per cent of the time,” she said. “My message to them is simple: You don’t have to agree with Trump 100 per cent of the time to vote for him.”
“Our country is at a critical moment. We have a choice to make. For more than a year, I said a vote for Joe Biden is a vote for President Kamala Harris. After seeing the debate, everyone knows it’s true,” Haley said.
“If we have four more years of Biden . . . or a single day of Harris . . . our country will be badly worse off. For the sake of our nation, we have to go with Donald Trump,” Haley said.
“Our foreign enemies win when they see Americans hate each other. They see that today, whether it’s on college campuses or in a field in Butler, Pennsylvania. But we can conquer those fears with strength and unity,” she said.
“Our fellow Americans are fearful right now. Families are suffering from inflation and wages that don’t keep up with prices. Young people are being indoctrinated to think our country is racist and evil. The Jewish community is facing an obscene rise in antisemitism. Too many minorities are trapped in communities devastated by crime,” she said.
She said no president can fix all problems alone.
“We have to do this together. America has an amazing ability to self-correct. In this moment, we have a chance to put aside our differences and focus on what unites us and strengthens our country,” Haley said.
Haley said under Donald Trump, the US didn’t have the border disaster being faced today. “And we won’t when he is president again,” she said.
“Under Joe Biden, migrants are coming into our country by the thousands every day. We have no idea who they are, where they end up, or what they plan to do,” she said.
Biden, she alleged, lifted the sanctions on Iran. “He begged them to get back into the nuclear deal. He surrendered in Afghanistan. He sent every possible sign of weakness. Even now, while Hamas is still holding American hostages, Biden is pressuring Israel instead of the terrorists,” she said.
“When Barack Obama was president, Vladimir Putin invaded Crimea. With Joe Biden as president, Putin invaded all of Ukraine. But when Donald Trump was president, Putin did nothing. No invasions, no wars. That was no accident. Putin didn’t attack Ukraine because he knew Donald Trump was tough. A strong president doesn’t start wars. A strong president prevents them,” she said amidst applause from the audience.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis used his speech, which followed Haley’s, to call on Republicans to help elect the former president.
Ramaswamy backs Trump
Making his maiden appearance before the Republican National Convention, Indian-American entrepreneur-turned-politician Vivek Ramaswamy also asked fellow countrymen to vote for Donald Trump in the November general elections to revive national pride, reignite the economy restore law and order and seal the border.
Trump is the president who will actually unite this country, not through empty words but through action, he said.
“Success is unifying, excellence is unifying, that’s who we are as Americans, that’s who we have always been,” Ramaswamy, a former presidential aspirant, said.
“We are the country where we can disagree like hell and still get together at the dinner table at the end of it. That is the America I know. That is the America we miss,” he said as his speech electrified the crowd.
“If you disagree with everything I say then our message to you is this – we will still defend your right to say it because that is who we are as Americans. We are a country where we can disagree like hell and still get together at the dinner table at the end of it. That is what it means to be an American,” he said. (Agencies)
