In response, Trump's campaign accused Haley of 'trying to grasp at straws'
Nikki Haley skirts plea for her to drop out: 'I don't listen to donors ... I never have'
Presidential candidate Nikki Haley joined 'America's Newsroom' to discuss the RNC backtracking on a presumptive-nominee proposal, the upcoming South Carolina primary and a major donor's call for her to drop out of the race.
Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley took aim at former President Donald Trump's mental state for the second time on Friday, questioning whether he was "confused again" after releasing a video showing him railing against the court proceedings in his New York City civil defamation trial.
In the video, Trump is seen blasting someone his campaign clarified to be E. Jean Carroll, the plaintiff in the case, saying he has "no idea" who she is, before referencing "somebody running for office."
Trump didn't mention any individual by name in the video, leading Haley to question whether he was "confused" by referencing Carroll as a political candidate.
Wait a second, did Trump just say the person suing him is "running for office?” Is he confused again? I was not in a New York City courtroom yesterday, any more than I was in charge of security at the Capitol on January 6. I was in South Carolina meeting with voters. They’d like… https://t.co/Y72NYHKVtz
— Nikki Haley (@NikkiHaley) January 26, 2024
"Wait a second, did Trump just say the person suing him is 'running for office?' Is he confused again? I was not in a New York City courtroom yesterday, any more than I was in charge of security at the Capitol on January 6. I was in South Carolina meeting with voters. They’d like to see a debate between me and Trump," Haley wrote in a post on X.
Her mention of Thursday's court proceedings was in reference to Trump taking the stand in his defense at the trial. He has vehemently denied the allegation that he sexually attacked Carroll in a department store dressing room in the 1990s, which resulted in her slapping him with a defamation lawsuit, claiming that his response caused harm to her reputation.
Steven Cheung, a senior Trump campaign official, told Fox News Digital that Trump was actually referring to himself in the video when referencing "somebody running for office."
Former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley and former President Donald Trump. (Getty Images)
"President Trump was obviously referring to himself. Birdbrain is trying to grasp at straws to gaslight voters, because she’s nothing more than a Democrat with America Last policies that will destroy the country," he said.
The attack on Trump's mental fitness comes just days after Haley suggested he was in mental "decline," and "not at the same level" as he was when he was first elected in 2016, after he appeared to confuse her with former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
The instance occurred while Trump was speaking in Concord, New Hampshire, last week, when he told the crowd: "By the way, they never report the crowd on Jan. 6. Nikki Haley, Nikki Haley, Nikki Haley. Do you know they destroyed all of the information, all of the evidence, everything, deleted and destroyed all of it?"
Former Speaker of the House Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif. ( (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images))
"All of it, because of lots of things, like Nikki Haley is in charge of security," he mistakenly said about Jan. 6. "We offered her 10,000 people, soldiers, National Guard, whatever they want. They turned it down. They don’t want to talk about that. These are very dishonest people."
Fox News' Brooke Singman and Brie Stimson contributed to this report.
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Brandon Gillespie is an associate editor at Fox News. Follow him on X at @BGillespieAL.
