Republican presidential contender Nikki Haley attacked Donald Trump, the front-runner for their party’s presidential nomination, during a CNN town hall in New Hampshire on Thursday evening, denouncing his record on tackling the opioid crisis, the national debt and his veneration of China’s authoritarian leader Xi Jinping.
Speaking at New England College in Henniker, she said of the prospect of a rematch between Mr Trump and Joe Biden in November: “Do we really want to have two 80-year-olds running for president when we have a country in disarray and a world on fire?
“They are so distracted by their own investigations and their own grievances.”
On Thursday she also went after rival Ron DeSantis, saying he is “invisible” in New Hampshire and “closer to zero than he is to me” in polling terms.
Tuesday’s primary in the Granite State threatens to be a make-or-break contest for Ms Haley following her disappointing third place showing in Monday’s Iowa caucuses.
Vivek Ramaswamy, who quit the race after Iowa, has also turned his attention to the Florida governor yesterday, imploring the embattled Mr DeSantis to drop out now and arguing he would deserve “immense credit” if he did so.