Former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley is taking a shot at former President Donald Trump for his comments about the Russian president.
On Friday, Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny died in prison.
Haley posted on X, “Putin did this.”
She then pivoted to attack Trump’s comments about Russian President Vladimir Putin, writing, “The same Putin who Donald Trump praises and defends.”
“The same Trump who said: ‘In all fairness to Putin, you’re saying he killed people. I haven’t seen that,’” she added.
Putin did this. The same Putin who Donald Trump praises and defends.
— Nikki Haley (@NikkiHaley) February 16, 2024
The same Trump who said:
“In all fairness to Putin, you’re saying he killed people. I haven’t seen that.” https://t.co/o1v3wBz1t7
Haley’s post refers to a 2015 interview Trump gave to ABC News when he said it was “terrible” if Putin had killed journalists.
However, Trump added, “In all fairness to Putin, you’re saying he killed people. I haven’t seen that. I don’t know that he has. Have you been able to prove that? Do you know the names of the reporters that he’s killed? Because I’ve been – you know, you’ve been hearing this, but I haven’t seen the names.”
He also insisted Putin has “always denied” killing journalists and added, “It’s never been proven that he’s killed anybody.”
NBC News notes Navalny “was poisoned with a military nerve agent while on a business trip in Russia in 2020 — an attempt on his life that he blamed directly on Putin — and spent his final years behind bars as the Russian leader reshaped the country to rally behind his war in Ukraine.”
“Navalny was serving a combined 30 ½-year jail sentence when he died. He went missing in Russia’s penal system in December, eventually turning up at a high-security penal colony in a remote town above the Arctic Circle,” it added.
Russia’s Federal Prison Service said in a statement, “On February 16, 2024, in penal colony No. 3, convict A.A. Navalny felt unwell after a walk, almost immediately losing consciousness.”
“The facility’s medical workers immediately arrived at the scene and an emergency medical team was called in. All necessary resuscitation measures have been carried out, but they did not yield positive results. Emergency medics confirmed the death of the convict,” it added.
However, NBC News notes there was “no immediate information about what exactly caused Navalny’s death.”
