Haley attacked for backing jury in $83 million defamation verdict against Trump

January 29, 2024 8:07 pm • Last Updated: January 29, 2024 8:07 pm

By Dave Goldiner

Daniel Schroder, right, holds one of his three children on his shoulders as they wait to meet Republican presidential candidate former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley, left, after a campaign event in Mauldin, South Carolina, on Sunday, Jan. 28, 2024. Schroder is backing Haley, a former South Carolina governor, over former President Donald Trump in South Carolina's Feb. 24 Republican presidential primary. Haley must convince more voters who have supported both her and Trump in the past to stay with her this time. Otherwise, South Carolina could effectively end the 2024 nomination fight with another Trump victory. (AP Photo/Bill Barrow)

Nikki Haley was hit with a wave of MAGA attacks Monday after she backed the jury in the E. Jean Carroll sex assault and defamation case against former President Donald Trump.

Pro-Trump Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) led the charge against Haley after Trump’s sole remaining rival in the Republican presidential race said she believed the panel did the right thing by ordering Trump to pay $83 million in damages.

“Nikki will do anything for anyone who lines her pockets with cash!” Greene posted on X.

Haley stoked the anger, which was echoed by several far right-wing supporters of Trump, by praising jurors who decided against Trump in a Fox News interview.

“I do think American juries still get it right. They listen to the evidence. They make the decision based on the evidence,” Haley said. “I trust that they’re making the right decision.”

Haley sought to walk a fine line by repeating her past vague criticism of some of the myriad legal actions against Trump, saying “politics has been played” by some unnamed prosecutors and judges in Trump cases.

“I just tell the truth the way I see it,” Haley added.

Haley is coming under increasingly harsh attacks from Trump and his allies as he tries to force her out of the GOP race as soon as possible.

The former U.N. ambassador, who came in second to Trump in the New Hampshire primary, has vowed to stay in the race at least through the primary in her home state of South Carolina next month and the Super Tuesday primaries 10 days later.

Haley heads to New York Tuesday for a big-money fundraising event with Wall Street billionaire donors as she looks to bankroll her campaign for several more weeks.

Most Republican analysts give Haley next to no chance of wrestling the nomination away from Trump, who remains the most popular and powerful figure in the GOP.

But she points to polls showing she has a far better chance of beating President Joe Biden, especially with the uncertainty swirling around Trump’s looming criminal trials.

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