Haley calls Jan. 6 a ‘terrible day’ and sharpens attack against Trump’s 2020 claims

Haley tempered her response by saying there were “discrepancies” in the 2020 elections that “should be concerning,” and noted that she had signed a bill into law as governor of South Carolina requiring voters to present valid identification before voting.

“I think when absentee ballots go out, you should be able to verify signatures,” Haley said. “That’s why I think ballots need to be counted on Election Day and you should get results on Election Day.”

But when asked to clarify whether there was any meaningful difference in how she and Trump viewed the Constitution, Haley stated that Trump had gone too far when he pushed his allies to overturn the 2020 election results.

“The fact that he wanted to change what the states did, the fact that he wanted to overturn the elections in D.C. — those votes happen at the state level,’ she said. ‘You don’t ever allow in D.C. for those votes to be changed at the federal level. States’ rights matter.”

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R), the only other candidate to share the debate stage with Haley Wednesday night, avoided attacking Trump and did not mention the Jan. 6 attack when asked the same question about whether he and the former president viewed the Constitution differently. Throughout his campaign, DeSantis has refrained from criticizing Trump too harshly over the insurrection, going as far as saying that the former president “should have come out more forcefully” to stop the rioters but that he did not think Trump acted with criminal intent.

Both candidates also were asked about an argument Trump’s lawyer made to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit on Tuesday that, as president, he would be immune from criminal prosecution — including if he ordered the military to assassinate a political rival — if he was not first impeached and convicted by the Senate.

“That’s ridiculous. That’s absolutely ridiculous. … We need to use some common sense here,” Haley said, disagreeing with Trump’s legal argument. She also added that the country was “completely divided” after Trump’s presidency and continues to be under Biden.

“What a leader does is they bring out the best in people and get them to see the way forward,” she said. “That’s what we need in our country. We don’t need this chaos anymore. We need someone who’s going to be a new generational leader that brings sanity back to America.”

DeSantis also disagreed with Trump’s legal argument, predicting that the courts would rule against the former president on the issue of sweeping immunity. He also warned that, if Trump was the Republican presidential nominee, Democrats would make the general election a referendum on the Jan. 6 attack and Trump’s legal problems.