Nikki Haley: 'We shouldn't have listened to' Trump

Nikki Haley is distancing herself from former President Donald Trump, saying he "let us down" and predicting he will no longer "be in the picture" going forward.

Haley, the former South Carolina governor who served as ambassador to the United Nations under Trump, spoke with Politico about the aftermath of the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol in a profile published Friday, as Trump is accused of inciting the riot in a second impeachment trial. She told Politico the former president has now "lost any sort of political viability he was going to have" and predicted he will not run for federal office again.

"I don't think he's going to be in the picture," Haley said of Trump. "I don't think he can. He's fallen so far."

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Haley went a step further by saying Republicans shouldn't have followed Trump as he spiraled.

"We need to acknowledge he let us down," Haley said. "He went down a path he shouldn't have, and we shouldn't have followed him, and we shouldn't have listened to him. And we can't let that ever happen again."

At the same time, Haley defended her time working under Trump in the interview, saying she still stands by the fact that he "was someone who cared about the country" and that "there was nothing to fear about him when I worked for him." But she's "deeply disturbed by what's happened to him" since the 2020 election and said "never did I think he would spiral out like this." Still, Haley dismisses impeachment proceedings against Trump as a "waste of time."

Haley is seen as a likely Republican presidential contender in 2024, and after conducting hours of interviews with her and people who know her, Politico's Tim Alberta confidently writes, "Nikki Haley is going to run for president in 2024." Read the full profile at Politico.