Nikki Haley’s husband begins Africa deployment as she campaigns for 2024 GOP nomination

CHARLESTON, S.C. (AP) — Nikki Haley’s husband deployed Saturday for a yearlong stint in Africa with the South Carolina Military Nationwide Guard, a mission that may embody a lot of the the rest of her marketing campaign for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination.

“He’s all the time been my rock,” she stated after a deployment ceremony for about 200 troopers at The Citadel, a navy school in Charleston. “We now have each lived a lifetime of service, and so when he goes off to deploy, my help is totally with him. If I occur to be operating for president, his help is totally with me. ... We are going to proceed to remain in contact as finest we will.”

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Maj. Michael Haley is being deployed as a workers officer with the 218th Maneuver Enhancement Brigade, which the Nationwide Guard says is offering help within the Horn of Africa.

The United Nations, the place Nikki Haley served as Donald Trump’s ambassador for 2 years, says that area is going through the worst drought in 40 years, with greater than 43.3 million folks in want of help in Somalia, Ethiopia and Kenya, and greater than half of these missing entry to enough meals.

Final month, a high-level U.N. convention raised lower than $1 billion of the greater than $5 billion organizers have been hoping for to assist greater than 30 million folks within the Horn of Africa deal with the local weather disaster and mass displacement after years of battle.

Nikki Haley, who can be a former South Carolina governor, has been extremely vital of President Joe Biden’s efficiency as commander in chief. She has spoken out towards his administration’s efforts to increase variety within the navy, complaining they have been weakening the drive and hampering recruitment, although the Military has stated that the actual drawback is that many younger folks don't see enlistment as secure or a very good profession path.

She has additionally pledged to make cuts in $46 billion in overseas help to nations that she says “hate America.”

Michael Haley, the candidate’s husband of 26 years, has been a relentless at his spouse’s marketing campaign occasions since she grew to become a White Home candidate. Throughout his deployment, the marketing campaign stated the couple’s college-age son, Nalin, can be taking on that position.

Nikki Haley steadily mentions her standing as a navy spouse. Becoming a member of the Guard as an officer in 2006, her husband made his first abroad deployment January 2013, when she was halfway via her first time period as governor, and their kids have been age 10 and 14.

“He left me as a single mother governor, however we’re nonetheless married,” Haley stated throughout a latest marketing campaign look in Greer, South Carolina. She went on to critique the Biden administration’s chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021.

Citing the present deployment throughout a CNN city corridor in Iowa this month, Haley referred to as it the beginning of “a yearlong prayer that they’re efficient and that they’re sturdy and that they arrive dwelling safely.”

She has additionally referenced her husband’s upcoming deployment by way of the U.S. Division of Justice’s case towards 2024 rival Trump on fees of mishandling labeled paperwork, together with nationwide protection data.

Arguing that “two issues will be true on the identical time” and echoing many Republicans’ arguments that “the DOJ and FBI have misplaced all credibility with the American folks,” Haley stated on Fox News this previous week that “if this indictment is true, if what it says is definitely the case, President Trump was extremely reckless with our nationwide safety.”

“My husband is about to deploy this weekend,” Haley went on. “This places all of our navy women and men at risk, if you will discuss what our navy is able to, or how we might go about invading or doing one thing with considered one of our enemies.”

On Saturday, Haley stated her husband’s service has partly framed her viewpoint on overseas coverage and navy technique.

“We don’t need to go right into a means that’s going to place our women and men at hurt’s hazard. They're going as a result of Africa is a hotbed,” Haley stated. “We’ve all the time recognized that when our women and men go abroad, it’s to maintain us secure right here at dwelling.”