Nikki Haley attacks prospect of Trump-Biden rematch: ‘We have a country in disarray and a world on fire’

Republican presidential contender Nikki Haley has warned against the prospect of November’s election becoming a rematch of the 2020 contest between Donald Trump and Joe Biden, asking: “Do we really want to have two 80-year-olds running for president when we have a country in disarray and a world on fire?”

Speaking at a CNN town hall event at New England College in Henniker, New Hampshire, ahead of next Tuesday’s state primary, Ms Haley told host Jake Tapper that both the GOP frontrunner and the president were so “distracted by their own investigations and their own grievances” that a renewed contest between them would not be in the best interests of the country.

“We don’t need people that are distracted,” she said. “We need people who love America, realise that if your time is gone, move out of the way and let a new generational leader come in.”

In an appeal to the Granite State’s independent voters, who can participate in either party’s primary, she said: “I want to bring people into the party. Because at the end of the day, we have to heal and unify as Americans.”

On Mr Trump’s recent attacks on her, including promoting a bogus “birther” conspiracy theory on social media, she suggested to Mr Tapper that his “temper tantrums” indicated he feels “threatened” and “insecure” about the potential she represents.

In the same broadcast, Ms Haley accused the man who appointed her as US ambassador to the United Nations in his first administration of failing to address the opioid crisis, adding $8tn to the national debt and cosying up to authoritarians like Chinese premier Xi Jinping, whose country she blamed for the Covid-19 pandemic.

She also suggested she would be prepared to pardon Mr Trump if she were to become president and