Nikki Haley says she 'will be voting for Trump'

WASHINGTON — Former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley said Wednesday that she's planning to vote for former President Donald Trump in November, despite her criticism of him during the campaign for the GOP presidential nomination.

Haley made her first public appearance since dropping out of the presidential race at the Hudson Institute in Washington, where she gave a speech on national security and foreign policy.

After those remarks, she took a question from a moderator on whether Trump or President Joe Biden would do a better job handling the issues.

"Trump has not been perfect on these policies. I’ve made that clear many, many times," Haley replied. "But Biden has been a catastrophe. So I will be voting for Trump.

"Having said that, I stand by what I said in my suspension speech," Haley continued. "Trump would be smart to reach out to the millions of people who voted for me and continue to support me and not assume that they’re just going to be with him. And I genuinely hope he does that."

Haley has continued to pull double-digit support against Trump in Republican primaries, despite dropping out of the race for the GOP nomination after Super Tuesday. Before exiting the race, she called Trump "diminished" and "unhinged" and said he had changed since she first backed him for the presidency in the 2016 general election.