Washington:
President Joe Biden hit back at predecessor and Republican presidential hopeful, Donald Trump, over his mockery of fellow party candidate Nikki Haley’s husband, saying that the latter thinks that the country’s troops are ‘suckers’, adding that “this guy wouldn’t know service to his country if it slapped him in the face.”
Taking to his official X handle, President Biden posted, “The answer is that Major Haley is abroad, serving his country right now. We know he thinks our troops are “suckers,” but this guy wouldn’t know service to his country if it slapped him in the face.”
Biden’s statement came in response to remarks made by the former president on Saturday during a rally in her state.
“Where’s her (Nikki Haley’s) husband?” Trump said, adding, “‘Oh, he’s away, he’s away.’ What happened to her husband? What happened to her husband? Where is he? He’s gone”, according to The Hill.
Haley’s husband, Major Michael Haley, was deployed in Africa in June of last year with the South Carolina Army National Guard. She wished him farewell in a ceremony in mid-June with about 200 soldiers at The Citadel, a military college in Charleston.
Earlier, Nikki Haley also attacked Trump for remarks he made about her husband, who is in the military and stationed abroad, according to The Hill.
“Michael is deployed serving our country, something you know nothing about,” Haley posted on X, adding, “Someone who continually disrespects the sacrifices of military families has no business being commander in chief.”
“He’s always been my rock,” Haley said.
“We have both lived a life of service, and so when he goes off to deploy, my support is completely with him. If I happen to be running for president, his support is completely with me,” she added.
Haley and her husband have been together for more than 25 years, and he frequently attended her candidacy rallies. The former UN ambassador often discussed being married to a member of the armed forces; her husband joined the National Guard in the middle of the 2000s, The Hill reported.
During Haley’s first stint as governor of Palmetto State, he was initially sent overseas.
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