Gov. Haley still supporting Trump, ‘the better candidate of the two’

Asked Monday whether GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump could do anything to lose her vote, S.C. Gov. Nikki Haley said she will continue to support her party’s candidate.

“If I've got to deal with these two candidates, Trump is the better candidate of the two,” Haley said during a press conference Monday.

The two-term Republican governor added she is concerned about the outlook for the economy under a Democratic president as well the directors who would be appointed to run federal agencies that impact state government and a Democrat’s nominees to the U.S. Supreme Court.

“With the (Supreme Court) members that Trump has suggested, we would keep a conservative court,” she said.

While Haley has said she would support the GOP nominee, voting for Trump, some top Republican donors and elected officials are refusing to support the bombastic billionaire, casting doubt on just how committed Republicans are to their party’s candidate.

Haley’s comments Monday come a week after she added her voice to a chorus of Republicans criticizing Trump’s treatment of the parents of a Muslim U.S. Army captain who died in Iraq in 2004.

Last week, Haley expressed support for the Gold Star family and, without naming Trump, said they should not face criticism for their comments criticizing the GOP nominee at the Democratic convention – a position Haley repeated Monday.

Haley also said she would continue to criticize or praise candidates where she sees fit.

But, she added, “I'm not going to spend the next three months going back and forth on what either candidate says because I have a state to run.”

Asked Monday to respond to conservative writer Ann Coulter’s criticism of her, Haley said, “Bless her heart” – the same way she responded to an earlier attack by Trump.

This story was originally published August 8, 2016 at 3:34 PM with the headline "Gov. Haley still supporting Trump, ‘the better candidate of the two’."