"Missed opportunity": The View blasts Nikki Haley for "pathetic" Trump endorsement

"It was like 'Invasion of the Body Snatchers' last night," Joy Behar said after ex-Trump foes get in line

Published July 17, 2024 1:44PM (EDT)

US former ambassador to the United Nations and former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley speaks during the second day of the 2024 Republican National Convention at the Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, July 16, 2024. (ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS/AFP via Getty Images)
US former ambassador to the United Nations and former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley speaks during the second day of the 2024 Republican National Convention at the Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, July 16, 2024. (ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS/AFP via Getty Images)

"The View" hosts on Wednesday slammed former United Nations ambassador and South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley for supplicating at the Republican National Convention to former President Donald Trump, despite saying in February that she felt "no need to kiss the ring."

On Tuesday night in Milwaukee, Haley in her speech argued that "you don’t have to agree with Trump 100% of the time to vote for him.”

“I’ll start by making one thing perfectly clear: Donald Trump has my strong endorsement, period,” she added.

Haley was the final Republican to drop out in the battle against Trump in the race to challenge Joe Biden for the presidency in November. As host Whoopi Goldberg noted, Haley was "one of the Republican nominee's most vocal critics when she challenged him in the primaries." Goldberg followed by showing footage of Haley bashing Trump at various points throughout her campaign, which ended in March. Haley in the clips referred to the ex-president as "unhinged," "not qualified for" the office of president, and at one point observing that "there is no way that the American people are going to vote for a convicted criminal."

Host Joy Behar called Haley "pathetic," claiming that the politician was "a big disappointment" for "giving permission to her people to vote for him." 

"It was like 'Invasion of the Body Snatchers' last night," Behar added. "She's not the only one, they're all up there kissing the ring of their leader," speaking of the numerous GOP-ers who, despite being former-MAGA rivals, offered allegiance to him at the convention. 

"They only care about power," argued co-host Sunny Hostin. "They care about their party and power before their country, and that's very, very clear."

Alyssa Farrah Griffin, a co-host and former Trump White House communications director, opined that the her "most disappointing moment of Nikki Haley last night was she had an opportunity to say why America needs to stand with our allies on the world stage, to counteract JD Vance," the junior senator from Ohio whom Trump selected as his running mate.

"And she didn't do it. I know that's something she deeply believes in, and it was a missed opportunity."