Haley on Trump sexual assault ruling: ‘It stands where it stands’

Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley (R) and 2024 GOP presidential candidate evaded a question Sunday on whether former President Trump being found liable of sexual battery would hurt the party with the woman vote.

Instead, Haley said that both the accuser, in this case author E. Jean Carroll who accuses Trump of raping her in a department store in the 1990s, and Trump, the accused, should both have their voices heard.

“There’s a verdict and I think there’s been an appeal,” Haley said on CBS’s “Face The Nation.” “I think it stands where it stands, and I think the American people need to make a decision based on that.”

A New York jury last week found Trump legally liable for the sexual assault and defamation of Carroll. Trump has repeatedly denied the rape claim and maintains he has never met Carroll.

Haley, who has largely avoided confrontations with Trump early on in her 2024 campaign, said Trump had the right to defend himself.

“I have always said that anyone that feels like they have been sexually assaulted in any way should come forward and have their voice heard,” Haley said. “I also think that anyone that’s been accused should be able to defend themselves. I was not on the jury, I am not the judge. I think that both of them had their voices heard.”

Trump was offered the opportunity but did not testify in the case, nor did his legal team present any witnesses. He did sit for a deposition, where at one point he mistook a photo of Carroll with his second wife, Marla Maples.

Trump continued to assert that he did not assault Carroll, saying last week in a CNN town hall that he had never met the woman. He did make disparaging comments about the author, at one point calling her a “whack job” to which a friendly audience in New Hampshire responded with laughter.

The jury’s decision comes as the Republican primary for president has started to heat up, with a number of high-profile names still mulling whether to enter the field. Both Haley and Trump have already launched their campaigns. 

Haley was Trump’s ambassador to the United Nations between 2017 and 2018.