GOP voters need to move beyond Trump, Nikki Haley warns

Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley on Sunday urged GOP voters to leave former President Donald Trump and his legal woes in the rearview.

“While I think he was the right president at the right time, you know, earlier and while I think his policies were good, I don't think he's the right president at the right time going forward,” Haley, who served as ambassador to the United Nations under Trump, said Sunday during an interview on CBS’ “Face the Nation.”

“I think we've got to move forward. Otherwise, we will have a general election that's doing nothing but dealing with lawsuits.”

The former president’s legal troubles have been the topic dominating the Republican primary race, leaving little oxygen left for the cluster of GOP candidates looking to dethrone the runaway front-runner. Four criminal cases are playing out against Trump, two of which have yielded indictments. An indictment in a third, involving the former president's alleged efforts to stoke the Jan. 6 riot, is expected in the coming days or weeks.

“None of us want to be talking about indictments,” Haley said of the rest of the crowded Republican presidential field. “I don't even know if it's the third, fourth, or fifth indictment right now, but what I can tell you is, it's a distraction, and frankly, the media is talking about it nonstop.”

The issue isn’t one that voters are focused on, Haley added.

“They want to know what's going to happen, how we're going to go and change government for the better. They're worried about the future for their kids and I think we owe it to them to be answering that, not how Trump's going to defend himself,” she said.