The Trump campaign reportedly attacked Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley after she performed well in Wednesday night’s second primary debate.
The campaign cited a 2012 interview in which Haley, then-governor of South Carolina, described Hillary Clinton as a “inspiration” for her political career.
“The reason I actually ran for office is because of Hillary Clinton,” Haley said in an interview with the New York Times.
Several quotations from Haley were included in an email sent by the former president’s campaign on a variety of issues showing that her positions were not those shared by most conservatives.
Haley was regarded as one of the evening’s top performers due to her willingness to clash with other GOP candidates and to maintain her position.
In recent months, she has been more outspokenly critical of former President Trump, including slamming his first-term China policy on stage.
The Trump campaign memo also contains a compilation of old quotations from Haley praising former House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), a frequent target of the former president, as well as previous statements in which she praised former president Obama.
There were no assaults against the other candidates in the primary.
This week, Haley achieved her best poll performance to date, moving into second place behind Trump in a recent New Hampshire primary poll.
[READ MORE: New Poll Shows More Republicans See Trump as ‘Person of Faith’ Than Mitt Romney]
