Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley on Saturday slammed Donald Trump directly ahead of his remarks at the Jewish Coalition Conference, attacking the former president for past and recent comments on foreign adversaries.

“There are plenty of Democrats and Republicans who fail to understand the nature of the threats we face. You’ve already heard from some of them today. And I’m not today’s last speaker,” Haley said, a nod to Trump taking the stage directly after her. Some in the crowd laughed.

Haley, taking the stage in Las Vegas amid an escalating crisis in Gaza and fears of widespread unrest in the Middle East, praised Trump for a number of foreign policy moves he made as president, including his abandonment of the Iran nuclear deal, his recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and his administration’s brokering of the Abraham Accords.

“History will record that Donald Trump was a pro-Israel president,” said Haley, the former ambassador to the United Nations under the Trump administration. “I’m happy to give President Trump the credit he deserves. And I was honored to have played a part in those efforts.”

But she quickly pivoted into a string of attacks, criticizing Republicans — including Trump — who question support for Ukraine today and, ultimately she said, future support for Israel. She said these politicians have lost sight of who the country’s friends versus enemies are, adding that is “not who you want in the Oval Office.”

“As Americans, we need to ask a critical question. We all know what Trump did in the past. The question is, what will he do in the future?” Haley said.

Among the other GOP 2024 candidates at the convening, Haley hit Trump the hardest, and most directly. The former South Carolina governor has seen a rise in the polls in recent months, sliding into third place behind Trump and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.

Haley also struck Trump for his recent comments on Hezbollah and referenced previous remarks, such as the former president referring to North Korea’s Kim Jong Un as his “friend” and his praising of China’s President Xi Jinping.

“These are not good or smart people. Along with Iran’s ayatollah, they’re the most evil dictators in the world. And the last thing they want is an American president who knows it and calls them out on it,” Haley said. “They want us to stay divided, distracted, and morally confused. Well, I’ve said it before. With all due respect, I don’t get confused.”

By JILL COLVIN (Associated Press)

NEW YORK (AP) — Former Vice President Mike Pence on Saturday dropped his bid for the Republican presidential nomination, ending his campaign for the White House after struggling to raise money and gain traction in the polls.

“It’s become clear to me: This is not my time,” Pence said at the Republican Jewish Coalition’s annual gathering in Las Vegas. “So after much prayer and deliberation, I have decided to suspend my campaign for president effective today.”

“We always knew this would be an uphill battle, but I have no regrets,” Pence went on to tell the friendly audience, which reacted with audible surprise to the announcement and gave him multiple standing ovations.

Pence is the first major candidate to leave a race that has been dominated by his former boss-turned-rival, Donald Trump, and his struggles underscore just how much Trump has transformed the party. A former vice president would typically be seen as a formidable challenger in any primary, but Pence has struggled to find a base of support.

Pence did not immediately endorse any of his rivals, but continued to echo language he has used to criticize Trump.

“I urge all my fellow Republicans here, give our country a Republican standard-bearer that will, as Lincoln said, appeal to the better angels of our nature, and not only lead us to victory, but lead our nation with civility,” he said.

Pence’s decision, more than two months before the Iowa caucuses that he had staked his campaign on, saves him from accumulating additional debt, as well as the embarrassment of potentially failing to qualify for the third Republican primary debate, on Nov. 8 in Miami.

But his withdrawal is a huge blow for a politician who spent years biding his time as Trump’s most loyal lieutenant, only to be scapegoated during their final days in office when Trump became convinced that Pence somehow had the power to overturn the results of the 2020 election and keep both men in office — a power Pence did not possess.

While Pence averted a constitutional crisis by rejecting the scheme, he drew Trump’s fury, as well as the wrath of many of Trump’s supporters, who still believed his lies about the election and see Pence as a traitor.

Among Trump critics, meanwhile, Pence was seen as an enabler who defended the former president at every turn and refused to criticize even Trump’s most indefensible actions time and again.

As a result, an Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research from August found that the majority of U.S. adults, 57%, viewed Pence negatively, with only 28% having a positive view.

Throughout his campaign, the former Indiana governor and congressman had insisted that while he was well-known by voters, he was not “known well” and set out to change that with an aggressive schedule that included numerous stops at diners and Pizza Ranch restaurants.

Pence had been betting on Iowa, a state with a large white Evangelical population that has a long history of elevating religious and socially conservative candidates such as former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee and former Pennsylvania Rick Santorum. Pence often campaigned with his wife, Karen, a Christian school teacher, and emphasized his hard-line views on issues such as abortion, which he opposes even in cases when a pregnancy is unviable. He repeatedly called on his fellow candidates to support a minimum 15-week national ban and he pushed to ban drugs used as alternatives to surgical procedures.

He tried to confront head-on his actions on Jan. 6, 2021 , explaining to voters over and over that he had done his constitutional duty that day, knowing full well the political consequences. It was a strategy that aides believed would help defuse the issue and earn Pence the respect of a majority of Republicans, whom they were were convinced did not agree with Trump’s actions.

But even in Iowa, Pence struggled to gain traction.

He had an equally uphill climb raising money, despite yearslong relationships with donors. Pence ended September with just $1.18 million in the bank and $621,000 in debt, according to his most recent campaign filing. That debt had grown in the weeks since and adding to it would have taken Pence, who is not independently wealthy, years pay off.

The Associated Press first reported earlier this month that people close to Pence had begun to feel that remaining a candidate risked diminishing his long-term standing in the party, given Trump’s dominating lead in the race for the 2024 nomination. While they said Pence could stick it out until the Jan. 15 Iowa caucuses if he wanted — campaigning on a shoestring budget and accumulating debt — he would have to consider how that might affect his ability to remain a leading voice in the conservative movement, as he hopes.

Some said that Hamas’ attack on Israel in October, which pushed foreign policy to the forefront of the campaign, had given Pence a renewed sense of purpose given his warnings throughout the campaign against the growing tide of isolationism in the Republican Party. Pence had argued that he was the race’s most experienced candidate and decried “voices of appeasement” among Republican, arguing they had emboldened groups such as Hamas.

But ultimately, Pence concluded that he could continue to speak out on the issue without continuing the campaign. He chose the Las Vegas event to announce his decision, in part, so he could address the topic one last time before formally leaving the race.

He is expected to remain engaged, in part through Advancing American Freedom, the conservative think tank he founded after leaving the vice presidency and that he envisions it as an alternative to the The Heritage Foundation.

Pence’s group is expected to continued to advocate for policies that he supported in his run, including pushing for more U.S. support for Ukraine’s defense against the Russian invasion and proposed cuts to Social Security and Medicare to rein in the debt. Such ideas were once the bread-and-butter of Republican establishment orthodoxy but have fallen out of a favor as the party has embraced Trump’s isolationist and populist views.

___ Associated Press writer Michelle L. Price in Las Vegas contributed to this report.

LAS VEGAS — Former Vice President Mike Pence announced on Saturday that he was suspending his presidential campaign in a speech before the Republican Jewish Coalition conference.

“The Bible tells us that there’s a time for every purpose under heaven. Traveling across the country over the past six months, I came here to say it’s become clear to me that it’s not my time. So after much prayer and deliberation, I have decided to suspend my campaign for president effective today,” Pence said, to audible gasps from the audience gathered at the Venetian resort on the Las Vegas strip.

Attendees gave Pence a standing ovation. One person yelled, “Thank you Mike!” At the conclusion of the speech, Pence invited his wife, Karen, onstage.

“We thank God for his amazing grace. He gave us the courage to step forward so many years ago. And the wisdom to step aside,” Pence said. “My fellow Republicans, thank you for your kindness, your support and your prayers over the many years. As we go home to Indiana, let me assure you we leave here with optimism and faith. We don’t know what the future holds. But we know who holds the future, and with faith in him and boundless confidence in all of you, we know the best days for America and our most cherished ally for Israel, are yet to come.”

There was no hint of Pence dropping out in the prepared remarks his aides distributed yesterday to reporters. It was, according to Fred Zeidman, a major GOP donor in attendance, a “total shock.” The crowd, Zeidman noted, “treated him with all the respect he deserves. What a mensch.”

Pence has struggled to raise money and gain traction in the polls as he built a campaign on religious conservative values and a continued break with Donald Trump over the events on Jan. 6. He had only $1.2 million in cash on hand as of the end of last month, roughly equal to what he’d been spending on a monthly basis over the previous quarter, according to a recent filing with the Federal Election Commission.

And while he’d met the Republican National Committee’s polling criteria for an invitation to the Nov. 8 primary debate in Miami, he’d not yet met the 70,000-individual-donor threshold and only had another nine days to do so.

Pence’s announcement came as all the major candidates, including Trump, gathered for the three-day conference. DeSantis, who immediately followed Pence, did not acknowledge the former vice president’s announcement.

Pence had largely focused his campaign on Iowa, a state rich with the religious voters that he hoped to connect with. His advisers insisted as early as last week that he would remain in the campaign until Iowa, and were said to be putting together an Iowa trip for this coming week. But the evangelical Pence struggled to gain traction, trailing far behind Trump and other rivals.

Pence always had a tough road. The former vice president was looking to appeal to non-Trump-aligned voters who liked the stance he took on Jan. 6. But he was also tied to the Trump White House in which he served. Pro-Trump voters had little interest in getting behind him and many of those opposed to the former president never regarded him as part of their camp either.