Billionaire Ken Langone on Friday endorsed Nikki Haley’s presidential bid in the latest sign of the Republican moneyed class rallying behind her as the main alternative to Donald Trump in the GOP primary.
“I think she is just what we need right now. I think her approach is smart. I think she’s qualified,” Langone said on Fox News. “More importantly, I think the American people need this kind of leadership – statesmanlike, elegant. Just think of … where we have been in the last six or seven or eight years. It is not good at all.”
Langone, a co-founder of Home Depot, is the latest in a growing list of wealthy donors to back the former South Carolina governor. The network associated with billionaire Charles Koch announced its support for her last week, as did North Carolina retail magnate Art Pope. Earlier this week, LinkedIn co-founder and billionaire Democratic donor Reid Hoffman gave $250,000 to support her campaign.
Langone said that while he likes GOP contender Ron DeSantis, the Florida governor’s “numbers aren’t moving.”
“The writing is on the wall,” Langone told Fox News. “On the other hand, Nikki Haley has had a substantial upswing. The one thing I’m committed to is we have to beat Joe Biden. If Joe Biden is going to be the nominee, we have to beat him. We can’t take any more of this mayhem.”
Asked why he didn’t endorse Trump, Langone said the former president’s time has “come and gone” and condemned his actions toward the end of his White House tenure.
“What Trump put this country through the last three months of his presidency was disgraceful,” Langone said.
“I think what happened on January 6 – all he had to say is ‘Please go home.’ … But he sat in a room and watched it for three hours and did nothing about it and America deserves better than that,” he added.