Former Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley said she plans to vote for Donald Trump, her former opponent and boss, in the 2024 US presidential election.
Ms Haley, who once served as Mr Trump’s United Nations ambassador, was the last of his major rivals to drop out of the party primary contest, in early March.
At the time, she did not endorse him but urged him to earn the votes of the millions who had supported her.
On Wednesday, in her first public remarks since leaving the race, she said Mr Trump “has not been perfect”, but that President Joe Biden “has been a catastrophe”.
Anti-Trump Republican voters largely had coalesced behind Ms Haley’s presidential bid earlier this year.
In fact, more than two months after leaving the race, she won more than 20% of the vote in the Maryland primary election held last week.
The Biden campaign sought to woo Haley Republicans, offering a message of inclusiveness and arguing that Mr Trump has repeatedly “made it clear he doesn’t want” voters who supported her.
Speaking on Wednesday before a gathering at the conservative Hudson Institute think tank in Washington DC, Ms Haley maintained her criticisms of both parties.
But she reserved most of her invective for the Democratic incumbent.
Mr Biden, she said, “threw Israel to the wolves”, “did nothing to deter the invasion” of Ukraine, and “has given Iran nothing but cash and time”.
While the former South Carolina governor said she would support Mr Trump’s run for the White House, she did not call on her supporters to do the same.
“I stand by what I said in my suspension speech,” she said.
“Trump would be smart to reach out to the millions of people who voted for me and continue to support me, and not assume that they’re just going to be with him, and I genuinely hope he does that.”
This is a developing story. More updates to follow.
