- Both Kristi Noem and Nikki Haley gave speeches to a meeting of the RNC the day after the January 6 riot.
- Haley sharply criticized Trump, saying his "actions since Election Day will be judged harshly by history."
- But Noem avoided rebuking Trump and told an attendee that it wasn't "very wise" for Haley to do that.
As former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley denounced President Donald Trump the day after the January 6 attack on the Capitol, Republican Gov. Kristi Noem of South Dakota already knew that criticizing Trump wasn't politically advisable.
That's according to reporting in the forthcoming book "This Will Not Pass: Trump, Biden, and the Battle for America's Future" from New York Times reporters Jonathan Martin and Alex Burns.
Haley was one of several prominent Republicans who publicly blamed Trump for the assault on the Capitol, telling attendees at a Republican National Committee meeting in Florida on January 7 that the party "must stop turning the American people against each other."
"President Trump has not always chosen the right words," said Haley. "He was wrong with his words in Charlottesville, and I told him so at the time. He was badly wrong with his words yesterday. And it wasn't just his words. His actions since Election Day will be judged harshly by history."
She added that "if we are the party of personal responsibility, we need to take personal responsibility."
But Noem, who also spoke at the event, chose not to rebuke Trump. And according to both the book and reporting from the New York Times at the time, Noem's speech was much better received by attendees.
And Noem reportedly told another attendee that Haley would come to regret her remarks.
"I don't think that's very wise," she told the unnamed person. Reached for comment, a spokesman for Noem did not dispute the reporting.
Haley was not the only attendee critical of the Republican leader. "I'm done with Trump," Ohio GOP Chairwoman Jane Timken — now running for Senate — told an attendee, according to the book.
The former South Carolina governor would later back-track in her criticism of Trump, even after telling Politico in February of 2021 that Trump "went down a path he shouldn't have" and said "we can't let that ever happen again."
"We need him in the Republican Party," Haley later said of Trump at a speech at the Nixon Library. "I don't want us to go back to the days before Trump."