Nikki Haley, the former ambassador to the United Nations under Donald Trump's administration, said the former president "has let us down," her first public break from him since the violent siege of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6.

Haley, who is also widely considered a leading contender for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, made her decisive comments to Politico's Tim Alberta in a Jan. 12 interview that was published Friday.

"He went down a path he shouldn't have, and we shouldn't have followed him, and we shouldn't have listened to him. And we can't let that ever happen again," she said.

Haley had condemned the attack on the Capitol as the events unfolded but had not pinned the events to Trump, even derided Twitter for banning his social media account.

A few former members of Trump's Cabinet have shown their disapproval, including former chief of staff John Kelly and education secretary Betsy DeVos. Yet only a handful of Republicans in the House and Senate broke from the former president, and his GOP support in the Senate will likely lead to an acquittal in his ongoing impeachment trial.