Nikki Haley says Kelly, Tillerson tried to get her to resist Trump to ‘save the country’
Haley said the men “confided in me that when they resisted the president, they weren’t being insubordinate, they were trying to save the country.”
NBC News | Nov. 10, 2019
Haley, the former governor of South Carolina, was asked by “CBS Evening News” about a passage from her new book, “With All Due Respect,” in which she claims that former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and former White House chief of staff John Kelly tried to recruit her into that effort. She says she refused. The Washington Post also reported on the exchange. NBC News has not independently verified the passage.
“Kelly and Tillerson confided in me that when they resisted the president, they weren’t being insubordinate, they were trying to save the country,” Haley wrote. “Tillerson went on to tell me the reason he resisted the president’s decisions was because, if he didn’t, people would die.”
When CBS News asked whether Haley stood by the quote, she said: “It absolutely happened. And instead of saying that to me, they should’ve been saying that to the president, not asking me to join them on their sidebar plan.
“It should’ve been ‘Go tell the president what your differences are, and quit if you don’t like what he’s doing,'” she said. “But to undermine a president is really a very dangerous thing. And it goes against the Constitution, and it goes against what the American people want. And it was offensive.”
Nikki Haley announces 2024 presidential campaign, mounting first GOP challenge to Trump
“It’s time for a new generation of leadership,” Haley says in a video announcing her campaign.
NBC News | Feb. 14, 2023
Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley on Tuesday announced her 2024 presidential campaign, making her former President Donald Trump’s first opponent for the Republican nomination.
Haley, who served as ambassador to the United Nations for two years in the Trump administration, is expected to deliver her in-person announcement speech Wednesday in Charleston.
“It’s time for a new generation of leadership — to rediscover fiscal responsibility, secure our border, and strengthen our country, our pride and our purpose.” Haley said in her video announcement.
Haley accused the “socialist left” of seeing “an opportunity to rewrite history.”
“China and Russia are on the march. They all think we can be bullied, kicked around,” Haley said. “You should know this about me: I don’t put up with bullies. And when you kick back, it hurts them more if you’re wearing heels. I’m Nikki Haley, and I’m running for president.”
“I have said that if President Trump runs, I will not run.”
Meet the Press | NBC News | March 6, 2022
CHUCK TODD:
Thank you, sir. When we come back, we’re going to talk with former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley. She’s a possible 2024 presidential candidate. She’s been a bit critical of President Biden’s handling of this war so far. Stay with us.
CHUCK TODD:
Welcome back. Nikki Haley spent six years as governor of South Carolina and nearly two more as the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations under former President Trump. She is often mentioned as a possible running mate in 2024, or a presidential candidate herself. Ambassador Haley, welcome back to Meet the Press.
NIKKI HALEY:
Thanks so much. Thanks for having me on.
CHUCK TODD:
Let me start with the last question I asked Secretary Blinken, which was simply can this crisis be brought to an end with Putin still in power in Russia?
NIKKI HALEY:
Well, I think that, you know, Putin’s going to try. I mean this is going to be – he’s going to drag this out as long as he can. He’s committed. He is an evil tyrant that we see is not going to stop until he can form the Soviet empire. He has – what we have learned, and the lesson in all of this, is when tyrants speak, we should listen. He said he was going to take Ukraine, he is. China said that they were going to take Hong Kong, they did. He said that he wants to take Poland and the Baltics. We should believe him. China has said they’re going to take Taiwan next. We should be ready for that. Iran says they want to destroy Israel. Every time a tyrant speaks, we need to remember they’ve told us, we need to listen.
CHUCK TODD:
You sound like somebody then that would be in favor of a no-fly zone over Ukraine right now. Is that how – if Putin is what you describe him as, what has – I guess what guardrails should we be putting on the NATO alliance right now?
NIKKI HALEY:
No, I’m not in favor of a no-fly zone right now. What I am in favor of is the Biden administration stepping up and doing the things that will matter. We know that the one thing that punches Putin in the gut is to hit his energy sector. There is no reason we should be taking money from an enemy. We should go ahead and sanction all of those energy companies right now. We should remove him from the international banking system. We should be coordinating intelligence in real time with the Ukrainians. We should be leading with NATO, telling them to give the planes to Ukraine. We should be making sure that we’re moving forward on giving them the missiles they need. They still – they have said that they don’t have what they need. They need javelins, they need stingers, they need anti-air and anti-tank missiles to be able to do this. We’ve got to give it to them. We should have done all this before Putin did his first move. We were late to the game. We’re still late to the game. It’s not too late now. But we’ve got to get on the ball.
CHUCK TODD:
Well, one could argue that there’s been 20 years of appeasing Putin. That there was this belief that he could be part of the world order. Was that a mistake from the get-go?
NIKKI HALEY:
No. I’ve always said that you cannot trust Russia. You cannot trust Putin. You can’t trust Xi. You can’t trust China. This is – it’s common sense. I’ve dealt with them at the United Nations. You never negotiate, you never deal with your enemies. You can’t trust them. And that’s why I was mortified that Biden went so far as asking China for help with Russia. I mean, you never ask an enemy for help with another enemy. I never told China anything that I didn’t want Russia to know. Because you know how they coordinate. It’s the same reason why it’s unthinkable that Biden would be coordinating or even thinking of getting back into the Iran deal with the Russians and Chinese at the table. Why are we negotiating and trusting enemies? You don’t do that. That’s the first start to being strong in America is understand who your enemies are and make sure that you let them know that you understand them.
CHUCK TODD:
So, you treat – you would not – there’s one thing that you would treat China as an enemy, not as a rival, if you will. You wouldn’t work with them diplomatically at all if you were in charge right now?
NIKKI HALEY:
Do you know what – I mean, China right now has coordinated with Russia. When Biden went and told China what was going on and asked for help with Russia, what did China do? China ran and told Russia. I watched at the United Nations, those two countries are getting incredibly close. They don’t like each other. They don’t trust each other. But they both want to destroy the West. Why are we waiting for that to happen? China, when they take Taiwan, this is going to blow up. Right now, Taiwan’s manufacturing half of the semiconductor chips. What do Americans use? They use their phones, they use their computers, they drive cars. All of that will be disrupted. Why are we relying on China to give us medical supplies when we saw how they handled Covid in the world? We’ve got to wake up. America has to wake up. And we have to start being smart to deal with these tyrants. We can’t let them continue to run all over us.
CHUCK TODD:
Let me play something here that Vice President Pence, the former vice president said on Friday, I’m curious of your reaction to it. He said, “There is no room in this party for apologists for Putin. There is only room for champions of freedom.” As you know, there’s been some flirtations on the right with some – with Putin. Although, ever since he actually invaded, some of those folks have taken some of those things back. For those that have said nice things about Putin, including your former boss, President Trump, what do you say to them?
NIKKI HALEY:
Well, first, I’ll tell you my very first speech at the United Nations was in support of Ukraine and hitting Russia. Protocol at the United Nations was to meet with the Russian ambassador first. And I purposely threw protocol out the window and met with the Ukrainian ambassador first. Putin is an evil tyrant. He has proven that whether he tries to poison his political opponents, whether he shoots down planes, whether he assists Assad with chemical weapons in Syria. He has shown us time and time again that he is evil. What I will tell you about President Trump is as much as everybody wants to talk about what he says, what I look at is what he did. He sanctioned Russia. He expelled diplomats. He shut off Nord Stream 2, which is all Putin ever wanted. He built up our military. And he made us energy independent. All of those things countered Putin and countered Russia. This never would have happened under Trump. What we have to look at now is how do we make sure this doesn’t go further under Biden? This has been a terrible mistake that all started with Afghanistan. And one thing after the other, we’ve done nothing but show weakness. We have got to show strength. So what I would say is you can talk about past presidents all you want, but, you know, the last thing you need to be doing is looking for the TV remote when your house is burning down.
CHUCK TODD:
Now, I understand that –
NIKKI HALEY:
We’ve got to start dealing with the situation at hand.
CHUCK TODD:
But, ambassador, you sort of imply that it was Biden’s weakness on Afghanistan. But, I mean, the Trump administration, Trump personally tried to roll back sanctions on Russia in 2017. He did – they tried to lobby Congress to weaken Russian sanctions and legislation in 2017. He tried to remove sanctions on a Russian oligarch company in 2018. Delayed chemical weapon sanctions that were required by law against Russia. And let’s not forget, holding Ukrainian military aid hostage for a political stunt. How did – you don’t think any of those things —
NIKKI HALEY:
You know —
CHUCK TODD:
– sent a message to Vladimir Putin that America is divided, the West is divided and he can get away with whatever he wants?
NIKKI HALEY:
You said it in every one of those things. You kept saying, “He tried.” All I know is what he did. And I was personally there at the United Nations when he got out of the Iran deal, when he sanctioned Putin, when he expelled diplomats, when he refused Nord Stream 2 pipeline. So I watched what he did. He did more – he did stronger things against Russia than Republican or Democrat presidents before him. I mean, this was something that Putin knew not to mess with the United States. Putin needs to know that again. We need to start standing up. Why are we even ho-humming around the fact that we’re still taking Russian oil? Why are we doing that? Why would we take money from – from evil dictators? You never sleep with the devil because then the devil owns you. The Europeans are finding that out right now. We need to be smarter than that.
CHUCK TODD:
Ambassador Haley, I appreciate you coming on, sharing your perspective with us. And I hope to have you on again. Very quickly, does Donald Trump’s 2024 plans impact your 2024 plans?
NIKKI HALEY:
I have said that if President Trump runs, I will not run.
CHUCK TODD:
Fair enough. Ambassador, thanks for coming on, appreciate it.
NIKKI HALEY:
Thanks so much.