Nikki Haley grilled over Trump's Ukraine conduct, truthfulness
By Allan Smith
NBC News
November 12, 2019
Former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley on Tuesday defended President Donald Trump’s July call with the leader of Ukraine, but said that “it’s never a good practice for us to ask a foreign country to investigate an American. It's just not a good practice."
“Having said that, there’s no insistence on that call, there are no demands on that call, it is a conversation between two presidents that’s casual in nature,” Haley said in an interview on "Today" with NBC News' Savannah Guthrie.
According to the White House record of Trump's July 25 call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelesnkiy, Trump asked Zelenskiy for a "favor," suggesting the country probe a debunked conspiracy theory about Democrats and the 2016 election and the Biden family. The call is at the center of the House's impeachment inquiry.
Haley contended that it was appropriate for Trump to ask Ukraine to probe "corruption."
"OK, but the corruption mentioned by the president here has to do with Joe Biden and the DNC server," Guthrie said. "Those are the two very specific examples."
"An American should want to know the answer of, 'Did Biden pressure the prosecutor to, you know, to do what he did?' And I think there's a real question there. You can question the president, but you also have to question what Biden did," Haley said.
Trump and his allies have pushed a theory that Biden acted improperly as vice president when he called on Ukraine to fire its top prosecutor, Viktor Shokin, threatening to hold about $1 billion in aid over the country. Shokin had been investigating Burisma Holdings, a natural gas company that Biden's son Hunter sat on the board of. But press accounts say that probe was long dormant by the time Biden pushed for Shokin's ouster, and his removal as prosecutor was the aim of a number of countries and international bodies. Shokin was accused of ignoring corruption in Ukraine, not pursuing it.
As Rep. Jim Himes, D-Conn., put it in an interview with NBC's "Meet the Press" on Sunday, what Biden had asked for was for the benefit of U.S. foreign policy with the backing of the international community. Democrats have alleged Trump was seeking investigations that would prove politically beneficial to him by directing a pressure campaign that included freezing millions of dollars in Congress-approved military aid that Ukraine depended on to counter Russian aggression.
In the interview, Guthrie also pressed Haley on Trump's fitness for office and her claims that top officials sought to undermine the president.
Haley addressed a portion of her new book, "With All Due Respect," where she detailed a meeting she had with Trump after that July 2018 press conference, in which the president appeared to side with Putin over U.S. intelligence agencies' determination that Russia interfered in the 2016 election.
In the meeting Haley recalled, she told Trump he did not do well alongside Putin, a point that surprised Trump because, in Haley's retelling, she was the only person to tell him that.
Guthrie pressed Haley on that claim.
"Really? You were the only person?" Guthrie asked. "I mean that news conference was globally condemned because of that moment, but you were the only person in the administration who said, Hey, that didn’t look so great?"
"That’s what he told me," Haley responded. "I mean when I said I wanted to meet with him, and I go through that in the book, when I said I wanted to meet with him, and I said, 'Look, this sounded soft.' And he said, 'Really?' John Kelly was in the room with me when I had this meeting, and he looked at John and he said, 'All of you guys said I did great.'"
Guthrie pointed to separate claims from Haley's book, in which she said Kelly, then the White House chief of staff, and then-Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, had sought to undermine Trump's decisions in order to save the country, and asked how she could explain Kelly's offering Trump such a positive assessment of his meeting with Putin in light of those assertions.
"You ask him those questions," Haley said, expressing support for Trump's policies toward Russia. "But the issue was that on that topic, no one had said anything to him, and I thought it was hugely important, and you’ll see later, he comes out, and he comes out much stronger on Russia."
Haley also told Guthrie that she did tell Trump of what she described as Kelly and Tillerson's insubordination — an effort to undermine the president that Haley claims they recruited her to be a part of.
Asked if and when such a conversation between Haley and Trump took place, as well as what the president thought of Haley's assertions, White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham told NBC News, "I believe that’s something you’d need to ask Nikki."
Guthrie concluded her interview by asking Haley whether Trump is honest and fit for office. Haley said she never doubted Trump's mental acuity.
"In every instance that I dealt with him, he was truthful, he listened, and he was great to work with," she said.
In a later interview with NBC's Craig Melvin, Haley was asked if Trump should release his tax returns, which he has shielded from the public, breaking with four decades of tradition.
"I always err on the side of transparency, but the American people didn't care what his tax returns said," she said.
Asked if she suggested to Trump that he release them, Haley said, "No, because he got elected."
"He got elected without releasing them," she said.
__________
Savannah Guthrie Grills Nikki Haley on ‘Today’: “Let’s Stick Only to the Undisputed Facts”
By Claire Spellberg
Decider
November 12, 2019
Savannah Guthrie came out swinging on Tuesday morning during a heated interview with former U.N. ambassador Nikki Haley. The women argued for much of the 10-minute interview, and Guthrie repeatedly encouraged Haley to “stick only to the undisputed facts,” particularly when discussing issues like impeachment and President Trump’s Ukraine call. While some viewers praised the Today anchor for “lighting up Nikki Haley,” many conservatives on Twitter slammed the “interrogation” as a “liberal narrative.” Who says morning news is just puff pieces?
Haley may have been on Today to promote her new book, With All Due Respect, but it quickly fell by the wayside when Guthrie immediately dove into the good stuff. The Today anchor asked whether Haley has “made up her mind” on impeachment, and the former governor insisted that she does not support it. “Here you’ve got a situation where there was no investigation, and the aid flowed as it was supposed to,” said Haley. “So, when you look at that situation, it’s hard to see where impeachment would qualify.”
“Can I stop you right there?” asked Guthrie. “With all due respect, to borrow a phrase, that doesn’t seem like much of a defense of the president. That he might have tried to do those things, but it didn’t work out, so it’s all okay.” When Haley repeated her line about how “impeachment is the most serious thing you can do to a president,” the Today host shifted the discussion towards Trump’s “conduct here, and whether you think it’s appropriate.”
“Let’s stick only to the undisputed facts,” said Guthrie, holding up the memo of Trump’s Ukraine call. “I think it’s never a good practice for us to ask a foreign country to investigate an American. It’s just not a good practice,” said Haley. “Having said that, there is no insistence on that call. There are no demands on that call. It is a conversation between two presidents that’s casual in nature.”
Guthrie immediately pushed back, saying the Ukrainians “always know the funding of their military is hanging over their heads.” The women then battled about whether the aid was or was not held up by Trump, with Haley insisting that the situation is totally okay because “it was released” eventually. “The aid was held up. That is not a hypothetical, right?” asked Guthrie. “Was the aid released? It was,” replied Haley, clearly flustered and trying to stick to her talking points.
Social media had a field day with the Guthrie-Haley showdown, with both left and right-wing viewers chiming in with takes. While many left-leaning Today fans enjoyed the interview and urged NBC to expand her political role — “Savannah is a real journalist and this is when she’s at her best,” wrote one viewer — conservatives felt otherwise, calling the segment “not journalism,” but “a liberal narrative.”
EDITOR’S NOTE: I’ve always liked Savannah Guthrie, but no more. She was clearly biased and attempted to have Nikki Haley make Trump look bad. Shame, shame on Guthrie!
And the media was quick to report that Haley had denounced Trump by cherry-picking her statement . “I think it’s never a good practice for us to ask a foreign country to investigate an American,” when in fact she defended Trump as best as she could with Guthrie throwing roadblocks her way all through the 10-minute interview.
I would vote Nikki for president in a heartbeat.
No comments:
Post a Comment