On Monday’s episode of “The Michael Knowles Show,” Knowles talks about an allegation in Nikki Haley’s new book that former U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and former White House Chief of Staff John Kelly tried to induce her to undermine the president. Video and partial transcript below:
All of these mainstream outlets just do not command our respect, and it makes you think a little differently about the president, who is usually the object of their ire.
Even in the administration, we had been told that all the really smart people — all the fancy people who wear jackets and ties and live in the Beltway — they said, look, Trump might be terrible, I’m talking about even right-wingers, Trump might be terrible, but at least we have responsible people in the administration. Good, serious, responsible people defending the rule of law, defending our institutions and our norms. People like, I don’t know, Rex Tillerson, former secretary of state. People like John Kelly, former White House chief of staff. They’re the good guys. They’re the one defending our norms and our Constitution; Trump is the one destroying it.
Except now in a new book, in a new interview, Nikki Haley is saying that it was actually guys like Tillerson and Kelly who were undermining our norms, undermining our institutions, undermining our Constitution. Nikki Haley writes in her new book, quote, “Kelly and Tillerson confided in me that when they resisted the president, they were not being insubordinate. They were trying to save the country.”
Here’s Nikki Haley:
REPORTER: Secretary of State Tillerson went on to tell you the reason he resisted the president’s decisions was because if he didn’t, people would die. You memorialize that conversation, it definitely happened?
HALEY: It absolutely happened, and instead of saying that to me, they should have been saying that to the president. Not asking me to join them on their sidebar plan, it should have been, go tell the president what your differences are and quit if you don’t like what he’s doing. 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. It was was offensive.
That’s absolutely right, and this is where I begin when I’m evaluating something that the president has done. I do not begin from the position that Trump is always right, [and] I love everything he’s doing. Whether that’s on policy, whether that’s on executive action, whether that’s on his behavior, that’s actually not where I begin.
I do have some policy problems with the president. For instance, I didn’t like the First Step Act — I thought that was a mistake. I felt that health care could’ve been handled a little differently, sure. So there are some policy differences. However, where I begin is from a position of assuming the best of the president, and maybe the corruption of the mainstream media. Why do I assume that? Because that’s exactly the opposite of the script that I’m being told by the mainstream media, and I’ve just been fooled one too many times.
The media have told us that Trump colluded with Russia to overturn the 2016 election, that he should be impeached for his tax problems, that he’s a racist and a bigot, and a Nazi, and a terrible person. They’ve been lying the whole time, and so I just approach these questions, not even with treating these guys differently. I won’t even say that I begin assuming Trump is really great, and the media are really terrible.
I just begin with a little skepticism about those claims. And I give a little bit of grace to the president because it’s the opposite of what we’re getting, and usually that appears to be the right way to go. You can even see this with the ex-Trump administration officials who have done well. The ones who have done well, [like Nikki Haley], the ones who position themselves well are the ones who don’t throw him under the bus.
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