Former United States Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley unloaded on President Joe Biden’s administration for a number of unforced errors in dealing with the ongoing Russian invasion on Ukraine.
Haley spoke Sunday with “Meet the Press” moderator and NBC political editor Chuck Todd, and she argued — among other things — that continuing to buy oil from Russia was essentially making a deal with the devil.
WATCH:
America needs to wake up and stop letting tyrants like Putin and Xi run all over us.
I discuss: pic.twitter.com/bnCydWgVEr
— Nikki Haley (@NikkiHaley) March 6, 2022
Todd began by asking Haley whether or not she believed the war between Russia and Ukraine would end as long as Russian President Vladimir Putin remained in control of his nation.
“[Putin] is 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 control the Soviet Empire,” Haley replied. “What we have learned in the lesson in all of this is, when tyrants speak, we should listen. He said he would take Ukraine, he is. China said they would take Hong Kong, they did. He said he would take Poland and the Baltics, we should listen to that. Iran said they would destroy Israel. Every time a tyrant speaks, we need to remember they told us, we need to listen.”
Todd pressed Haley further, asking whether she would be in favor of the United States assisting in implementing a no-fly zone over Ukraine — something that Ukrainian officials have repeatedly called for, but that many NATO allies warn would quickly escalate to war with Russia.
“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,” Haley continued, arguing that the sanctions had to hit the energy sector if they were going to do any real damage to Putin.
“We know 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 those energy companies right now,” she said.
“We should be making sure we’re moving forward on giving them the missiles they need. They have said they don’t have what they need. They need javelins, they need stingers, they need anti-tank tools to do this. We’re 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,” Haley added.
“One could argue there’s been 20 years of appeasing Putin, that there was this belief he could be part of the world order,” Todd continued, asking, “Was that a mistake from the get-go?”
“I’ve always said that you cannot trust Russia, you cannot trust Putin. You can’t trust Xi, you can’t trust China. It’s common sense. I dealt with them at the United Nations. You never negotiate, you never deal with your enemies. You can’t trust them,” Haley pushed back, saying that she had been “mortified” to see Biden ask China for help in dealing with Russia. “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 understanding who your enemies are and make sure you let them know that you understand them.”
Todd pressed again, mentioning former President Donald Trump’s impeachment and the claim that he had attempted to withhold aid from Ukraine, adding, “The Trump Administration, Trump personally tried to roll back sanctions on Russia in 2017.”
He asked Haley whether that might have sent the message to Putin that the West was divided and he would be essentially permitted to do what he liked.
“You kept saying he tried. All I know is what he did,” Haley shot back. “I was personally there in the United Nations when he got out of the Iran deal, when he expelled diplomats, when he refused Nord Stream 2 pipeline. He did stronger things against Russia than Republican or Democratic presidents before him … 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 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.”