Despite currently holding second-place in the polls and coming in a close third in the Iowa Republican Caucuses Monday night, former Trump UN Ambassador Nikki Haley appears to have shifted gears. Critics are citing remarks she made Tuesday that, some suggest, show she may be trying to run for vice president.
“You’re the only woman in this race,” CNN’s Dana Bash reminded Haley in a face-to-face interview. “How do you feel about your party’s frontrunner being held liable for sexual abuse?”
Bash was speaking about the latest E. Jean Carroll defamation and sexual abuse case, which is now in the penalty phase. Carroll is suing Trump for $10 million. Jurors were selected Tuesday.
“I mean, first of all, I haven’t paid attention to his cases and I’m not a lawyer,” replied Haley. “All I know is that he’s innocent until proven guilty, and when he’s proven guilty and sitting in a courtroom that’s exactly what I’m talking about.”
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“You’ve got investigations on Trump and Biden,” Haley continued. The only law enforcement investigation into President Joe Biden is his handling of classified documents from years ago.
Haley went on to say that some of the cases against Donald Trump, which include 91 criminal charges in four cases across three jurisdictions, “have been political.” Grand juries indicted Trump in all those cases.
Haley also said Trump “needs to pay the price” if he’s “found guilty,” ignoring that the two sexual abuse/defamation cases brought by E. Jean Carroll are civil, not criminal cases.
Critics lashed out at the former South Carolina governor.
“He was found by a jury to have engaged in sexual assault and defamation and is legally barred from contesting those findings,” served up attorney George Conway.
“Nikki Haley is running for vice president. Maybe she always was,” noted former Chicago Sun-Times editor Mark Jacob.
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Perhaps she should take all of 3 minutes and familiarize herself with a very simple, pertinent, and widely reported story about the literal leader of her own party and the fact that a judge found him liable for sexual abuse,” suggested political commentator and MSNBC contributor Brian Tyler Cohen.
“She’s utterly ridiculous! Women will remember this fall IF she is the GOP nominee or the VP choice. Disgraceful! One day her grandchildren will ask her how the hell she could not clearly answer a direct question about sexual assault of a woman! I mean come on #NikkiHaley,” wrote journalist and former Republican Sophia A. Nelson.
Nelson in 2017 penned a piece for Politico, “What’s Trump’s Problem With Black Women?” In it, she writes, “I am a rarity. For over 20 years I was an active black female Republican. I interned for a U.S. senator and for the Republican National Committee. I worked for the first female Republican governor of New Jersey, for the House Government Reform and Oversight Committee and on George W. Bush’s legal response team during his 2004 campaign. At 28, I was even nominated to run for Congress.”
Award-winning journalist and journalism professor Ira Chinoy offered this insight:
“I’ll translate: ‘I don’t consume any news, I think common sense is overrated, and I don’t think personal courage has any place in politics.’ Also, that ‘I’m not a lawyer thing?’ Not such a good pose for someone who wants to lead a cabinet that includes the Department of Justice.”
Washington Monthly politics editor Bill Scher served up some snark: “Nikki Haley could never become a doctor because she can’t find the jugular.”
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Former MSNBC host Mehdi Hasan wrote, “She is desperate to be his VP. Especially post Iowa.”
Veteran journalist John Harwood called her remarks “the ‘i haven’t read the tweet’ answer, only for a sexual assault case.”
Sahil Kapur, NBC News senior national political reporter, added that Haley, “Memorized the oppo file on Ron DeSantis, down to the esoteric details, but hasn’t ‘paid attention to’ the frontrunner for the nomination being found liable by a jury for sexual abuse. Doesn’t have an opinion on it.”
“Haley is a total coward & incapable of genuine leadership,” critiqued professor of political science and history Daniel Kurz.
MSNBC legal contributor and anchor Katie Phang declared, “She’s so spineless.”
Watch Haley’s remarks below or at this link.