How will history judge SC’s Nikki Haley and her changing opinions of Donald Trump?
Sure, 2020 never seemed to end, but 2024 is running a close second as a year that may last well beyond its allotted 366 days. (Of course, it had to be a leap year.)
Why is 2024 dragging already?
Because Nikki Haley and all the other would-be Republican presidential, and even vice presidential, candidates have been campaigning for the 2024 election since the day President Joe Biden took the oath of office
Haley, South Carolina’s former governor, has been making the rounds on cable news programs (thanks for nothing, Ted Turner) and at each opportunity saying something that sounds very different from what she said in the days before.
In her latest interview with Fox’s Bret Baier, Haley was asked to comment on recent remarks by former Vice President Mike Pence who, more than a year after the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol delayed the peaceful transfer of power, decided to acknowledge that he did not have the authority to change the outcome of the 2020 election.
“President Trump is wrong. I had no right to overturn the election. The presidency belongs to the American people and the American people alone,” Pence said, adding that under the U.S. Constitution he had no power to overturn the results.
“Mike Pence is a good man. He’s an honest man. I think he did what he thought was right on that day. But I will always say, I just … I’m not a fan of Republicans going against Republicans because the only ones that win when that happens are the Democrats and the media,” Haley said as she went against Pence, a Republican.
Haley worked for a president who routinely goes after Republicans, and even she went after Trump following the Jan. 6 attack.
“He was badly wrong with his words yesterday. And it wasn’t just his words. His actions since Election Day will be judged harshly by history,” Haley said.
Of course, she has also predicted Trump’s days atop the GOP were over and then said she wouldn’t run for president in 2024 if Trump does.
Trump, like the rest of us, has noticed Haley’s penchant for changing her tune.
“Well, every time she criticizes me, she uncriticizes me about 15 minutes later,” Trump told Vanity Fair. “I guess she gets the base.”
But let’s go back to her response to Baier.
Haley could simply have agreed that Pence, in fact, did not have the legal right to throw out the certified election results and that it would have been unlawful to do so.
She could have simply acknowledged that the secretaries of state and other election officials across this country upheld their oaths of office and ran a fair and free election that saw very little disruption or fraud.
Instead, she went on to talk about ways to fix elections that, according to multiple audits, reviews and court challenges, do not need fixing.
Haley said Trump’s actions since the November 2020 election would be judged harshly, but perhaps Haley should turn her focus inward.
How will history judge Nikki Haley?
