Washington: As Donald Trump faces his second impeachment for inciting a violent attack on the US Capitol, his former allies are one by one coming forward to distance themselves from him. Senator Mitch McConnell said that the mob was “fed lies” and “provoked” by the former president; Mike Pence is also reportedly done with Trump, although he hasn’t publicly condemned him. Senator Lindsey Graham announced that “enough is enough,” (Only days later, he seemed to forget he said this) The latest to denounce Trump is Nikki Haley, his friend and former US Ambassador to the United Nations.
“We need to acknowledge he let us down,” Haley told Politico. “He went down a path he shouldn’t have, and we shouldn’t have followed him, and we shouldn’t have listened to him. And we can’t let that ever happen again.” But, just like Graham’s empty assertions and Pence’s very bare minimum decision to ultimately support the idea of democracy, these comments mean nothing from someone who spent years supporting, abetting, and defending Trump - that is, defending Trump right until her relationship with him no longer benefits her.
In the interview, Haley criticized Trump’s decision to scapegoat Pence for refusing to try to overturn the election results. Trump’s comments led some of the January 6 rioters to directly target and threaten the former Vice President as they stormed the Capitol. As the building was under siege, Trump tweeted that Pence “didn’t have the courage to do what should have been done to protect our Country and our Constitution.” According to video footage unveiled this week, Trump knew that “When I tell you I'm angry, it's an understatement,” Haley said. “Mike has been nothing but loyal to that man. He's been nothing but a good friend of that man... I am so disappointed in the fact that [despite] the loyalty and friendship he had with Mike Pence, that he would do that to him. Like, I'm disgusted by it.”
It has been over two years since Haley stepped down from her ambassadorial position, but unlike some of her former colleagues, she left on positive terms with Trump. She told Politico that she considered him a friend. (“Friend is a loose term,” she said, when asked if she still sees him as one.) Shortly before resigning, she wrote in a Washington Post op-ed that she sometimes disagrees with the Trump Administration but “enthusiastically” supports “most of its decisions and the direction it is taking the country.”
Haley didn’t directly validate Trump’s unfounded claims of voter fraud, but days after the election, she thanked him for his leadership on Twitter. “He and the American people deserve transparency and fairness as the votes are counted,” she wrote. “The law must be followed. We have to keep the faith that the truth will prevail.” Since then, Haley has taken a lukewarm approach to Trump’s conspiracy theory about the “stolen” election.
