Two Weeks Before Nikki Haley Abruptly Resigned Her U.N. Post, She Publicly Backed Brett Kavanaugh’s Accuser

Two weeks before she abruptly resigned her post as the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley publicly expressed her support for Brett Kavanaugh’s accuser — and said that she must be heard.

Some political experts believe that the timing was no coincidence.

Haley announced on Tuesday that she would be resigning from her post, which came as a surprise to some as there had been no advanced warning of her departure as there had been with many other departing members of Trump’s administration. As CNBC reported, Donald Trump is wasting no time with the vacancy, and has already spoken with Goldman Sachs executive Dina Powell to potentially step in as a possible replacement.

But many remain focused on the abrupt nature of Haley’s resignation, and have speculated that it could have something to do with her support for Christine Blasey Ford, who accused then-Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh of sexual assault when they were both in high school.

In a statement shortly after Ford came forward — a time when many Republicans were still calling for the confirmation process to move ahead — Haley defended Ford and called for a thorough investigation of her allegations.

“The message I’m comfortable with is that accusers go through a lot of trauma and some handle it one way and some handle it the other way,” she said in an appearance on CNN (via The Daily Beast). “Regardless, you never — it’s not something that we want to do, to blame the accuser or to try and second guess the accuser. We don’t know the situation she was going through 35 years ago. We don’t know the circumstances.”

This statement was also publicly breaking with Donald Trump, who shortly before had attacked Christine Blasey Ford on Twitter. Trump suggested that if the assault were as bad as Ford had claimed, she would have gone directly to the police. Reports noted that Haley’s resignation was also dated October 3, the day after Trump mocked Ford at a campaign rally.

Haley's resignation letter is dated Oct 3, so before allegation of use of a private jet by CREW, and the day after Trump mocked Dr. Ford at a rally.
The other shoe still to drop on this one.
https://t.co/lhNn7ZCf11

— Amy Siskind ???? (@Amy_Siskind) October 9, 2018

While it is not clear whether Nikki Haley’s resignation had anything to do with her support of Brett Kavanaugh’s accuser, it was not the first time that she had publicly disagreed with the president. As Vox reported, Trump became furious earlier this year when Haley announced that there would be new sanctions placed on Russia, though Trump’s administration publicly denied the claim. Trump even tapped National Economic Council Director Larry Kudlow to say that Haley had suffered “momentary confusion” when she discussed the sanctions.

Nikki Haley shot back, saying, “With all due respect, I don’t get confused.”