Nikki Haley Publicly Breaks With Donald Trump, Says ‘Political Opponents Are Not Evil’
U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley publicly broke with Donald Trump’s divisive rhetoric on Thursday evening. According to Politico, while addressing a crowd at the Alfred E. Smith Memorial Foundation Dinner in New York, Haley contradicted the president’s repeated comments that Democrats are “evil” people.
“In our toxic political life, I’ve heard some people in both parties describe their opponents as enemies or evil,” Haley said. “In America, our political opponents are not evil.”
In general, Haley’s comments at the dinner were lighthearted. She told jokes and refrained from saying anything too controversial. But when she talked about Trump’s recent rhetoric, she got critical. She used examples of dictators and torture throughout the world to show the audience “true evil.”
“In South Sudan, where rape is routinely used as a weapon of war, that is evil. In Syria, where the dictator uses chemical weapons to murder innocent children, that is evil. In North Korea, where American student Otto Warmbier was tortured to death, that was evil,” she said.
President Trump is not afraid to use extreme language when describing his political opponents. In early October, he apologized to Supreme Court Judge, then nominee, Brett Kavanaugh for the sexual allegations brought against him “by people who are evil.”
During a rally a few days later, he said that Democrats “want to destroy people.”
“These are really evil people,” he said.
When the President of the United States was called out for his harsh language, he defended it, saying that he knows some Americans who are “pretty evil.”
He has also labeled Democrats as the enemy of the people. Haley, who has generally been a reliable defender of Trump’s policies, apparently took issue with his language.
“In the last two years, I’ve seen true evil. We have some serious political differences here at home. But our opponents are not evil, they’re just our opponents,” said Haley at the dinner.
RT @USUN: Thank you to @CardinalDolan and the Alfred E. Smith Memorial Foundation for all you do to bring hope to the neediest among us, it was an honor to be hosted by you. pic.twitter.com/xrpRfg6439
— Archive: Ambassador Nikki Haley (@AmbNikkiHaley) October 19, 2018
The U.N. ambassador also poked fun at Elizabeth Warren, who recently released DNA results showing that she has Native American ancestry.
“I get it, you wanted an Indian woman, but Elizabeth Warren failed her DNA test,” she said.
She then joked that when the president found out she was Indian American, he “asked me if I was from the same tribe as Elizabeth Warren.”
Haley announced last week that she was leaving her position as the U.S. ambassador to the U.N. The news came as a surprise and prompted many to speculate that Haley was considering a political run in the future.
Haley denied that she has any plans to run in 2020, but speculation about her White House ambitions continues to swirl. She will remain in her post at the U.N. until the end of the year.
