Former Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley tore into President-elect Donald Trump’s decision to nominate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Tulsi Gabbard to his Cabinet.
Haley served as Trump’s United Nations Ambassador in his first term as president but was a consistent critic of Trump on the campaign trail until she reluctantly endorsed him down the stretch of his campaign.
In an appearance on her SiriusXM program, Nikki Haley Live, Haley called Gabbard a defender of China, Russia, Syria, and Iran. Gabbard has been nominated to be Trump’s director of national intelligence.
“So now she’s defended Russia, she’s defended Syria, she’s defended Iran, and she’s defended China,” Haley said. “No, she has not denounced any of these views. None of them. She hasn’t taken one of them back. DNI, Department of National Intelligence. This is not a place for a Russian, Iranian, Syrian, Chinese sympathizer.”
Haley cited Gabbard’s meeting with Bashar al-Assad in 2017 as a moment she particularly disliked.
“She said she was skeptical that he was behind the chemical weapons attacks,” she said. “Now, this to me is disgusting because Cheney, you and I were at the United Nations when Assad did those chemical attacks on those children. … And you can go back and look at a speech I gave holding up pictures of dead children who had been killed by chemical attacks. … For her to say that Assad was not behind that. Literally, everything she said about that, were Russian talking points. “
Haley said Gabbard blamed NATO for Russia’s attack on Ukraine and opposed Trump’s trade war with China. The former presidential candidate also said Gabbard opposed ending the Iran nuclear deal and sanctions on the country.
As for RFK Jr.’s nomination to be Health and Human Services secretary, Haley suggested she was disturbed by his past and present liberal views on abortion and the environment. She also blasted his lack of experience in the health field.
“He has not educated, trained, or practiced in health at all. He has spent his entire career as a trial lawyer, an environmental lawyer, and a liberal democrat,” she said.
Haley said she would rather him be a health adviser instead, so he could pursue raising awareness on additives in food rather than having a larger control over the country’s healthcare apparatus.
“I understand he wants to raise awareness on chemicals and food and vaccinations, but then let him be a health adviser,” she said. “Why are we putting someone that’s so ideologically opposed to Donald Trump’s views and Republican views?”
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Haley said she was not interested in joining Trump’s administration after the president-elect said neither she nor Mike Pompeo would join.
“I had no interest in being in his Cabinet. He knew that,” she said, later adding, “I have made it clear to everyone that I was not interested in the administration.”
