Former Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley claims that ex-Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and ex-White House Chief of Staff John Kelly secretly subverted President Donald Trump–and tried to convince her to do the same.
“Kelly and Tillerson confided in me that when they resisted the President, they weren’t being insubordinate, they were trying to save the country,” Haley writes in her upcoming book “With All Due Respect,” obtained in advance by the Washington Post on Sunday.
According to Haley, the two senior officials argued their decisions “were in the best interests of America” because they believed Trump “didn’t know what he was doing.”
In a pre-taped “CBS Sunday Morning” interview with reporter Norah O’Donnell, Haley recounted the “offensive” conversation, during which Tillerson also allegedly told her that people “would die” if he didn’t resist Trump’s decisions.
“It absolutely happened,” she said. “And instead of saying that to me, they should’ve been saying that to the President, not asking me to join them on their sidebar plan.”
Haley said Tillerson and Kelly should’ve merely quit if they didn’t like what Trump was doing.
“But to undermine a president is really a very dangerous thing,” she added. “And it goes against the Constitution, and it goes against what the American people want.”
“If by resistance and stalling she means putting a staff process in place…to ensure the [President] knew all the pros and cons of what policy decision he might be contemplating so he could make an informed decision, then guilty as charged,” Kelly told CBS News in response to Haley’s account.
Trump fired Tillerson in March 2018 after their relationship eroded over Trump’s handling of Russia and North Korea. Kelly left the White House at the end of 2018.
Watch Haley below:
