Former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley offered yet another mild criticism of how the Trump administration handled the Ukraine pressure campaign — along with a bizarre bit of advice.
When CNN’s Wolf Blitzer pressed Haley Thursday evening on whether Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani’s role in the Ukraine pressure campaign was appropriate, Haley denied witnessing Giuliani “engaged in that way” during her term as the UN ambassador.
Haley went on to argue that it is “best practice to have a special envoy to handle certain areas” and said that “we do that all the time and give them the title of special envoy.” Haley added that the Trump administration “probably should have done that so there wasn’t any confusion.”
When Blitzer pressed Haley again about whether it was appropriate for Giuliani to be “so deeply involved” in the Ukraine pressure campaign that involved efforts to dig up false allegations against the Bidens, Haley said she thinks “it could have been handled better” by giving Giuliani the title of special envoy.
“They should have named [Giuliani] the special envoy so everyone in the administration knew what his role was,” Haley said, after Blitzer asked for clarification.
In light of the public Friday testimony of ousted Ukraine Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch, Haley denied ever working with her and dodged when asked by Blitzer whether it was fair for Yovanovitch to be pushed out by a smear campaign led by Giuliani.
After Haley said that she was “grateful” for the multiple foreign service officers who she worked with during her time as UN ambassador, she said that the UN encountered “foreign service officers who had a political bias.”
“That became a problem in them stalling or trying to get something else done — I’m not saying that about this ambassador,” Haley said, referring to Yovanovitch. “What I will tell you about this, every ambassador serves at the privilege of the President. If the President did not want her to stay he had that right to do it. We don’t necessarily know exactly why he didn’t want her to stay, but I mean, every ambassador knows they can be pulled at any given time.”
On Tuesday, Haley offered her mild criticism of the July call between President Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky during an interview on the “Today” show by saying that “it’s never a good practice for us to ask a foreign country to investigate an American.”
Watch Haley’s remarks below:
Haley: "They should have named [Giuliani] the special envoy so everyone in the administration knew what his role was." pic.twitter.com/GSC94bvfpA
— TPM Livewire (@TPMLiveWire) November 15, 2019
