Nikki Haley continues her book tour by posing a fundamental question about the current obsession in the Beltway. Absent an actual high crime or misdemeanor, should the House pursue impeachment? In her answer, Haley offers a middle ground that Donald Trump might like less than some of her other arguments of late — hearings without an impeachment.
“We are less than a year away from the election,” Haley tells NBC’s Savannah Guthrie on the Today show this morning. Instead of impeachment, Haley argues, “let the people decide. Let them hear the testimony, that’s fine,” Haley adds, “but let them decide.”
Guthrie and Haley contend with each other for ten fascinating minutes in this interview, with both not giving any ground at all:
“Impeachment is literally the worst punishment you can do to a public official,” Haley tells Guthrie. “Impeachment is serious. It’s the most serious thing you can do to a President.” Without a crime at the center of this, it is nothing more than a legit criticism of the president’s style and priorities. That’s not a case for impeachment but an argument for the election — which is less than a year away. Why overstep, Haley argues?
Guthrie offers tough questions in response to that assertion, but Haley sticks to her guns. She also argues that Hunter Biden’s activities in Ukraine and elsewhere should be investigated. That will be more to Trump’s liking, even if Guthrie seems skeptical of that argument.
The most interesting part of the conversation comes at the end, though. After trying to pin Haley down for allegedly calling John Kelly dangerous (Haley parried that she said what he was doing was dangerous), Guthrie then attempted to show why Kelly and Tillerson might have wanted to take the helm. Starting at the nine-minute mark, Guthrie presses Haley on whether Trump is non compos mentis:
GUTHRIE: Did you ever have any doubt about the fitness of this president to serve?
HALEY: I never did.
GUTHRIE: Any doubt about his mental acuity?
HALEY: I never did.
GUTHRIE: Any question about his truthfulness, his ability to tell the truth?
HALEY: Savannah, I talked to him multiple times, and when I had issues, he always heard me out. I never had any concern on whether he could handle the job, ever.
GUTHRIE: What about his truthfulness? Did you think he was a truthful person?
HALEY: Yes, in every instance that I dealt with him, he was truthful, he listened and he was great to work with.
Haley seems very comfortable with that testimony. Trump will undoubtedly like that better than some of the rest he’ll hear starting tomorrow.
