Why is Nikki Haley back on TV?

The former UN ambassador Nikki Haley continued her dogged and faithful defence of Donald Trump on Tuesday, maintaining that the president is a “truthful” person.

  The Guardian

Then Nikki Haley is a bald-faced liar.

“In every instance that I dealt with him, he was truthful, he listened and he was great to work with,” Haley told NBC’s Today. “I never had any concerns on whether he could handle the job ever.”

Bullshit, Nikki.

Tuesday sees publication of With All Due Respect, a carefully crafted memoir that most see as an attempt to set up the former South Carolina governor for a return to national political life.

[...]

On Monday night Rex Tillerson, Trump’s first secretary of state, hit back at Haley’s claim in the book that he worked to undermine aspects of Trump’s agenda in an effort to “save the country”.

From October 2018:



Also from October 2018:

Nikki Haley’s political capital and foreign policy credentials skyrocketed during her time as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, but one aspect of the former South Carolina governor’s life didn’t get the same boost: her personal finances. Federal ethics reports show Haley had debt from $525,000 to about $1.1 million in 2017, the latest year available.

[...]

A spokeswoman for Haley sent a statement that said, “The Haleys’ debt that was disclosed in 2017 is very different from what it is today. ... Their current debt level is well below $500,000, and it had no bearing whatsoever on Ambassador Haley’s decision to leave her position.”

  Post & Courier

And that same month:

And...

From January 2019:

“To undermine a president because you think you know better than him is wrong,” Haley said.

  The Guardian

I guess this means she's changed her tune on Russia?

You'll notice this argument—that Trump wasn't in the "mindset" to really know what he was doing when he held up military aid the Ukrainians needed to defend themselves against Russian aggression—is not itself a very strong case that the president should be president. But what do you expect? Here's what we got from Nikki Haley, held up by gullible observers as among The Last Respectable Republicans, on the Today show this morning.

[...]

It is a stunning sign of things to come that, even with the president's prospects worse than ever, they're doubling down on their allegiance to him. It tells you that people like Haley believe the future of the party is still his reactionary base, and that there is still opportunity there to win elections in the years to come. Considering what Republicans already have to do to win elections—voter suppression, voter purges, extreme gerrymandering, and these days, courting the intervention of foreign ratfuckers—you have to worry about what's to come.

But Haley wasn't done. She also had the nerve to suggest Donald Trump Is Very Concerned About Corruption.

Haley granted the call wasn't "good practice"—something of an understatement—and then seemed to channel the president's directive to read the transcript!!! But we don't just have the transcript anymore. It's not just about this one call. We have witnesses attesting to what was going on all around this call now, with "the three amigos"—Rudy Giuliani, Gordon Sondland, and Rick Perry—making it clear to the Ukrainians via backchannels what was required of them. We have Sondland himself admitting there was a quid pro quo—that there was extortion.

[...]

This is a guy who spent his entire "business" career screwing contractors and suing his way out of various obligations. He participated in a multi-generational family tax fraud scheme. His administration is The Great American Heist. The guy fucking loves corruption, and yet Haley is going to say he was just trying to root it out in Ukraine? It doesn't pass the laugh test.

  Esquire

Haley certainly seems to be singing a new song. I wonder why.

MSNBC contributor and GOP strategist Steve Schmidt said Tuesday that he believes President Trump will replace Vice President Pence with former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley on his 2020 reelection ticket.

Schmidt said on "Morning Joe" that Haley has been angling to replace Pence on the 2020 ticket by defending the president in the press in recent days as she promotes her upcoming memoir "With All Due Respect."

[...]

"She wants to be vice president. She wants to be vice president on the Republican ticket in 2020. And I think there’s an overwhelming chance that Trump will dump Pence to put Nikki Haley on the ticket because he has an enormous problem with women. Suburban women, particularly," he continued.

[...]

“He’s entirely transactional. Loyalty is a one-way street. And so she’s clearly angling for the job, and when you look at the politics of it, she would serve his immediate political interests in a way that Pence can’t. So I would suggest that he’s going to be gone and she’ll be in," he said.

  The Hill

Probably Haley is hoping and angling. But Pence is also an asskisser and a known commodity. Haley at one point took issue with Trump's stance toward Russia, and she doesn't have the Evangelical bona fides that Pence has. Trump needs Sarah Palin. Or maybe that bizarre "spiritual advisor" he just brought to the White House.  Nikki may have to wait until 2024 for her chance at the Big House.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.