by WorldTribune Staff, November 12, 2019
In one of the most concise explanations of the entire impeachment saga, former U.S. Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley said there is no impeachable offense in President Donald Trump’s July 25 phone call with Ukraine’s president.
“There was no heavy demand insisting that something had to happen. So it’s hard for me to understand where the whole impeachment situation is coming from, because what everybody’s up in arms about didn’t happen,” Haley told The Washington Post.
“So, do I think it’s not good practice to talk to foreign governments about investigating Americans? Yes. Do I think the president did something that warrants impeachment? No, because the aid flowed. And, in turn, the Ukrainians didn’t follow up with the investigation.”
Impeachment, Washington Times columnist Ralph Z. Hallow noted, “has one wobbly leg to stand on — Nikki Haley just broke it. No one has knocked the impeachment shenanigan for a loop as clearly as Haley.”
In a Nov. 11 interview, CBS Evening News anchor Norah O’Donnell asked Haley, “Do you think ultimately the president will be impeached and removed from office?”
Haley replied, “No. On what? You’re gonna impeach a president for asking for a favor that didn’t happen and giving money and it wasn’t withheld? I don’t know what you would impeach him on. And look, Norah, impeachment is, like, the death penalty for a public official. When you look at the transcript, there’s nothing in that transcript that warrants the death penalty for the president.”
Haley added: “The Ukrainians never did the investigation. And the president released the funds. I mean, when you look at those, there’s just nothing impeachable there. And more than that, I think the biggest thing that bothers me is the American people should decide this. Why do we have a bunch of people in Congress making that decision?”
Hallow noted that Article II, Section 4 says: “The president, vice president and all civil officers of the United States shall be removed from office on impeachment for and conviction of, treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors.”
Hallow continued: “But that’s not what Haley means. She knows what’s in the Constitution. Just as important, she knows what’s in the minds of common-sense Americans. She knows they get that, in the run-up to a presidential election, the Democrats, under the cover of the impeachment provisions in the Constitution. are out to do a political hit job — with the connivance of a few never-Trump Republicans.”
In an interview on Fox News’s “Hannity” on Monday, Haley, referring to allegations that Trump asked Ukraine to investigate Joe Biden and his son Hunter, said it is not good practice to ask other governments to take on such probes.
“I, in practice, don’t think it’s good for us to ever ask foreign governments to investigate Americans, but I think it goes to the fact that Americans should be investigating Americans,” she said.
“And, Americans should be asking the questions of Joe Biden and asking the questions of his son and finding out exactly what was going on with that situation and get down to the bottom of it.”
Haley had also caused a stir in the swamp with her recent criticism of former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and former White House Chief of staff John Kelly.
Haley had related in her new book “With All Due Respect” a conversation in which Tillerson and Kelly defended resisting Trump. Haley said on Fox News that the crux of the matter was a policy disagreement.
“This wasn’t that these guys thought this was a rogue president, this was that these guys disagreed with his policy — they disagreed with us getting out of the Paris Climate Agreement, they disagreed with us getting out of the Iran deal, they disagreed with us moving the [Israeli] embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem,” she said.
In the interview with O’Donnell, Haley said that she did not appreciate having Tillerson and Kelly confide in her.
“[I]nstead of saying that to me, they should’ve been saying that to the president, not asking me to join them on their sidebar plan,” the former ambassador said.
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