Berl Falbaum
With this column we are pleased (actually sad) to announce another winner of our coveted (despised) Pence Outstanding Hypocrite Award (POHA).
The honor (dishonor) goes to Nikki Haley, former governor of South Carolina, the last Republican candidate for president to suspend her campaign against Donald Trump in the GOP primaries, and former ambassador to the U.N. during the Trump administration.
Sometimes as we considered bestowing the POHA, we have been hesitant; we did not want to be unfair. But this one was easy, a doozy, a real doozy.
In case you missed it, Haley recently announced she would vote for Trump. So, what’s the big deal, you ask?
Well, we will tell you. Here are some of the things she said about her former boss and rival in the primaries, the man she now wants to be president and the leader of the free world.
Trump, she said, at one point, is “unhinged,” “unsafe to be president,” and “unqualified to be president of the United States.” He was “more diminished” than he was in 2016, she charged.
The GOP must reject Trump as its nominee because he cannot win a general election, she offered, adding, “That’s the problem. We got to go with someone who can actually win.”
If anyone failed to appreciate her opposition to Trump, she assured them that nominating Trump as the GOP candidate for president would be like committing “suicide for our country.”
When she was governor of South Carolina in 2016, she denounced Trump, stating he “was everything a governor does not want in a president.” When Trump won the nomination, she campaigned for him and joined his team as U.N. ambassador.
After January 6, she criticized Trump, saying,
“He let us down. We shouldn’t have followed him…and we should never have listened to him.”
Then she visited him at Mar-a-Lago in Florida, made nice-nice and praised him.
She also has questioned his mental fitness, after Trump confused her with former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
“The concern I have is – I’m not saying anything derogatory,” she said while saying something derogatory, “but when you’re dealing with the pressures of a presidency, you can’t have someone else that we question whether they’re mentally fit to do this.”
Asked whether Trump would abide by the Constitution if elected, she said, “I don’t know, I don’t…I don’t know…I mean you always want to think someone will but I don’t know.”
When Trump mocked Haley’s husband, Michael, who serves in the South Carolina Army National Guard, and was on a year-long deployment to Africa as a staff officer with the 218th Maneuver Enhancement Brigade, Haley said:
“If you don’t respect our military, how should we think you’re going to respect them when it comes to times of war, and prevent war and keep them from going? If you don’t have respect for our military and our veterans, God help us all if that’s the case.
“He showed that with that kind of disrespect for the military, he’s not qualified to be the president of the United States, because I don’t trust him to protect them.”
With her endorsement, she apparently also doesn’t remember Trump’s racially-charged comments about her heritage.
Trump repeatedly referred to Haley, the daughter of immigrants from India, as “Nimbra” and suggested, falsely, that disqualified her to run for president.
Haley was born in Bamberg, South Carolina, as Nimarata Nikki Randhawa. She always used her middle name and took the surname “Haley” after her marriage in 1996. In response at the time, Haley said:
“I’ll let people decide what he means by his attacks. What we know is, look, he’s clearly insecure if he goes and does these temper tantrums, if he’s spending millions of dollars on TV. He’s insecure, he knows that something’s wrong.”
But what finally put her over the top for the POHA was how she criticized Republicans who flip-flopped on Trump (before she did.) Here is what she said:
“Many of the same politicians who now publicly embrace Trump privately dread him. They know what a disaster he’s been and will continue to be for our party. They’re just too afraid to say it out loud. Well, I’m not afraid to say the hard truths out loud. I feel no need to kiss the ring.”
If only she had left it at kissing his ring.
Trump’s reaction to all of this? Former GOP presidential rival Haley whom he called a “birdbrain” in the campaign, will be on his team (if he wins the election) in some form --“Absolutely!”
In conclusion: We never had a candidate -- and we have had quite a few -- who deserved the POHA more than Haley.
At the time this was written, Haley had not commented on Trump being found guilty of 34 felonies charges.
But during a presidential debate in the GOP primaries, she was one of six candidates who raised her hand when asked by the moderator if they would support Trump even if he were a convicted felon.
We will speculate (given her record described above): she will laud 17 guilty verdicts and criticize the other 17.
If flip-flopping were an Olympic sport, she would be the favorite for the gold when the Games start this month in Paris.
—————
Berl Falbaum is a long-time journalist and author of several books.
The honor (dishonor) goes to Nikki Haley, former governor of South Carolina, the last Republican candidate for president to suspend her campaign against Donald Trump in the GOP primaries, and former ambassador to the U.N. during the Trump administration.
Sometimes as we considered bestowing the POHA, we have been hesitant; we did not want to be unfair. But this one was easy, a doozy, a real doozy.
In case you missed it, Haley recently announced she would vote for Trump. So, what’s the big deal, you ask?
Well, we will tell you. Here are some of the things she said about her former boss and rival in the primaries, the man she now wants to be president and the leader of the free world.
Trump, she said, at one point, is “unhinged,” “unsafe to be president,” and “unqualified to be president of the United States.” He was “more diminished” than he was in 2016, she charged.
The GOP must reject Trump as its nominee because he cannot win a general election, she offered, adding, “That’s the problem. We got to go with someone who can actually win.”
If anyone failed to appreciate her opposition to Trump, she assured them that nominating Trump as the GOP candidate for president would be like committing “suicide for our country.”
When she was governor of South Carolina in 2016, she denounced Trump, stating he “was everything a governor does not want in a president.” When Trump won the nomination, she campaigned for him and joined his team as U.N. ambassador.
After January 6, she criticized Trump, saying,
“He let us down. We shouldn’t have followed him…and we should never have listened to him.”
Then she visited him at Mar-a-Lago in Florida, made nice-nice and praised him.
She also has questioned his mental fitness, after Trump confused her with former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
“The concern I have is – I’m not saying anything derogatory,” she said while saying something derogatory, “but when you’re dealing with the pressures of a presidency, you can’t have someone else that we question whether they’re mentally fit to do this.”
Asked whether Trump would abide by the Constitution if elected, she said, “I don’t know, I don’t…I don’t know…I mean you always want to think someone will but I don’t know.”
When Trump mocked Haley’s husband, Michael, who serves in the South Carolina Army National Guard, and was on a year-long deployment to Africa as a staff officer with the 218th Maneuver Enhancement Brigade, Haley said:
“If you don’t respect our military, how should we think you’re going to respect them when it comes to times of war, and prevent war and keep them from going? If you don’t have respect for our military and our veterans, God help us all if that’s the case.
“He showed that with that kind of disrespect for the military, he’s not qualified to be the president of the United States, because I don’t trust him to protect them.”
With her endorsement, she apparently also doesn’t remember Trump’s racially-charged comments about her heritage.
Trump repeatedly referred to Haley, the daughter of immigrants from India, as “Nimbra” and suggested, falsely, that disqualified her to run for president.
Haley was born in Bamberg, South Carolina, as Nimarata Nikki Randhawa. She always used her middle name and took the surname “Haley” after her marriage in 1996. In response at the time, Haley said:
“I’ll let people decide what he means by his attacks. What we know is, look, he’s clearly insecure if he goes and does these temper tantrums, if he’s spending millions of dollars on TV. He’s insecure, he knows that something’s wrong.”
But what finally put her over the top for the POHA was how she criticized Republicans who flip-flopped on Trump (before she did.) Here is what she said:
“Many of the same politicians who now publicly embrace Trump privately dread him. They know what a disaster he’s been and will continue to be for our party. They’re just too afraid to say it out loud. Well, I’m not afraid to say the hard truths out loud. I feel no need to kiss the ring.”
If only she had left it at kissing his ring.
Trump’s reaction to all of this? Former GOP presidential rival Haley whom he called a “birdbrain” in the campaign, will be on his team (if he wins the election) in some form --“Absolutely!”
In conclusion: We never had a candidate -- and we have had quite a few -- who deserved the POHA more than Haley.
At the time this was written, Haley had not commented on Trump being found guilty of 34 felonies charges.
But during a presidential debate in the GOP primaries, she was one of six candidates who raised her hand when asked by the moderator if they would support Trump even if he were a convicted felon.
We will speculate (given her record described above): she will laud 17 guilty verdicts and criticize the other 17.
If flip-flopping were an Olympic sport, she would be the favorite for the gold when the Games start this month in Paris.
—————
Berl Falbaum is a long-time journalist and author of several books.
