It was in early June when Donald Trump was indicted in the former president’s classified documents scandal, and about a week later, Nikki Haley offered some criticism of her former boss. If the allegations in the indictment were true, the former ambassador said, it meant Trump was “incredibly reckless” and put “all of our military men and women in danger.”
But in the same interview, the South Carolina Republican nevertheless added that she’d be “inclined” to pardon the former president if she were elected to the White House.
Late last week, as my MSNBC colleague Clarissa-Jan Lim reported, Haley’s position on the matter has come into even sharper focus.
On the heels of a very bad week for Nikki Haley, the Republican presidential candidate said she would pardon Donald Trump if he’s convicted of federal crimes. “I would pardon Trump if he is found guilty,” she said at a campaign event in Plymouth, New Hampshire, on Thursday.
“A leader needs to think about what’s in the best interest of the country,” Haley said, in response to a question from a nine-year-old child. “What’s in the best interest of the country is not to have an 80-year-old man sitting in jail that continues to divide our country. What’s in the best interest of our country is to pardon him so that we can move on as a country and no longer talk about him.”
She’s not alone. Gov. Ron DeSantis said more than once last summer that he’s prepared to pardon Trump, claiming such a move could help Americans “come together.” The day after Haley’s comments last week, the Florida Republican reiterated his support for also pardoning the former president. Referring to Gerald Ford’s pardon of Richard Nixon in 1974, DeSantis told reporters, “I think we got to move on as a country and, you know, like Ford did to Nixon, because the divisions are just not in the country’s interest.”
There are a few things to keep in mind about such rhetoric. The first is that Haley is…
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