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In an interview Sunday on NBC's "Meet the Press," Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley offered tepid pushback to Donald Trump’s suggestion that former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley should be executed for treason.
When asked whether Trump’s comments were disqualifying for a presidential candidate, Haley danced around the question:
I just think it’s irresponsible. I mean, you don’t need to say things like that. I think that any man or woman that has served our country deserves the highest respect. My husband is a combat veteran. He is deployed right now. They sacrifice a lot. Their families sacrifice a lot. And we should honor them every chance that we get.
The former United Nations ambassador didn’t elaborate on this word salad of a response and wasn't pressed to do so. I’ll note, though, the seemingly obvious point that saying something is “irresponsible” doesn’t equate to saying it’s reprehensible or disqualifying.
You might think playing the lottery with low funds is irresponsible — but it also might win you a lot of money.
You might think it’s irresponsible to let a child cook dinner — but it might work out every once in a while.
Which is to say, labeling someone’s call for a political execution as “irresponsible” isn’t the full-on denunciation of extremist violence Americans deserve from their elected officials or those running for office.
There must be something in the water at South Carolina GOP headquarters causing the conference to continually send some of the most fickle officials to Washington. Haley, Sens. Tim Scott and Lindsey Graham, and Rep. Nancy Mace have all served as loyal stooges in the GOP’s lurch toward far-right extremism. Perhaps none more than Haley, though.
For several years, she has benefitted from a narrative — spun by media and Trump-averse conservatives — that she’s a moderate voice in the Republican Party capable of mollifying GOP extremists and dialing down their illiberal impulses.
But more often than not, the sight and sound of Haley acquiescing to right-wing radicals has shown she's ill-equipped for the task. (In a sense, that makes her a great mascot for today’s Republican Party.)
I think, for example, about Haley’s generally lauded time as Trump’s U.N. ambassador, which actually gave us a few examples of the aforementioned folding — perhaps, that's why Vox described her term as a “paradox.” And Haley has bent the knee to MAGA extremism in other ways, too.
As Time magazine noted earlier this year, within months of the pro-Trump insurrection, Haley went from saying the former president shouldn’t be in the GOP’s political future to saying she hopes he is and “we need him in the Republican Party.”
And, of course, she was one of several cowardly candidates who rose their hand in the first GOP debate when asked whether they’d support Trump even if he’s convicted in any of the numerous criminal cases against him. And all of that was before her "Meet the Press" fiasco, when she seemed to suggest Trump’s call for the killing of a military official was a matter of politeness.
Take note, all. The images of Nikki Haley placating extremists far outnumber anything to the contrary.