Haley accused of changing positions on Trump since Capitol riot

CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCSC) - In an interview published Friday, former United Nations Ambassador and South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley said former President Donald Trump “let us down,” but she has also appeared on cable news since the Jan. 6 riot calling for people to “give the man a break.”

“We should not want to go back to the Republican Party before Trump. We gained a lot of people that were unheard, unseen, many of whom, like I grew up in South Carolina, had just been misunderstood we want to keep them in the Party,” Haley told Fox News on Jan. 26.

In that same interview she also commented on Trump’s second impeachment.

“I don’t even think there’s a basis for impeachment. I mean, the idea that they’re even bringing this up. They didn’t even have a hearing in the House. Now they’re going to turn around and bring about impeachment. Yet, they say they’re for unity. I mean, they beat him up before he got into office. They’re beating him up after he leaves office,” she said.

However, Politico Magazine quoted Haley as saying Trump “went down a path he shouldn’t have, and we shouldn’t have followed him, and we shouldn’t have listened to him. And we can’t let that ever happen again.”

Some lawmakers like Illinois Republican Rep. Adam Kinzinger have taken to Twitter to say that Haley is trying to have it both ways.

“You can’t play both sides anymore Governor. Pick Country First or Trump First,” Kinzinger tweeted Friday.

Haley, who served as Ambassador to the United Nations in the Trump administration, has not stayed silent on social media, to colleagues, or in interviews since the riots on Capitol Hill.

According to reports, in the day after the riot, she told members of the Republican National Committee the President would, “be judged harshly by history.”

That was Jan. 7.

Two days later, Haley tweeted about a news segment addressing those reports, writing, “We must not turn our backs on the good policies passed over the last four years.”

She then kept a supportive tone of the former president in an interview on Fox News speaking out against the second impeachment of Trump.

“We’ve got to get our priorities straight, stop the whining, stop the complaining, stop the finger-pointing and let’s get to work. That’s really what needs to happen,” she said.

Haley told Politico she is deeply upset about some of the events leading up to the riot on the day of the electoral college count.

“When I tell you I’m angry, it’s an understatement,” she said.

Haley specifically mentioned her frustration with the former President’s rhetoric surrounding then-Vice President Mike Pence.

“Mike has been nothing but loyal to that man. He’s been nothing but a good friend of that man. … I am so disappointed in the fact that [despite] the loyalty and friendship he had with Mike Pence, that he would do that to him. Like, I’m disgusted by it,” she told Politico’s Tim Alberta.

The article’s quotes surrounding Haley’s friendship with Trump could leave readers wondering where the two stand.

Haley said she has not spoken to the president since the riot but is quoted as telling Trump, “You’re my president, but you’re also my friend,” while also telling Politico, “Friend...is a loose term.”

Politico’s article also leaves readers with a question: Not if Haley will run for President, but how she will.

Former Haley Chief Spokesman Rob Godfrey doesn’t address the point directly but offers his perspective: the Former Governor can often get caught up in a moment or let her instincts guide her.

“A lot of times when she’s out on the stump, or in a certain environment and she feels like saying something, that emotion takes over and she loses herself,” Godfrey said.

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