Nikki Haley hasn’t said much about Donald Trump and the future of the Republican Party since the former President went down the rabbit hole of stolen election conspiracy theories, a path that led directly to the riot at the US Capitol on January 6.
That was, of course, purposeful. Haley, the former South Carolina governor and UN Ambassador for Trump with an eye on a presidential run in 2024, didn’t want to be anywhere near Trump’s false claims about the election. And after January 6, Trump became absolutely radioactive to all but his most ardent supporters. After waiting and watching for the last three months, Haley made her move Friday — in the form of a long profile of her future prospects by Politico’s Tim Alberta that includes this eye-opening quote on Trump: « We need to acknowledge he let us down. He 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. » And this one about Trump’s political future: « He’s not going to run for federal office again…. I don’t think he’s going to be in the picture. I don’t think he can. He’s fallen so far. » Which, whoa, right? After all, with very few exceptions, Trump allies — and Haley has been willing to stand by the former President through much of his radical presidency — have been unwilling to go on the record to offer any sort of criticism of him, much less to go as far as Haley does in those two quotes: arguing that a) the GOP should not have followed Trump down the rigged election path and b) that he has no future in the Party. That this interview comes out just after the House impeachment managers concluded their case in the Senate impeachment trial — laying out a damning presentation detailing Trump’s long stoking of the resentment, victimhood and hate that bubbled over on January 6 — seems like more than a coincidence.
