Former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley issued a scathing rebuke of President Trump’s remarks on a white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, in her new book.
Haley wrote in her book, With All Due Respect, that she was “deeply disturbed” when Trump blamed both sides for the deadly violence. A woman was killed at the 2017 rally when a man drove his car into a crowd of protesters.
Trump initially condemned racism and white supremacist groups, but then said there was blame on both sides.
“I was certain he didn’t understand how damaging his remarks were,” she wrote. “But I had been through this. A leader’s words matter in these situations. And the president’s words had been hurtful and dangerous.”
She said she called Trump to tell him she disapproved of his comments and made a comparison between Charlottesville and a 2015 shooting in Charleston, South Carolina, where nine black worshippers were killed during Bible study.
Trump disputed whether the incidents could be compared, she said. Haley wrote that they were the same because “the pain was the same.”
“The response to these attempts at division had to be crystal clear,” she wrote. “Moral clarity was essential, and the president’s words were not providing that. You have to stop acknowledging the haters, I told the president. You have to understand the power of your voice.”
Haley said she never spoke about Charlottesville again with Trump.
Haley, 47, resigned from the Trump administration in October 2018, and she and Trump have remained on good terms.
