A host from the HLN news network is vigorously defending U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley following a flap this week about her knowledge of the administration’s plans to impose new sanctions on Russia.
Haley was accused of “confusion” by a top White House aide after several Sunday show appearances where she said new sanctions were planned. The White House contradicted Haley by claiming no decisions had been made.
HLN host S.E. Cupp defended Haley on Wednesday, slamming President Trump while arguing that Haley should run for president.
“I for one hope she is looking to run for president in the near future,” Cupp said on her program, “Unfiltered.” “It would be nice to have someone with balls in the White House.”
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“Nikki Haley is not here for your sexism,” Cupp said at the top of her program, adding that the former South Carolina governor was the president’s “strongest and most competent Cabinet official.”
“U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley was not only hung out to dry by the Trump administration. She was then dismissed and head-patted by an old school boys Trump adviser, who thought he could,” Cupp said, referencing chief economic adviser Larry Kudlow.
Kudlow on Tuesday said Haley “got ahead of the curve” and that there had been “some momentary confusion” around imposing additional sanctions against Russia. He later apologized for the comments when Haley shot back that she doesn’t “get confused.”
Cupp in a CNN op-ed on Wednesday said Kudlow’s comments were sexist and followed with the staunch defense on her show.
“While Kudlow and the rest are running around trying to clean up after whatever inane thing the president’s just tweeted or make policy decisions that … don’t contradict one another or to keep all the president’s scandals straight, Haley’s taking on global terrorists like [Russian President Vladimir] Putin and [Syrian President Bashar] Assad with tougher language than Trump’s ever mustered,” Cupp added later in her monologue. “She makes her male counterparts look like scared schoolboys merely playing at government.”
Despite her spat with Kudlow, Haley on Wednesday said that her relationship with Trump was “perfect.”
Haley told CBS on Sunday that the administration was preparing to level new sanctions against Russia in response to its backing of the Assad-led Syrian government following a suspected chemical attack on civilians in a rebel-controlled suburb outside Damascus.
According to The New York Times, Haley’s claim peeved the president, who reportedly wasn’t planning on leveling any new sanctions against Russia.
The White House this week couched Haley’s claim.
“We are considering additional sanctions on Russia and a decision will be made in the near future,” White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders told reporters on Monday.