Nikki Haley on federal impeachment: If true, Trump was ‘incredibly reckless’

republican presidential candidate nikki haley criticized the former president donald trump on Monday for his alleged mishandling of sensitive national security documents.

In an interview on Fox News, Haley, a former ambassador to the United Nations and former governor of South Carolina, echoed the right-wing’s distrust of federal prosecutors, including as she said that if the charges in the federal indictment against Trump are ” true,” then Trump was “unbelievably reckless.”

“Two things can be true at the same time. One, the Department of Justice and the FBI have lost all credibility with the American people,” said Haley, who called for a top-down review of federal law enforcement agencies. “Two, the second thing may also be true: if this allegation is true, if what it says is really the case, President Trump was incredibly reckless with our national security.”

The charges resonate especially strongly for Haley, she said, because her husband recently unfolded with the South Carolina Army National Guard for a year-long tour of duty in Africa.

“This puts all of our military men and women in jeopardy if there was talk about what our military is capable of, or how we would invade or do something with one of our enemies,” he said. “And if that’s the case, it’s reckless, it’s frustrating, and it causes problems.”

Noting that Trump is also faces criminal charges in New York City and can will soon be charged in GeorgiaHaley argued that Trump’s legal problems undermine his eligibility against President Joe Biden.

“My concern is not so much about how this plays out and what we do with it. My concern is about the direction of the country, the fact that we cannot allow Biden to win this election,” he said. “We cannot let Biden or (Vice President) Kamala Harris win this election. We have to have someone who can win a general election.”

The Department of Justice accused trump on Thursday with 37 felony counts related to his alleged mishandling of classified documents from his time as president, and his alleged failure to cooperate with federal authorities attempting to retrieve them from his home at the Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach. , florida

The indictment, which was unsealed Friday, details the seriousness of the charges Trump faces.

Haley’s initial response to news of the impeachment focused on the alleged injustice with which Trump was being treated.

“This is not how justice should be sought in our country. The American people are exhausted by prosecutorial overreach, double standards, and the policy of vendetta.” she tweeted Friday morning. “It’s time to move beyond the drama and endless distractions.”

Read the unsealed indictmentwhich became available shortly after it was posted on Twitter, apparently changed the way Haley views the situation.

A Department of Justice team led by special counsel Jack Smith is impeaching trump not only from storing classified national security documents in unsecured boxes at his personal residence, but from knowingly sharing their contents with people not authorized to hear about them. Specifically, the Department of Justice alleges that there is an audio recording of Trump showing a US “plan of attack” against another country in the presence of a writer, an editor and two aides. In another alleged incident, Trump showed a military map to a representative of his political action committee. In both cases, Trump allegedly told the other people that he was not allowed to show them the documents.

Trump’s actions “could jeopardize the national security of the United States, foreign relations, the security of United States military and human resources, and the continued viability of sensitive intelligence-gathering methods,” the indictment states. .

However, Haley’s comments on Monday were much harsher than some of his rivals in the GOP camp, who are wary of angering Republican voters who still support the former president.