Nikki Haley, the previous UN ambassador and Republican presidential hopeful, criticized two of Donald Trump’s cupboard picks, calling his selection for director of nationwide intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, “a Russian, Iranian, Syrian, Chinese language sympathizer” and Robert F Kennedy Jr, tapped for well being secretary, a “liberal Democrat” with no background in related coverage.
“So now she’s defended Russia, she’s defended Syria, she’s defended Iran, and he or she’s defended China,” Haley mentioned of Gabbard on her SiriusXM radio present on Wednesday. “No, she has not denounced any of those views. None of them. She hasn’t taken one among them again.
“This isn’t a spot for a Russian, Iranian, Syrian, Chinese language sympathizer,” Haley continued, including that the director of nationwide intelligence “has to research actual threats” to US safety.
Gabbard, 43, is a former progressive congresswoman who ran for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2020 however who has since change into a Republican.
Kennedy, 70 and a scion of a well-known political household turned vaccine conspiracy theorist, ran for the Democratic nomination this yr earlier than switching to run as an impartial after which dropping out to again Trump.
Haley mentioned: “He’s a liberal Democrat, environmental legal professional, trial lawyer who will now be overseeing 25% of our federal funds and has no background in healthcare. A few of it’s possible you’ll assume RFK is cool, a few of it’s possible you’ll like that he questions what’s in our meals and what’s in our vaccines, however we don’t know, when he’s given reins to an company, what selections he’s going to make behind the scenes.”
Haley was governor of South Carolina earlier than turning into UN ambassador in Trump’s first administration, resigning in 2018. This yr, she ran second to Trump within the Republican presidential main – a race by which she known as her opponent “unhinged”, “diminished”, “confused” and never “mentally match”, and mentioned voting him into workplace could be “like suicide for our nation”.
Nonetheless, after Trump received the Republican nomination, Haley endorsed him. No job provide has been forthcoming.
Trump has moved shortly to make cupboard picks. The alternatives of Gabbard and Kennedy have prompted uproar much like that stoked by his selection of the far-right congressman Matt Gaetz for legal professional basic and the Fox Information host Pete Hegseth for secretary of protection.
Kennedy’s opposition to vaccines, requires deflouridization of consuming water and different conspiracy theory-laced positions have prompted widespread alarm.
Gabbard’s overseas coverage positions have lengthy generated controversy. In 2022, she endorsed a Russian declare that its invasion of Ukraine was justified by the existence of US-funded laboratories on Ukrainian soil, supposedly creating bioweapons to be used towards Russia. Such labs truly work to cease the creation of bioweapons. Gabbard has mentioned she was calling for such labs to be protected. However different supportive feedback about Russia have attracted big controversy.
On Wednesday, Haley mentioned: “After Russia invaded Ukraine, Tulsi Gabbard actually blamed Nato, our western alliance that’s liable for countering Russia. She blamed Nato for the assault on Ukraine, and the Russians and the Chinese language echoed her speaking factors and her interviews on Russian and Chinese language tv.”
Gabbard has additionally attracted criticism relating to conferences with Bashar al-Assad, the autocratic Syrian president accused of battle crimes towards his personal folks. Gabbard has mentioned: “I feel we must be prepared to satisfy with anybody if there’s an opportunity it may well assist result in an finish to this battle, which is inflicting the Syrian folks a lot struggling.” She has additionally accused the US of supporting terrorists in Syria.
Whereas nonetheless a Democrat, Gabbard supported the Iran nuclear deal, which the US left throughout Trump’s first time period, and mentioned the US ought to keep away from a commerce battle with China, a central Trump intention.
Trump’s choose of Gabbard has generated widespread criticism, not least in mild of a long-running spat with main Democrats together with Hillary Clinton over whether or not the previous congresswoman is likely to be seen as a “Russian asset”.
Abigail Spanberger, a former CIA officer now a Democratic congresswoman from Virginia, mentioned: “It is a matter of nationwide safety. Somebody who has aligned herself with Vladimir Putin and Bashar al-Assad and trafficked in Russian-backed conspiracy theories is an unsuitable and doubtlessly harmful choice.”
Elizabeth Warren, a Democratic senator from Massachusetts, mentioned: “You really need her to have all of the secrets and techniques of the USA and our protection intelligence companies when she has so clearly been in Putin’s pocket?”
Anti-Trump rightwingers additionally spoke out. John Bolton, Trump’s third nationwide safety adviser in his first time period, mentioned: “The concept in some way she could be put in command of this important operate must be giving our adversaries in Moscow and Beijing quite a lot of aid.”
Adam Kinzinger, a former Republican congressman, printed a column with a blunt headline: “I Served With Tulsi Gabbard and Yikes.”
Even the Murdoch-owned New York Put up, a pro-Trump paper, mentioned the president-elect ought to ditch Gabbard (and Gaetz), its editorial board calling her “dreadful” and a “distracting chaos agent”.
In distinction, Russian media has spoken glowingly of Gabbard, one paper noting that Ukrainians think about her “an agent of the Russian state” and saying: “The CIA and the FBI are trembling.”
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