Haley: Trump’s Praise “Emboldens Dictators” Like Kim

From last night’s CNN town hall for Nikki Haley:

TAPPER: You were the U.S. ambassador to the U.N. under President Trump, as I’ve noted. On Friday, Mr. Trump congratulated Kim Jong un because North Korea had ascended to a leadership role in the World Health Organization. What was your reaction to that? And were you uncomfortable with how Mr. Trump dealt with and how his attitude was towards Kim Jong Un while you worked at the UN?

HALEY: I mean, Kim Jong Un is a thug. And if you see what he has done to his own people in North Korea, when money went to North Korea, it didn’t go to feed their people. It went to feed their nuclear program. There’s nothing good or decent about Kim Jong Un. There’s no reason we should ever congratulate the fact that they are now vice chair of the World Health Organization. And it goes to the fact that also the World Health Organization is a farce to start with. We saw that during COVID.

TAPPER: So it did bother you and you didn’t, you didn’t like his congratulating of Kim Jong Un, and you didn’t like how he dealt with him when he was—.

HALEY: I don’t think we ever should congratulate dictators. Congratulate our friends, don’t congratulate our enemies. It emboldens them when we do that.

As noted below, Haley dodged the question on whether this bothered her while she was working for Trump.

notice how Nikki Haley doesn’t really answer the question about Trump here pic.twitter.com/wQZyQlLMtC

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) June 5, 2023