Former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley says that she would pardon former President Donald Trump if he's convicted of a crime and she becomes president.
Haley, when questioned Thursday by a 9-year-old boy at a New Hampshire campaign event, said she would pardon Trump "in the best interests of the country."
"I would pardon Trump … if he is found guilty," Haley said, NBC News reported. "A leader needs to think about what's in the best interest of the country.
"What's in the best interest of the country is not to have an 80-year-old man sitting in jail that continues to divide our country. What's in the best interest of the country would be to pardon him so that we can move on as a country and no longer talk about him."
Trump, the clear front-runner for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination, currently is facing charges in four cases. He has been accused of trying to overturn the 2020 election results by his actions on Jan. 6, 2021, working to undermine the 2020 election results in Georgia, mishandling classified documents, and making hush money payments to former porn star Stormy Daniels. The former president also is facing civil legal battles.
A boy named Adam, who said he agreed with GOP candidate and former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie that Haley is a "flip-flopper" and compared her to 2004 Democrat presidential candidate John Kerry, asked the former South Carolina governor whether she would pardon Trump, the Washington Examiner reported.
Haley said that although she believes Trump was "the right president at the right time," and she "agreed with a lot of his policies," she doesn't think "he's the right president to go forward."
"We can't handle the chaos anymore," Haley said, the Examiner reported.
Haley began Thursday attempting to clarify comments she made at a town hall on Wednesday night.
Haley faced swift criticism for making no mention of slavery after she was asked about the cause of the Civil War.
"Of course the Civil War was about slavery. We know that. That's the easy part of it," Haley said Thursday morning on "The Pulse of NH," a New Hampshire radio show.
"What I was saying was, 'What does it mean to us today?' What it means to us today is about freedom. That's what that was all about. It was about individual freedom. It was about economic freedom. It was about individual rights. Our goal is to make sure, no, we never go back to the stain of slavery, but what's the lesson in all of that?"
Charlie McCarthy ✉
Charlie McCarthy, a writer/editor at Newsmax, has nearly 40 years of experience covering news, sports, and politics.
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