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At the heels of an excessively unhealthy week for Nikki Haley, the Republican presidential candidate stated she would pardon Donald Trump if he is convicted of federal crimes. "I would pardon Trump if he is found guilty," she stated at a marketing campaign match in Plymouth, New Hampshire, on Thursday.
“A leader needs to think about what’s in the best interest of the country," Haley went on. "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 our country is to pardon him so that we can move on as a country and no longer talk about him."
Haley was responding to a question from a 9-year-old in the audience, who joked that she was “the new John Kerry” as a result of she used to be “a flip-flopper on the Donald Trump issue.”
“How can you change your opinion like that in just eight years, and will you pardon Donald Trump?” the child asked.
Haley, the former U.S. ambassador to the U.N. under the Trump administration, has often been accused of a lack of resolve when it comes to her ex-boss. She had indicated her openness to pardoning him in the past; after Trump was indicted in the classified documents case in June, she chided him for being "extremely reckless with our nationwide safety" in an interview on a conservative radio reveal however stated she could be "susceptible in desire of a pardon" for him.
Her reasoning echoes President Gerald Ford, who worried that “ugly passions” might arise while waiting for a trial when he controversially pardoned his predecessor, Richard Nixon, in 1974.
There are some big ifs here, of course. This could only happen if Haley wins the presidency, and if Trump is found guilty in any of his federal criminal cases (presidents don't have the power to pardon state crimes, like Trump's cases in New York and Georgia). But her comments Thursday have opened Haley up to further criticism after what has already been a rough week for her on the campaign trail.
The South Carolina Republican made headlines after giving a disastrous answer to a question about what caused the Civil War. As my MSNBC colleague Steve Benen wrote, she "stated a large number of phrases in accordance with the query, however Haley by no means were given round to citing slavery."
She later backtracked and accused the person who asked the question of being "a Democrat plant."
With the New Hampshire number one lower than a month away, fresh polls reveal Haley and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis neck-in-neck for 2d position, with Trump a long way forward of the sphere.
Haley's willingness to pardon Trump could be seen as attempt to curry favor with his supporters, or with Trump himself. At another campaign event on Thursday, she declined to rule out being Trump's running mate should he win the GOP presidential nomination, offering yet another lengthy response that didn't really seem to say anything.