Former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley was 'deeply disturbed' by Trump's Charlottesville remarks, she says in her new book

Lauren Frias

Nov 12, 2019, 07:36 IST

Former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley was 'deeply disturbed' by Trump's Charlottesville remarks, she says in her new book

In a new book, former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley, condemned the president's remarks on the white supremacist rally in Charlottesville in 2017, where one person died and dozens were left injured after a man drove his car into a crowd.
Haley, who resigned from her post in October 2018, wrote in her upcoming book, "With All Due Respect: Defending America with Grit and Grace," that the president had initially "called out the haters and made it clear that they would not be tolerated."
However, in a press conference the following day, Trump equivocated his response, saying there were "some very bad people" and "very fine people" on both sides.
The president's amended response prompted Haley to call the president and tell him to "stop acknowledging the haters" and "understand the power of your voice."
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In a new book, former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley wrote that she was "deeply disturbed" by President Donald Trump's remarks on the white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017.

Haley, who resigned from her post in October 2018, wrote in her upcoming book "With All Due Respect: Defending America with Grit and Grace," that she "was certain he didn't understand how damaging his remarks were."

Charlottesville local Heather Heyer died, and dozens were left injured at the "Unite the Right" rally when a demonstrator drove his car into a crowd of pedestrians.

"Racism is evil, and those who cause iolence in its name are criminals and thugs, including the KKK, neo-Nazis, white supremacists and other hate groups," Trump initially said following the deadly rally.

The former UN ambassador wrote that the president's response would have been fine, but during a news conference the next day, "the moral clarity he had expressed the day before was gone."

"I think there's blame on both sides," President Trump said. "You had some very bad people in that group, but you also had people that were very fine people, on both sides."

Trump's equivocation prompted Haley to call the president to express her disapproval of his remarks, writing that "a leader's words matter in these situations. And the president's words had been hurtful and dangerous."

In the call, Haley wrote that she paralleled the Charlottesville rally to the Charleston church shooting in 2015, where nine African Americans were killed during bible study. She wrote that the two incidents mirrored each other "not in the magnitude of the human loss, but in the potential for more violence and more hate."

"They were the same because the pain was the same," Haley wrote. "There couldn't be any equivocating about that pain. The Charlottesville marchers' intention was to create division and hate, just like the Charleston killer."

Trump, on the other hand, disagreed with Haley's comparison, she wrote in the book.

She told the president that he had to "stop acknowledging the haters" and to "understand the power of your voice."

Haley remained uncertain if the conversation had stuck with Trump, as they never spoke about Charlottesville again. She added that he did act "with great sensitivity and appropriateness" when responding to synagogue shootings that occurred after the call.

"With All Due Respect: Defending America with Grit and Grace" is set to release on November 12.