Nikki Haley on Confronting Our Adversaries

Hey, um, what message do you plan on sending to Putin and other world leaders when you get into office about the United States position in world affairs? I think the first thing, first thing you need to know is we're so proud of you that you're going to be voting. This is going to be the first time you've really shown the power of your voice at the ballot box. So own that moment. That's a great moment for you. The second thing I'll say is, look, I mean, when you look at what Putin has done, we have to remember Russia is not our friend. If Putin's mouth is open, he is lying. And we need to be aware of that. And I think that's why it was so damaging when Trump said that he would choose Putin and actually encourage Putin to invade NATO allies instead of standing with our allies that stood with us at 9-11. Putin knows exactly what he did with Navalny. You look at that situation. This is what he always does. He murders his political opponents. He arrests American journalists and holds them hostage. And he has made no bones about the fact that he wants to destroy America. And so the best thing we can do with Russia is let them know we're on to them and make sure that they know we'll hold them to account on anything they do. And that includes hurting our allies. Thank you. Very critical of what former President Trump said about NATO a number of years ago when he was trying to encourage the countries really try to twist their arms and get them to spend 2 percent of their GDP on defense. In terms of his comments about I would let Russia do whatever the hell they wanted to you. The Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg of NATO was asked about that last week and he said, quote, the criticism that we hear is not primarily about NATO. It's about NATO allies not spending enough on NATO. That's a valid point. And it's a point on the message that has been conveyed by successive U.S. administrations. The European allies in Canada have to spend more because we haven't seen burden sharing in the alliance. I remember there was a lot of pearl clutching and hand wringing back then when the president was leaning on the countries to make their commitment. Jens Stoltenberg was quite happy that he was doing it because suddenly billions of dollars was coming over the transom of NATO to help fund its defense. Well, and I'll say that I will absolutely put the hammer on our NATO countries that they do have to carry their weight. But you do that behind closed doors. You do that and let them know that the United States is not going to carry the burden. But you don't do it in the eyes of our enemies. Right now, NATO has been a 75 year success story. We haven't had war in the region because they've stood so strong. Russia is actually very intimidated by NATO. China is intimidated by NATO. But the one thing we don't do is we don't leave our brothers and sisters who make us strong. We don't separate ourselves from our friends in the name of trying to appease an enemy. That's what the Europeans did. And that's what's gotten them into this situation in the first place is they tried to appease Russia. Instead, we should be strong about Russia. We should make sure we tell our partners it's in their best interest and in the alliance's best interest to pull their own weight. And we should make them do that. But there's a way to do it the right way and there's a way to do it the wrong way. And the way Trump did it by encouraging saying he was going to encourage Putin to invade our allies. That's the wrong way. And it makes the situation much more dangerous. You've said on the campaign trail in recent days that the former president is siding with a thug. However, in an interview with Rita Braver at CBS May 6, 2018, you said this of the former president. I don't think that people are fair to what the president has done because, first of all, Russia has been a tough friend to have. He's given military equipment to Ukraine. He basically expelled 60 Russian spies, which no other country has done. He beefed up our military, beefed up our energy system, all of which Russia doesn't want. He keeps kicking them constantly. That's a very different description of Donald Trump than you've been giving in the last few days. But the point is this is not personal about Donald Trump. This is about what's right for the United States. And when you look, there were a lot of things that Donald Trump did well. Putting sanctions on them was a good thing. We wanted to make sure we gave missiles and equipment to Ukraine so they could defend themselves. Those were all good. There were things that he did wrong. His press conference in Helsinki, when he went and was trying to buddy up with Putin, I called him out for that. I explained that deeply in my book, is how he was completely wrong because every time he was in the same room with him, he got weak in the knees. We can't have a president that gets weak in the knees with Putin. We have to have a president that's going to be strong with Putin in every sense of the word. And so what we saw was inconsistencies. And what's worse is I was really proud of Trump when he gave that equipment to Ukraine to defend themselves. I am incredibly disappointed in Trump that now he's walked all of that back. And now he's actually putting Ukraine in harm's way, which is putting the United States in harm's way. Let's not forget, Putin said once he takes Ukraine, Poland and the Baltics are next. If that happens, those are NATO countries that puts America at war. That is what we're trying to prevent. We have to prevent war.