In a hostile exclusive interview with United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley aired on Thursday’s NBC Today, co-host Matt Lauer interrogated the former South Carolina governor on President Trump’s foreign policy, beginning with the temporary hold on immigration from Middle Eastern nations with poor vetting procedures.
Lauer grilled: “During the campaign, you strongly objected to any idea of a Muslim ban. You called it “un-American, unconstitutional”....Now we have the second version of this travel ban that's being pushed by the White House. Do you support it?” Haley replied that she did and Lauer demanded: “Why do you support it now?”
The Ambassador explained: “It's not a Muslim ban....What the President is doing – everybody needs to realize that what he’s doing is saying let's take a step back, let's temporarily pause, and I want you – ” Lauer cut her off: “Let’s temporarily pause immigration from majority-Muslim countries.”
Haley pushed back: “No, Matt. He's saying let's temporarily pause and you prove to me that the vetting is okay, that I can trust these people coming through for the American people.”
Lauer persisted and even unsuccessfully attempted to use her own immigrant experience to guilt her into criticizing the policy: “And as the daughter of Indian immigrants, what do you say to others who worry they won't be allowed in this country when they have every right to come to this country or people who are worried they’re going to be sent out of this country?”
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Turning to the release of details of the President’s budget proposal, Lauer feared:
And now we're hearing that there is going to be a dramatic cut in funding for the State Department....People are saying that's going to cut to the bone....Some of that money goes to peacekeeping missions, talking about humanitarian aide to impoverished nations and regions of the world, we’re talking about vaccine programs. These are the ways that the United States has expressed its leadership in the past. Even if you cut back, there's going to be some sort of a vacuum left behind and are you worried at all that a country like Russia or a country like China will attempt to fill that vacuum in terms of leadership around the world?
On the topic of Russia, he urged her to hammer Trump: “Do you think that President Trump has a bit of a blind spot when it comes to Russia and Vladimir Putin?...Take your ambassador's hat off for me for a second, though. As just a citizen, do you have any questions about the relationship between Donald Trump, his associates, and the Russians?”
Lauer then pressed Haley on “the President's tone” and whether it was “presidential” for him to make controversial wiretapping claims against former President Obama. After she cited Trump’s address to Congress as evidence of his presidential tone, Lauer – who reads words off a screen for a living – shot back: “But it was a speech in a teleprompter. And yet, left to his own devices and back with his cell phone on a Saturday morning, he goes back to accusing the president, former president, of committing a crime and presents no evidence. Is that presidential?”
Here is a transcript of Lauer’s questions to Haley in the March 16 segment:
7:11 AM ET
MATT LAUER: By the way, Russian hacking and those wiretapping claims some of the topics we discussed when we sat down exclusively with the new U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, her first interview in that role. But we began by talking about the President's travel ban, just a couple of hours before it was blocked by a federal judge.
[ON-SCREEN HEADLINE: U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley Speaks Out; On New Travel Ban, Russian Relations & Trump Tweets]
LAUER: During the campaign, you strongly objected to any idea of a Muslim ban. You called it “un-American, unconstitutional.” You said it “defies everything that this country was based on, and it's just wrong.” Now we have the second version of this travel ban that's being pushed by the White House. Do you support it?
NIKKI HALEY: Yes.
LAUER: Why do you support it now?
HALEY: It's not a Muslim ban....What the President is doing – everybody needs to realize that what he’s doing is saying let's take a step back, let's temporarily pause, and I want you –
LAUER: Let’s temporarily pause immigration from majority-Muslim countries.
HALEY: No, Matt. He's saying let's temporarily pause and you prove to me that the vetting is okay, that I can trust these people coming through for the American people.
LAUER: And as the daughter of Indian immigrants, what do you say to others who worry they won't be allowed in this country when they have every right to come to this country or people who are worried they’re going to be sent out of this country?
(...)
LAUER: And now we're hearing that there is going to be a dramatic cut in funding for the State Department. Some of that money is going to come out of the money you need to do things that you do at the United Nations. Do you have a plan in place to make due without that money?
(...)
LAUER: People are saying that's going to cut to the bone. You talk about peacekeeping. Some of that money goes to peacekeeping missions, talking about humanitarian aide to impoverished nations and regions of the world, we’re talking about vaccine programs. These are the ways that the United States has expressed its leadership in the past. Even if you cut back, there's going to be some sort of a vacuum left behind and are you worried at all that a country like Russia or a country like China will attempt to fill that vacuum in terms of leadership around the world?
(...)
LAUER: You’ve said some tough things about Russia. Do you think that President Trump has a bit of a blind spot when it comes to Russia and Vladimir Putin?
(...)
LAUER: Take your ambassador's hat off for me for a second, though. As just a citizen, do you have any questions about the relationship between Donald Trump, his associates, and the Russians?
(...)
LAUER: We now know that the Russians were behind the hack of Yahoo!, behind the hack of the DNC, they were meddling in our election. What should the President do in response?
HALEY: Take it seriously. We cannot trust Russia. We should never trust Russia.
LAUER: But that's all, just take it seriously? What else should he do?...Should we increase sanctions?
(...)
LAUER: So you would say you and the President are on exactly the same page in terms of your level of distrust for Russia and Vladimir Putin?
(...)
LAUER: There's been an awful lot of talk, Ambassador Haley, about the President's tone. And after his speech to joint session of Congress you complimented him. You said, “You know what, the tone on that was right, it was a different tone, it was presidential.” Four days later, President Trump tweeted out and accused his predecessor, President Obama, of wiretapping his phones at Trump Tower. Was that presidential?
HALEY: I'm not going to comment on any of that. What I will tell you is his address to Congress was – the tone was spot on and it was presidential.
LAUER: But it was a speech in a teleprompter. And yet, left to his own devices and back with his cell phone on a Saturday morning, he goes back to accusing the president, former president, of committing a crime and presents no evidence. Is that presidential?
(...)
LAUER: Obviously walking a rather narrow line there.
SAVANNAH GUTHRIE: He's the boss.
LAUER: Yeah, exactly. And we're going to have more of our conversation with Ambassador Haley tomorrow on Today, including how she feels about President Trump calling the U.N. “a club” and the personal side of the job, moving her family from South Carolina to New York City.
GUTHRIE: Look forward to that.
