Nikki Haley: I would pardon Trump if he is found guilty
While on the campaign stump, 2024 Republican presidential hopeful Nikki Haley told a crowd of voters that if she is elected next year, she would issue a presidential pardon to former President Donald Trump if a jury finds him guilty.
The Messenger reported that Haley made the comments during a town hall in North Conway, New Hampshire. A nine-year-old asked the former UN ambassador if she would pardon the ex-president, who has been indicted four times in three separate jurisdictions — at both the federal and state level, which a president's pardon power does not impact — on a total of 91 felony counts.
"I would pardon Trump if he is found guilty," she said. "A leader needs to think about what's in the best interest of the country."
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"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," Haley said. "What's in the best interest of the country would be to pardon him so we can move on as a country and no longer talk about him."
The former South Carolina governor's comments come amid a wave of blowback from remarks she made at a separate town hall in Berlin, New Hampshire on Wednesday night, where she answered a question from an audience member about the cause of the Civil War without once mentioning slavery. While Haley attempted to walk back those remarks in an interview with NHJournal.com the following morning, she appeared to defend her answer to the original question in a separate interview with CBS News.
"To me, it was about freedom. It's bigger than slavery," Haley said, while New Hampshire Republican Governor Chris Sununu nodded behind her. "Of course slavery is never, can never happen again, but going forward, doesn't that mean that we should focus on the freedoms of people to live their life? Not to have government, not to have any other person tell them what they can and can't do?"
The Civil War started in Haley's home state of South Carolina in April of 1961, after Confederate States of America (CSA) forces attacked Fort Sumter. The month before the infamous attack, CSA Vice President Alexander Stephenson delivered the "Cornerstone Speech," in which he declared that the "cornerstone" of the Confederate cause was the permanent enslavement of African Americans based solely on their race.
READ MORE: Black Republican says Haley's Civil War comment doomed her campaign: 'That's over now. She's toast'
Watch the video of Haley's comments about pardoning Trump below, or by clicking this link.
