Former U.N. ambassador and GOP presidential candidate Nikki Haley said in an interview Tuesday that she’s “inclined in favor of a pardon” for former President Trump if he were to be convicted of federal charges stemming from his handling of classified documents after leaving the White House.
“I think we all need to let this trial play out. We need to see exactly what happens. When you look at a pardon, the issue is less about guilt and more about what’s good for the country. And I think it would be terrible for the country to have a former president in prison for years because of a documents case,” Haley said on “The Clay Travis & Buck Sexton Show” when asked if she’d commit to pardoning Trump if elected.
“That’s something you’d see in a Third World country. I saw that at the United Nations, so I would be inclined in favor of a pardon. But I think it’s really premature at this point when he’s not even been convicted of anything,” she added.
Trump appeared in federal court in Miami on Tuesday afternoon after federal prosecutors alleged that Trump mishandled classified documents, which included information on the country’s national and military secrets.
The former president pleaded not guilty to the charges and has decried the probe as a “witch hunt.”
While the former U.N. ambassador reiterated her point that Trump was “incredibly reckless” if the charges in the federal indictment were true, Haley’s comments underscore the awkward position many 2024 GOP challengers are in as they seek to avoid defending their chief GOP White House rival while acknowledging a base of the Republican Party is still largely loyal to Trump.
— Updated June 14 at 8:02 p.m.