Whatever It Takes

This ⁦@TimAlberta⁩ piece is a must-read. The thing about Haley saying Trump believes what he’s saying as an excuse for the words is perpetuation of something a number of Trump aides/advisers have done, which is treat him like a baby. https://t.co/VEzAFNRS0X

— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) February 12, 2021

It really is, if only because it drives railroad spikes into the coffin of Haley's political ambitions, and not just because of her weathervane positions on the issues o' the day.

Late last year, Nikki Haley had a friend who was going through a hard time. He had lost his job and was being evicted from his house. He was getting bad advice from bad people who were filling his head with self-destructive fantasies. He seemed to be losing touch with reality. Out of concern, Haley called the man. “I want to make sure you’re okay,” she told him. “You’re my president, but you’re also my friend.”

That, to be honest, is a world-class set up to what's to follow.  The article is long, divided into three parts:  "I.  Whiplash."  "II. The Outsider"  "III.  A Time for Choosing".  But what's clear from the part of the article tout le Twitter will be talking about today, is that Haley now wants to be the anti-Josh Hawley.

"Whatever it takes."  Except when Captain America says that, it sounds noble.

Framing is everything, so here's the opening paragraph of "I. Whiplash," that part all about Haley's turnabout on Trump:

At the time of Haley’s call, Donald Trump—her “friend”—had spent much of the previous month refusing to concede defeat in an election he clearly lost, opting instead to delegitimize the institutions of government that upheld the result, indulge in outlandish conspiracy theories and generally subvert the country’s 244-year-old democratic norms. Republican leaders who possessed the credibility to dispute these claims publicly and exert a counterinfluence over the GOP electorate had chosen not to. Haley was among those who kept quiet. 

It doesn't let off the gas for a moment.

Haley told me about this phone call in the second week of December. We sat in the shadow of a twinkling 15-foot Christmas fir inside the parlor of the Kiawah Island Club, an exclusive lair nestled between two golf courses and the Atlantic Ocean where she has lived since returning to private life. I had come to talk with Haley about her future; about how the antics of the outgoing president might complicate her plans to pursue that very office in 2024. Knowing that she did not believe Trump’s conspiracy theories, I asked Haley whether she had attempted to persuade the president that he was wrong—that the election wasn’t rigged, that he had lost legitimately.

“No,” she replied. “When he was talking about that, I didn’t address it.”

Since January 20, 2017, the Republican Party has become defined by its unwillingness to confront—and, in many cases, its willingness to enable—an out-of-control president. Here was Haley, someone with a reputation for speaking candidly to Trump, someone who had the courage as governor to remove the Confederate flag from her state capitol, admitting that she hadn’t bothered to challenge him—even in private—on a deception that threatened the stability of American life. Why not?

“I understand the president. I understand that genuinely, to his core, he believes he was wronged,” Haley told me. “This is not him making it up.”

But Trump was making it up. To date, there had been no discovery of material voting fraud. The president’s legal team had lost 55 court cases and won just one. All 50 states had certified their results and sent a single slate of electors to the Electoral College. Despite all this—despite that politically, legally and constitutionally, it was game over—Trump was inciting threats against judges and elections officials and urging Americans to take matters into their own hands.

She countered that one case remained—a lawsuit brought by the Texas attorney general, endorsed by more than 100 Republican members of Congress, seeking to invalidate tens of millions of votes in battleground states—and it must be heard before Trump stands down. “This is coming to the end,” she said. “Up until now, he has not been able to prove it in court. So, if this continues to go down that path, Biden will be president. He knows that.”

Never mind that the Texas lawsuit was a publicity stunt; never mind that, hours after our conversation, it was shot down by Trump’s own appointees to the Supreme Court. What was more striking was Haley’s underlying position: that because Trump believed he had been robbed, he was therefore justified in saying and doing whatever he pleased.

“You have the president of the United States telling everyone that he was cheated, that the voting systems are corrupt, that we’re living in a banana republic where the deep state has rigged this election against him,” I told her. “Isn’t that dangerous?”

“He believes it,” she smiled.

Haley clearly wasn’t prepared to have this conversation. Like so many Republicans, she had expected Trump would either eke out a second term, putting a date-certain on the end of his presidency, or lose so lopsidedly that his career would be toast. Instead, he split the difference, losing by less than one percentage point in each of three decisive states, a result that sent him spiraling into delirium. The resulting paralysis could be seen across the GOP, but Haley was a special case. She knew she could not afford to antagonize the president. But her rationalizations for his behavior were so strained that they called into question her own judgment. This was a test for Haley, an early opportunity to define herself on a question of great national urgency. And she was failing.

“There’s nothing that you’re ever going to do that’s going to make him feel like he legitimately lost the election,” Haley said. “He’s got a big bully pulpit. He should be responsible with it.”

“Is he being responsible with it?” I asked.

“He believes it,” she replied. 

Now you understand Maggie Haberman's comment about treating Trump like a baby. Because Trump is figuratively color-blind, and is ill-served by his advisers (who were thrust upon him?):

“That would be like you saying that grass is blue and you genuinely believing it. Is it irresponsible that you’re colorblind and you truly believe that?” she said.

“But he swore an oath,” I said, incredulous at her analogy. “This is the president.”

“He believes he’s following that oath,” she shot back. “This would be different if he was being deceptive.”

But what about the president broadcasting a loop of lies that had been thoroughly debunked? Isn’t that being deceptive?

“He deserves the truth. Is he hearing the truth?” Haley told me. “I don’t think certain people around him are telling him the truth.” 

This was in December.  After January 6 Haley does her about-turn.  As I say, she sees her path forward as being the anti-Josh Hawley.  Her ambition is to be POTUS.  "Whatever it takes."  I'm hoping that after 4 years of Joe Biden, the country sees the dangers of blind ambition against people who genuinely want to serve in that office.  Haley doesn't want to serve.  Like Trump, she just wants the power.  I'm not sure this is the way she gets there.