Has Nikki Haley forever destroyed her political viability (excepting, perhaps, among the hard core base)?
I know she left Trump of her own volition (presumably) and did so relatively early in the game. Some seem to presume this has saved her in the eyes of the general public, including most of the ‘non-base’.
Personally, I don’t think it saves her, but she’s irrelevant. I think it far more important that anyone who has worked in the Trump administration at a sufficiently high level, and who chose to remain there for longer than a news cycle, be forever stigmatized, and forever untouchable and unelectable.
Doing so would send a message to anyone in future administrations, or thinking about working in an administration, that they better act according to their conscience. Immediately.
I can dream, eh?
I doubt it will happen, but I agree that anyone who provided material and/or rhetorical aid to Trump’s abominable policies, and comfort or support for his abominable rhetoric, without making very significant and very sincere amends afterwards, should be forever stigmatized when it comes to public policy, public service, and even talking-head-style commentating.
Haley is apparently trying to get back into the Trump-Enablers Gold-Star club. Despite the fact that she knows nothing of the contents of the Mueller report, she informed us that Trump has been exonerated by the report and we should all just stop criticizing him:
https://twitter.com/nikkihaley/status/1109239319947083776
Um, Nikki Haley is not even possibly going to run for President for five years. That’s an eternity. As for her ‘viability’, she got great reviews from people on both sides of the aisle for her performance at the U.N., and she got out of the Trump administration without every getting embroiled in the various twitter wars and silliness that swirls around Trump, and without pissing Trump off and having him turn on her. That’s more than you can say for Mattis, Kelley, Wilbur Ross, or the other heavyweights who tried to make it in his administration.
That said… Five years is a long time in politics. By then people will be saying, “Nikki WHO?”