Nikki Haley Says Pardoning A Convicted Donald Trump Would Be ‘Healing’ For The Country

Former UN ambassador Nikki Haley said it would be bad for America to see Donald Trump “sitting in a jail cell” should he be convicted in any of the multitude of legal cases against him, but added she would not preemptively pardon him.

“For me, the last thing we need is an 80-year-old president sitting in jail because that’s just going to further divide our country,” Haley said during a town hall event with CNN’s Jake Tapper on Thursday. “This is no longer about whether he’s innocent or guilty. This is about the fact: How do we bring the country back together?”

Trump currently faces 91 criminal charges in four separate indictments and has been forced to see-saw from the campaign trail to the courtroom as the Republican presidential primary heats up. He handily won the Iowa caucuses this week and currently leads in the New Hampshire primary, according to recent polls. But he has amped up his attacks against Haley as she sits firmly in second place in the state before next Tuesday’s presidential selection process.

Haley told Tapper on Thursday she would not preemptively pardon Trump like President Gerald Ford did for Richard Nixon, saying she thinks “everything needs to play out.”

“And I honestly think President Trump would want that to happen,” she added.

Haley also rejected Trump’s calls Thursday that he should receive “COMPLETE & TOTAL” immunity from criminal charges, even for things that “cross the line.”

She went on to cast herself as a viable alternative to the former president and President Joe Biden, rejecting Trump’s calls that she doesn’t have any chance of securing the nomination.

“If he thinks I have no chance and I have no hope, then why is he running millions of dollars of ads against me?” she told Tapper.