Ambassador Nikki Haley joined me this morning:

Audio:

10-18hhs-haley

Transcript:

HH: Good morning, Madam Ambassador. Welcome back to the Hugh Hewitt Show. Good to talk to you.

NH: Oh, it’s good to talk to you as well. How have you been?

HH: I am good. I am deeply concerned about Israel. Can we start there? Your assessment of President Biden’s policy towards Israel and the aftermath of the massacre on 10/7?

NH: Absolutely.

HH: He’s in Israel right now. Is he doing enough? Is he speaking with enough clarity? His spokesperson, John Kirby, said he was going to pose “tough questions”. And in Israel today, he said, the “other team” was responsible for the explosion at the hospital in Gaza. Is that enough, Madam Ambassador?

NH: You know, he needs to go in with three objectives. One, to support Israel, two, to eliminate Hamas, and three, to do everything he can to get the hostages out. There should not be any talk about restraint. There should not be any talk about a ceasefire. Israel needs to do what Israel needs to do. It’s why when this all started, the first thing I said to Netanyahu is finish them. Finish them, because let’s not forget this is all on Hamas. And who’s the biggest backer of Hamas? Iran. There would be no Hamas without Iran. So we need to keep our eye on the ball. This is not a time to critique or criticize our friends. This is a time to have their back and make sure they get through this, because this is going to be messy. And the last thing they need is for their friend to be questioning them. They need to know that their friend is going to have their support so they can get rid of these terrorists.

HH: Has President Biden been specific enough about Iran’s role in supporting Hamas and Hezbollah? He’s not yet used the term, and he doubted it on 60 Minutes on Sunday night.

NH: It’s amazing to me, because not only has he, but John Kirby, the spokesman, has talked about the fact that they have no proof that Iran is behind this. Everybody in the world knows that Iran funds Hamas. Iran funds Hezbollah. Iran funds the Houthis. Iran has always funded this terrorist activity. And that’s why you never want Iran to get any money. Where Biden went wrong is he loosened sanctions on Iran. He went and gave $6 billion dollars for five hostages. Now look how many hostages we have, and guess how much money they’re going to want to get because of it. And he now is letting the world think that he is so naïve, he doesn’t think Iran is behind it. Iran is behind every bit of this. When you see the aggression that’s now starting to come out of Hezbollah, that’s Iran. And all you have to do is look at the facts. It was the Iranian foreign minister that was there meeting with Hamas, the leader of Hamas. Then, he went to Lebanon and met with the leader of Hezbollah. They know exactly what they’re doing. And also, don’t forget who the friends are. China’s the biggest importer of oil from Iran. Russia’s getting drones from Iran. There is a three-headed monster that is China, Russia, and Iran. We have to always see those as heavily connected, and understand that that is really what we’re looking at. Don’t look at it in small pieces. Look at the bigger picture of this, and realize that this is why this is going to matter for the U.S. This is why it’s going to matter for our friends, and this is why we have to take this seriously and not come out sounding naïve and say that Iran doesn’t have anything to do with this.

HH: Dr. Michael Oren was on the program earlier today, and visits with me almost every day since the crisis began in Israel. Today, he raised the possibility again that Israel ought to strike Hezbollah preemptively and first, because Hamas can’t go anywhere, and Hezbollah has 150,000 missiles, not the rockets that Hamas and Islamic Jihad use, but missiles. Do you agree with him about that, Madam Ambassador?

NH: It’s interesting, because I’ve been on the border of Lebanon and seen the 130,000-plus rockets facing Israel. I’ve been on the border of Gaza and seen, you know, basically what you’re looking at there. What we have to be careful of is make sure that Israel can handle this different front war, you know, whether it’s, we know it’s going to be with Hamas. They’re not as strategic. They’re not as skilled. You look at Hezbollah, they’re much heavily trained. They’re better armed, and they’re better at what they do. And then you’ve got some protests happening in the West Bank. So the key is we’ve got to make sure that Israel can mange and handle all of this. And so I think the best route going forward is eliminate Hamas, let Hezbollah know that there will be hell to pay if they decide to get involved in this, and the U.S. should make that very clear as well, and then try and simmer down what’s happening in the West Bank. We’ve got to make sure that this is all manageable. At the end of the day, Israel’s going to take on whatever comes their way. They just need to know that we have their back in the process. And I think that if Hezbollah knows that we’re really serious that America will get involved if Israel needs us, that is a huge deterrent if we show that we really mean it, and that we’re strong in our words when we say it.

HH: Do we need to do more than send the two carrier groups to the Mediterranean and the amphib into the Arabian Gulf? Is there something that you would have said that President Biden has not yet said to deter Hezbollah and Iran?

NH: What I would say is whatever Israel asks of America, America will give it. And that says everything that Hamas and Hezbollah and Iran need to hear. They need to know we’re 100% committed, not 50%, not 75%, not where we’re going to question what both sides are doing. We are 100% behind Israel in their efforts to eliminate Hamas. And if anyone gets in the way of that, we are 100% behind Israel making sure that we take out them as well. This is important, because this could lead into a regional war. We have to keep this very selective. We’ve got to keep is concentrated where it is. But if it means that this is going to get bigger, we can’t just say it. We have to mean it. And that means we’ve got to be prepared to do whatever Israel asks. Israel is a very prideful country. They’re not going to be quick to say oh, we need American troops. They want to fight this on their own. But when they ask for something, that means Israel really does need it, and Biden can’t hesitate. He’s got to give it right when they ask.

HH: If they ask for American troops, would you as commander-in-chief send American troops to Israel?

NH: I would give Israel whatever they need, but they’re not going to ask for Israel troops. They are too prideful. They want to do this themselves. They want to be the ones that fight. They want to be the ones that win. What I think they’re going to ask for is medical help. What I think they’re going to ask for is backup and air support. What I think they’re going to ask for is making sure they have additional equipment, ammunition to make sure that they never run out. Those are the things you’re going to see Israel ask for. They want to win.

HH: Is the Pentagon war ready, Ambassador Haley, after 20 years of foreign conflicts?

NH: I don’t think they’re as ready as they will be when I’m president, but I think right now, it’s not that they can’t handle this. I mean, we could handle this. We can handle Ukraine. We can do both at the same time. We shouldn’t look at this as an either/or. But this is a sign that look, we’ve got some modernizing to do. You know, the future wars are not just going to be land, air, and sea. They’re going to be land, air, sea, cyber, you know, space, internet, artificial intelligence. We need to start modernizing, and that means not throwing money at the Department of Defense, but getting rid of all the bureaucracy, the red tape, and start looking at what we need to make sure our military has the training and the modern equipment to be able to go and take on whatever comes our way. Instead of a Department of Defense, I want a Department of Offense. Let’s make sure that we are able to handle everything and get in front of it. It should stop being about defense and whether we’ve got enough to take on things. It should be about offense so that our enemies don’t dare challenge us in anything that we do. We’ve got some work to do when it comes to the Department of Defense.

HH: Ambassador Haley, how would you select general officers and admirals? And what are you looking for in a war fighter?

NH: I mean, first of all, you want someone who knows what it’s like to be on the ground. They have to know it from a soldier’s perspective. And that means they can’t just be so high up that they manage. They have to know the fact that why is it that our military men and women are still dealing, still have the most archaic guns and equipment out there? Why is it that it took us two decades just to get our military men and women a modern-day handgun? They just got it from Sig Sauer New Hampshire. They just got the modern-day handgun. You know, I’ve actually shot the new guns before my husband shot them, and he’s in the military, because they just came out with them. These are things that are heavy. They’re not, you know, they’re not making it flexible for military men and women to move and function. We’ve got to start saying what does a modern-day soldier need, and we need generals that understand that. We also need generals that don’t say no. They say how do we win, how do we make sure our allies win, what do we have, if we were to take on a dual or triple-front war, are we ready, what do we need to be ready, and stop with all the gender pronoun classes, stop with all this political correctness that’s happened in the Department of Defense. Stop with all these favorites of Defense companies, and start saying let’s get our military men and women trained, ready with the best equipment, best ammunition, so that we can take on whatever comes our way.

HH: Ambassador Nikki Haley, yesterday, Vice President Harris endured a polemic from the audience at Northern Arizona University which accused Israel of genocide in a blood libel that they had struck the hospital. She did not respond to that in any way that is in my estimate appropriate. It should have been denounced as a blood libel. I don’t know if you’ve seen that, but if you encounter people on the campaign trail who express blood libels against Israel, what will Nikki Haley say?

NH: I would basically say that look, America always needs to know the difference between right and wrong, always needs to know the difference between good and evil, and always needs to have moral clarity. Moral clarity is what we saw happen in Israel was bloodthirsty, it was beyond brutal, it was torturous. And no matter what anyone else says, you have to see Hamas for what they were. They’re murderers, and we have to make them pay. There is no issue with calling them the terrorists that they are. There is no issue with saying Iran is behind this terrorism. There is no issue to say that we need to eliminate them off of the face of the Earth. And the problem with Kamala, and the reason I didn’t see what she said, but I’m not surprised, because this all started with Obama. Obama was an Iranian sympathizer from the very beginning. We saw that when he started the Iran deal. We saw then in the transition from Obama to Trump. He went and had a U.N. resolution that heavily criticized and humiliated Israel. We see that now with Biden falling all over himself to get back into an Iran deal. We see that with him loosening sanctions on Iran. It’s no wonder that we see anyone in the Biden administration wanting to side with Iran, wanting not to call them out for what they are. That’s not moral clarity. We have to always have moral clarity, especially now, and especially with Israel going into this war. God help us if we don’t. But anybody who wants to question what happened on that horrible day and say that Israelis weren’t murdered in the most brutal way does not have moral clarity, and does not have the right to lead our country.

HH: Finally, Madam Ambassador, John Podhoretz is a friend of mine, editor of Commentary. He posted a tweet about a half hour ago when we’re talking. It’s complicated. I want to give you a chance to answer it, but I want to read it for you. We, and this is John Podhoretz, we who see Israel and the Jewish people’s future at stake must reckon with the fact that the combined forces of instanews and social media propaganda are designed to debilitate us emotionally. And we need to figure out how to inoculate ourselves from their effects. Do you agree with John about instanews and social media? And if so, how do supporters of Israel, and especially Jewish Americans, inoculate themselves against our media, against our academy, and against basically a portion of the Democratic Party that just does not get the moral clarity that you just referred to?

NH: Well, first of all, let’s take on social media. So when you look at social media, you know, you had Section 230 that basically had these social media giants say look, you know, we want freedom of speech, but we don’t want to be held liable for anything anyone says. At the time, that seemed fair enough. But what’s happening now? The social media giants are deciding what’s right and wrong. That means Section 230 should no longer apply to them. That’s number one, the thing that we need to take on. The second thing is understand this is a national security issue. These, you’ve got Iranian actors, North Korean actors, Russian actors, and Chinese actors going in there spreading misinformation. That’s only going to get worse. That is why the social media giants need to go and verify every single person that’s on social media. They should have to prove who they are. When you do that, you get rid of all these Iranian, Chinese, and Russian bots that are out there spreading misinformation. And it becomes a national security cleanse when you do that. That’s the next thing. The third thing is we’ve seen a beautiful thing happen in our universities where our donors are saying you know what? Hate is hate. That’s not freedom of speech. When you talk killing Jews, when you talk about, you know, lifting up a murderous organization like Hamas, that’s hate. That’s murderous threats, and that cannot be tolerated. And the fact that they’re pulling away funding, the fact that they’re dropping off these boards, the fact that they’re telling universities look, you don’t get to hide behind the blanket of free speech anymore, you can’t go and allow people to feel threatened on your campuses, that’s exactly what needs to happen. The next thing after that should be government funding pulled from universities that don’t prevent hate from happening right there on their campuses. We need to be strong on this. We need to be hard on this. We need to see this for what it is. Whether it’s social media, whether it’s on college campuses, whether it’s anyone. Universities have to be held accountable. Our social media actors have to be held accountable. And we need to make sure that we see this as the national security threat that it is.

HH: Last question, Madam Ambassador. That took longer than 60 seconds to say. Salem Media is co-sponsoring the debate with NBC News, co-moderating the debate with NBC News in Miami. Do you think that the candidates need more time and better rules to stop overtalking and interruption and clarity, and more time?

NH: What I would love is, you know, as a candidate, I want to make sure that people hear what my solutions are, what I want to do. I would love to see two minutes given for an answer. You can still keep the 30 seconds or go to 45 seconds for a rebuttal, but two minutes to actually 1) answer the question, but 2) give a solution to go on with it. And I’d love for them to cut the mic, cut the mic so that everybody can hear. You can have the rebuttals. That’s when you can have more of a debate. I know the media outlets want to see the scrum. They want to see us go back and forth. But I think Americans actually want to hear what we have to say. And I think that that’s what, as a candidate, I would love to see have happen.

HH: Ambassador Nikki Haley, thank you for joining me this morning. Keep coming back. I appreciate your doing so.

NH: Thanks. Go to www.nikkihaley.com and join us.

HH: Thank you, Madam Ambassador.

End of interview.