Nikki Haley is a former South Carolina governor, former U.S. ambassador to the United States, and perhaps someday, she will be known as the first female president. She s one of the only females in a male-dominated arena, and she s never quit fighting for her integrity, her principles, and for the American people.
00:00:00.000Everybody is shaped by their upbringing, their family, their life experiences.
00:00:04.420Some of us go through more hardships than others, but true leaders are the ones who can take that adversity in stride and use it as propellant, something that pushes them to a higher stratosphere.
00:00:19.600And if they do it right, they do it with humility.
00:00:23.040My next guest on our podcast is a master of grit and grace.
00:00:28.440Growing up, she witnessed firsthand the racist attitudes of others directed toward her and her Indian immigrant parents.
00:00:36.120In fact, she and her sister, they were once disqualified from a beauty pageant because they didn't fit in either category, because there were only two, black or white.
00:00:44.620And they were like, you're not quite black, you're not quite white.
00:00:47.860As an adult, she was faced with a near impossible challenge, leading the entire state through the worst kind of tragedy, through the slaughter on the streets.
00:00:57.600And she got South Carolinians to actually take down the Confederate flag.
00:01:49.120I am a big fan, as you will find out as we go through.
00:01:55.360First of all, I don't usually read political books because it's like, oh, there's no, there's a lot of stuff in there that we have to talk about that is really fascinating that you had the guts to say it.
00:02:53.540OK, let's just take because I want to kind of take the arc of your book a bit and you start in South Carolina and the the shooting of Walter Scott.
00:03:08.600It was a police shooting and it was right on the heels, I believe, of Baltimore.
00:03:14.280And those were bad, ugly times with the police and the police were wrong in this one.
00:03:19.320He was unarmed and running away, right?
00:03:24.760And then, of course, everybody was, I mean, well, South Carolina, you've got to be racist.
00:04:08.480There was a lot of racial division throughout the country.
00:04:11.980And the potential of it blowing up in South Carolina was very real.
00:04:15.700And, you know, leadership can overcome those divisions if you show that you got it and that you're moving with it.
00:04:23.500And so that was one where I actually saw two vulnerable constituencies there.
00:04:28.560I saw, you know, the family of Walter Scott and not wanting this to happen to anyone else.
00:04:33.040But I also saw it to law enforcement and to all the good law enforcement officers that deserve to be protected.
00:04:39.120And so we were the first state in the country to pass body cameras for law enforcement because I wanted law enforcement to know we would make sure we had proof of the good guys and let the victims know we were going to make sure we had proof of the bad guys.
00:04:52.060I think body cameras are a win all around.
00:04:55.140And so we were able to do that without riots, without protests, anything.
00:04:59.940And then you fast forward a month and there was Charleston and you had what was just horrible.
00:05:08.580Twelve people who went and did what so many South Carolinians do every Wednesday night.
00:06:51.000And here is this guy that comes out with his manifesto holding the Confederate flag and had just hijacked everything that people thought of.
00:07:03.580And we don't have hateful people in South Carolina.
00:07:06.080There's always the small minority that's always going to be there.
00:07:08.640But, you know, people saw it as service and sacrifice and heritage.
00:07:13.700And, but once he did that, there was no way to overcome it.
00:07:19.020And the national media came in, in droves.
00:08:37.760They didn't know who we were, what we were, or why we were there.
00:08:41.140And I remember my mom would tell me when I would come back from the playground after being bullied, she would say, your job is not to show them how you're different.
00:08:49.780Your job is to show them how you're similar.
00:08:52.000And it's amazing how that lesson on the playground has played out, whether I was in the corporate world or legislator or governor or ambassador.
00:09:00.420Because when you talk about what you have in common first, everybody lets their guard down.
00:09:07.140And then you can take on the challenges of the day and get to the solutions.
00:09:10.500And Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton both showed up.
00:09:12.900And my, I so desperately wanted to protect the state.
00:09:17.180And that meant keeping Jesse Jackson in the loop, having breakfast with him every other day to say, this is what we're doing.
00:09:34.840And so it was, but it's making sure you're listening to everyone, but making sure you're leading so that everyone feels like you're doing something.
00:09:45.140And I mean, it was, it was a tough time.
00:14:40.460You know, I was like that growing up and I think it's because, you know, there were some painful times growing up being discriminated against or watching my dad go through tough times, things like that.
00:14:54.640You, one, have no patience for bullies because you remember when they did it to you to, you have sympathy for those that are made to feel different because I myself knew what that felt like.
00:15:07.840And so I've always been very in tune with people's pain and very in tune with how to lift them up so that they can be stronger and not be victims of that pain.
00:16:00.120You know, you internalize stuff and man, if you're Steven in the public eye, don't do that because you'll just end up a ball of jello.
00:16:10.460Well, you know, I think I never wanted to be a politician.
00:16:13.460I was an accountant and, you know, grew up in my family's business and stumbled into politics simply by the fact that I was doing the business for my mom's company and was complaining about how hard it was to make a dollar and how easy it was for government to take it.
00:16:30.440And my mom said, don't complain about it, do something about it.
00:16:34.020And so I ran because I thought there were too many lawyers at the state house and they needed one really good accountant.
00:16:39.740And I think that I've never wanted to be a politician to be a politician.
00:16:51.160And every time I do something like that, it humbles me more.
00:16:55.920But I'll bet you 70% of those who are politicians actually felt the same way.
00:17:04.120But then they get in it and they get power and everything else and they turn into, I don't know, crazy people.
00:17:12.820I've got to tell you this story because when I, I won the state house in 2004 and I defeated the longest serving legislator in South Carolina in a primary.
00:17:25.620And so I had come in somewhat as people saw me as a rebel or an outsider.
00:17:31.320And I came in with a class that had done a lot of the same things.
00:17:35.340And over a couple of years, I watched my class members who had defeated establishment Republicans.
00:18:04.520And I've watched it happen to my friends.
00:18:06.900Thomas Massey tells me, you know, he was, we were going to see the state of the union and he said, hang on, I got to put the, I have to put my golem on.
00:18:44.560And he said, I only when I go through and I have to wear it for security.
00:18:48.940Otherwise, I take that thing off as soon as I can.
00:18:51.900And those things are dangerous because what happens is those that are in elected office forget that they're serving the people, not the other way around.
00:19:26.960Oh, and she loved how straightforward he was.
00:19:31.380She loved the fact that he wasn't going to let the United States get taken for granted.
00:19:34.600But more than that, she loved what he was going to do on illegal immigration because my parents came to this country because they wanted a better life for their kids.
00:19:43.640And they put in the time, put in the price and came here legally.
00:19:48.220They are offended by those who come here illegally.
00:19:53.500And it's funny because we had a lot of talent on that stage.
00:19:56.04016 people, I was so giddy about that slate.
00:19:59.380And I put my, my backing on Marco Rubio.
00:20:04.060And I remember the president tweeted, Nikki Haley is an embarrassment to South Carolina, in which I responded and tweeted, bless your heart.
00:20:14.340Anybody who knows anything about the Carolinas, that's just, that's just a polite way to say F you.
00:20:52.200But, you know, I mean, all of us had to choose a horse in 16.
00:20:55.800And so, so, so you weren't really where I was because I was against him because I always like, I lived in New York when they were futzing around with the World Trade Center.
00:21:18.480It'll be bigger, taller, and probably all gold.
00:21:21.620And I don't know how he's going to get it done because I've seen him all of a sudden, like 10 blocks are completely changed overnight with his name on it.
00:21:35.440But because he's a New Yorker and a diehard and has had many things that I disagree with, you know, on his agenda for a very long time, and he's so incredibly offensive, I just couldn't see it.
00:31:19.920They just disagreed on everything, literally on everything.
00:31:23.960And so it would put me in the middle of that situation.
00:31:27.460And I agreed with the president on almost everything.
00:31:30.160So, you know, when you when you look at and I think the president was frustrated because so much of what he was trying to do.
00:31:37.720Rex would slow walk, stall or just not do it.
00:31:40.960It's the reason why he asked me to go to Vienna to see the IAEA that was looking over the nuclear production of Iran and doing all of the inspections was because he said Rex wasn't doing anything.
00:31:53.140And so it was constantly issue after issue where that actually came to you and.
00:31:59.520And you two talked and Rex was, you know, we're protecting people and we don't stand in the way.
00:32:16.080Look, if you really think I don't believe we just take orders from the president, if you really believe somebody is going to be dangerous, you then have to make the choice.
00:32:27.220Do I stay in to advise knowing that I might always not get my way, but I advise or is it so dangerous that I need to leave and tell the people why I left and let the chips fall where they may?
00:32:42.340I mean, this was this was a real concern for me because I saw that he was slow walking things or I saw that they just weren't doing what the president was asking in the National Security Council meetings.
00:32:54.400But on this day, we had had a meeting in the Oval Office and it was about giving Palestinian aid.
00:33:00.120And I wanted to pull the aid because they were anti-American.
00:34:54.000But once the president has made the decision, your job is to execute what the president.
00:35:02.760I mean, it's the president is the commander in chief and you can't run any.
00:35:09.480Rex Tillerson should know that you can't run Exxon if all of the executives around you are trying to save Exxon or go a different direction.
00:35:58.220He will listen to anyone that has any issues.
00:36:01.080I don't know the scenario now that I am gone.
00:36:05.460And certainly there have been a couple of other changes.
00:36:08.060But, you know, I just I encourage all those people in his circle to just keep protecting him and moving forward on his policy issues and keep speaking up on what they see.
00:36:20.280I will tell you, I've never I've never said this before.
00:36:28.640I've never I've never told this story, but about eight months ago, the president called me and I was getting ready to do a TV show.
00:36:38.920And my assistant came in and said, Glenn, the president is on the phone for you.
00:38:02.140I had a great working professional relationship with him, and I think that anybody that works for him can't say that he wasn't listening and he wasn't, you know, that there wasn't an ability to change his mind on things.
00:38:15.540When you first dealt with the resolution against Israel at the UN, you were pretty clear, and it started this roll down the hill.
00:38:29.740And you write in the book that you reached out to Sam Power, Samantha Power.
00:38:33.460I don't know how much you know about Samantha Power, but she was discovered by Soros, and she's got a very anti-Israel kind of stance.
00:39:32.300And the U.S. has always protected them from resolutions at the UN by using our veto.
00:39:38.840And I ended up talking to the Israeli ambassador once I got to the UN.
00:39:43.100He said he tried to call her multiple times and she wouldn't call him back.
00:39:46.780And he found out from other countries that this resolution was coming down and that the U.S. led it.
00:39:53.620That's what's so bad is the United States led an anti-Israel resolution at the United Nations in a time where we should have had their back.
00:40:02.120And so it was the that last administration was the most anti-Israel I think we've had.
00:41:17.000And at the same time, I let them know we were going to be taking names, taking names of those that were with us and taking names of those that were against us.
00:41:25.920And I thought they needed to know that we were going to have a strong voice in America again.
00:41:30.760And that we were going to make sure that they knew we were in the room.
00:41:35.660The Security Council, some members came to and said, it's good to have America back.
00:41:40.300After the president struck, did the strikes in Syria after the chemical weapons attack, when that red line was drawn and he followed through with it, the number of ambassadors that came to me and said, it's so good to see the United States lead again.
00:41:55.020Because while they resent us, while they bash us, they all still want to be us and they want our moral clarity to lead.
00:44:38.780So what he does is many times he's talking to them in the camera, knowing they're watching and listening in in hopes of getting something done with Russia.
00:44:49.880Look, I saw and I talk about in the book where I had a conversation with him where I thought he was soft on Russia in his words, but in his actions, put more sanctions for their occupation in Crimea, gave anti-tank missiles to Ukraine, helped with military training, you know, increasing our energy sector and our military, which Russia can't stand, expelled multiple diplomats.
00:45:14.440I mean, he has hit Russia over the head so many times.
00:45:18.680OK, more with Nikki Haley in just a second.
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00:50:05.840And I think the world needs someone to stand against oppression.
00:50:12.440We need and we when we lead, others follow.
00:50:16.640When we led on Guaido and Venezuela, you know, 50 plus other countries followed.
00:50:22.220When we lead on the people on defending the people of Hong Kong and having their backs and using the power of their voice, others will listen.
00:50:32.340You've got over a million Uyghurs or Muslims in reeducation camps in China, making them change their name, change their religion, change their way of thinking.
00:50:41.340If any other country in the world were doing this, everybody would be up in arms.
00:50:46.500But because it's China, no one's talking about it.
00:50:49.940That's what China has been doing around the world is they bully everybody into not calling them out.
00:50:56.000But if we continue to fall in line with that, then they will continue to oppress people around the world.
00:51:01.020So did the president, did the president do the occupied territories thing, which I totally agree with?
00:51:10.120Did he kind of do that partly because State Department?
00:53:14.940Now, you know, I'll be the first to say, do I think it's a good idea for the president to call foreign countries and ask them to investigate Americans?
00:53:34.040Now, you could say he benefits from this with Joe Biden, whatever, but he was talking about this in 2017.
00:53:40.640Rudy Giuliani is on the record talking about it.
00:53:43.180If the vice president of the last administration with the State Department, Intel and everybody else were coercing the the Ukrainian hierarchy and getting them to join into this anti-corruption league,
00:54:03.740which was totally corrupt and the and the vice president was enriching himself or his family and we are missing seven billion dollars.
00:54:15.740And the president says in May, I don't want to do anything with these people.
00:54:53.940I'm just saying I don't think it's a good idea.
00:54:55.920I think the investigation actually should start here in the United States.
00:54:59.180I think we should look at what sort of conflict of interest Biden had, what was said to the prosecutor, because we've got the videos of things that he had said and things that he demanded.
00:55:53.220But more than that, the Democrats might slightly have an ounce of credibility had they not been trying to do this since the day he was elected.
00:56:15.140That we have to the people have to have something to do because they're getting very frustrated again, because especially this they're seeing this with the media and it's not telling the truth.
00:57:35.500You know, the country's being divided on illegal immigration.
00:57:38.140At what point do they get in there and debate how we're going to vet people coming in and how we're going to secure the borders?
00:57:44.580There are real issues that we need out there getting done.
00:57:47.420And you're now going to have hearings wasting taxpayer dollars, wasting time, causing a distraction, which Russia and China love, by the way.
00:57:56.100And you're going to continue to do this and not get anything done.
00:58:00.220I mean, at some point, American citizens should be frustrated that their time and money is being wasted like this when they should have a vote on this in November anyway.
00:59:00.320And so we started that so that we could start talking about these issues, whether it's capitalism versus socialism, whether it's Medicare for all, whether it's why there's an anti-Israel bias, just throwing things out there.