Dr. Jason Johnson discusses why Nikki Haley resigned as the Ambassador to the United Nations. Other panel members are Jennifer Palmieri (Former White House Communications Director), Amb. Wendy Sherman (MSNBC), and host, Lawrence O’Donnell.
Nikki Haley
The Root: The 9 Rings of Donald Trump’s Administrative Hell
The Inferno, the first part of Dante Alighieri’s epic poem Divine Comedy, the titular character is guided through the nine circles of hell. The darker your crimes, the lower the levels of hell you descend to until you meet up with Satan himself, trapped at the center of it all.
At the top are crimes such as heresy and failure to believe; at the bottom, closer to the devil himself, are the rings of treachery and violence. Reflecting on a campaign season during which Donald Trump literally called Hillary Clinton the devil and threatened to put her in chains, you have to wonder whether he wasn’t subconsciously projecting, given the hellish landscape he has turned his early administration into. However, it’s not the nether regions that should concern most Americans but those condemned to the outer rings for lesser crimes.
Trump has banished his personal political demons to the outskirts, and with them perhaps the only hope that his administration won’t drag this country to ruin.
In the weeks since being elected president by the Electoral College, Trump has set about filling, and nominating people for, his main administrative and Cabinet posts. Nazi sympathizer and white nationalist Steve Bannon as senior adviser, former Republican National Committee Chair Reince Priebus as chief of staff, Gen. Michael Flynn as national security adviser—these are White House positions, as close to the big boss as you can get. As you move further away, both physically and logistically, from Trump, you get Gen. James Mattis, his potential secretary of defense; Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions as Trump’s attorney general pick; and Dr. Ben Carson as a possible head of Housing and Urban Development.
So where does that leave people like Mitt Romney and Nikki Haley, leaders bandied about as the potential secretary of state and United Nations ambassador, respectively? On the outer fringes of hell, and as far away from leadership as possible.
If Trump is the devil, he is not a devil who’s into details. The president-elect will say anything to anyone at any time regardless of how contradictory it may be, on or off the record. This goes beyond policy flip-flops like Obamacare to more core issues of the future of democracy, like attacking the New York Times on Twitter and then breaking bread with the paper the next day.
Trump is overwhelmed and capricious, and it is fair to assume that his public pronouncements and decision-making will depend on the last person he spoke to, as opposed to some guiding principle or belief system. Which is why some of his most vocal and powerful critics, like Romney and Haley, are essentially being banished to the positions they are being suggested for. The president’s time is precious, and those closest to him—in the White House and on his staff—will be more powerful than most of his Cabinet selections when decisions get made.
After a bruising 2008 primary, President Barack Obama didn’t make Hillary Clinton secretary of state just to help her gain foreign policy experience for a 2016 run. He was getting his rival out of town. Clinton spent so much time out of the country, she couldn’t be in Washington, D.C., to privately undermine him or to second-guess every decision as Obama found his footing. She was gone, so she couldn’t be a sympathetic ear or martyr to the Clinton faction of the Democratic Party. Clinton was tethered to Obama policywise, but it was Ben Rhodes, Denis McDonough, Rahm Emanuel and Valerie Jarrett who actually influenced his decisions.
The same can be said for George W. Bush. It was well-known in Washington that Bush feared Colin Powell’s prestige, experience and influence, so he sent him off as secretary of state, while Condoleezza Rice, Dick Cheney and Powell’s own subordinate, John Bolton, were really pulling the strings.
Nikki Haley and Mitt Romney represent the two largest threats to Trump hegemony over the Republican Party. They were both “Never Trump” people who represent wings of the party that the new president will have trouble bringing under his sway. Haley is a Tea Party purist, she was endorsed by Sarah Palin and she is popular with the religious right, who sold out by supporting Trump but will be ready to strike at his next flip-flop.
Romney, whose profile and reputation have grown in the years since he lost the 2012 election, represents the establishment Republicans who fear the party being taken over by Jacksonian-era yahoos who know nothing of grace and decorum. Don’t be fooled by Kellyanne Conway and other Trump confidants who attack Romney over Twitter; the smartest thing in the world for Trump’s closest aides would be to make sure a calm, respected voice like Romney’s has no chance of influencing Trump’s erratic decision-making.
Romney will never be able to get past Flynn to inform Trump on the state of world affairs. Haley’s text messages to Trump about growing discomfort at the United Nations will be intercepted by Bannon every time. This is not to suggest that Romney or Haley is necessarily great for America, but if one is assessing the influence of lesser demons versus absolute devils, most sane people would choose Mitt Romney over Steve Bannon.
Trump may not actually be the vision of Satan portrayed in Inferno, even if he staffs his new administration like the rings of hell. Inferno describes Satan as a ghastly creature trapped by his own vanity with three faces: one red, one yellow and one black. The fact that Trump is now in a position that he has lusted after for years but is equally overwhelmed and unprepared for is strangely apropos.
While Trump does not have leather wings, he is banishing those who dared not believe in him to limbo, and surrounding himself with white nationalists, terror sympathizers and warmongers. Anyone thinking that perhaps Trump’s own erratic tendencies would be balanced out by some sort of smart team of rivals should take note of the entryway to hell: “Abandon hope, all ye who enter here.”
This article originally appeared online at The Root.
MSNBC: Jason Johnson Discusses Trump Cabinet on All in with Chris Hayes
On All in with Chris Hayes on MSNBC, Morgan State University professor Jason Johnson and Business Insider Senior Editor Josh Barro discuss announced and speculated appointments to President-elect Donald Trump’s cabinet, including South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley as Ambassador to the United Nations and Ben Carson as Secretary of Housing and Urban Development.
The Root: In State of the Union GOP Response, Nikki Haley Makes the Case for Old-School Racism
The establishment’s choice to represent a “sensible” side of Republicanism, Haley’s response to the State of the Union address seemed to target GOP front-runner Donald Trump more than President Barack Obama.
“Today we live in a time of threats like few others in recent memory,” Haley said. “During anxious times, it can be tempting to follow the siren call of the angriest voices. We must resist that temptation.”
Yes, Haley seemed to want to reject the blunt bloviating of the GOP’s biggest star, but she didn’t offer a repudiation of Trump’s poisonous hate speech; instead she called for a kinder, gentler form of bigotry that’s less costly at election time.
In Haley’s response, she trafficked in the racial conspiracy theories of the right by linking Obama to riots in Ferguson, Mo., and Baltimore, and contrasting those events with her handling of the assassination at “Mother Emanuel” African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, S.C., last summer, a narrative she’s been promoting for over a year.
I get it; it was Obama’s personal Iago, Rahm Emanuel, who said you should never let a good crisis go to waste. The moment Haley was announced as the Republican response, it was clear that 1) She’s being primed for a vice presidential nod, and 2) She was going to mention the shootings. What I didn’t expect, however, was the completely ahistorical and abhorrent way she tried to retell the racial narrative of the Republican Party in the wake of that tragedy.
To hear Haley tell it, Dylann Roof shot nine Christians in a church, and the state of South Carolina (and, tacitly, the Republican Party, led by her) immediately responded with universal empathy and radical change.
“Our state was struck with shock, pain and fear. But our people would not allow hate to win,” Haley said. “We didn’t have violence; we had vigils. We didn’t have riots; we had hugs.”
The truth isn’t nearly so pretty.
Putting aside the fact that shootings by police and shootings by citizens are not the same and one shouldn’t conflate the two, Haley made no mention of the fatal police shooting of Walter Scott that happened in North Charleston a few weeks before Roof killed nine churchgoers.
Roof was a white supremacist who declared war on African Americans, and Haley, along with the majority of the Republican candidates, attempted to characterize his attack as “anti-Christian,” with no racial element whatsoever. It wasn’t until public sentiment became too overwhelming to ignore that she admitted that Roof’s actions were racial and political.
More important, there had been vigils to take down the Confederate flag for years, and Haley not only ignored them but even defended the Confederate flag during her campaign for governor. It wasn’t until nationwide protests and the actions of activists like Bree Newsome that Haley actually did anything symbolic about the Charleston shooting, and that was because her position was politically untenable if she wanted to stay in the running as a potential running mate. And if rewriting recent history wasn’t good enough, she had to ensure that she did some effective pandering to bigots, too.
Earlier in her speech, Haley spoke of “unrest in our cities” as part of Obama’s failures. This was a racial dog whistle so loud, all of Team Jacob would have had to cover their ears. The narrative believed by some in the GOP base is that Obama encouraged riots in Ferguson and Baltimore as part of some twisted supervillain scheme to 1) take guns, 2) declare martial law or 3) get revenge on white America. Take your pick.
So Haley’s snake oil that South Carolina had “hugs, not thugs” is a Republican subtweet that they know how to “handle” black protest and anger and can quell the kind of massive protests that make some white Americans uncomfortable. In one fell swoop, Haley attacked Black Lives Matter and Obama and rewrote her own behavior during Charleston. In a nutshell, what she was offering was a throwback kind of Republican racism—when candidates would say “urban voters,” “inner city” or “gangster rap culture” instead of “black” and the press would give them a pass—as opposed to the openly hostile bigotry of Trump, which might have serious political consequences. Haley’s words may not have been as blunt as Trump’s, but they were every bit as disgusting, shameful, racist and ultimately politically dangerous.
Giving the opposition response to the president’s State of the Union is like getting on a VH1 reality show. People tell you that it’ll do wonders for your career, that it will raise your profile and that, regardless of the reputation of the “show,” you’ll be the one who comes out looking like a star. But more often than not, it is a futile enterprise in which you end up in reality-TV hell, never breaking through to the prime time.
Haley probably thought that giving the SOTU response would be a great launching pad for a national political future (even though only two opposition respondents have ended up on the party ticket since 1990). She and Republicans are playing with fire, however, if they think it’s wise to trot out an “anti-Black Lives Matter” candidate in the 2016 campaign season. Charleston is not 9/11, and Nikki Haley is no Rudy Giuliani. If she believes that she can traffic in tragedy to gain political power, her own sorry record in South Carolina will be exposed to national scrutiny, and it won’t be pretty.
More important, the conversation about race in America has fundamentally changed because of Obama. Haley’s soft pitch to return to the olden days simply won’t fly. We are in an era when whites are more conscious and less tolerant of overt racism than ever before, and black voters have seen how collective action from Black Lives Matter, Campaign Zero and dozens of local groups can literally bend three national political campaigns to a whole new policy space without their dropping so much as a dime in PAC money.
You had one job, Nikki Haley. Stick to running your state. You’re not ready for prime time.
This article originally appeared online at The Root.
Veepstakes: Could “Romney’s Angels” Be The Cure For The GOP’s Augusta National Boys Club?
Thanks to a poorly timed and horribly messaged discussion of women’s rights and contraception the Republican Party, and particularly Mitt Romney, are hemorraging women in the approval polls. The former Massachusetts governor is trailing the president by 18 points amongst women, especially in swing states.
And it doesn’t look like he’s going to be able to bring them back even if he does live in a Malibu Barbie dream house.
So what’s Romney to do? Well, once he formally finishes up this primary fight he’s still got the vice presidential pick, right? If he’s going to go up against Obama he needs to shore up the women’s vote – which is a tough lift considering the GOP looks as exclusively male as the Augusta National. But, to do that he’ll need some strong, powerful women on his ticket. He needs: Romney’s Angels.
There are about four women that Romney could conceivably put on his ticket in 2012 that might close the gender gap and give his campaign a sexy boost to boot. Mitt is a bit of a blank faceless character, so the Charlie role is perfect for him. I can totally see him placing an anonymous call to several powerful GOP women languishing away in various positions across America with that classic 70’s voiceover:
Once upon a time there were three very different women, who all were on the rise in the Republican Party. But they were each assigned various dead end GOP duties.
But I took them away from all that. And now they might come to work for me. My name …. Is Romney. And these are ….. Romney’s Angels.
Here are each of his angels, and what they might bring to his ticket.
Susana Martinez (Governor – New Mexico): She’s tough, she’s Latina and she’s packing heat. Martinez is a tri-fecta for a stuffy New England governor trying to add some spice to his campaign. Besides possibly pulling in the critical Latino vote for Romney, Martinez is governor of a swing state and is a proud NRA member and owns a concealed weapon permit and she’s not afraid to use it. The drawback to this Angel of the Southwest? Martinez is fairly new to the political scene and it’s not quite clear if she’s ready for primetime. What’s more – reports are she already shot him down – and I’m not sure if Romney has the political juice to strong-arm someone into running with him.
Nikki Haley (Governor – South Carolina): Haley is a southern belle, and by south I mean Southeast Asia. Born in South Carolina to parents from Punjab, India, Haley has risen to power pretty quickly in South Carolina and is the youngest serving governor in America at the tender age of 40. Dynamic, Tea-Party approved and dripping with business acumen she fits the profile of a Romney Whitehouse.
Drawbacks? Haleys popularity in her own state is questionable at this point. Her strong endorsement of Romney in an SC primary where he got trounced by Newt Gingrich has shown how weak her political capitol is right now. She’s been mired in a spending scandal and a possible extra-marital affair for starters and has been accused of seeking national fame over state issues. Her recent appearance on the View didn’t help the GOP pivot off their “War on Women: when she said “Women don’t care about contraception….They care about jobs and their families.” Oh yeah, and she turned down Romney too.
Condi Rice (Former Secretary of State): Now this is the type of high powered super-ticket that might get tongues wagging. Rice is the perfect Angel for Romney, she’s popular, well spoken, loved by the GOP base and a Black Republican woman who isn’t hated by the entire Black community. Moreover Condi brings with her foreign policy expertise, and since that’s one area where Obama has a huge advantage over Romney she is definitely a plus.
Then again, her drawbacks are so huge that even approaching her about this idea puts the Mitt campaign in the doghouse. First, when Van Jones is suggesting strategy for the Republican presidential candidate, look out. The Obama campaign would have a field day with this, Condi Rice carries all of the Bush administration baggage with her, from economic to foreign policy. What’s more: if you’re going to play popular Black women head-to-head for voter’s love, Condi can’t raise a finger to everybody’s favorite Aunt Viv in the Whitehouse Michelle Obama. And, in an increasingly disturbing trend …. Condi told Romney where he could stick his VP pick as well. When you get on Fox and Friends and say “How many ways can I say it? Not me!” that’s pretty damn definitive.
So, it would appear that maybe Romney has already struck out as Charlie. As talented and sexy as all of his potential Angels are, they’ve all said no, despite each one having special abilities that might bring Romney one step closer to Pennsylvania Avenue. But never fear, there is one last ditch hope. Just like the original Charlie’s Angels there’s always someone who drops out and gets replaced. A new star to replace the team’s Farah Fawcett when she rides off after the closing credits. I give you: Kristi Noem!
Kristi Noem (R-South Dakota): Noem is like Sarah Palin but better looking, with more business acumen. Romney can’t go the experience route because Obama is president. He can’t go the charm route because he has none. Mitt Romney’s best chance is to make the argument that a patriotic, pro-business conservative is the only one who can dig this nation out its current mess. Who better to pick for a VP than a range-owning beauty queen who is an up-an-comer in the Republican party? The major drawback to Noem is that she’s just too new and young to take on the heavy lifting of the VP job right now, and that her selection would be stunt casting a-la Sarah Palin in 08’. However she has no major scandals, and as a Democrat turned Republican could give a real boost to Romney amognst Gen X indepedants who see her as a peer (she’s only 41).
In the end, maybe Romney will step away from his telephone and realize that he can’t pull three very different women from very different backgrounds into his campaign with any success, but he’s going to have to do something. With most of the superstars of the GOP preemptively declining to run with him he has got to make a splash with this pick because you know Obama and Biden are going to be coming at him Full Throttle in November.
This article originally appeared online at Politic365.com.
