Savannah Guthrie challenges Nikki Haley on Ukraine call assertions: 'Can I stop you right there?'
Former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley headed over to Today to discuss her new book, With All Due Respect, but wound up defending herself and President Trump in an interview with Savannah Guthrie some are saying was “unprofessional.”
On Tuesday, Guthrie hammered Haley on her assertions that Trump behaved ethically during a much-debated phone call with the president of Ukraine, in which some say he threatened to withhold aid if the country didn’t open an investigation into political rival Joe Biden and son Hunter Biden.
“When you look at that situation it’s hard to see where impeachment would qualify for that,” said Haley. Guthrie interrupted, “Can I stop you right there because—with all due respect, to borrow a phrase—that doesn’t seem like much of a defense of the president.”
“They also know that President Trump has been very strong for Ukraine by giving anti-tank missiles, by going against Russia, holding the sanctions,” continued Haley. Guthrie again interrupted to point out that aid to the country was indeed withheld.
“Aid was on-hold at that moment. The aid did go on-hold. It eventually was released,” said Guthrie, but Haley called the situation “hypothetical.”
“You can have those hypotheticals. It was released, that’s a fact,” said Haley.
“The aid was held up—that is not a hypothetical, right?” Guthrie fired back.
“Was the aid released? It was,” replied Haley.
Viewers took to Twitter, split on the interview, with some saying Guthrie was too harsh on Haley while others said she was just doing her job.
Journalists Yashar Ali and Maria Shiver weighed in:
Today Show co-anchor @SavannahGuthrie is trending nationally because half the people are slamming her for being rude to @NikkiHaley and the other half think she's doing a great job grilling Ambassador Haley.
— Yashar Ali 🐘 (@yashar) November 12, 2019
Says more about the division in the country than @SavannahGuthrie. Savannah’s job as a journalist is to get to the truth. That’s something we should all be able to agree on. https://t.co/F4cj4CQ67I
— Maria Shriver (@mariashriver) November 12, 2019
But some maintained that Guthrie wasn’t fair to Haley:
One of the most biased, unprofessional interviews I’ve seen. Always , always liked Savannah; but this was scorchingly biased and disrespectful with Nikki Haley. I ‘m not interested in fake journalism.
— Kathy T (@kathydt735) November 12, 2019
Others disagreed and applauded Guthrie’s handling of the interview:
@SavannahGuthrie was professional and tough. @NikkiHaley was evasive and smug. Maybe you are confusing tough questioning with disrespect?
— Dom (@dmgllrd) November 12, 2019
I'm very impressed with @SavannahGuthrie here. She was ready with the facts and did not back down. And obviously getting pissed about being lied to and the diversion by Haley, who is as stinky and useless a swamp creature as the rest of Trump's knot of treacherous frogs.
— Concerned Citizen (@DanimalVIII) November 12, 2019
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