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 thats 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 hes 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 Tuesdays 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 Trumps 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 Trumps calls that she doesnt 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. The reason he is throwing these temper tantrums is because he knows I do have a chance.

But rightly or wrongly, chaos follows him. And everybody knows Im right, she added. And we cant continue down this path and go through four more years of chaos. We wont survive it.

Chaos has followed Haleys own campaign in recent days after she said on Fox News that America is not a racist country and had never been so. Tapper asked her about the comments and the nations past history of slavery on Thursday, but the former South Carolina governor said the founders intended to do the right thing when they drafted the Constitution.

We have too many people with this national self-loathing, she said. When you look back, it said all men are created equal. I think the intent was to do the right thing.