I am truly amazed at the vitriol on the internet directed at UN Ambassador Nikki Haley after her Twitter usage on Tuesday. Haley has come under intense fire since Independence Day after she tweeted out “Spending my 4th in meetings all day. #ThanksNorthKorea.” Some detractors even went so far as to tweet racially-tinged statements like “Just about what you’d expect from a first generation ‘American.'” This kind of rhetoric is completely disgusting and irresponsible.
Given that I am from South Carolina, and served on then-Governor Haley’s 2014 reelection campaign, I can tell you that her tweet was meant to be taken in jest. Haley’s husband, Michael, is a member of the South Carolina National Guard, and he was deployed while Nikki was in the Governor’s Mansion. Of all people, Nikki Haley did not send that tweet to demean the service of our military men and women. The vehement response to her lighthearted tweet says something about the current state of our nation’s political life, and it is not pretty.
As conservatives, we must help set a tone of respectful leadership. Attacking a U.S. Ambassador as not really “American” because her parents were born in India is not acceptable. Ambassador Haley has a deep and abiding love for America, and her native state of South Carolina. It is one thing to question the advisability of a tweet, it is another thing entirely to attack her patriotism or her heritage.
Instead of engaging in this side-show debate, we need to focus on the fact that we are now precariously close to a military confrontation with North Korea. Instead of attacking our leaders tasked with dealing with this crisis, we would all do well to pray for the President, Vice-President, Ambassador Haley, Secretary Mattis and our men and women in uniform. Our nation must pull together now to stare-down this rapidly escalating threat, instead of engaging in social media wars with one another.
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