Republican presidential hopeful Nikki Haley fired back at fellow Trump administration alum Mike Pompeo over conjecture that she was jockeying for the vice presidency.
The former secretary of state questioned Haley's commitment to the Trump administration in his recent book and relayed a story implying that she was seeking to cozy up to former President Donald Trump in hopes of elbowing then-Vice President Mike Pence out of being his running mate in 2020. Haley chalked Pompeo's criticisms up to envy.
POMPEO BLASTS HALEY, SAYS SHE QUIT WITH WORK TO BE DONE
"First of all, Pompeo wrote about something he heard from someone else. Can we just start there?" Haley told the Ruthless podcast in an episode released Tuesday. "The second thing I'll tell you is, look, I was a damn good U.N. ambassador, and every secretary of state hated it."
Haley announced her 2024 campaign last month, and Pompeo has been ruminating over a run while taking jabs at potential rivals, with a decision expected to come around springtime.
In his book, Never Give an Inch: Fighting for the America I Love, released earlier this year, Pompeo relayed an anecdote he heard about Haley, claiming she and son-in-law Jared Kushner "played" then-chief of staff John Kelly to secure an Oval Office meeting with Trump.
“As best Kelly could tell,” Pompeo wrote, according to the Guardian, “they were presenting a possible ‘Haley for vice-president’ option. I can’t confirm this, but [Kelly] was certain he had been played, and he was not happy about it. Clearly, this visit did not reflect a team effort but undermined our work for America.”
Pompeo further threw shade at Haley for departing her role halfway through the Trump administration. He has since doubled down on that stance.
“She has described her role as going toe-to-toe with tyrants,” Pompeo said in his book. “If so, then why would she quit such an important job at such an important time?”
Haley previously diminished Pompeo's remarks, countering that he was peddling “lies and gossip to sell a book." Pompeo wasn't alone in ripping Haley's performance as ambassador.
Former national security adviser John Bolton wrote scathingly of her in his book as well, describing her as a "free electron" and a flip-flopper. Bolton has also postulated that Haley's presidential campaign is really aimed at winning her the vice presidency.
"I specifically — when I asked for the job, I said, 'I don't want to work for anyone else. I want to work directly with you,' and President Trump said, 'Got it.' And I said, 'I'm a policy girl. I want to be on the National Security Council so I'm in the room when decisions are made.' He said, 'Done,'" Haley further told Ruthless.
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Haley is currently running in fourth place, while Pompeo is in fifth, according to the latest RealClearPolitics polling aggregate of the 2024 Republican presidential primary.
She recently wrote an op-ed calling out both political parties for running up the national debt.