The smear that brought no outrage

2/15/2018
U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley has been the target of disgusting smears and insults.
U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley has been the target of disgusting smears and insults.

Amid the volatility within the Trump administration, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley has emerged as an eloquent defender of American interests and values. She is a political and diplomatic rising star.

Ms. Haley has also been repeatedly disrespected, by prominent figures both abroad and at home, and in egregious ways.

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During his recent spree of self-aggrandizing television appearances, Michael Wolff, the author Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House, suggested on Bill Maher’s HBO program that President Trump was having an affair. He pointed viewers to a passage near the end of the book, urging them to “read between the lines.” Observers quickly narrowed in on a sentence about Ms. Haley’s “private time” with Mr. Trump.

This was a revolting and, so far as anyone knows, totally fabricated smear.

What would much of the national press say if such an evidence-free smear had been perpetrated upon an Obama Cabinet member and President Obama? There would have been — properly — outrage.

Where is the outrage at what has been done to Ms. Haley?

Mr. Wolff’s excretion did not seem to bother Hillary Clinton, who happily read from Fire and Fury for a segment during the Grammy Awards, shortly after the rumor was floated.

Such baseless, odious accusations have no place in our politics or our society.

But the hits kept coming for Ms. Haley, who was told to “shut up” last week by a top Palestinian official after Ms. Haley criticized Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas. It is worth noting that a number of male U.S. diplomats have been critical of Mr. Abbas in the past. None of them have been publicly instructed to “shut up.”

No one is obliged to agree with Ms. Haley’s politics or even support her as she continues to rise through the Republican ranks. But blatant character assassination should be called out — no matter the politics of the victim.

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