'There's no love or anything going on with Russia right now,' says Nikki Haley

"There's no love or anything going on with Russia right now," American envoy to the United Nations Nikki Haley said Sunday in an interview with ABC's Martha Raddatz, pushing back against a narrative of undue cooperation between the Trump administration and the Kremlin tied to allegations of Russian meddling in the 2016 election on President Trump's behalf. Rather, Haley argued, "They get that we're getting our strength back, that we're getting our voice back, and that we're starting to lead again."

When Raddatz pushed back, asking why Trump isn't "beating up on Russia," Haley replied that is her role. "I am beating up on Russia," she said, and Trump "is not stopping me from beating up on Russia ... in particular at the United Nations." There are some areas where the United States can work with Russia, Haley added, but others where critique is in order.

In an appearance on CBS News' Face the Nation, Haley addressed the effects of Trump's tweeting habits on foreign relations. "I think the foreign leaders are picking up the phone and calling him if they have an issue," she said. "They're not sitting there texting me and saying, 'What was this tweet about?'" As for herself, "I don't hear [the tweets]," Haley continued. "It’s chatter I don't focus on."

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Watch an excerpt of Haley's comments on ABC below. Bonnie Kristian

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Bonnie Kristian

Bonnie Kristian was a deputy editor and acting editor-in-chief of TheWeek.com. She is a columnist at Christianity Today and author of Untrustworthy: The Knowledge Crisis Breaking Our Brains, Polluting Our Politics, and Corrupting Christian Community (forthcoming 2022) and A Flexible Faith: Rethinking What It Means to Follow Jesus Today (2018). Her writing has also appeared at Time Magazine, CNN, USA Today, Newsweek, the Los Angeles Times, and The American Conservative, among other outlets.