Former Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley in her new memoir has accused ex-Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and then-White House Chief of Staff John Kelly of encouraging her to undermine Donald Trump. Both officials have denied the claims of a conspiracy against President Trump.
"During my service to our country as the Secretary of State, at no time did I, nor to my direct knowledge did anyone else serving along with me, take any actions to undermine the President", Tillerson said in a statement to The Washington Post.
The former Secretary of State explained that his meetings with Trump were for the most part private and Haley was rarely present, so she "is not in a position to know" what he and President spoke of.
John Kelly also denied he urged resistance to Trump. He said in an interview with a CBS channel show that he was trying to ensure that the president "knew all the pros and cons of what policy decision he might be contemplating" in order to "make an informed decision".
In her new book 'With all due respect', Haley wrote that both Kelly and Tillerson disagreed with many of the President's policies and told her that when they resisted Trump "they weren't being insubordinate, they were trying to save the country".
Appearing on CBS the ex-UN Ambassador stressed that "to undermine a president is really a very dangerous thing. And it goes against the Constitution, and it goes against what the American people want. And it was offensive", she said.
Ron Coleman believes that if you take Haley's comments at face value then Kelly and Tillerson were taking it upon themselves to act as shadow presidents.
"Notwithstanding Kelly's rationalisation of his remarks, if they have been accurately described by Haley they are of historic magnitude in terms of insubordination of the chief executive at the highest level", Coleman said.
As to why Haley did not publicise the actions of Kelly and Tillerson back when it happened, the lawyer believes that she had a good reason not too.
"Doing so may have further destabilised a political situation that was already intensely challenging for the White House - to a large extent, precisely because of the counter-revolution, or soft coup, underway right under the President's nose", he explained.
Coleman stressed that it's necessary to investigate this, "it would be irresponsible not to do so".
According to the expert "personal and professional" treachery against the President was widespread in his administration was "disturbing".
"It was approved by and enabled by people whose conduct indicates a fundamental contempt for democracy as well as a stunning capacity for hypocrisy. They considered themselves heroes who were saving the republic, and even the world, from the supposed threat from Trump to a wide variety of political and constitutional norms – but they violated far more fundamental ones to do so", Coleman said.
"They not only disregarded the obvious fact that Trump had manifestly been elected to end business as usual and confront conventional wisdom in Washington, as he had done throughout his previous career in business, but they despised him and those who elected him for that very reason", he added.
Talking about Nikki Haley's political future, Coleman noted that it's changing times in Washington at the moment and both parties are going through major changes but Haley is too liberal for the Republicans. Although some experts have said that her loyalty to Trump may suggest that she has her sights set on the Vice President position after 2020. But Coleman believes she may have a future in the Democratic Party.
"Trump is more likely to flush out and recreate the GOP in his image than the Democrats are to survive their far more fundamental crisis, which has made their policies and values unattractive to many political moderates. So there is probably a future for her in a reconstituted Democratic Party, and, given her youth, she will likely have the opportunity to lead in that party, and perhaps to participate in its rebuilding, in the years to come", Coleman concluded.