Nikki Haley Calls For GOP To Dump Trump When Pressed On New Charges: ‘None of Us Want to be Talking About Indictments’

Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley suggested the Republican Party “move forward” from Donald Trump when she was pressed on the former president’s growing legal problems.

CBS’ Margaret Brennan conducted an interview with Haley for Face The Nation, and the subject immediately turned to the new charges Trump faces for unlawful retention of classified documents, plus allegations that he and his co-defendants sought to delete Mar-a-Lago’s security camera footage. Brennan tied this to the previous allegations against Trump as she asked Haley if Trump should face prosecution.

“If these accusations are true, it’s incredibly dangerous to our national security,” Haley said. “But again, this is coming down from a Department of Justice that, frankly, the American people don’t trust.”

As Brennan recapped the allegations against Walt Nauta and Carlos De Oliveira, she asked Haley “does that sound kosher to you” that Trump allegedly instructed them to delete the footage. Haley answered that “none of that sounds good,” though she complained of a “double standard” by making a comparison to Hillary Clinton’s email scandal.

You shouldn’t be erasing anything unless you have something to hide, but everybody needs to be treated the same way. And that’s what the American people are frustrated about. It’s not that they don’t want people held accountable. They just want everyone to be treated fairly. And right now, they don’t trust the Department of Justice.

In the past, Haley has described Trump’s conduct as “incredibly reckless” with America’s national security, though she is “inclined” to pardon him in the event of his conviction. Asked if she still holds that position in light of these new developments, Haley dodged the question by instead making the argument that “We have to move forward. We’ve got to quit living in the past, and I don’t want there to be all of this division over the fact that we have a president serving years in jail over a documents trial.”

Haley maintained the argument as she faced questions about whether Trump should drop out, and she warned about what could happen if the general election gets bogged down by Trump’s lawsuits.

None of us want to be talking about indictments. I don’t even know if it’s the third, fourth, or fifth indictment right now, but what I can tell you is, it’s a distraction, and frankly, the media is talking about it nonstop. But when I do these town halls, the American public is not talking to me about that. They want to know what’s going to happen, how we’re going to go and change government for the better. They’re worried about the future for their kids and I think we owe it to them to be answering that, not how Trump’s going to defend himself.

Watch above via CBS.