Nikki Haley Skirts Questions on Lloyd Austin and Liz Cheney, but Why?

Fresh off her terrible response to whether or not she would pardon Hunter Biden, Nikki Haley once again raised eyebrows for skirting key questions.

On Monday evening, Haley participated in a Fox News town hall event in Des Moines, Iowa. Considering it's a week before the Iowa Republican caucuses, I'd say it was vital for her to clean up some of her past messes instead of making things worse.

And once again, she botched some easy questions. 

The first was when co-host Martha MacCallum asked about the scandalous absence of Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin. Not only did the White House not know about it, but MacCallum noted that they just learned it isn't even known when he'll be released from the hospital. MacCallum then asked if Haley agreed with Donald Trump that Austin should be fired.

Easy question, right? But Haley responded by saying, "I think Biden should be fired."

Well, that's a given, isn't it? Everyone knows that, but why not answer the question about Austin?

"This is unbelievable that we have a situation like this," Haley continued. "When I had a crisis in South Carolina, if we were dealing with anything and I had to deal with my adjutant general, I was on the phone with him every day, twice a day. We have war in Europe. We have a war in the Middle East. North Korea tested an intercontinental ballistic missile capable of hitting the United States. China is on the march."

Haley then listed various problems surrounding this situation: "First, I have a problem with the fact that Biden is not talking to his secretary of defense every single day anyway. Secondly, is there not enough connection that he didn't even know he was put in the hospital in intensive care, at that? And then to go and say, 'Oh, but his deputy secretary knew what was going on,' but she is vacationing in Puerto Rico? There are so many things wrong with this," she enumerated. "But the biggest one that bothers me — when I was at the U.N., we knew the intel. We knew the health of everybody in every country. They know what's happening to Secretary Austin. What bothers me is while our adversaries may know, our own president doesn't know. And these things continue to happen, and it's why I say the one thing that keeps me up at night is what happens between now and Election Day. Because Biden is making America very vulnerable and putting us at risk."

For our VIPs: Biden Should Fire Lloyd Austin, but We All Know Why He Won’t

For sure, everything she said there is spot on, but why is she avoiding the real question? Why can't she say that Austin should be fired? Does she not want to agree with Trump? Is it because Austin is "the first black Secretary of Defense?" It's concerning that she couldn't answer this.

The same goes for how she avoided answering a question from co-host Bret Baier about whether she agreed with Liz Cheney that Donald Trump is "a threat to democracy."

"Oh, what I think is, I think the American people can decide this," Haley replied, again not answering the question. "And so what I have said is, he said January 6th was a beautiful day. I think January 6th was a terrible day. I hope we never see that happen again. And so that's the focus we should have."

I suppose that it's a good thing that she later agreed that Trump shouldn't be taken off the ballot, but it's bizarre that she couldn't condemn Cheney's rhetoric.

Haley's refusal to answer such easy questions — be it about Defense Secretary Austin, Liz Cheney's rhetoric about Trump, or even the issue of pardoning Hunter Biden — is troubling, and I can't understand why she continues to dig herself deeper into the hole she's created for herself.