LF: Nikki Haley: ‘Everybody knows that Russia meddled in our elections’

U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley said everyone knows that Russia meddled in the 2016 U.S. elections, as well as other elections around the world, despite President Trump's refusal to say they did.

"Everybody knows that Russia meddled in our elections," Haley told CNN's Dana Bash in a pre-taped interview for "State of the Union."

Haley's comments come after Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said Trump brought up the issue of election hacking to Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday at the G20 summit in Hamburg.

However, Trump has been hesitant to say publicly that Russia meddled in the election, saying other countries could have been involved, and that "nobody really knows for sure."

"Everybody knows that they're not just meddling in the United States' election," Haley said. "They're doing this across multiple continents, and they're doing this in a way that they're trying to cause chaos within the countries."

"And it's not just going to be us saying this. I think you're going to hear other leaders come out and say, cut it out, we're not going to put up with it," she continued.

When pressed on Trump's comments by Bash, Haley said the president still confronted the Russian president. In a separate CBS News appearance, she also pointed to the ongoing FBI and congressional probes into the issue as evidence that the Russians will face consequences.

“President Trump still knows that they meddled," she told CBS News' John Dickerson in a pre-taped interview for "Face the Nation." "President Putin knows that they meddled, but he is never going to admit to it. And that’s all that happened."

Putin claimed on Saturday he and Trump were in agreement that Russia was not involved.

We can deal with an "alliance" of feckless, non-contributing allies that cannot singly or collectively defend themselves, who resent us, who are scientifically not as advanced as we are, and who have endless need to follow fads such as global warming and transgenderism.

At very great expense to ourselves we can pay out the nose to maintain an "alliance" that really does nothing but chain us to defend these squabbling dependencies.

OR we can ally with the one other truly great power, the only one that can wipe us out, the only one that has been in space longer than we have been. If the US and Russia ally, any threat of thermonuclear holocaust evaporates, for we are the only two people who could do that. With just those two allies, a huge portion of the earth's surface is friendly, and open up to exploration and mutually profitable exploitation under just two governments.

They will never be dependent on us, and we will never be dependent on them: no need to pay out the nose endlessly for whiny, expensive satrapies. We both have a common interest in containing Chinese ambitions - without war. We both have a common interest in the joint exploration of space, a long history of success at it, and we complement each other's strengths.

Ally with Russia, and the need for a big US military presence in Europe evaporates. Their need for a huge submarine fleet diminishes substantially. Our mutual military expenses drop substantially, freeing us BOTH up to develop our countries economically.

Alliance with Russia gives Russia and the US both a huge peace dividend, makes us both FAR safer, gives them access to capital and us access to resources, both unparalleled.

Of course we don't LOSE our current allies by doing that. Canada will still be there. Europe doesn't have to be dumped. But it doesn't have to be defended either.

Peace, alliance, mutual development and mutual space and sea exploration between Russia and America is the single best thing that either country could do for itself. It would also settle completely who was in charge of the world: us two together have 12,000 nuclear weapons.

I'm sure this is going to surprise you almost as much as it surprises me,but I agree with everything you wrote in that post. The US and Russia are natural allies.

It actually doesn't surprise me. You seem to be very to-the-point when it comes to American military interests - basically, don't send our soldiers and airmen over to get shot up and shot down in endless, expensive wars that we're not politically allowed to win. Go big or go home.

When Russia was the USSR, we had to resist them everywhere: they had an ideology that called for them to conquer the world, and they believed it. But Russia hasn't been the USSR since 1991.

It was in the news everywhere at the time. I don't understand how so many people missed it.

I visited Russia twice right after the USSR collapsed,and the truest words you will ever read you will read next.

Russian and the US are not only natural allies against worldwide revolution and unrest,but natural business partners and allies. The US SHOULD be allies with Russia on the same level we are allies with England,and WOULD BE IF IT WEREN'T FOR THE CLINTONS ROBBING THEM BLIND BY STEALING WORLD BANK AND OTHER MONEY SENT TO THEM TO TRY TO HELP THEM GET BACK ON THEIR FEET AFTER THE NATIONAL BANKRUPTCY. Jesus,they even put Goober Gore in a World Band Fund oversight position,and that SOB can't count to 11 without unzipping his pants or taking a shoe off,and when he does,he doesn't understand what "11" means. Seriously. Several BILLION dollars were stolen from World Bank Funds earmarked to Russia that were ran through a bank in NYC,with Goober supposedly watching over it all. When the money was discovered to be gone,guess who got the blame. A 30-something year old Russian woman who was Russia's rep to the NYC bank. This was reported as the Gospel,and nobody in the freaking media even blinked,never mind asked any questions about how a 30-something Russian woman was sophisticated enough to steal billions from a US bank that was supposedly being watch over by accountants from both Russia and the US. Pay special attention to the US auditors and Goober not noticing the money was missing because all the Russians knew about how much they would be getting would be the numbers on the checks when they received them.

It's essential if you represent a defense/offense industry with government contracts and a Board of Directors demanding higher profits.

The 'murikan left doesn't even care because those are union jobs they are protecting by staying silent.

I have nothing against the defense industry as such. In fact, I always appreciated the high quality, dependable and effective systems with which they equipped me throughout my military career.

That does not mean that I support an arms race or perpetually massive expenditure on armaments.

I understand that the arms industry always wishes to grow, grow, grow. This is where the political system has to be proactive and determine what is in America's best interests overall - even if that is not necessarily what is best for the arms industry.

It's just another industry trying to make its way, with its own interests. All industries do this. What we have to not do is not get ourselves so wrapped up in the flag, patriotism and perceptions of unreal threats that we let ourselves get bamboozled into spending vastly more than we need to for national security. I know they're going to push us to overbuy, as every merchant does. But we need to be able to restrain ourselves, buy up to what we need, and then stop.