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.

Nice pipe dream that doesn't take into account the powerful contingent that profits from all sides of a war. So long as they have the means and motive to con populations into supporting wars, they will continue to play "let's you and him fight" for their own ends.

This military-industrial complex (that Eisenhower warned against) is primarily in the USA.

They're powerful, but they can be politically defeated. The Clintons were immensely powerful, but they were defeated. Powerful opposing interests can be defeated and lose their point.

They fight hard and use dark tactics, so you may well have to after them using dark tactics also. They're not going to peacefully go into that good night. They'll fight for their interest, and they have to be defeated. They can be...if people care enough for an alternative way.