Nikki Haley Denies Mike Pompeo’s Claim that She Plotted with Javanka to Be Trump’s Vice President

In a new memoir, former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo claimed that Nikki Haley plotted with Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump to become former President Donald Trump’s Vice President, but Haley dismissed those claims as “lies and gossip.”

Pompeo’s new book Never Give an Inch: Fighting for the America I Love is scheduled to be released next week. In an excerpt obtained by The Guardian, Pompeo describes how Haley allegedly “played” Trump’s former chief of staff, John Kelly, and brought Kushner and Ivanka Trump into a meeting that was supposed to be one-on-one with the former president.

“As best Kelly could tell, they were presenting a possible ‘Haley for vice-president’ option,” Pompeo writes. “I can’t confirm this, but [Kelly] was certain he had been played, and he was not happy about it. Clearly, this visit did not reflect a team effort but undermined our work for America.”

However, Haley claimed Pompeo’s recounting was full of “lies and gossip to sell a book,” during an interview with Fox News’s Bret Baier.

“I don’t know why he said it, but that’s exactly why I stayed out of D.C. as much as possible, to get away from the drama,” Haley, Trump’s former U.N. Ambassador, told Baier.

Pompeo also claimed that Haley “flat-out threw in the towel,” when she resigned from her diplomatic post in October 2018.

“She has described her role as going toe-to-toe with tyrants,” Pompeo says. “If so, then why would she quit such an important job at such an important time?”

Pompeo added that Haley “abandoned” Trump just as she did to the “great people of South Carolina” when she resigned as governor in 2017 to accept the U.N. Ambassadorship.

Although Trump is the only declared Republican 2024 presidential candidate, Haley and Pompeo are both rumored to launch their own presidential bids.

Haley hinted at her presidential ambitions during her interview with Baier.

“I think we need a young generation to come in, step up and really start fixing things. Can I be that leader? Yes, I think I can be that leader,” Haley said.

Jordan Dixon-Hamilton is a reporter for Breitbart News. Write to him at jdixonhamilton@breitbart.com or follow him on Twitter.