By Madison Dibble | November 10, 2019

Nikki Haley condemned John Kelly and Rex Tillerson for going around the president when they had issues with his policy decisions.

Kelly and Tillerson, who served as President Trump’s chief of staff and secretary of state respectively, were both forced out of the administration following policy disagreements. In her new book, Haley described a situation in which Kelly and Tillerson came to her and asked her to “undermine” the president instead of confronting Trump directly about a foreign policy decision.

“Kelly and Tillerson confided in me that when they resisted the president, they weren’t being insubordinate, they were trying to save the country,” Haley wrote.

In an interview on CBS Sunday Morning, Haley criticized the two men for having a “sidebar plan” against the president.

“Instead of saying that to me, they should have been saying that to the president, not asking me to join them on their sidebar plan. It should have been, go tell the president what your differences are and quit if you don’t like what he’s doing,” Haley said, adding, “But to undermine the president is really a very dangerous thing.”

Haley claimed Kelly and Tillerson’s behavior “goes beyond the Constitution” and what the American people voted for when they elected Trump to be president.

“It was offensive,” Haley added.

Kelly responded to Haley’s claims, saying, “If by resistance and stalling she means putting a staff process in place to ensure the president knew all the pros and cons of what policy decision he might be contemplating so he can make an informed decision, then guilty as charged.”

Trump hasn’t had many kind words for Tillerson or Kelly since their exits from the administration. The president called Tillerson “dumb as a rock” and White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham claimed that Kelly was “totally unequipped to handle the genius of our great president.”

Haley, 47, left her position as ambassador to the United Nations in 2018 but has remained a supporter of the president.

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