Kaine: Trump changing his mind more ‘consistent’ than Haley getting confused

Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) on Wednesday defended U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley amid her clash with the White House this week, calling her “savvy” and taking a dig at President Trump. 

Kaine agreed with MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell that Haley had been “thrown under the bus” by the White House when economic adviser Larry Kudlow said Haley must have had “some momentary confusion” when she discussed purported sanctions.

“Nikki Haley is pretty savvy. I don’t think she got confused. I think the president either changed his mind or decided to overrule consensus advice of his top advisers, and that would be consistent with what we see from this president,” Kaine said.

Kaine, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said Trump’s move would line up with the president’s “unusual penchant to back off imposing stern consequences against Russia” and other adversaries.  

The former Democratic vice presidential nominee has been one of the Senate’s fiercest advocates for punishing Russia for its military aggression and interference in U.S. elections. 

His comments come after Haley said on CBS’s “Face the Nation” that the Trump administration was preparing new sanctions against Russia in response to Moscow’s support for the Syrian government after a suspected chemical attack on civilians in a rebel-controlled suburb of Damascus.

That claim reportedly angered President Trump, who had no such plans to slap new sanctions on Moscow, according to the Times. The White House later pushed back on Haley’s claim.

Haley rebuked Kudlow’s remark, saying that she doesn’t “get confused.”

Trump on Wednesday said the administration would sanction Russia “as soon as they very much deserve it,” walking back an apparent plan that Haley thought was in place.