State Department wants Haley to get approval for public remarks: report

The State Department is reportedly urging U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley to get her remarks cleared with Washington before making official public statements.

According to The New York Times, an email drafted by State Department diplomats asked Haley’s office to rely on pre-written “building blocks” when preparing her remarks.

The email maintained that her comments should be “re-cleared with Washington if they are substantively different from the building blocks, or if they are on a high-profile issue such as Syria, Iran, Israel-Palestine, or [North Korea].”

{mosads}Haley has previously maintained that she checks with the administration about her statements. She told CNN earlier this month that President Trump “has given me a lot of leeway to just say what I think and interpret what he thinks.”

“It is always coordinated with the White House. … I would never go rogue, because I’m very aware of who I work for,” she said. “I’m a strong voice by nature. I’m sometimes a bull in a china shop. And, you know, he allows me to do that.”

The email instructing the ambassador to use “building blocks” for her remarks comes ahead of a U.N. Security Council meeting on Friday where Haley is set to appear alongside Secretary of State Rex Tillerson.