MSNBC's Joe Scarborough and Donny Deutsch were disturbed by UN ambassador Nikki Haley's "mob boss" threats against the United Nations.
Haley issued a direct threat Thursday, saying the U.S. may not continue funding the organization if other nations voted to condemn the Trump administration's decision to relocate its Israeli embassy in Jerusalem.
"When did we become the bad guys?" Deutsch said. "You know, I'm listening to that speech, and I'm saying, 'No, that's the bad guys talking, bad guys talk that way.' We're not going to give you aid if you don't blindly agree with us, we'll cut you off? When did this happen?"
Scarborough said the threat was both troubling and short-sighted.
"You know, you sit and listen to Nikki Haley, a representative of the United States of America, and it's breathtaking that she would actually threaten to cut off aid and support, and humanitarian aid," Scarborough said.
"By the way, all those things, you talk about PR, all of those things in the end help us," he continued. "This is what people like Donald Trump, and I guess Nikki Haley and others do not understand. We don't give foreign aid and humanitarian aid just to make ourselves feel good. Those dollars are strategic to allow the United States to continue to have soft power across the globe, and you just aren't smart if you believe that threatening that over -- let's, remember what this was. This was a non-binding resolution."
Scarborough said the resolution carried no weight, but Haley's speech needlessly antagonized both allies and adversaries.
"Donald Trump and Nikki Haley engaged in something between school yard taunt and a mob boss' threat, and they did it as our representatives," Scarborough said.
Scarborough said the speech ultimately undermined American foreign policy interests, and Deutsch wondered why Republicans refused to challenge Trump on any issues of importance.
"I watch Nikki Haley, and I bring it back to Paul Ryan," Deutsch said. "As much as I am disgusted by Trump, the people that offend me more are are the people blindly following, who you know are inherently decent people (but) have just kind of left their moral compass at the door as the puppeteer moves them. I just think back to Paul Ryan's smug victory lap on something that as a fiscal conservative, a guy years ago, you would say, this is not in his core. You look at Nikki Haley, she's a decent person -- that's not in her core."
