Haley also defended Trump’s orders banning travel from certain majority-Muslim nations, saying his executive actions are not the Muslim ban he proposed during his campaign — and that she vocally opposed as governor of South Carolina.
Enforcement of Trump’s revised travel order, issued by the president last week, was set to begin Thursday. But a federal judge in Hawaii blocked the new ban Wednesday evening, after Haley’s interview was taped and mere hours before it was to go into effect.
“It’s not a Muslim ban. I will never support a Muslim ban. I don’t think we should ever ban anyone based on their religion. That is un-American. It is not good,” Haley said prior to a judge’s ruling Wednesday. “What I can tell you is, as governor of South Carolina, I knew the fears and the problems that we had with people coming into the country that we could not vet properly.”
The new executive order, now on hold nationwide, is a more limited version of the first travel ban, which prohibited residents and refugees from seven Muslim-majority nations from entering the U.S. and was halted by several court orders.
