Nikki Haley: Trump right to threaten to withhold WHO funding

"This is even bigger than the World Health Organization, this is about China's influence into these multilateral organizations," Haley said.

By DONNA RACHEL EDMUNDS
U.S. President Donald Trump talks with U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley in the Oval Office of the White House after it was announced the president had accepted the Haley's resignation in Washington, U.S., October 9, 2018 (photo credit: REUTERS/JONATHAN ERNST)
U.S. President Donald Trump talks with U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley in the Oval Office of the White House after it was announced the president had accepted the Haley's resignation in Washington, U.S., October 9, 2018
(photo credit: REUTERS/JONATHAN ERNST)
Nikki Haley has criticized the World Health Organization (WHO) over their response to the coronavirus outbreak, accusing them of pandering to China instead of protecting the health of the global population.
Appearing on Fox News, former US ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley criticized the WHO for dragging its feet in the early stages of the crisis, despite having clear warnings from Taiwan that human-to-human transmission was a factor.
"Look at the timeline," she said. "You've got December 30th, Taiwan goes and tells the WHO: 'We believe and have evidence there is human to human transmission.' Then you have January 14th, the head of the WHO Tedros [Adhanom] says 'We don't see any evidence of human to human transmission.'
She continued: "Then you go a week later and they have an emergency meeting to decide if this is an international crisis. They don't make a decision on that day. Instead, Tedros travels to China to go meet with them. It is a week later when he comes back and says, they decide: 'Ok this could be an emergency but you don't need to limit travel, and you don't need to limit trade.' Yet the President does it anyway and Tedros criticizes him for doing that. The American people have every right to ask the WHO questions."

On Wednesday, Haley told Fox News host Sean Hannity that too much deference had been made toward China by the organization, and that that deference had harmed the world population.
She argued that US President Donald Trump was right to threaten the World Health Organization with withholding funds until the health body was able to explain why early warnings over COVID-19 were ignored.
"The United States does fund 22% of the World Health Organization," Haley said, according to The Washington Examiner. "But this is even bigger than the World Health Organization, this is about China's influence into these multilateral organizations."
Questioning why China had recently been promoted to the United Nations Human Rights Council despite apparent attempts to cover up the virus as it took hold in Wuhan, Haley added: "This is what China does.
"They try and leverage and get influence. And what we're seeing is the World Health Organization, once again, has fallen for it. And I can't believe they're going to go so far as lecture the president. I mean, if anything, we deserve to hold them accountable. We have the rights to answers. They need to be investigated."

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"Why did it take a whole month for the World Health Organization to respond? You want to know why that is? Because China has kept Taiwan from being a member of the World Health Organization," she said.

On Friday, Trump said he would be making an announcement on WTO funding within the next week. "As you know, we have given them approximately $500 million a year, and we are going to be talking about that subject next week. We'll have a lot to say about it," he told a news conference at the White House, AFP reported.
The WHO are not the only group to have come under fire from Haley in recent days. Again on Fox News, Haley slammed the Democrats in Congress for dragging their feet on supplying funding to small business owners struggling amid the crisis.
She argued that the Democrats ought to support a $2 trillion stimulus package currently being fought over by lawmakers, which would hand every American $1,200, plus $500 for each child.
More importantly for small business owners, it allows them to secure federally guaranteed loans, which would be forgiven once the economy improves as long as they are used for expenses such as employees paychecks, mortgage payments and utilities. The bill has already been approved by the Senate, but House Representatives continue to argue over it.

"There's no reason that they couldn't have passed Mitch McConnell's bill. It would help small businesses. It would help workers. If they have something else they want to do, go ahead and pass that when you get your support and when you get your ideas to do that, but we need to get this program done.

"You've got small businesses, they typically don't have 45 days worth of reserves there. They've got people who have been loyal and worked for them that they want to keep, and they can only do it with this program. And so now is not the time to be playing games. Now is the time to get money in the hands of those that want to keep employing people, want to keep their businesses open, and while you've got members of congress fighting over this, there is no time to waste if you have a small business. They need the money now."


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