Nikki Haley stuns Democrats by saying she has not discussed Russia's election meddling with Trump

Nikki Haley, US ambassador to the United Nations, stunned Democrats when she told a congressional committee that she and Donald Trump haven't discussed Russia’s meddling in the 2016 US election, currently one of the most prominent issues facing the US.

Ms Haley testified that she has told the President she thinks Russia interfered in the presidential race last year, but that their discussion has not gone much further beyond that.

“It's not something that's on my radar,” Ms Haley told the House of Representatives’ Committee on Foreign Affairs.

Russia is one of the permanent members of the UN's Security Council with veto power.

“Other administration officials have testified that they haven’t spoken with the President regarding Russian interference in last year’s election,” said Democratic congressman Brad Sherman. “Have you talked to the President about this?”

“I have not talked to the President about that,” Ms Haley replied, later telling the panel that the issue has also not come up at the UN, as it’s not something she focuses on.

Democratic Representative Gregory Meeks later commented that he was “actually stunned” by the response she gave to Mr Sherman's question given the nature of the issue.

While Mr Trump appears to have recently acknowledged that Russia meddled in the election, he had previously labelled the interference as an apparent fiction created by Democrats to explain away their unexpected loss.

Jeh Johnson, Homeland Security Secretary under Barack Obama, said last week that Russian President Vladimir Putin directed the cyber attacks aimed at disrupting and discrediting the presidential race. Congressional and federal investigators are also probing whether Trump campaign officials colluded with Russian operatives to secure Mr Trump’s election.

While Mr Trump has proven to be reluctant in criticising Mr Putin and Moscow, Ms Haley has denounced Russia as an unreliable ally.

She has also departed from the President by endorsing the need for special prosecutor Robert Mueller to investigate the Trump campaign’s Russia ties.

“We absolutely need the investigation,” she told MSNBC last month. “I think all these questions need to be answered so that the administration can get back to work.” Trump, in comparison, has dismissed the need for a special prosecutor, saying the appointment of Mr Mueller “hurts our country terribly”.

“What I appreciate is that this administration does not tell me what to say or what not to say,” Ms Haley told the House committee on Wednesday. “They allow me to say what I think and they support me”.

But despite early signs that she’s a maverick attempting to form her own foreign policy path, Ms Haley declared that she “won’t go rogue on the President”.

During the hearing, she asserted that “many innocent men, women and children” were saved as the result of Mr Trump's warning to Syria this week not to launch chemical attacks. In a surprise statement, the White House said it had evidence Syria was preparing to begin another chemical attack and cautioned that Bashar al-Assad's regime would “pay a heavy price” if it did so.

“I can tell you, due to the president’s actions, we did not see an incident,” Ms Haley said.

She also defended Mr Trump’s controversial withdrawal of the US from the Paris Agreement on climate change – arguing that it was in the best interest of the country – as well as the Trump administration’s proposed cuts to key programmes including the UN Children’s Fund, or Unicef, which provides humanitarian and developmental assistance to children and mothers in developing countries.

Mr Trump, meanwhile, hopes to massively boost the US’s military spending.

“The President is making the point that we need to build up on military, and people who are having to pay the price for that are children who are at risk for malnutrition?” said Democratic congressman Gerry Connolly.

Ms Haley asserted that based on conversations she has had with Mr Trump, “there is working room” in the budget to support Unicef.

“You are a loyal member of the administration,” Mr Connolly replied somewhat sardonically. “Good for you.”