U.N. Ambassador Haley gets backlash after tweeting about July 4 work


U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley was sharply criticized for a Fourth of July tweet in which she appeared to complain that she was spending her holiday working to tamp down the North Korean nuclear threat.

“Spending my 4th in meetings all day,” Haley wrote on Twitter. “#ThanksNorthKorea.”

Haley’s tweet — which came after North Korea conducted its latest test launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile — was met with a swift backlash by those who called it tone-deaf for not acknowledging the U.S. military on Independence Day.

“While I appreciate your service to our nation, perhaps you should be thanking the nearly 200,000 US troops serving overseas on #FourthOfJuly,” Andrew Weinstein, a lawyer and former Obama administration appointee, wrote on Twitter, “not to mention those protecting our homeland, including the police officers, firefighters, and other first responders keeping us safe today.”

“What job did you think you were signing up for, exactly?” asked Mother Jones editor in chief Clara Jeffery.

“The amount of arrogance in this tweet is baffling,” author Geraldine DeRuiter tweeted. “Is serving the American people an inconvenience for you? If so, feel free to step down.”

“You are a public servant,” Washington, D.C.-based writer Jodi Jacobson replied. “You are paid to do this work. You accepted this job. And many people work this day. Get over it.”

“It’s your job,” AARP blogger Anita Creamer tweeted. “Deal with it.”

“I invite the service men and women stationed around the world to comment here,” MSNBC anchor Stephanie Ruhle tweeted.

“I thought for sure this was a parody account,” Holly O’Reilly, a songwriter and political activist, wrote on Twitter. “Just because your boss plays golf all the time doesn’t mean you get holidays off.”

“Poor you,” cartoonist Box Brown added.

Yahoo News reached out to Haley’s office for comment.

Meanwhile, the former South Carolina governor can probably expect a few more daylong meetings on Pyongyang’s provocations.

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson called Tuesday’s missile test “a new escalation of the threat to the United States, our allies and partners, the region, and the world.”

In response, U.S. and South Korean troops fired “deep strike” precision missiles off South Korea’s east coast in a show of force on Wednesday. The U.S., Japan and South Korea also requested an emergency U.N. Security Council session.

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