GOP Rep. Sanford on Haley: 'Something Doesn't Smell Right'

Rep. Mark Sanford, R-S.C., says something is not quite right about the announced resignation of U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Nikki Haley.

"I was shocked," he told MSBNC's Craig Melvin of Haley's decision to step down by the end of the year.

"Something doesn't smell right," he said. "Something's weird. I can't put my finger on it."

Sanford noted one of her deputies, Jon Lerner, used to be one of his advisers and questioned whether Lerner had gotten word of something.

"Her head political guy, a guy by the name of Jon Lerner, used to be my lead guy," Sanford said. "That guy keeps his nose to the political winds. He has an acute sense of what's going on. Either there is another shoe to drop from a Trump standpoint – something we don't know [about] and she wants to get out of the way of – or, alternatively, there was this inquiry I guess put in [Monday] on private planes."

He speculated "maybe she doesn't want to risk the possibility of blemish."

The Washington Examiner noted Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington has filed a request with the State Department's inspector general asking Haley be investigated over free flights on luxury aircraft she and her husband were reportedly given by prominent businessmen.

Sanford is the former governor of South Carolina. He was succeeded by Haley.

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