Nikki Haley, a former South Carolina governor who is now the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, said that she talked privately with President Trump after the violence in Charlottesville, Virginia.
"I picked up the phone, and I had a private conversation with the president about Charlottesville, and it was taken very well," she told ABC News chief anchor George Stephanopoulos on "Good Morning America" today.
Haley, a Republican, when she was the governor of South Carolina, called for the Confederate battle flag to be removed from the state Capitol grounds in 2015 in the wake of the racially charged killing of nine African-Americans at a church in Charleston.
During the 2016 Republican presidential primaries, she supported candidate Marco Rubio and implicitly criticized Trump when he did not immediately disavow former KKK leader David Duke.
Stephanopoulos asked her on "GMA" about Trump's remark after the violence in Charlottesville that there were "very fine people on both sides" — among the white nationalist attending a rally in the city on Aug. 12 and the counterprotesters.
Haley said the president has since "clarified" his remarks "so that no one can question that he's opposed to bigotry and hate in this country."
Trump appeared to allude to the Charlottesville violence during his speech Monday night on Afghanistan policy.
"Loyalty to our nation demands loyalty to one another. Love for America requires love for all of its people," Trump said. "When we open our hearts to patriotism, there is no room for prejudice, no place for bigotry and no tolerance for hate."
In regard to Trump's address on Monday, Haley said Americans are "not going to hear ... the details" of U.S. military tactics in Afghanistan.
She said U.S. military operations in Afghanistan will be different from those of the past 16 years.
"What you're not going to hear are the details" about U.S. tactics there, Haley said. "In the past, we've had administrations that have given out everything we're doing, when we're doing it and how we're doing it. You're not going to hear that now."
Another difference in the United States' engagement in Afghanistan under the Trump administration is that "it's not going to be based on time. It's going to be based on results," she said.
"It's not going to be like the last 16 years," she said.
Asked what would constitute a victory in Afghanistan, Haley replied, "Defeat terrorism."