Amb. Andrew Young: Russians Didn't Take the Election, Dems Lost

On Wednesday South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, President-elect Donald Trump’s choice for U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, defended her “outsider’s” approach to the United States’ relationship with the world agency.

“Like most government agencies, the United Nations could benefit from a fresh set of eyes. I will take an outsider’s look at the institution,” Haley said while testifying in front of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

Haley has voiced skepticism about the proportion of funds the U.S. provides to the U.N., and questions whether it serves U.S. interests.

In an interview on FOX Business Network Cavuto: Coast-to-Coast, former United Nations Ambassador Andrew Young said the U.N. is actually a very cost effective investment for the U.S.

“You pay according to your ability to pay,” Amb. Young said. “The U.N. is a good savings for us. It does a lot of work we don’t need to be doing and other people need to carry the burden,” Amb. Young said.

The former Democratic mayor of Atlanta believes Gov. Haley is a good choice for U.S. ambassador to the U.N.

“I think she will be well received and I think she’ll be able to get almost anything done she wants to get done there,” he said.

Young, who served as U.N. ambassador under President Carter, is hopeful about the Middle-East peace process, despite the U.S. decision to abstain from voting on a resolution to end Israeli settlements.

“We have to realize that the Israel that I visited in 1966 with Ben-Gurion and Shimon Peres and Moshe Dayan is completely different from the Israel that exists now. And you have new waves of migrants coming in and they are coming from places where they been persecuted. So, they feel very, very insecure, but that doesn’t mean that we can’t find a solution there,” Young said.

The Ambassador also spoke about the House Democrats who are boycotting Trump’s inauguration.

“I think that Democracy is difficult, it has its messy side but it’s the best method of getting along with people with whom you disagree,” he said.

Young, who was with Martin Luther King Jr. when the civil rights leader was assassinated in 1968 in Memphis, received a surprised phone call Monday afternoon from President-elect Donald Trump where the two discussed the ongoing dispute with Georgia lawmaker John Lewis.

“I said [to Trump] look, this is a time of extremely difficult change. We were not-- including President-elect-- nobody anticipated the world making the shift that it did and it’s going to take us a little while and I think that democracy requires that we respect each other and we disagree, but we can disagree without being disagreeable,” he said.

The Ambassador said the country will move forward despite the growing list of House Democrats who plan to skip President-elect Trump’s inauguration on Friday.

“I think this is what American freedom is about. The freedom to protest is one of the first amendment freedoms and if they want to protest, let them protest.”

When asked whether he believes Trump is a legitimate president, Young said, “Though I know the Russians tried to disrupt this election, we lost this election. The Russians didn’t take it.”