Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley is facing backlash after the former South Carolina governor couldn’t simply point to slavery as being a root cause of the American Civil War. Instead, she blamed a “Democratic plant” for her gaff during a town hall in Berlin, New Hampshire.
Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley, who is facing backlash over her response to a question about the Civil War at a New Hampshire campaign event, alleged without evidence Thursday that that the questioner was potentially a Democratic “plant.”
“We know when they’re there. We know what they’re doing,” Haley said during an interview with the radio show The Pulse of NH.
Haley was asked what caused the Civil War by an attendee at a Berlin, New Hampshire, town hall Wednesday night. The former South Carolina governor subsequently drew criticism from Republicans and Democrats alike for her response that left out any mention of slavery.
“I mean, I think the cause of the Civil War was basically how the government was going to run. The freedoms and what people could and couldn’t do,” Haley answered at the event. She tried to turn the question back to the attendee, who said he would rather hear her answer.
USA Today
Haley’s comments regarding slavery aren’t the first time the GOP politician has faced scrutiny over her stances regarding the Civil War. In a 2010 interview, Haley defended the Confederate Flag and its modern-day use saying that it wasn’t “racist” but a representation of heritage and tradition. She continued saying the flag is a “compromise of all people, that everybody should accept a part of South Carolina.”
Haley even defended the Confederate Flag’s continued representation on South Carolina state grounds after the racially driven mass shooting at a South Carolina church. “There is a place for that flag,” Haley said to CNN in July 2015 after the flag was removed. “It’s not in a place that represents all people in South Carolina.”
Despite the Southern Strategy adopted by the GOP, it’s still so sad that Republicans, especially Haley who comes from a BIPOC family, have trouble identifying and coming to terms with some of the greatest atrocities in human history.
“What was the cause of the United States Civil War?”
How can anyone in 2023 have trouble answering this question? What makes matters worse is the massive amounts of irony Haley muttered in the same sequence. I mean, was Haley deliberately trying to be obtuse when praising capitalism in a discussion about the American Civil War? She even continued seemingly eluding to the “role of government” as a root cause and individuals having the “liberties” to have “freedom of speech, freedom of religion, without government getting in the way”.
MAGA Inc., the super PAC supporting President Trump, sent an email blast criticizing Haley’s response to a question. The group stated that Haley is “not ready for prime time” and argued that the real issue is her response, not the question. Rep. Byron Donalds (R-Fla.), an African American who has endorsed Trump, replied on Twitter stating that slavery was the obvious answer. He added, “This really doesn’t matter because Trump is going to be the nominee.” The Trump campaign did not respond to requests for comment.
Haley on Thursday responded to her critics saying she didn’t mention slavery in her initial response because she thought it was “a given”.
