Presidential hopeful Nikki Haley has been slammed for refusing to say that slavery was the main cause of the Civil War.
Haley, the 51-year-old former governor for South Carolina, blundered her way through the question at town hall debate in Berlin, New Hampshire, on Wednesday night.
The former UN representative jokingly told the audience member ‘well, don’t come with an easy question’, before claiming that the Civil War was fought for freedom and ideological differences in how governments ought to work.
‘I think the cause of the Civil War was basically how government was going to run, the freedoms of what people could and couldn’t do.’
The White House hopeful, currently a distant third place to Donald Trump in the race for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, can then be heard going on a tangent about the limits of government overreach and civil liberties.
Nikki Haley, the 51-year-old former governor for South Carolina, (pictured) blundered through the question at town hall debate in Berlin, New Hampshire, on Wednesday night
The former UN representative jokingly told the audience member ‘well, don’t come with an easy question’, before claiming that the Civil War was fought for freedom and ideological differences in how governments ought to work
‘I think it always comes down to the role of government and what the rights of the people are, and I will always stand by the fact that I think government was intended to secure the rights and freedoms of the people.
‘It was never meant to be all things to all people. Government doesn’t need to tell you how to live your life.
‘They don’t need to tell you what you can and can’t do. They don’t need to be a part of your life. They need to make sure that you have freedom.
‘We need to have capitalism. We need to have economic freedom. We need to make sure that we do all things so that individuals have the liberties so that they can have freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom to do or be anything they want to be without government getting in the way.’
Following the tangent, she tries to turn the question back to the voter, who tells her that he isn’t the one running for the Oval Office in 2024.
‘I think it always comes down to the role of government and what the rights of the people are, and I will always stand by the fact that I think government was intended to secure the rights and freedoms of the people,’ she said
Haley’s refusal to acknowledge this caught the ire of many across the political spectrum
Historians generally agree that slavery, and the divided opinions of Northern and Southern states over whether to abolish it, was the primary cause of the Civil War
The Southern states of the US, including Haley’s home state of South Carolina, were pro-slavery, while Northern states were anti-slavery
He is then heard saying: ‘In 2023, it’s astonishing to me that you would answer that question without mentioning the word slavery.’
Haley asks him: ‘What do you want me to say about slavery? Next question.’
Historians generally agree that slavery, and the divided opinions of Northern and Southern states over whether to abolish it, was the primary cause of the Civil War.
The Southern states of the US, including Haley’s home state of South Carolina, were pro-slavery, while Northern states were anti-slavery. South Carolina’s proclamation outlining its reasons for leaving the Union in 1860 pointed to the ”increasing hostility on the part of the non-slaveholding States to the institution of slavery’ as a reason for the state removing itself from the Union.
But Haley’s refusal to acknowledge this caught the ire of many across the political spectrum.
President Biden’s account on X shared a video of Haley’s town hall moment and tweeted, ‘It was about slavery.’
Donald Trump is currently leading the race for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination
The campaign of Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, another of Haley’s GOP foes, (pictured) recirculated video of the exchange on social media, adding the comment, ‘Yikes.’
Aggregated polling data from FiveThirtyEight shows that, nationally, Haley may soon overtake Ron DeSantis to be second place in the race for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination
Even in her home state, Haley is trailing far behind, with less than half the share of votes that Trump has
Meanwhile, the campaign of Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, another of Haley’s GOP foes, recirculated video of the exchange on social media, adding the comment, ‘Yikes.’
Issues surrounding the origins of the Civil War and its heritage are still much of the fabric of Haley’s home state, and she has been pressed on the war’s origins before.
As she ran for governor in 2010, Haley, in an interview with a now-defunct activist group then known as The Palmetto Patriots, described the war as between two disparate sides fighting for ‘tradition’ and ‘change’ and said the Confederate flag was ‘not something that is racist.’
During that same campaign, she dismissed the need for the flag to come down from the Statehouse grounds, portraying her Democratic rival’s push for its removal as a desperate political stunt.
Five years later, Haley urged lawmakers to remove the flag from its perch near a Confederate soldier monument following a mass shooting in which a white gunman killed eight Black church members who were attending Bible study.
At the time, Haley said the flag had been ‘hijacked’ by the shooter from those who saw the flag as symbolizing ‘sacrifice and heritage.’
Aggregated polling data from FiveThirtyEight shows that, nationally, Haley may soon overtake Ron DeSantis to be second place in the race for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination.
Despite this, she has a long way to go to beat Donald Trump, who currently has 61.2% of Republicans pledged to vote for him.
Even in her home state, Haley is trailing far behind, with less than half the share of votes that Trump has.
has contacted Nikki Haley’s presidential campaign for comment.