USA (Washington Insider Magazine)— Recently, Nikki Haley ignored mentioning slavery when asked by a voter in New Berlin, New Hampshire, regarding what caused the Civil War. It prompted swift and widespread objection, including from President Joe Biden.
“What was the cause of the United States Civil War?” the former South Carolina Governor and UN Ambassador was questioned by a man at her town hall event on Wednesday.
Ms Haley paused shortly before joking, “Well, don’t come with an easy question”.
“I think the cause of the Civil War was basically how government would run, the freedoms, and what people could and couldn’t do. What do you think the cause of the Civil War was?” she questioned.
The man, who afterwards told correspondents his name was Patrick, replied he wasn’t the one running for president.
“I mean, I think it always comes down to the role of government,” Ms Haley said. “We need to have capitalism. We need to have economic freedom. We need to ensure that we do all things so that individuals have the liberties to have freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom to do or be anything they want to be without government getting in the way.”
“In the year 2023, it’s astonishing to me that you can answer that question without mentioning the word ‘slavery’,” the voter expressed.
“What do you want me to say about slavery? Next question,” Ms Haley spoke.
The condemnation of her reply was quick, with President Joe Biden simply tweeting: “It was about slavery.”
Jaime Harrison, the chairman of the Democratic National Committee, described CBS in a statement: “This isn’t hard; denouncing slavery is the baseline for anyone who wants to be President of the United States, but Nikki Haley and the rest of the MAGA GOP are choking on their words trying to rewrite history.”
Journalist Aaron Rupar reported on X, formerly Twitter: “This is astounding. Nikki Haley believes ‘what caused the Civil War?’ is a gotcha because she’s afraid to talk about slavery and alienate her voters.”
Rep Ro Kanna, a California Democrat, tweeted: “Nikki Haley’s father, like mine, came to the US in the late 1960s because of the civil rights movement and the 1965 Immigration Act. Haley’s refusal to talk honestly about slavery or race in America is a sad betrayal of her own story. To what end?”
Qasim Rashid, a human rights lawyer and Democratic congressional candidate, expressed: “Nikki Haley was Gov of South Carolina. In South Carolina’s Articles of Secession, the VERY FIRST reason they give on why they’re going to war is, ‘[A]n increasing hostility on the part of the non-slaveholding States to the institution of slavery…’ But yeah, let’s ban more books.”
Anti-Trump Republican strategist Sarah Longwell said: “Setting the moral implications of Haley’s answer aside (which, big yikes), but even as a political matter, it makes no sense. The people who don’t want to acknowledge slavery already have their candidate in the comfortable racist Donald Trump. Nikki needs the other people!”
“This was DeSantis’s big strategic mistake. Trump has MAGA’s locked up. So don’t compete for them with dog whistles when Trump is using a bullhorn. Nikki needs to consolidate the part of the party that’s still normal. And normal people know slavery caused the Civil War!” Ms Longwell stated.
The chair of the Democratic Party in Ms Haley’s home state, Christale Spain, stated: “This is evil, but unsurprising from Nikki Haley. The same person who refused to take down the Confederate Flag until the tragedy in Charleston and tried to justify a Confederate History Month. She’s just as MAGA as Trump.”
Ms Haley’s viral moment comes amid a recent increase in her polling in New Hampshire, where the state’s governor, Chris Sununu, supported her earlier this month.
Ms Haley, the former South Carolina governor, has repeatedly cited removing the Confederate flag from the floors of the state house during her time in office. The flag disposal took place after a shooting at the Mother Emanuel AME church in Charleston, where a white supremacist shot dead nine Black people in 2015.
