Nikki Haley Quickly Clarifies Civil War Answer

Nikki Haley isn't wasting much time trying to blunt a wave of criticism over her comments about the Civil War on Wednesday night. "Of course the Civil War was about slavery," she told The Pulse radio show in New Hampshire Thursday morning, reports Politico. "We know that, that's the easy part of it." The clarification came after the former South Carolina governor was asked at a town hall Wednesday what she thought caused the Civil War, and she did not mention slavery. "What I was saying was, what does it mean to us today?" Haley said Thursday. "What it means to us today is about freedom. That's what that was all about. It was about individual freedom. It was about economic freedom. It was about individual rights. Our goal is to make sure, no, we never go back to the stain of slavery."

That she responded quickly to clarify is a sign of the "danger to her campaign," writes Miranda Nazzaro at the Hill. Both Democrats and her Republican rivals had immediately pounced, ridiculing Haley for the original answer. The NH Journal recounts the exchange:

• "What was the cause of the United States Civil War?" asked a man who identified himself to reporters only as Patrick.
• "Well, don't come with an easy question," Haley said, apparently trying to lighten the mood. "I mean, 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."

Haley went on to give what the Journal describes as "a long and winding response about individual liberty and the role of government," after which the questioner said it was "astonishing" she failed to mention slavery. Haley said Thursday he was "definitely a Democrat plant," but critics faulted her for that, too. "She can't handle questions from alleged Democrat activists?" asked GOP state Rep. Ross Berry, a DeSantis backer. "What is she going to do when handling dictators and tyrants as president?" DeSantis spokesman Andrew Romeo tweeted that it was an "embarrassing cleanup attempt." (More Nikki Haley 2024 stories.)