12/29 NEWSBREAK: Haley walks back Civil War comments after backlash

Former S.C. Gov. Nikki Haley was asked at a Wednesday night New Hampshire presidential town hall about the reason for the Civil War, but she didn’t mention slavery in her response. That created a huge Thursday backlash with criticism coming from Republicans and Democrats. She has since walked back her comments hours later.

During a Thursday morning radio interview, she said, “Of course the Civil War was about slavery,” which she called “a stain on America.” She went on to reiterate that “freedom matters. And individual rights and liberties matter for all people.”

Her comments drew heavy criticism from political opponents, including Florida Gov. and Republican presidential candidate Ron DeSantis, who said that Haley “has had some problems with some basic American history” and that it’s “not that difficult to identify and acknowledge the role slavery played in the Civil War.”

Make America Great Again Inc., a super PAC supporting Trump’s campaign, sent out a release saying Haley’s response shows she “is clearly not ready for prime time.”

Jaime Harrison, current chairman of the Democratic National Committee and South Carolina’s party chairman during part of Haley’s tenure as governor, said her response was “not stunning if you were a Black resident in South Carolina when she was governor.”

“Same person who said the Confederate flag was about tradition and heritage and as a minority woman she was the right person to defend keeping it on Statehouse grounds,” Harrison posted Wednesday night on X. “Some may have forgotten but I haven’t. Time to take off the rose-colored Nikki Haley glasses folks.”

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