Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley steadfastly avoided bringing up slavery when asked during a New Hampshire town hall Wednesday what caused the Civil War—and when confronted by a voter who felt her omission was “astonishing,” she was puzzled by his concerns.
After an audience member asked her the question, Haley responded sarcastically—“Well don’t come with an easy question or anything”—as if there was no doubt that she would provide an adequate response.
But that would not be the case for the former governor of South Carolina—the first state to secede from the Union in the lead-up to the Civil War, and home to the site of the war’s first armed engagement.
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“I mean, I think the cause of the Civil War was basically how government was going to run—the freedoms and what people could and couldn’t do,” said Haley, who then asked the questioner what he believed the cause of the war to be.
“I’m not running for president,” the man replied. “I wanted to see your view on the cause of the Civil War.”
Haley then basically reiterated her prior answer, saying, “I think it always comes down to the role of government.”
Moments later, the individual in the audience reacted with dismay by Haley’s comments.
“In 2023, it’s astonishing to me that you would answer that question without mentioning the word ‘slavery,’” he said, which prompted Haley to appear unsure what his point was.
“What do you want me to say about slavery?” she said with her palm facing upward.
But that remark apparently said it all. “You’ve answered my question,” the man responded.
Haley then moved on, saying, “Next question.”
Yet the man whose job she’s gunning for apparently didn’t want to move on Wednesday night.
President Joe Biden called attention to Haley’s comments by posting four simple words.
“It was about slavery,” he wrote on X, formerly Twitter, just hours after Haley’s gaffe.
