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Former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley<\/strong> retreated<\/a> on Thursday from an answer she gave during a presidential town hall in New Hampshire a day earlier, in which she did not mention slavery when asked about the cause of the US Civil War.<\/p>\n \u201cOf course, the Civil War was about slavery, that\u2019s the easy part,\u201d Haley said on Pulse of New Hampshire<\/em>, a radio show. The former UN ambassador, who removed the Confederate battle flag<\/a> from the grounds of the South Carolina statehouse in 2015, said, \u201cYes, I know it was about slavery. I am from the South.\u201d<\/p>\n But it wasn\u2019t easy on Wednesday, when Haley gave a stumbling, evasive answer to the question, arguing that the issue \u201ccomes down to the role of government and what the rights of the people are.\u201d<\/p>\n After her questioner said it was \u201castonishing\u201d that her answer did not include the word \u201cslavery,\u201d Haley replied, \u201cWhat do you want me to say about slavery?\u201d Then, she quickly moved on to another question.<\/p>\n \u201cI want to nip it in the bud. Yes, we know the Civil War was about slavery,\u201d Haley said Thursday. \u201cBut more than that, what\u2019s the lesson in all this? That freedom matters. And individual rights and liberties matter for all people. That\u2019s the blessing of America. That was a stain on America when we had slavery.\u201d<\/p>\n In her radio interview, Haley argued that the questioner was \u201cdefinitely a Democrat plant\u201d and accused the Joe Biden<\/strong> campaign of sending people to her town halls to sabotage her campaign and ensure that Donald Trump<\/strong> is the Republican nominee.<\/p>\n The Biden campaign quickly seized<\/a> on the Wednesday gaffe, and Biden himself replied to Haley\u2019s answer in a post on X, formerly Twitter. \u201cIt was about slavery,\u201d the president wrote<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cI am disgusted, but I\u2019m not surprised \u2014 this is what Black South Carolinians have come to expect from Nikki Haley, and now the rest of the country is getting to see her for who she is,\u201d Jaime Harrison<\/strong>, chair of the Democratic National Committee, said in a statement.<\/p>\n Ron DeSantis’s<\/strong> campaign also posted<\/a> a video of Haley\u2019s response, adding the comment, \u201cYikes.\u201d The Florida governor, who faced criticism<\/a> from some Black Republicans last summer when his state\u2019s new history standards included a line about slaves developing skills from enslavement, said<\/a> in a press conference Thursday that it was \u201cnot that difficult to identify and acknowledge the role slavery played in the Civil War.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Haley is now nearly tied<\/a> with DeSantis for second place in national polling, and has leapfrogged him in New Hampshire, where, according to a recent poll, she has closed<\/a> to within 4 points of \u00a0Trump. Haley is hoping to peel off some of the state\u2019s more moderate Republicans and independents, who are allowed to vote in the state\u2019s January 23 primary.<\/p>\n But the gaffe underscores both the difficulties she faces in still appealing to a largely Trumpified GOP electorate, as well as her own checkered record on the subjects of slavery and racism.\u00a0<\/p>\n Haley frequently touts her decision as governor to remove the Confederate flag from the statehouse following the white supremacist shooting of 9 Black parishioners in South Carolina. But she has also frequently spoken<\/a> about the flag as a symbol of Southern \u201cheritage,\u201d and has downplayed<\/a> the existence of racism in other ways.<\/p>\n Christale Spain<\/strong>, the chair of the South Carolina Democratic Party, called<\/a> Haley\u2019s comments \u201cvile, but unsurprising,\u201d adding, \u201cThe same person who refused to take down the Confederate Flag until the tragedy in Charleston, and tried to justify a Confederate History Month. She\u2019s just as MAGA as Trump.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n