BERLIN, N.H. — Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley declined Wednesday to say slavery was a cause of the Civil War, arguing instead that it came down to “the role of government.”
At a New Hampshire town hall, a voter bluntly asked Haley, “What was the cause of the Civil War?”
Haley, the former South Carolina governor and former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, who is aiming to present herself as the top Republican alternative to former President Donald Trump, gave a lengthy answer but did not mention slavery — the primary cause of the war.
“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,” she said at the beginning of her response.
On Thursday, she appeared to backpedal, saying in a radio interview on “Good Morning New Hampshire” that “of course, the Civil War was about slavery” and that her comments reflect what it “means to us today.”
“What it means to us today is about freedom — that’s what that was all about. It was about individual freedom,” she said. “It was about economic freedom. It was about individual rights.”
Haley then suggested without evidence that the voter who asked the question was a “plant” sent by Democrats, arguing that allies of President Joe Biden are trying to influence the primary to ensure he faces former President Donald Trump in the general election.
“Biden and the Democrats keep sending Democrat plants to do things like this to get the media to react,” she said. “We know when they’re there; we know what they’re doing. Why is Biden doing that? Why isn’t he doing it to any other candidate? It’s because he knows I defeat him by double digits.
“It’s also because they know they want to run against Trump,” she added. “They’re trying to help Trump — they’ve tried to help Trump this whole time.”
Asked whether she thought the voter was a “Democrat plant” or just a…
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