Haley says she assumed it was a 'given' that Civil War was about slavery

GOP presidential primary candidate Nikki Haley said Wednesday she had assumed it was a “given” that the Civil War was about slavery when giving her controversial answer on the topic last week.

“What I should have said immediately was that the Civil War was about slavery, but I just assumed that that was a given, and I went on and said it was also about the role of government and about the rights of people economically, socially and otherwise,” Haley said in a Fox News interview Wednesday.

The former United Nations ambassador and South Carolina governor faced backlash for her answer to a voter's question on what the Civil War was fought over, during a town hall even in New Hampshire.

“Well, don’t come with an easy question, right,” Haley said at the time. “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.”

The voter then criticized her answer and said it was “astonishing” that in 2023 she did not mention slavery when discussing the cause of the Civil War.

“What do you want me to say about slavery?” she asked.

Fellow GOP primary candidate Ron DeSantis went after Haley over her answer last week.

“The minute that she faces any type of scrutiny, she tends to cave. And I think that that’s what you saw yesterday,” he said Dec. 30. “It’s not that difficult to identify and acknowledge the role slavery played in the Civil War.”

“You’re going to get asked a lot of tough questions. That’s just the nature of this business,” he continued. “And I think that she shows time and time again that when the lights get hot, that she wilts under pressure, and that was a good example last night.”