Nikki Haley Uses Childhood Friendships to Justify Controversial Civil War Remarks | Vanity Fair

Written by Bess Levin

With the arrival of January, it's time for resolutions. Nikki Haley, a potential GOP presidential candidate, may need to prioritize one resolution: giving improved responses when questioned about the Civil War. Haley was criticized previously for stating that the US Civil War was fought over "the role of government and what the rights of the people are," without mentioning slavery. Later, she suggested her omission should not be overanalyzed, affirming that "of course the Civil War was about slavery." However, on Thursday night, her answer once again left much to be desired.

During a town hall for CNN, the possible Republican presidential nominee said, “If you grow up in South Carolina, literally in second and third grade, you learn about slavery. You grow up and you have—you know, I had Black friends growing up. It is a very talked-about thing.”

Haley has struggled with discussing slavery and the Civil War previously too. During her 2010 South Carolina governorship campaign, she labeled the war as a battle between "tradition" and "change," claiming the Confederate flag was "not something that is racist." She further maintained there was no need to remove the flag from the statehouse grounds (though five years later, she encouraged state lawmakers to do so in the wake of a church mass shooting that claimed nine Black lives). Jaime Harrison, the chair of the Democratic National Committee, wrote in response to Haley's blunder in December, stating her failure to acknowledge slavery was not surprising "if you were a Black resident in SC when she was Governor." Harrison furthered his thought on X saying, "Some may have forgotten but I haven’t. Time to take off the rose colored Nikki Haley glasses folks.”