At a town hall in New Hampshire Wednesday night, former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley botched an answer regarding the cause of the Civil War, as Politico reported:
“I think the cause of the Civil War was basically how government was going to run,” she responded. “The freedoms and what people could and couldn't do. What do you think the cause of the Civil War was or argument?”
Haley continued after the unidentified questioner expressed astonishment at her response “without mentioning the word slavery.” Haley replied, “What do you want me to say about slavery?” before moving on to the next question.
The exchange surprised many, considering the deftness she exhibited removing the Confederate flag on the South Carolina State House ground.
The following day, the Republican presidential candidate claimed without evidence in an interview that the questioner was a Democrat “plant” who was out to get her, and that's why they didn't share their name with reporters.
Despite widespread criticism, Mediaite's Phillip Nieto observed that “Fox & Friends” remained supportive of Haley. “She couldn't have handled it better,” Fox News' Griff Jenkins proclaimed at one point:
Fox hosts Joey Jones, Carley Shimkus, and Griff Jenkins all defended Haley's remarks and suggested that the individual who asked Haley the question was a Democratic plant. (A suggestion Haley herself made several hours later.) Jones, for his part, noted that Haley was trying to “encapsulate” the nuance surrounding the causes of he Civil War with her answer, but did not actually intend to suggest “slavery wasn't a big part” of the conflict.
“It was about slavery and a whole bunch of other things. And I think she was trying to encapsulate that. But in on the campaign trail, less in an academic environment, you got to see that coming and you got to be able to answer it better. But I don't think in any way she was trying to say slavery wasn't a big part, if not the cause of the civil war,” Jones told viewers.
Meanwhile, Jenkins defended Haley by pointing out that as governor of South Carolina, she removed the Confederate flag from the state house.
“If the implication is that she wouldn't condemn the evils of slavery, they failed miserably. This is a governor in the wake of the massacre of black residents in the A.M.E. Church in Charleston, out of that disaster and tragedy. She then had the political courage to drop in one of the most southern of all states, the Confederate flag from the Capitol grounds, and took immense heat for it. To say that she isn't willing and doesn't have the moral fortitude and political courage to stand and condemn the evils of slavery is embarrassing,” he added.
In a document justifying its decision to become the first state to secede from the Union, the South Carolina government identified the right to continue slavery on its own terms as an immediate cause.
(H/T Hot Air)
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