Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley tried to smooth over her awkward Civil War comments Thursday night, but only ended up raising more eyebrows by saying that she "had Black friends growing up."
The 2024 GOP hopeful came under fire last month for her response at a New Hampshire town hall to a question about the cause of the Civil War; she failed to mention slavery.
Haley has since tried to clarify her comments, saying "of course" the war was fought over slavery, but she flubbed her response Thursday night at a CNN town hall.
Responding to a question from an Iowa caucus voter, Haley said she should have mentioned slavery in her initial response to the Civil War question and recalled her own experience growing up in an Indian family in the South.
"I should have said slavery right off the bat," she said, according to the Daily Mail. "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. We have a big history in South Carolina, when it comes to slavery, when it comes to all the things that happened with the Civil War, all of that. It was not just slavery that was talked about; it was more about racism that was talked about. We had Black friends, we had white friends, but it was always a topic of conversation."
The former United Nations ambassador also caused a stir during the town hall when she said she would consider pardoning former President Donald Trump, whose administration she worked in and with whom she is now vying for the Republican presidential nomination.
Still widely considered an underdog to Trump in the Republican primary, Haley has seen her campaign gather momentum in recent weeks, with one poll showing her within four points of the front-runner in New Hampshire.
Talking to Iowa voters Thursday, Haley extended an olive branch to Trump, saying she would pardon the former president if she won the White House and he were convicted of any of the charges against him.
"I don't think our country will move forward with an 80-year-old president sitting in jail that allows our country to continue to be divided," she said. "We have to move on past that."
Trump faces four criminal cases related to election inference, falsifying business records, and mishandling classified documents, as well as a civil fraud case.
Nicole Weatherholtz ✉
Nicole Weatherholtz, a Newsmax general assignment reporter covers news, politics, and culture. She is a National Newspaper Association award-winning journalist.
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