By Michael Hernandez
WASHINGTON (AA) - US Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley acknowledged Thursday that slavery was the root cause of the US Civil War after coming under mounting backlash.
"Of course the Civil War was about slavery. We know that. That’s the easy part of it," Haley said on a New Hampshire radio morning show amid sweeping condemnation, appearing to walk back her comments.
The former US ambassador to the UN and ex-governor of the state of South Carolina, was asked during a town hall in the early-voting state of New Hampshire Wednesday night what she felt the cause of the conflict was, and responded it "was basically how government was gonna run — the freedoms and what people could and couldn't do."
"I think it always comes down to the role of government, and what the rights of the people are, and I will always stand by the fact that I think government was intended to secure the rights and freedoms of the people. It was never meant to be all things to all people. Government doesn't need to tell you how to live your life," she added.
The person who asked the question then responded: “In the year 2023, it’s astonishing to me that you answer that question without mentioning the word ‘slavery.’”
US President Joe Biden reposted a video of the exchange on X accompanied with a brief message: "It was about slavery."
Haley is polling in second place in New Hampshire, behind former President Donald Trump. But she is leading all of Trump's partisan opponents in the state with a little more than three weeks to go before the Republican primary.