Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley claimed Thursday that Democrats are “sending plants” to her town hall campaign events after a voter asked the former South Carolina governor about the cause of the Civil War during an event on Wednesday. Her answer led to backlash from Democrats and Republicans alike.
“Well, don’t come with an easy question or anything,” Haley told the voter who asked about the cause of the war during a town hall in Berlin, N.H.
“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,” she said.
“I mean, I think it all comes down to the role of government,” she added. “We need to have capitalism. We need to have economic freedom. We need to make sure that we do all things so that individuals have the liberties so that they can have freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom to do or be anything they want to be without government getting in the way.”
The voter said he was surprised she didn’t mention the word “slavery” in her response.
“What do you want me to say about slavery?” Haley replied. “Next question.”
On Thursday, Haley sought to clean up the comments during an interview with the Pulse of New Hampshire with Jack Heath.
“Of course the Civil War was about slavery, that’s the easy part. Yes, I know it was about slavery. I am from the South,” she said.
“But more than that, what’s the lesson in all this? That freedom matters. And individual rights and liberties matter for all people. That’s the blessing of America. That was a stain on America when we had slavery. But what we want is to never relive it. Never let anyone take those freedoms away again,” Haley said.
Haley went on to claim Democrats and President Biden “are sending plants” to her town halls.
“Why are they hitting me? See this for what it is. . . . They want to run against Trump. In town halls, I answer every question, and they are planting questions there,” she claimed.
“It was definitely a Democrat plant. When asked him, he didn’t want to answer. He didn’t give reporters his name,” she added.
Haley’s comments on Wednesday led to criticism from her political opponents on both sides of the aisle.
“It was about slavery,” President Biden wrote in a post on X.
And Florida governor Ron DeSantis’s campaign spokesman Bryan Griffin said: “On today’s scoreboard, Donald Trump complained about his treatment in the movie Home Alone 2, Nikki Haley stepped in a giant mess of her own making, and @RonDeSantis dismantled the far-left Miami Dade school union. Take your pick!”
A RealClearPolitics New Hampshire GOP primary polling average has former president Donald Trump leading the race with 46.3 percent, with Haley in a distant second place with 24.8 percent. Chris Christie sits in third with 10.5 percent, followed by DeSantis at 9.5 percent.