Haley dogged by Civil War controversy: ‘I had Black friends growing up’ 

Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley is once again on the defensive after telling a city council meeting, “I had black friends,” in an attempt to dispel her comments about the Civil War cause.

At a CNN town hall in Des Moines, Iowa, on Thursday, Haley criticized fellow Republican White House candidate Chris Christie after the former U.N. ambassador did not initially mention slavery in her answer on the causes of the Civil War. asked to respond to criticism. Christie claimed he gave this answer because he “didn't want to offend anyone by telling the truth.”

“No one ever said I didn't mean to offend. I offend a lot of people because I yell at people when they do something wrong,” Haley told the city. He spoke at the government building.

“What I want to tell you is that Chris Christie is from New Jersey. He should have said slavery right away. But growing up in South Carolina, literally in second and third grade, he said slavery. You learn. When you grow up, you grow up. You know, I had a friend who was black. It's very much talked about,” she added.

Haley's response drew jabs from fellow Republican White House candidate Ron DeSantis' campaign and criticism from pundits and political observers.

“Day 9 of Nikki Haley trying to right her Civil War gaffe. “I had black friends when I was a kid,” the DeSantis War Room account (formerly Twitter) of X said. I wrote this: attach a clip Regarding her remarks at CNN Town Hall.

“Can I do a public service announcement as a black person on a panel?” asked “The View” co-host Sunny Hostin. “Non-black people: When you want to convince someone you're not a racist, don't say, 'I have a black friend.'”

In a joint interview Friday with reporters from NBC News and the Des Moines Register, Haley defended her CNN town hall comments, saying that she knows firsthand the pain of racism and that saying she is black is ” “It's a source of pride,” he said. And he's a white friend.

“We were the only Indian family in a small town in the South. I was teased every day for being brown. Look back at what I said about what happened,” Haley said.

“What I'm going to tell you is that it's a source of pride to say that I had black friends. It's a source of pride to say that I had white friends. What it was like growing up. If you want to know what it was like, I was disqualified from a beauty pageant because I wasn't white or black and they didn't know where to place me. I know the hardship and pain that comes with discrimination,” she later added.

Her comments Friday were the latest in a series of statements made in late December at a town hall in Berlin, New Hampshire, after she initially asked for clarification when asked by attendees what caused the Civil War. It became a thing.

“Well, don't ask me the easy question, okay? I mean, I think the cause of the Civil War was basically the way the government was run, the freedoms, the things people could and couldn't do,” she said.

“So I think it's always going to be about the role of government and what are the rights of the people. And we've always supported the fact that we think the government was intended to ensure people's rights and freedoms. It's never meant to be all things to all people,” Haley added.

Afterward, an attendee pointed out that she had not mentioned the word “slavery” in her response, to which Ms. Haley responded, “What do you want me to say about slavery?”

However, Haley later attempted to clarify her remarks in a radio interview, saying, “The Civil War was, of course, about slavery.”

“We know that. That's the easy part. What I wanted to say is what today means to us. To us today it means freedom. That was everything,” she added.

The gaffe comes at a critical time for Haley, who is just a week away from the Iowa Republican caucuses and is showing some momentum in the New Hampshire polls. At the same time, former President Trump continues to lead both DeSantis and Haley in both early state polls and national polls.