If Texas decides it wants to secede from the United States, “it can do that,” Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley insisted Wednesday.
The former South Carolina governor downplayed the possibility that the Lone Star State would actually choose to secede from the republic, but insisted during an appearance on the show. “Breakfast Club” The radio program argued that secession was a state’s “right.”
Asked by host Charlamagne tha God about her thoughts on secession in light of the conflict between Texas and the Biden administration over border security, Haley said, “States have the right to make the decisions that their people want.” I think there is,” he said.
“If Texas decides they want to do it. They can do it,” she added.
“When an entire state says, ‘We don’t want to be a part of America anymore,’ that’s a decision they make,” the 52-year-old White House candidate continued. “But I don’t think the government needs to tell people how to live or what to do or what to do. I mean, I think we need to keep our freedoms alive.”
Although the U.S. Constitution does not contain a clause prohibiting states from seceding from the Union, it does not explicitly grant states the right to secede.
“I think the state will make the decision,” Haley said. “But let’s talk about what the reality is. Texas is not going to secede. That’s not what they’re going to do.”
However, the issue was largely resolved by the Union’s victory over the Confederacy in the Civil War and by the Supreme Court’s Texas v. White decision in 1869, which recognized that states could not unilaterally secede from the United States.
Haley went on to point out that Texas Republican Greg Abbott is trying to stop illegal border crossings, including installing razor wire along the border, which the Supreme Court has ruled can be cut by federal authorities. He defended the governor’s efforts.
“He has to protect the Texans,” Haley argued.
Haley raised eyebrows last month when she refused to mention slavery as a key cause of the Civil War.
The next day, she recanted, saying, “The Civil War was, of course, about slavery.”
Haley is trailing former President Donald Trump by more than 30 points in the upcoming South Carolina Republican primary in her home state on February 24, according to RealClearPolitics polling averages.
Haley’s campaign did not respond to The Post’s request for comment.
