Fox News Politics: Haley's Civil War fallout

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South Carolinian Roots

Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley caught heat from both sides of the political aisle after she declined to mention slavery reason U.S. Civil War.

At a town hall Wednesday, the former U.N. ambassador was asked what about "the cause" of the Civil War, to which she joked: "Well, don’t come with an easy question or anything."

"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 continued in part.

The questioner expressed shock that Haley didn't mention slavery in her answer, and clips of the exchange began circulating widely. President Biden's X account ridiculed Haley, and fellow presidential contender Gov. Ron DeSantis' campaign picked up on it as well.

On Thursday, Haley suggested that the question came from an unfriendly "Democratic plant," since the questioner declined to give his name. She also defended her comments, and said that everyone knows the cause of the Civil War was slavery.

"Everybody thinks that the Civil War was about slavery," Haley told Fox News during a press gaggle after a campaign event Thursday. She added that as former governor of South Carolina who helped take the Confederate flag from the state capitol, she is well aware of history.

"But for us to move forward as a country, what's the lesson? And the lesson is every person deserves freedom and we have to always fight for it every single day," Haley said.

Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton jumped into the fray with a take of his own: "The Civil War started because the American people elected an anti-slavery Republican as president and Democrats revolted rather than accept minor restrictions on the expansion of slavery to the western territories," he said on X.

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Capitol Hill

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Tales from the Campaign Trail

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Across America

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