Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley said Monday that President Joe Biden should not “lecture” her over her Civil War blunder.
The president traveled to Charleston on Monday and spoke at the historic black Mother Emanuel AME Church, joking that “slavery was the cause of the Civil War,” a dig at Haley.
The former South Carolina governor and U.N. ambassador was asked to respond to Biden's comments during a Fox News town hall with voters in Iowa, moderated by Martha MacCallum and Bret Baier.
“For Biden to show up there and give a political speech is offensive in and of itself,” Haley responded.
“But the second thing I want to say is that I don't need someone who hung out with segregationists in the 1970s and made racist comments throughout his career lecturing me or anyone else in South Carolina about what it means to have racism. slavery or anything else related to the Civil War,” the 2024 hopeful added.
Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley said Monday night that President Joe Biden shouldn't be “lecturing” her about the Civil War, adding that he “hangs out with segregationists” and has “made racist comments throughout his career.”
President Joe Biden visited Haley's home state of South Carolina on Monday and delivered remarks at the historic black Mother Emanuel AME Church in Charleston. There he grilled Haley about her recent blunder in the Civil War
Haley drew attention to comments Biden made during his 2020 run that landed him in hot water with his Democratic rivals, including Sen. Cory Booker, who is Black.
At a campaign fundraising event in June 2019, Biden recalled serving in the Senate alongside segregationist Sens. James Eastland of Mississippi and Harman Talmadge of Georgia, who called Biden “one of the meanest guys I've ever known.”
“I was in a caucus with James O. Eastland. He never called me 'boy,' he always called me 'son,' Biden told donors. 'Well guess what? At least there was some civility. We've done things. We've got it ready.'
“But today you look at the other side and you are the enemy. Not the opposition, the enemy, we don't talk to each other anymore,” he added.
Booker said Biden should apologize, but the now president refused.
“Apologies for what?” Biden told CNN. “Cory should apologize. He knows better. There isn't a racist bone in my body. I have been involved in civil rights my entire career.”
In addition, Biden previously praised Sen. Strom Thurmond of South Carolina, who ran for president in 1948 on a segregationist platform.
Biden attended Thurmond's 90th birthday tribute and spoke of the “sincere and deep affection for him.”
Speaking about Thurmond after his death in 2003, Biden said he did not believe the late senator was inherently racist.
During his 2020 campaign, Biden also faced criticism for telling popular morning show host Charlamagne Tha God, “You ain't black,” if he didn't vote for the Democratic candidate.
During Biden's appearance Monday at Mother Emanuel AME Church, the site of the horrific racially motivated mass shooting in 2015, Biden slammed both Haley and former President Donald Trump for their recent comments on the Civil War.
“So let me be clear for those who don't seem to know: slavery was the cause of the Civil War,” Biden said, earning applause. “There was no negotiation about that.”
Last month, Haley intervened when she didn't bring up slavery when a visitor to New Hamsphire City Hall asked her what caused the Civil War.
“Well, don't come with an easy question or anything,” Haley told the congregation attendee.
“I mean, I think the cause of the Civil War was really how the government would function, the freedoms and what people could and couldn't do,” Haley then responded.
Haley asked the man for his thoughts on the start of the Civil War, and he then noted that in 2023 he found it “amazing” that she wouldn't mention the word “slavery.”
“What do you want me to say about slavery?” Haley then said.
On Saturday, Trump came in and told supporters at a campaign stop in Newton, Iowa, that he believed the Civil War was “something that could be negotiated.”
“The Civil War was so fascinating, so terrible,” Trump said. 'I find it so attractive to see it. So many mistakes have been made. You see, there was something that could be negotiated. Frankly, I think you could have negotiated that.”
He added that President Abraham Lincoln “if he were to negotiate it, you probably wouldn't even know who Abraham Lincoln was.”
So far, of the three Republican candidates, only Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has remained unscathed in the Civil War controversy.
“I don't even know how to judge — I don't even know what he's talking about,” DeSantis told ABC News on Sunday, responding to Trump's comments during a campaign stop in Iowa. “Lincoln did what he had to do, he finally ushered in the abolition of slavery and he saved the union.”