Former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley slammed President Biden on Monday for “lecturing” her about the cause of the Civil War after he took an implicit knock at the GOP presidential candidate during a speech in her home state of South Carolina.
During a Fox News town hall in Iowa, Haley was asked to respond to comments Biden made at Mother Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston earlier Monday.
“Let me be clear for those who don’t seem to know: Slavery was the cause of the Civil War,” Biden told his audience.
Haley argued Monday night that for “for Biden to show up there and give a political speech is offensive in itself.”
“But the second thing I’ll say is, I don’t need someone who palled around with segregationists in the ’70s and has said racist comments all the way through his career, lecturing me or anyone in South Carolina, about what it means to have racism, slavery or anything related to the Civil War,” she added.
Biden received criticism during the 2020 presidential cycle for speaking positively about two segregationist senators he had previously worked with in the Senate, suggesting there was at least “some civility.” Biden during the 1970s was also against school busing during racial integration, according to CNN.
Haley has sought to clean up her remarks multiple times after she was called out during a town hall in New Hampshire last month over her answer on the cause of the Civil War.
An attendee called her out for not including slavery in her answer. Haley has later said “Of course the Civil War was about slavery.”