‘Pile of bulls--t’: New Hampshire GOPers give Haley a pass on Civil War remarks

LEBANON, New Hampshire — Republican voters in New Hampshire seemed poised to give Nikki Haley a pass after she declined to identify slavery as a cause of the Civil War at a New Hampshire town hall Wednesday night.

Appearing at the former U.N. ambassador’s events the next day, several attendees said the remarks were overblown. Some were willing to adopt the Haley campaign’s explanation that it was a set up by Democrats to elevate her primary opponent, Donald Trump.

“That was a pile of bullshit. Okay, there was somebody planted in that audience, in my opinion,” said Robin Smith, a Republican from Bridgewater. "It had to be somebody that wanted to try to make her look bad.”

Haley was “dead on,” Becky Turner, a Republican from Lincoln, said. “They made a mountain out of a molehill.”

A rush to Haley’s defense from her rally attendees may have been expected. But it was also a relief for the campaign, which appeared in for a day of cleanup after Haley told a town hall questioner it was the role of government (as opposed to slavery) that was responsible for the Civil War.

On a radio show early Thursday, Haley accused the questioner of being a “Democratic plant” put there to ensure that she faltered. At an event later, she said that slavery was certainly a cause of America’s deadliest war, arguing that it was so obvious that she didn’t think it needed to be said.

Few, if any, of Haley’s critics argued that she, an Indian-American daughter of immigrants who as governor took down the confederate flag in South Carolina, harbored deep-seated racial animus. But her opponents seized on the moment to ding Haley as she climbs in the polls.

“It’s about slavery,” President Joe Biden posted on X, alongside a clip of the exchange.

“If she