WaPo: “Nikki Haley continues to do damage control for her omission of slavery in response to a question about the causes of the Civil War last month, and on Thursday defended her response in part by noting, “I had Black friends growing up.”
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“If you grow up in South Carolina, literally in second and third grade, you learn about slavery. You grow up and you have, you know, I had Black friends growing up. It is a very talked about thing. We have a big history in South Carolina, when it comes to, you know, slavery, when it comes to all the things that happened with the Civil War, all of that,” Haley said at a CNN town hall here.
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Her response Wednesday and defense that she had Black friends as a child was quickly mocked online by supporters of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R), who took the stage before Haley for his own CNN town hall. Other Republican lawmakers have faced pushback for similarly pointing out that they have Black friends in their defense when accused of racism.”