Black Republican says Haley’s Civil War comment doomed her campaign: 'That’s over now. She’s toast'

Former UN ambassador Nikki Haley may have inadvertently brought her presidential campaign's momentum to a screeching halt as the blowback over comments she made about the Civil War on Wednesday night continues to intensify.

Up until her comments, Haley was seen as the top rival to former President Donald Trump in the 2024 Republican presidential primary. But on Thursday, Politico reported that several Black Republicans feel Haley's chances of setting herself apart from her remaining rivals are much lower following her gaffe.

"She should’ve been able to answer the damn question and move on," Shermichael Singleton — who worked on the presidential campaigns of Mitt Romney and Ben Carson — told Politico. "She had a chance to be competitive even though she was always likely to lose [the nomination]. However, that’s over now. She’s toast."

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During a Q&A session with voters in the Granite State, Haley refused to mention slavery as the cause of the Civil War when a voter asked the former South Carolina governor her opinion on the origins of America's bloodiest conflict. Haley would only say the war was about "the freedoms of what people could and couldn’t do." Haley then asked the man who originally asked the question what he thought caused the Civil War, prompting him to say "I'm not running for president."

"In the year 2023, it’s astonishing to me that you answer that question without mentioning the word ‘slavery,'” the questioner said.

Haley attempted to walk back her comments the following day, telling NHJournal.com that "of course the Civil War was about slavery. That's the easy part. Yes I know it was about slavery. I am from the south."

The fact that the Confederate States of America (CSA) seceded from the union specifically because they wanted to preserve the institution of chattel slavery is a well-documented fact dating back to the Cornerstone Speech in March of 1861. In that speech, CSA Vice President Alexander Stephens said the "corner-stone [of the CSA] rests upon the great truth that the negro is not equal to the white man; that slavery subordination to the superior race is his natural and normal condition." The following month, the CSA fired the first shots of the Civil War in its attack on Fort Sumter — in Nikki Haley's home state of South Carolina.

READ MORE: What Nikki Haley's gaffe reveals about the GOP