Nikki Haley Deflects 2016 Speculation, Blasts FBI For Church Shooting Failures

Nikki Haley has come into the public spotlight, winning praise for her steadfast handling of the South Carolina church shooting and subsequent removal of the Confederate Flag. Some commentators are even wondering if the South Carolina governor has a shot at a vice presidential nomination in 2016, a notion that she refuses to discuss while the emotional wounds from the massacre are still fresh.

On Sunday, Haley appeared on NBC‘s Meet the Press for an interview with Chuck Todd.

According to the Fiscal Times, when Todd asked about the extra political attention the governor was receiving, she replied “It’s painful, nine people died.”

That sums up Nikki Haley’s attitude towards the recent speculation about her promising political career, and the boost it may have received as a result of the shooting.

Haley explained further in an interview with the AP.

“If people are talking about that, then I’m not working hard enough to talk about the (Emanuel) families. I don’t want to think about it or talk about it or even acknowledge it at this point.”

The commentators are still speculating though.

The governor successfully pushed legislation to remove the Confederate battle flag from the capitol grounds. The flag was finally lowered Friday.

Haley said the event was as if a “massive weight had been lifted off South Carolina.”

“We can truly say it’s a new day in South Carolina.”

She later added, “It was hard for me to look at that flag coming down and not think about the Emanuel Nine.”

“It reminded me of how much South Carolina’s moved forward. The way that we didn’t have any protests, we had vigils, we didn’t have, you know, people getting out of hand, we had hugs. It just was a real proud moment for South Carolina.”

The peaceful removal of a controversial symbol brought Nikki Haley head-to-head with various flag supporters, most from her own Republican party, but the tea party favorite stood firm.

As previously reported by the Inquisitr, Haley had a slightly different perspective before the shooting, actively deflecting questions about the Confederate battle flag with economic issues.

She also attacked the FBI on Meet the Press after the agency admitted that the shooter, Dylan Roof, should have never received a gun due to a previous criminal charge for drug possession.

“When someone has a charge filed against them, it should go into a database, and it should be shown immediately to anyone’s that looking at it. I would be more interested in what went wrong. Why are they dealing with paperwork and not dealing with technology?”

The FBI problem has weakened arguments for more gun control and spared Haley much of that debate, since measures currently in place should have been sufficient.

Despite the sudden jolt in fame, her 2016 vice presidential prospects are far from guaranteed according to political scientist Larry J. Sabato.

“So has she helped her chances with the Confederate flag issue? Yes. Does it guarantee her selection or even her placement at the top of the list of possibles? No.”

Sabato points out that Nikki Haley probably won’t get women or minority voters to the polls as a vice presidential candidate, but that she is generating more interest than she ever did before.

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