Nikki Haley Walks Back On Her Pro-Secession Comment About Texas: 'According to the Constitution...'
Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley revised her earlier statement of Texas being able to secede from the US if it chose to. During an interview on CNN's State of the Union with host Dana Bash, she addressed her previous remarks (made on the Breakfast Club radio show), as reported by Mediaite. Bash questioned Haley about her stance on whether Texas had the right to secede. To this, Haley said, “No. According to the Constitution, they can’t. What I do think they have the right to do is have the power to protect themselves and do all that."
Haley added, "Texas has talked about seceding for a long time. The Constitution doesn’t allow for that. But what I will say is… Where’s that coming from? That’s coming from the fact that people don’t think that government is listening to them.” Her current statements represent a shift in perspective compared to the remarks she made in the previous week during her conversation with radio host Charlemagne tha God. According to CNN, she said, “If Texas decides they want to do that, they can do that.” She also said, "If that whole state says ‘We don’t want to be part of America anymore,’ I mean that’s their decision to make.”
Nikki Haley on CNN defends her comments to a radio host about states like Texas having a right to secede from the union, but adds (incoherently) that states don't actually have the right to do it pic.twitter.com/pwpCAgDd1q
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) February 4, 2024
Last week, Haley reiterated a stance she had previously expressed in a 2013 interview, asserting her belief that, according to the Constitution, states possess the right to secede from the nation. However, it's important to note that the Supreme Court settled this matter in 1869, affirming that states lack a constitutional right to unilaterally secede.
Nikki Haley backs right to secession: "If Texas decides they wanna do that, they can do that. If that whole state says, we don't wanna be part of America anymore, I mean, that's their decision to make" via interview w/ Charlamagne tha God. But "we know that's not gonna happen."
— Ryan Struyk (@ryanstruyk) February 1, 2024
This incident occurred a little over a month after Haley provided a puzzling response about the reasons for the Civil War, notably overlooking any reference to slavery. However, her omission drew significant criticism in December when she failed to mention slavery as a cause of the Civil War during a town hall in New Hampshire. Haley did, however, later attempt to clarify her comments. She stated, “I mean, of course, the Civil War was about slavery.”
As Haley campaigns in her home state, trailing significantly behind former President Donald Trump by double digits, her recent secession remarks have added a stumbling block. Despite the challenging local landscape, she continues to conduct nationwide fundraisers and engage in regular national cable interviews, according to The Daily Mail. Complicating matters further, the former South Carolina governor is going through mounting pressure to withdraw from the 2024 GOP primary.
Following her defeat in the initial two Republican primary contests against former President Trump, Haley's campaign experienced a financial boost in January, securing $16.5 million in new donations—her most successful fundraising month to date, as stated by campaign spokesperson Olivia Perez-Cubas. Despite acknowledging that victory over Trump in her home state's Republican presidential primary may not be imperative, Haley nonetheless emphasized the importance of achieving better results than those in New Hampshire later this month.
