Republicans of color said on Thursday they were dismayed by Nikki Haley’s initial refusal to say that slavery was the cause of the Civil War. It wasn’t just an offensive historical omission, they argued, but a tactical blunder too.

“She easily could’ve communicated better in that moment, but chose to use a tired old political stump tactic by tossing the same question back to the guy who asked,” said Rina Shah, a Republican strategist based in Washington, D.C., in a text to POLITICO.


“What I do see is her having left out the word ‘slavery’ because she was scared to talk about anything regarding our nation’s complicated history. I think by acknowledging slavery she felt she might be alienating” Donald Trump and Ron DeSantis voters.