One View of Haley After Civil War Flap: 'She's Toast'

Democratic billboards advertise Republican front-runners' record on slavery, immigration
By Bob Cronin,  Newser Staff
Posted Dec 29, 2023 2:45 PM CST
Democratic Billboards: GOP 'Whitewashing' US History
Plantation-forged slave shackles from the late 1700s rest next to a pile of cotton and a photo of workers picking cotton as part of an exhibit at Virginia's Ferrum College in 2018.   (Heather Rousseau/The Roanoke Times via AP)

Democrats are injecting history into the presidential race in Iowa, responding to a series of mischaracterizations—lies, one party official said—by the Republican caucus front-runners about the nation's past. The Democratic National Committee has put up four billboards in the state with a photo of Nikki Haley, Ron DeSantis, and Donald Trump, the Hill reports. The ads accuse "MAGA's America" of whitewashing slavery, erasing history, and echoing Adolf Hitler, in addition to banning books. "We are at a pivotal and dangerous moment for American democracy," committee National Press Secretary Sarafina Chitika said in a statement, adding that the leading three GOP candidates "tell bold-faced lies about our history."

Before Haley's struggles this week to articulate the cause of the Civil War, DeSantis defended Florida's guidelines calling for teachers to tell students that people enslaved in the US learned skills "that could be applied for their personal benefit." The policy was approved in agreement with the governor's priorities. Trump this month again used language against immigrants once used by Hitler. Republicans of color joined the criticism of Haley on Thursday. In explaining the Civil War, per Politico, party strategist Rina Shah said Haley "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" Trump and DeSantis supporters.

Black Republicans said Haley's answer will cost her with moderate Republicans and swing voters, just more than two weeks before the caucuses. "She's toast," said Shermichael Singleton, who has worked on GOP campaigns. Former CNN anchor Don Lemon cut Haley no slack, pointing out her criticism months ago when he, in discussing candidates' ages, said she was "not in her prime." The network quickly fired him, which elicited glee from Haley, though Lemon had apologized. She also used the flap in fundraising, per the Hill. "Nikki Haley wants grace for using a poor choice of words when, after I misspoke in some comments involving her, she didn't offer me that same grace," Lemon posted on X. (More Iowa caucuses stories.)

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