Chris Christie Gently Rebukes Nikki Haley Over Civil War Question

During a recent campaign stop, Republican presidential candidate Chris Christie rebuked rival Nikki Haley’s recent blunder in which she refused to cite slavery as a cause of the American civil war. 

On Wednesday, Haley was asked by an audience member at a New Hampshire rally to explain the cause of the Civil War. Haley’s response concerned the role of government—a reason eerily similar to those offered by Civil War-era Confederates and subsequent generations of their sympathizers.

The exchange went viral, savaging Haley and prompting her to issue a clumsy walk back at a subsequent campaign event the next day.

Christie, who is trailing Haley in general and even in New Hampshire (considered to be relative home turf for the former New Jersey governor), had previously demonstrated a gracious attitude towards Haley in the most recent Republican primary debate.

He set a similar tone here:

“She’s smart and she knows better,” Christie said, “And she didn’t say it because she’s a racist, because she’s not. I know her well, and I don’t believe Nikki has a racist bone in her body.”

Yet he rebuked her all the same:

“The reason she did it is just as bad—if not worse—and should make everybody concerned about her candidacy,” he continued. “She did it because she’s unwilling to offend anyone by telling the truth.”

“I’m sure Nikki will see this, so I want to talk directly to her,” Christie concluded . “The Civil War was not a choice between change and tradition. It was a choice between right and wrong, and that’s it. And we’ve got to stand on the side of right.”