After making comments last week about states’ right to secede from the Union, presidential candidate Nikki Haley said her statements were taken out of context.
While appearing on The Breakfast Club podcast hosted by Charlemagne tha God, Haley quipped that voters could decide whether a state has the right to secede.
“If that whole state says, ‘We don’t want to be part of America anymore,’ I mean, that’s their decision to make,” the former ambassador to the UN said.
On Sunday, appearing on CNN’s State of the Union show, Haley said her comment was misunderstood.
“No, according to the Constitution, they can’t,” Haley said. “What I said is when government stops listening, let’s remember states’ rights matter. You have to be as close to the people as possible. No one is talking about seceding. That’s not an issue at all.”
Secession is not mentioned in the Constitution. Following the Civil War, the Supreme Court decided in a case known as Texas v. White that states, once they have joined the Union, cannot secede.
Haley’s comment was in response to a question from Charlamagne tha God about whether — should she be elected — she would use force against Texas if the state decided to secede.
“It’s not about secession,” she said. “Nobody’s going to do that. That’s not what people are talking about,” Haley said.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has sworn to use every available state power to prevent unlawful migration over the southern border. Abbott describes the vast number of people entering the U.S. as an “invasion” and has deployed Texas State Troopers along the border. Recently, Texas DPS officers occupied a park in Eagle Pass and prevented Customs and Border Patrol from accessing the area, which is a hot spot for unlawful crossings.
Haley has also had to rescind comments she made in which she failed to acknowledge slavery as a root cause of the Civil War. She later backtracked, saying, “Of course, the Civil War was about slavery.”
Texas joined the Confederacy in part because leaders determined that northern states would not help prevent Mexican bandits from raiding the state. Then, as now, Texas was compelled by a lack of federal assistance to address migration issues to secure the border.
