Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) went after fellow GOP candidate Nikki Haley on Thursday over her remarks failing to acknowledge slavery as the cause of the Civil War.
The Florida governor told reporters in Iowa that Haley’s explanation for the Civil War was “incomprehensible word salad” and called her “not a candidate that’s ready for prime time.”
Haley’s comments came at a Wednesday event in New Hampshire, where she responded to a voter asking her thoughts on the cause of the Civil War. She answered that the war was about “the freedoms of what people could and couldn’t do.”
When specifically confronted by the voter about slavery, she responded, “What do you want me to say about slavery?”
DeSantis framed the episode as an example of how Haley isn’t ready to be president.
“The minute that she faces any type of scrutiny, she tends to cave. And I think that that’s what you saw yesterday,” he said. “It’s not that difficult to identify and acknowledge the role slavery played in the Civil War.”
“You’re going to get asked a lot of tough questions. That’s just the nature of this business,” he continued. “And I think that she shows time and time again that when the lights get hot, that she wilts under pressure, and that was a good example last night.”
Haley’s home state of South Carolina, the first state to secede from the U.S. in 1860, specified slavery as the reason for its rebellion in the first paragraph of its declaration of secession.
The comments have brought fire both from Democrats and fellow Republicans. President Biden called out the comments in a Wednesday post on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, simply responding, “It was about slavery.”
Haley clarified her remarks early Thursday in a CNN appearance, noting that “of course the Civil War was about slavery.”
The controversy has the potential to dampen Haley’s rise in New Hampshire, where she became the first candidate to approach former President Trump’s wide polling lead. The Granite State primary is Jan. 23.
DeSantis has also been in hot water over slavery remarks this year. In July, he supported new Florida education guidelines that claimed that slaves partially benefited from their enslavement.
That policy drew scrutiny from Black leaders nationally, including Vice President Harris, who described the Florida effort as “ridiculous” and “revisionist history.”
DeSantis and Haley remain neck and neck for second place in GOP primary polls as the first vote of the primary season nears.
Haley has about 11 percent support in national polls to DeSantis’s 10 percent support, according to an average of polls maintained by The Hill and Decision Desk HQ. But both candidates are far behind former President Trump, who stands at 63 percent support in polls.