Nikki Haley Suddenly Remembers States Can’t Actually Just Secede If They Feel Like It

Nikki Haley is currently busy running for president, but when her schedule frees up, she should probably make some time to brush up on US history and, uh, whether or not states can decide to leave America.

Appearing on CNN Sunday, Haley was forced to walk back comments she made days prior in which she falsely claimed that states have the right to secede from the US. Speaking specifically about Texas, Haley said in the interview, “If that whole state says, ‘We don’t want to be part of America anymore,’ I mean, that’s their decision to make,” adding: “I believe in states’ rights, I believe that everything should be as close to the people to decide.”

Of course, in reality, states cannot just decide they “don’t want to be part of America anymore.” The Supreme Court declared in 1869 that that would be unconstitutional. Asked by CNN’s Dana Bash yesterday if she still believed a state has “a right to secede,” Haley reversed course, responding: “No. According to the Constitution, they can’t. What I do think they have the right to do is have the power to protect themselves and do all that. Texas has talked about seceding for a long time. The Constitution doesn’t allow for that.”

Haley’s comments about secession follow a cringeworthy series of remarks in which she left out “slavery” as a cause of the Civil War, and then insisted that the US has never been racist, even though it was once legal to own a person based on the color of their skin. She defended herself by saying, “I had Black friends growing up.”

Of course, if one is making a decision about whom to vote for in the GOP primary based on the candidates’ knowledge of US history and comments regarding race, one could do a lot worse—like so, so much worse—than Nikki Haley.

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