Nikki Haley accused of exaggerating her role in removing Confederate flag from state house grounds

One of the major political moments in former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley's campaign that she likes to discuss on the campaign trail is her removal of the Confederate battle flag from the state house grounds, in the wake of the deadly white supremacist shooting at a Black church in Charleston that left nine people dead.

But she paints an overly charitable picture of how she handled the politics of the Confederate flag over the years, according to The State.

"Some state leaders from the time say Haley’s 'bold' position on the flag ultimately provided cover for lawmakers to act, though others recall that movement was happening with or without her," reported Joseph Bustos. "In the days following the Emanuel shooting, as the former South Carolina governor came to her own conclusion that the Confederate flag needed to go, state lawmakers were independently working on a parallel track, as they say they had discussions about what to do with the flag before Haley gave State House leaders a call."

Moreover, the report noted, she had defended the flag before the shooting happened — and she refuses to answer questions about that now.

"Over the years, she has both defended the flag as a symbol of Southern history and heritage, and argued the flag was hijacked by the church shooter as a symbol of racist hate," said the report. "When she first ran for governor, Haley had no interest in removing the flag from the State House grounds. She even told the Sons of Confederate Veterans that she would talk to groups critical of the flag to say that it represented Southern heritage and wasn’t racist."

As the report noted, the flag used to fly on the state house rotunda itself, but was moved to a separate flagpole on the grounds as part of a compromise in 2000.

Haley, who also served as United Nations ambassador to former President Donald Trump, is now running against her former boss for the 2024 presidential election, arguing in part that the country needs younger leadership. Polling aggregates show her struggling to get about 5 percent.