Internet blasts Nikki Haley after ‘Fox & Friends’ claims GOP candidate was victim of ‘gotcha question’

NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK: The day following GOP presidential candidate Nikki Haley's widely criticized omission of slavery as the primary cause of the Civil War, the hosts of ‘Fox & Friends’ rushed to her defense, asserting that she had "handled it quite well."

The coverage didn't end there. The ‘Fox & Friends’ hosts speculated whether the individual who questioned Haley at a town hall was intentionally trying to create a "gotcha moment" and suggested the possibility that the questioner might have been a "plant."

This echoed the explanation put forth by the former South Carolina governor herself on Thursday morning.

‘Fox & Friends’ claims Nikki Haley was victim of ‘gotcha question’

Fox News show ‘Fox & Friends’ rallied to Nikki Haley’s defense, asserting that she had "handled it quite well."

This came after Nikki Haley spoke to New Hampshire voters on Wednesday evening when she was faced with a question about the causes of the Civil War.

When asked why she believed the war occurred, Haley asserted that it revolved around "how government was going to run" and issues related to "freedoms and what people could and couldn’t do."

Expressing astonishment at her omission of slavery, the questioner prompted Haley to respond dismissively with a shrug, asking, "What do you want me to say about slavery?"

The incident rapidly gained traction on social media, leading the 2024 presidential candidate to swiftly enter damage control mode in response to the escalating backlash.

In a Thursday morning radio appearance, Haley acknowledged that "of course" the Civil War was about slavery but then claimed she had been set up by an individual sent by President Joe Biden's campaign, portraying the encounter as orchestrated.

Haley said, “Biden and the Democrats keep sending Democrat plants to do things like this, to get the media to react. It was definitely a Democrat plant.”

Amid the turmoil within her campaign to contain the fallout from the incident, Fox News, having seemingly identified Haley as the leading non-Trump alternative in the GOP field, swiftly came to the defense of the former UN ambassador.

'Fox & Friends' worked to downplay Haley's misstep, offering a series of reasons to minimize the impact of her mistake.

In addition to cleaning up the aftermath on Haley's behalf, the hosts also took jabs at President Biden regarding the controversy.

While co-host Johnny Joey Jones acknowledged that Haley should have “to see questions like that coming”, he expressed the belief that she was “trying to lighten the effect of slavery on our country” with her response.

He said, “I think when you are an intellectual and you read books like Team of Rivals, you read the memoirs and the actual texts of our country at that time, it was about slavery and a whole bunch of other things.”

He continued, “And I think she was trying to encapsulate that. But on the campaign trail, less in an academic environment, you have got to see that coming [and] you’ve got to answer that better. I don’t think in any way she was trying to say slavery wasn’t a big part if not the cause of the Civil War.”

Meanwhile, Jones' colleague Griff Jenkins passionately defended Haley, invoking her past actions as South Carolina's governor.

Jenkins highlighted her pivotal decision to remove the Confederate flag from the state following the racist mass murder of Black parishioners by Dylan Roof.

Jenkins added, “If the implication is that she wouldn’t condemn the evils of slavery, they failed miserably.”

He added, “This is a governor, in the wake of a massacre of black residents in AME Church in Charleston, out of that disaster and tragedy she then had the political courage to drop—in one of the most Southern of all states—the Confederate flag from the capitol grounds and took immense heat for it. To say that she isn’t willing and doesn’t have the moral fortitude and political courage to stand and condemn the evils of slavery is embarrassing on the face of it!”

Continuing his commentary, Jenkins expressed dissatisfaction with Biden's response to Haley's misstep.

He snarked, “Yet, that didn’t stop Caribbean-vacationing President Biden from saying it was about slavery. As if you’re scoring a point. We don’t know, by the way, who asked that question. Was that a plant? Was that a random question?”

Continuing the discussion, co-host Carley Shimkus built on her colleague's perspective by speculating about the identity and motives of the person who questioned Haley on the Civil War.

Shimkus raised the possibility of whether it was a Democrat, “somebody who is supporting Donald Trump”, or simply a “Republican who doesn’t like Nikki Haley.”

While doing so, she credited Haley for allegedly attempting to offer a more nuanced response to the question, subtly framing the situation as a complex issue rather than a straightforward misstep.

She said, “It clearly was trying to be a gotcha moment for her, to take her out of her normal political conversation. She’s going to talk about the economy, going to talk about the border.”

“To me, this read pretty clear. It was that the answer of slavery is so obvious. That’s the obvious answer. She was saying, she was talking about big government and other things. Clearly, the answer is slavery. She was trying to give him a more educated philosophical response,” Shimkus added.

Jenkins concluded the discussion by praising Haley for her handling of the entire situation, putting the proverbial cherry on top of Fox News' defense of the GOP candidate.

He added, “She couldn’t have actually handled it better. She is thinking, ‘Is this a gotcha question? Are you trying to imply that I won’t condemn the evils of slavery?’ Perhaps in her head. ‘Or is this about the actual nuances of what the Civil War was fought over, which is about the economics and politics from the state vs. federal government level of issues like slavery?’ And in that moment, I think she handled it quite well considering and didn’t give in to what would clearly, as you point out, a gotcha question.”

Internet slams Nikki Haley after ‘Fox & Friends’ claims she was victim of ‘gotcha question’

After ‘Fox & Friends’ protected Nikki Haley’s omission of slavery as the primary cause of the Civil War, many people on the internet took a brutal jab at the GOP candidate.

One person wrote, “Nikki doesn't stand a chance 😂,” while another added, “A gotcha moment? Are you kidding me? Easiest lay up question ever and she blew it.”

One more person said, “What an embarrassment for her.  Maybe she didn't even know "🇺🇸 Civil War" started in her home State of SC.”

Another brutally slammed Haley and wrote, “The telling point is her first statement, she thought it was a hard question!! FAIL,” and one said, “She acted like, huh, what's the Civil war?”

Haley continued to face backlash as another YouTube user blasted her and commented, “If that was a gotcha question for her, she has no business being president.”

This article contains remarks made on the Internet by individual people and organizations. MEAWW cannot confirm them independently and does not support claims or opinions being made online.