Breaking from her usual stump speech at a South Carolina town hall event on Monday, Nikki Haley paused to condemn a deadly weekend rampage in Jacksonville, Fla., that the authorities were investigating as a hate crime.
“I am not going to lie to you, it takes me back to a dark place,” Ms. Haley told an audience of roughly 1,000 people gathered in a corporate campus auditorium in Indian Land.
“There is no place for hate in America.”Ms. Haley was governor in 2015 when a white supremacist opened fire in an African American church in Charleston, S.C., and killed nine Black parishioners at a Bible study.
Ms. Haley eventually called for the removal of the Confederate battle flag from the grounds of the South Carolina Capitol.
Ms. Haley also toed the Republican Party line on guns and racism, suggesting that such violence and mass shootings could be prevented if Americans improved mental health services, abided by gun laws and rejected division and hate in their everyday lives.
Persons:
Nikki Haley, “, ” Ms, Haley, Ms
Organizations:
Confederate, South Carolina Capitol, Republican Party
Locations:
South Carolina, Jacksonville, Fla, America, Charleston, S.C