Former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley walked back comments she made last week when she suggested that the state of Texas could secede from the U.S. if it wanted to.
During an interview with The Breakfast Club on Wednesday, Haley said that “if Texas decides they want to do that, they can do that.”
“If that whole state says, ‘We don’t want to be part of America anymore,’ I mean, that’s their decision to make,” she continued, later adding: “Let’s talk about what’s reality. Texas isn’t going to secede.”
During a Sunday interview with Dana Bash on CNN’s “State of the Union,” Haley walked back those comments when asked if she really believed that “individual states have the right to leave the USA.”
“No one is talking about seceding. That’s not an issue at all,” she responded. “What we are talking about the fact is, here you have Governor Abbott and the people of Texas, who just want to be kept safe. They’re putting up barbed wire to keep people coming in. And the idea that the federal government is wanting to sue them and cut that barbed wire, when we’re trying to make sure that we keep people out, that’s a huge mistake.”
Bash again pressed Haley on the issue after she did not answer the question: “You want to be president of the United States. Do you think that any state has a right to secede?”
“No. According to the Constitution, they can’t,” Haley responded. “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. But what I will say is, where’s that coming from? That’s coming from the fact that people don’t think that government is listening to them.”
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