The former U.N. ambassador Nikki Haley made a surprise appearance on NBC’s “Saturday Night Live” this weekend, taking shots at Donald Trump and President Biden. This appearance was a reference to Haley’s failure during a December town hall in New Hampshire to include any mention of slavery when asked by an audience member what caused the Civil War. After backlash, including from Republicans, she acknowledged the next day that the war was “about slavery.”
Ahead of South Carolina’s Feb. 24 Republican primary, Saturday’s show featured a mock CNN town hall in the state, with cast member James Austin Johnson as former president Donald Trump. But Haley wasn’t spared from the roast on Saturday, coming under fire from actor Ayo Edebiri, the show’s host. “I was just curious, what would you say was the main cause of the Civil War?” Edebiri asked Haley. In response, Haley said: “Yep, I probably should have said that the first time.”
Haley has said her goal in South Carolina is to improve on her performance last month against Trump in New Hampshire, where she lost to the GOP front-runner by 11 points. But the former U.N. ambassador has considerable ground to make up in her home state, where Trump has the support of 58 percent of potential Republican primary voters compared with 32 percent for Haley, according to a Washington Post-Monmouth University poll published Wednesday.