WATCH: CNN Digs Up Nikki Haley Defending Confederate History Month, Saying Civil War Was About ‘Tradition vs. Change’

CNN’s Andrew Kaczynski dug up a potentially problematic interview in which former South Carolina Governor and Trump UN Ambassador Nikki Haley defended Confederate History Month, said the Civil War was about “Tradition versus change,” and that the Confederate flag was “not racist.”

Haley’s campaign announcement last week has refocused attention on her political bio, including the fact that she was governor of South Carolina when the state finally decided to stop flying the Confederate Battle Flag in the wake of the horrific massacre in which nine Black parishioners at Mother Emanuel AME Church were murdered by Dylann Roof.

In a CNN K-File article entitled “Nikki Haley defended right to secession, Confederate History Month and the Confederate flag in 2010 talk,” Kaczynski dug up and summarized a 2010 interview that is still online on the now-defunct “Palmetto Patriots” group’s YouTube page.

The interview is divided into four separate files on the page.

In one section, Haley defends the right of states to secede, as K-File notes “inaccurately” stating that right is enshrined in the U.S. Constitution.

And in another that lasts nearly 10 minutes, Haley says she would support a Confederate History Month by comparing it to Black History Month.

She told the group “it’s part of tradition. And so when you look at that, if you have, the same as you have Black History Month and you have a Confederate History Month and all of those, as long as it’s done where it is in a positive way and not in a negative way and it doesn’t go to harm anyone, and it goes back to where it focuses on the traditions of the people that are wanting to celebrate it. Then I think it’s fine.”

In another stunning exchange, Haley explains her conception of the Civil War as a battle for “tradition” against forces of “change” — and never once uses the word “slavery”:

INTERVIEWER: What’s your belief about the reason the Civil War was fought?

NIKKI HALEY: I mean, again, I think that as we look at government, as we watch government, you have different sides. And I think that you see passions on different sides. And I don’t think anyone does anything out of hate. I think what they do is they do things out of tradition and their beliefs, and what they believe is right. I think you had one side of Civil War that was fighting for tradition, and I think you had another side of the Civil War that was fighting for change. You know, at the end of the day, what I think we need to remember is that, you know, everyone is supposed to have their rights, everyone’s supposed to be free. Everyone’s supposed to have the same freedoms as anyone else. So, you know, I think it was tradition versus change is the way I see it.

INTERVIEWER: Tradition versus change on what?

NIKKI HALEY: On individual rights and liberty of people.

Haley then nods her way through a group member’s lengthy diatribe about the war having nothing to do with slavery, but rather with the North’s interference with the South’s “agricultural economy.”

On the Confederate Flag, Haley says early in the interview that she supports the “compromise” of letting it fly over the Capitol, and that she’ll handle groups that object to the flag.

“I will work to talk to them about it, I will work and talk to them about the heritage and how this is not something that is racist. This is something that is a tradition that people feel proud of and let them know that we want their business in this state and that the flag where it is was a compromise of all people, that everybody should accept as part of South Carolina,” Haley said.

The group circled back later, and extracted a promise from Haley that she wouldn’t change her mind about the Confederate flag no matter what, and that her status “as a minority female” made her “the perfect person” to deal with any boycotts:

INTERVIEWER: So why I think I’m asking you if this comes up and it will come up again, we can assure you all that you’ve probably been here maybe longer than you are. What kind of pressure would you succumb to the powers that be putting pressure on you? Would you change your mind that what you just had a few moments ago.

NIKKI HALEY: On the Confederate flag?

INTERVIEWER: Yes.

NIKKI HALEY: No, I would not.

INTERVIEWER: Because this was not a compromise everyone talks about. Our side lost and we made no reservations about it. We got a little flag on the statehouse grounds. That’s not a compromise. The other side got a big gaudy monument on the statehouse grounds. They got the flags out of both chambers of the house. I can’t remember what else it is. Anyway, we lost.

NIKKI HALEY: No and I’ve been told that for years that this is something and whether it’s been in debates or anything else, I’ve been very public that this compromise was made, it was settled and it has been put away, and that I don’t have any intentions of bringing it back up or making it an issue during my term.

INTERVIEWER: Did you read the paper?

NIKKI HALEY: I mean, there’s been pressure for years. You know, my six years in office, there’s been pressure. And you know, what you have to do is remember what are the priorities of the state? For me, I’m an accountant and a small business person that wants our economy to be focused on jobs and wants us to focus on making sure that we have strong competitive business environment and make sure that we have a strong education system to make sure that we have a good quality of life. I will not allow us to be distracted by anything that doesn’t focus on those three things.

INTERVIEWER: And you would frown on this so-called boycott…

NIKKI HALEY: I mean, I think I’m the perfect person to deal with the boycott because as a minority female, I mean, go and talk to them and I’m going to go and let them know that every state has their traditions and every state has certain things that they hold as part of their heritage.

Watch above via Palmetto Patriots.