BERLIN — A question about the cause of the U.S. Civil War to presidential candidate Nikki Haley at a town hall Dec. 27 continues to reverberate in the news, after the man asking the question did not get the historical answer he sought. 

“What was the cause of the United States Civil War?” the man asked, standing near a wall of the Berlin Rec Center. It was about the role of government and about the rights of the people, she said. “I think the cause of the Civil War was basically how government was going to run – the freedoms and what people could and couldn’t do,” Haley answered, that wasn’t the answer he sought. “It’s astonishing to me that in 2023 you cannot use the word slavery,” he said to her. “What do you want me to say about slavery?” Haley asked the man, pausing for a moment. Other people in the audience and standing against the walls of the Berlin Rec Center behind fixed their gaze on the man. “Next question,” she said, turning to others seated in the audience. The man remained in the building for the remainder of the town hall. Roughly 200 people attended the evening event, which began two hours later than first scheduled due to fog that postponed her flight.  

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