Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley on Thursday tried to brush aside her recent comments about Texas possibly seceding from the union.
The former South Carolina governor first raised eyebrows on the subject Wednesday during a radio appearance, in which she discussed Texas’ standoff with the federal government over the state’s right to put up razor wire fencing along the southern border.
“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 told host Charlamagne tha God on his “Breakfast Club” show, when asked about the possibility of Texas leaving the union.
Similar secession efforts in the 1800s, including one in her home state of South Carolina, infamously set off the American Civil War . Shortly after the war’s conclusion, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the union is “indestructible,” and the court’s justices have remained firm on that.
When asked about her comments Thursday during a Fox News appearance, Haley downplayed her remarks.