It's rare to see a famous meme play out almost word for word in real life, yet that basically happened last night when Republican presidential hopeful Nikki Haley attracted criticism for a hedging answer about the origins of the American Civil War without mentioning "slavery."
At a New Hampshire town hall, the former South Carolina governor was asked about the origins of the Civil War by an attendee and voter. Haley answered that the war was fought over perceived threats of government overreach impeding on people's freedom. The astonished voter chastised her for not mentioning slavery, at which point Haley asked, "What do you want me to say about slavery?"
The exchange, shown below, went viral after it was tweeted by Twitter user @chrisgeidner.
For many, the exchange was very reminiscent of the "states' rights to what?" meme, which satirizes how some conservatives will attempt to deflect the responsibility of slavery as a cause for the Civil War by saying the South rebelled due to the federal government infringing on "States' rights." The punchline in such memes is that the person they're talking to will respond "States' rights to what?" with the implied answer being, "to own slaves."
As Haley's gaffe spread on social media, iterations of the meme followed close behind.
Haley attempted to backpedal on the gaffe the following day, telling radio host Jack Heath that "of course" she knows the Civil War was "about slavery."
"But what’s the lesson in all of that?" she said. "That we need to make sure that every person has freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom to do and be anything they want to be without anyone or government getting in the way. That was the goal of what that was at. Yes, I know it was about slavery. I’m from the South, of course I know it’s about slavery."
She also claimed the man who asked her the question was "a Democratic plant" out to get her. The unnamed voter spoke to CNN and said he felt the question was "pretty fundamental and frankly pretty easy." He noticed she gave a nearly identical answer when she was running for governor of South Carolina and wanted to see if her views had changed.