Nikki Haley's 'slavery' controversy is utter nonsense. Republicans are fools to play into it.

National lore tells us that Vice President Thomas Marshall, an old Hoosier, had heard some U.S. senator natter on about “what America needs” when he retorted with his now famous quote: "What this country really needs is a really good 5-cent cigar.”

That was supposedly 1914.

Today, the country’s needs are significantly different. After this past week in presidential politics, it has become obvious:

What America needs is a good B.S. detector.

Haley was asked an obsolete question

Especially after so many of our countrymen – left and right – laced up their clown shoes and played the fools in the story of Nikki Haley and the word “slavery.”

My fire here is reserved mostly for Republicans who fell for this nonsense and perpetuated a story and tactic they should know by now is complete and utter bull.

Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley is not my first choice for Republican nominee, but she deserves a defense against the media, politicians and chattering classes who have condemned her response to what was an obsolete question:

What do you believe was the cause of the Civil War?

That’s a question relevant in say, oh, 1870. It doesn’t make much sense in all the commotion of the 2024 presidential election in which inflation, the Chinese and an open border are far more timely concerns.

Nikki Haley could beat Biden. Is that enough to tear GOP away from Trump?

Democrats called her response 'vile'

The easy answer is “slavery,” and it’s on to the next question.

Haley, instead served up some hash about “the cause of the Civil War was basically how government was going to run, the freedoms and what people could and couldn’t do.”

The Democratic Party called her answer “vile.”

It wasn’t “vile.”

It was hash.

It was probably hash born of fatigue, of too much time under the glare of scrutiny with a thousand slick operators waiting to pounce on her every mistake.

It was obvious Haley didn’t anticipate the question. Who would?

Slavery was the noncontroversial answer

She didn’t want to step in any trap, so on the fly she tried to fuzz it up, to give the politician’s classic nonanswer to a question whose point she couldn’t comprehend.

She answered as if she believed there was a trap and wasn’t sure what it was. She wasn’t going to hand her enemies a sword or a sound bite.

But she did.

Because the easy – and noncontroversial answer – is “slavery” and she didn’t say it.

This led to stories in the national newspapers on par with the Martians landing on Capitol Hill.

Then came the tut-tuts from Democrats and her Republican opponents.

We let racial politics play out again

In short, we were watching racial politics play out again in America.

You want vile, this is vile.

To paint someone who is clearly no racist as a racist.

When it’s politically convenient, Democrats stoke the fire of racial animus. They’ve been doing it for decades.

If you are Democrat and say that’s not true, you are either lying or as deeply deluded as the Republican rubes who ran the “Arizona audit” to try to expose the 2020 presidential election.

Nonetheless, we’ve come to expect that reaction from Democrats. It’s what Democrats do.

Why I condemn Republicans in this story

What we don’t expect and I condemn is the reaction of Republicans who are exploiting this moment to knock Haley down.

Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie seized on her answer. “She didn’t say what she said last night and today about this because she’s dumb," he said. "The reason she did it is just as bad if not worse, and she got everybody concerned about her candidacy. She did it because she’s unwilling to offend anyone by telling the truth.”

So, what is Christie saying here, that Haley was placating the 0.2% of Americans who are neo-Confederates?

Because if she were, that was dumb.

Christie and Ramaswamy should drop out: Why are Chris Christie and Vivek Ramaswamy still in 2024 GOP race? They need to skedaddle.

Donald Trump’s Make America Great Again super PAC sent out a release that said Haley “is clearly not ready for primetime.”

The worst, however, was another Republican presidential candidate, Ron DeSantis.

“The minute that she faces any kind of scrutiny, she tends to cave,” the Florida governor said. “I think that that’s what you saw yesterday. Not that difficult to identify and acknowledge the role slavery played in the Civil War, and yet that seemed to be something that was really difficult.”

Ron DeSantis is a successful politician

DeSantis is one of the most successful politicians of his age. His work as governor is the gold standard for results. Florida is a font of economic prosperity and a magnet for people.

When disaster strikes in the form of hurricanes, DeSantis has truck convoys ready to repair electric lines and bridges. Instantly.

So successful has been his governance that the people of Florida rewarded him with a stunning 19-point reelection victory.

New Year predictions: 2024 will show us what America wants to be. Our USA TODAY Opinion team is hopeful – and worried.

Results like that are scary to the opposing party, so the Democrats have run the race-baiting, race-hustling playbook at DeSantis to paint him as a racist and tyrant.

Vice President Kamala Harris showed up in Florida in a highly produced drama to accuse DeSantis of using new public-school curriculum to apologize for slavery. It was pure hokum.

DeSantis should've said, 'Nonstory. Move on.'

DeSantis’ best moment as governor was when he went to Jacksonville in August after a white gunman killed three Black people at a Dollar General store there.

There was no political upside in going.

The governor knew he would be booed at the vigil for the victims. He knew the media would make hay of all the heckling.

He went anyway.

And by going he told Black people in Florida he is also their public servant, a message for which he knew he would get no love, no credit.

Opinion alerts: Get columns from your favorite columnists + expert analysis on top issues, delivered straight to your device through the USA TODAY app. Don't have the app? Download it for free from your app store.

DeSantis, more than anyone, should know the game being played against Haley. His response should have been simple.

“I’m sure she knows it was slavery. Nonstory. Move on.”

If Nikki Haley is a racist, then we all are

Debunking this story takes almost no effort at all. It can be done in two questions.

What is the point of the story?

That Nikki Haley’s omission of slavery reveals some inner bigot who denies the horrors of chattel slavery or panders to a tiny cadre of white supremacists who deny it.

Who is Nikki Haley?

We all know who she is.

She is a woman of color who has been the successful governor of a Southern state, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations and a moderating influence on her party.

She’s a big-tent Republican in the tradition of George W. Bush, Mitt Romney and John McCain. She is the closest thing to the establishment we have running in the 2024 Republican primary.

She is person of real decency and grace. She has no racist impulse, and everybody knows it.

If Nikki Haley is a white supremacist, then every Republican is a white supremacist.

Which is probably the real point of this story and why President Joe Biden chimed in.

This is a Democratic Party parade.

All the more reason why Republicans Chris Christie, Donald Trump and especially Ron DeSantis are fools to play its trombone.

Phil Boas is an editorial columnist for The Arizona Republic, where this column first ran. Email him at phil.boas@arizonarepublic.com

You can read diverse opinions from our Board of Contributors and other writers on the Opinion front page, on Twitter @usatodayopinion and in our daily Opinion newsletter.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Nikki Haley's Civil War gaffe is being exploited. Blame Republicans