Nikki Haley defended the Confederate flag on Friday, claiming it was a symbol of "heritage" _ not racism and slavery _ until the 2015 South Carolina church rampage carried out by a white supremacist.
The former South Carolina governor and U.N. ambassador made the dubious claim that gunman Dylann Roof "hijacked" the Stars and Bars in an interview Thursday with right-wing podcast host Glenn Beck.
"He just hijacked everything," Haley said. "People saw it as service and sacrifice and heritage."
Haley, 50, is a rising star in the GOP and is often mentioned as a possible party leader for the post-Trump era.
The daughter of Indian immigrants may be seeking to mend fences with far right-wing supporters of President Donald Trump who object to her 2015 decision to lower the Confederate flag from South Carolina's state capitol in the days after the Charleston church massacre.
She said at that time that the flag should never have been flown above a legislative body that represents South Carolinians of all races.
"There is a place for that flag," she said. "It's not in a place that represents all people in South Carolina."
Now, Haley claims that the Confederate flag was simply a symbol of Southern heritage up until Roof used it to publicize his racist manifesto. Roof killed nine black churchgoers as they studied the Bible at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston on June 17, 2015.
Most black Americans consider the Confederate flag to be a symbol of racist hatred. It is often flown at white supremacist demonstrations and was a symbol of white defiance of desegregation efforts during the Civil Rights era.
