If Texas decides it wants to secede from the US “they can do that,” Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley argued Wednesday.
The former South Carolina governor downplayed the likelihood of the Lone Star State actually choosing to break away from the republic but insisted during an appearance on the “Breakfast Club” radio show that secession is a “right” of the states.
“I think states have the right to make the decisions that their people want to make,” Haley said, when asked by host Charlamagne Tha God about her thoughts on secession in light of Texas’ disputes with the Biden administration on border security.
“If Texas decides they want to do that. They can do that,” she added.
“If that whole state says, ‘We don’t want to be part of America anymore’ — I mean, that’s their decision to make,” the 52-year-old White House hopeful went on. “But I don’t think government needs to tell people how to live, how to do anything. I mean, I think that we need to let freedom live.”
While the US Constitution doesn’t contain any provisions prohibiting a state from leaving the union, it does not explicitly grant states the right to secede.
“I think, you know, states are going to make decisions,” Haley said. “But let’s talk about what’s reality. Texas isn’t going to secede. That’s not something that they’re going to do.”
However, the issue was largely settled by the Union victory over the Confederates in the Civil War and the 1869 Supreme Court ruling Texas v. White, which affirmed that states cannot unilaterally secede from the US.
Haley went on to defend Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s efforts to prevent illegal-border crossing, including by putting up razor wire along the border that the Supreme Court ruled could be cut down by federal authorities.
“He has to protect Texans,” Haley argued.
Haley raised eyebrows last month when she refused to mention slavery as the primary cause of the Civil War.
She backtracked the following day, saying “Of course the Civil War was about slavery.”
Haley trails former President Donald Trump by more than 30 points in the upcoming South Carolina Republican primary, which will be held in her home state on Feb. 24, according to a RealClearPolitics average of polls.
The Haley campaign did not respond to The Post’s request for comment.
