Nikki Haley gets called ‘John Kerry’ by 9-year-old at NH town hall

Nikki Haley might want to skip New Hampshire town halls for a while.

After the former South Carolina governor spent Thursday morning explaining why she didn’t mention slavery as a chief cause of the Civil War at an event the previous evening, she was called on the carpet in the afternoon by a 9-year-old boy who questioned her decision to serve in the Trump administration.

Haley, 51, spent 23 months as US ambassador to the United Nations during the 45th president’s tenure and has maintained that the 77-year-old was the right leader for the time.

However, during her presidential campaign, Haley has argued that Trump would be ineffective in a second term due to the “chaos” he causes.

Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie has accused Haley of being too soft on Trump, going so far as to say she’s trying to better position herself for another White House run in 2028.

Nikki Haley speaks at a town hall campaign event at Kennett High School in North Conway, New Hampshire. AFP via Getty Images

“Chris Christie thinks you’re a flip-flopper on the Donald Trump issue, and honestly, I agree with him. You’re basically the new John Kerry,” the child told Haley in the ski town of North Conway as the audience laughed “How can you change your opinion like that in just eight years, and will you pardon Donald Trump?”

Haley, 51, responded by arguing both “anti-Trumpers” and “pro-Trumpers” criticize her approach to the former president.

“I told you that I agreed with a lot of his policies. But do I think he’s the right president to go forward? No,” Haley said. “We can’t handle the chaos anymore.”

Haley then turned on Christie, saying he was “obsessed” with the former president.

Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, left, and former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, right, talk during a commercial break at a Republican presidential primary debate. AP

“I mean God bless him, he’s a friend. He’s obsessed with Trump,” she said. “He sleeps, eats and breathes it, everyday. I’m thinking bigger than that. If we do that, we’re no different than Trump.”

Haley also affirmed that she would pardon Trump for any alleged offenses he’s committed “in the interest of the country,” after scolding the child that she was “no John Kerry.”

“What’s in the best interest of the country is not to have an 80-year-old man sitting in jail that continues to divide our country,” she said.

Kerry — the former senator from Massachusetts, onetime secretary of state and President Biden’s current special climate envoy — spent much of his 2004 presidential campaign fighting charges that he had flip-flopped in opposing the war in Iraq after voting to authorize the use of military force against Saddam Hussein’s government.

Trump has been leading the GOP field with a large margin of over 50 points in average national polling. AP

Haley made the remarks while fighting major backlash over her failure to mention chattel slavery as a chief cause of the Civil War in response to an audience question at a Berlin town hall Wednesday night.

She began her North Conway appearance by addressing the gaffe, saying the war was “of course” about slavery, but that there was a “bigger issue.”

“We did the right thing and slavery is no more,” she said. “But the lessons of what that bigger issue with the Civil War is that — let’s not forget what came out of that — which is government’s role, individual liberties, freedom for every single person, freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom to do and be anything you want to be without anyone or government getting in your way.

“That should be the goal of what we always and try to take away from that, right?”

Haley also tried to clean up her gaffe by claiming President Biden and the Democratic Party sent a “plant” to pose the Civil war question to sabotage her event.