Today on inside politics, What Caused The Civil War . Most would give a oneword answer. Slavery. But not nikki haley. This morning shes trying to clean it up. Plus Donald Trumps lawyers have a very busy few weeks ahead. Well tell you key dates to watch in his civil and Criminal Kriel trials. And Lauren Boebert barely won her red district last time around. Her solution, move to an even redder district. Im dana bash. Lets go hbehind the headlines and inside politics. We start in New Hampshire and one of those campaign moments that you just knew would immediately go viral. It was a Town Hall Last Night where nikki haley has been doing quite well. A voter asked what seemed like a simple question with a simple answer. Listen to part of what happened. Of course, The Civil War was about slavery. We know that. We know The Civil War was about slavery. But it was also more than that. It was about the freedoms of every individual. It was about the role of government. By the grace of god, we did the right thing and slavery is no more. But the lessons of what that bigger issue with The Civil War is that lets not forget what came out of that. Which is governments role, individual liberties, freedom for every single person, freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom to do what you please. Again, that was nikki haley. She was speaking today about what she meant to say last night. I want to go to eva mcend who was there last night at that event. She tried not once but twice so far already today to clean up her comments last night. She is in cleanup mode indeed. Because this conversation really brings into focus the larger way that she has run her campaign. Really in a play it safe mode, shes reluctant to go after her rivals directly, but here is how she responded last night when she was asked this very direct question about what were the origins of The Civil War. Lets listen. What was the cause of the United States civil war . Dont come with an easy question. The cause of The Civil War was baseically how government was going to run. The freedoms and what people could and couldnt do. Reporter so Chris Christie has often lamented that haley i tries to be everything for everybody. Governor desantis believes she runs a different race here in New Hampshire than she does in iowa. No doubt with this controversy will do t will continue to feed the flame and that narrative that she sometimes is malleable and not consistent in her messaging. But she is working overtime to refute that, to move on. And pretty soon after addressing this civil war fallout, she went right back to her standard stump speech. Eva, thank you for that. I want to bring in my great panel on this and much more. Kasie hunt, the Atlanta Journal constitutions Teeth Ma Mitchell and seung min kim. Nice to see all. So we i played a bit of what she has said this morning and also eva just played a bit of what sparked all this last night. I want to actually play all of it or at least enough of it that we could hear. Some of it was a bit inaudible. This voter asking the question and nikki haleys exchange back and forth with the voter. I think the cause of The Civil War was basically how government was going to run. The freedoms and what people could and couldnt do. What do you think the cause of The Civil War was . Im sorry . Im not running for president. I think it always comes down to the role of government. What the rights of the peopl and i will always standby the fact that i think government was intended to secure the Rights And Freedoms of the people. It was never meant to be all things to all people. Government doesnt need to tell you how to live your life. They dont need to tell you what you can and cant do. Dont need to be a part of your life. We need to have capitalism. We need to have economic tropical storm. We need to make sure we do all things so individuals have the liberties so that they can have freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom to do or be anything they want to be bout government getting in the way. Thank you. In the year 2023, its astonishing to me that you answered that question without mentioning the word slavery. What do you want me to say about slavery . You answered my question. Thank you. Next question. So lets talk about this, first of all, just on its substantiative level. Then well talk a little bit about the politics of what it says about her campaign. Substance wise, there was only one answer and it was slavery. She did not give that answer. We heard the voter come at her and say, why didnt you say slavery . Im paraphrase ing here. Yeah, i think its important that you played that whole clip because you can see that she had plenty of time and plenty of opportunity to say that. There was even this one moment where he says, im astonished you dont mention slavery. She says, what do you want me to say . Its not as though she wasnt handed the opportunity on a silver platter there. She didnt take it. And i heard in how she was addressing that, i covered her campaign for governor of South Carolina. This seems like the kind of answer you give when youre being careful to talk to a Certain Group of voters in a Southern State about an issue like this that i think lets be clear, this conversation evolved during times of racial strife. Well after the end of The Civil War when these monuments to the confederacy went up. Theres a lot of pain in the way that this conversation is had for people who were directly impacted by slavery. And again, the Biden Campaign said it right away. Very shortly after it went on social media, its slavery. Desantis campaign was able to say this was inpublicable. Before you jump in, i want to show our viewers some of when youre talking about. This is this morning Desantis Spokesperson said, embarrassing cleanup attempt, even if thats true, if she cant handle a question as basic as the cause of The Civil War what did she think is going to happen in the general election, democrats would eat her for lunch. Last night the president himself said simply, it was about slavery. When you ask about the mechanics of her answer, because she avoided mentioning slavery, even what she said left it up to interpretation whose said side she was on. She talked about things like individual rights and capitalism. Quite frankly, that was some of the arguments made by slave owners in the Confederate States as to why i they felt they were justified in this war. So without making iter clear that this was about slaveowning states wanting to continue keeping people as property, youre missing the key argument almost as youre trying to gloss over what the war was really about. So i mentioned that first we have to talk about the substance of this, but then theres the question of who she is, where she is, what her campaign has done in the last 12 to 14 hours. So much of the way a Campaign Goes is determined by how they react. Things happen. Things happen on the campaign trail. Candidates make gaffes. They just do. Its happened to even the best candidates in the world. So the question is how does she respond . We played at the beginning a what she said right out of the gate. She came out in a town hall this morning about an hour ago said that this was about slavery and tried to clean it up. This morning she went on a radio show and had a very lengthy answer saying, of course, it was about slavery, but then she said i didnt want to engage with this person because the person who asked the question was a democratic plant and started saying how the democrats are trying to tear her down because shes a threat to joe biden. I was watching her comments in the las. The first thing that came to my mind is this politics that if youre explaining, youre losing. This was politically just not good moment for her. It does two things. Its too early to gauge the longterm impact of what this would do, but what it does right now is, first of all, it punctures this images that she cultivated during the primarry campaign of being this disciplined, onmessage very perfect candidate, if you will. And it really kind of knocks her off that. Clearly, this is not what she wants to be talking about. But the second thing that it does, it really does highlight her history on her tough history on race. If you look at going back to her Race Campaign for South Carolina governor, she said a version of this before back in 2010 when asked about the causes of civil war. She said it was these two sides arguing about tradition and change. Then there was the history of being governor with the Confederate Flag and a couple years before that, she had said the Confederate Flag was not a racist symbol. It does spotlight the this part of her record that is difficult for her to talk about. Does a that say as much about the republican electorate and the difference between the republican electorate in New Hampshire and South Carolina as Anything Else . Thats the point you were making. She obviously cut her teeth in southern republican politics when she had to deal with the attacks. New hampshire is the ball game for her in the shortterm. A republican said this morning, you have to understand how much pride nebrw england voters, n Nebraska Residents take in being the people who went to the south and fought to end slavery and how impact ful this Statement O Gaffe or whatever you call it could be, which is why she tried to clean it up already twice this morning. Thats so interesting you say that. I talked to New Hampshire republicans and democrats who have bristled because some people criticized for having an electorate thats too white. We sent obama to the white house. They will point out that the diversity is something that the first woman on the ticket. Think politics is so much about what are your instincts in the moment. Its a combination of what you know about the voters and what they want to hear from you and what you know and believe yourself. And you have to find that balance. It is very, very hard at the president ial level, it is a crucible, it is different from any campaign anywhere else. Ron desantis is learning this the hard way. He thought doing it in tallahassee is enough, its never enough. Such a good point. The person who is running in New Hampshire who has done it before is Chris Christie. And he is somebody who does take pride in knowing how to read that. He is also trying to read the New Hampshire electorate with a pretty hefty ad campaign that he has now running in New Hampshire. Saying that hes not dropping out of the race. Some people say i should drop out of this race. Really . Im the one saying donald trump is a liar. He pits americans against each other. His christmas message to anyone that disagrees with him, rot in hell. He will burn capitol hill to the ground to help himself. I think its interesting. Even when you bring it back to nikki haley, nikki haleys central message to Republican Voters is that i can win in a general election, i do better against biden. This blunder blunts that message. This was a general election blunder. Which make it is tougher for her, but at the same time, her answer probably plays well to certain types of Republican Voters. Is and at the end of the day, what the argument that Chris Christie is making, quite fr frankly that nikki haley is making, neither one of them, you look at the early voting polling is really resinating at all. At the end of the day, they are still trailing way behind donald trump. Desantis said something, Chris Christie hasnt said anything yet. It is New Hampshire for him. He probably wants this ad to speak for itself and that to be the message. But it is interesting. It is very interesting. I think that ad was in response to the questions that hes been kweting about why arent you dropping off if you want to consolidate that. So youre right. He wants to let that ad speak for him. Everybody, standby. Up next, a very good meeting. That is hows president is characterizing his summit yesterday with two top Biden Cabinet members. But is there an actual deal for mexico to do more to stem the surge of migrants crossing illegally into the u. S. . Well talk about that, next. Mexico and the United States are making progress on a Border Security deal, thats according to ms. Speakers president , who said the two countries reached an agreement to reopen u. S. Boarder crossings that had been temporarily closed by the biden administration. This comes after yesterdays meeting between the mexican president and senior u. S. Officials, which Secretary Of StateAntony Blinken and secretary of Homeland Security described as very productive. Rosa flores is live in eagle pass, texas. What are you learning a about these talks . Reporter what were learn ing is a little bit more about the substance of what happened. Like you mentioned, a lot of the u. S. And mexican officials have been using these words, it was a very productive meeting. But we were look ing for substance. What actually happened, what agreement was made. Were learning from National SecurityCouncil Spokesperson that mexicos president has taken significant Law Enforcement steps on the mexican side of the border. Why is that important . Thats important because whatever mexico does impacts the number of illegal entries into the United States. Now i want you to take a look at this drone video taken by producer and drone pilot ashly killo. You can see theres very little to no activity here in eagle pass, which just last weeks was the epicenter of this crisis. Now what could this mean . This could be Law Enforcement efforts on the mexican side of the border. Whenever mexico ups its Law Enforcement, whenever they add check points at trains, wherever mexico ups its deportations or moves from the northern border to southern mexico, that is what we see. So were kind of seeing on the ground perhaps the result of those talks. Now were also learn ing from mexicos president. He used the word agreement. There was some agreement. We dont know the details of this, but mexicos the president saying theres some agreement so that the ports of entry can reopen. Now the u. S. Government was the one who closed several ports of entry in several states to respond to this crisis because the personnel that worked reassigned to process Migrants Torks Transport migrants. Thats the way that they surge resources to the areas most impacted by the illegal crossings. And it makes for the two countries to agree because they are major trade ing partners. So all that makes sense. Were going to try to figure out what else was part of this deal, who got what and whats happening, but for now, thats what we have. Back to you. Thank you for that reporting and that great drone footage. That was really telling. Thank you. Our panel is back here. Lets put in context the politics of this for President Biden. And how important it is. Just one example from an Approval Rating poll. You look at the issues and how he fairs, infrastructure, jobs, climate change, inflation, immigration, hes down 26 . That is not good. Its not good at a all. Part of the trip yesterday to mexico by senior officials was to have these conversations, but also to make the broader administrations point this is a regional issue that requires regional cooperation. And trying to blunt the criticism saying these were the border policy causing the numbers a at the border, but that doesnt change the fact hes under political pressure over immigration and his administration is preparing to make compromises on immigration next month. Pressure because of the situation at the border, pressure because republicans are trying as much as they can to blame booid skpn his policies, but its also big city mayor. Listen to some of them. We cannot continue to do the federal governments job. We have spoken to fema and other federal officials, who have expressed concern about the borders surge. Without significant immigration from the federal government, this mission will not be sustained. Denver finds itself at ground zero in trying to resolve and respond to the migrant crisis. We need more federal support to mac this flow. Yeah, that right there is the problem that joe biden has in a nutshell. Because its no longer for a long time this conversation was these Red State Mayors and governors are being alarmists and we have to focus on the humanitarian issue here