New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu, who has endorsed Nikki Haley, said Sunday that the Republican presidential candidate’s remarks about the Civil War were a “mistake.”

Ms. Haley, a former governor of South Carolina, failed to mention slavery when prompted last week about the cause of the Civil War, spurning swift backlash that forced her to clarify her comments in subsequent public appearances.

“She cleared it up quickly, right?” Mr. Sununu said on CNN’s “State of the Union.” “Obviously, if something needs to be cleared up a bit, you know you wish you had said it a little differently the first time, but it was quickly cleared up.”

The morning after her original remarks, Ms. Haley said the Civil War was “of course” about slavery but that it was also about individual freedoms and government control.

“I think she was talking more to the freedoms and liberties that we want for every American and the lessons that come out of that going forward,” Mr. Sununu said.

He added that Ms. Haley “skipped over the obvious” answer.

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