Nikki Haley is presented as a candidate for the US presidency. 3:00
(CNN) --
Former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley defended the states' right to secede from the United States, South Carolina Confederate History Month and the Confederate flag in a 2010 interview with a group local activist who "fights attacks on southern culture."
Haley, who was running for governor of South Carolina at the time, made the comments during an interview with the now-defunct group "The Palmetto Patriots," which included a former board member of a white nationalist organization. .
The former UN ambassador also described the Civil War as two sides fighting for different values, one for "tradition" and the other for "change."
Haley last week announced her intention to run for president, becoming the first official major contender to challenge former President Donald Trump for the Republican nomination.
The interview was posted on the group's YouTube account at the time and resurfaced over the years, most recently by Patriots Takes, an anonymous Twitter account that monitors right-wing extremism.
CNN's KFile reviewed the interviews as part of a look back at Haley's early political career.
One of the interviewers for The Palmetto Patriots was Robert Slimp, a pastor and member of the Sons of Confederate Veterans organization and a former board member and active member of the Council of Conservative Citizens (CCC), a white nationalist group.
The CCC is a self-described white rights group that opposes non-white immigration and espouses a white nationalist ideology.
The group reportedly inspired Charleston shooter Dylann Roof, the white nationalist who killed nine people at a historically black church in Charleston, South Carolina, in 2015.
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Charleston appears in the racist manifesto posted on the Internet as the target of an attack
The shooting prompted Haley, then governor, to call for the removal of the Confederate battle flag from the grounds of the South Carolina state headquarters, where it had been since it was removed from the state Capitol dome in 2000.
In a comment to CNN, Haley's spokesperson cited her decision to help remove the flag, but declined to comment on Haley's other comments.
"Nikki Haley's innovative leadership in the removal of the Confederate flag from the South Carolina Capitol is well known," Ken Farnaso, her spokesman, wrote in an email to CNN.
Confederate flag from South Carolina Capitol removed
defense to the flag
In the 2010 interview, Haley said the Confederate flag was not "racist" but was part of the state's heritage and tradition.
She described the placement of the flag as a "commitment by all the people, that the whole world must accept a part of South Carolina."
"You know, for those groups that come up and say they have issues with the Confederate flag, I will work to talk to them about it," Haley said.
"I'll go to work and tell them about the heritage and that it's not a racist thing. It's a tradition that people are proud of and I'll let them know that we want their business in this state. And that the flag, where it is, was a compromise of all the people that the whole world should accept as part of South Carolina".
Following the mass shooting at the Charleston church, Haley called on the state legislature to remove the Confederate flag from the state capitol, becoming one of the defining moments of his governorship.
"There's a place for that flag," Haley told CNN in July 2015, after the flag was removed.
"He's not in a place that represents all the people of South Carolina."
But Haley's later comments would complicate this legacy after he claimed that to some people the Confederate flag symbolized "service, sacrifice and heritage" to some South Carolinians until Roof "hijacked" it, sparking backlash.
Following the criticism, Haley wrote an opinion piece for The Washington Post defending her comments.
"In South Carolina, as in much of the South, the Confederate flag has long been a hot topic," Haley wrote.
"Everyone knows that the flag has always been a symbol of slavery, discrimination and hatred for a lot of people. But not everyone sees the flag that way. That's hard for non-Southerners to understand, but it's a fact." .
Haley defended the right of secession
When asked if she would support the secession of South Carolina, the first state to secede during the Civil War, Haley said that while she believed states have the right under the Constitution to secede from the rest of the country, she did not believe "it was going to get to that point."
"The Union, I think so," Haley said, vaguely.
"I mean, the Constitution says so."
The Supreme Court ruled in 1869 that states do not have the constitutional right to secede unilaterally.
Haley declined to say whether she would support South Carolina if it "needed" to break away, when asked.
"You know, I'm one of those people who doesn't think it's going to get to that point," Haley said before describing how she could encourage governors to go to the federal government to resolve "federal trespassing" disputes.
Champion Confederate Heritage Month
Haley also said she was supportive of South Carolina's "Confederate History Month" during the interview, comparing it to Black History Month.
"Yeah, it's part of a tradition, you know, it's part of the tradition," he said.
"And so when you look at it, if you have the same thing that you have Black History Month and you have Confederate History Month and all of those. As long as it's done in a positive way and not a negative way, and it doesn't hurt anybody, and focus on the traditions of the people who want to celebrate it, I think it's fine."
He describes the Civil War as a struggle between "tradition and change"
In her interview, Haley also described the Civil War in terms favorable to the Southern cause and did not mention slavery.
"I mean, again, I think when we look at government, when we look at government, you have different camps, and I think you see passions on different camps, and I don't think anybody does anything out of hate," Haley said.
"I think what they do is, they do things out of tradition and out of beliefs of what they think is right."
"I think there is a side in the Civil War that was fighting for tradition, and I think there is another side in the Civil War that was fighting for change," he added.
"At the end of the day, what I think we need to remember is that everyone should have their rights, everyone should be free, everyone should have the same freedoms as everyone else.
So, you know, I think what I see is tradition versus change.
"Tradition against change," the interviewer asked.
"On individual rights and freedom of people," he replied.
Haley later added that she believed everyone was endowed with rights from "our creator" to "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness."
"Well, I think for me, what I keep remembering, you know, is that our creator endowed everyone with rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness," he said.
"And when I look at it like that, I think that's what should guide us all, to make sure that we guarantee those three things."
--CNN's Em Steck contributed to this report.
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