Ad attacking Nikki Haley on border wall stance misrepresents remarks from 2015 | Fact check

Joedy McCreary, USA TODAY

The claim: Nikki Haley opposed a wall on the US border

A Facebook ad from former President Donald Trump's campaign (direct link) takes aim at Republican rival Nikki Haley while showing footage of the border and an array of violent confrontations.

“Nikki Haley joined Biden in opposing President Trump’s border wall,” the narrator says at one point.

The ad appeared on an estimated 800,000 screens, predominantly in Haley’s home state of South Carolina, from Feb. 16-24, according to analytics from Meta's ad library.

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Our rating: False

This ad misrepresents remarks made by Haley in 2015 in which she called for additional border security measures to complement the wall. She did not say she opposed the border wall.

Claim distorts Haley remarks from 2015

Border security has become a key issue in the runup to November's election, and both Biden and Trump visited vastly different sections of the southern border Feb. 29 to draw attention to how they differ on immigration. Haley made a visit of her own 10 months earlier.

But the ad distorts remarks she made in 2015, when the then-South Carolina governor advocated for additional border security measures to accompany the building of a wall.

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Text in the video makes clear the ad's claim is based on a Feb. 1, 2023, story in Time which states Haley "slammed" Trump's "plan to build a border wall." That assertion is based on statements Haley made during a 2015 speech at the National Press Club criticizing Trump and his plan to secure the Southern border.

“Don’t say you’re just going to build a wall, because a wall is not going to do it,” Haley said. “You’ve got to have commitment of ground troops, equipment, money – all of that – to bring it together. Then you’re being serious about tackling illegal immigration.”

The full context of her criticism makes clear she was saying the border wall alone is not enough, not that she was opposed to the border wall itself.

There is also no record of Haley voting against the wall, as some iterations of this claim assert. She served as Trump's ambassador to the United Nations, which wouldn't put her in a position to vote on a border wall plan.

Haley has voiced support for the wall in the past. In a video she posted to X, formerly Twitter, during her April 2023 visit, she said at one point while standing in front of a section of border fence “We need to finish what we started.”

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis made a similar claim in January during the Republican primary debate.

DeSantis claimed Haley opposed the wall. Haley said in response, “I said you can't just build a wall. You have to do more than build a wall. It was having the wall and everything else.”

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Trump ad distorts old Nikki Haley remarks on border wall | Fact check

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