South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley was confronted with a question at the RedState Gathering she's heard plenty lately: What would she do if offered a vice president slot?
"It's too painful to think about. I say that because nine people died" in June when a suspected white supremacist opened fire at a black Charleston church.
"I'm not ready to think about that. I'm not ready to look into that. Because I've got a state to heal," she said. "I've got to make sure I build South Carolina back up to where she needs to be."
Her remarks, though, emphasized her background as a trailblazing Indian-American women elected to South Carolina's highest office. She told the crowd of the time her father, who wore a turban, went to buy produce at a fruit stand. The owner summoned two police officers to keep watch until Haley's dad finished up.
She compared that incident with the South Carolina Legislature's decision last month to bring down the Confederate flag that had, for decades, flown on the statehouse grounds.
"Sometimes, we should put ourselves in each others' shoes," she said. "We brought our flag down. But that didn't change my philosophical core. But it taught me to listen more. None of us are happy with what's happening in D.C. now, because they're getting nothing done ... If we in South Carolina could do what we did with that flag, think about what we could do across the country."
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