TO WHOM, NIKKI?

Goldman Sachs Employees Protest Nikki Haley Appearance Over Confederate Flag Comments

Trump’s former U.S. ambassador stands by her comments that the flag symbolized “service, sacrifice, and heritage” to some in South Carolina.

Goldman Sachs employees protested a scheduled appearance Wednesday by Nikki Haley at the firm’s offices following her comments that the Confederate flag symbolized “service, sacrifice, and heritage” to some residents in her home state of South Carolina. President Trump’s former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations said during an interview on Glenn Beck’s podcast last week that Dylann Roof—the white supremacist who killed nine black parishioners in 2015—“hijacked” the flag’s meaning by posing with it in photos before he opened fire in Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church. Haley claimed that the national media “wanted to make this about racism. They wanted to make it about gun control. They wanted to make it about the death penalty.” Her comments reflect sentiments in her 2015 speech after the attack in which she called the flag “noble” for some in her state.

Goldman’s president, John Waldron, is set to interview the former South Carolina governor as part of the “Talks at GS” series. The firm’s executives assured employees that Waldron will confront Haley directly about her outrage-inciting statements. Rep. J.A. Moore (D-SC) said on Twitter that Haley’s “continued use of this tragedy for political reasons is disgusting.”