Nikki Haley says “USA has never been a racist country”

Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley, who came in third place in the Iowa caucuses, said the US “has never been a racist country” during an interview with Fox News on Tuesday (16).

Haley's comments were in response to MSNBC's Joy Reid's comments about whether Haley could win the Republican Party nomination as a woman of color. Haley suggested that Reid “lives in a different America than I do,” pointing to her own rise as the daughter of immigrants who became governor and UN ambassador.

“I mean, yes, I'm a girl of color who grew up in a small rural town in South Carolina and who became the first minority female governor in history, who became a UN ambassador, and who is now running for president. If that's not the American dream, I don't know what is. You can sit there and give me all the reasons why you think I can't do this. I will continue to challenge everyone on why we can do this. And we will achieve this,” said Haley.

When asked by “Fox & Friends” host Brian Kilmeade whether the Republican Party is a racist party, Haley stated more broadly that the U.S. “has never been a racist country.”

“We are not a racist country, Brian. We have never been a racist country. Our goal is to ensure that today is better than yesterday. We are perfect? No. But our goal is to always make sure we try to be more perfect every day that we can,” Haley said.

“I know, I faced racism when I was a child. But I can say that today it is much better than it was before. Our goal is to uplift everyone. Don't divide people by race, gender, party or anything else. We’ve had enough of this in America,” she added.

A Haley campaign spokesperson sought to clarify those comments on Tuesday, saying that “there has always been racism in the United States, but that the United States has never been a racist country. The liberal media consistently fails to achieve this distinction. It may cause an attack, but that doesn't change Nikki's belief that America is special because its people are always striving to do better and live up to our founding ideals of freedom and equality.”

More context

Haley has previously faced criticism for not mentioning slavery when initially asked by a voter about the cause of the Civil War during a campaign event last month. After the growing backlash, Haley said “of course” that slavery was the cause of the Civil War, adding that she assumed it was “a known thing.” The former governor of South Carolina said Tuesday that her motivation for running for president is to prove that gender or race do not act as impediments. CNN has reached out to Haley's campaign for comment.