Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley made the eyebrow-raising claim on Tuesday that America is not and never has been a racist country.
“We are not a racist country,” the former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations told Fox News’ Brian Kilmeade after finishing third in the Iowa caucuses behind former President Donald Trump and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.
“We’ve never been a racist country,” she added, just a day after Martin Luther King Jr. Day.
“Our goal is to make sure today is better than yesterday. Are we perfect? No,” Haley continued. “But our goal is to always make sure we try to be more perfect every day we can. I know, I faced racism when I was growing up but I can tell you today is a lot better than it was then.”
Watch the video here:
Haley’s comment came after she dismissed MSNBC anchor Joy Reid’s suggestion that Haley wouldn’t secure the GOP nomination because “she’s still a brown lady that’s got to try to win in a party that is deeply anti-immigrant.”
Last month, Haley caught heat for failing to mention slavery when a voter asked her about what caused the Civil War.
Critics on X explained why Haley was wrong with her new hot take: