Nikki Haley Follows Up Cringey Civil War Remarks by Declaring the US Has “Never” Been a Racist Country

Does Nikki Haley think minimizing the United States’s history when it comes to slavery and racism is the key to winning the GOP presidential nomination? It kind of seems like it!

Following up her curious decision last month to not cite slavery as a cause of the Civil War—which she later defended by saying, among other things, “I had Black friends growing up”—the former South Carolina governor declared on Tuesday that the United States, where owning a Black person was once legal, has “never” been a racist country. That’s right, never been racist, including the period in which it was acceptable for Black people to be someone’s property.

Haley’s claim came in response to a question from Fox & Friends cohost Brian Kilmeade, who asked the candidate if she thinks the GOP is a “racist party.” Her full answer was “No. We’re not a racist country, Brian. We’ve never been a racist country.” She added: “Our goal is to make sure that today is better than yesterday,” she continued. “Are we perfect? No. But our goal is to always make sure we try and be more perfect every day that we can.”

While maintaining that America has “never,” ever, been a racist country, Haley also told Kilmeade, “I faced racism when I was growing up. But I can tell you, today is a lot better than it was then.” She added: “I don’t want my kids growing up where they’re sitting there thinking that they’re disadvantaged because of a color or a gender. I want them to know that if they work hard, they can do and be anything they want to be in America.”

Haley also apparently thinks the key to the GOP nomination is pretending not to know that Trump has literally been found liable for sexual abuse

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