Nikki Haley said Thursday that the media “can’t stand it when a brown Republican” says that it is impossible to call America “a racist country.”
Haley, who is the former Governor of South Carolina and the former United States Ambassador to the United Nations, appeared on Fox News Thursday and responded to comments made by Brianna Keilar, who said Haley had “whitewashed the ups and downs of the American experience with racism.”
Keilar made the comments after Haley’s Tuesday speech at the Reagan Library in Simi Valley, California. Haley criticized people who chose to focus on America’s defects over its strong points.
“They deny the massive progress we’ve made,” Haley said at the event. “And they punish anyone who disagrees.” (RELATED: ‘Democrats Don’t Even Believe In America’: Nikki Haley Goes After Liberals In Reagan Library Speech)
Keilar said Haley was whitewashing American history to gain popularity with conservatives. “It’s amazing to me how the liberal media can’t stand it when someone black or brown happens to talk about the fact that America is the best country in the world. The fact that we are blessed to be free and blessed to live in America. I’m going to keep saying it, we should all talk about the blessings of America,” Haley said in response to Keilar’s comments.
“You can’t say that we’re a racist country, you just can’t. And they can’t stand it when a brown Republican says that,” Haley said.
She pointed to her early life in South Carolina during her speech at the Reagan Library. “I was a brown girl in a black-and-white world. Every day, my family faced stares, whispers, suspicion, and exclusion,” Haley said. “Then something very America happened.”
“The community looked beyond skin color. They got to know my family as hard-working people who shared their values. Slowly, those stares turned into smiles. Those whispers turned into words of friendship. We went from being left out to welcomed in. Not every day was great. But nearly every day was better than the one before,” Haley said.