CNN’s Gayle King and Charles Barkley were not going to let GOP presidential candidate off the hook about her comments about America’s racism, and they grilled the former South Carolina governor about the subject on Wednesday.
Barkley dove right into the comments to kick off the show, telling Haley:
Governor, I’m dying to vote for you. I mean that sincerely. I want to give all my energy and all my heart behind your campaign. But I was upset when you made the reference that you didn’t think America had racism. And my question is, I was disappointed, number one, obviously, but I want to give you a chance. Did you say that because you felt like you needed to say that to the audience? Because I can say I’m dying to vote for you. And that hurt me. So I would love you to clarify that, please.
Haley was happy to furnish a response, though her answer was similar to what she’s said before:
So first of all, I never said that there was not racism in America. There absolutely is racism in America. I said that America was not a racist country.
She further explained that if she’d been taught, as a minority growing up in the South, that America was a racist country, she “would have grown up never thinking I could be governor, never thinking I could be ambassador, never thinking I
That was not enough for King:
King: Governor, I think most people heard you say–Haley: Our job should be–King: That you did not believe that America–Haley: That we stomp out racism–King: Has ever been a racist country. That’s the problem, that we heard you say–Haley: That’s not what I said.King: Okay.Haley: So I never said, I said that America is not a racist country. The premise of America was never to be a racist country, and that our number one goal should be to make today better than yesterday. We need to stomp out racism wherever it exists. But if you go and tell kids that they live in a racist country, then you’re automatically telling brown and black kids that they’ll never be good enough. I don’t want our kids to think that. I want them to know that yes, there is racism. Yes, it is wrong wherever we see it. But that doesn’t mean that the country is against you. That means that we need you even more than ever so we can stomp it out wherever we see it.King: Okay, I really don’t want to split hairs, but the exact quote that you said was, “America has never been a racist country.” I think that’s the problem that people objected to.
We’re not disputing that what you’re saying about America is not a racist country. Some people would argue with that. But we’re saying that the comment you made that particular day was that America has never been a racist country. And I think that’s what got that’s what caught people off surprise, caught people off-guard.
Haley continued to push her idealist (or whitewashed) viewpoint that America was founded on the idea that all men were created equal, even though “America was a work in progress.” King eventually just moved on.
Watch the video above via CNN.