George Stephanopoulos Grills Nikki Haley on Dismissing Racism at RNC Convention: What Has Trump Done to ‘Heal’ the ‘Racial Divide?’
ABC’s George Stephanopoulos pressed former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley on defending President Donald Trump over America’s racial issues.
During her speech before the RNC convention on Monday night, Haley attacked Democrats on numerous fronts before claiming that “in much of the Democratic Party, it’s now fashionable to say that America is racist. That is a lie. America is not a racist country.” The United States continues to witness the civil unrest that sparked from the death of George Floyd, though protests escalated to widespread violence in Kenosha, Wisconsin after the police shooting of Jacob Blake.
When Haley joined Good Morning America to talk about her address, Stephanopoulos brought up the Blake shooting as he noted how Democrats have condemned elements of systemic racism. This led to him asking “what specifically has President Trump done to address them?”
Haley answered that America remains a “work in progress … but we have to always keep improving.”
“So, no, we’re not a racist country,” she said. “Do we have racists in our country, yes, but we are a work in progress.”
Stephanopoulos honed in on his original question, noting that Haley said she was “deeply disturbed” by Trump’s infamous Charlottesville comments, plus he brought up Trump offering his support for the Confederate flag and his supporters shouting “white power.”
“I’ll ask the question again, what specifically has President Trump done to address this systemic racism and the racial divide?”
“I’m looking at results at what the president has done,” Haley said in defense of Trump’s record. Asked if she stood by her previous comments on Charlottesville, Haley said, “there have been times where the president and I don’t agree on necessarily on the style, and he’s not the most politically correct person, everybody knows that, but whenever I saw something, I would talk to him about it and he would always listen.”
Haley went on to claim Trump “genuinely cared about the American people” while she worked for him, and it’s “not fair” for the media to portray him as a “bad person.”
Watch above, via ABC.
