Nikki Haley Hits Back at Brianna Keilar: ‘Liberal Media Can’t Stand It When Someone Black or Brown’ Praises America
Former U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Nikki Haley fired back on Thursday at CNN’s Brianna Keilar, suggesting that the New Day co-host’s criticism of her speech this week was racist.
“A large portion of our people are plagued by self-doubt or even by hatred of America,” said Haley during her speech on Tuesday at the at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum in California.
In a clip showed on Fox News during an interview with Haley, she continues that “they see America’s flaws as more profound than its strengths. They deny the massive progress we’ve made, and they punish anyone who disagrees. They are quick to praise those who attack America, and eager to attack those who praise America.”
The segment then shifted to a clip of Keilar’s criticism of Haley’s remarks.
“She did see the promise of America unfold but at times she also saw the promise of America denied,” said Keilar on Wednesday. “The former governor, who removed the Confederate flag from the South Carolina statehouse grounds only to have that symbol brandished inside the U.S. Capitol by rioters this past January whitewashed the ups and downs of the American experience with racism and the challenges still ahead, all apparently to appeal to the conservative base.”
In responding to Keilar on Fox, Haley did not withhold punches, even suggesting that Keilar took issue with Haley because of her race:
It sounds like I hit a nerve. Secondly, 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. We’re not a perfect country. But every day our focus is to make today better than yesterday and that’s how I was raised. I was raised to have hope.
I was raised that America did have challenges as we were growing but also was raised to live and see that me, a brown family in a small southern rural town, the people when they used to whisper about us or used exclude us, I saw something very American happen because they started to smile at us. They started to talk to us and they welcomed us in. And that’s the part of America that I was raised in. That’s the part of America I’m proud of. And that same state elected me as the first female and first minority governor and 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.
Watch above, via Fox News.
