Just a few weeks after she came under criticism for failing to mention slavery when asked about the cause of the Civil War, Nikki Haley found herself on the defensive again on Tuesday for saying the United States has “never been a racist country.”
The remark came the morning after Haley finished in third place in the Republican caucus in Iowa with 19 percent of the vote, well behind former president Donald Trump and edged out by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis for second.
Speaking with host Brian Kilmeade on “Fox & Friends,” Haley was asked if she “was part of a racist party,” and offered a quick rebuttal.
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“No. We’re not a racist country, Brian. We’ve never been a racist country. Our goal is to make sure that today is better than yesterday. Are we perfect? No,” she said.
“But our goal is to always make sure we try and be more perfect every day that we can,” Haley added.
Nikki Haley: "We've never been a racist country" pic.twitter.com/qcB0wTjvJS
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) January 16, 2024
Her comment sparked immediate backlash. Online, people began revisiting her controversial comments about the Civil War, pointing out the nation’s history with slavery and segregation, and sharing their individual and familial experiences with racism.
“We literally enslaved Black people,” one person commented.
“After all, the civil war was about the south trying to keep tradition, right Nikki?” responded another user.
“If this level of cognitive dissonance is required to appease your base, your party is horrible,” another wrote.
Jeffrey Evan Gold, an attorney and legal analyst on television, countered Haley’s comment with an overview of the country’s history of racism.
“Except at our founding in 1787 when slavery was enshrined in our constitution with Black slaves being counted as 3/5 human, except in 1861-5 when half the country fought an insurrection to preserve Black slavery, except for the 100 years 1865-1965 of the Jim Crow South,” he said.
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South Carolina’s Declaration of Secession — the 1860 proclamation by the state government outlining its reasons for seceding from the Union — mentions slavery in its opening sentence and points to the “increasing hostility on the part of the non-slaveholding States to the institution of slavery” as a reason for the state leaving the Union, the Associated Press reported.
Some also pointed out the racist legacy of more recent policies and practices such as redlining, with one person commenting that they “literally grew up poorer due to racist laws.”
At the end of December, Haley was asked on the campaign trail in New Hampshire what led to the Civil War. Rather than mentioning slavery, Haley, a South Carolina native, first responded with a somewhat sarcastic tone, “Well, don’t come with an easy question.”
She then focused on the role of the government, saying, “I think the cause of the Civil War was basically how government was going to run. The freedoms and what people couldn’t do.”
The voter who asked the question was taken aback by her response, telling Haley that “in the year 2023, it’s astonishing to me that you answer that question without mentioning the word slavery.”
“What do you want me to say about slavery?” she shot back.
Her response drew heavy criticism and the Associated Press later reported that it was not the first time Haley had neglected to mention slavery as a cause of the Civil War. While running for governor in 2010, she described the war in an interview as a conflict between two sides fighting for “tradition” and “change.”
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She also said that the Confederate flag was “not something that is racist.”
After the December controversy, Haley said on a morning talk show in New Hampshire the following day that “of course the Civil War was about slavery.”
On Tuesday, Haley, the daughter of Indian immigrants, told Kilmeade that while she “faced racism” growing up, “today is a lot better than it was then.”
“Our goal is to lift up everybody — not go and divide people on race or gender or party or anything else,” Haley said. “We’ve had enough of that in America. That’s why I’m so passionate about doing this. I don’t want my kids growing up where they’re sitting there thinking that they’re disadvantaged because of a color or gender.”
“I want them to know if they work hard, they can do and be anything they want to be in America,” she added.
Referring to book bans sought by conservatives nationwide, Scott Dworkin, co-founder of the Democratic Coalition, said Haley’s response was the result of “what happens when you ban dictionaries.”
“You fail to learn what the word racist means,” he said.
Material from the Associated Press was used in this report.
Shannon Larson can be reached at shannon.larson@globe.com. Follow her @shannonlarson98.