Former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley is responding to criticism she received from CNN’s Brianna Keilar, suggesting it sounded like she “hit a nerve.”
During an appearance on Fox News Thursday, host Harris Faulkner played a clip of Keilar’s response to remarks Haley made during her speech at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum earlier this week.
“Take it from me, the first female and minority governor of South Carolina, America is not a racist country… As a brown girl growing up in a small southern town, I saw the promise of America unfold before me,” Haley said.
Keilar responded, “She did see the promise of America unfold but at times she also saw the promise of America denied.”
She continued, “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.”
When asked for her response, Haley explained, “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.”
Watch Haley’s reaction below:
Sounds like I hit a nerve.
— Nikki Haley (@NikkiHaley) October 7, 2021
It’s amazing to me that the liberal media can’t stand it when a black or brown person talks about the blessings of America. pic.twitter.com/EqJ5siEMTm
She added, “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.”
Reflecting on her experience growing up, Haley said, “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 to exclude us, I saw something very American happen because they started to smile at us.”
Reiterating that America is not a racist country, Haley told Faulkner, “They can’t stand it when a brown Republican says that.”
This is not the first time Keilar took a swipe at Haley. In February, Keilar pushed back against Haley’s claim that the media is seeking to divide the Republican Party, as Fox News reported.
“[The liberal media] wants to stoke a nonstop Republican civil war,” Haley wrote in an op-ed published by The Wall Street Journal.
Keilar replied, “Haley says the media wants to stoke a Republican civil war. Stoke it how? By telling Americans that it’s happening, what Republicans on either side of this divide are saying? Perhaps there would be no civil war if the media would just stop documenting?”
She added, “There is a civil war.”
