‘America is not a racist country,’ former SC Gov. Nikki Haley says in RNC address
Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley in her Republican National Convention address Monday criticized those who identify America as “racist” as the country deals with nationwide protests over racial injustice and the killing of Black Americans.
“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,” Haley said, using her own personal story of how she grew up as the daughter of Indian immigrants in rural Bamberg County, where her father wore a turban and her mother wore a sari, then was elected as the state’s first female and minority governor. “America is a story that’s a work in progress. Now is the time to build on that progress, and make America even freer, fairer and better for everyone. That’s why it’s tragic to see so much of the Democratic Party turn a blind eye toward riots and rage.”
Protests broke out nationwide this summer, including in South Carolina, after George Floyd, a Black Minnesota man, died in police custody in May. A bystander’s cell phone video captured the event, showing a white police officer kneeling on his neck for several minutes while Floyd can be heard telling the officer he can’t breathe.
“It doesn’t have to be like this. It wasn’t like this in South Carolina five years ago,” Haley said, striking a contrast between current demonstrations and five years ago, when a white supremacist entered Charleston’s Mother Emanuel AME Church in June 2015 and killed nine Black churchgoers, including a state senator from Jasper.
That event ultimately led the S.C. Legislature, and Haley, to remove the Confederate flag from the State House grounds. The debate was in part driven by a viral photo of the shooter, Dylann Roof, holding a Confederate flag. Roof was convicted in the killings and sentenced to death and is currently on death row.
“After that horrific tragedy, we didn’t turn against each other. We came together — Black and white, Democrat and Republican,” Haley said. “Together, we made the hard choices needed to heal — and removed a divisive symbol, peacefully and respectfully.”
The state’s response to the Emanuel shooting is part of Haley’s political legacy, which began when she was elected a state legislator from rural Bamberg County and later became the first female and minority governor of the Palmetto State.
Not everyone was pleased with her making mention of the church shooting.
Haley “did nothing to heal our community after Emanuel AME, when my sister was killed by a white supremacist,” tweeted state Rep. JA Moore, D-Berkeley, whose sister, Myra Thompson, died in the shooting. “Removing the flag merely put a bandaid on an open wound. A bill to close the Charleston Loophole still sits in committee at the State House.”
“Nikki Haley need to shut up about the Emanuel9,” tweeted the Rev. Sharon Risher, who also lost her mother and two cousins in the shooting. “She did not do anything from her heart. All for show! Liar!”
Haley’s spot on the convention stage Monday night will further fuel speculation on a potential 2024 presidential run.
Since she left the Trump administration in 2018, Haley has stayed in headlines.
She resigned as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations staying on good terms with the president, saying publicly that she would support his reelection bid and had zero intention of trying to run against Trump or U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham in 2020.
She left her U.N. post with up to $1 million in debt, according to a 2017 financial disclosure.
Since leaving, she’s kept up roles on the speakers circuit and launched a book tour for her second autobiography, “With All Due Respect: Defending America with Grit and Grace,” which shared her perspective of foreign policy and the Trump administration.
She also joined the Boeing board but then resigned abruptly in March, criticizing the company with a North Charleston plant for asking the federal government for a stimulus or bailout as the COVID-19 outbreak wreaked havoc on businesses nationwide.
And she moved back to South Carolina last fall, closing a home on Kiawah Island after her son finished high school in New York, and registering in time to vote in the November general election.
“Nikki Haley is one of the party’s most gifted messengers, in addition to being a successful member of the administration, and that makes her one of the most desirable convention speakers,” said Rob Godfrey, Haley’s longtime aide while she was governor. “The opportunity is a win-win for her, just as it was eight years ago, because it gives her the chance to put in some time working for the ticket, which party leaders appreciate, and remind the American people of the work she’s done.”
In her speech, Haley Monday night outlined her work in the Trump administration as the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations after she left her governorship in 2017. She also hit Democrat Joe Biden, then vice president, and former President Barack Obama on their policies toward China, Iran and North Korea. She criticized the Obama administration for its salty relationship with and policies toward Israel.
And she blamed the Obama administration for raising taxes and enacting mandates as South Carolina, she said, was attracting manufacturers from overseas.
“People were referring to South Carolina as the beast of the southeast,’ which I loved,” Haley said. “And when we brought in good-paying jobs, Biden and Obama sued us. I fought back, and they gave up.”
Haley was referring to a labor dispute between Boeing, which has a production plant in North Charleston, and the National Labor Relations Board. Haley gave similar remarks in her 2012 RNC speech.
Though veiled, Haley also further put to rest, hours after the Republican Party formally nominated Vice President Mike Pence to seek a second term with President Donald Trump, that Trump would boot Pence from the ticket and, instead, pick Haley.
In this election, we must choose the only candidate who has and who will continue delivering on that vision,” Haley said.
“President Trump and Vice President Pence have my support.”
This story was originally published August 24, 2020 at 11:09 PM.
