CNN’s Charles Barkley couldn’t control his laughter Thursday after hearing presidential hopeful Nikki Haley profess that America has “never been a racist country.”
After collecting himself, the former basketball player slammed the Republican candidate’s comments as “just stupid.”
“She’s 100% correct if you forget about slavery, Jim Crow, segregation, antisemitism, Asian hate that’s been going on in this country. America has been smooth sailing,” Barkley said, earning several chuckles from “King Charles” co-host Gayle King.
The pair had watched a clip of the former South Carolina governor making the wild assertion during an interview with Fox and Friends when asked by host Brian Kilmeade if the GOP is a racist party.
While admitting that she — as an Indian American woman — had experienced racism firsthand, Haley claimed that the country has since evolved to achieve equality across race, gender and social classes.
“We’re not a racist country, Brian. We’ve never been a racist country,” she said.
“I know I faced racism when I was growing up. But I can tell you, 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. We’ve had enough of that in America,” she added.
After airing the clip, King told Barkley that CNN polled several people on the street, none of whom agreed with the presidential candidate’s thoughts.
King added that it was “surprising” that Haley would make such a statement, which her campaign would later double down on.
“Well, no, you can’t be surprised. That was just stupid. America was built on racism,” Barkley said.
“Listen, you can criticize the country. This is the greatest country in the world, but you can still criticize … You turn on the TV every single day, there’s racism. And for her, as somebody who wants to be the President of the United States, who says something that stupid … you can’t think that. You can’t think that racism doesn’t exist in this country.
“I’m so disappointed that she said because it’s 100% wrong,” he said.
Haley’s campaign put out a statement following the backlash blaming the media for miscontruing her words.
Her campaign emphasized that “America has always had racism, but America has never been a racist country.”
“The liberal media always fails to get that distinction. It can throw a fit, but that doesn’t change Nikki’s belief that America is special because its people are always striving to do better and live up to our founding ideals of freedom and equality,” the statement said.
Haley had previously faced criticism for refusing to name slavery as the primary cause of the Civil War during a town hall last month.
She claimed the root of the war was over the limitations that the government placed on its people, but failed to mention the antebellum South’s “peculiar institution” in her response.
Following the backlash, Haley backpedaled to state that “of course” slavery was the cause, adding that she assumed it was a “given.”
Haley came in third place at the Iowa Caucus over the weekend, finishing closely behind Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, whom she has consistently polled similar figures with in recent weeks.
Former President Donald Trump was the clear winner of the caucus, which recent polling had predicted.
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Katherine Donlevy
