CNN: Nikki Haley New Hampshire Townhall

Source:CNN townhall with Nikki Haley.

"During CNN’s GOP presidential town hall with former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, CNN’s Jake Tapper presses Haley after she claimed that the US ‘has never been a racist country’ during a Fox News interview." 

From CNN

"During a CNN Republican presidential town hall, former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley said she would pardon Donald Trump if convicted despite saying moments earlier "there needs to be accountability" and that "nobody is above the law". CNN's Kasie Hunt discusses." 

SourceLCNN New Hampshire Townhall with Nikki Haley.

From CNN

"Also, between Joe Biden and Nikki Haley, would Trump voters turn out and vote for her? They tend not to turn out and vote in big numbers, when they're cult leader (sometimes you have to be frank) isn't on the ballot. And would they vote for someone whose not just a woman, but a Never-Trumper, whose also not from their race, ethnicity, generation, culture, etc? " 

From The New Democrat

Shermichael Singleton: "As an African-American who happens to be a Conservative, I thought her answer was quote despicable and embarrassing 

Whatever bump that she could've received from John Sununu, whatever bump that she could've received from the last several weeks now, I think that's all gone, I think it's over for her. You have a presidential candidate whose unable to answer a complicated question because they're trying to placate to a base who in my opinion wouldn't vote for her anyway. So why be so uncomfortable telling the truth? The Civil War about slavery and any comparisons that one would like to make about tradition, is odious to me. If you can't be factual about history, I question your judgment to make decisions about the present that would ultimately make the future." 

From The New Democrat

"Along with Nikki Haley saying that she had "Black friends growing up in South Carolina", the other thing that I take away from Nikki Haley's response here, is her responding to what Chris Christie said and just trying to put him off that he's from New Jersey and of course it's easy as a Republican to politically be against slavery and acknowledge that of course the Civil War was about slavery, when you are from New Jersey or some other big, blue state. But he should try walking in her political shoes as a South Carolina Republican. She's basically saying that she's from South Carolina and you can't afford to be politically tough on the Confederacy and Confederates, when you are a South Carolina Republican. I think that's what she's saying politically here, if I were to try to translate her response politically. 

Yes, she cleaned up her response and had a more intelligent and stronger answer. But when a drunk driver gets into an accident, the easy thing to do is to come to the realization that you shouldn't driven drunk in the first place. The point is that you shouldn't have made that colossal mistake in the first place. A strong, honest, and, moral, political leader, who wants to be President of the United States, doesn't shoot her foot off, when asked a basic question like what was the American Civil War about." 

From The New Democrat

"Nikki Haley to Fox News anchor Brian Kilmeade: “We’re not a racist country, Brian. We’ve never been a racist country. Our goal is to make sure that our day is better than yesterday. Are we perfect? No.”

Nikki Haley’s attempted cleanup of her political oil spill on Fox News: “America has always had racism, but we’ve never been a racist country. The liberal media always fails to get that distinction.”

We’ve never been a racist country? Did Nikki Haley learn anything about American history growing up on South Carolina? Is American history even a requirement to graduate high school there? Africans were brought over here like animals as slaves, to serve Anglo-Saxon men from Britain, who were now in America. African-Americans were segregated by law in America, simply because of their race. As well as denied the ability to get an education, get loans, own homes, and even vote.

She’s right that America is not a racist country. The country itself is not racist. But, to argue that America has never been a racist country, is to also deny that Planet Earth is round, or that water is wet, fire is hot, etc. You would either have to be coming to America from another planet, knowing nothing about this country, and spending your first day here, or just be a total moron who knows nothing about American history. And perhaps those are the voters she’s trying to play too: illegal aliens from other planets and total morons." 

From The New Democrat

CNN anchor Jake Tapper's question to Nikki Halley: 

"CNN’s Jake Tapper on Thursday challenged Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley over her widely-panned claim to Fox News’ Brian Kilmeade earlier this week that America is not and has “never been” a racist country.

During a televised town hall event at New England College in New Hampshire, Tapper reminded Haley that “protections for the institution of slavery were written into the U.S. Constitution, the White House was built with slave labor” and that Haley’s “home state of South Carolina seceded from the Union, fought a war to defend the enslavement of Black people.”

“I understand you don’t think America is a racist country now,” acknowledged Tapper. “But we’re here at a college. Do you really think, as a historical matter, America has never been a racist country?”

From Yahoo

I'll get into Nikki Haley's comment about pardoning Donald Trump and then her comment about "America never being a racist country."

If Nikki Haley were to somehow not just win the Republican nomination for President, (which would be like winning a million dollar lottery in all 50 states, on the exact same day, at this point) and then goes on to win the presidency as well, and now Donald Trump is already convicted in Washington, perhaps has already been sentenced, but is now in Atlanta to face his trial there, and now President Haley decides to just throw out former President's Trump's January 6 conviction and pardon him, that would be a big problem. Not just for her, but the American justice system and our system of rule of law, even if he gets convicted in Atlanta as well.

But as good politician that Nikki Haley sometimes is and what she's really just saying here is that she wouldn't just pardon Trump, but instead commute his sentence, so he doesn't have to serve his sentence in a Federal prison, but instead of given home confinement for the rest of his sentence, that not only makes sense from an American justice perspective because you are showing compassion who would be in his 80s while serving his sentence, perhaps even into his 90s. But he's still in Federal custody and no longer a free man in America. But she didn't say this, or really come close to it. What she's talking about is just letting the judicial process against Donald Trump go forward and then she'll pardon him after he's convicted. 

If I were a professional political spinster and was asked to translate what Nikki Haley is saying about racism in American right now in it's history, I would say what she's really saying here, is that she doesn't believe America is a racist country right now and it wasn't a racist country when she was growing up in South Carolina in the 1970s and 80s. Which might be fine and you might be able to make a decent case for that. The problem that she has, that's not the question that she was asked. 

What Jake Tapper actually said to Nikki Haley and then asked her, was this: 

"Tapper reminded Haley that “protections for the institution of slavery were written into the U.S. Constitution, the White House was built with slave labor” and that Haley’s “home state of South Carolina seceded from the Union, fought a war to defend the enslavement of Black people.”

“I understand you don’t think America is a racist country now,” acknowledged Tapper. “But we’re here at a college. Do you really think, as a historical matter, America has never been a racist country?”

And this is what Nikki Haley said in response to Jake Tapper: 

” Thursday, saying she believes the country’s “intent was to do the right thing.” 

Haley said at a CNN town hall moderated by anchor Jake Tapper that she had to deal with “plenty of racism” as a daughter of Indian immigrants growing up in a rural town in South Carolina, but she is happy that her parents never told her that they live in a racist country.

Haley cited the part of the Declaration of Independence that states that “all men are created equal” and their right to “life, liberty and pursuit of happiness.” 

“When you look, it said, ‘All men are created equal.’ I think the intent was to do the right thing,” she said. “Now, did they have to go fix it along the way? Yes, but I don’t think the intent was ever that we were going to be a racist country.” 

“The intent was everybody was going to be created equally,” she added. “As we went through time, they fixed the things that are not, ‘All men are created equal.’” 

Haley said developments to make everyone equal, including establishing women’s right to vote, happened over time, but she “refuse[s]” to believe that the “premise” of forming the country was based on racism.

A spokesperson for Haley emphasized following her comments on Fox from Tuesday the difference between calling the U.S. a “racist country” and recognizing racism’s existence." 

From The Hill

I can understand Nikki Haley not really wanting to talk about this at all. Think about it, she's an East-Indian woman, running for President of the United States, in Donald Trump's far-right, MAGA party. It's easy to see why she would just try to duck this and try to talk about other issues, or try to change the subject and try to make the case that it wasn't our Founding Father's intent for America to be a racist country and try to forget the fact that America was founded with one race of people being slaves to another race in this country. 

But, Nikki Haley been asked a very simple question for 3 weeks now and has failed to give a credible response to the obvious question: "Has America ever been a racist country?" Even though she wants to be President of the United States and not just MAGA.

You can also see this post on WordPress.