Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis insisted Tuesday night that the United States is “not a racist country,” after his rival Nikki Haley made similar remarks earlier in the day.
DeSantis was asked about Haley's comments earlier Tuesday during an appearance on “Fox & Friends” during a CNN City Council meeting in New Hampshire, and in response to a question about whether the Republican Party is racist, DeSantis said that the U.S. “We have never been a speciesist country.” “Racist party.”
“Well, America is not a racist country. We've been through a lot in our history,” DeSantis responded. “I think the Founding Fathers established a universal set of principles.”
“Now I think they knew what they were doing, even though they may not have been universally applied at the time. “I understood that I would be a driving force for generational progress,” he said.
When CNN's Wolf Blitzer pressed Haley further on whether she agreed with her opinion that “America has never been a racist country,” DeSantis stopped short of fully agreeing with her.
“Well, what I said is that we have challenges when it comes to how we view race,” DeSantis said Tuesday. “And, for example, these were universal principles in the Declaration of Independence. And then, in the 1850s, it was decided, in the Dred Scott case, that Dred Scott was not an American citizen because he was black. That was wrong. It was discrimination based on race.”
“That's what led to the ratification of the 14th Amendment to overthrow Dred Scott. Certainly, we've had challenges as a society with how we treat race.” he added.
Despite acknowledging that the United States faces problems when discussing racial issues, Mr. DeSantis maintained that America remains the “great place” to pursue your dreams.
“There's only one place you want to grow and you have the most opportunity. It doesn't matter what your background is. This is the best place to grow and chase your dreams than anywhere else in the world,” he said.
A spokesperson for Haley's campaign defended the former South Carolina governor's comments after Haley's appearance on “Fox & Friends,” calling the U.S. a “racist country” and criticizing racism. He emphasized that there is a difference between recognizing that something always exists.
“There has always been racism in America, but America has never been a racist country,” Haley's spokeswoman Annemarie Graham Burns said in a statement.
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