Nikki Haley claims the US has ‘never been a racist country’

Presidential hopeful Nikki Haley has claimed the US has “never been a racist country” as she dismissed the suggestion that she would struggle to gain the GOP nomination as a woman of colour.

One day after a national holiday celebrating US civil rights activist Martin Luther King Jr, the former Governor of South Carolina described her experience as the “American dream” and also denied that the Republican party itself was racist.

Ms Haley finished in third position in the GOP Iowa caucuses on Monday behind Donald Trump and Ron DeSantis, respectively. On Tuesday, MSNBC host Joy Reid claimed that her third-place finish in Iowa was due to her race and ethnicity.

“It’s the elephant in the room. She’s still a brown lady that’s got to try to win in a party that is deeply anti-immigrant, and which accepts the notion [that] you can say immigrants are poisoning the blood of our country,” Ms Reid said.

Speaking to Fox & Friends, Ms Haley was asked if she believed her party was “racist”.

The former Governor of South Carolina described her experience as the ‘American Dream’ and also denied that the Republican party itself was racist

“No! We’re not a racist country… We’ve never been a racist country,” she responded, adding: “Our goal is to make sure we are better than yesterday.”

Ms Haley said:  “I am a brown girl that grew up in South Carolina, who became the first female minority governor in history, who became a UN ambassador and is now running for president.

“If that’s not the American dream, I don’t know what is.”

Her remarks come after former president Trump claimed that Ms Haley is not eligible to serve as president of the United States, using similar racist smear tactics previously deployed against former president Barack Obama