The hosts of The View on Friday tore into Nikki Haley after the GOP presidential hopeful tried to once again clean up her Civil War slavery gaffe by claiming she “had Black friends” as a child.
“It’s tokenism in the extreme,” co-host Sunny Hostin flatly declared.
During a CNN town hall on Thursday night, Haley was asked about the continued fallout she’s faced over failing to mention slavery when asked last month about the cause of the Civil War. Since that event, Haley has attempted several times to clean up her comments, going so far as accusing the voter who posed the question of being a Democratic plant.
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Besides once again acknowledging that she should have “said slavery right off the bat,” Haley also told CNN moderator Erin Burnett that she understood why the Civil War was fought at an early age.
“If you grow up in South Carolina, literally in second and third grade, you learn about slavery. You grow up and you have, you know, I had Black friends growing up,” Haley stated. “It is a very talked-about thing. We have a big history in South Carolina, when it comes to, you know, slavery, when it comes to all the things that happened with the Civil War, all of that.”
Needless to say, the former U.N. ambassador’s latest defense did not make the controversy go away.
Discussing Haley’s latest blunder on The View, co-host Ana Navarro quickly mocked the candidate for pulling out the well-worn trope. “Some of my best friends are Black,” she quipped, prompting colleague Joy Behar to add: “That never works!”
Hostin, meanwhile, chimed in to offer a bit of sage advice to Haley. “Can I do a public service announcement as the Black person on the panel? Non-Black people, when you're trying to convince someone you're not racist, do not say ‘I have Black friends.’”
After co-host Sara Haines noted that this “applies to every minority group,” Behar wondered “why is that,” leading Hostin to go further with her criticism of Haley.
“It’s tokenism to the extreme, and the fact that you are trying to convince me that you have Black friends just tells me you don’t,” she exclaimed. “It’s insulting. She also said during this that, although she is the daughter of Indian immigrants, she doesn’t really feel any kind of race. I was troubled by that because the Indian culture is a beautiful culture. It’s an inclusive culture. It’s a strong culture. It’s an old culture.”
Navarro wrapped up the segment by claiming Haley was pandering to bigots in the GOP with her Civil War remarks.
“When she made that initial comment about the Civil War and not being able to say slavery, which is not a hard question, right?” Navarro insisted. “If you get asked, ‘What’s the cause for the Civil War,’ it is not a hard question. It’s not a trick question. The answer is, ‘slavery, slavery, slavery!’”
She concluded: “I don’t think what’s happening in the Republican party with Nikki Haley, with Ron DeSantis is a gaffe, is a verbal gaffe. I think it’s a strategic decision not to antagonize racists who are part of the base.”
As for Haley, the ex-governor is already playing defense regarding her CNN town hall remarks. Speaking to NBC News on Friday, Haley relayed how hard it was for her “as a brown girl” to “grow up in the Deep South” before doubling down on her comments.
“I don’t know what you’re implying with that. But what I will tell you is saying that I had Black friends is a source of pride, saying that I had white friends as a source of pride,” she said. “If you want to know what it was like growing up, I was disqualified from a beauty pageant because I wasn’t white or Black because they didn’t know where to put me. So look, I know the hardships and the pain that come with racism.”
