Haley hits back at Obama, says her campaign is ‘further proof of our national progress’
Mabinty Quarshie
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Former Republican South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley hit back against former President Barack Obama, who recently claimed she and Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC) were downplaying the impact of systemic racism and inequality.
“You’d think the first black president of the United States would have hope and pride in America,” Haley wrote in an op-ed for the Daily Mail as she attacked Obama for ignoring the progress the nation has made since its founding. “Not just that: You’d think he’d say that my candidacy for president — as the first female minority governor in American history — is further proof of our national progress.”
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In rebutting Obama’s claims, Haley stated she wants “every little girl and boy — white, black, brown, you name it — to know they live in the best country in the world. In this country, they can grow up to be anything. Even the president of the United States.”
During a CNN podcast hosted by his former aide David Axelrod last week, Obama pushed back against similarities between him and Scott and Haley, both 2024 minority candidates. Obama is so far the only black president, or person of color to hold the office.
“I think there is a long history of African American or other minority candidates within the Republican Party who will validate America and say, ‘Everything’s great, and we can all make it.’ I mean, Nikki Haley, I think, has a similar approach,” he said. “‘Look at me. I’m an Asian Indian American woman. And my family came here, and we worked hard.’ Clarence Thomas probably gave the same speech at some point, I guarantee in some commencement, as did Alan Keyes, the first guy that I ran against.”
Haley was unimpressed, calling his comments “condescending.”
“I’m proud of my parents, who moved from India to South Carolina to pursue the American dream,” she wrote. “Yes, they worked hard. And yes, they faced racism, but they overcame it. They taught me and my siblings that even on our worst day, we are blessed to live in America.”
Haley then went on to chastise the former president for moving away from his 2008 presidential message of hope and change.
“Does Barack Obama think he’s the only minority who could be elected president? It sure sounds like it,” Haley mocked. “But he used to know better. His 2008 presidential campaign was built around hope — hope in America’s progress. He also used to have pride in our country.”
Obama ran in 2008 as a presidential candidate who would usher in generational change from a nation weary from former President George W. Bush‘s tenure. It worked.
And it’s a strategy Haley is attempting to employ as she hopes to take down her onetime boss, former President Donald Trump. She has argued for mandatory competency tests for politicians over 75. Trump just turned 77, and President Joe Biden is 80. Haley has also called for generational change among the GOP, a key to her argument that the nation is ready for a woman of color president. “If America was racist, none of this would have happened — full stop. The America of 2023 would be the same as the America of 1776. But things are night-and-day different,” she wrote.
Referencing key Americans who have altered the nation’s history, such as Susan B. Anthony, Martin Luther King Jr., and Abraham Lincoln, Haley said more work could be done to make the nation more equitable.
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“We must fight racism, discrimination, and antisemitism everywhere they exist,” she noted. “For that matter, we must break all the barriers that block people from sharing in America’s promise.”
But Haley put the blame for the lack of progress in the nation’s problems on Democrats. “Barack Obama speaks for the leadership of the Democratic Party,” Haley said. “If they get their way, black and brown kids will think they’re inferior and have no place in America. But I will make sure every child has the best shot at the best life.”