妮基·黑利，前南卡罗莱纳州州长新的共和党总统候选人本周，哈里斯指责总统乔·拜登和副总统卡玛拉·哈里斯认为美国是种族主义者，这与拜登和哈里斯过去的攻击路线相呼应。
“每天我们都被告知美国是有缺陷的、腐败的、充满仇恨的。乔和卡玛拉甚至说美国是种族主义者。没有什么比这更不真实的了，”父母从印度移民过来的哈利在周三的竞选演讲中说。“美国人民更清楚。我的移民父母更清楚。从我这个历史上第一位少数族裔女州长的角度来看，美国不是一个种族主义国家。”
白宫新闻秘书郭佳欣·让-皮埃尔周四拒绝谈论海利的竞选活动，当被问及她对所有75岁以上的政治家进行精神敏锐度测试的建议时，引用了一项禁止政府雇员以官方身份评论竞选活动的法律。
Jean-Pierre引用法律禁止政府雇员在官方身份下评论竞选活动，她说她不能回应Haley说的任何事情。
“我在谈论候选人时会非常小心——正如你所知，她目前是2024年的候选人。所以，我受《孵化法》保护。所以，我不会直接和她说话，也不会特别针对她的评论，”让-皮埃尔说。
像哈利这样的台词已经被用来让民主党人进行辩护，并批评共和党人所谓的不必要的种族分裂文化。
海莉一直在反驳她在2020年所说的民主党人说美国是种族主义者的“谎言”。
共和党参议员蒂姆·斯科特(Tim Scott)是参议院中唯一一名被认为也在考虑参加总统竞选的黑人共和党人，他在2021年回应拜登当年国情咨文的演讲中说，“美国不是一个种族主义国家。”
2023年2月15日，前美国驻联合国大使妮基·黑利在南卡罗来纳州查尔斯顿的一场竞选活动中宣布参加2024年共和党总统候选人提名。
乔纳森·恩斯特/路透社
“今天，孩子们被教导说，他们的肤色再次定义了他们。...“用不同类型的歧视来反对歧视是倒退，”斯科特接着说，“试图利用我们痛苦的过去来不诚实地停止现在的辩论是错误的。”
然而，拜登和哈里斯都表示，他们不认为美国是种族主义者，同时注意到这个国家的历史，包括几个世纪的奴隶制和合法化的种族歧视。
“不，我不认为美国人民是种族主义者，”2021年，在斯科特对他的国情咨文做出回应后，拜登告诉NBC新闻。“但我认为400年后，非洲裔美国人在教育、健康和机会方面远远落后于第八位。我认为，在此之前，所有的种族歧视和奴隶制所带来的威胁都是有代价的，我们必须解决这个问题。”
哈里斯，在ABC新闻的乔治·斯特凡诺普洛斯的采访2021年，还说她同意斯科特的观点——在某种程度上。
“首先，不，我不认为美国是一个种族主义国家，”她说。“但我们也必须说出我们国家种族主义的历史及其今天存在的真相。”
Nikki Haley said Biden and Harris think America is racist, but they've said the opposite
Nikki Haley, a former South Carolina governor andnew GOP presidential candidate, this week accused President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris of thinking America is racist, echoing past attack lines that Biden and Harris have dismissed.
"Every day we're told America is flawed, rotten and full of hate. Joe and Kamala even say America is racist. Nothing could be further from the truth," Haley, whose parents emigrated from India, said during her campaign launch speech on Wednesday. "The American people know better. My immigrant parents know better. And take it from me, the first minority female governor in history, America is not a racist country."
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre on Thursday declined to discuss Haley's campaign launch when asked about her proposal for all politicians over 75 years old to take a mental acuity test, citing a law barring government employees from commenting on campaigns in their official capacities.
Citing a law barring government employees from commenting on campaigns while in their official capacities, Jean-Pierre said she couldn't respond to anything Haley said.
"I'm going to be very careful as I am speaking about a candidate -- she's currently, as you well know, a candidate for 2024. So, I am covered by the Hatch Act. So, I am not going to speak to her directly and her comments specifically," Jean-Pierre said.
Lines like Haley's have been used to put Democrats on defense and to criticize what Republicans call a culture of needless racial division.
Haley has long pushed back on what she said in 2020 was the "lie" from Democrats that the U.S. is racist.
Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., the only Black Republican in the Senate who is also thought to be mulling a presidential campaign, said in his 2021 speech in response to Biden's State of the Union address that year that "America is not a racist country."
"Today, kids are being taught that the color of their skin defines them again. ... It's backwards to fight discrimination with different types of discrimination," Scott said then, "and it's wrong to try to use our painful past to dishonestly shut down debates in the present."
However, Biden and Harris have both said they don't believe America is racist while noting the country's history, which encompasses centuries of slavery and legalized racial discrimination.
"No, I don't think the American people are racist," Biden told NBC News in 2021 after Scott's response to his State of the Union. "But I think after 400 years, African Americans have been left in the position where they are so far behind the eight ball in terms of education, health, in terms of opportunity. I think the overhang from all of the Jim Crow and, before that, slavery have had a cost and we have to deal with it."
Harris, inan interview with ABC News' George Stephanopoulosin 2021, also said that she agreed with Scott's view -- to a point.
"First of all, no, I don't think America is a racist country," she said. "But we also do have to speak truth about the history of racism in our country and its existence today."
