At the very end of her appearance on stage in Philadelphia at a convention held by the far-right, radical group Moms for Liberty, GOP presidential candidate Nikki Haley said, “When they mentioned that this was a terrorist organization, I said, ‘Well, then count me as a Mom for Liberty, because that’s what I am,’” The Philadelphia Inquirer reported.
Near the very beginning of her 40-minute remarks, Haley told her story of growing up as a minority, and how her mother told her that her job was to be like every one else – then suggested America needed more people doing that.
“We were the only Indian family in that small southern town,” Haley said. “We weren’t white enough to be white. We weren’t Black enough to be Black. They didn’t know who we were, what we were while we were there. And I remember when I would get teased on the playground, my mom would always say, ‘Your job is not to show them how you’re different, your job is to show them how you’re similar.’ It’s amazing how our country could use my mom’s advice right now.”
The former South Carolina governor, in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s highly-controversial ruling striking down affirmative action programs also said, “God bless the Supreme Court.” Later during her remarks, Haley told Moms for Liberty, “America is not racist, we’re blessed.”
Moms for Liberty, an extremist organization designated as an anti-government group by the Southern Poverty Law Center, has ties to Florida GOP governor and presidential candidate Ron DeSantis, who also addressed the group on Friday. It is largely known for its work attacking the LGBTQ community, including children, and for its work banning books, promoting falsehoods and conspiracy theories, and its right-wing propaganda.
Haley also promoted falsehoods, suggesting Americans don’t manufacture anything anymore, despite a massive manufacturing renaissance exploding under President Biden’s policies.
Haley told the group, “let’s put vocational classes back in high schools. Let’s start building things in America again. We have apprenticeships all over South Carolina. We teach kids to build the things we make. We need to do that around the country.”
The convention, held across five days in Philadelphia, has drawn protests according to The Philadelphia Inquirer, which also reported on Haley’s “terrorist” remarks.
Haley also spoke of when she was asked to serve as Donald Trump’s Ambassador to the United Nations: “I got the call for the United Nations. And my response, and I’m not kidding, was, ‘I don’t even know what the United Nations does. I just know everybody hates it.'”
She also denounced what she falsely described as Critical Race Theory, then repeated her false suggestion that the existence of transgender girl athletes is somehow linked to children thinking about suicide.
“This week, it comes out that 13-year olds on reading and math is the lowest it’s been in decades,” she told the group. “Yet we still have so many kids going through Critical Race Theory, which if a little girl goes into kindergarten and she’s white, you’re telling her she’s bad. She’s brown or black, you’re telling her she’s never going to be good enough and she’s always going to be a victim.”
“You’ve got biological boys playing in girls sports. This is one of the biggest women’s issues of our time,” Haley said, as she has many times before. “My daughter ran track in high school. I don’t even know how I would have that conversation with her. How are we supposed to get our girls comfortable with biological boys in their locker room? You can’t. Think about that, and then recently, Johns Hopkins comes out with the definition of a woman, did you see what it was? A ‘non-man.’ They are literally tried to erase all the progress we have made in all of this time. And then everybody wonders why a third of our teenage girls last year seriously contemplated suicide? We’re supposed to be raising strong girls. We’ve got to fight that – no matter what they try and call you we have to fight for our girls.”
Watch Haley’s full remarks below or at this link.
This article has been updated to clarify Moms for Liberty has been designated as an anti-government group.