Ron DeSantis insists US is ‘not a racist country’, echoing claim by Nikki Haley

Florida governor and Republican presidential candidate concedes country has faced ‘challenges’ over dealing with race

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The hard-right Florida governor Ron DeSantis says the US is “not a racist country”, echoing a controversial claim by Nikki Haley, the former South Carolina governor who is also trying to deny Donald Trump the Republican presidential nomination.

“Well, the US is not a racist country,” DeSantis told a CNN town hall this week in New Hampshire. “And we’ve overcome things in our history. You know, I think the founding fathers – they established a set of principles that are universal.”