Kamala Harris says America isn’t racist but racism exists after Tim Scott’s comments
"I don’t think America is a racist country,” Harris said. “But we also do have to speak truth about the history of racism in our country, and it’s existence today.”
Vice President Kamala Harris doesn’t believe that America is a racist country but qualified by insisting that this country’s legacy of racism needs to be addressed.
Harris appeared on Good Morning America Thursday, the day after President Joe Biden held a joint address of Congress. She was asked by host George Stephanopoulos about the comments made by Sen. Tim Scott in a rebuttal to Biden in which he claimed the U.S. is not racist.
Read More: In address, Biden says ‘knee of justice’ is on the neck of Black Americans
Scott said he’d “experienced the pain of discrimination” while looking at the camera. “I know what it feels like to be pulled over for no reason and to be followed around a store while I’m shopping,” said the South Carolina lawmaker.
Despite this admission, the long GOP Black senator insisted that “America is not a racist country.”
As theGrio reported, Black Twitter took exception to Scott’s comments as “Uncle Tim” trended. Harris was more measured in her response.
“Do you agree with that, and what do you make of his warning against fighting discrimination with more discrimination?” Stephanopoulos asked.
“I believe that we need to come up, well first of all, no I don’t think America is a racist country,” Harris said. “But we also do have to speak truth about the history of racism in our country, and it’s existence today.”
Harris continued by praising Biden for “always having the ability and the courage, frankly, to speak the truth about it. He spoke what we know from the intelligence community, one of the greatest threats to our national security is domestic terrorism manifested by white supremacists.”
The vice president maintained that in order for the nation to heal and unify, the realities of discrimination and white supremacy could not be ignored. Rather, the second in command declared that the issues needed to be confronted head on and lauded Biden for helping to lead those efforts.
“I think the president has been outstanding, and a real national leader on the issue of saying let’s confront the realities, and let’s deal with it, knowing we all have so much more in common than what separates us, and the idea is that we want to unify the country, but not without speaking truth and requiring accountability as appropriate.”
Biden pointedly made references to the challenges during his address at his first address to Congress on Wednesday.
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“We won’t ignore what our intelligence agencies have determined to be the most lethal terrorist threat to our homeland today: White supremacy is terrorism,” the president said.
Biden called upon the country to recognize it as such.
“White supremacy is terrorism, and we’re not going to ignore that either. My fellow Americans, look, we have to come together to heal the soul of this nation,” Biden said.
Biden also invoked George Floyd who died while in the custody of Minneapolis police on May 25, 2020. Former police officer Derek Chauvin was found guilty of murder in Floyd’s death. Biden urged Congress to pass the George Floyd Policing Act of 2020, which would enact police reform such as creating a national data registry on police misconduct, limiting qualified immunity, and eliminating discriminatory practices.
Biden wants the bill passed before the first anniversary of Floyd’s death on May 25.
“We have all seen the knee of injustice on the neck of Black America. Now is our opportunity to make real progress … To root out systemic racism in our criminal justice system. And to enact police reform in George Floyd’s name that passed the House already.”
Watch the Good Morning America segment in full below.
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