While pundits will likely be analyzing what influenced voters in Iowa to vote the way they did, MSNBC’s Joy Reid believes race was a major factor.
As the votes were still coming in on Monday, but as former President Donald Trump was projected to win the Iowa caucuses, Reid addressed former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley’s third-place finish, which she claimed on race.
The commentate stated, “It’s the elephant in the room, [Haley’s] still a brown lady that’s gotta try to win in a party that is deeply anti-immigrant.”
“She’s getting, you know, birthered by Donald Trump,” she added.
Watch the video below:
Joy Reid suggests Nikki Haley won't become the nominee because of… You guessed it, racism! pic.twitter.com/AoaPGhfNVo
— The Post Millennial (@TPostMillennial) January 16, 2024
Reid’s comment about “birtherism” appears to refer to a claim the former president amplified on social media that insisted Haley was not qualified to be president because her parents were not U.S. citizens when she was born. Her parents immigrated from India.
USA Today notes, “That doesn’t matter. Haley was born in 1972 in the United States, automatically making her an American citizen and eligible for the presidency. The Constitution mandates that the president be a natural-born citizen, at least 35 and a resident of the U.S. for 14 years.”
Finally, Reid said, “I don’t see how she becomes the nominee of that party with Donald Trump still around. I can’t picture it happening, maybe it could happen.”
She claimed Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ (R) “only argument” for not dropping out of the race is, “He’s the white guy, that he can still make the appeal to white evangelicals.”
On Monday, Trump easily won the Iowa caucuses with a nearly 30-point margin.
Meanwhile, DeSantis came in second with less than half the votes the former president received.
And Haley finished in third place, around 2,000 votes behind DeSantis.