Outgoing South Carolina Democratic Party Chair Dick Harpootlian apologized, and then attacked Gov. Nikki Haley (R.) Tuesday on "Jansing & Co."
Jansing questioned Harpootlian about comments he made last week suggesting next year's South Carolina Democratic gubernatorial candidate would "send Nikki Haley back to wherever the hell she came from":
CHRIS JANSING: I have to ask you, Dick, before I let you both go, about that controversial comment you made last week about Governor Nikki Haley where you said you hope in 18 months, you hope her challenger will have "sent Nikki Haley back to wherever the hell she came from and this country can move forward." The governor is from South Carolina, although her parents are from India. Do you wish you could take that back?
DICK HARPOOTLIAN: Well, I mean, I apologized yesterday if anyone inferred -- I mean I'm the grandson of immigrants. She's not from India. She is from Bamberg--
CHRIS JANSING: She is an Indian.
DICK HARPOOTLIAN: Pardon me?
CHRIS JANSING: Go ahead. You were saying she's from the county.
DICK HARPOOTLIAN: She's from Bamberg, South Carolina, where she was an accountant in her parents' clothing store called Exotica. All I'm suggesting is she needs to go back to being an accountant in a dress store rather than being this fraud of a governor that we have.
Haley is a native South Carolinian and the second Indian-American governor in the United States.
Harpootlian's attack on Haley is the latest bizarre statement in a long political career laced with extreme rhetoric.
Last fall, Harpootlian compared Haley to Eva Braun (Hitler's mistress) during the Democratic National Convention.