S.C. Dem Backtracks (Again) on Anti-Nikki Haley Comments -- But Did He Make It Worse?

South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, center, comforts her son, Nalin, 10, and her daughter, Rena, 14, as her husband, Michael Haley, left, gets ready for a deployment ceremony for the South Carolina Army National Guard 3/49 Agribusiness Development Team at McCrady Training Center, Thursday, Jan. 10, 2013, at Ft. Jackson, S.C. (AP Photo/Rainier Ehrhardt)

Former South Carolina Democratic Party Chairman Dick Harpootlian in an attempt to undo the damage he caused by vowing last week to send Indian-American Gov. Nikki Haley “back to wherever the hell she came from” said Tuesday that he meant “she needs to go back to being an accountant in a dress store.”

Gov. Haley, as National Review Online notes, “previously worked in her parents’ clothing business, Exotica International, and took over the bookkeeping there at the age of 13.” 

Harpootlian concluded his defense by adding that Mrs. Haley is a “fraud of a governor:"

It’s worth noting that Harpootlian's defense on Tuesday differs from when he stated earlier that he meant sending the governor back to Lexington County.

“[S]he was born in Bamberg [South Carolina] and lived in Lexington,” Harpootlian said in an email, defending himself from what many have characterized as an attack on Gov. Haley’s Indian heritage. “Anybody implying anything different is attempting to feign insult.”

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RELATED:

• MSNBC Host: If a Republican Vowed to Send a Minority Gov. ‘Back to Wherever the Hell she Came from,’ Media Would Go ‘Crazy’
• S.C. Dem. Wants to Send Gov. Nikki Haley ‘Back to Wherever the Hell She Came From’

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