South Carolina Dem chair bashes governor: Nikki Haley is a ‘fraud’

On Tuesday longtime Democratic leader Dick Harpootlian further explained his controversial remarks about South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley last week, declaring that she needs to return to her job as an accountant instead of being a fraudulent governor.

South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley needs to go “back to being an accountant in a dress store rather than being this fraud of a governor that we have,” the state’s Democratic Party Chairman Dick Harpootlian said on Tuesday.

Harpootlian, a longtime Democratic leader, last week reportedly told supporters at a South Carolina Democratic Party dinner he hoped in 18 months that Nikki Haley’s challenger would send her “back to wherever the hell she came from.” Haley was born in South Carolina, and her parents are from India.

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Harpootlian told MSNBC’s Chris Jansing that he apologized Monday for his remarks. He is the grandson of immigrants, unlike Haley, who he said is not from India.

“She is from Bamberg, S.C., where she was an accountant in her parent’s clothing store called ‘Exotica,’ ” he said on the show.

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Haley was also attacked by Republicans for her ethnicity during her 2010 campaign and for her current governorship.

“Unfortunately, this seems to be a trend coming from the South Carolina Democratic Party,” Haley spokesman Rob Godfrey told BuzzFeed on Friday. “Fortunately, the people of South Carolina are better than Harpootlian and his ilk, and we have faith that they will see right through their consistent attempts to play to the lowest common denominator.”

South Carolina voters went to the polls on Tuesday for the state’s special election.