COLUMBIA, S.C. — A South Carolina lawmaker on Thursday called a GOP gubernatorial candidate of Indian descent a “raghead” on the Internet political talk show Pub Politics.
According to co-host Phil Bailey, Republican state Sen. Jake Knotts said: “We’ve already got a raghead in the White House; we don’t need another raghead in the governor’s mansion.” Knotts later apologized for the slur, saying his remarks about President Barack Obama and state Rep. Nikki Haley were meant as a joke.
No audio was available because of a technical problem.
“If it had been recorded, the public would be able to hear firsthand that my ‘raghead’ comments about Obama and Haley were intended in jest,” Knotts said in a statement. “Bear in mind that this is a freewheeling, anything-goes Internet radio show that is broadcast from a pub. It’s like a local political version of ‘Saturday Night Live,’ which is actually where the joke came from.”
