Conservative firebrand Ann Coulter lashed out at South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley (R), who recently called for the removal of the Confederate battle flag from the state Capitol. Rather than respond to the Republican governor's message, Coulter dismissed Haley as “an immigrant” who “does not understand America's history.”
During the June 23 discussion on her Fox Business show, host Kennedy asked Coulter about Gov. Haley's recent call for the South Carolina legislature to remove the flag from state grounds. Coulter responded that she'd “really like to like Nikki Haley,” but couldn't support her actions due to her foreign birth:
COULTER: I'm a student of American history, so I'm appalled by -- though I would really like to like Nikki Haley since she is a Republican. On the other hand, she is an immigrant and does not understand America's history. The flag we're talking about --
KENNEDY: You think immigrants can't understand the history?
COULTER: Well, she doesn't. The Confederate flag we're talking about never flew over an official Confederate building. It was a battle flag. It is to honor Robert E. Lee. And anyone who knows the first thing about military history, knows that there is no greater army that ever took the field than the Confederate Army.
But Haley is not an immigrant. As reported by the Washington Post's Phillip Rucker, Haley was born in Bamberg, South Carolina, to Indian immigrant parents (emphasis original):
She's the daughter of Sikh immigrants from India. Haley's parents, Dr. Ajit and Raj Randhawa immigrated from Amritsar to the tiny town of Bamberg, S.C. (population 3,733). Nikki was born there and grew up with a sister, Simran, and two brothers, Mitti and Charan. Mitti was an active-duty officer in the Army for 20 years and fought in Desert Storm. Haley could become only the second Indian-American governor in the country, joining Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal (R).
UPDATE: As reported by Mediaite, Coulter defended her factually incorrect attack on Gov. Haley in a June 24 tweet that compared Haley to terrorist recruiter Anwar al-Awlaki and convicted Fort Hood shooter Nidal Hasan:
