News flash: Nikki Haley watching ‘The View’?
OK, that may or may not be true, but the ABC talk show hit the former South Carolina governor and diplomat’s radar on Tuesday when host Sunny Hostin questioned whether Haley was the first person to leave since childhood. Name is chosen.
The Republican politician, who served as Governor of South Carolina from 2011 to 2017 before President Trump’s appointment as ambassador to the United Nations, was born as Nimrata Nikki Randhawa in South Carolina to Indian Punjabi Sikh parents happened. She appeared on “The View” Tuesday as co-host Alyssa Farah Griffin was naming potential Republican 2024 presidential candidates.
“What’s his real name again?” Hostin said he thought Haley should “bend” to his legacy to become a more “authentic” candidate.
Farrah Griffin said, “So, Nikki Haley has been by Nikki since childhood.” “It’s documented in high school. I wouldn’t be surprised if an Indian woman who grew up in South Carolina at the time, she actually did it to avoid prejudice.”
Hostin replied: “There are some of us who can be chameleons and decide not to adopt our ethnicity so that we can pass.”
That’s where Sarah Haines said: “Sunny, I don’t think it’s fair, you go by a different name!”
Acknowledging that point, Hostin, born Asuncion Cummings, said: “It is because most Americans cannot pronounce Asuncion because of the low education in our society.”
“I’m just going to end this conversation. I’m authentically myself. I’m Whoopi Goldberg. I’ll be back now,” another co-host (whose birth name was Caryn Ellen Johnson) closed the discussion. Said happened.
But by then the damage was done. The exchange found its way to Haley, who went on the attack on Twitter:
“Thanks for your concern @sunny,” she wrote. “It’s racist on you to judge my name. Nikki is an Indian name and is on my birth certificate – and I’m proud of it. The Left’s hypocrisy towards conservative minorities is sad. By the way, last time I checked Sunny Your birth name is not….”
Which, to be fair, can be read as saying “What’s his real name again?”