South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley (Chuck Burton, AP)
South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley said her Democratic opponent’s laughter after accidentally calling her a “whore” was like “a kick in the gut.”
WIS-TV reports the Republican governor made her first comments Wednesday about State Sen. Vincent Sheheen’s use of the sexist slur, captured on video last week by the Morning News in Florence, S.C.
Sheheen can be heard saying, “we are going to escort whore out the door,” about a minute into his remarks and then corrected himself by adding, “we’re going to escort her out the door.” The chuckling came when the crowd responded to his remarks with applause.
Sheheen, who is in a rematch with Haley, apologized during a radio appearance Monday, saying his words were “garbled” but the damage was done. Ann Romney blasted Sheheen’s original comment and called it “unacceptable” in an interview with CNN. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, denounced what he called a “personal attack” on Haley, his friend, in a Facebook post.
At a news conference Wednesday on another issue, Haley was asked about the incident.
“You have not heard me talk about it and it’s because whether it was a gaffe or not, I really don’t care,” she said, according to WIS-TV, the NBC affiliate in Columbia, S.C. “I’m a tough girl, I can handle that. The laughing afterwards was a kick in the gut. … But, having said that, I’m not going to waste my time on that.”
The governor said she appreciated Romney’s support. Haley leads Sheheen by an average of 15.5 percentage points, according to polls compiled by Real Clear Politics.
