Knotts makes the controversial comment in June 2010. From left: Phil Bailey, Rep. Boyd Brown, Wes Donehue, Sen. Jake Knotts and fmr. Rep. Anne Hutto (Source: BuzzFeed/Pub Politics)
One of the most coveted videos in South Carolina politics — except for maybe security footage of John and Rita Jenrette on the U.S. Capitol steps — was made public on Tuesday when BuzzFeed posted a clip of a state senator calling then-Rep. Nikki Haley a “raghead” during the 2010 race for governor:
In the video, which has never before been seen, Knotts strongly criticized President Barack Obama and Haley, a then-member of the state House of Representatives, just days before she won the GOP nomination for governor.
“We got a raghead in Washington. We don’t need a raghead in the State House,” Knotts said.
Knotts also criticized Haley’s Sikh immigrant parents and Haley’s conversion to Christianity.
“[The voters] going to find out in the next three days that her daddy wears a turban around Lexington and her mommy has a ruby between her head and she is a Sikh and trying to be a Methodist, and it gets to Greenville, around the Bob Jones University people, they’re not going to like that.”
But why now? BuzzFeed’s Ben Smith said the video came from an unknown, anonymous source, and the hosts of Pub Politics — the online talk show where Sen. Jake Knotts (R-Lexington) made the notorious comment — categorically denied releasing the video themselves. So who leaked it, and why did they wait two years?
Pub Politics co-hosts Phil Bailey and Wes Donehue told Palmetto Public Record the original video has been kept locked in Donehue’s desk since it aired in June 2010, viewed by no one who didn’t see it live on UStream the day it aired. But Bailey and Donehue said the version posted on BuzzFeed had a UStream logo, while their raw copy does not — so it couldn’t have been them, they say.
“I’m completely at a loss,” said Donehue, political director for the Senate Republican Caucus.
Donehue also denied the involvement of Pub Politics videographer Michael Stevens, who was taping at the time of Knotts’ outburst. Stevens works with Haley videographer Zach Pippin at a company called Citizen Hill, and while it’s not hard to see how Haley’s team might want to gin up some support through a rehash of the raghead incident, Donehue was skeptical about the link.
“There’s no reason Michael Stevens would be involved,” said Donehue. “It’s not in his character.”
“Whoever it was, it was diabolical for them to have it and sit on it for two years,” commented Bailey, Donehue’s counterpart on the Democratic side of the Senate.
The timing of the video’s release seems to point to supporters of tea party activist Katrina Shealy, Knotts’ 2008 Republican primary opponent. After being removed from the 2012 primary ballot for incorrectly filing an ethics form, Shealy unsuccessfully lobbied on Monday to get Knotts kicked off the ballot himself. If the Shealy team had planned on using the raghead video during the primary campaign as some sort of May surprise, it’s possible they leaked it on Tuesday out of sheer spite.
But Knotts was a surprise guest on the show that fateful night, which means Shealy supporters had no reason to be recording at the time — unless someone already had a reason which had nothing to do with Knotts.
Another guest on the show that night, then-Rep. Anne P. Hutto (D-Charleston), was in the middle of an unsuccessful reelection bid against Peter McCoy. McCoy’s political consultants, UPT Strategies, would have been remiss if they didn’t tape Hutto’s appearance on the show — broadcast live from a Columbia bar — in case she let slip anything embarrassing.
UPT Strategies is a GOP-leaning firm run by political consultant Michael Mulé, who would have had no reason to release the video back in 2010 and hurt Knotts for no reason. But who is Katrina Shealy’s campaign consultant for the 2012 race? Well, none other than UPT Strategies and Michael Mulé. Pure coincidence, right?
Mulé also denies any involvement in the video’s release. “The first I heard of the video was when someone sent me a link half an hour ago,” he said Tuesday night. “Our campaign tries to focus on the issues and stay away from the other stuff.”
Of course all of this is conjecture, but the circumstantial evidence suggesting the involvement of Shealy supporters is convincing. Shealy’s campaign hasn’t responded to multiple requests for comment, but she’s scheduled to appear before the SCGOP Executive Committee on Wednesday as part of a last-ditch effort to get back on the primary ballot — so hopefully some of these questions will be answered by then.
In the meantime, take a look at the video yourself and leave your theories on its source in the comments:
What a disgrace we have somebody like Knotts in our legislature…..actually, what a disgrace we have MANY like Knotts in our legislature.
Yah gotta love ole “Balloon” Knotts and the rest of his lard a** posse; putting the rotund in Rotunda, these ignorant, troglodytic, gas-bags are one of the main reasons the rest of the world believes America is full of fools and halfwits (my apologies to any actual halfwits).