Conservative commentator Ann Coulter is facing backlash for racist comments she made about the two Indian Americans running for the GOP nomination.
During Wednesday night’s Republican presidential debate, Coulter called an exchange between former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley and biotech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy “Hindu business.”
“Nikki and Vivek are involved in some Hindu business, it seems,” Coulter tweeted. “Not our fight.”
“Ann can tweet whatever she wants to,” Ramaswamy’s senior adviser and communications director Tricia McLaughlin told NBC News. “Vivek shares and lives by the same Judeo-Christian values that this nation was founded on — and the way Vivek lives his family life offers a positive example for their own children and grandchildren.”
While Ramaswamy is Hindu, Haley was born into a Sikh family and is now a Christian, which she’s been vocal about in her public life.
The heated exchange Coulter appeared to refer to wasn’t even about religion, but rather U.S. aid to Ukraine and Israel.
Both conservatives and liberals criticized Coulter for her comment.
“Nikki Haley was born Sikh and is a practising Christian, you racist troglodyte,” one person tweeted in response.
Coulter did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
It’s a trope that’s not unexpected coming from someone with a history like Coulter’s, others said.
“Completely expected that she would attack them but using a white racist trope invoking a religion is beyond disgusting,” tweeted Sangay Mishra, author of “Desis Divided: The Political Lives of South Asian Americans.”
This isn’t the first time this election cycle that Coulter has been in the news for racist comments about Haley. In February, she caught heat for telling Haley to “go back to your own country” as part of a larger tirade on a podcast.
“What’s with the worshipping of the cows? They’re all starving over there,” she also said during that appearance on the “The Mark Simone Show” podcast. “Did you know they have a rat temple, where they worship rats?”
Coulter has also called her a “bimbo” and a “preposterous creature.”
Haley did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Source: | This article originally belongs to Nbcnews.com
