Sunny Hostin Says Nikki Haley Ditched Ethnic Name To ‘Pass’ — But She Ditched ‘Asunción’ Because Americans Are Stupid | Eastern North Carolina Now

    Publisher's Note: This post appears here courtesy of the The Daily Wire. The author of this post is Virginia Kruta.

    "The View" co-host Sunny Hostin claimed on Tuesday that former South Carolina Republican Governor Nikki Haley had changed her name to sound less Indian, thus making her more appealing to Republicans - but then co-host Sara Haines pointed out that Sunny had done the same.

    Haley, who was born Nimrata Nikki Randhawa, has previously been accused of "white-washing" her name in order to make herself more marketable in American politics. She responded to such criticism in a 2018 tweet explaining that she used her given middle name "Nikki" - which does appear on her birth certificate - for most of her life.

    Despite that, Hostin argued during Tuesday's broadcast that Haley was likely a "chameleon" who was willing to shed her ethnicity in order to "pass."

    WATCH:

ABC's Sunny Hostin might -- just might -- be a racist for this disgusting smear of Nikki Haley, calling her a "chameleon" and implying she's adopted "Nikki" as a fake name so Republicans aren't turned off by her Indian heritage pic.twitter.com/d9voAXu46V

— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) September 20, 2022

    The conversation began with new co-host Alyssa Farah Griffin, who suggested that it was time for new blood in Republican leadership - and listed Haley as one of the people she'd like to see step forward.

    "Nikki Haley the chameleon," Hostin interrupted.

    Griffin pushed back, saying that she had believed Haley to be very effective when she served as governor of South Carolina.

    "What is her real name again?" Hostin asked.

    "A lot of people don't go by their actual real names," Griffin replied.

    "But what is it?" Hostin pressed again.

    "I believe it's - I don't want to mispronounce it - it's Indian, her background is Indian, but ..." Griffin continued.

    Hostin then suggested that things would be different if Haley "leaned into" her status as a "person of color."

    But the conversation didn't end there. Griffin continued to push back, noting that Haley had been going by "Nikki" for most of her life - and then Haines pointed out the fact that Hostin had done the very thing she was accusing Haley of doing.

    Griffin pointed out that Haley, who grew up in South Carolina, may have chosen to go by Nikki as a child in order to avoid prejudice.

    "There's some of us that can be chameleons," Hostin repeated, adding, "And decide not to embrace our ethnicity so that we can pass -"

    "Sunny, you go by a different name!" Haines interrupted.

    Hostin immediately pivoted to defend herself, saying that she went by a less-ethnic name because Americans weren't educated enough to pronounce her real name: Asunción.

    "Because most Americans can't pronounce Asunción," she said. "Because of the under-education in our country."