John M. “Jake” Knotts, Jr. is a Republican member of the South Carolina Senate and previously member of the South Carolina House of Representatives. He is most famous for calling the gubernatorial candidate and currently Republican governor of South Carolina Nikki Haley a “fucking raghead” (Haley is an Indian-American). He later apologized for having used the word “fucking”. The thing is, Haley is a methodist, but Knotts does not believe that. Knotts believes Haley is really a non-Christian: “Have you ever asked her if she believes in Jesus Christ as her lord and savior and that he died on the cross for her sins? Have you ever asked her that?” His evidence of subversiveness is of course her skin color. To further bolster his candidacy for inclusion in the Encyclopedia, Knotts also invoked Obama: “We got a raghead in Washington; we don’t need one in South Carolina,” which suggests that Knotts has a, shall we say, traditional view of race. Being dimly aware that this could become an issue Knotts also emphasized that “many of his supporters are black.”
And of course, it is never complete without some real conspiracies. Knotts asserted that he believed Haley had been set up by a network of Sikhs and was programmed to run for governor of South Carolina by outside influences in foreign countries, and that she is – for this purpose – hiding her “true” religion. Having Haley as a Sikh running for high office in America is a problem, Knotts says, in part because “we’re at war over there.” He didn’t attempt to clarify.
Diagnosis: Good ol’ Southern boy, apparently.