 |
| (L-R) Will, Liddy, Abby, Jon Huntsman III, Asha Bharati, Mary Kaye, Jon Huntsman Jr., and Gracie Mei |
 |
| (L-R)Jon Huntsman III, Abby, Gracie Mei, Liddy, Mary Anne, Jon Huntsman Jr., Mary Kaye, Asha Bharati, and Will | |
WASHINGTON: Republican presidential hopeful Jon Huntsman is the target of a
smear campaign through an online video over his two adopted daughters, one of them an Indian, the other Chinese. Hindu groups in the USA have strongly objected to the video.The
YouTube video, titled "Jon Huntsman's Values", shows clips of Huntsman speaking Chinese. It seems to suggest that Huntsman is un-American. "Weak on China? Wonder why?" the video asks, before showing a clip of Huntsman with Gracie Mei, his 12-year-old Chinese daughter.
Asha Bharati, adopted from
Gujarat in 2006, is also shown in the video.Huntsman, a former US ambassador to China, described the video as "stupid." "I have a second daughter who was born in India in a very rural village ... and left for dead the day she was born. Luckily she was picked up before
the animals got her, and she was sent to an orphanage for her safety, was raised and now she is in my family," he said in
New Hampshire on Friday.Huntsman, who also served as governor of Utah from 2005 to 2009, has seven children, of whom two are adopted.The Hindu American Foundation has strongly objected to the insinuations made in the video.A smear campaign through an online video on Republican presidential hopeful Jon Huntsman and his two
adopted daughters has caused an uproar among the Hindu community in the US. Huntsman has adopted a Chinese and an Indian girl."This deplorable ad is blatantly racist and religiously intolerant, and crosses all lines of acceptable political discourse," said Suhag Shukla, the managing director and legal counsel of The Hindu American Foundation."Instead of vilifying governor Huntsman, he should be applauded for being open-minded enough to raise his adopted daughter as a Hindu," she said."To attack a candidate's family, particularly his young daughters, is completely unacceptable and should be denounced by all Americans," said Samir Kalra, director of the Hindu Foundation.The video, set to east Asian music, describes Huntsman as "the Manchurian candidate". In the novel of the same name, the son of a prominent US political family is brainwashed into being an assassin for China's Communist Party.The video, uploaded to YouTube by 'NHLiberty4Paul' urges viewers to Vote Ron Paul. Ronald Earnest Paul is a
Texas Congressman and a rival candidate for the 2012 Republican Party presidential nomination.His New Hampshire spokeswoman, Kate Schackai, said she didn't know who was behind the ad, but it wasn't anyone affiliated with the campaign.
"The video was utterly distasteful and no one who actually supports Dr Paul's principles would have made it," she said.In 2000, Senator
John McCain, whose adopted daughter, Bridget, is originally from
Bangladesh, found himself the subject of a whisper campaign implying he had fathered a child outside his marriage.
McCain eventually lost the Republican nomination to George W Bush. In 2010 Bush's long-time political adviser
Karl Rove denied leading the "whisper campaign" against McCain.Tweets and YouTube comments
Cindy McCain (John McCain's wife): I deeply resent the video made using the adopted daughters of@johnhuntsman. @ronpaul shame on you. This has shades of 2000 all over it.
@PunditMom: That's a new political low jasonc1469: Who doesn't know that this fake ad came right out of the Huntsman camp to draw negative attention to
Ron Paul and positive attention to himself.
