Nikki Haley faces backlash after calling for Raphael Warnock to be deported at Georgia rally

Former United Nations ambassador Nikki Haley is facing a wave of criticism after telling a crowd in Georgia on Sunday that Sen Raphael Warnock should be “deported”.

Mr Warnock, who is locked in a tight battle for re-election with former football star Herschel Walker, was born in Savannah, Georiga, to parents who were both Pentacostal pastors. His father, Jonathan, served in the US Army during World War II.

Mr Warnock, inspired by the legacy of Martin Luther King Jr, attended Morehouse College and then recieved multiple graduate degrees including a doctor of philosophy from Union Theological Seminary in New York. He returned to Georgia to work as a pastor, becoming senior pastor of King’s former congregation at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta in 2005.

“Legal immigrants are more patriotic than the leftists these days,” Ms Haley said at a rally for Mr Walker. “They knew they worked to come into America, and they love America. They want the laws followed in America, so the only person we need to make sure we deport is Warnock.”

It is not at all clear on what grounds Ms Haley was suggesting that Mr Warnock would be deported or where he would be deported to.

The statement was, however, an echo of the former President Donald Trump’s tweets suggesting that a quartet of progressive Democratic congresswomen should “go back” to other countries. A crowd at a Trump rally shortly thereafter chanted “Send her back!” about Rep Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, who came to the United States as a refugee when she was a child.

A number of political observers condemned Ms Halely’s remark as racist.

Two years ago, Mr Warnock was elected to the US Senate to finish the remainder of former Sen Johnny Isakson’s term. He is now facing Mr Walker in one of the most closely watched Senate races in the country, which could head to a run-off election if neither candidate clears 50 per cent in Tuesday’s election.

The elections forecaster FiveThirtyEight gives Mr Walker slightly better odds of winning the race than Mr Warnock, though Mr Warnock has led in a number of nonpartisan polls of the race over the last week.

Mr Walker’s campaign has been scandal-ridden. Multiple women who had relationship with Mr Walker have alleged that he paid for them to get abortions, despite his opposition to abortion rights. Mr Walker has also made a number of confounding or inaccurate statements in speeches and interviews, and flashed a fake police badge during a debate with Mr Warnock.

At the Georgia rally, Ms Haley called Mr Walker “a good person who has been put through the wringer and has had everything but the kitchen sink thrown at him.”