VIDEO: Nikki Haley's Tragic Mismanagement & Negligence Exposed On National Stage

Last month, the Democratic Governors Association launched a television ad in South Carolina highlighting how Governor Nikki Haley has put her own political career ahead of the safety of vulnerable children through her mismanagement of the state’s Department of Social Services and the subsequent coverups that left them in abusive and, at times, deadly situations.
Now, Haley’s tragic mismanagement, negligence, and coverups are being exposed on the national stage. Last night, ABC World News reported that 76 children have died on Governor Haley’s watch. Unsurprisingly, and consistent with her unwillingness to be held accountable for any of her administration’s failures, Haley refused to comment on the story and these startling new revelations.
Watch the DGA ad HERE.
Watch the ABC World News investigation HERE.
TRANSCRIPT OF ABC NEWS SEGMENT:
ANCHOR: We turn back here to an ABC news investigation about our nation’s most vulnerable children. Nearly 150,000 abused or neglected kids removed from their families every year. Now some former caseworkers have come forward to report the system designed to rescue children is sending them back to those homes without sufficient supervision. The results can be tragic. Here’s ABC with tonight’s Hidden America.
REPORTER: These are just a few of more than 8,000 American children you’ll never get to know and the way they died over the last seven years is shedding light on a national outrage. Have you both had to send kids back to situations that you feared greatly were harmful?
DSS WORKER: Yes.
REPORTER: We would like you to meet four whistle blowers from South Carolina who say so much children are victims of a broken system. We agreed we wouldn’t show their faces or reveal their voices. They say their state child welfare agency meant to protect children is too often sending them back to the abusive parents or caregivers. They are former child caseworkers. Last year alone 76 children died under their agency’s watch.
DSS WORKER: We would start looking at returning children home faster than what they should be returned to.
REPORTER: They say they were pressured to create a false appearance of success.
DSS WORKER: People are scared. They don’t want to lose their job.
REPORTER: As part of our investigation, ABC news obtained this list of names sent to case workers in 2012. Children the state determined were under care for too long. Our insiders say they were ordered to find children like these stable homes quickly but say that noble goal became an excuse to push kids out of the system too soon. 4-year-old Robert Guinyard was on that list and was murdered by his parents after case workers returned him to his abusive family in April of the same year.
VICTIM’S AUNT: I did everything possible to get him taken back out of the home before it happened.
REPORTER: His aunt says she tried her best to save his life sending his caseworkers these disturbing pictures of abuse that she took with her cell phone, calling, even marching into their offices. No one was listening?
VICTIM’S AUNT: No, sir. If they were, they just didn’t care.
REPORTER: The state’s social services director defended herself saying she never set goals to reduce the number of children. She resigned in June. Both she and the Governor declined our request for interviews, but late last month the state said it now wants to add 200 more case workers and will set new caseload limits. Veteran child advocate paige green says most states need more caseworkers and need to respond more quickly to reports.
CHILD ADVOCATE: If you care about children, report it if you think a child is being mistreated and if they don’t take action, report it again. Tell somebody. Keep telling. Don’t assume. Don’t ever assume that because you tell one agency that everybody is going to do what they’re supposed to do.
REPORTER: A call to protect our nation’s most vulnerable children. ABC News Columbia, South Carolina.
 

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