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COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) _ Republican presidential candidate Duncan Hunter has dropped two top South Carolina advisers a week after they were appointed because of their inflammatory statements about immigrants and religious minorities.

Hunter spokesman Roy Tyler confirmed Thursday that former GOP lieutenant governor candidate Henry Jordan and Horry County Auditor Lois Eargle would no longer serve as campaign co-chairs.

Eargle said the California congressman's decision was disappointing.

"I am so disgusted with politicians who do not have the backbone to stand up for the concerns of the American people," Eargle said in a statement provided to The Associated Press.

Eargle, speaking Feb. 22 at a news conference, said an illegal immigrant with three children came to her office the day before asking for free legal help for an abused child.

"I told her the best thing for her to do was to get back to Mexico," Eargle said then.

Tyler said Thursday that those words "in 26 years of service would not cross Congressman Hunter's lips."

The following day Eargle said she was misquoted, but a recording of the news conference proved otherwise. Eargle said she meant to say the woman's boyfriend had abused her, and the woman came for legal help to get him out of jail.

Meanwhile, Jordan, who ran unsuccessfully for lieutenant governor in 1996 and last year, said he thinks Hunter did the right thing by severing their campaign relationship. Jordan said he didn't want a comment he made disparaging Muslims and Buddhists while he was a state school board member in 1997 to hamper Hunter's campaign.

Tyler said it was "not wise to continue the association."

Associated Press Writer Seanna Adcox contributed to this report from Columbia, S.C.



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