https://thehill.com/homenews/house/4429232-alabama-republican-everyone-has-some-type-of-racist-in-them/

An Alabama congressman said that he believes everyone “has some type of racist in them” during a debate in the state’s 1st Congressional District on Wednesday night.

The debate moderator asked Reps. Jerry Carl (R-Ala.) and Barry Moore (R-Ala.) if they agreed with GOP presidential candidate Nikki Haley saying the U.S. has “never been a racist country” earlier this month. The two Alabama Republicans are vying to be the GOP nominee for Alabama’s 1st Congressional District after the state’s congressional maps were redrawn last year.

“Everyone has some racist in them of some type,” Carl answered. “I used to work a lot with ministers … and I had some very private conversations. Everyone has some type of racist in them. My mother through Pearl Harbor — she couldn’t stand the Japanese, she couldn’t stand it. And it used to just eat her from the inside out.”

He then went on to rail against how Alabama’s congressional maps were redrawn last year, suggesting that the maps should not be based on race. Federal judges approved a new congressional map for Alabama that maintains the state’s one Black-majority district and nearly adds a second one, which would boost Democrats’ chances for flipping a seat.

“I grew up in the 60s. I know what race, racial madness is. We’ve spent so much time getting away from it, and now we’ve got an election system [that] is dragging us right back in,” Carl said. “And Barry doesn’t want to be here. Jerry doesn’t want to be here. It should be where it was … should be the original districts and let us serve the people we’re serving.”

Carl clarified his remarks in a statement to The Hill, suggesting that racism has been a part of the United States in its past.