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A Republican lawmaker with a history of racially inflammatory remarks reached another low yesterday at the Republican National Convention.

U.S. Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) went into attack mode against non-White people during a panel discussion led by MSNBC host Chris Hayes.

The panelists were discussing events taking place on the first day of the convention. Esquire’s Charles Pierce commented on the lack of diversity among the Republican delegates and the future of the party:

“If you’re really optimistic, you can say that this is the last time that old White people will command the Republican Party’s attention, its platform, its public face,” Pierce stated. “That hall is wired by loud, unhappy, dissatisfied white people.”

King countered:

“This old white people business does get a little tired, Charlie. I’d ask you to go back through history and figure out, where are these contributions that have been made by these other categories of people that you’re talking about, where did any other subgroup of people contribute more to civilization?”

Hayes interjected, for clarity: “Than white people?”

King continued:

“Than Western civilization itself. It’s rooted in Western Europe, Eastern Europe and the United States of America and every place where the footprint of Christianity settled the world. That’s all of Western civilization.”

April Ryan, who is Black and was clearly shocked by King’s statement, fought back: “What about Africa? What about Asia?” But Hayes cut the conversation short, saying that there’s not enough time to debate the history of civilization.

Later on, Ryan and Hayes discussed the segment via Perisope. Ryan said she was “shaking” from that “in my face racism.”

She also tweeted that King is “mentally stunted.”

And Ryan said King should learn about the contributions of non-European civilizations.

King is no stranger to racial controversy. In 2013, he told NewsMax that there are 100 children smuggling drugs into the United States for every valedictorian child of illegal immigrants.

In another instance, The Des Moines Register noted a Confederate flag proudly displayed on King’s desk, clustered with the Iowa state flag and the U.S. flag, “in the midst of national turmoil over race and racism.”

And as Politico reported, King tried to block the Harriet Tubman $20 bill by filing an amendment to prevent the Treasury Department from funding placement of the abolitionist’s image on the note.

SOURCE: MSNBC | PHOTO CREDIT: Getty, Twitter

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