Republicans are accusing a California Democratic House candidate of racism, the Washington Examiner reports. 

The Democrat is Jay Chen. He is running against Rep. Michelle Steel (R-CA) for California’s newly-redrawn 45th Congressional District.

What Chen said:

Chen is being called racist for comments that he made about Steel. For those unfamiliar with Steel, she is a Korean-American.

On April 7, at a meet and greet event held at the Congregation B’nai Tzedek synagogue in Fountain Valley, California, Chen took aim at Steel’s accent.

“Yeah, so she just had another town hall the other day, and, umm, it’s tough, kike, we’ve transcribed it,” Chen said. “You kind of need an interpreter to figure out exactly what she’s saying. The more she speaks, the better for us.”

Steel, GOP respond

Following reports about Chen’s comment, a spokesperson for Steel released a statement essentially calling Chen a racist.

The spokesperson said:

America is a country built on immigrants. Michelle Steel is a first-generation Korean American who speaks English as her third language, and these despicable, racist comments from Jay Chen have absolutely no place in our community. Chen owes everyone an explanation, particularly following recent reports he continues backing the Chinese Communist Party’s Confucius Institutes in our educational system.

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) released a similar statement of his own.

“The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee need to immediately disavow and remove Jay Chen from their ‘Red to Blue’ program in light of his racist attack on [Michelle Steel],” McCarthy wrote.

He added, “Disgraceful remarks like those uttered by Jay Chen have no place in our nation’s political discourse & @DCCC must act unless they approve of these racist remarks. Rep. Steel is an inspiration to first-generation Americans & I look forward to serving w/ her for many yrs to come.”

Chen v. Steel

Chen has yet to respond to the criticism that has been leveled at him for the remarks that he made about Steel’s accent.

Polls have yet to indicate how close the race is between Chen and Steel for California’s 45th District. The race is part of the upcoming midterm elections in which Republicans will be looking to net five seats to retake control of the House.