Arizona Republican Caught on Tape Ranting About How America Won't Be White Enough Soon

According to an Arizona Republican state legislator, there just “aren’t enough white kids to go around” in the state’s public schools.

Arizona Republican David Stringer was caught on tape expressing his fear that America won’t be white enough in 10 to 15 years. He went as far as to say that immigration is bringing on “an existential threat” to the U.S.

“60 percent of public school children in the state of Arizona today are minorities. That complicates racial integration because there aren’t enough white kids to go around,” Stringer said at the Yavapai County Republican Men’s Forum on Monday. “If we don’t do something about immigration very, very soon, the demographics of our country will be irrevocably changed and we will be a very different country.”

The video was posted on Twitter and Facebook by David Schapira, a Democratic candidate for Superintendent of Public Instruction, and initially found on Stringer’s Facebook page. The video has since been deleted.

Ironically, according to his 2016 campaign website, Stringer pursued a Masters Degree in teaching English as a Second Language to Arizona’s non-English speaking population at Arizona State University, Talking Points Memo found.

In response to a request for comment, an assistant to Stringer told Splinter that he was “preparing a statement which will be posted on his Facebook page this afternoon.” We will update this post with that statement when it appears.

Stringer’s comments come as Donald Trump and his friends at the GOP have truly been unapologetically racist this week. So far on the list — going after naturalized citizens, planning on housing unaccompanied minors in tents and closing doors on asylum seekers fleeing domestic violence.

Update, 6/14, 4:28 p.m.: Stringer sent this statement to Splinter. Notably, it does not contain any apology for his racism:

My political opponents have taken 51 seconds out of a 16 minute speech to try to distort my message and mislead voters. We recognize the tactic. I’m not interested in taking the fake news bait. In my speech, I spoke at length about my efforts to pass criminal justice reform which is a long time passion of mine. Our criminal justice system is broken and disproportionately targets minorities, more often than not for low level drug offenses.

My remarks also touched on several other issues including immigration—both legal and illegal—and the challenge of successfully assimilating large numbers of immigrants over a short period of time. Arizona and our country as a whole are in the throes of rapid demographic change. This presents issues of urgent public concern because of the strain it places on important institutions of our society including schools, prisons and our health care system.

My comments about school integration were factually accurate and were intended to illustrate the challenges facing successful integration when white students are a rapidly declining percentage of the whole. This issue cries out for honest and open public discussion. Regrettably, my political opponents seek to shut down discussion with name calling and vile accusations.

The irony is that in an effort to take cheap political shots, they are attacking the rarest of elected officials—a conservative Republican who is championing criminal justice reform in the face of political threats and challenges from powerful elements and politicians in my own party. I am not afraid of conservative bigwigs and I’m not afraid of liberal bullies either. Anyone who doubts this is welcome to come hear me speak and judge for yourself if I am a truth teller.