Senator Lindsey Graham said on Tuesday it would be "like, terrible" if a DNA test found he had Iranian heritage, a comment that a Fox News Channel host tried to walk back just after the South CarolinaRepublican made it.
Mr Graham made the remark at the end of an interview on Fox & Friends, during which he was asked about the recent announcement by Senator Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass, that she had taken a DNA test linking her to a distant Native American ancestor.
"I'm going to take a DNA test," Mr Graham said in response, adding: "I've been told that my grandmother was part Cherokee Indian. It may all be just talk. But you're going to find out in a couple of weeks, because I'm going to take this test. I'm taking it and the result's going to be revealed here."
Mr Graham, one of President Donald Trump's closest congressional allies, added he thought he might be more Native American than Ms Warren.
"She's less than one-tenth of one per cent," Mr Graham said. "I think I can beat her."
Ms Warren's DNA test indicated she is probably between 1/64 and 1/1024 Native American.
As the interview concluded, Fox & Friends co-host Steve Doocy invited Mr Graham to "come back in a couple of weeks and we'll take a look".
Brian Kilmeade, another co-host of the show, added, "We'll find out who you really are."
Mr Graham quipped back: "I'll probably be Iranian. That would be, like, terrible."
Mr Doocy and Mr Graham shared a moment of laughter, after which Mr Kilmeade quickly sought to amend Mr Graham's remark.
"Well, they have great people, just bad leaders," he said, to which Mr Graham responded: "Yeah, bad leaders. I'm not in the ayatollah branch."
The remark prompted outrage online on Tuesday morning. Actress Yara Shahidi called it a "sickening display of racism and bigotry".
"Proudly Iranian over here," she said in a tweet.
A spokesperson for Mr Graham did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The Washington Post
