Cliven Bundy, the Nevada rancher who has been waging a public battle against federal rangers over grazing rights, shared some shockingly racist views in a recent interview.

Cliven Bundy's Racist Rant

Bundy, diverting from the issue of grazing rights, decided to ruminate on the current state of African Americans – and whether or not they would be better off if slavery were still around.

“I want to tell you one more thing I know about the Negro,” Bundy told The New York Times before sharing an anecdote of passing by a public-housing project in Las Vegas. “In front of that government house the door was usually open and the older people and the kids — and there is always at least a half a dozen people sitting on the porch — they didn’t have nothing to do. They didn’t have nothing for their kids to do. They didn’t have nothing for their young girls to do."

“And because they were basically on government subsidy, so now what do they do?” he asked. “They abort their young children, they put their young men in jail, because they never learned how to pick cotton. And I’ve often wondered, are they better off as slaves, picking cotton and having a family life and doing things, or are they better off under government subsidy? They didn’t get no more freedom. They got less freedom.”

Bundy appeared on The Peter Schiff Show on Thursday in an effort to clarify his remarks. In the interview, Bundy seemed to share the same sentiments about African American’s he’d offered to The New York Times earlier in the week.

“I'm wondering if they're better off under a government subsidy and their young women are having the abortions and their young men are in jail and their older women and children are sitting out on the cement porch without nothing to do," Bundy said on the show. “I'm wondering: Are they happier now under this government subsidy system than they were when they were when they were slaves and they was able to their family structure together and the chickens and the garden and the people have something to do."

“So in my mind, are they better off being slaves in that sense or better off being slaves to the United States government in the sense of the subsidy," he continued. "I'm wondering. The statement was right. I am wondering.”

Republican Lawmakers Distance Themselves

Prior to Bundy’s incendiary comments, a number of high-level Republican lawmakers had been supporting him in his grazing rights cause. Among them were Sen. Dean Heller (R-Nev.) and Sen. Rand Paul. Both have since issued statements to distance themselves from the outspoken rancher.

“His remarks on race are offensive and I wholeheartedly disagree with him," Paul said in a statement. A spokesperson for Heller said that the senator, "completely disagrees with Mr. Bundy’s appalling and racist statements, and condemns them in the most strenuous way."

– Chelsea Regan