Nebraska Republican blasted for 'racist' comments about 'Mongol' lawmaker

Republican Nebraska state Sen. Mike Groene received harsh criticism after making "racist" comments on the floor of the legislature.

Groene called Sen. Mike Flood, who owns a broadcast company, a "media Mongol" instead of a "media mogul."

The Republican lawmaker then made things worse.

"I think he's got mixed heritage, so that qualifies him as a .. mongrel and he's aggressive so that does qualify him sometimes as a Mongol," Groene said, as reported by the Omaha World-Herald.

Sen. Matt Hansen said the comments had "deeply offended" his constituents.

"I want the body to stand up and show a bit of backbone and say, hey, at a minimum, you shouldn't be racist on the microphone," Hansen said.

Groene refused to apologize.

"I stand by my words ... and I'm not going to apologize," Groene said.