Energy expert fires back after Cori Bush accuses him of racist views: 'It was so embarrassing'

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House witness hits back after Rep. Cori Bush calls him a White supremacist

Author and energy expert Alex Epstein reacts to his exchange with Rep. Cori Bush, D-Mo., during a House hearing on the Strategic Petroleum Reserve.

An energy expert gave a fiery response to Democratic Rep. Cori Bush after she accused him of holding racist opinions.

The "Squad" congresswoman from Missouri accused fossil fuel advocate and House GOP witness Alex Epstein of once "espous[ing] White supremacist views" during a Wednesday hearing on the Strategic Petroleum Reserve.

As her evidence, Bush referenced Epstein calling Western culture superior to other cultures in his college newspaper.

Rep. Cori Bush, D-Mo. accused a GOP House witness of espousing "White supremacist views" during a Wednesday hearing on the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. (Getty Images)

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"For instance, in his 2000 college newspaper, he wrote, ‘The African American Studies Department has 23 classes. In many of these classes, African culture is presented not as inferior to Western culture, but as on equal footing with it,’" she began the quote.

Bush also cited Epstein critiquing his university for putting "Latin American, Indian and American Indian culture" on equal footing as Western culture.

The Democrat hit the Republican witness for "doubling down on this narrative" in a recent interview rather than "disavowing" it.

"We are not inferior to any culture, speaking as a descendant of one of those cultures," Bush retorted.

Energy expert Alex Epstein called the behavior by Rep. Cori Bush, D-Mo., "embarrassing" on "The Ingraham Angle." (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)

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Bush went on to accuse the GOP witness of coming there to "promote fossil fuels, which we know are disproportionately harming and killing Black and Brown people."

When it was his turn to respond, Epstein immediately disavowed the "despicable and false attack" before he dismantled the Democrat's argument.

"What I've argued for my entire adult life is that Western culture is superior in the sense that it promotes individualism and freedom," he responded. 

Epstein said he has fought for freedom around the world his whole life and believed every person deserved the opportunities Americans had.

Alex Epstein told Rep. Cori Bush, D-Mo., he wouldn't apologize for saying Western culture was superior to other cultures.

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Epstein then argued that many places in the world were "inferior" because of inhumane cultural practices that were acceptable in that culture.

"They have female genital mutilation. They have slavery… These [cultures] are not as good as not mutilating females' genitals and not enslaving people. And so I make no apology," he shot back.

Epstein said Bush's characterization of his views were actually "racist."

"The idea that freedom and reason and individualism only apply to people of certain skin colors is the actual original racist idea," he told Bush.

The GOP witness appeared Thursday on "The Ingraham Angle," where he called Bush's behavior "embarrassing." 

"I wrote very thorough testimony and sent it in to advance, and then this is what she leads with?" he recounted. "It was so embarrassing… I made so many points and not one of those points was addressed. It was only accusations of that [racism] or accusations of being some sort of stooge for the fossil fuel industry, which I also refuted."