Don Yelton, a North Carolina county precinct chairman, was forced to step down this week after making incendiary racial remarks during an interview on The Daily Show.

The state's controversial new voting laws have been the subject of recent headlines because, critics say, they disproportionately impact minority voters. They also were the target of Moral Monday protests launched by local civil rights leaders.

In an interview with Daily Show correspondent Assif Mandvi on Wednesday, Yelton said that he supports the new laws and "if it hurts the whites, so be it. If it hurts lazy Black people that want the government to give them everything, so be it." He also said that the laws are going to "kick the Democrats in the butt."

Yelton, who said one of his best friends is Black but started using the N-word freely, so astounded Mandvi that the correspondent asked, "You know that we can hear you, right?"                       

The state's party leadership certainly heard his "outrageous" remarks: They forced Yelton to step down the next day.

"Let me make it very clear, Mr. Yelton's comments do not reflect the belief or feelings of Buncombe Republicans, nor do they mirror any core principle that our party is founded upon," said Buncombe GOP chairman Henry Mitchell.

He also denounced Yeltson's expressions as "offensive, uninformed and unacceptable."

But Yelton, who's been in trouble with the party before, in an interview with the Mountain Xpress, stood behind his remarks.

"I stand by them. I believe them," he said.
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(Photo: Courtesy of The Daily Show and Comedy Central)