Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore, one of two Republicans competing in a primary runoff next week, appeared to use racially insensitive terms to describe Native Americans and Asians during a campaign speech on Sunday.

Moore, a former chief justice on the state Supreme Court, lamented divisions between Americans based on race, mentioning "reds and yellows."

"We were torn apart in the Civil War - brother against brother, North against South, party against party. What changed?" Moore asked in footage provided to The Hill by a Republican monitoring the race.

"Now we have blacks and whites fighting, reds and yellows fighting, Democrats and Republicans fighting, men and women fighting. What's going to unite us? What's going to bring us back together? A president? A Congress? No. It's going to be God."

Moore's campaign told The Hill the remarks were taken out of context.

"'Red, yellow, black and white they are precious in His sight. Jesus loves the little children of the world,'" the campaign said in a statement, in an apparent reference to the religious song "Jesus Loves the Little Children."

"This is the gospel. If we take it seriously, America can once again be united as one nation under God."

The judge is no stranger to controversial comments - reporters have dug up a handful of eye-popping comments from Moore's past, even as his campaign sits in strong position ahead of next week's Senate GOP primary runoff.

Last week, CNN reported that Moore implied that the 9/11 terror attacks could have been caused by a lack of religious faith.

Moore leads Sen. Luther Strange (R-Ala.) in all recent public polling of the runoff. The winner of that contest will advance to the general election and be expected to beat a Democrat to serve out the rest of Attorney General Jeff Sessions's term.

The runoff is expected to go down to the wire. President Trump is scheduled to stump on Strange's behalf on Saturday.