At an event celebrating Asian Americans and Pacific Islander members of Congress, Rep. Ed Case (D-Hawaii) said that he is “an Asian trapped in a White body.”

Case’s words were shared in a tweet by a policy and data visualization fellow, Nicholas Wu who was attending the event.

Congressman Ed Case, who represents a majority Asian district in Honolulu – “I’m an Asian trapped in a white body” pic.twitter.com/Roro6Yk8CW — Nicholas Wu (@nicholaswu12) January 16, 2019

It is unclear why or what provoked Case to say this, but what is clear is the disapproval for his comment.

This ain’t it, Ed Case https://t.co/eQRMgbbTvb — Jeff Yang (@originalspin) January 16, 2019

“Yikes” and “Nope” are the common sentiments being expressed in response by Twitter users.

Rep. Ed Case formerly represented Hawaii in the House when he succeeded the great Patsy Mink upon her passing. In 2018, he defeated half a dozen other Democratic candidates in the primary—almost all Asian American, Native Hawaiian, or Pacific Islander candidates—to win this seat. https://t.co/POwj1VbzAD — (@altonwang) January 16, 2019

One user commented, “he defeated half a dozen other Democratic candidates in this —almost all Asian American, Native Hawaiian, or Pacific Islander candidates—to win this seat.”

After being sworn into office, Case told his new staff, “I feel the Aloha.”

Case’s spokesman Nestor Garcia commented that Case was merely speaking “on what his Japanese-American wife sometimes says about him.”

Case told HuffPost in a statement that he has “absorbed and lives the values of our many cultures. They and not my specific ethnicity are who I am, and I believe that this makes me an effective advocate on national issues affecting our [Asian and Pacific Islander] community. I regret if my specific remarks to the national API community on my full absorption of their concerns caused any offense.”

Images via Twitter / @angryasianman