Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) called President Donald Trump a “racist” when asked about the controversy over Gov. Ralph Northam (D-VA) medical school yearbook photo of people in blackface and a Klan robe.

Partial transcript as follows:

TODD: What does it say that something like this is now, folks are now being held accountable for blackface in ways, frankly, we didn’t have that kind of, that strong of a moral code, I would argue, in our politics until recently. Why do you think that is?

BROWN: Well, I think this country hasn’t dealt well with the issues of race. We have a president who’s a racist. Who we have —

TODD: Let me pause you there. You believe in his heart he’s a racist?

BROWN: Well, I don’t know what in his heart means. I know he built his political career knowing what he was doing on questioning the legitimacy and the birthplace of the president of the United States. I know early there’s been all kinds of news reports what he did early in his career on housing. I mean read “The New Jim Crow“ by Michelle Alexander, Read “The Color of Law” about housing discrimination and the decades and decades of housing discrimination. And we know the Trump family including the now sitting president played to that and deepened that. So these issues that this is not a racist Charlottesville was only a symptom and only a more public viewing and outing, if you will, about the president’s views about race. I mean, there’s just no question about that. We know the president doesn’t tell the truth frequently. We know he lies frequently. We know of his racist comments and background.