The United States would be "better off" if the Ku Klux Klan made a revival and lynched Democrats in Washington, D.C., according to an Alabama newspaper editor, the Washington Examiner reported Tuesday.

"Time for the Ku Klux Klan to night ride again" against "Democrats in the Republican Party and Democrats [who] are plotting to raise taxes in Alabama," Goodloe Sutton wrote in an editorial last week in the Democrat-Reporter newspaper in the small town of Linden.

Sutton explained to the Montgomery Advertiser that "If we could get the Klan to go up there and clean out D.C., we'd all been better off."

Asked to explain exactly what he meant by "cleaning up D.C.," Sutton suggested lynching, saying "We'll get the hemp ropes out, loop them over a tall limb and hang all of them."

When the Advertiser asked if it was appropriate for a newspaper in the United States to call for the lynching of Americans, Sutton responded by saying that "It's not calling for the lynchings of Americans. These are socialist-communists we're talking about. Do you know what socialism and communism is?"

He also refused to acknowledge the KKK is a racist or violent organization, responding "A violent organization? Well, they didn't kill but a few people. The Klan wasn't violent until they needed to be."