An MSNBC contributor and journalism professor compared Alabama Senate candidates Luther Strange and Roy Moore to the Ku Klux Klan, though neither has ties to the white supremacist organization.

“The choice between Strange and Moore is like deciding between the Ku Klux and the Klan,” Jason Johnson said during a panel discussion on MSNBC’s “AM Joy with Joy Reid.”

The comment from Johnson, a professor at Morgan State University, evoked some laughter from the panel, including host Joy Reid.

The panel was discussing the upcoming GOP Senate runoff between Strange, the interim Alabama senator, and Moore, the former chief justice of the Alabama Supreme Court.

“Like, they’re both vastly conservative people who’ve been in favor of the Muslim ban. And that’s why Donald Trump is playing both sides because he’s perfectly comfortable with those sorts of people,” Johnson said in his harangue of Strange and Moore.

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