Overview

• Speaking at the National Conservatism Conference on Sept. 2, the Missouri Republican cast the United States as a homeland forged for founders’ descendants and said it “belongs to us.”
• His remarks, published by the Daily Signal and shared in a video, included the phrase “belongs to us, and only us” and argued that some legal immigration is not good for the country.
• He invoked Pilgrims, Continental Army soldiers and pioneers as the nation’s forebears while presenting their legacy as an exclusive heritage.
• Commentators including pollster Cornell Belcher and journalist Roland Martin denounced the address as racist and “textbook white nationalism.”
• Critics pointed to the omission of nonwhite contributions to U.S. history and cited Abraham Lincoln’s 1858 argument that American identity flows from the Declaration’s ideals rather than bloodline.