Rubio, Kaine clash on South African refugees: 'You don't like that they're white."

Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., clashed in a heated and racially charged exchange over South African refugees on Tuesday – with Kaine accusing Rubio and the Trump administration of prioritizing white South African farmers for refugee entry.

The spat was prompted after the United States last week welcomed dozens of white South African refugees who the State Department said are victims of "government-sponsored racial discrimination" in their homeland. Their arrival comes as the administration has suspended most refugee resettlement programs. 

Kaine, during a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing, called the persecution claims "specious," noting that South Africa now has a government of national unity and the agriculture minister is an Afrikaner.

TRUMP TO BRING WHITE AFRIKANERS TO US AS REFUGEES FROM SOUTH AFRICA, IN WAKE OF EXPROPRIATION LEGISLATION

He inferred that the Trump administration was giving preference to Afrikaners because of their skin color.

"Can you have a different standard based upon the color of somebody's skin? Would that be acceptable?" Kaine said before Rubio shot back.

"I'm not the one arguing that, apparently you are because you don't like the fact that they’re white and that’s why they’re coming," Rubio said. 

"I’m asking you to say that that would be unacceptable, that would seem to be a very easy thing to say," Kaine said.

"The United States has a right to pick and choose who they allow into the United States," Rubio said before Kaine cut across him.

"Based on the color of somebody's skin?" Kaine asked. 

"You're the one that's talking about the color of their skin, not me. These are people whose farms were burned down and they were killed because of the color of their skin," Rubio said.

TRUMP ADMINISTRATION MAKES NEW MOVE TO BRING SOUTH AFRICAN REFUGEES TO US AS PRESIDENT BLASTS NATION'S RULERS AGAIN

President Donald Trump directed the State Department to bump up Afrikaners to the front of the line for resettlement after a law was passed by the South African government allowing it to take private land for public use, sometimes without compensation. Trump claimed the law would be used to target South Africa’s white minority Afrikaner group, descended from Dutch and other European settlers who arrived more than 300 years ago. 

Amid his immigration crackdown, Trump said in January the U.S. will only admit refugees who "can fully and appropriately assimilate."

Kaine played down the threat the Afrikaners face and said that the U.S. did not establish a special refugee program for Black South Africans during the apartheid era.

"Now we’re creating a special pathway for white Afrikaner farmers in a country governed by a unity government that includes the Afrikaner parties," Kaine said. "Would you agree, Mr. Secretary, that if we’re interpreting the phrase 'a well-founded fear of persecution', we should apply that standard evenhandedly?"

"I think we should apply it in the national security interest of the United States," Rubio said. "The United States has the right to choose who it allows in and to prioritize that choice," Rubio asserted. 

"And should that be applied evenhandedly?" Kaine asked, with Rubio responding, "Our foreign policy does not require evenhandedness."

Rubio also said that Kaine seems to think everyone should be allowed into the country for any reason, and reasserted that the government’s immigration policy should reflect what benefits the United States.

In March, Rubio expelled the South African ambassador to the U.S., calling him a "race-baiting" politician who hates America and Trump after he said the commander-in-chief is leading a global white supremacist movement. 

South Africa's foreign ministry has said the accusations of racial discrimination against Afrikaners are "unfounded." 

Elsewhere in the hearing on Tuesday, Rubio requested a budget totaling $28.5 billion, which he said will allow the State Department to fulfill its mission while also outlining a bureaucratic overhaul, proposing the recission of $20 billion in duplicate, wasteful and ideologically driven programs. Rubio announced the creation of new consolidated funds that will absorb many U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) functions.

Last month, Rubio announced he was overhauling the agency and shuttering more than 130 offices around the world in order to streamline operations and align the department more closely with the administration's foreign policy objectives. 

Rubio said that all the changes will not be universally welcome, but the intent of the changes is to make the agency more efficient. 

"It is not to dismantle American foreign policy and it is not to withdraw us from the world, because I just hit 18 countries in 18 weeks, that doesn't sound like much of a withdrawal," Rubio said.

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"We are engaged in the world, but we're going to be engaged in a world that makes sense and that's smart. And that isn't about saving money, it is about ensuring that we are delivering to our people what they deserve. A foreign policy that makes America stronger, safer and more prosperous."

He also discussed various foreign affairs matters, including the Ukraine-Russia war, which he said can only end through a negotiated settlement.

"Neither side can win militarily," Rubio said.

Fox News’ Brie Stimson contributed to this report.