House Rep. Charlie Rangel is retiring at the end of this term after 46 years in office. In an interview with Politico Thursday, Rangel said Trump’s election, on the heels of two terms of President Obama, was a nightmare:

“To me, it’s a nightmare,” Rangel told POLITICO New York in a telephone interview, referring to President-elect Donald Trump’s surprise election victory over Hillary Clinton. “It’s hard for me to believe that America had such little confidence in an outstanding candidate for president [and vote for] a person that appears to lack the quality necessary to serve in public office.”

While he certainly wasn’t gracious in defeat, Rangel did accept some responsibility for it:

“People,” Rangel said, are “striking back at government, which apparently, people have thought have been very unfair. And that’s just not Republicans. Democrats, too, have to a large extent not taken care of working people, and that’s the reason why so many Democrats have left the party.”

He went on to tell Politico, “No, I would blame not just Hillary, but the government and even myself for being a part of it.” Rangel adds that Democrats did “scream about” issues like middle-class wage stagnation but didn’t make changes to satisfy voters.

Toward the end of the piece Rangel is asked about exit polls showing Trump won white women. He replies that those women “voted race over gender.” “So, clearly they were more concerned about getting Trump there rather than having decency in terms of sexes, Rangel tells Politico.

Rangel’s explanation doesn’t make a lot of sense given that everyone running for president (and vice-president) this year was white. White women who voted for either candidate were voting for a white person. Is he trying to say these women voted party over gender? And if so, what’s wrong with that?