NEW ORLEANS (WGNO) — With less than a week to go before the 2014 election, Sen. Mary Landrieu has started a firestorm.

Thursday, during an interview with NBC News, the senator was quoted as saying the South “has not always been the friendliest place for African-Americans,” tying President Obama’s low approval numbers to race.

Nearly immediately, Republicans pounced.

“That Mary Landrieu would ascribe ugly racial motivations to voters’ displeasure with the policies advanced by President Obama and her shows both how out of touch and how desperate she is. Senator Landrieu’s comments are insulting to me and to every other Louisianian,” LAGOP Chairman Roger Villere said.

Gov. Bobby Jindal, also a Republican, issued a statement of his own, saying, “[Sen. Landrieu] appears to be living in a different century.”

“Implied in her comments is the clear suggestion that President Obama and his policies are unpopular in Louisiana because of his ethnicity. That is a major insult by Senator Landrieu to the people of Louisiana and I flatly reject it.”

Gov. Jindal said White House policies are unpopular because they are “ill-advised, liberal, and don’t work.”

So far, there has been no further comment from Sen. Landrieu’s office.