Rep. Keith Ellison says some of his past comments defending National of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan were made when he was a student, and shouldn’t be held against him in his campaign to become the next chair of the Democratic National Committee.

“Everything is fodder for the mill, right? Everything is fair game and it’s interesting … but every single word, though?” Ellison asked in an interview with Politico. He noted that some his comments came from his time as a law student nearly 30 years ago.