Former neurosurgeon and possible 2016 Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson said in a recent interview on Breitbart TV that he thinks race relations in the U.S. were better before President Obama, the nation’s first biracial president, was elected to office.
“I actually believe that things were better before this president was elected. And I think that things have gotten worse because of his unusual emphasis [on race],” he said while appearing on The Hugh Hewitt Show Tuesday.
Mr. Carson went on to criticize Mr. Obama’s response to the Henry Louis Gates incident, when the president said police acted “stupidly,” and the Trayvon Martin incident, when Mr. Obama commented that if he had a son, his son would “look like Trayvon.”
In response to a question from Mr. Hewitt, Mr. Carson said the president “absolutely” plays the race card and, along with other progressives, attempts to “manipulate, particularly minority communities, to make them feel that they are victims.”
• Jennifer Pompi can be reached at jpompi@washingtontimes.com.
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