Ben Carson claimed that President Barack Obama was "raised white" during an interview with Politico's "Off Message" podcast on Tuesday.
"He's an 'African' American. He was, you know, raised white. I mean, like most Americans, I was proud that we broke the color barrier when he was elected, but ... he didn't grow up like I grew up ... Many of his formative years were spent in Indonesia. So, for him to, you know, claim that, you know, he identifies with the experience of black Americans, I think, is a bit of a stretch," Carson, who was raised by a single mother in Detroit and Boston, said during the Politico interview.
Carson said that he feels Obama can't claim to understand the "experience of black Americans," as his mother was a white American, and his father a Kenyan. The situation compounded, according to Carson, by the fact that Obama spent a large part of his early years in Indonesia.
"The fact of the matter is he did not grow up in black America, he grew up in white America, doesn't mean that there's anything wrong with that, it's just that when the claim is made that he represents the black experience, it's just not true," Carson reiterated, while speaking to MSNBC from Nevada.
Carson, who was at the bottom of the bunch after the South Carolina primary continued in the same vein while speaking to CNN's Poppy Harlow.
"I grew up in Detroit, and I grew up in Boston. In Boston, we lived in the ghetto. There were a lot of violent episodes there. There were rats, there were roaches. It was dire poverty. Now, let me contrast that to the President, who went to private schools, grew up in a relatively affluent environment, had an opportunity to live in multiple cultures and different countries. I think that's a very different experience," said Carson, according to CNN.
Carson also said he has not faced racism within the Republican Party.
