Syndicated columnist Pat Buchanan had some harsh words for Barack Obama’s address Friday concerning race and the George Zimmerman verdict.
Appearing on PBS’s McLaughlin Group, Buchanan said Obama’s comments were “insidious” adding, “The President has taken sides in what is becoming unfortunately a pretty nasty racial dispute in this country.”
JOHN MCLAUGHLIN, HOST: What’s the impact of President Obama’s statement about the Trayvon Martin case? I ask you Pat.
PAT BUCHANAN: I think it was insidious, John. First…
MCLAUGHLIN: Insidious?
BUCHANAN: Yeah, for this reason: President is stepping out politically, I guess, what he feels he ought to do. He’s identifying with the aggrieved community, with Trayvon Martin’s side of this argument, and he’s going all out. And he’s raising this racial profiling thing. He says it really goes on. Racial profiling had nothing to do with this case, and he’s implying that that’s why Trayvon Martin is dead. And he’s suggested that the African-American community, that if he had been white, you would have had a different result here. I think the President has taken sides in what is becoming unfortunately a pretty nasty racial dispute in this country rather than doing what he did at Gabby Giffords where he was magnificent.
CLARENCE PAGE, CHICAGO TRIBUNE: Would Trayvon have been stopped if he was white?
BUCHANAN: Well, let me ask you: would Al Sharpton have been down there if the victim was white?
PAGE: I’m glad Al Sharpton was there because, like I say, this case wouldn’t even have been investigated if it hadn’t been for the race angle.
BUCHANAN: You’re exactly right. I agree with you.
PAGE: The Stand Your Ground law’s been around since what, 2005…
BUCHANAN: This was self-defense.
PAGE: …we’re getting a big debate on the thing.
BUCHANAN: But it’s got nothing, self-defense, Stand Your Ground had nothing to do with the decision.
PAGE: But the suspicion was there, it was enough for the prosecution.
