North Carolina Republican Rep. Robert Pittenger just took home the award for the fastest-foot-in-mouth, bigoted blunder. The 68-year-old politician, whose districts include several outer portions of Charlotte, uttered an outrageous comment regarding the civil unrest and violent protests that have plagued Charlotte since the fatal police shooting of Keith Lamont Scott.
On Tuesday afternoon, Charlotte police confronted an armed man, later identified as Keith Scott, while attempting to serve a warrant at an apartment complex on another suspect. According to Scott’s family, he was sitting in his vehicle, reading a book and waiting for a school bus to drop off his son when police approached and gunned him down.
Police said Scott refused to drop his gun. The shooting touched offthree nights of violence in the heart of Charlotte.
Blacks hate whites because whites are successful?
During an interview with BBC News on Thursday, Pittenger was asked about his view of the “grievance” that is pushing protesters to the streets. “The grievance in their minds, the animus, the anger. They hate white people because white people are successful, and they’re not,” the Congressman said in response.
The backlash over the inflammatory comment came quick and hard. Fellow lawmaker Grier Martin, a Democrat and a member of North Carolina’s House of Representatives, tweeted out: “One of the most ignorant statements I have ever heard.
Ashamed to have served with this fool.”
Government keeps Blacks in 'bondage.'
Pittenger also placed blame for the violent reactions among the Black community at the foot of the Federal government, accusing assistance and outreach programs that put minorities in “bondage.”
“We have spent trillions of dollars on welfare, and we’ve put people in bondage, so they can’t be all they’re capable of being,” he commented.
Apologies on top of apologies
After being smacked upside the head by social media, Pittenger tried to backtrack, stating that the comment does not “reflect who I am,” andsuggesting that he was only “quoting statements made by angry protesters.” He later apologized again, stating that what is happening in his hometown “breaks his heart;" he said his own internal “anguish” led him to “respond to a reporter's question in a way that I regret.”
