Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson said on Tuesday President Barack Obama was "raised white" and may not identify with "the experience of black Americans."
"He's an 'African' American. He was, you know, raised white," the retired neurosurgeon told Politico's Glenn Thrush. "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's comments came after Thrush asked him whether the inauguration of the nation's first black president was "significant" for him.
Carson suggested it had not been, and that Obama's upbringing was nothing like his growing up black in Detroit in the 1960s.
"I mean, like most Americans, I was proud that we broke the color barrier when he was elected, but I also recognize that his experience and my experience are night-and-day different," Carson added. "He didn't grow up like I grew up by any stretch of the imagination."
Carson, who has put little focus on race during his run for the Republican presidential nomination, also suggested that his treatment by "the left" was racist.
"They assume you're black, you have to think a certain way. And if you don't think that way, you're 'Uncle Tom, you're worthy of every horrible epithet they can come up with," Carson said. "Whereas, if I weren't black, then I would just be a Republican."