North Carolina congressman, Robert Pittenger, came under fire on Thursday [September 22], over comments he made, blaming the tensions exhibited at recent protests on a supposed resentment of white people, by demonstrators living off of a welfare state.

"The grievance in their mind is the animus, the anger. They hate white people because white people are successful, and they're not," Pittenger told the host of a BBC News broadcast. "We have spent trillions of dollars on welfare, where we put people in bondage so that they can't be all that they are capable of being."

Within hours of the segment airing on national television, the 9th District Republican rep.'s remarks were admonished by numerous colleagues and public figures, including Democratic rival G.K. Butterfield, who called them "disgusting" and "appalling." Pittenger would later take to Twitter to apologize for his statement, saying that he misspoke while attempting "to discuss the lack of economic mobility for African-Americans because of failed policies."

Source: twitter.com