George Zimmerman is bashing President Obama for the president’s Rose Garden speech expressing sympathy for Trayvon Martin’s family not long after Martin was shot and killed by Zimmerman, who was acquitted of second-degree murder and manslaughter.
“That was clearly a dereliction of duty pitting Americans against each other solely based on race,” Zimmerman said in a video posted to his lawyer’s website.
{mosads}Obama, in comments at the White House, said that if he had a son, he would look like Martin, a black 17-year-old.
“Unfortunately for the president, I’m also my parent’s child, and my life matters as well,” Zimmerman said in the video. “And for him to make incendiary comments as he did and direct the Department of Justice to pursue a baseless prosecution, he by far overstretched, overreached, even broke the law in certain aspects to where you have an innocent American being prosecuted by the federal government, which should never happen.”
Zimmerman, a neighborhood watch coordinator, confronted Martin in Sanford, Fla., and eventually shot him during an altercation. He said he acted in self-defense and accused Martin of attacking him. Critics accused Zimmerman of profiling Martin.
When asked which government official was most unfair to Zimmerman, he said “by far, the president of the United States, Barack Hussein Obama.” He also criticized Obama for inviting the Martin family to the White House on the anniversary of Trayvon Martin’s death.
“Instead of rushing to judgment, making racially charged comments and pitting American against American,” he said.
“I believe that he should of taken the higher road given his position and said, been an example, been a leader as the president should be and say let’s not rush to judgment.”
The Justice Department recently said it would not charge Zimmerman with violating the teenager’s civil rights during the altercation. In a statement announcing the decision, the agency said that it could not charge Zimmerman “based solely on the high legal standard applicable to these cases,” and Attorney General Eric Holder told news outlets later that he would like to see those standards lowered.
Zimmerman said he waited until that case had been closed to speak out, so he would not have to “fear retaliation by the president, the attorney general, the federal government.” He accused the Justice Department of not investigating whether his civil rights had been violated and said that the “American judicial system failed” because he went to trial.