Carson: Arguments on Obama’s race are ‘semantics’

GOP presidential candidate Ben Carson on Thursday said he is not interested in debating President Obama’s status as a “real black president.”

“I wouldn’t even get into such a conversation,” he told host Wolf Blitzer on CNN’s “The Situation Room.”

{mosads}“He’s the president and he’s black. “We’re dealing with semantics,” Carson added. “I’m the last person who wants to play around with semantics. I think that there’s so many more important issues.”

Media mogul Rupert Murdoch apologized earlier Thursday for remarks about Obama and race a day before.

“Apologies! No offence meant,” he tweeted. “Personally find both men charming.”

“Ben and Candy Carson terrific,” Murdoch initially wrote Wednesday. “What about a real black president who can properly address the racial divide? And much else.”

Carson said outrage over Murdoch’s remarks is a faux controversy.

“I know Rupert Murdoch and he’s not a racist by any stretch of the imagination,” he said of the News Corporation CEO.

“It’s much ado about nothing,” Carson said. “Everybody is entitled to their own opinion.”

Carson criticized Obama’s record helping blacks during his time in the Oval Office.

“His policies have not really elevated the black community,” the former doctor said. “There’s more unemployment and poverty.”

“He apologized because a lot of people took it the wrong way,” Carson added of Murdoch. “He was just expressing his opinion.”

Carson admitted he believed that Obama is both a natural-born American and a Christian, despite lingering skepticism among some.

“I do believe that,” he said when asked whether Obama was born in the U.S.

“He says he is and I have to take him at his word,” Carson added when interrogated about Obama’s religious faith.