A number of people are criticizing President Barack Obama over
his use of the N-word as he discussed race relations in the United States — but renowned economist Larry Kudlow isn't one of them.
I'm going to leave the president alone on this," Kudlow, a CNBC senior contributor, said Monday on "The Steve Malzberg Show" on
Newsmax TV.
"He's doing what he feels emotionally he needs to do. I don't have a problem with it."
In an interview with comedian Marc Maron, the commander-in-chief used the N-word as he discussed the murders of nine African American churchgoers by a white racist in Charleston, South Carolina, and said he believes the United States has not overcome its history of racism.
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"Racism, we are not cured of it. And it's not just a matter of it not being polite to say [the N-word] in public. That's not the measure of whether racism still exists or not. It's not just a matter of overt discrimination. Societies don't, overnight, completely erase everything that happened 200 to 300 years prior," Obama said.
Kudlow, who hosts the nationally-syndicated radio program, "The Larry Kudlow Show," said Obama's inflammatory language is understandable.
"He's getting very emotional. This is an emotional issue, Charleston. It's a terrible thing," he told Steve Malzberg.
"It's a hate crime. A racial crime. It's also a very sick kid taking violent drugs. The whole story is awful."
Dylann Roof, 21, who authorities say spent an hour in Bible study with parishioners at the nearly 200-year-old Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church before opening fire on Wednesday night, appeared via video feed before a magistrate judge who on Friday ordered him held without bond.
Roof has been charged with nine counts of murder and a weapons offense.
Federal authorities are investigating the deadly violence as a hate crime and an act of terrorism by Roof, who posed with the Confederate flag in photos posted online.
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