A United States representative from North Carolina said in a television interview on Thursday that protesters in Charlotte "hate white people because white people are successful and they're not," and then hours later recanted and apologized.
The representative, Robert Pittenger, a Republican whose district includes parts of Charlotte, was interviewed on a British Broadcasting Corporation show, BBC Newsnight, when he made the comment.
In response to an interviewer's question about the demonstrators' grievance, Mr. Pittenger said: "The grievance in their mind is the animus, the anger. They hate white people because white people are successful and they're not. I mean, yes, it is, it is a welfare state. We have spent trillions of dollars on welfare, and we've put people in bondage so they can't be all that they are capable of being."
Grier Martin, a Democrat who is a member of the North Carolina House of Representatives, on Twitter called the comment "one of the most ignorant statements I have ever heard."
Within hours, Mr. Pittenger, 68, apologized and tried to explain himself in a series of posts on Twitter. He said his "anguish" about what was happening in Charlotte prompted him to respond to a question "in a way that I regret."
He apologized and said he hoped "we can bring peace and calm to Charlotte." He added that he was trying to discuss a lack of economic mobility for African-Americans "because of failed policies."