That's exactly what Rep. Robert Pittenger (R-N.C.) said in an interview with BBC News on Thursday evening, when asked what the protesters' grievances are. "The grievance in their mind is the animus, the anger," he said. "They hate white people, because white people are successful and they're not."

Without being prompted, Pittenger quickly pivoted to a discussion about welfare and race. "I mean, yes, it is. It is a welfare state. We have spent trillions of dollars on welfare, we have put people in bondage so that they can't be all they're capable of being.

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"America is the opportunity of freedom and liberty. We didn't become that way because we have great government, who provided everything for everyone. No. That's the destiny of America, the freedom to come to this country, why they're still coming to our shores is because they can take their work ethic and their hard effort and put up their capital and the risk and build out their lives."

Pittenger, who is from Charlotte and represents its outer suburbs, apologized on Twitter shortly after the interview aired:

His comments came shortly after news broke that a protester who was injured during the demonstrations had died.

UPDATE: Pittenger also went on CNN to apologize: "Frankly, I apologize for the comments. They certainly weren't meant in the context of how many viewed them."

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Host Don Lemon asked Pittenger: "Do you believe that protesters hate white people?"

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Pittenger replied: "No, sir, it's the comments that they made -- if you go back and look at the tapes, the comments they made on air. I was only trying to convey what they wre saying, and yet it didn't come out right, and I apologize. ... That certainly was not the spirit of who I am."

Pittenger is not the first politician to make a controversial, blanket statement about the racial tensions embroiling North Carolina's largest city.

Earlier on Thursday, Rep. Tim Huelskamp (R-Kan.) called it "outrageous" that President Obama would make a joke about race while North Carolina is having race-related problems: