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Ben Carson, the retired neurosurgeon whose presidential campaign is on life support, said in an interview that was published on Tuesday that President Obama does not identify with the black experience because he was “raised white.”

Mr. Carson said that he better understands what it means to be an African-American because he was raised poor in Detroit, rather than growing up in Indonesia, where Mr. Obama spent several years as a child.

“He didn’t grow up like I grew up,” Mr. Carson told Politico. “So, for him to, you know, claim that, you know, he identifies with the experience of black Americans, I think, is a bit of a stretch.”

Mr. Carson, the Yale-educated Republican candidate, said he was proud when Mr. Obama “broke the color barrier” and was elected the first black president in 2008. But he suggested that Mr. Obama, whose mother was white and who spent his formative years in Hawaii, could not truly relate to the struggles of black people who were raised in cities.

“He was, you know, raised white,” Mr. Carson said.

Last year, Mr. Carson was leading in some national polls before misstatements on foreign policy and a contentious remark about Muslims derailed his campaign. He stood by his comments about Mr. Obama on Tuesday.

“He did not grow up in black America, he grew up in white America,” Mr. Carson told MSNBC, going on to say that there was nothing wrong with that. “When the claim is made that he represents the black experience, it’s just not true.”