(CNN) Carl Higbie, a top staffer at an advocacy group closely aligned with President Donald Trump, said on a radio show that past racist comments he made had been taken "out of context" and were a "statistical observation."

Higbie is the director of advocacy at America First Policies, a nonprofit that works to promote Trump's agenda. A former Navy SEAL, Higbie resigned from his position in January as the public face of the federal government agency that oversees AmericCorps and other public service programs, after a CNN KFile investigation found he had made racist, sexist, anti-Muslim and anti-gay remarks on the radio.

Higbie said on his radio show in 2013 and 2014 that "the black race" has "a lax of morality" and that black women "think that breeding is a form of employment." Higbie also said, "I believe wholeheartedly, wholeheartedly, that the black race as a whole, not totally, is lazier than the white race, period."

Higbie initially apologized in January for his remarks but is now defending them.

Speaking Friday with "The John Fredericks Show," a Washington, DC-based radio program, Higbie claimed some of his comments were "statistical" observations and taken out of context.

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