In a surprise appearance at the White House press briefing this afternoon, President Obama spoke in depth on the death of Trayvon Martin and, more generally, the complex nature of race in America and the disenchantment and alienation felt by many African-Americans. The unscripted remarks were arguably the most personal and heartfelt he’s made as president.

On Twitter and elsewhere, prominent conservatives reacted pretty much as expected: They called Obama a racist, accused him of faking emotion, and claimed that he’s only trying to distract from the IRS scandal, which isn’t even a thing anymore.

Greta Van Susteren:

It is indeed true that our largest cities with huge poor populations are overwhelmingly African Americans but the discussion the nation may have about young people and how to inspire them should not exclude the other ethnic backgrounds where poverty has been the scourge. We should have the discussion focus on poverty – whether African American, white, Hispanic or something else. Am I wrong?

Todd Starnes:

President Obama is now our Race-Baiter in Chief. His remarks today on the Trayvon Martin tragedy are beyond reprehensible.



“Trayvon Martin could have been me 35 years ago,” he said. He actually said the outcome might have been different if Trayvon had been white.



Folks - we have reached a very dangerous point in this nation when the president of the united states begins to question the judicial system.

We were able to find a handful of conservatives who weren’t totally outraged by the remarks:

Just caught up with Obama's comments. I don't agree with everything he had to say, but I thought he struck the right tone. — Philip Klein (@philipaklein) July 19, 2013 I don't really have a problem with the President's speech today. — Erick Erickson (@EWErickson) July 19, 2013 President Obama didn't say even one single solitary word about how tough it is to be a white man in America today. — davidfrum (@davidfrum) July 19, 2013

This post has been updated with more reactions.