thank you!
context...context...context!
Context doesn’t help him. He should never have said ANYTHING about this. It had no bearing on his situation, had absolutely no possibility of furthering his cause, and would predictably distract attention from his fight, and extinguish the ardor of his supporters.
No matter what he meant, or the context in which he said it, there was no upside to his stupid babbling.
The problem is, even in context, his statements were pretty indefensible. I don’t the guy’s a racist, and the statements in context are not necessarily racist, but it shows an incredibly poor understanding of American history, and in particular of the horrors of slavery and its impact on slave family structures.