George Zimmerman: Obama is to blame for racial tension against me

It’s been a month since the Department of Justice announced George Zimmerman would not face federal charges in the 2012 death of Trayvon Martin, and for the first time since that announcement, Zimmerman is speaking out.

In an 8-minute video distributed by his divorce attorney, Howard Iken of Ayo and Iken PLC, Zimmerman plays the role of victim, saying President Barack Obama is to blame for “pitting Americans against each other solely based on race.”

Zimmerman killed Martin, an unarmed black 17-year-old in Sanford, Florida and was later acquitted of manslaughter in 2013.

While Zimmerman blasted the media for portraying him as racist, he had even harsher words for Obama, saying the president should have told the public “let’s not rush to judgment.”

“Unfortunately after even after Jay Carney, his press secretary stated in the White House briefing that the White House will not interject in a local law enforcement matter and at most a state criminal matter, President Obama held his Rose Garden speech stating if I had a son he would look like Trayvon,” Zimmerman said. “To me that was clearly a dereliction of duty pitting Americans against each other solely based on race. He took what should have been a clear-cut self-defense matter and still to this day on the anniversary of incident he held a ceremony at the White House inviting the Martin-Fulton family and stating that they should take the day to reflect upon the fact that all children’s lives matter.”

He also said Obama “overreached.”

“For him to make incendiary comments as he did and direct the Department of Justice to pursue a baseless prosecution he by far overstretched, overreached, even broke the law in certain aspects to where you have an innocent American being prosecuted by the federal government which should never happen,” Zimmerman said.

Zimmerman insists he has a conscience.

And on the question of “”do you wish (it) … had turned out differently?”

“I believe that the American judicial system failed in the sense that I should not even (have) gone to trial, but I do believe that the jury process succeeded,” Zimmerman said.

h/t: Orlando Sentinel