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National stage in 2004. >> no other country on earth is my story even possible. >> reporter: in 2008 then senator obama's prospect of becoming the first african-american president was almost derailed when his pastor was caught making racist remarks. forcing obama to address race head-on. >> reverend wright's comments were not only wrong but divisive. divisive at a time when we need unity. >> reporter: michelle obama, too, felt under siege. >> what do you think is the one thing most people get wrong? about you? >> people don't think i love my country. i don't think there could be anything furth...

And los angeles. people are upset about that kind of stuff. i don't think the president has done himself any favors with the way he engaged race. i'm not applauding obama on race. >> i agree on that. >> i don't think the president made things worse. it's not as if there's a long legacy of republicans or white presidents making america feel more racially interesting. >> ben, what do you think he should be doing, because bobby jindal said "the president tries to divide us by gender age, geography and race. i think it's wrong. part of his job is to unite us and bring us together." what is he doin...

The reason why i say that, president obama was the president, this will be a legacy piece for him. he started talking about it in his first term. we got a little glimpse with him and gates, with the situation of the racial profiling issue. then the beer summit. move to trayvon martin. let's move down more to other cities, north charleston, ferguson, baltimore. baltimore is so close, yet so far. 40 miles away and this is happening. i believe president obama should go and it sends a powerful message. there are going to be more of these situations. people really need to know the leader of this co...

Go to this audience and say this, and that audience i say that, and because of social media and the web and everything, you are going to hear a lot more of that. >> i don't know when to say nothing. >> exactly. >> jeb bush doesn't do a lot of that, but that could be his biggest problem. >> one other on the republican side is ted cruz who said this week that he thinks president obama has exacerbated the racial divide. >> he has exacerbated racial misunderstandings, racial tensions, from back at the beer summit to a series of efforts to pit americans against each other. >> let's assume he believ...

Think have enflamed racial tensions. have divided us rather than bringing us together. >> pressed for a specific example, cruz pointed to 2009's so-called beer summit. that is when the president brought together a black harvard professor and white police officer who arrested him. new details revealing the fbi facilitated a ransom payment to al qaeda from the family of warren weinstein. the bids to secure his release was unsuccessful. he was killed along with an italian colleague in january in the pakistan's tribal area. this contradicts against paying ransom for hostages. the fbi did not app...