Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson made a major misstep when he referred to slaves as immigrants, but it turns out that Carson wasn't the first politician to make the remark.
In Carson's speech to his HUD staff on Monday, he said America is a land of dreams and opportunities.
“There were other immigrants who came here in the bottom of slave ships, worked even longer, even harder for less. But they too had a dream that one day their sons, daughters, grandsons, granddaughters, great-grandsons, great-granddaughters, might pursue prosperity and happiness in this land.”
Going back a few years to a speech then President Barack Obama made at the National Archives in 2015, a similar comment was heard.
From an excerpt of the speech from the former administration's archives:
"So life in America was not always easy. It wasn’t always easy for new immigrants. Certainly it wasn’t easy for those of African heritage who had not come here voluntarily, and yet in their own way were immigrants themselves."
And while the people of Twitter let the secretary know what they thought of his comparison...
...Not too many have tweeted about Obama's comment.
While Carson made a post on his Facebook page on Monday to clarify his statement...
...at the time of this post, Obama has yet to release a follow up statement of his own.