"People who are so bitterly opposed to the Obama administration are not only concerned about issues that they claim to be concerned about, but they are against Obama," Lowery said on the Redding News Review radio program. "There is some racism involved in this. I have never seen the kind of vicious assault on a president.

"They'd sacrifice anything to defeat Obama and a part of that's racial, and I don't care whether they like it or not, I think it is true."

He also hit Republican presidential candidate former House Speaker Newt Gingrich for saying that Obama has “failed to pay attention” to black unemployment.

"The last one that needs to talk about failing the black community would be Newt Gingrich and his ilk," said Lowery.