Bill Cosby joined a growing chorus of President Obama defenders this week who can only see any and all GOP opposition to the Commander in Chief in terms of race.

And did Cosby throw down the race card with alacrity during an interview Monday on, where else, CNN. Outgoing CNN anchor Soledad O’Brien asked Cosby if race relations have improved since Obama became president, and the star of The Cosby Show brought up the recent State of the Union speech.

“To see people sitting down and then they there are others standing and cheering. I don’t think it’s difficult believe. I think that we have people sitting there who are as bad as the people who were against any kind of desegregation.”

Is this the first SOTU speech Cosby ever watched? It’s standard practice for the opposing party’s enthusiasm to be muted during the event. And let’s not forget the ferocious GOP bashing Obama does on a near-daily basis, poisoning the bipartisan well to unheard of levels.

Cosby was just warming up the ill-informed race rhetoric.

“It’s also interesting that this Republican Party is not the Republican Party of 1863, of Abraham Lincoln, abolitionists and slavery, is not good. I think it’s important for us to look at the underlying part of it. What is the value of it? Is it that some people are angry because my people no longer want to work for free?”