A day after a Florida jury acquitted George Zimmerman over the death of Trayvon Martin, a Republican House member said Sunday that President Obama had politicized the case.

“The president engaged in this and turned it into a political issue that should have been handled exclusively with law and order,” said Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, on Fox News Sunday.

While local authorities prosecuted the case in Florida, King also told Fox that “the evidence didn’t support prosecution, and the Justice Department engaged in this.”

“I can only imagine what these parents are going through. And when I think about this boy, I think about my own kids.

“You know, if I had a son, he’d look like Trayvon. And, you know, I think they are right to expect that all of us, as Americans, are going to take this with the seriousness it deserves and that we’re going to get to the bottom of exactly what happened.”

Obama has not commented on Saturday’s verdict.

Critics of the jury’s decision are now calling on Obama’s Justice Department to pursue a civil rights case against Zimmerman.

“There is reason to be concerned race was a factor,” said NAACP President Ben Jealous on CNN’s State of the Union.

(Source: USA Today)