Via The Hill:

Senior Obama campaign adviser Robert Gibbs dismissed claims from conservative media outlets that the president believed that the botched federal response to Hurricane Katrina was influenced by race.

In an interview with CBS This Morning on Wednesday, Gibbs was asked about a video of then-Sen. Obama delivering a speech in 2007 where he discussed the anger many African-Americans affected by the storm’s devastation felt at Washington’s mishandled relief efforts.

“The president says the incompetence surrounding the federal government’s response to Katrina in 2005 was colorblind,” said Gibbs. “If the Republicans want to defend the Bush administration’s response to Katrina, I’m sure the president would give them ample time during the debate to do that.”