Democratic presidential hopeful and South Bend, Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg has responded to controversy over saying "all lives matter" during a speech in 2015, which was recently unearthed by CNBC. He told reporters on Thursday that he wasn't aware the phrase was being used to discredit the Black Lives Matter movement, and that once he learned of that usage, he stopped saying it himself.

"What I did not understand at that time was that that phrase...was coming to be used as a sort of counter-slogan to Black Lives Matter," he said.

Buttigieg speaks to the media at the National Action Network's annual convention on April 4, 2019 in New York City.

"So this statement that seems very anodyne, something that nobody could be against, actually wound up being used to devalue what the Black Lives Matter movement was telling us, which was what we needed to hear. Because unfortunately, it was not obvious to everybody that black lives should be valued the same. So that is the contribution of Black Lives Matter. Which is why, since learning how that phrase was being used to push back on that activism, I have stopped using it in that context."

“Since learning about how that phrase was being used to push back on that activism, I have stopped using it in that context,” Pete Buttigieg says.

It was the first question reporters asked after his address on racial justice @NationalAction. Video ?? pic.twitter.com/vOogNRPOPa

— Tucker Higgins (@tuckerhiggins) April 4, 2019

When he made the "all lives matter" comment, Buttigieg was responding to the issues of his administration's decision not to turn over recordings that may or may not demonstrate police officers were making racist comments and discussed breaking the law, as well as another controversy over a local police officer selling shirts making light of the death of Eric Garner.

"It’s time for South Bend to begin talking about racial reconciliation. That means honest, frank discussions that allow city leaders, law enforcement, and community members to face the mistakes of the past and establish shared ground for the future," Buttigieg said, while delivering the "State of the City" address. "We cannot reach our full potential for community-oriented policing until we have made it the norm that all residents feel and know that we have every reason to be both pro-minority and pro-police, at the same time."

"There is no contradiction between respecting the risks that police officers take every day in order to protect this community, and recognizing the need to overcome the biases implicit in a justice system that treats people from different backgrounds differently, even when they are accused of the same offenses. We need to take both those things seriously, for the simple and profound reason that all lives matter," he added.

Buttigieg also faced backlash for requesting, and receiving, Darryl Boykins' resignation, who was South Bend's first African-American police chief. Buttigieg had been informed that Boykins was the subject of a federal wiretapping investigation. Boykins claimed "racial animus" led to his being pushed out, and went on to receive a settlement from the city.