Bill Clinton: Eric Garner 'didn't deserve to die'

Former president Bill Clinton says Eric Garner "didn't deserve to die" for selling untaxed cigarettes in New York City.

In an interview with Fusion TV set to air Tuesday night, Clinton was asked to comment about the state of race relations in America following the protests sparked by the deaths of Garner and Michael Brown. The two black men died at the hands of white police officers, but grand juries in both cases declined to indict them.

Here's what Clinton said about Garner:

He was obviously not well, he was overweight and vulnerable ... therefore had lung problems, heart and lung problems. He was doing something he should not have been doing that was illegal. He was selling untaxed cigarettes on the street in small volumes, trying to make a little extra money. But he didn’t deserve to die because of that.

As for race in America, Clinton said there are now more opportunities for people regardless of their skin color in "every avenue of life." But he stressed that there is a long way to go, especially when it comes to disparities in criminal arrests and in the way people react to those of another race who don't share their economic background.

"We still have not solved the problems that lead us to act out of fear ... sometimes of preconceived notions of people of another race who also may not be of our socioeconomic group," he told Fusion's Jorge Ramos. "Whenever there's insecurity, these preconceptions are almost wired into us and we have got to get beyond them. We have got to get beyond them."

Fusion, a digital and cable TV channel aimed at the millennial generation, taped the interview with the former president last week during the Clinton Foundation's "Summit of the Americas" in Miami. The full interview airs Tuesday at 10 p.m. ET.