Geraldo Rivera

Geraldo Rivera is mulling a run for the U.S. Senate in New Jersey in 2014 as a Republican, the TV and radio personality revealed on his show today.

"I mentioned this only briefly to my wife ... but I am and I have been in touch with some people in the Republican Party in New Jersey," said Rivera.

"I am truly contemplating running against Frank Lautenberg or Cory Booker."

"I'm not going to drill this out, because obviously I've got commitments to Fox and to here at the radio program and I'm really having a great time," Rivera adds.

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Fox News pundit Geraldo Rivera has issued an apology - or at least a response - to critics of his recent comments on slain Florida teen Trayvon Martin.

Rivera now infamously said (below) that the unarmed 17-year-old's hoodie was to blame for his death as much as George Zimmerman, who shot him.

Realizing how monumentally offensive, insensitive and just plain wrong that comment was, Rivera is now walking back the statement ... partially.

Rivera is standing by his message, and saying that while others took it as pure flame-fanning, he saw it more as honest, accurate and a PSA of sorts.

Geraldo Rivera on Trayvon Martin

"I apologize to anyone offended by what one prominent black conservative called my 'very practical and potentially lifesaving campaign urging black and Hispanic parents not to let their children go around wearing hoodies,'" he told Politico.

"My own family and friends believe I obscured or diverted attention from the primary fact, which is that an unarmed 17-year-old was shot dead by a man who was never seriously investigated by local police. And if that is true, I apologize."

But not, he continued, because he was incorrect.

"I remain absolutely convinced of what I said about asking for trouble. There's enough trouble for minority boys not to provoke mad responses from paranoid jerk-offs."

That should simmer everyone down. Probably. Maybe. Okay, not really.

Fox News' Geraldo Rivera stunned viewers with remarks about the Trayvon Martin case, saying that by wearing a hooded sweatshirt, the slain teen made himself a target.

Martin, the 14-year-old candy-carrying, hoodie-wearing African-American boy, was shot and killed by George Zimmerman, a Sanford, Fla., neighborhood watch captain.

He was walking home from a 7-Eleven and was unarmed. Zimmerman, who claimed self defense, has not been charged, though a grand jury will hear the case.

Martin supporters participated in a "Million Hoodie March" to protest Zimmerman's freedom. But the hoodie has taken on new meaning thanks to Geraldo.

Geraldo Rivera on Trayvon Martin

"When you see a kid walking down the street, particularly dark-skinned kid like my son Cruz - who I constantly yelled at when he was going out wearing a damn hoodie or those pants around his ankles, 'Take that hood off!'" Rivera said on Fox & Friends.

"People look at you, and what’s the instant identification, what’s the instant association? It’s those crime-scene surveillance tapes."

"Every time you see someone stickin’ up a 7-Eleven, the kid’s wearing a hoodie," Rivera continued. "Every time you see a mugging on a surveillance camera or they get that old lady in the alcove, it’s a kid wearing a hoodie."

"You have to recognize that this whole stylizing yourself as a 'gangsta' … You’re gonna be a gangsta wannabe? Well, people are going to perceive you as a menace. That’s just what happens. It is an instant reflexive action."

The negative reaction to this was fast and furious.

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