On the opening “Talking Points Memo” segment of “The O’Reilly Factor” on the Fox News Channel on Thursday, fill-in host Laura Ingraham gave a scathing critique of President Barack Obama’s remarks on the unrest in Ferguson, MO.
Ingraham argued it wasn’t the president’s place to say anything at this moment in time, especially since the facts of the case have not been laid out, which she said he has been prone to do in the past in similar situations.
Partial transcript as follows:
“There you have it — the leader of the free world with sagging approval numbers jumping into another local criminal justice situation,” Ingraham said. “And once again, he does this before all of the facts have been gathered, before authorities on the ground have completed their own investigation. Remember his beer summit after silly comments about the Henry Lewis Gates break-n Cambridge or his ‘if I had a son, he would look like Trayvon’ remarks?”
“Well, then of course attorney general who implies that the president’s critics are racist,” she continued. “Voter ID requests are racist. Immigration enforcement is racist. These Obama administration interjections have stoked racial discord in America and sewn more distrust between minorities and local enforcements. Think about what the president said today. While he did urge calm, he also intimated that the Missouri police are out of control. They are targeting largely minority crowds with unreasonable force and they are hiding things.
Well, this is irresponsible and a dangerous speculation. Especially coming from the president of the United States. We need to rebuild trust between minorities and the police, not breed more suspicion. And what is the president suggesting by the way that the police do to enforce a curfew when they are in danger or when stores are looted and ransacked? Of course, there is the distinct possibility that politics is really the impetus driving the president’s involvement here. Let’s face it, his numbers are down across the board. And his party is looking very vulnerable in November. So, he switches the focus to racial injustice in Missouri and away from his policy failures to try to gin up the base.
This is textbook Obama,” she added. “The country is facing serious national issues every day. We have a demoralized middle class, mass illegal immigration, major foreign policy quandaries — all that deserve serious and sustained attention. So he should stop micromanaging local police and stop playing the politics of division. There is supposed to be a difference between being the president of the United States and a liberal commentator on Salon.com.”
Follow Jeff Poor on Twitter @jeff_poor
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