Conservative radio host Laura Ingraham accused President Barack Obama on Thursday of stoking racial resentment by making a brief statement regarding the demonstrations against police violence in Ferguson, Missouri.
"He should stop micromanaging local police and stop playing the politics of division," Ingraham said while guest-hosting The O'Reilly Factor.. "There is supposed to be a difference between being the President of the United States and a liberal commentator on Salon.com."
Earlier in the day, Obama urged protesters criticizing the fatal police shooting of 18-year-old Michael Brown not to behave violently toward authorities or "use this tragedy as a cover for vandalism or looting."
But the president also chided police for excessive force against both demonstrators and members of the press, saying authorities "should not be bullying or arresting journalists who are just trying to do their jobs," a statement Ingraham dismissed as irresponsible speculation.
"We need to rebuild trust between minorities and the police, not breed more suspicion," she said. "And what is the president suggesting, by the way, that police do to endorse a curfew, when they're in danger, or when stores are being looted and ransacked?"
Ingraham did not mention that police were filmed spraying tear gas and bean bags at an Al Jazeera America news crew, on top of detaining reporters from the Huffington Post and Washington Post without explanation and training a sniper rifle toward a peaceful protest Wednesday night.
Ingraham also speculated that Obama's statement was done out of political necessity in the face of what she called "mass illegal immigration."
"Let's face it: his numbers are down across the board, and his party's looking very vulnerable in November," she said. "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 did not mention that even Bill O'Reilly has called her idea of mass deportation for all undocumented immigrants "draconian."
Watch Ingraham's commentary, as posted online on Thursday, below.
