Yesterday, President Obama made some brief remarks about Trayvon Martin and the George Zimmerman case – and many Fox News contributors and regulars went into a frenzy of over-the-top attacks. Last night, on the O’Reilly Factor, Republican regular Brad Blakeman joined the derangement with his own comment, that Obama had incited “any violence that takes place” at any of the Martin-supporting protests that are scheduled for today.
As I posted last night, Fox News’ Todd Starnes seems to have become completely unhinged over Obama’s rather mild comments. But, as Media Matters reports, Starnes was merely one of many Fox News hosts, faves and contributors, along with Fox Nation, to go off the deep end.
On The O’Reilly Factor last night, Republican “strategist” Brad Blakeman joined the club during a discussion which substitute host Mike Huckabee led off by “asking,” “Were the president’s remarks appropriate today? Is this what a president should do - inject himself into a local, criminal case?” Of course, it’s far from a “local, criminal case” at this point. Otherwise, Fox wouldn’t be covering for Zimmerman it 24/7.
Democrat Mark Hannah made a similar point, by saying that race is a national issue and that people across the country had been flabbergasted by Zimmerman’s acquittal.
But Blakeman, under cover of a pretense that “race was not an issue” in the case, nonetheless moved forward to take racial swipes at Trayvon Martin and President Obama. First, Blakeman sneered that the upcoming demonstrations are “strictly racially toned” and continued by suggesting that the only real racists are African Americans, including President Obama and Trayvon Martin:
So why in the world would the president then come out prior to these demonstrations and add gas to a fire that should never have been lit? …As a matter of fact, the only evidence of race being injected into this tragic event was from Trayvon, himself, who called George Zimmerman a “creepy-assed cracker.”
But that was not enough racial hate mongering for Blakeman. As Hannah rightfully pointed out that President Obama had defended our judicial system and called for peace in the upcoming demonstrations, Blakeman said:
The president should never have injected himself to begin with. This had nothing to do with race. The president knows that there are demonstrations happening this weekend and if anything, the president incited – incited, any violence that takes place over this weekend by his comments that race was somehow involved.
Hannah, who is one of the best guests on Fox, by the way, immediately challenged this outrageous statement as an attempt to scapegoat Obama. But not Huckabee. He immediately moved to validate Blakeman with his next “question:” “But should the president have tried to defuse the situation, specifically related to Trayvon Martin? Instead, why would he bring that case in?”
Oh, and look! Blakeman brought up Republican Plan B: whitesplaining to African Americans what they should be talking about, which just happens to include a suggestion that African Americans, themselves, are to blame for Trayvon’s death:
The president should have given the speech he gave today on the streets of Chicago, where black-on-black crime is an all-time epidemic.
http://thegrio.com/2013/06/14/chicago-murder-rate-drops-by-34-percent-but-does-the-city-feel-any-safer/
Spoiler: Nope- They didn’t mention it. At all. They didn’t even mention that the critics thought the new measures wouldn’t be sustainable enough to last until the gangs are reined in. Because black on black violence is like heroin to these people- It gives them a platform to be racists on, it gives them something to attack the president on, and a 34% drop is equal to them being threatened with withdrawal.
This interview was particularly sinister because Huckabee essentially cut Hannah off and gave the right winger an extremely nasty last word. And what Blakeman was saying was clearly the Fox “Line of the Day”. That President Obama, because he gave some thoughtful and heartfelt remarks on the whole situation, must somehow now be held responsible for any criminal actions that take place at any of the hundred protests that occur this weekend. Hannah tried to get in the obvious answer – that this is a RIDICULOUS statement, not to mention a deeply offensive one, but Huckabee ran right over him.
In case viewers had any doubts about this, Sean Hannity picked up the “Line of the Day” in the next hour, angrily commenting that “I’ll be watching very carefully to what all these speakers say tomorrow and if ANY ONE OF THEM incites anyone…”
All of this reeks of desperation by the Fox News group to finally get the violence they’ve been craving here. I don’t believe they’re going to get it, but they may try to pretend that they did.