A Republican congressman from Virginia said Tuesday that President Obama has reaped “what he sowed” with the attack that left five police officers dead in Dallas last week.
Rep. Robert Hurt, R-Va., made the comments in an interview on “The John Fredericks Show.”
According to Hurt, Obama’s support of the Black Lives Matter movement is his way of using “Chicago-style” politics to divide the nation. Hurt said that by harping on racial discrimination and police bias against blacks, Obama helped create the conditions for the Dallas shooting.
“He has drawn this narrative for political purposes and now we’re seeing him reap what he has sowed,” Hurt, who is not running for re-election, told Fredericks.
“[H]e has fanned these flames, I think he has in many ways highlighted these things in ways that I don’t think are fair or right, and now we’re seeing the fruit of this,” he added.
Hurt added that he was glad Obama was going to speak at the Dallas memorial for the five officers killed while protecting Black Lives Matter protesters during a peaceful march last week, which he did Tuesday afternoon.
“[I] kind of wonder how well he will be received, considering he, I think, in many ways is responsible for fanning the flames of this anti-police feeling. And I know if I were a family member, I’m not sure I would want to be spending a lot of time with him,” Hurt said.
In his speech Tuesday to a crowd of roughly 2,000, Obama said he was speaking “to insist that we are not as divided as we seem.” The president spoke about the systemic racial bias that plagues America’s black community and also called out Black Lives Matter protesters for being too quick to condemn the police.
“You know how dangerous some of the communities where these police officers serve are, and you pretend as if there’s no context. These things we know to be true,” Obama said.
Hurt on the other-hand has represented Virginia’s 5th District since being elected in 2010. He announced in December he will retire at the end of his term to return to private life.
Right Wing Watch first flagged the comments. Listen to them in full here.
