White House spokesman Josh Earnest defended President Obama’s “provocative” Tuesday address at the memorial service for five officers slain in a sniper attack, and said the fact that his speech was well-received shows the country is moving in the right direction.
“There are some things that the president said in the speech that were admittedly provocative,” Earnest said. “They were challenging to all of us — he included himself in that category.”
“But the response that we’ve seen from the speech has been quite positive — that’s based on news coverage, anecdotal responses and comments that we’ve seen from people across the country,” Earnest said. “The president is pleased by that and that is at least an indication that our country is making some progress.”
Earnest made the comments in response to a question on whether Obama could do anything more than offer words aimed at healing a nation on edge after rash of violence last week, including the sniper ambush on police and the police killings of two black men in Minnesota and Louisiana.
At the memorial service, the president acknowledged “how powerful words can be in rejecting despair and opening our hearts and showing some empathy to people who don’t look like us,” Earnest recalled.
He was quick to note that Obama also said that words have been “inadequate in completely solving this problem.”
The president’s Tuesday remarks focused in large part on race relations. He argued that racial disparities persist across the country and “none of us is entirely innocent” or immune, “including our police departments.”
The president also specifically referred to the police slayings of Philando Castile in Minnesota and Alton Sterling in Louisiana in the context that the Dallas police were protecting a peaceful protest over those men’s killing when they were shot down.
“That doesn’t condone in any way any act of violence against a police officer,” Earnest said. “It’s not possible to justify an act of violence against a police officer, even [for] people who have deep concerns about what happened in Baton Rouge and Louisiana. What all us have to do is open our hearts to people who look different than us and may have a different perspective.”
Earnest also defended Obama’s controversial comments about gun control during the speech — that “we flood communities with so many guns” that it’s harder for a teenager to buy a “Glock” than gain access to a computer or get a “hand on a book.”
Earnest said those remarks were aimed at showing the pressures that police face when “too many people are deprived” of such basics as a good school, family support and mental health counseling.
“Too many people are deprived of those basics,” he said. “And the consequences for law enforcement is those jobs get thrust on them and that’s not fair… to make them a teacher or a a parent and a drug counselor is unfair, and the president is tired of people feigning surprise when the tensions boil over.”
