Fox News Host Eric Bolling Directly Blames President Obama For Dallas Shooting
In the land of conservative punditry, the racially-motivated killing of five Dallas cops by Micah Johnson, a 25-year-old black Army veteran, offered up a grand opportunity for numerous hot takes on Black Lives Matter and President Obama.
Now, for some, it gave them the chance to call the movement “inherently racist.” For others, it was the time to tell their Twitter followers to engage in a race war and assassinate the president. For Fox News personality Eric Bolling, it meant making the case that Obama gave a direct message to BLM to go out and kill police officers.
According to The Five host, the statement POTUS gave in response to the high-profile shootings of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile “charged up” Black Lives Matter, fueling Johnson’s hatred for law enforcement that led to the tragedy last week. Speaking to co-host and Fox News liberal punching bag Juan Williams during Monday’s broadcast, Bolling made sure to accuse the president while claiming he was doing no such thing.
From Media Matters’ transcript of the segment:
ERIC BOLLING (CO-HOST): Before [President Obama] knew any of the evidence, before he knew any of the circumstances regarding the two incidents you’re talking about, Minnesota and Baton Rouge, he took to the podium and basically said, hey, this has to stop. He didn’t know what had to stop yet. But he went ahead and did that. I’m not sure that didn’t charge up the Black Lives Matter —
[CROSSTALK]
JUAN WILLIAMS (CO-HOST): That’s not a responsible statement to make, he didn’t know. What he knew was that there are people in our society, and this is what I think you’re not picking up on, there are people in our society who feel they do not have equal treatment from the police. So you can say you’re wrong, but you have to point it out to them. You have to make sure that the society is listening in response.
BOLLING: All I was saying is, in my opinion, he should have waited to find out what the facts of the case were, and then if it were as it appears or as he thought it was, then go ahead, go hard. But my problem is the timing. Two hours after he goes to the podium, five cops are dead.
WILLIAMS: Oh my gosh. Now that association is out of line. Come on, Eric, that’s really too much.
BOLLING: Now I’m not blaming him for it. I’m blaming the shooter for it, but the shooter clearly said he used the Black Lives Matter protest to speed up whatever he was planning on doing.
One can go ahead and read and watch Obama’s entire statement here. When first watching it, I didn’t catch the KILL WHITEY shout-out, so I went back and re-watched it. Still didn’t catch it. In fact, the measured address Obama gave on the killings was described as “weak” by black activists, hardly the response you’d imagine for a supposed call to arms in the GREAT CIVIL RACE WAR.
Of course, Bolling has a habit of using gross hyperbole when it comes to the BLM movement. Late last year, the former daytrader claimed Black Lives Matter had “blue blood on its hands” in regards to dead police officers. And elsewhere in the broadcast, he said the racial justice group is “rooted in evil and hate and death and racism,” just to name a few things.
Below is video of the exchange, courtesy of Media Matters:
