Missouri Democratic lawmaker Emanuel Cleaver asked President Obama to avoid visiting Ferguson, worrying his presence could “add another distortion” and inflame tensions further.
“Ferguson resembles Fallujah more than it does Ferguson,” Cleaver told MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” on Tuesday. “Right now, we have a community that has been essentially left behind in terms of racial progress. … And I think you have to understand that to understand the anger that the world is now seeing all day and all evening with the people of Ferguson.”
But would the first black president stand a chance of calming the situation if he visited Ferguson, as many liberals and African-American leaders have urged? Cleaver thought not.
“I think we put enormous pressure on anyone if we create this atmosphere that [if] this person comes to town, everything is going to be okay,” he said. “And I don’t think — I mean, the president has already asked Attorney General Eric Holder to come to Ferguson.”
“So I don’t think the president needs to come to Ferguson,” Cleaver continued. “It adds another distortion. We don’t need that now. We don’t need anymore people coming into Ferguson to help the poor people out during this time of trouble.”
“What we need is a sense of calm,” the congressman asserted. “And anything other than that is going to be dangerous.”