On Anniversary Of MLK’s Death, ‘Fox News’ Host Laura Ingraham Says He Wouldn’t Approve Of Protesting Democrats
Martin Luther King Jr. changed the United States by leading non-violent protests calling for equal rights, but Fox News host Laura Ingraham think that the civil rights leader might change his tune if he were alive today.
Ingraham invoked the memory of King on the anniversary of his death this week, saying she doesn’t believe that King would approve of the way Democrats are protesting against perceived injustices. As Mediaite noted, Ingraham’s statements came in response to a convention held by Al Sharpton’s National Action Network, one where many prominent Democratic 2020 hopefuls were in attendance.
Ingraham blasted Sharpton for his “cynical and crooked reparations road,” the idea of offering investments into black communities as reparations for the damage caused by slavery and the Jim Crow era. But Ingraham believes that Democrats are actually just trying to sow anger and division because otherwise they would have to accept that “Trump’s policies are working.”
She also accused Sharpton of making “dismissive” comments toward Barack Obama by highlighting the work that still needs to be done to bring real racial inequality.
Ingraham then decided Martin Luther King Jr. wouldn’t agree.
“Today is the anniversary of the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.,” said Ingraham. “I was thinking, like, if he were alive today, I wonder what he’d think about such dismissive comments. And about a Democrat Party that believes it can regain power by living in a constant state of protest, or racial hatred, and denial.”
Laura Ingraham thinks MLK would be very upset at the Democrats of today bc they protest pic.twitter.com/A1uMY9jsOl
— Andrew Lawrence (@ndrew_lawrence) April 5, 2019
Her statements drew a sharp response on Twitter, with many slamming Laura Ingraham for the insinuation that Martin Luther King Jr. would agree with her and be against protests of injustices.
I can’t think of more appropriate voice for MLK than civil rights icon Laura Ingraham ??????
— sam (@sam2fabu) April 5, 2019
This isn’t the first time that Laura Ingraham has stoked outrage by imagining that Martin Luther King Jr. would agree with her personal beliefs and oppose modern civil rights activists. Back in 2013, she attacked Martin Luther King III for saying that “the color of one’s skin remains a license to profile, to arrest and to even murder.” As Raw Story noted, Ingraham said that modern progressive want to “co-opt the legacy of Martin Luther King into a modern day liberal agenda, a left-wing agenda, progressive agenda.”
Coming up on the #IngrahamAngle 10pET ?@FoxNews? pic.twitter.com/93zZGQoqgr
— Laura Ingraham (@IngrahamAngle) April 5, 2019
Later in that same segment, she played a clip of civil rights leader and Georgia Congressman John Lewis speaking about voting rights, but abruptly cut off the clip with the sound of gunfire. Laura Ingraham did not explain why the sound effect was used. Lewis was a close friend of Martin Luther King Jr. and had his skull fractured by an Alabama state trooper while marching on “Bloody Sunday” in Selma, Alabama, in 1965.
