Newt Gingrich Blames Obama for Chicago Attack: Only ‘Heightened’ Racial Tension

First Glenn Beck blamed Black Lives Matter. Now Newt Gingrich thinks it’s all President Obama’s fault.

Four teenagers in Chicago were arrested Wednesday for streaming a video on Facebook Live in which they beat and tortured a man reported to have mental disabilities, while yelling things like “Fuck Donald Trump!” and “Fuck white people!”

Gingrich, who is currently serving as an adviser to President-Elect Trump, joined Fox & Friends Thursday morning to offer up his response.

“I think there has been a dramatic rise in racial tension under President Obama and under the former attorney general” Gingrich said right off the bat, laying blame on the outgoing president and Eric Holder. “I think a lot of their language, a lot of their approach heightened that sense of racial tension. And I think we have to oppose white racism, but we also have to oppose black racism.”

He declined to offer any specifics, nor did the Fox hosts ask him for them.

“I think if this had been done to an African-American by four whites, every liberal in the country would be outraged and there would be no question that it’s a hate crime,” Gingrich continued, relaying the fact that Trump wants to avoid deepening the “bitter division in the community that makes America very hard to govern.”

“I think people feel that they’re really alienated from their government and have no one to turn to,” Gingrich said. “And you end up with this kind of really destructive and, I think, frightening kind of development.” The implication throughout was that Trump would be able to heal a racial divide that Obama helped create.

While Chicago police are hesitating to call the incident a “hate crime,” Gingrich argued that there would be no hesitation if the races were reversed. The Fox host accused officials of trying to “downplay” or even “justify” the attack by saying things like, “Kids make stupid decisions.”

“I don’t remember anything like this before Barack Obama was inaugurated eight years ago,” Fox & Friends co-host Steve Doocy replied, hammering home his guest’s thesis and putting a wide smile on Gingrich’s face.