President Barack Obama said on Thursday that whoever shot at police officers in Ferguson, Missouri, this week were "criminals" and should be arrested, but added that their actions should not detract from the civil rights issues that have been raised.
He said that protesters there had a legitimate right to be angry about their treatment at the hands of the police. “What had been happening in Ferguson was oppressive and objectionable and was worthy of protest,” Obama said during an appearance on ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel Live.
“But there was no excuse for criminal acts.” Obama cited the recent Justice Department report on Ferguson, which he said found a “whole structure” that indicated “both racism and just a disregard for what law enforcement is supposed to do.” He repeated his belief that what happened in the Missouri city was “not unique, but it’s also not the norm.”
The president's comments about Ferguson came at a serious moment in an appearance on the late-night comedy show that also included references to Area 51, Hillary Clinton's email address and the question of whether Obama goes in search of late-night White House sandwiches in his underwear. ("I could. I don't," he said.)
Obama helped Kimmel open the show by participating in a regular feature in which celebrities read mean Twitter posts that people have written about them. One of posts said, “Is there any way we could fly Obama to some golf course halfway around the world and just leave him there?”
Obama grinned broadly when he read that one and added, “I think that’s a great idea.” Another post he read said: “How do you make Obama’s eyes light up? Shine a flashlight in his ears.” After another post ended with “HaHa! LOL,” Obama tried to channel his inner teenager, saying: “The LOL is redundant when you had the HaHa.”
Kimmel introduced Obama as “the first Kenyan-born, Muslim socialist to be elected president,” and he prodded him for details about his life inside the iron gates of the White House residence.
Obama acknowledged that he had not cooked in a long time and joked that he could not drive as president because "in Kenya we drive on the other side of the street."
Dental problems require only a trip to the White House basement, where, Obama said, there was a dentist chair set up. He said he had staff members to reset the clocks for daylight saving time, although he declined Kimmel’s request to get rid of the time change altogether.
"This is a California thing," the president said. "In the East Coast, you don't mind losing that hour because that's a signal that spring is here."
He also declined to say whether he had spent the early part of his presidency digging through the files on Area 51, the military base in Nevada that has long been a source of conspiracy theories about UFOs, for evidence of extraterrestrial life.
"I can't reveal anything," he said. When Kimmel told him that Bill Clinton had found nothing in the files, Obama added, "That's what we're instructed to say." Obama briefly turned serious again when he used a question about campaign fundraising to urge people to turn out to vote. And he briefly mentioned his "Student Aid Bill of Rights" that he announced this week to help students pay back their college loans.
But most of the appearance was a comedic warm-up to Kimmel's next guest, actor Sean Penn. Obama said that he and Penn talked in the green room before the show. Asked if he had seen Penn portray the iconic high school stoner in "Fast Times at Ridgemont High," Obama laughed.
“I lived it,” Obama said. “I didn’t just see it.”
The New York Times