Democratic Rep. Emanuel Cleaver of Missouri, a member of the Congressional Black Caucus, says President Barack Obama should not go to Ferguson, Missouri, to address the concerns of black residents after the fatal police shooting of Michael Brown.
"The president was elected to be the leader of the free world; he was not elected to be head of the NAACP or the Southern Christian Leadership Conference or the Urban League," Cleaver said Tuesday on
CNN's "The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer."
Others have the job of dealing with civil-rights matters, Cleaver said, and Obama would only create another controversy by meeting with Brown's family.
Cleaver sent a series of tweets on Nov. 24 after the grand jury's decision not to indict white police officer Darren Wilson in Brown's death, telling protesters, "We hear you."