Former Bogota, New Jersey, mayor Steve Lonegan told
Newsmax TV that if first lady Michelle Obama had wanted to, she could have played a role in preventing the riots that have broken out in response to the Ferguson grand jury decision.
"Where was President [Barack] Obama? Where was Michelle Obama, who's well respected within that community?" Lonegan told John Bachman on "America's Forum" on Tuesday.
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"Why wasn't she there days ago, weeks ago? Laying the groundwork for peace and explaining how the law works and that we need to accept the procedure because it was done properly," he said.
"Michelle Obama could have prevented the whole thing," he said.
"Had Michelle Obama spent as much time on this as she is worried about what kids are eating in cafeterias or how much water we're drinking, had she been out to Ferguson days ago, met with community leaders and said, 'Look, we're all in this together. We're one country, we have a procedure.
'The procedure is being followed we need to accept it, and we need to look within ourselves to see how we're going to deal with this going forward,'" said Lonegan, a former New Jersey gubernatorial and senatorial candidate.
"Where was she? She was nowhere," he added.
"The White House sent representatives to the funeral of Michael [Brown]. I don't get where they were when this issue was erupting."
Lonegan said that the county prosecutor who announced the grand jury's decision not to indict police officer Darren Wilson for the shooting of the black teenager "did a phenomenal job last night in his press conference of laying out the method by which the grand jury followed the rules."
He also "went through the evidence in careful detail," he added.
The New Jersey Republican said that he dealt with a similar situation when he was serving as mayor of Bogota.
"It created in all kinds of social upheaval and rioting and just like you're seeing — not quite as bad," he said.
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"By the way, the common thread that connects the two is Al Sharpton," he explained.
"Al Sharpton was part of that even 20 years ago as well, being as equally incendiary," he added.
Despite the decision by the grand jury, Attorney General Eric Holder released a statement Monday night saying that the Justice Department plans to continue its civil rights investigation into the "policing patterns or practices by the Ferguson Police Department,"
The Weekly Standard reported.
Lonegan said of Holder's statement that "this threat to bring a civil rights lawsuit when the grand jury has done what appears to be a meticulous and superb job just is going to create further chaos instead of bringing this to rest."
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