White House Denies Preventing National Guard Presence in Ferguson

The White House has responded to Missouri Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder‘s claim that Gov. Jay Nixon bowed to pressure from the White House and the Justice Department to hold the National Guard back in Ferguson, calling the accusation “untrue.”

According to CNN, the White House categorically denied Kinder’s allegation, and pointed to Nixon’s comments at a press conference at which he told a Breitbart reporter that “politics has nothing to do with what any of the folks up here are doing.”

“You have hundreds of people putting their lives on the line each and every night,” Nixon continued. “Politics has not one bit to do with the tasks at hand and the responsibilities at hand and the seriousness of this mission.”

Speaking to Fox News on Tuesday morning, Kinder, a Republican, accused the Obama Administration of “leaning on” Nixon, a Democrat, to “keep [the National Guard] out” of Ferguson the night the grand jury decision was announced.

You can watch Kinder’s original claims below, via Fox News:

[Featured image via screengrab]

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[Note: Mediaite intern Andrew Desiderio is a student at The George Washington University.]

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