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During last night’s State of the Union Address, President Barack Obama said the following as it relates to the #BlackLivesMatter movement:

We may have different takes on the events of Ferguson and New York.  But surely we can understand a father who fears his son can’t walk home without being harassed.  And surely we can understand the wife who won’t rest until the police officer she married walks through the front door at the end of his shift.  And surely we can agree that it’s a good thing that for the first time in 40 years, the crime rate and the incarceration rate have come down together …

After hearing Pres. Obama’s remarks referencing the #BlackLivesMatter movement, many African Americans felt as though the president should have expounded more on the #BlackLivesMatter protest.

NewsOne Now panelist, Rock Newman told Martin, “You can never expect [Pres. Barack Obama] would say just “Black Lives Matter, he is the President of the United States.”

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Angela Rye said Pres. Obama “literally can’t say Black Lives Matter.” She added, “The reality of this particular president is that he is the first African American president. He cannot be in office pushing a solely black agenda…”

She added, “It is now a new majority, a Republican majority, he has a trade agenda to push, a tax agenda reform to push, trying to protect healthcare. If he goes to the podium and talks about only ‘Black Lives Matter’ or only Ferguson and he talks about it in a very racially charged way, he loses any potential ground to move a potential agenda. That will not make him an effective president.”

J. Hogan Gidley, a Republican strategist said, “Had he done that, we’d be all over him today.”

Listen to Martin, Rock Newman, Angela Rye and J. Hogan Gidley discuss President Barack Obama’s State of the Union Address in the audio clip below.

Do you think President Obama should have focused on #Ferguson and the #BackLivesMatter” movement during his State of the Union Address?

Be sure to watch “NewsOne Now” with Roland Martin, weekdays at 9 a.m. EST on TV One.

Subscribe to the “NewsOne Now” Audio Podcast on iTunes.