President Obama praises #illridewithyou to Tony Abbott as Liberal MP slams 'hating whitey' campaign

By Latika Bourke
Updated December 18 2014 - 4:18pm, first published 11:29am

US President Barack Obama has praised the #illridewithyou social media movement during a phone call with Prime Minister Tony Abbott at the same time that one of the Prime Minister's own backbenchers derided the idea as a "pathetic", "hating-whitey" campaign.