Source: ANGELA WEISS / Getty
The Biden Campaign is marking the the annual Memorial Day holiday in part by placing a spotlight on the myriad ways in which former President Donald Trump not only failed George Floyd – whose police murder occurred four years ago on Saturday – but also Black people in the U.S.
The reminder of Trump’s glaring failures for Black America and policing in general stand in stark contrast with everything that President Joe Biden’s administration has done to advance criminal justice reform, particularly around law enforcement, since Floyd was killed, a senior Biden Campaign official with exclusively told NewsOne.
Floyd was killed in broad daylight while saying “I can’t breathe” after police officer Derek Chauvin casually used his knee to apply deadly pressure to the unarmed, handcuffed Black man’s neck for more than nine straight minutes in Minneapolis on May 25, 2020. Other officers stood by without intervening as a growing crowd urged them to help. The incident was recorded on a video that went viral, sparking the largest series of racial justice protests in modern U.S. history.
Trump disrespected Floyd’s legacy
“For the vast majority of Americans, the murder of George Floyd was a wake up call and a reckoning with the persistence of racism in this nation,” Biden-Harris 2024 Black Media Director Jasmine Harris told NewsOne in an exclusive statement. “But for Donald Trump, it was an opportunity to disrespect Floyd’s legacy, sow division, spread hate, tear gas peaceful protesters and pit law enforcement against the communities they’re sworn to protect. The American people watched Trump in horror, and they booted him out of office with the power of their votes.”
At the time, Trump was coming to the end of his presidency and was less than six months away from his confirmed 2020 election loss to Biden, a candidate who vowed days after Floyd’s murder to address the scourge of police violence, particularly in Black and brown communities, when he became president.
Four years later, Biden’s administration wants people to remember how the president has made good on that campaign promise – and the Biden Campaign has receipts.
“In the three and a half years since America sent Joe Biden and Kamala Harris to the White House, they have delivered real progress: signing a historic executive order that restricts chokeholds and no-knock warrants at the federal level, establishing a national database of officers who have been fired for misconduct, and requiring federal agencies to update their policies on use of force – not to mention continuously pushing Congress to pass the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act,” Harris continued. “No administration in history has fought harder to advance police reform.”
The Biden Campaign has receipts
Trump recently staged a rally in the Bronx purporting to love a community whose residents reflect a populace – Black and brown people – that he has a documented record of disrespecting. But as Trump increasingly resorts to stereotyping racial minorities while also trying to secure their votes with racist tropes, it also can’t be forgotten that his past words have always spoken louder than his actions when it comes to police reform.
Harris pointed to a harrowing laundry list of examples of Trump’s legacy on George Floyd and policing, citing multiple instances of him seemingly encouraging police brutality and excessive force while defending law enforcement from such accusations.
- Like the time Trump incited the use of violence, including people armed with guns, against protesters at at racial justice and police protests. Days after Floyd’s murder sparked protests that included reports of looting, Trump tweeted: “when the looting starts, the shooting starts.”
- There was also the time when Trump said during a Michigan rally in 2020 that a violent response by the National Guard at a protest in Minneapolis was “very beautiful” while he was “watching everybody get pushed around.” Trump told the audience: “Wasn’t that beautiful? In Minneapolis‚ they came in, these soldiers … And they had their tear gas, and they had their pepper spray, which the other side doesn’t want you to use, because it’s not nice.”
- Less than a month after Floyd’s murder, Trump defended police chokeholds, including the since-outlawed kneeling restraint employed in the killing. He told Fox News that “the concept of chokehold sounds so innocent, so perfect” if a police officer is trying to apprehend a suspect.
- Around that same time, Trump told reporters that despite an ongoing spate of police killing unarmed Black people – punctuated by Floyd’s death – “Our police have been letting us live in peace.” Trump added that “99 percent of” police are “great, great people,” which came across as tone-deaf at best.
- Finally, in case there was ever any confusion about how Trump really feels about George Floyd’s police murder, he retweeted a video shared by the perennially anti-Black Candace Owens in which she said “George Floyd was not a good person.”
There are, of course, other examples of Trump disrespectfully prioritizing law enforcement over Black lives, including not supporting the George Floyd Justice In Policing Act that was originally introduced in June 2020. Instead, Trump signed an executive order on policing that had no mention of racism and Senate Republicans have filibustered the George Floyd Justice In Policing Act into legislative purgatory.
Biden on Friday called for Congress to pass the recently reintroduced sweeping legislation that ambitiously aims to end police brutality, hold police accountable, improve transparency in policing and create meaningful, structural change when it comes to how law enforcement does their jobs.
Trump’s stance on the bill coupled with his vow to fight “a definite anti-white feeling in this country” makes the proverbial writing on the wall even more clear when it comes to the prospects of his intentions to undo the advances Biden and his administration have made when it comes to police reform.
“If given another four years, Donald Trump will threaten to erase this progress,” Harris told NewsOne. “We cannot forget that in 2020 while the rest of the nation came together demanding justice for George Floyd’s family, Donald Trump denigrated this man’s humanity.”
SEE ALSO:
