President Joe Biden on Tuesday said he is praying for the 'right verdict' in George Floyd trial and called the evidence 'overw...
President Joe Biden on Tuesday said he is praying for the 'right verdict' in George Floyd trial and called the evidence 'overwhelming.'
'I’m praying the verdict is the right verdict. Which is – I think it’s overwhelming in my view,' Biden told reporters in the Oval office.
Biden called Floyd's brother Philonise after the jury went behind closed doors for their deliberations eliberations on the charges of murder and manslaughter against Chauvin.
'I waited until the jury was sequestered and I called,' he said.
'I've come to know George's family,' Biden noted as he spoke of the 'pressure and anxiety' they are going through.
Philonise Floyd said Biden, who has buried a wife and two children, spoke to him about what it's like to lose a family member.
'He was just calling. He knows how it is to lose a family member. And he knows that the process of what we're going through so he was just letting us know that he was praying for us, and hoping that everything would come out to be okay,' Philonise told NBC's Today on Tuesday morning.
Floyd said he is 'optimistic' about the coming verdict in his brother's murder trial. 'Hopefully it will be the way the world wants to see it,' he noted. He also expressed his hope for peace when the trial ends.
'We just want everyone to be peaceful', he added, as Minneapolis braces for the verdict and the White House figures out how to deal with any potential fallout.
More than 3,000 Minnesota National Guard members have been activated and hundreds marched through the streets of Minneapolis on Monday night as the US waits for the outcome of the trial.
Philonise spoke out as the jury in Minneapolis prepared to return for a second day of deliberations and amid fury over Rep. Maxine Waters' calling for Chauvin to be found guilty and for Black Lives Matter protesters to be 'more confrontational'.
The California Democrat sparked outrage by travelling to Minneapolis on Saturday and urging protesters to 'get more confrontational' if Chauvin was acquitted. She was back on Capitol Hill Tuesday, presiding over the House Financial Services Committee, which she chairs.
Her remarks, on the eve of the jury retiring to consider its verdict, were widely condemned and may, it emerged on Monday, have handed Chauvin's defense grounds for appeal and the turning over of any guilty verdict.
President Joe Biden said he is praying for George Floyd's family and called the evidence in the Derek Chauvin trial 'overwhelming'
George Floyd's brother Philonise reveals President Biden called him on Monday when the jury was sent out to deliberate in Derek Chauvins' trial
Philonise went on to say: 'I just feel that in America, if a Black man can't get justice for this, what can a Black man get justice for?'
Biden is monitoring the trial and is concerned that a verdict may inflame racial tensions at a time when multiple U.S. cities are on edge following police killings.
The footage of Chauvin kneeling on George Floyd's neck during Floyd's arrest last summer set off protests in Minneapolis and around the country. If the Chauvin jury should deliver a verdict this week or next, the results would come amid renewed tensions in communities where police have shot suspects during traffic stops and arrests – along with sharp splits over efforts to control the coronavirus and a new spate of mass shootings.
The prosecution argued Chauvin 'had to know' that he was killing Floyd when the officer had his knee on his back as the man was handcuffed. The defense, meanwhile, asked the jury of 12 people - six white, four black and two multiracial - to consider the 'totality of the circumstances.' The defense argued Chauvin behaved as any 'reasonable' officer would have and said that Floyd died of a combination of drugs in his system and preexisting health issues, not Chauvin's knee.
Meanwhile, Waters, 82, defiantly insisted on Monday afternoon that she stood by her words.
'The judge says my words don't matter,' she told CNN.
When pressed on the judge stating that her remarks could be grounds for appeal, she replied: 'Oh no, no they didn't.'
She insisted she was entirely justified in her call to action, saying: 'The whole Civil Rights movement is confrontational.'
Republican House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy is introducing a resolution for Waters to be censured and says she 'incited violence' with her remarks.
'(Biden) knows how it is to lose a family member. And he knows that the process of what we're going through so he was just letting us know that he was praying for us, and hoping that everything would come out to be okay,' Philonise told NBC Today
He believes up to 15 Democrats could back the motion to censure and said Waters 'believes there is value in violence'. McCarthy would need Democratic support to get the censure resolution passed.
Democrats including Nancy Pelosi have said she shouldn't apologize for her comments.
The White House also refused to condemn Waters comments. Biden's press secretary said on Monday that protests should be 'peaceful', but did not respond to Waters' comments directly.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki confirmed the call and said the President wanted to 'check in' with Floyd's family
Waters (D - California) had joined protesters in the Minneapolis suburb of Brooklyn Center on Saturday night for a demonstration over the death of Daunte Wright, a 20-year-old black man shot dead by a white police officer during a traffic stop on April 11.
Waters told the protesters that she will fight for justice on their behalf and urged them to 'to get more confrontational' - just one day after protests descended into violence.
Following closing arguments on Monday, the jurors retired to deliberate as demonstrators took to the streets of Minneapolis.
Images showed hundreds marching through the city demanding justice for Floyd while waving Black Lives Matter flags and holding signs that read 'Blue Lives Murder'.
Demonstrators gathered outside the Hennepin County courthouse, which is surrounded by high fences and concrete barricades topped with barbed wire.
National Guard members are seen through fencing and wire near the Minneapolis Police 3rd Precinct in Minneapolis
Local organizer Brandyn Tulloch speaks to the crowd during a demonstration on Monday
Protesters take to the street in Minneapolis as jurors begin deliberations following the trial of former Officer Derek Chauvin
Protesters gathered in Minneapolis on Monday as the jury started their deliberations toward a verdict in the case against Derek Chauvin, who faces murder and manslaughter charges in the death of George Floyd
Protesters held signs that demanded justice for George Floyd as the jury was retired to consider their verdict
'I hope we get a verdict that says guilty, guilty, guilty,' she said of the Chauvin trial. 'And if we don't, we cannot go away. We've got to stay on the street. We get more active, we've got to get more confrontational. We've got to make sure that they know that we mean business.'
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell likewise went after Waters on Monday, telling colleagues: 'It's harder to imagine anything more inappropriate than a member of Congress flying in from California to inform local leaders - not so subtly - that this defendant had better be found guilty or else there will be big trouble in the streets.'
The Kentucky Republican said that Waters' demand for a guilty verdict was 'like somebody window-shopping or ordering off a menu.'
'Every single American deserves a fair trial. This is sacred. You do not balance the scales of justice by trying to tip them,' McConnell said.
The top Senate Republican noted that through much of the country's 'quest for civil rights and equal justice has been the fight to get rid of extra-judicial violence, to get rid of rigged trials where the outcome was molded by public sentiment or angry mob.'
'It is beyond the pale for a sitting member of the United States Congress to look at what happened last summer and imply there should be some kind of a sequel if a legal case does not unfold as she thinks it should,' he said.
Republican House Whip Steve Scalise said: 'Let's be clear: Maxine Waters knew her rhetoric would incite violence in Minneapolis—but she doesn't care, she just requests police escorts for herself. I was shot because of this kind of dangerous rhetoric. Where is the outrage from Dems & the media? They need to condemn this.'
Scalise was shot in 2017 by left-wing activist James Hodgkinson during a charity Congressional Baseball Game in Alexandria, Virginia. The Virginia Attorney General concluded that Hodgkinson's attack was an 'act of terrorism fueled by rage against Republican legislators'.
McCarthy took his criticism even further - saying that he is introducing a motion to censure Waters and claimed that up to 15 Democrats could vote for his motion.
During an interview with on Fox News Primetime, McCarthy said the congresswoman 'believes there is value in violence'.
'And now what she has said has even put doubt into a jury,' McCarthy said, referring to the George Floyd jury that started deliberations on Monday in the murder trial of former Minneapolis cop Derek Chauvin.
'You had a judge announce that it was wrong. I think this takes action especially when she has a pattern of this behavior,' McCarthy continued.
He was referring to Waters' 2018 remarks when she told Californians to 'get in the face' of Trump administration staffers if they see them in public.
McCarthy said he believes there are 'probably 10 to 15' Democrats who would vote for censure.
'It will all come down to the pressure of what Democrats will put on them to just try to vote to table it - not even to have the discussion,' he added.
But many of these Republicans accusing Waters of inciting violence did not make the same charge against then-President Donald Trump in the wake of the January 6th MAGA riot on Capitol Hill, that left five dead and trail of destruction throughout the Capitol.
McCarthy did take to the House floor to declare Trump, who riled up the crowd with his false claims the election was stolen, 'bears responsibility' for the attack on Congress. McCarthy later flew to Mar-a-Lago to make peace with the former president after Trump became furious at him for his words.
And Scalise argued Trump used the words 'peaceful' when he talked about protesting the election results.
'President Trump use the words peaceful when he talked about, you know, the statements that he made. I haven't heard Maxine saying anything about peacefully protesting. She's talked about violence,' Scalise said on Tuesday.
Waters (D - California) had joined protesters in the Minneapolis suburb of Brooklyn Center on Saturday night for a demonstration over the death of Daunte Wright, a 20-year-old black man shot dead by a white police officer during a traffic stop on April 11
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