Former GOP New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie blasted the actions of fired police officer Derek Chauvin and other Minneapolis law enforcement whose negligence allegedly led to the death of George Floyd.
During a Wednesday night appearance on Fox News, Christie told host Sean Hannity that officers must be punished for the “tragic, awful situation,” which has prompted thousands to spill into the streets of Minneapolis in protest.
“Everything that you see in this video tells you that it was done, not only wrong, but done fatally wrong,” Christie said. “And there’s no excuse for it, as you said. When you look at this, I’m waiting to see the resistance and why they had to continue to do this while he was already cuffed. There was no resistance at all, in fact, he was begging to breathe. And so, this is a tragic, awful situation, and the people who are involved will have to be held to account for what they did.”
Christie, who is a former U.S. attorney, noted that he has been in charge of police officers during his time in office and that what he witnessed on the Floyd video was the “opposite” of what Americans expect from law enforcement.
“That’s the obligation of the other officers, they’re going to have to answer for that,” Christie said. “I oversaw the New Jersey State Police, oversaw FBI and DEA and ATF. I mean, these are great men and women who every day put their lives on the line to keep us safe. They’re the exact opposite of what’s going on in this video.”
Christie decried the inaction of the other three officers and onlookers who failed to help Floyd as he begged for his life.
“But worse, it’s the people standing around him who aren’t saying ‘Hey, lay off now, we’ve got him’ or just reached down and grabbed the guy off the ground themselves to be able to put him in the car,” added Christie. “Especially when you can hear so clearly on the video. If you can hear it clearly on the video, you know how clearly you could hear it in person … It’s just no excuse that I can see, Sean.”
