White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said President Trump was “very upset” over George Floyd’s death while in the custody of Minneapolis police officers.
A video shows Floyd, a 46-year-old black man, saying that he can’t breathe as a police officer used his knee to hold him to the ground by the neck.
“[Trump] was very upset by that tape. That was an egregious, egregious thing to watch. It was hard to watch. This man deserves justice, as the president noted yesterday in his tweets,” McEnany said.
Asked what the White House would do about the killing, McEnany said Trump had expedited a FBI review into Floyd’s death.
“He’s directed the FBI to get to the bottom of this because we should never, ever, ever have to watch a tape like that again. It was appalling,” she added.
Asked on Wednesday if the four police officers who were fired in the wake of Floyd’s death should be prosecuted, Trump said he was “going to get a very full report” of the matter on Thursday.
On Thursday, South Carolina Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham, a Trump ally, said the Senate should hold hearings on police violence against black Americans.
Protesters clashed with police in Minneapolis Wednesday night over Floyd’s death, with at least one man killed.
