Pat Robertson: Chauvin should be put ‘under the jail’

Evangelical media mogul Pat Robertson on Thursday called for former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin to be put “under the jail” for kneeling on George Floyd’s neck. 

During a segment on “The 700 Club,” Robertson discussed the recent police shooting of Daunte Wright in Brooklyn Center, Minn., and expressed dismay at the “onslaught” of police violence.

“I am pro-police folks. I think we need the police, we need their service and they do a good job. But … they cannot do this,” Robertson said. “Derek Chauvin, I mean, they oughta put him under the jail. He has caused so much trouble by kneeling on the [neck] of George Floyd … it’s just terrible what’s happening. And the police, why don’t they open their eyes to what the public relations are? We’ve got to stop this stuff.”

Who had “Woke Pat Robertson” on their 2021 bingo card? pic.twitter.com/nCYlQsma3O

— W. Kamau Bell (@wkamaubell) April 15, 2021

Robertson also took issue with the assessment that Brooklyn Center police chief Tim Gannon made of the incident, which is that he believed the officer, Kim Potter, had meant to reach for her Taser when she shot and killed Wright.

The Christian Broadcasting Network founder then took out a handgun and Taser and noted the stark difference in color as well as difference in weight, saying “there’s no comparison” between the two weapons.

“We don’t have the finest in the police department,” Robertson said when discussing what could be done to prevent police shootings. He argued that a “superior workforce” was needed. 

“We need police. We need them and we need to honor them and I’m all for it,” Robertson added. “But at the same time we cannot have a bunch of clowns running around who are underpaid and who really are not the best and brightest. We’ve got to have the best in there.”

Robertson, who was a staunch ally to President Trump when he was in office, previously criticized Trump for his “law and order” response to the unrest that followed Floyd’s death. The television host said Trump’s threats of military actions against demonstrators was not “cool.”

“It seems like now is the time to say, ‘I understand your pain, I want to comfort you, I think it’s time we love each other,’ ” Robertson said last year. “But the president took a different course. He said, ‘I am the president of law and order,’ and he issued a heads-up.”

On Thursday, Chauvin’s defense team rested in the trial and the court adjourned for the week. Chauvin invoked the Fifth Amendment and declined to testify during the trial on Thursday.