The brother of George Floyd, the man whose death in Minneapolis on Monday set off nationwide protests, expressed disappointment with a conversation he had with President Trump, saying the president “kept pushing me off.”
“He didn’t give me an opportunity to even speak,” Philonise Floyd told MSNBC’s Al Sharpton of his call with the president. “It was hard. I was trying to talk to him, but he just kept, like, pushing me off, like ‘I don’t want to hear what you’re talking about.’ ”
“And I just told him, I want justice. I said that I couldn’t believe that they committed a modern-day lynching in broad daylight,” he continued.
A Minneapolis police officer, Derek Chauvin, pinned George Floyd face down on the pavement with a knee on the back of his neck for several minutes despite Floyd’s protests that he was unable to breathe.
After the first night of widespread protests in Minneapolis, Chauvin, who had been fired, was arrested on charges of third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter. Three other officers present at the arrest have been fired but not charged.
Philonise Floyd said he had also spoken with former Vice President Joe Biden.
“I asked Vice President Biden — I never had to beg a man before — but I asked him, could he please, please get justice for my brother,” he said.
“I need it. I do not want to see him on a shirt just like the other guys. Nobody deserved that. Black folk don’t deserve that. We’re all dying,” Philonise Floyd added. “Black lives matter.”
Trump previously said Friday that he had spoken to members of Floyd’s family, calling them “terrific people” and saying he wished to “express our nation’s deepest condolences and most heartfelt sympathies to the family of George Floyd.”
The Hill has reached out to the White House for comment.