George Floyd’s brother says Trump ‘kept pushing
me off’ during phone call
Philonise Floyd says president dismissed him during a
phone conversation – he ‘didn’t give me a chance to even speak’
Martin
Pengelly
@MartinPengelly
Published
onSun 31 May 2020 14.35 BST
At the
White House on Friday, Donald Trump said he had spoken to the family of George
Floyd, the 46-year-old African American man who was killed during an arrest by
police officers in Minneapolis this week.
“I just
expressed my sorrow,” Trump said, adding “that was a horrible thing to witness”
and saying it “looked like there was no excuse” for Floyd’s death.
But
according to Floyd’s brother, Philonise Floyd, the conversation did not go
well, as he said Trump gave him little chance to express his views and appeared
to have no interest in what he was trying to say.
“He didn’t
give me an opportunity to even speak,” Floyd told MSNBC on Saturday. “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.”
The officer
who kneeled on Floyd’s neck has been charged with murder. Three other officers
involved in the arrest have not yet been charged. Protests and riots have
spread to many cities across the US.
Trump has
been rebuked for responses which critics say have only increased tensions,
including apparent threats to have looters shot and boasts about “vicious dogs”
and “ominous weapons” awaiting protesters outside the White House.
Trump and
the White House did not immediately comment on Philonise Floyd’s description of
the call.
Joe Biden,
Trump’s presumptive challenger in the presidential election in November, also
spoke to the family and issued a video address in which he called for calm.
“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,” Philonise Floyd 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.
“Black lives matter.”
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