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Biden reacts to Chauvin guilty verdict

President Biden delivered remarks on the guilty verdict in the trial of former Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin on Tuesday evening. Chauvin was found guilty on two counts of murder and one count of manslaughter in George Floyd’s death in Minneapolis in May 2020.

Video transcript

Today, a jury in Minnesota found former Minneapolis police officer, Derek Chauvin guilty on all counts in the murder George Floyd last May. It was a murder and full light of day, and it ripped the blinders off for the whole world to see the systemic racism the vise president just referred to. This systemic racism, it's a stain on our nation's soul.

The knee on the neck of Justice for Black Americans profound fear and trauma. The pain the exhaustion and Black and Brown Americans experience every single day. The murder of George Floyd launched a summer of protest we hadn't seen since the Civil rights era in the 60s. Protests that unified people of every race and generation in peace and with purpose. To say enough, enough. Enough of the senseless killings.

Today-- today's verdict is a step forward. I just spoke with the governor of Minnesota to thank me for the close work with his team. I also spoke with George Floyd's family again. Remarkable family of extraordinary courage. Nothing can ever bring their brother, their father back. But this can be a giant step forward in the march toward justice in America.

Let's also be clear that such a verdict is also much too rare for so many people. It seems like it took a unique and extraordinary convergence of factors. A brave young woman, a smartphone camera, a crowd that was traumatized, traumatized witnesses, a murder that lasts almost 10 minutes in broad daylight for ultimately the whole world to see.

Officers standing up and testifying against a fellow officer instead of just closing ranks, which should be commended. A jury who heard the evidence carried out their civic duty in the midst of an extraordinary moment under extraordinary pressure. For so many, it feels like it took all of that for the judicial system to deliver a just basic kind accountability.