Ilhan Omar: Chauvin Killing Floyd Was a ‘Lynching’

Sunday on “CNN Newsroom,” Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) discussed the guilty verdict for former Minnesota police officer Derek Chauvin in the killing of George Floyd.

Omar described Floyd’s death as a “lynching.” She also questioned “how we move forward as a society,” where almost half of Republicans in a poll disagreed with the guilty verdict for Chauvin.

“[T]here has been, you know, so many people who have been spinning what happened to George Floyd and what the ultimate cause of his death was. We now know that it was murder,” Omar outlined. “And you know, we didn’t need to be told by the jury with that guilty verdict. Many of us saw that video and witnessed a lynching take place. You know, throughout the summer and up to the court hearing, we all thought it was eight minutes and 46 seconds, and we ultimately know that it was more than nine minutes. And I don’t really know how we move forward as a society where there is a particular segment that believes that that is a justifiable thing for a police officer to do and that they should not be held accountable.”

Omar then noted the United States has a history of getting entertainment out of “public lynchings.”

“It shouldn’t be that surprising that there are still segments in our society that believe it is justifiable for a black man to be lynched,” she advised. “But it’s going to be important for us to confront that reality, to confront our past history, and to find ways to move forward as a society.”

Follow Trent Baker on Twitter @MagnifiTrent