Donald Trump appeared to be laying the groundwork for an insanity defense on behalf of disgraced former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin during an interview.
In video footage seen around the world, Chauvin put his knee on George Floyd’s neck and slowly strangled him to death as three other officers watched. All of them are now in custody and are being charged with second-degree murder and aiding and abetting. The trial looks to be a long and arduous one that has the potential to be a powder keg should a jury clear them of wrongdoing.
And Trump’s not helping by offering what seems to be a defense of Chauvin.
As we all know, Trump has interfered with criminal cases before. He has repeatedly used Twitter and the platform of the presidency to criticize cases in an effort to help the defendant. He did that during Paul Manafort’s trial. He did that during Roger Stone’s trial. He’s still doing it on behalf of Michael Flynn. Trump even interfered with the military trial of a Navy SEAL credibly accused of committing war crimes.
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And he’s has done it all to pander to his supporters.
But now it looks like Trump is already working to poison the jury in Chauvin’s case by suggesting that he “snapped” in the line of duty.
“It was a terrible thing. It should never have happened,” Trump said. “Something snapped with the policeman and the other three watching it were, I guess you can’t put them in the same category but it was certainly in a very bad category. And nothing good comes out of that, that was a very bad thing.”
Chauvin did NOT “snap,” but you can bet that’s what his defense attorneys are going to consider using as a strategy to help him get away with murdering a helpless black man who was not resisting.
Trump went on to accuse others of using Floyd’s death for their own agenda and insisted that he has everything under control in regards to the mass protests.
“Right now I think the nation needs law and order because you have a bad group of people out there and they’re using George Floyd and they’re using a lot of other people to try and do some bad things,” he said. “[W]e have it totally under control.”
Here’s the video:
President Donald Trump said “something snapped” in the policeman accused of the second-degree murder of George Floyd.
He also called for “law and order” across the USA after days of protests.
Watch the full interview: https://t.co/86F0aqx3eB pic.twitter.com/urQZvthDQN
— The Telegraph (@Telegraph) June 4, 2020
Trump does not have the protests “under control.” If he did, he wouldn’t be hiding in a bunker or threatening to use military force to put them down. And if anyone is using Floyd as a prop for an agenda, it’s Trump, and his goal is to divide Americans as much as possible. There’s a chance that justice will be done in this case, but it’s threatened as long as Trump remains in office.
Featured image via screen capture
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