George Floyd’s brother, Philonise Floyd, on Sunday said he spoke with both President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden last week, saying his talk with Trump was “brief” while Biden was talking to him “constantly.”
“The vice president, I loved his conversation. He talked to me for like 10 [or] 15 minutes. And I was trying to talk his ear off because he was talking to me constantly. Great conversation. But Trump, it lasted probably two minutes,” he told CNN’s Don Lemon when asked if he was able to share the pain of his brother’s death with the President.
“It was very brief. The conversation was OK with him. I was just respecting him, you know listening to what he had to say. And I understood what he was saying, but it was just a brief conversation.”
Floyd’s family spoke to both Trump and the former vice president last week following George Floyd’s death in Minneapolis. Floyd, 46, died Monday after being arrested by Minneapolis police. Public outrage grew after a video surfaced showing an officer kneeling on Floyd’s neck.
Since then, protests against police brutality have spread across the United States.
Philonise told MSNBC’s Al Sharpton his conversation with Trump was “so fast.”
“He didn’t give me an opportunity to even speak,” Floyd said. “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 said.
“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,” 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,” he said. “Black lives matter.”
Trump said Friday he’d spoken to Floyd’s family but didn’t reveal details of the conversation.
“I want to express our nation’s deepest condolences and most heartfelt sympathies to the family of George Floyd,” Trump said during a roundtable event at the White House, later adding, “I spoke to members of the family – terrific people.”
The four officers involved in George Floyd’s arrest have been fired. One of them, Derek Chauvin, was arrested Friday and charged with third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter, according to Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman.
This story has been updated with additional comment from Philonise Floyd.
