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Biden calls guilty verdict in Derek Chauvin trial 'a step forward'

Chauvin was found guilty on two counts of murder and guilty on one count of manslaughter in George Floyd's death in Minneapolis in May.
/ Source: NBC News

President Joe Biden called the guilty verdict in the trial of former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin "a step forward," but also said that the nation still has to reckon with systemic racism in all walks of life, including policing.

Biden said the guilty verdict is "much too rare" and "not enough."

Chauvin was found guilty on two counts of murder and guilty on one count of manslaughter in Floyd's death in Minneapolis in May. The video of Floyd pleading for help as the former officer Chauvin knelt on him for more than nine minutes was seen around the world last year, igniting a wave of protests over police brutality.

“It was a murder in the full light of day and it ripped the blinders off the whole world to see," he said. “Systemic racism is a stain on our nation’s soul.”

Biden, in his most direct comments in the case and race in America, noted the police officers who stepped up during the trial to testify for the prosecution in the case but gave credit to the activists who protested and the teen who recorded Chauvin kneeling on Floyd's neck for several minutes.

Joe Biden speaks at the White House behind official podium, Kamala Harris stands nearby with a black facemask on
Vice President Kamala Harris listens as President Joe Biden delivers remarks on the guilty verdict against former policeman Derek Chauvin at the White House in Washington on April 20, 2021.Brendan Smialowski / AFP via Getty Images

Before he spoke, Vice President Kamala Harris also reacted to the case.

“America has a long history of systemic racism, Black Americans and Black men, in particular, have been treated as less than human,” Harris said. “Because of smartphones so many Americans have now seen the racial injustice that black Americans have known for generations.”

Biden was holding a virtual tour of an electric battery company in South Carolina before the verdict was read in the courthouse.

Biden and Harris watched the verdict with staff in the president's Dining Room. Following the announcement, Biden spoke with Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, a Democrat, Then Biden, Harris and the first lady spoke with Floyd's younger brother, Philonise, from the Oval Office.

Biden and Harris also talked with Floyd's family over the phone, the details of which can be heard in a video released on Twitter by the family's attorney, Ben Crump.

"Nothing is going to make it all better, but at least now there’s some justice," Biden told the family. "You're an incredible family. I wish I were there to put arms around you."

He added, "We're all so relieved."

"In George’s name and memory we are going to make sure his legacy is intact, and that history will look back at this moment and know this is an inflection moment," Harris said on the call.

The White House waited for Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, the Floyd family and Walz to speak before making public remarks.

Before the verdict was announced Tuesday afternoon, the president said that he spoke with George Floyd’s family by phone and said that he “wanted to know how they’re doing personally [and] talked about personal things.”

White House officials had been huddling on Tuesday before the verdict was announced, watching and waiting like the rest of the country.

Biden sparked backlash earlier in the day when he said, “I am praying the verdict is the right verdict,” and added. “I think it’s overwhelming in my view.”

White House press secretary Jen Psaki was asked repeatedly about these comments. She refused to clarify but insisted the president was not trying to prejudge the case.

Biden, who spoke briefly to reporters in the Oval Office, added that he wouldn’t have made such a comment if the jury wasn't sequestered, indicating he would have withheld his thoughts if the thought the jury could hear them. Jurors were sequestered after closing arguments Monday.

Multiple people close to Biden told NBC News his comments were not helpful to White House efforts to tamp down tensions across the country. One of the people close to the president said it would’ve been worse if he’d made the comment before the jury was sequestered. Another said regardless of the timing of his remark it risks being interpreted as disrespectful of the judicial system.