WATCH: CNN’s Wolf Blitzer Says Chauvin Defense Made ‘Pretty Strong Argument’ Blaming Bystanders for George Floyd’s Death

CNN anchor Wolf Blitzer told a pair of panelists that accused murderer Derek Chauvin’s defense made a “pretty strong argument” blaming bystanders for George Floyd’s death.

Former Missouri Highway Patrol Captain Ron Johnson and CNN political analyst Bakari Sellers joined Blitzer Monday afternoon to discuss the first day of Chauvin’s trial for the killing of Mr. Floyd, which touched off a renewed wave of attention to the Black Lives Matter movement.

Blitzer asked for his panelists’ assessments of the defense arguments, first asking Captain Johnson “The defense argued today, and you heard it, that Chauvin did exactly what he had been trained to do, that’s a direct quote. Does that argument hold up in your view?”

“No, it does not,” Johnson replied, and added that “part of the training is also once someone complies, that the force you’re using stops, and we train officers about excessive force. And so that part of the training, it’s obvious from the video that we’ve seen and all the evidence that we’ve seen, that that part of training was not followed here.”

“What about the argument they made, Captain Johnson, it was a pretty strong argument,” Blitzer said. “They claimed that there were bystanders who were distracting the police officers and as a result, they were more concerned about their own safety and didn’t pay much attention to what was going on with George Floyd.”

Captain Johnson did not think it was a strong argument.

“Well, one thing we saw in one of the videos, when the policemen asked Mr. Floyd what he wanted and he said ‘I can’t breathe,’ ‘What do you want?’ He said ‘I can’t breathe’,” Johnson said. “And so I don’t buy into that. I think there’s four officers there, a number of officers there. And there were a few bystanders there, but the bystanders were actually trying to assist the officers by saying hey, Mr. Floyd, comply.”

“And he was saying ‘I can’t breathe. I’m trying,'” Johnson continued, and went on to add that another witness said that he was telling the officers, ‘Hey, what you’re doing now is choking him and it’s taking his breath away.'”

“And so I don’t think they were a distraction. I saw more help coming than I saw a distraction,” Johnson said.

“Yes, you would think that once George Floyd kept screaming, as much as he could, ‘I can’t breathe, I can’t breathe, I can’t breathe,’ maybe that police officer would have stopped with his knee on his neck,” Blitzer agreed.

Watch the clip above via CNN.