Rep. Jim Clyburn Tells CNN He’s ‘Anxiously Awaiting’ Derek Chauvin Verdict, Hopeful It ‘Will Start Us On That Journey’ To Reforms

Rep. Jim Clyburn (D-SC) shared his thoughts about the coming conclusion to Derek Chauvin’s trial with CNN’s Pamela Brown, saying that he was “anxiously awaiting” the verdict, but still hopeful that it would be the start to some real reforms.

The prosecution and defense both rested their cases last week in Chauvin’s trial for the death of George Floyd, and are scheduled to give their closing arguments starting Monday, after which the case will be turned over to the jury. (Live gavel-to-gavel coverage of the trial is being provided by The Law&Crime Network; click here for available platforms where you can watch.)

“What is your reaction to what is going on in Minneapolis tonight as America awaits the verdict of the Chauvin trial?”Brown asked Clyburn.

“I am like everybody else, anxiously awaiting this verdict,” Clyburn replied. “I do believe that what we saw with our own eyes all over the world, quite frankly, was a lynching taking place. George Floyd was lynched. That’s just plain and simple.”

“We have got to bring this kind of stuff to an end,” he continued, expressing hope that “it could very well be this verdict” that brings reforms like the end to qualified immunity.

Clyburn said he understood police officers “having some forms of immunity,” but he couldn’t understand how some people refused to accept that some police officers simply should not have that job. The congressman described growing up in a parsonage, and eavesdropping on a meeting to defrock a preacher.

“They did not get rid of the church but they got rid of the preacher,” said Clyburn, citing examples of people who were not suited to be in the military, or who should not be lawyers and were disbarred, etc.

“But for some strange reason we seem to feel no matter what, every police officer must be treated as a saint, and we are now seeing it with our own eyes that that’s not the case,” he said. “Something is wrong with us accepting the fact that just because you put on a gun and a badge, nothing else matters. That it makes you a saint and you are to be treated that way. That has to come to an end. I do hope that this verdict will start us on that journey.”

Watch the video above, via CNN.