Ben Shapiro Calls for Trump to Pardon Convicted George Floyd Killer Derek Chauvin: ‘It’s Absolutely Necessary’
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Ben Shapiro on Tuesday called for President Donald Trump to pardon Derek Chauvin — the former Minneapolis police officer responsible for the death of George Floyd.
Chauvin was sentenced to 270 months (22.5 years) in prison in June 2021 after he was found guilty of counts of second-degree unintentional murder, third-degree murder, and second-degree manslaughter. The death of Floyd — which occurred by Chauvin kneeling on his neck for more than nine minutes — sparked worldwide protests against police brutality.
A year later, Chauvin was handed an additional 21-year sentence for violating Floyd’s civil rights.
Although Chauvin admitted to using force even after Floyd stopped resisting, talking, or even moving — and a medical examiner deemed the death a homicide — Shapiro maintained that the former officer was not responsible for the death.
In a video posted online, he said:
If we are issuing pardons, however, there is one person that President Trump should pardon from federal charges forthwith. It would be incredibly controversial, but I think that it’s absolutely necessary. That person is Derek Chauvin. President Trump should, in fact, pardon Derek Chauvin. He should. He should pardon him his federal charges.
If we are talking about reversing the evils of the last several years in American life, obviously Covid and its handling was a massive evil — destroyed the economy, set us on a path to fiscal insanity, destroyed children, led to massive health-related cover-ups. Just horrifying all the way around. And President Trump has taken on a lot of those things; but when it came to BLM, the inciting event for the BLM riots that caused $2 billion in property damage in the United States — and set America’s race relations on their worst footing in my lifetime — was, in fact, the railroading of Derek Chauvin in the death of George Floyd.
The evidence demonstrates that Derek Chauvin did not in fact commit murder of George Floyd. George Floyd was high on fentanyl. He had a significant pre-existing heart condition. George Floyd was saying he could not breathe before he was even out of the car. He was in the car saying he could not breathe. Derek Chauvin, for large segments of even the tape that was shown, had his knee on George Floyd’s shoulder or back — not on his neck. The autopsy of George Floyd showed that he had no damage to his trachea, that probably George Floyd died of excited delirium. There were no accusations, even at trial, that Derek Chauvin had committed a hate crime against George Floyd, or that he targeted George Floyd because of his race.
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