Trump: Chokeholds Sound "So Innocent and So Perfect"

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President Donald Trump stoked racial tensions in an interview with Fox News today, saying he believes that chokeholds sound “so innocent and so perfect” in remarks defending his “law and order” approach to the protests that have erupted nationwide since George Floyd, an unarmed black man, died in police custody in Minneapolis, inflaming an already fraught national dialogue on police use of force.

“I think the concept of chokeholds sounds so innocent and so perfect,” he said, “and then you realize that if it’s one-on-one, now if it’s two-on-one it’s a little bit of a different story depending, depending on the toughness and strength, you know, we’re talking about toughness and strength, we’re talking there’s a physical thing here also.”

Trump on police chokeholds: "I think the concept of chokeholds sounds so innocent and so perfect." pic.twitter.com/3NbyFwX26R

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) June 12, 2020

Remarking on the protests, he defended the use of chokeholds, saying, “You saw some very good people protesting, but you saw some bad people also. “And you get somebody in a chokehold. What are you going to do now? Let go and say, ‘Oh, let’s start all over again’?”

"Sometimes if you're alone and you're fighting somebody, it's tough … we have some real bad people" — Trump defends police chokeholds pic.twitter.com/DZfjT5isFU

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) June 12, 2020

The president conceded that chokeholds have been used inappropriately by law enforcement “you have to be careful. With that being said, it would be, I think, a very good thing that, generally speaking, it should be ended.”

Several cities and states have moved to ban chokeholds amid public outcry. Minneapolis soon caved to public pressure after Floyd’s killing, with its city council voting to ban the use of chokeholds by police officers.