George Floyd's brother has thrown his support behind Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz.
"What I took from him was a good man," Philonise Floyd said in a phone interview with ABC News. "You don't meet a lot of people like him."
Protests erupted in Minneapolis and around the world after George Floyd was murdered by Derek Chauvin, a white former police officer who knelt on the Black man's neck for nearly 9 1/2 minutes, on May 25, 2020. A bystander video captured George Floyd's fading cries of "I can't breathe."
His death forced a reckoning with police brutality and racism. Some of the protests turned violent.
"Gov. Walz, he did a lot of good things," Philonise Floyd told ABC News, saying he was "glad" Vice President Kamala Harris tapped him for the vice presidential spot.
"I think he's a genuine person. He has a good heart. To me, some people are built to be in office, and some people are not."
The report comes a day after The Associated Press reported that former President Donald Trump told Walz at the time of the protests that he fully agreed with how the Minnesota governor handled the violence that erupted after George Floyd's death.
"What they did in Minneapolis was incredible. They went in and dominated, and it happened immediately," Trump told Walz and other governors and officials in a phone call on June 1, 2020. The Associated Press on Wednesday obtained an audio recording of the call, which has taken on new significance now that Trump and running mate J.D. Vance have been hammering Walz over his response.
ABC News reported on the call earlier Wednesday, a day after Harris introduced Walz as her running mate. CNN posted a transcript of the call back in 2020.
Walz mobilized the Minnesota National Guard three days after Floyd died to help restore order to Minneapolis. Trump offered federal help to Walz later that day, but the governor did not take him up on it.
Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.
Solange Reyner ✉
Solange Reyner is a writer and editor for Newsmax. She has more than 15 years in the journalism industry reporting and covering news, sports and politics.
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