Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi likened a police chokehold to a lynching, during a Monday night appearance on CNN.
The Democrat lawmaker from California told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer on “The Situation Room” that she sees no reason why the Republicans wouldn’t support a ban on police chokeholds.
"I can't imagine they wouldn't have a ban on chokeholds,” Pelosi said. “Let's get reasonable."
Her comments come as lawmakers from both parties are working on getting their police reform bills advanced. The Democrats are pushing for a law that bans chokeholds and no-knock warrants.
"A chokehold is a lynching. That's a strangulation. It's a lynching. I think that is almost like the lowest common denominator, but again I will leave it up to my negotiators, because as you know in a negotiation, it's not what's in or out, it's the sum total of the different impact that the legislation will have in justice and policing,” she said.
National protests in the wake of the death of George Floyd, a black man, who was killed by a white police officer in Minneapolis last month, have sparked lawmakers to work on passing anti-police brutality measures.
While Democrats are pushing for change quickly, CNN reports that Senate Republicans are not working as fast.
On Monday, some senior Senate Republicans said that proposed policing reforms may not be heard for a month. White House officials have been working with South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott, the only black Republican senator, who is leading the GOP's legislative effort.
Republican leaders say they have other pressing matters to discuss before the policing reform bill. Democrats plan to vote on their version of the bill next week.
President Donald Trump is expected to sign an executive order Tuesday that will create a national certification system for law enforcement agencies and a database to better track excessive uses of force by police officers nationwide, a source told CNN.
The order likely doesn’t include an outright ban on police chokeholds.
Pelosi said Trump should look to do “the best we can, not the minimum that we can in this," she said. "This is about justice."
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