DNC Chair Tom Perez released the following statement on the killing of George Floyd and the shameful response of Donald Trump:
“The killing of George Floyd is another tragic case of the violence Black men face in America every single day. No person of character and common sense can watch the video footage of what police did to George Floyd without being horrified. And yet, this president has done nothing to heal those wounds. Instead, he has sown division; he has advocated violence against protestors, rather than condemning the racist violence that launched these protests in the first place. We will not heal as a nation through silence, but through justice, through progress, through activism and action. George Floyd is the name we’re chanting today. Yesterday it was Breonna Taylor and Ahmaud Arbery. Before that it was Botham Jean, Eric Garner, Philando Castile, Walter Scott, Tamir Rice, Michael Brown, Sandra Bland, Alton Sterling, Freddie Gray, Laquan McDonald. We will keep saying their names. We will keep honoring their lives. And we will keep seeking justice for their families and the families of those whose tragedies weren’t captured on video by fighting to end police brutality and the institutional racism that pervades every aspect of our society. So long as Black men and women cannot breathe, we cannot rest.”