CNN analyst Bakari Sellers appeared to shift blame towards President Donald Trump after a CNN reporter was arrested while covering riots in Minnesota.
CNN correspondent Omar Jiminez was arrested Friday morning live on-air while covering protests and riots occurring in Minneapolis over the death of George Floyd. CNN host John Berman noted that a white CNN reporter on the ground was not arrested, while Jimenez, who is black, was. (RELATED: Michael Moore, Democratic Socialists, Journalists Join Hands And Cheer Minnesota Riots)
“I just want to point out again for people who did not see it that Josh Campbell, our reporter on the ground there who is white, is still working on the scene and has not been taken into custody. Omar Jimenez who is not, is now in police custody as is his team,” Berman said.
Sellers implied that the president’s tweets were partially responsible for Jiminez’s arrest, and the violence occurring throughout Minneapolis.
“Law enforcement in Minneapolis had the audacity and the utter gall on national TV to arrest a reporter of color while doing his job and following command, but the law enforcement officer who put his knee in the back of the neck of a man and choked him for eight minutes is still free to walk around. That is what we’re talking about the justice system in America looking like,” Sellers said. “We haven’t even started talking about the tweets of the president of the United States adding just that much fire to the scenario.”
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“This is what Trump’s America looks like now,” Sellers added.
Floyd’s death has led to days of protests and riots in Minnesota after a video surfaced, showing police officers pinning Floyd to the ground, with one officer kneeling on his neck. The officers involved have been fired, and the president has ordered the Justice Department and the FBI to conduct an “expedited” investigation into Floyd’s death.
Trump has also strongly condemned riots in Minneapolis, tweeting Friday morning that he may send in the National Guard to handle “thugs” who have been rioting and looting. The president’s remarks were censored by Twitter, who accused him of “glorifying violence.”