- President Donald Trump said “more white people” are killed than black Americans by the police in an interview with CBS News.
- In the interview, CBS News correspondent Catherine Herridge asked: “You said that George Floyd’s death was a terrible thing. Why do African Americans continue to die at the hands of the police in this country?”
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Trump replied, “So are white people. So are white people. What a terrible question to ask. So are white people, more white people by the way, more white people.”
- White Americans have died more in police shootings in recent years, but black Americans die disproportionately at the hands of the police. They represent just 13% of the U.S. population, but they die in police shootings at about 2.5 times the rate of white citizens.
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President Donald Trump said “more white people” are killed by police at the hands of African-Americans when asked why so many African-Americans are dying in encounters with the police.
Trump made the comments in an interview with CBS News correspondent Catherine Herridge, which will air entirely on CBS Evening News.
In recent weeks, historic protests of racism and police brutality have occurred across the United States in response to the deaths of several African-Americans in police encounters, including George Floyd, who died in Minneapolis in late May after a Police officer immobilized neck with knee for more than eight minutes.
All four officers involved in Floyd’s death have been fired and charged with criminal offenses.
In the interview, Herridge asked, “You said that George Floyd’s death was a terrible thing. Why do African Americans continue to die at the hands of the police in this country?”
Trump replied, “So are white people. So are white people. What a terrible question to ask. So are white people, more white people by the way, more white people.”
—Ed O’Keefe (@edokeefe) July 14, 2020
In absolute numbers, more white Americans than black Americans have died in police encounters in recent years, according to a Washington Post investigation and a database of police shootings.
As Insider noted in June, the Post’s investigation found that while white Americans made up half of those killed by police shootings between 2015 and 2020, black Americans have been killed in police shootings at about 2.5 times the rate of white Americans. African Americans make up about 13% of the United States population, while whites are 73%.
While the Post’s database only tracks shootings and not incidents like Floyd’s death that did not involve a weapon, it did reveal marked racial disparities in the rates at which Americans are killed by police.
Post data found that 31 out of every million African Americans have died in police shootings compared to 23 for every million Hispanics and 13 for every million white Americans.
