Social media gasps as Nancy Pelosi thanks George Floyd ‘for sacrificing your life for justice’
Nancy Pelosi #NancyPelosi
Benjamin Wermund, Washington Correspondent
April 20, 2021Updated: April 20, 2021 6:57 p.m.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of Calif., speaks as Chairwoman of the Congressional Black Caucus, Rep. Joyce Beatty, D-Ohio, right, and other members of the Congressional Black Caucus listen, on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, April 20, 2021, after the jury convicted former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin of murder and manslaughter in the death of George Floyd. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)
Jose Luis Magana, FRE / Associated Press
People on social media collectively gasped as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi thanked George Floyd “for sacrificing your life for justice” directly after the police officer who killed him was convicted of murder on Tuesday.
“Thank you George Floyd for sacrificing your life for justice, for being there to call out to your mom — how heartbreaking was that — call out for your mom, ‘I can’t breathe,’” Pelosi said at a news conference with the Congressional Black Caucus following the verdict. “But because of you and because of thousands, millions of people around the world who came out for justice, your name will always be synonymous with justice.”
“Nancy Pelosi thanks George Floyd for being murdered,” was how one Huffington Post editor described it.
“Did Pelosi just say ‘George Floyd, thank u 4 sacrificing your life for justice’? He did not SACRIFICE his life. His life was violently taken,” historian and writer Barbara Ransby tweeted.
“The Pelosi quote is what happens when you let that time you wore kente cloth once go to your head,” screenwriter Kashana Cauley tweeted.
As her comments from the news conference went viral, Pelosi tried to clarify: “George Floyd should be alive today. His family’s calls for justice for his murder were heard around the world. He did not die in vain. We must make sure other families don’t suffer the same racism, violence & pain, and we must enact the George Floyd #JusticeInPolicing Act.”
ben.wermund@chron.com
Benjamin Wermund is the Houston Chronicle’s Washington correspondent. He previously covered federal education policy and national education issues at POLITICO, and before that covered higher education at the Chronicle and K-12 education at the Austin American-Statesman. He’s a Texas native and a diehard Spurs fan.