Biden remembers George Floyd on his 50th birthday, calls for Congress to pass meaningful police reform

Written by ABC Audio ALL RIGHTS RESERVED on October 16, 2023

President Biden honored George Floyd on what would’ve been his 50th birthday, releasing a statement in which he promised to continue to fight for police accountability.

“George Floyd should be alive. He should be celebrating his 50th birthday with his young daughter Gianna, family, and friends. He deserved so much more,” Biden said in his October 14 White House note.

Writing in commemoration of Floyd, who was murdered by Minneapolis police in 2020, Biden said, “We remember the tragedy and injustice of his death that sparked one of the largest civil rights movements in our nation’s history and inspired the world.”

He added that Floyd’s death, which prompted a nationwide social justice reckoning, “exposed for many what Black and Brown communities have long known and experienced — that our nation has never fully lived up to its highest ideal of fair and impartial justice for all under the law.”

The president revisited words Floyd’s daughter Gianna told him three days before her father’s funeral: “Daddy changed the world.” His response to her then is the same now, he said: “he has.”

Biden then delved into the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, an executive order he signed to hold police and law enforcement officials accountable.

He said the order, which bans chokeholds and restricts no-knock warrants among other regulations, is unfinished business without the support of Congress.

“I will continue to do everything in my power to fight for police accountability and urge Congress to pass meaningful police reform and send it to my desk. I will sign it,” he wrote.

He ended his note writing that Floyd’s memory “reminds us that there is more work to do … to ensure our nation lives up to its founding idea: that we’re all created equal.”