President Donald Trump sent mixed messages about the hot button issue of police chokeholds during a sprawling Fox News interview Friday, in which it appeared he couldn't quite decide whether or not the controversial action should be allowed.
"The concept of chokehold sounds so innocent, so perfect and then you realize, if it's a one-on-one, now if it's two-on-one that's a little bit of a different story depending, depending on the toughness and strength ... there's a physical thing here also," Trump said.
He continued: "With that being said, it would be, I think, a very good thing that generally speaking it should be ended."
Trump's decisively imprecise assessment comes as federal and state lawmakers across the country are seeking to ban police from using chokeholds in light of George Floyd dying from a white Minneapolis cop kneeling on his neck for eight minutes and 46 seconds.
In New York, Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed a slate of police reform bills into law Friday, including the "Eric Garner Act," which outlaws chokeholds in the state and allows prosecutors to criminally charge cops who use them.
Garner was killed after then-New York Police Department Officer Daniel Pantaleo put him in a chokehold on Staten Island in 2014. His desperate final plea for help _ "I can't breathe" _ set off the Black Lives Matter movement.
Meanwhile, congressional Democrats introduced a sweeping package of police reforms this week that includes a national ban on chokeholds.
But Trump suggested cops can sometimes be in "a very tricky situation" where a chokehold is the only way out.
"I don't like chokeholds," he said before positing a scenario where an officer is "in a bad scuffle and he's got somebody" by the neck.
"What are you gonna do now _ let go?" he added.
Since Floyd's death, momentum for police reform has reached a fever pitch, with Republicans and Democrats largely agreeing that American policing needs to be overhauled.
But Trump has taken a more hands-off approach.
On Thursday, he unveiled a plan for combating police brutality that had as its main component a forthcoming executive order encouraging police to use "force with compassion."
Nonetheless, Trump proclaimed in the Friday interview that he's "done more for the black community than any other president," with the caveat that Abraham Lincoln "did good although it's always questionable."
Harris Faulkner, the black Fox News correspondent who interviewed the president, interjected: "Well, we are free, Mr. President. He did pretty well."
"You understand what I mean," Trump shot back.
