President Biden will mark the anniversary of George Floyd’s murder by welcoming his family to the White House — as top lawmakers fail to reach a deal on police reform by the commander-in-chief’s self-imposed Tuesday deadline.
Before heading to the White House, the Floyd family will spend the day in meetings at the Capitol with lawmakers, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) and Rep. Karen Bass (D-Calif.).
Booker and Bass have represented Democrats in negotiating a bipartisan police reform package with Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC).
Reps for Scott did not respond to The Post’s request for comment on whether he planned to meet the Floyd family during their DC visit Tuesday.
While Scott, Booker and Bass were unable to reach a deal by Biden’s initial deadline, the three released a statement Monday night expressing confidence that they would soon reach a deal.
“One year ago, George Floyd’s murder awakened millions of people around the world who had never before witnessed the deadly consequences of the failures in our policing system,” the group said. “This anniversary serves as a painful reminder of why we must make meaningful change.”
“While we are still working through our differences on key issues, we continue to make progress toward a compromise and remain optimistic about the prospects of achieving that goal.”
With a deal not expected right away, Biden and Harris will mark the day by issuing statements in support of the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act — House Democrats’ version of police reform legislation that does not have the necessary support to pass the Senate — and by privately meeting with his grieving family.
Asked about the meeting during a briefing Monday, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said the meeting would be closed to the media out of respect for the Floyds.
“He wanted this meeting to be private in order to have a real conversation and preserve that with the family. He has a genuine relationship with them,” Psaki noted. “So, he’s eager to listen to their perspectives and hear what they have to say during this meeting.”
As for what the family will likely have to say, Floyd family attorney Benjamin Crump told CNN in an interview Tuesday morning that they intended to call on the federal government to come together and pass some type of police reform.
“Our message is let’s don’t squander this moment. Now is the time to act. Let’s do it in the name of George Floyd,” Crump told the network.
The civil rights attorney declined to identify which lawmakers the family would be meeting with, while confirming that meetings with members of Congress were planned.
Speaking to reporters Monday night after releasing their joint statement, Scott and Booker offered a glimpse into the progress on negotiations.
“We continue to work on the process, and I think we have good, good progress over the weekend I thought, and I think we can see the end of the tunnel,” Scott said, adding that while the group would not have a deal this week, “I think we’re starting to see a frame.”
“We made a lot of progress over the weekend. So, we still have a lot of work to do. But the great thing about this bill is that, that everybody wants to get something really meaningful done,” Booker told reporters. “And I was grateful for the amount of work that we’ve done.”
That progress was nearly put in jeopardy last week when every member of the progressive “Squad” in the House penned a letter to congressional leadership demanding that qualified immunity, the doctrine that shields law enforcement officers from personal liability, be abolished in any police reform package.
“We are concerned by recent discussions that the provision ending qualified immunity for local, state, and federal law enforcement may be removed in order to strike a bipartisan deal in the Senate,” the group wrote.
“Given that police violence, as a weapon of structural racism, continues to have devastating and deadly consequences for Black and brown lives across our country, we strongly urge you to not only maintain but strengthen the provision eliminating qualified immunity as negotiations in the Senate continue.”
It is not clear how the negotiators will respond to such a demand.
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