'Given the fact I have two Black children, that was very, very personal for my family’: Amy Coney Barrett talks about her reaction to George Floyd’s death
Judge Amy Coney Barrett says she cried with her daughter when she saw the video of the police killing of George Floyd.
Speaking before the Senate Judiciary Committee on the second day of confirmation hearings, the conservative Supreme Court nominee related that she first watched the disturbing video of a Minneapolis police officer with his knee on Floyd’s neck with her Haitian-born adopted daughter, who is Black.
“Given the fact I have two black children that was very, very personal for my family,” Barrett said.
Barrett recalled being at home alone with her seven children, including 17-year-old Vivian, when the video spread across the nation around Memorial Day weekend.
“All of this was erupting. It was very difficult for her,” Barrett said. “We wept together in my room.”
Even though she refused to discuss how she might rule on individual cases, the judge suggested that being the mother of two Black children as well as five white ones might make her more sensitive to the impact of racism in America.
“For Vivian .... to understand there would be a risk to her brother or son she might have one day, of that kind of brutality has been an ongoing conversation," Barrett said. "It’s a difficult one like it is for Americans all over the country.”
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