Official White House Photo by Shealah CraigheadBy BEN GITTLESON and JORDYN PHELPS, ABC News
(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump said Friday he has watched the video of the fatal shooting of Ahmaud Arbery, an unarmed black man in Georgia, and called it “very disturbing.”
“I saw the tape, and it’s very, very disturbing. The tape. I got to see it. It’s very disturbing,” he said of the video, which has triggered national outrage.
The cellphone video shows Arbery, 25, appearing to be jogging by two white men in a pickup truck in February when, after a brief struggle, he was shot and killed.
A father and son, Gregory McMichael, 64, and Travis McMichael, 34, have been arrested and charged with murder and aggravated assault after state investigators took over the case from county officials.
Trump told Fox and Friends he had also seen a photo of Arbery wearing a tuxedo and that he “looks like a really good young guy.”
“It’s a very disturbing situation to me, and I just, you know, my heart goes out to the parents and the family and the friends,” he said.
Trump put his faith in Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, a Republican with whom Trump has publicly tussled over Kemp’s plans to roll back coronavirus-related restrictions.
“They have a good governor in the state and he’s going to — very good governor, actually — and he’s going to be looking at it very strongly, and he’s going to do what’s right, but it’s a heartbreaking thing. That was very rough. Rough stuff,” Trump said.
“Justice getting done is the thing that solves that problem,” Trump said, when asked about how to avoid a “racial situation.”
“And again, it’s in the hands of the governor, and I’m sure he’ll do the right thing,” he said.
Trump said there could be something that happened nearby that couldn’t be seen on the video, suggesting that law enforcement needed to fully examine what happened.
“But it was troubling, I mean, to anybody that watched it, certainly it was a disturbing or troubling video, no question about that,” he said.
“But they have very good law enforcement in the state of Georgia, and I’m sure they’re going to come up with exactly what happened. It’s a sad, it’s a sad thing. Very sad thing. I hate to see that,” he said.
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