Trevor Noah started his interview with presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden on Wednesday's Daily Show by asking about systemic racism, a topic Biden had addressed in a USA Today op-ed Wednesday. "It's gonna take time," Biden said. "Donald Trump didn't invent racism, but he sure has promoted it." But what really fueled the civil rights movement in the 1960s was television, he said, and now "not only should cops be wearing a body cam, everybody had a body cam, everybody has a cellphone," and one reason George Floyd's death was so "consequential" and "one of those inflection points" is that we all saw him say his last words and breathe his last breath.
Noah asked if Biden thought police departments could be reformed and if they should be defunded. Biden said he thinks "fundamental changes" can be made "without having to defund police completely," He noted that 90 percent of police budgets come from local governments, and said what the federal government can do is use its leverage to ensure police publicly report all police misconduct, adhere to a prospective "national use of force standard," end jail for drug use and reduce (but not end) their role in addressing homelessness and mental illness.
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