The rapper and businessman, Kanye West, appeared on a recent edition of the podcast "Drink Champs," in which he discusses George Floyd's death and other matters.
“I watched the George Floyd documentary that Candace Owens put out. One of the things that his two roommates said was they want a tall guy like me, and the day that he died, he said a prayer for eight minutes,” West said. “They hit him with the fentanyl. If you look, the guy’s knee wasn’t even on his neck like that.”
According to Chauvin's trial testimony by the medical examiner who performed Floyd's autopsy and stood by his initial finding that his death was the result of "cardiopulmonary arrest" that occurred during "law enforcement subdual, restraint, and neck compression," former Minnesota police officer Derek Chauvin knelt on Floyd's neck.
During his testimony, Hennepin County Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Andrew Baker stated that Floyd's heart problems and fentanyl usage were both contributing reasons to his death, but not the primary cause.
Lee Merritt, a civil rights attorney who has represented the Floyd family, tweeted on Sunday that they are exploring legal action against West.
“I have put together a working team to investigate [West’s] statements and to investigate the source of those statements,” Merritt stated.
West's comments on Floyd come in the wake of outrage over recent anti-Semitic social media statements by West, as well as his choice to outfit himself and several models in "White Lives Matter" shirts during a recent fashion show.
The video showed Chauvin kneeling on Floyd's neck for further than eight minutes igniting worldwide outrage and cries for justice.
Chauvin was sentenced to 22 and a half years in jail in April 2021 after being convicted of second-degree unintentional murder, third-degree murder, and second-degree manslaughter.