House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) said he would support a police chokehold ban, which was proposed in a police reform package put forward by House Democrats on Monday.
His support for the ban came to light while taking questions from reporters during a press briefing on Thursday. McCarthy added that putting someone in a chokehold while handcuffed was especially troubling and for that “there should be severe consequences.”
McCarthy’s remarks come after a police reform bill drafted by the Congressional Black Caucus proposed an assortment of additional reforms earlier this week, such as outlawing no-knock warrants, requiring federal law enforcement officers to wear body cameras and conducting independent investigations into police departments that demonstrate a pattern of misconduct.
McCarthy also said that House Republicans would be submitting their own legislative proposal for police reform. Senate Republicans nominated the party’s only black senator — Tim Scott (R-SC) — to head up a Republican proposal for reforming the police in the aftermath of protests that fault police brutality for the death of George Floyd in police custody in Minneapolis on May 25.
Scott has been at work on the “Justice Act” package and said in an NBC News interview with Craig Melvin on Thursday that he has been working on police reform since 2015, following the death of Walter Scott, who was shot in the back five times by a North Charleston police officer.
McCarthy said that House Republicans would be meeting to work together with Scott on Thursday, to outline a policy agenda in what could be a joint proposal.
