ABC "This Week" - TRANSCRIPT 'This Week' Transcript 1-29-23: Ben Crump, Sen. Dick Durbin & Rep. Mike Turner

Interview

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RADDATZ: Now let's bring in the chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Senator Dick Durbin.

Good morning, Senator.

What was your reaction to the video of Tyre Nichols?

SEN. DICK DURBIN, JUDICIARY COMMITTEE CHAIR, MAJORITY WHIP & (D) ILLINOIS: Heartbreak. It was horrible. Inhumane. My heart goes out to the Tyre Nichols' family to think that their son went through this. And it just tells us that we live in an age now, with video cameras and with DNA evidence where our system of justice and law enforcement is under greater scrutiny, as it should be.

I'd say this -- make sure it's a record too, and that is the vast majority of law enforcement that I know and work with and talk to find the scenes in Minneapolis with George Floyd and this situation in Memphis with Tyre Nichols absolutely terrible. There's no defense by the good and able people who do defend us every day.

But this is a call for all of us to really be honest about the situation. I'm chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee. We do many pieces of legislation. I think of the police reform package that Senator Booker was working on with Senator Scott. It had many elements in it that are important, banning chokeholds, dealing with no-warrant searches, dealing with accreditation of police departments. It's necessary that we do all these things, but not sufficient. We need a national conversation.

RADDATZ: Senator, I want a -- aside from that conversation, you have called passing police reform in Congress a personal priority. You've been in Congress 40 years. You were there when the Rodney King video came out in '91, spoke about how horrific it was then, and yet there really has not been anything passed that would prevent this.

DURBIN: Understand that law enforcement by and large is a state and local responsibility. That does not absolve us. Under the federal constitution, we have standards, due process standards and others, that we are responsible for. But we need a national conversation on this. We do not need denial or willful indifference. And I think it will include the elements that I mentioned earlier but be larger in scope. We've got to talk about keeping America safe, but doing it in a humane, sensible, rational fashion.

RADDATZ: Republican Senator Tim Scott, who you mentioned, blamed Democrats were squandering an opportunity to pass those reforms you talked about. Both parties did agree on those in 2021, like banning chokeholds and increased mental health resources. Why not pass what was already agreed upon? Isn't something better than nothing?

DURBIN: It's the right starting point. And Senator Booker, chairman of the Crime Subcommittee, has been working on this for years. I think he and Senator Scott should sit down again quickly to see if we can revive that effort.

But that in and of itself is not enough. We need a national conversation about policing in a responsible, constitutional, and humane way. These men and women with badges put them on each day and risk their lives for us. I know that. But we also see from these videos horrible conduct by these same officers in unacceptable situations. We've got to change this for the better.

RADDATZ: And -- and, Senator, we've talked about the fact that the Memphis Police had already implemented reforms after the George Floyd killing, including a requirement to de-escalate or intervene if they saw others using excessive force. Aside from this conversation, how do you change that culture?

DURBIN: By screening, by training, by accreditation to up the game so that the people who have this responsibility to keep us safe really are stable and approaching this in a professional manner. What we saw on the streets of Memphis was just inhumane and horrible.

I don't know what created this -- this rage in these police officers, that they would congratulate themselves for beating a man to death. But that is literally what happened.

RADDATZ: And there are calls for a federal investigation into the entire Memphis Police Department, not just this specific incident. Do you think that should happen?

DURBIN: I would not rule that out. But I would say that we have to be honest about this, when it happens in Minnesota when it happens in Tennessee, and it happens on the streets of Chicago. We've got to be very honest about it. There are good policemen out there risking their lives for us, but there are those who should not be on the force and are just not made for the job, and we see their prejudice.

One of the things we insisted on and worked toward was diversity in the ranks, and yet Memphis has called that into question. So let's get down to the basics here in terms of the protection that Americans want to have in their communities, and let's be honest about the real situation, which Ben Crump described earlier.

RADDATZ: OK. Thanks very much for joining us this morning, Senator. We appreciate it.

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