Gayle King became emotional on CBS This Morning as she discussed several recent racially charged incidents that had been captured on video. King’s emotional remarks came at the end of a segment focused on two recent incidents involving black men. The most recent was a viral video of a white woman who called the police to falsely allege that a black man was threatening her life while he filmed her for walking her dog without a leash in Central Park.
“I am really, really speechless about what we’re seeing on television this morning,” King said.
The other incident featured in the segment was of a black man who died after a Minneapolis police officer pressed his knee on the man’s neck as he was being arrested on suspicion of forgery. In the video of the incident, George Floyd, the man being arrested, can be heard saying “I can’t breathe.”
“It feels to me like open season…and that sometimes it’s not a safe place to be in this country for black men,” King continued, clearly shaken by the videos.
King also acknowledged her own identity, saying that the Minneapolis video had left her feeling uneasy.
“As the daughter of a black man and the mother of a black man, this is really too much for me today. I’m still rattled by that last story,” she said.
WATCH: Video of a white woman calling police on a black man in New York City’s Central Park is getting a lot of attention. @VladDuthiersCBS explains. pic.twitter.com/mg1wwOSItl
— CBS Mornings (@CBSMornings) May 26, 2020
The CBS This Morning host then turned her comments back to the Central Park story and noted that Amy Cooper, the woman who called the police, appeared to be so desperate to get the man filming her in trouble that she can be seen causing her dog to choke on his leash as she attempts to call 911. King said that she was “practically strangling” her dog in order to make the false allegations.
King continued by saying that the two stories together painted an alarming picture. The host concluded by saying that she didn’t “even know what to do or how to handle this at this particular time.”
Since King made her comments this morning, Amy Cooper has been fired from her job at Franklin Templeton following the incident, according to NPR . She also issued a public apology and said that she didn’t mean harm to anyone in the African American community.
In a statement posted to its Twitter account, Franklin Templeton wrote that it takes matters like this seriously, and does not condone racism of any kind. Following an internal review, the company announced that Cooper would be terminated “effective immediately.”
