WASHINGTON – President Joe Biden said George Floyd's death illustrated the systemic racism that is a "stain on our nation's soul."
And even after a jury found former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin guilty Tuesday on all three counts in Floyd's killing, the president made clear the United States has much work ahead to achieve racial justice.
"No one should be above the law and today's verdict sends that message," Biden said. "But it's not enough. We can't stop here."
"In order to deliver real change and reform, we can and we must do more to reduce the likelihood" that similar tragedies happen again, said the Democratic president.
While Tuesday allowed for "a sigh of relief," Vice President Kamala Harris said "a measure of justice isn't the same as equal justice."
"This verdict brings us a step closer, and the fact is we still have work to do," Harris said. "We still must reform the system."
In their remarks to the nation, both Biden and Harris repeated their push for the Senate to pass the police reform bill written by Democrats called the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act. However, that package, which has cleared the House, appears doomed in the Senate given the fierce GOP opposition to the wide-ranging changes championed by the left.
Before Biden and Harris spoke Tuesday night, Floyd family attorney Benjamin Crump tweeted a video of Biden and Harris on the phone with the family after the guilty verdicts were announced.
The president could be heard saying that "we're all so relieved."
Harris added, "We really do believe that with your leadership and the president that we have in the White House, that we're going to make something good come out of this tragedy."
"The guilty verdict does not bring back George," Biden said Tuesday night.
"But through the family's pain, they're finding purpose, so George's legacy will not be just about his death, but about what we must do in his memory."
