George W. Bush on Chauvin trial: 'I think a lot of people have already made up their mind what the verdict ought to be'

• Former President George W. Bush spoke with the "Today" show about Derek Chauvin's murder trial.
• He said that the trial had been fair and that "rule of law reigns supreme in our judiciary."
• Closing arguments took place Monday in Chauvin's trial over the death of George Floyd.

Former President George W. Bush said he thought many people had "already made up their mind" about the former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin's murder trial in the death of George Floyd.

"People know that this trial has been conducted fairly and that rule of law reigns supreme in our judiciary," Bush said in an interview on the "Today" show on Tuesday morning. "We'll see what a jury of his peers says."

Closing arguments in Chauvin's murder trial took place Monday, leaving the jury to deliberate. Video from May showed Chauvin kneeling on Floyd's neck for several minutes during an arrest.

"I think a lot of people have already made up their mind in what the verdict ought to be," Bush said of Chauvin's trial. "The thing we learned after the storming of the Capitol is that our institutions held, and one of the institutions that is really important for the confidence of the American people is a fair judicial system, and I think that's what's playing out on our TVs right now."

Bush's interview with Hoda Kotb of the "Today" show was timed to the publication Tuesday of his new book, a collection of his oil paintings and stories titled "Out of Many, One: Portraits of America's Immigrants."