--- title: 'I Don't Think There's Systemic Racism' NSA O'Brien Tells CNN description: National Security Advisor Robert O'Brien said on Sunday that he doesn't think systemic racism is an issue in U.S. law enforcement agencies. canonical: https://time.com/5845676/systemic-racism-national-security-advisor-robert-obrien-cnn/ author: Tara Law article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2020-05-31T16:07:03.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-10-14T09:05:09.393Z article:section: Politics og:title: 'I Don't Think There's Systemic Racism' National Security Adviser O'Brien Tells CNN og:description: He said there are "some bad apples" among police officers og:url: https://time.com/5845676/systemic-racism-national-security-advisor-robert-obrien-cnn/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb10c0ca2066bdf4e/698a0ec7b3fce36dd10c6cab/robert-obrien.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1024 og:image:height: 576 og:image:alt: President Trump and Robert O'Brien, national security advisor og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: 'I Don't Think There's Systemic Racism' National Security Adviser O'Brien Tells CNN twitter:description: He said there are "some bad apples" among police officers twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb10c0ca2066bdf4e/698a0ec7b3fce36dd10c6cab/robert-obrien.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # 'I Don't Think There's Systemic Racism' Among Law Enforcement, National Security Adviser O'Brien Tells CNN > Sponsored content. 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Named editors include Richard Hall (The Brief), Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs (Inside TIME), Eliza Berman (Worth Your Time), Philip Elliott (D.C. Brief), Justin Worland (Future Proof) and Harry Booth (In the Loop). Health Matters is written by TIME's health desk. #### How do I sign up for a TIME newsletter? Go to time.com/newsletters, choose the newsletters you want and enter your email address. There is no cost and no subscription requirement. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-network-2026q3/newsletters?i=87c29749-68c6-44f8-b5fb-cc33795ebb95&cr=time-nl-network-2026q3-v1) ## Video: 'I Don't Think There's Systemic Racism' Among Law Enforcement, National Security Adviser O'Brien Tells CNN [Watch (HLS stream): 'I Don't Think There's Systemic Racism' Among Law Enforcement, National Security Adviser O'Brien Tells CNN](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/rjcjfkcI.m3u8) (0:34)  _Published 2020-05-31. United States National Security Advisor Robert O’Brien said on Sunday that he doesn’t think systemic racism is an issue in U.S. law enforcement agencies._  by [Tara Law](https://time.com/author/tara-law/)  ## Tara Law May 31, 2020 4:07 PM UTC United States National Security Advisor Robert O’Brien said on Sunday that he doesn’t think systemic racism is an issue in U.S. law enforcement agencies.  by [Tara Law](https://time.com/author/tara-law/)  ## Tara Law May 31, 2020 4:07 PM UTC United States National Security Advisor Robert O’Brien said on Sunday that he doesn’t think systemic racism is an issue in U.S. law enforcement agencies. After days where massive [protests organized in cities](https://time.com/5845369/george-floyd-protests-malike-sidibe/) across the country against the [murder of George Floyd](https://time.com/5842687/george-floyd-killed-minneapolis-police/), O’Brien told CNN’s Jake Tapper that he doesn’t “think there’s systemic racism” amongst the police. Instead, he argued that there are some “bad cops” who may be racist or poorly trained. He argued while there are “some bad apples” among police officers, the majority of police officers are “great Americans.” > [](https://twitter.com/CNNSotu/status/1267091151556947968) “I think 99.9% of our law enforcement officers are great Americans, and many of them are African American, Hispanic, Asian,” O’Brien said. “They’re working the toughest neighborhoods, they’ve got the hardest jobs to do in this country. And I think they’re amazing, great Americans and they’re my heroes.” O’Brien said the “bad cops” must “be rooted out, because there’s a few bad apples that are giving law enforcement a terrible name. And there’s no doubt that there’s some racist police. I think they’re the minority.” “I’m just so proud of the way our law enforcement professionals are protecting us and handling the situation with restraint. And we love our law enforcement, but we do have to get rid of those like the dirty cop that killed George Floyd,” said O’Brien. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5845676/systemic-racism-national-security-advisor-robert-obrien-cnn/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5845676/systemic-racism-national-security-advisor-robert-obrien-cnn/"},"headline":"'I Don't Think There's Systemic Racism' Among Law Enforcement, National Security Adviser O'Brien Tells CNN","datePublished":"2020-05-31T16:07:03.000Z","dateModified":"2026-10-14T09:05:09.393Z","description":"He said there are \"some bad apples\" among police officers","url":"https://time.com/5845676/systemic-racism-national-security-advisor-robert-obrien-cnn/","keywords":["White House"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb10c0ca2066bdf4e/698a0ec7b3fce36dd10c6cab/robert-obrien.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Tara Law","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/tara-law/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb10c0ca2066bdf4e/698a0ec7b3fce36dd10c6cab/robert-obrien.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"President Trump and Robert O'Brien, national security advisor","caption":"President Trump and Robert O'Brien, national security advisor","creditText":"Al Drago—Bloomberg via Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/white-house/","name":"White House"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5845676/systemic-racism-national-security-advisor-robert-obrien-cnn/","name":"'I Don't Think There's Systemic Racism' Among Law Enforcement, National Security Adviser O'Brien Tells CNN"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"'I Don't Think There's Systemic Racism' Among Law Enforcement, National Security Adviser O'Brien Tells CNN","description":"United States National Security Advisor Robert O’Brien said on Sunday that he doesn’t think systemic racism is an issue in U.S. law enforcement agencies.","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/rjcjfkcI/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2020-05-31T17:01:19.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/rjcjfkcI.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/5845676/systemic-racism-national-security-advisor-robert-obrien-cnn/","duration":"PT34S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/5845676/systemic-racism-national-security-advisor-robert-obrien-cnn/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```