Acting Homeland Security chief says he has no authority to send agents to polling stations
23 August 2020
Acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf told CNN's "State of the Union" Sunday that — despite President Trump's claims to the contrary — his department has no authority to send law enforcement agents to polling stations on Election Day.
Why it matters: Trump told Fox News Friday there would be "sheriffs, and we're going to have law enforcement, and we're going to have, hopefully, U.S. attorneys, and we're going to have everybody, and attorney generals" at polling locations. Experts and secretaries of state have said sending federal law enforcement or any other attempts to intimidate voters would be unlawful.
What he's saying: When asked whether the president has spoken to him about sending officials to polling stations, Wolf replied: "No, absolutely he has not."
- "That's not what we do at the Department of Homeland Security. ... We have expressed authorities given to us by Congress and this is not one of them, he continued.
- "This is not a mission for the Department of Homeland Security. ... We don't have any authority to do that at the department."
The big picture: Wolf said that he has not seen any intelligence indicating that foreign powers like Russia, China and Iran are attempting to attack election infrastructure or forge mail-in ballots.
Transcripts show George Floyd told police "I can't breathe" over 20 times
Section2Newly released transcripts of bodycam footage from the Minneapolis Police Department show that George Floyd told officers he could not breathe more than 20 times in the moments leading up to his death.
Why it matters: Floyd's killing sparked a national wave of Black Lives Matter protests and an ongoing reckoning over systemic racism in the United States. The transcripts "offer one the most thorough and dramatic accounts" before Floyd's death, The New York Times writes.
The state of play: The transcripts were released as former officer Thomas Lane seeks to have the charges that he aided in Floyd's death thrown out in court, per the Times. He is one of four officers who have been charged.
- The filings also include a 60-page transcript of an interview with Lane. He said he "felt maybe that something was going on" when asked if he believed that Floyd was having a medical emergency at the time.
What the transcripts say:
- Floyd told the officers he was claustrophobic as they tried to get him into the squad car.
- The transcripts also show Floyd saying, "Momma, I love you. Tell my kids I love them. I'm dead."
- Former officer Derek Chauvin, who had his knee on Floyd's neck for over eight minutes, told Floyd, "Then stop talking, stop yelling, it takes a heck of a lot of oxygen to talk."
Read the transcripts via DocumentCloud.