Biden Cabinet confirmation schedule: When to watch hearings
18 January 2021
The first hearings for President-elect Joe Biden's Cabinet nominations begin on Tuesday, with testimony from his picks to lead the departments of State, Homeland and Defense.
Why it matters: It's been a slow start for a process that usually takes place days or weeks earlier for incoming presidents. The first slate of nominees will appear on Tuesday before a Republican-controlled Senate, but that will change once the new Democratic senators-elect from Georgia are sworn in.
The big picture: Biden's inauguration is in two days, and he plans to start his tenure with a shock-and-awe campaign through executive orders, federal powers, and speeches that signal a "radical shift" in his administration.
Schedule
Jan. 19:
- 10am: Alejandro Mayorkas, nominee for secretary of homeland security nominee, before the Senate Homeland Committee .
- 10 am: : Avril Haines, nominee for director of national intelligence, before the Senate Intelligence Committee
- 10 am: Janet Yellen, nominee for treasury secretary, before the Senate Finance Committee
- 2 pm: Antony Blinken, nominee for secretary of state, before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee
- 3 pm: Retired Gen. Lloyd Austin, nominee for defense secretary, before the Senate Armed Services Committee
This page will be updated as more hearings are scheduled.
Go deeper: Biden finalizes full slate of Cabinet secretaries
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.