30 June 2020
Laying out his plans to combat the coronavirus during a speech on Tuesday, Joe Biden stared into the camera, addressed President Trump and questioned his fitness to lead the nation: "America needs a president."
The state of play: The former vice president pleaded with Trump to wear a mask, institute a national plan for reopening the country and economy, and unite the American people amid the pandemic.
- "The crisis is real and it’s surging, Mr. President. America knows that this crisis isn’t behind us, even if you don’t," Biden said.
- "The American people didn’t make enormous sacrifices over the past four months so you could waste your time with late-night rantings and tweets," he added.
The big picture: Biden used the address in Wilmington, Delaware, with a giant American flag as his backdrop, to explain how he would handle the coronavirus differently than Trump.
- His coronavirus plan was an updated version of the one he first unveiled in March, but he salted it with criticism of what the president has done since then and focused on the country's rising caseload.
- He also promised to keep Anthony Fauci in government to help him respond to the crisis.
The other side: The Trump campaign fired back and said Biden "botched" his criticism.
- "The United States leads the world in coronavirus testing, with more than 22 million tests completed and nearly half a million new tests being conducted per day," the Trump campaign said in an email blast.
- Reality check: Public health experts have argued that the country needs to reach 900,000 tests per day in order to reach targets necessary to begin containing the virus.
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.