Biden: "I am confident we'll emerge victorious"
04 November 2020
Former Vice President Joe Biden said in a speech from Wilmington, Delaware on Wednesday afternoon that he’s not ready to declare victory yet, but “when the count is finished, we believe we will be the winners.”
The big picture: Neither Biden nor President Trump have secured the necessary 270 electoral college votes to claim a win. Biden currently has 248 electoral votes, while Trump has 214.
- AP has not projected the results in the key battleground states of Pennsylvania, Georgia, North Carolina, Michigan or Nevada.
What he's saying: "Only three presidential campaigns in the past have defeated an incumbent president. When it's finished, God willing, we'll be the fourth," Biden said.
- "Michigan will complete its vote soon, maybe as soon as today, and I feel very good about Pennsylvania ... Every vote must be counted."
- In response to Trump's false and premature claim of victory, Biden said: "No one's going to take our democracy away from us, not now, not ever."
- The former VP vowed to reach across the aisle, saying the presidency “itself is not a partisan institution.”
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.