Biden officially reaches 270 Electoral College votes, further cementing election win
14 December 2020
President-elect Joe Biden officially reached 270 Electoral College votes on Monday, further solidifying his victory even though the outcome of the election has been known for weeks.
Why it matters: The Electoral College result affirms Biden as the next president after weeks of Trump's false accusations that the election was stolen from him, dozens of failed legal challenges from the Trump campaign, and protests threatening the safety of states' electors.
- The votes will still need to be certified by a joint session of Congress on Jan. 6 overseen by Vice President Mike Pence, where he will announce the winner.
- President Trump said in November that he will leave office if the Electoral College votes for Biden, but that it would have "made a mistake" because "this election was a fraud."
The big picture: Trump's legal team and allies have repeatedly attempted to change the Electoral College's outcome. The Supreme Court last week rejected a long-shot lawsuit backed by Trump and over 120 House Republicans seeking to challenge the outcomes in key swing states, including Georgia, Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin.
- The last shot Trump has at trying to sway the election results would be for members of both chambers of Congress to challenge the certification of the Electoral College votes.
- Rep. Mo Brooks (R-Ala.) is plotting to contest the results from the House and has a small group of allies. But the effort still has no public support in the Senate.
What to watch: Biden plans to deliver an address on the Electoral College vote from Wilmington, Delaware, at 7:30pm ET.
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.