Biden on coronavirus vaccine: Don't trust Trump
07 September 2020
Joe Biden and Kamala Harris both warned Americans this holiday weekend to be skeptical of anything Trump says about a potential coronavirus vaccine, saying they’ll take their cues from scientists and not the president.
Why it matters: The Democratic ticket is trying to strike the right balance — they want to warn that Trump may be making premature claims for political gain, but they don’t want t0 dissuade Americans from actually using a vaccine once one is safe and available.
- At an AFL-CIO virtual town hall, Biden said he would take a vaccine only if Trump had been “completely transparent and other experts in the country could look at it.”
Driving the news: Trump is attacking Biden and Harris for expressing concern that the president might accelerate the introduction of a vaccine for political reason.
- On Monday, Trump called on his opponents to “immediately apologize for the reckless anti-vaccine rhetoric that they’re talking right now.”
Between the lines. Trump continues to hint that there could be a vaccine before the November election. At a press conference in New Jersey he teased that there could be a “very big surprise coming up.”
- Both Biden and Harris want to project optimism about the prospects for a vaccine, without creating an echo chamber for Trump's enthusiasm.
- “If I could get a vaccine tomorrow I’d do it,” Biden said earlier today . “If it cost me the election I’d do it. We need a vaccine and we need it now.”
- On Sunday, Harris told CNN: “I would not trust Donald Trump and it would have to be a credible source of information that talks about the efficacy and the reliability of whatever he’s talking about.”
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.