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President Biden said in an interview with ABC Wednesday that he believes Vladimir Putin is a "killer," and promised that the Russian president will "pay a price" for interfering in the 2020 U.S. elections.

Why it matters: Biden has pledged to take a hard line against the Kremlin, which has a history of attempting to assassinate and imprison dissidents and political opponents.

  • The U.S. intelligence community released a report on Tuesday assessing that Putin authorized election influence operations aimed at denigrating Biden's candidacy, supporting former President Trump, undermining public confidence in the election and sowing divisions.
  • The U.S. also sanctioned seven senior Russian officials earlier this month over the poisoning and jailing of opposition leader Alexey Navalny, who is currently serving out a sentence in a remote Russian labor camp.

What they're saying: While Biden confirmed that he does believe Putin is a killer, he also added that it's possible to "walk and chew gum at the same time for places where it's in our mutual interest to to work together" — addressing his decision to extend the New START nuclear arms control pact earlier this year.

  • "He will pay a price. We had a long talk, he and I. I know him relatively well and the conversation started off, I said, 'I know you and you know me. If I establish this occurred then be prepared,'" Biden said when asked how the U.S. should respond to Russia's election interference.

Referencing President George W. Bush'sfamous comments about getting a "sense" of Putin's "soul," Biden told ABC: "I said, 'I looked in your eyes and I don't think you have a soul.' He looked back and said we understand each other."

  • "Look, the most important thing in dealing with foreign leaders in my experience, and I've dealt with an awful lot of them in my career, is just know the other guy."

Flashback: Former President Trump said in a 2017 interview with Fox News' Bill O'Reilly that he has "respect" for Putin.

  • O'Reilly responded that "Putin is a killer," to which Trump said: "There are a lot of killers. We have a lot of killers. Well, you think our country is so innocent?"

Transcripts show George Floyd told police "I can't breathe" over 20 times

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Newly 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.