Biden to pick Jaime Harrison to head Democratic National Committee
14 January 2021
President-elect Biden plans to pick former South Carolina Senate candidate Jaime Harrison to chair the Democratic National Committee, Axios has confirmed.
Why it matters: Harrison rose to national prominence while running in 2020 to unseat Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), a close ally of President Trump. The Democrat smashed the all-time Senate fundraising record by raising $57 million in the third quarter of 2020, but ultimately lost to Graham by 10 points.
- House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.), whose endorsement of Biden before the South Carolina helped him secure the Democratic nomination, had pushed for the president-elect to choose Harrison to lead the DNC.
- Harrison previously served as chair for the South Carolina Democratic Party and ran for the national committee role in 2016 before bowing out to Tom Perez.
The big picture: Harrison, who recently launched a PAC focused on long-term investments in areas seen as Democratic reaches, will be tasked with defending the Democrats' narrow majorities in the House and Senate in 2022.
Go deeper ... Jaime Harrison: "We have to transform the Democratic Party"
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.