04 November 2020
With Joe Biden closing in on 270 electoral votes, the Trump campaign filed a flurry of ballot-related lawsuits that legal experts say are unlikely to produce a Bush v. Gore sequel.
The state of play: Biden will win Wisconsin, the AP projected this afternoon. Biden will also win Michigan, the AP projected. Biden can clear 270 electoral votes by hanging on in Nevada and Arizona — or winning Pennsylvania.
Biden sought to portray himself as president-elect and healer-in-chief in an afternoon speech that included nod to Barack Obama, Trump and swing voters, Axios' Margaret Talev says.
- Biden said that "power can't be taken or asserted" and he wouldn't let Americans be "bullied," adding, "Every vote must be counted."
- "I'm not here to declare that we've won," he said. "But I am here to report that when the count is finished, we believe we will be the winners."
Biden compared his margins to Trump's narrow 2016 margins, noted how unusual it is to beat an incumbent, and noted the Biden-Harris ticket is on track to eclipse the popular vote totals of any ticket in U.S. history.
- Americans must stop treating political opponents as enemies, he said. "We are not enemies. ... I will govern as an American president."
Between the lines: Experts say they simply don’t yet see strong vehicles emerging for a scenario where Supreme Court justices decide the next president, although it’s too early to reach firm conclusions while votes are still being counted, Axios’ Sam Baker and Stef Kight report.
- In Wisconsin, the Trump campaign has already said it intends to seek a recount. The state's 2016 recount ended up only changing 131 votes. Biden's current margin is more than 20,000 votes.
- In Michigan, the campaign is suing for access to vote-counting operations, and to stop the counting until then. They are filing a similar suit in Pennsylvania.
In Pennsylvania, the biggest controversy is the state's decision to count mail-in ballots that were mailed by Nov. 3, but arrived later. A challenge to that extension is already pending at the Supreme Court.
- Four conservative Supreme Court justices have already expressed deep misgivings about extended ballot deadlines, and the court could take up a challenge to Pennsylvania’s extension at any time.
- But that’s only likely to happen, experts said, if those late-arriving votes are the tipping point in Pennsylvania — and if Pennsylvania is the tipping point nationwide.
- While the overall number of mail-in ballots this year is huge, the number of late-arriving mail-in ballots is believed to be pretty small.
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.