David Perdue will not run for Senate in Georgia in 2022
23 February 2021
Former Sen. David Perdue (R-Ga.) announced Tuesday that he will not enter the race for U.S. Senate in Georgia in 2022.
Why it matters: The 2022 election will play a key role in determining which party controls the Senate after Republicans — including Perdue — lost two Georgia seats to Democrats during last month's dual runoffs.
- Perdue ran in a tighter race against now-Sen. Jon Ossoff than his fellow Republican incumbent Kelly Loeffer did against now-Sen. Raphael Warnock.
- Since Warnock ran in a special election, he will be up for re-election in 2022. Loeffler and former Rep. Doug Collins are among the Republicans considering a challenge.
What they're saying: "This is a personal decision, not a political one. I am confident that whoever wins the Republican Primary next year will defeat the Democrat candidate in the General election for this seat, and I will do everything I can to make that happen," Perdue said in a statement.
- "As we saw in my race in November, Georgia is not a blue state. The more Georgians that vote, the better Republicans do. These two current liberal US Senators do not represent the values of a majority of Georgians."
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.