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Dem-aligned group targets Manchin and Collins in push to fire up infrastructure support

05 April 2021
 Dan Ackermann

A Democrat-aligned advocacy group is kicking off a six-figure campaign backing President Biden's mammoth infrastructure spending measure — starting with ads targeting constituents of Sens. Joe Manchin and Susan Collins — the group tells Axios.

Why it matters: The American Working Families Action Fund (AWFAF) is the first group to announce the launch of an independent digital and TV advertising effort aimed at selling the proposal to Congress and the public.

  • It will include a trio of videos and TV and digital ads targeting residents of Maine and West Virginia, states represented by Manchin, a Democrat, and Collins, a Republican — two senators crucial to the measure's fate.
  • The move comes as the George Soros-backed Open Society Foundations pledged $20 million to rally grassroots organizations in support of Biden's plans, as Axios first reported.
  • AWFAF is run by Democratic media consultant Bud Jackson. It's the nonprofit arm of the American Working Families super PAC, which dropped more than $1 million last year backing Rep. Richie Neal, the Massachusetts Democrat who chairs the powerful House Ways and Means Committee.

How it works: The AWFAF ads seek to tie the infrastructure push to the country's emergence from the coronavirus pandemic. "The virus knocked us down, but we're coming back America Strong," the ads declare.

  • The ads direct visitors to a new petition website, BuildBackUSA.com, where they can write letters to their members of Congress urging support.
  • AWFAF spokesperson Chris Keohan said the group is putting a six-figure sum behind the campaign, though he said fundraising is ongoing. Its will include digital ads and a round of TV spots set to begin airing in West Virginia, Maine, and D.C. on Wednesday.

What they're saying: “If any congressional member fails to negotiate in good faith and works only as an obstruction to the American Jobs Act, we will make certain that their constituents know about it,” Keohan said in a statement.

  • He told Axios in an interview that the group has "started to have initial conversations with folks tied to the administration" about the group's advocacy efforts.
  • Republican opponents of the effort say Biden's proposal goes far beyond projects traditionally associated with "infrastructure."
  • "I would absolutely agree that it's more than roads and bridges and airports," Keohan told Axios. "We're talking about an entirely new economy that we're in...This redefines the way we think about infrastructure."

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.