Democrats call on Schumer for speedy Trump impeachment trial
15 January 2021
Democrats are in a dilemma of their own making, and now they want incoming Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer to wrap up President Trump's impeachment trial as fast as possible, two sources familiar with the discussions tell Axios.
Why it matters: The party wanted to hold the president accountable for helping incite last week's Capitol attack but the actual mechanism for doing so — a Senate trial — is a balky tool that will inhibit President-elect Joe Biden from launching his effort to heal the country and its economy.
What we’re hearing: The general view among Senate Democrats and Biden officials is that it’s in both parties’ interest not to have a drawn-out trial. They hope Republicans agree.
- Democrats, who will soon control the White House, Senate and House, want to get back to legislating and focus on Biden's plans — like the massive COVID-19 rescue package he introduced Thursday night.
- Republicans, they bet, don’t want to spend weeks litigating the attack, or draw more attention to their attempts to overturn the election results that helped fuel the riot.
But, but, but: It’s hard to streamline an archaic impeachment trial.
- Even if both sides miraculously agree to doing away with trial documents and witnesses — since some argue every member of Congress was a witness to the Capitol siege — each side's outliers can consume hours for opening arguments, questions, debate and closing arguments.
The bottom line: Many Senate Democrats don’t want to waste any more precious time on Trump, especially when an impeachment trial — his second — is unlikely to yield a conviction if incoming Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell doesn't want that result.
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.