08 January 2021
U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos has submitted her resignation to President Trump, a day after "March for Trump" protesters invaded the U.S. Capitol building, Axios' Alayna Treene confirmed with a White House official with direct knowledge.
Why it matters: DeVos is the second Cabinet secretary to exit the administration in the wake of the deadly Capitol riot. Former Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao left the administration earlier Thursday.
What she's saying: “There is no mistaking the impact your rhetoric had on the situation, and it is the inflection point for me,” DeVos said in her letter to the president on Thursday.
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.