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Georgia Gov. Kemp declines Trump's request to overturn Biden's election win

05 December 2020
Dan Ackermann

Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp pushed back on Saturday after President Trump pressed him to help overturn the state's election results.

Driving the news: Trump asked the Republican governor over the phone Saturday to call a special legislative session aimed at overturning the presidential election results in Georgia, per the Washington Post. Kemp refused.

  • The president also took to Twitter, claiming, without evidence, "I will easily & quickly win Georgia if Governor [Kemp] or the Secretary of State permit a simple signature verification. Has not been done and will show large scale discrepancies. Why are these two 'Republicans' saying no? If we win Georgia, everything else falls in place!" (He was also referring to Arizona's Republican governor,Doug Ducey)
  • Kemp then pushed back, tweeting: "As I told the President this morning, I’ve publicly called for a signature audit three times (11/20, 11/24, 12/3) to restore confidence in our election process and to ensure that only legal votes are counted in Georgia. #gapol"
  • But that didn't stop Trump, who again demanded that Kemp call a special legislative session, tweeting: "Republicans will NEVER forget this!"

The big picture: Trump, who has refused to concede to President-elect Joe Biden, continues to claim, without evidence, that widespread election fraud took place in Georgia and other states.

  • Secretaries of state and election officials throughout the U.S. have reported no instances of widespread voter fraud, whether in-person or mail-in voting.
  • Trump is traveling to Georgia on Saturday night to campaign for Sens. Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue, who face runoffs on Jan. 5 that will determine control of the Senate.

Go deeper: Conspiracy theories blow back on Trump's White House

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.