Georgia recertifies Biden's victory after two recounts
07 December 2020
Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger recertified the state's election results on Monday, after another recount showed once again that President-elect Joe Biden won the state.
Why it matters: The recertification is the latest blow to Trump's long-shot effort to overturn the election results in Georgia and other states.
- The president and his allies continue to claim, without evidence, that widespread election fraud took place in the presidential election.
- Earlier on Monday, judges in Michigan and Georgia dismissed two parallel so-called "Kraken" lawsuits from attorney Sidney Powell, who has been pushing conspiracy theories about the election results.
Driving the news: The Trump campaign requested a recount after the state certified the results last month.
- Biden won the initial count tally, a hand recount ordered by the state, and the machine recount requested by the Trump campaign.
- The machine recount showed Biden's lead was just under 12,000 votes.
What he's saying: “Today is an important day for election integrity in Georgia and across the country,” Raffensperger said in a statement.
- “The claims in the Kraken lawsuit prove to be as mythological as the creature for which they’re named," he added.
- "Georgians can now move forward knowing that their votes, and only their legal votes, were counted accurately, fairly, and reliably.”
Go deeper: Conspiracy theories blow back on Trump's White House
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.