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GOP Sen. Cory Gardner loses re-election race in Colorado

04 November 2020
 Dan Ackermann

Former Gov. John Hickenlooper (D) has defeated incumbent Sen. Cory Gardner (R) in Colorado's Senate race, AP projects.

Why it matters: It's the first Senate seat that Democrats have flipped this election as they seek to take control of the upper chamber.

The big picture: In the lead up to the election, polls consistently showed Hickenlooper with a comfortable lead against Gardner. Cook Political Report rated the race as "leans Democratic."

  • Hickenlooper, who served as governor from 2011-2019, ran for the Democratic Party's presidential nomination earlier this year, but failed to gain major traction in the polls.
  • Gardner was first elected in 2014 and had branded himself as a fierce ally of President Trump, including on controversial issues like the impeachment trial and Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation to the Supreme Court.

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.