Graham hopes his panel will approve Amy Coney Barrett by late October
27 September 2020
Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) told Fox News Saturday he expects confirmation hearings on Judge Amy Coney Barrett's nomination to the Supreme Court to start Oct. 12 and for his panel to approve her by Oct. 26.
Why it matters: That would mean the final confirmation vote could take place on the Senate floor before the Nov. 3 presidential election.
- "Republicans are privately aiming for a late October confirmation vote," AP notes.
What he's saying: "Hopefully we'll come to the floor around the 26th," Graham said on "Justice with Judge Jeanine," stressing this "will be up to" Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), who's yet to announce a date for the hearings.
- Asked by Fox News host Jeanine Pirro to respond to reports that Democrats might boycott the hearings, Graham said: "If they continue this pattern of trying to demean this nominee, I think the American people will push back and push back hard."
Driving the news: Trump announced earlier Saturday he would nominate the conservative judge to succeed the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
Go deeper: What they're saying: Trump nominates Amy Coney Barrett for Supreme Court
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.