H.R. McMaster: Trump's refusal to commit to peaceful transition is a "gift to our adversaries"
27 September 2020
President Trump's refusal to commit to a peaceful transfer of power if he loses November's presidential election is a "gift to our adversaries," Trump's former national security adviser H.R. McMaster said Sunday.
The big picture: McMaster, a retired three-star general, said that the American people must understand that the military will have "no role" in a presidential transition, and that it's "irresponsible" to even talk about it as a possibility.
What he's saying: "What I think is it’s a gift to our adversaries who want to shake our confidence in who we are, shake our confidence in our democratic principles and institutions and processes,” McMaster told NBC’s “Meet the Press" about Trump's comments.
- “If the Russians can just use our words against us, that’s the best the best way to pull us apart from one another.”
- McMaster said that he "absolutely" agrees with Susan Rice, former President Obama’s national security adviser, who recently opined in the NY Times that the political division in the U.S. should be treated as a national security threat.
The bottom line: "I think it’s so important for us to come together for civil discussions about the challenges that we face," McMaster said.
- "Maybe that’s a way for us to come back together as Americans because as we’re at each other’s throats with this vitriolic partisan discourse, our adversaries haven’t stopped, the world hasn’t gone away."
- "And that’s what I hope will help galvanize us to come back together and reverse this polarization that is so damaging to our security and our psyche as well."
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.