House Republicans call for Democrats to launch election investigation
19 November 2020
Reps. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) and James Comer (R-Ky.) sent a letter to Judiciary Committee Chair Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.) and Oversight panel Chair Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.) Wednesday evening demanding an immediate Congressional investigation into the "integrity of the 2020 election."
Why it matters: President Trump has sought to discredit President-elect Biden's election win and has lost several in a series of lawsuits. Trump's Department of Homeland Security called the election "the most secure in American history."
🚨#BREAKING: @Jim_Jordan & @RepJamesComer call for immediate Congressional investigation into 2020 election. pic.twitter.com/QsSUQvhRsv
— House Judiciary GOP (@JudiciaryGOP) November 19, 2020
- Trump said Tuesday he fired Christopher Krebs, the head of the DHS Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, after he pushed back against false claims that Democrats "rigged" the election.
What they're saying: Jordan, a Judiciary Committee ranking member, and Comer, an Oversight Committee ranking member, wrote that there must be oversight hearings into "troubling reports of irregularities and improprieties."
- Representatives for Nadler and Maloney did not immediately respond to Axios' request for comment.
The bottom line: Though Trump still has not publicly conceded the election, his path to overturning election results is looking more and more narrow.
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.