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"It's a crisis in democracy": Bernie Sanders demands Congress return to address USPS

16 August 2020
 Dan Ackermann

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) called on Sunday for the House to return to session to pass a standalone bill to fund the U.S. Postal Service and use its oversight powers to investigate operational changes made by Postmaster General Louis DeJoy.

The state of play: House Democrats will hold a members-only conference call on Monday at 11:30 a.m. to discuss an early return to Washington to respond to "the attack on the Postal Service," Democratic sources tell Axios' Mike Allen.

  • Speaker Pelosi raised the idea yesterday on a call with House leaders, where she and others said they have been deluged with complaints about changes being made to the Postal Service under DeJoy.
  • "Everyone had a story," a source said.

What he's saying: "Over three months ago, Democrats in the House passed the HEROES bill. And among many other things, it provided $25 billion for the Postal Service. ... Democrats three months ago addressed that," Sanders said on CNN's "State of the Union."

  • "Meanwhile, Mitch McConnell, the leader of the Senate, has not attended one of these negotiated sessions. Trump could've gotten on the phone and brought everybody into the White House to work on an agreement. He disappeared."
  • "[White House chief of staff] Mr. Meadows, I'm glad he's back at work. He was on vacation last week. We have a crisis now. It's a crisis in democracy. It's a crisis that so many of our working families are struggling. Congress has got to act."

The other side: Meadows said earlier on CNN that President Trump would sign a standalone bill to fund the Postal Service, blaming Democrats for rejecting the administration's offer for $10 billion for the USPS during negotiations for a stimulus package that have since broken down.

Go deeper: Postal slowdown threatens election breakdown

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.