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Jacob Blake's attorney says Trump has not contacted family about Kenosha visit

30 August 2020
Dan Ackermann

Jacob Blake's attorney Benjamin Crump told CBS News' "Face the Nation" that President Trump has not contacted the Blake family ahead of his planned visit to Kenosha, Wis., on Tuesday, more than a week after police shot Blake seven times in the back.

Why it matters: Protests have erupted in Kenosha and across the country in response to Blake's shooting. Trump, who has made condemning violent protests a key plank of his "law and order" campaign message, plans to visit the city on Tuesday to "survey damage from recent riots," according to a White House spokesperson.

The other side: Democratic nominee Joe Biden and his running mate Sen. Kamala Harris spoke with the Blake family for over an hour last week. It's unclear whether Biden plans to visit Kenosha, but he intends to speak from an undisclosed location this week to denounce the violence.

What Crump is saying: "The Blake family has not been contacted at this time. The Blake family is very respectful of all our elected officials. And as his mother says, she prays for all of our elected officials."

  • "Obviously, [Blake] suffered catastrophic injuries. A bullet pierced his spinal cord, a bullet shattered his vertebrae, a bullet went into intestines, where he lost most of his intestines. A bullet went into his kidney. He has two holes in his stomach. He has a hold of his arm ... For the rest of his life, he is going to be a shell of himself."
  • "And his three little boys were in that car. Ages 8 years old, 5 years old, and 3 years old, and they witnessed all of this. So you can only imagine the psychological issues these little babies are going to have. And his 8-year-old son was celebrating his birthday, so imagine what the rest of his birthdays are going to be each year."

What to watch: Trump's trip to Kenosha is "certain to exacerbate tensions in the city, where a crowd of about 1,000 demonstrators gathered outside a courthouse Saturday to denounce police violence," according to AP.

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.