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"Jim Crow in the 21st Century": Biden says Georgia voting restrictions "must end"

26 March 2021
Dan Ackermann

President Biden condemned Georgia's voter restrictions Friday, calling the newly-signed law "Jim Crow in the 21st century."

What he's saying: "This law, like so many others being pursued by Republicans in statehouses across the country is a blatant attack on the Constitution and good conscience," Biden said in a statement.

  • "Recount after recount and court case after court case upheld the integrity and outcome of a clearly free, fair, and secure democratic process," he added.
  • "Yet instead of celebrating the rights of all Georgians to vote or winning campaigns on the merits of their ideas, Republicans in the state instead rushed through an un-American law to deny people the right to vote."
  • "It must end. We have a moral and Constitutional obligation to act," he said, urging Congress to pass laws to expand access to the ballot box.
  • "If you have the best ideas, you have nothing to hide. Let the people vote."

The big picture: Georgia is the first battleground state to pass such a law in the aftermath of the 2020 election. The state now limits the use of ballot drop boxes and allows challenges to voting eligibility, among other provisions.

  • Civil rights groups filed lawsuits over the restrictions almost immediately after Gov. Brian Kemp (R) signed the legislation into law.

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.