21 August 2020
In last night's acceptance speech, Joe Biden never said President Trump's name. The former vice president used the biggest stage of his 50 years in politics to humanize himself, with the intended subtext: "I am you. You are me."
If you didn’t know anything about Biden before last night, you’d remember four things: He conquered a childhood stutter, he lost his wife and daughter, found redemption and joy in Jill, then encountered grief again when Beau died.
Why it matters: A country burying its dead is being offered a chance to hire someone who knows how to grieve.
- The Biden campaign thinks the election will hinge on the coronavirus response.
Biden set his priorities — as well as expectations — by saying he would do on the coronavirus "what we should have done from the very beginning."
- "We'll put the politics aside and take the muzzle off our experts so the public gets the information they need and deserve. The honest, unvarnished truth. They can deal with that."
- "We'll have a national mandate to wear a mask — not as a burden, but to protect each other. It's a patriotic duty."
Between the lines: From the perspective of Trump aides, Biden did everything they wish he wouldn't.
- He didn’t stumble or jumble, making it more difficult for Republicans to attack him as unfit.
- "Morning" Joe Scarborough called Biden's tone "Reaganesque."
Biden said he "will be an ally of the light":
The current president has cloaked America in darkness for much too long. Too much anger. Too much fear. Too much division. ...
May history be able to say that the end of this chapter of American darkness began here tonight as love and hope and light joined in the battle for the soul of the nation.
Grace note ... Setting the fireworks after the speech to a song by Beau's favorite band, Coldplay, was a way for Biden to share the milestone with a child he had hoped might ascend to the presidency himself.
Go deeper: Video and more quotes from Biden's speech
- Axios' David Nather and Alexi McCammond contributed reporting.
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.