Liz Cheney says she regrets voting for Trump in 2020
16 May 2021
Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.), who was ousted Wednesday as the third-highest ranking House Republican, told ABC's "This Week" that she regrets voting for former President Trump in 2020, although she could never have supported Biden.
Why it matters: Cheney, voted out of House Republican leadership over her repeated condemnation of Trump and his unfounded claims of election fraud, plans to challenge the former president for ideological dominance of the GOP.
Key exchange:
KARL: "I mean, how could you not regret that vote, given what's happened?"
CHENEY: "Yeah. I mean, look, I was never going to support Joe Biden, and I do regret the vote. I think that it was a vote based on policy, based on, sort of, substance and what I know in terms of the kinds of policies he put forward that were good for the country, but that I — I think it is fair to say I regret the vote."
KARL: "If the Republican Party nominates Donald Trump in 2024, could you stay in a Republican Party that decides that he should be the nominee again?"
CHENEY: "I will do everything that I can to make sure he's not the nominee and, you know, everything necessary to make sure that he never gets anywhere close to the Oval Office again."
KARL: "But would you remain in the party if he were the nominee?"
CHENEY: "I will not support him and will do everything I can to make sure that doesn't happen."
What to watch: Cheney said she was focused on her re-election in Wyoming when asked what it would take for her to run for president. She said her father, former Vice President Dick Cheney, would like to see her run — adding with a laugh that "he's not objective."
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.