Manchin cautions Biden's trillion-dollar push to expand government
29 April 2021
Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) expressed concern about President Biden's massive proposals to restructure health care, child care, education and infrastructure in the wake of the pandemic, he told CNN on Thursday.
Why it matters: Biden aims to spend $6 trillion for his plans and is asking Congress to pay at least $1.8 trillion. As a moderate Democrat in a split Senate, Manchin's vote is critical.
What he's saying: "Oh, most certainly. I am, and I want to see the details," Manchin told CNN, when asked if he is worried about the president's extensive plans.
- "The bottom line is there's a lot of need in our country. There's a lot of opportunities in the country that are coming and basically we're coming out of this pandemic with a booming economy," Manchin said.
- "I think we need to have tax reform. I thought (the GOP's 2017 tax legislation) was the wrong direction to go. But we can't overreach to the point to where we stymie investments, we stymie basically growth for 2022, '23, '24 and on."
- "I'm not for that, I've never been for that and I've told them I'm not for that," the senator from West Virginia said when asked about Democrats discussing a process to pass Biden's infrastructure proposal through the budget reconciliation process along party lines.
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.