26 February 2021
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) told Fox News on Thursday that he would "absolutely" support Donald Trump if the former president is the 2024 Republican presidential nominee.
The big picture: Trump has not officially said whether he will run in 2024, but as Axios' Mike Allen reports, the former president "plans to send the message [during his CPAC speech on Sunday] that he is the Republicans' 'presumptive 2024 nominee' with a vise grip on the party's base."
What he's saying: "There's a lot to happen between now and '24. I've got four members, I think, that are planning on running for president, plus governors and others," McConnell told Fox News' Bret Baier.
- "It should be a wide open race," he added.
- But when asked whether he'd support Trump if he was the Republican presidential nominee, McConnell said, "absolutely."
Flashback: After voting to acquit Trump during his second impeachment trial earlier this month, McConnell condemned the former president as "practically and morally responsible for provoking the events" of the deadly Jan. 6 Capitol siege.
Worth noting: Earlier this week, Sen. Mitt Romney predicted Trump would win the GOP presidential nomination "in a landslide" if he decided to run again.
Go deeper: Trump to claim total control of GOP
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.