More than 130 Secret Service officers reportedly under coronavirus quarantine
13 November 2020
More than 130 Secret Service officers are quarantining due to positive coronavirus tests or exposure to a co-worker who has tested positive, the Washington Post reports.
Why it matters: Officials told the Post that they believe the cases at least partly stem from President Trump's run of campaign rallies before Election Day. The number of officers forced off-duty — roughly 10% of its core security team — could stress the Secret Service at large, forcing overtime and missed days off to make up for the strain.
- "Being down more than 100 officers is very problematic. That does not bode well for White House security," a former senior Secret Service supervisor told the Post.
The state of play: The Secret Service outbreaks come as the White House is experiencing another coronavirus outbreak of its own — just weeks after one that left Trump himself sickened.
- Chief of staff Mark Meadows, HUD Secretary Ben Carson and campaign adviser Corey Lewandowski all tested positive for the virus after attending an election night party there. A number of other officials and attendees also tested positive.
The big picture: The White House's struggles come as the nation is seeing a massive rise in daily coronavirus cases. A record 152,000 new cases were reported in the U.S. on Thursday.
- Trump has not yet addressed the rise in cases and has largely avoided public events in the last week.
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.