Obama: Biden is "finishing the job" of my administration
02 June 2021
Barack Obama said in an interview with the New York Times published Tuesday that Joe Biden is "finishing the job" his administration started and Donald Trump "benefited from the economic stability we initiated."
What he's saying: The former president told NYT podcast "The Ezra Klein Show" that it's "hard to just underscore how much the bank bailouts just angered everyone, including me," following the 2008 financial crisis, which he noted stimulated a "long, slow recovery."
- "Although the economy recovers technically quickly, it's another five years before we're really back to people feeling like, ‘OK, the economy is moving and working for me," Obama told host Ezra Klein.
- "Let's say a Democrat, a Joe Biden, or Hillary Clinton had immediately succeeded me, and the economy suddenly has 3% unemployment, I think we would have consolidated the sense that, ‘Oh, actually these policies that Obama put in place worked.'
"The fact that Trump interrupts essentially the continuation of our policies, but still benefits from the economic stability and growth that we had initiated, means people aren't sure. Well, gosh, unemployment’s 3.5% under Donald Trump."
On President Biden, Obama said that "what we’re seeing now, is Joe and the administration are essentially finishing the job," adding that the actions his administration is taking will be an interesting test.
- "Ninety percent of the folks who were there in my administration, they are continuing and building on the policies we talked about, whether it's the Affordable Care Act, or our climate change agenda, and the Paris [Climate Agreement], and figuring out how do we improve the ladders to mobility through things like community colleges."
What to watch: Obama believes Biden "will have an impact" in cutting through the current politically polarized climate that's seen Senate Republicans block a bipartisan commission to investigate January's Capitol riot and GOP-led states push for restrictive voting laws as Democrats and rights groups push back.
- "Does it override that sort of identity politics that has come to dominate Twitter, and the media, and that has seeped into how people think about politics? Probably not completely," Obama said.
- "But at the margins, if you're changing 5 percent of the electorate, that makes a difference."
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.