Pelosi: "States don't have the money" for Trump's executive order on unemployment
09 August 2020
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told "Fox News Sunday" that states don't have the funds to comply with the executive order President Trump signed on Friday, which requires them to cover 25% of an additional $400 in weekly unemployment benefits.
Why it matters: Many state and local governments have had their budgets devastated by the economic impacts of the coronavirus, which have caused expenses to soar and revenues to plunge.
- White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow said Sunday he wasn't sure whether states could afford the costs, telling CNN's "State of the Union": "We'll probably find that out today or tomorrow."
- One of the major sticking points in coronavirus stimulus negotiations between Democrats and Republicans was relief for state governments. Trump has called the request a "bailout" for years of mismanaged budgets in Democratic-led states.
What she's saying: "States don't have the money to do that. They have expenses from the coronavirus, they have lost revenue from shelter-in-place and the fact that people are not being able to go out and spend money and inject demand into the economy as they would normally."
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.