08 March 2021
Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) will not run for re-election in 2022, he announced on Twitter Monday.
Why it matters: The 71-year-old senator is the No. 4-ranking Republican in the Senate, and the fifth GOP senator to announce he will not run for re-election in 2022 as the party faces questions about its post-Trump future.
The other GOP senators who have announced their retirement are:
- Sen. Richard Shelby (Ala., which Trump won in 2020 by +25.4%)
- Sen. Rob Portman (Ohio, Trump +8.1%)
- Sen. Richard Burr (N.C., Trump +1.3%)
- Sen. Pat Toomey (Pa., Biden +1.2%)
Background: Blunt was first elected to the Senate in 2010, after serving in the House for 14 years and as Missouri secretary of state for eight. In addition to being a member of leadership as chair of the Republican Policy Committee, Blunt is the top Republican on the powerful Senate Rules Committee.
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.