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Republican Tommy Tuberville defeats Sen. Doug Jones in Alabama

04 November 2020
 Dan Ackermann

Republican Tommy Tuberville has defeated incumbent Sen. Doug Jones (D) in Alabama's U.S. Senate race, AP projects.

Why it matters: Although expected, the win by Tuberville — a former college football coach — is important for Republicans, who are fighting to keep control of the Senate.

The big picture: It was unlikely that Jones, the state's first Democrat elected to the U.S. Senate in decades, would be able to hang onto the seat, which he won in a 2017 special election after Jeff Sessions left the Senate to serve as U.S. attorney general.

  • The Democrat's upset victory at the time followed an intense campaign marked by allegations of sexual misconduct against his then-Republican challenger, Roy Moore.
  • Cook Political Report rated this year's race as "leans Republican."
Data: AP; Chart: Naema Ahmed, Andrew Witherspoon, Danielle Alberti/Axios

Transcripts show George Floyd told police "I can't breathe" over 20 times

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Newly 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.