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Rhode Island Gov. Gina Raimondo emerges as leading candidate for Commerce Department

04 January 2021
 Dan Ackermann

Rhode Island Gov. Gina Raimondo has emerged as a leading candidate to be President-elect Joe Biden's commerce secretary, according to people familiar with the matter.

Why it matters: Raimondo, a Rhodes scholar who co-founded a venture capital firm in Rhode Island earlier in her career, has prioritized good relationships with the business community, the target audience of commerce.

  • Nonetheless, Raimondo has also clashed with unions as she worked to reform Rhode Island’s public employee pension plans.
  • She also served as a national co-chair for Mike Bloomberg’s presidential campaign, endorsing Biden only after the former New York mayor dropped out.
  • A Biden transition official declined to comment.

The big picture: Biden had been considering a prominent CEO or a Republican to lead the Commerce Department.

  • In considering Raimondo, he appears to be moving to a more traditional choice.
  • Raimondo, 49, and former chair of the Democratic Governor’s Association, is seen as a rising star in her party.

The intrigue: Raimondo also was under consideration to serve as secretary of health and human services, a job that eventually went to California Attorney General Xavier Becerra.

  • In early December, she appeared to take herself out of the running by saying during a press conference, “I am not going to be President-elect Biden’s nominee for HHS secretary.”

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.