18 July 2020
Joe Biden's campaign bought ads in swing states tomorrow during Chris Wallace's feisty "Fox News Sunday" interview with President Trump.
What he's saying: The minute-long ad, "Tough," will air in the major markets in the six core swing states — Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Arizona, Florida and North Carolina.
- "I will not abandon you," Biden says in the ad. "We're all in this together. We'll fight this together. And, together, we'll emerge from this stronger than we were before we began."
Between the lines: The ad never mentions Trump's name, but the intention is a stark, dramatic contrast in approach to the virus ("Wear a mask. Wash your hands"), laced with a positive, hopeful message.
In a clip from the hourlong "Fox News Sunday" interview on the steamy patio outside the Oval Office, President Trump tells Chris Wallace that Democrats "want to defund the police, and Biden wants to defund the police."
- "Sir, he does not," Wallace counters firmly.
- "Look, he signed a charter with Bernie Sanders ..." Trump begins.
Wallace interrupts: "It says nothing about defunding the police."
- Trump responds:"Oh, really? It's says 'abolish.'" He slaps his knees. "Let's go! Get me the charter, please."
The clip ends there. But Wallace told Fox News' Bill Hemmer that Trump "couldn't find any indication — because there isn't any — that Joe Biden has sought to defund and abolish the police."
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.