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Scoop: Mike Pompeo pours cash into new PAC bearing his slogan amid rumors of 2024 run

15 April 2021
Dan Ackermann

Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is pouring money into a new political group amid speculation about a possible 2024 presidential run, records show.

Why it matters: Champion American Values, formed in February,is the same phrase that Pompeo has been using lately including during remarks last month to an influential group of Republicans in Iowa, seen as a clear sign he's considering a 2024 bid.

Between the lines: Pompeo hasn't officially declared his affiliation with the new PAC. But in records posted Thursday, his still-active House campaign committee reported steering $155,000 to the group justtwo days after it was formed.

  • Champion American Values uses the same treasurer and Wichita bank as that campaign committee.
  • Its acronym, CAV PAC, invokes Pompeo's service as an Army cavalry officer.

The big picture: The new PAC is just one of the political and policy endeavors that Pompeo has pursued since he left the State Department.

  • He recently joined the Hudson Institute, a conservative think tank, and the American Center for Law and Justice, the legal advocacy group run by former Trump attorney Jay Sekulow.
  • Pompeo also lent his name to a series of email and text message fundraising appeals for the National Republican Congressional Committee.
  • He booked a prime speaking slot in February at the Conservative Political Action Conference, where he recalled advice his mother once gave him: "Keep championing American values."

What's next: Champion American Values' specific plans aren't yet clear.

  • A Pompeo spokesperson did not respond to questions from Axios about the new PAC.
  • Four web domains associated with the group have been registered since February, but noneis active yet.

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.