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Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse admits being member of sailing club that "does lack diversity"

24 June 2021
Dan Ackermann

Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) said in a statement Wednesday that he is a member of an exclusive Rhode Island sailing club that lacks diversity.

Why it matters: Whitehouse has repeatedly spoken out against systemic racism and come under scrutiny this week for his family's affiliation with elite clubs. This is the second such club accused of lacking diversity that the senator has been linked to in recent days

  • Whitehouse on Monday defended his family's participation in the private Bailey's Beach Club, which was reported to only have white members. Both the senator and the club deny this allegation, but Go Local Providence is standing by its report.
  • Whitehouse said in a statement Wednesday that the matter made him reflect on his affiliations and that while the sailing club "does not have exclusionary rules for membership, it does lack diversity."
"Failing to address the sailing club's lack of diversity is squarely on me, and something for which I am sorry. I commit to working with the club and the community to build a more inclusive membership and to better connect with the local community."

Driving the news: Bailey's Beach Club, officially titled the Spouting Rock Beach Association, called Go Local's report on its diversity "inaccurate and false" in a statement to news outlets Wednesday, none of which provided statistics on its non-white members.

  • But Josh Fenton, Go Local's CEO and co-founder, stands by the news outlet's reporting, pointing to the long history of wealthy families who've been members of the club, going back to the Vanderbilts, along with the club's wedding pages.
  • Fenton noted to Axios that when Go Local asked Whitehouse whether the club had any minority members, the senator said: "I think the people who are running the place are still working on that and I am sorry it hasn't."
  • Fenton said Go Local carefully reported what Whitehouse said. "I am sure that it is embarrassing for him, his family, and the club that it is being exposed, but this club is one of the most exclusionary clubs in America and it has for over a century excluded racial minorities," the local news outlet's founder added.

What's new: Whitehouse said Wednesday he "wasn't prepared for the question" from the journalist and "made the mistake of accepting her premise."

  • He added that the club assured him "the assertion was wrong, there is diversity in the membership and there are non-white club members" and that improving diversity was a "priority and an active task for the club’s new board."
  • Representatives for Whitehouse and Bailey's Beach Club did not immediately respond to Axios' request for further comment on the number of members who are not white.

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.