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Senate advances Amy Coney Barrett nomination, setting up final confirmation vote

25 October 2020
Dan Ackermann

The Senate voted 51-48 on Sunday to advance the Supreme Court nomination of Judge Amy Coney Barrett, setting up a final confirmation vote for Monday.

Why it matters: It's now virtually inevitable that the Senate will vote to confirm President Trump's third Supreme Court nominee before the election, which is just nine days away.

Driving the news: Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) advised his caucus on Sunday not to congregate in the Senate chamber and to cast "votes quickly and from a safe distance," after several of Vice President Mike Pence's aides tested positive for the coronavirus.

  • Pence is set to preside over Barrett's confirmation vote on Monday, and has declined to quarantine under CDC guidelines.
  • Staffers for Sen. Kelly Loeffler (R-Ga.) also tested positive for the virus, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported Saturday.

What they're saying: "While CDC guidelines would dictate contract tracing a quarantining be practiced, our colleagues and the Vice President have indicated that they do not intend to follow such protocols," Schumer wrote in a letter to colleagues.

  • "The Vice President is maintaining his campaign schedule and, inexplicably, intends to preside over the Senate chamber tomorrow evening."
  • "Their carelessness with the health and safety of their colleagues and Capitol employees mirrors their carelessness with the health and safety of Americans during this crisis."

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.