11 August 2020
Left-wing climate activists don't want Joe Biden getting advice from people with credentials they don't like — and they're increasingly going public with their campaign.
Why it matters: Nobody is confusing Biden with President Trump, and his climate platform goes much further than anything contemplated in the Obama years.
- Wider battles — in public and behind the scenes — loom within Democratic and progressive circles over staffing and nomination decisions.
- Already, per Bloomberg, some activists are pressing Biden to "distance himself from former Obama administration advisers they view as either too moderate or too cozy with the fossil-fuel industry."
What's new: Later Tuesday, groups including Stop the Money Pipeline, 350.org and Climate Finance Action plan to stage demonstrations at offices of investment behemoth BlackRock in four cities.
- They don't want Biden to bring BlackRock execs into his administration if he wins, citing the company's investments in fossil fuels despite its sustainability initiative launched this year.
- The demonstrations will be in New York, Los Angeles, Boston and San Francisco.
What's next: Look for these debates to intensify if Biden actually wins, which is the priority for the environmental movement, especially the biggest and most influential groups.
- The Sierra Club endorsed Biden yesterday, an expected move but one that signals a flurry of activity to come as the race intensifies this fall.
- "Along with its endorsement, the Sierra Club has launched the biggest grassroots political operation in the organization’s 128-year history," the group said.
Where it stands: Biden's network of aides and informal advisers is pretty broad.
- It spans former Obama-era hands but also outside activists, and he's conferred with officials like Washington Gov. Jay Inslee, whose call for a 100% clean power mandate by 2035 was recently added to Biden's platform.
Quick take: "Personnel is policy," as Sen. Elizabeth Warren likes to say.
- But Senate makeup and rules, the judiciary and competing priorities are probably bigger hurdles to sweeping action than outside advisers or potential appointees who aren't Green New Deal-y enough for some activists.
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.