02 December 2020
With Bill Barr's "Et tu, Brute!" interview with AP, President Trump is watching the walls close in on his claims of fraud, hoaxes and conspiracies.
Why it matters: Trump and his legal team continue to claim election fraud. But the Republican governors of Arizona and Georgia have certified their elections, a loyalist like Barr has weighed in, and lower-ranking officials have taken potshots.
The big picture: The deadline for states to choose electors is just a week away — Dec. 8 — and those electors will submit their votes six days later.
- Barr's conclusion that “we have not seen fraud on a scale that could have effected a different outcome in the election” would be a blow enough even if it didn't follow notable public statements from other officials.
- Former CISA director Chris Krebs reassured the public about election systems' integrity via Twitter, and interviews before and after being fired as director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency.
- FDA chief Stephen Hahn pushed back against presidential pressure to rush approval of a COVID vaccine, as Axios scooped Monday night.
The backdrop: Jonathan Swan reports Trump is pressuring Barr to release a report the president believes could hurt perceived Obama-era enemies — and views Barr's designation of veteran prosecutor John Durham as special counsel as a stall tactic.
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.