Trump returns to Oval Office despite ongoing COVID-19 infection
07 October 2020
President Trump went to the Oval Office on Wednesday to receive a briefing on coronavirus stimulus and Hurricane Delta, White House spokesperson Brian Morgenstern confirmed to reporters.
Why it matters: White House aides had advised Trump to avoid the Oval Office while he's still infected with the coronavirus, following his positive test and hospitalization last week. The CDC states that a person can be contagious for up to 10 days after coronavirus symptoms resolve.
Flashback: The White House denied Wednesday that Trump had worked in the Oval Office on Tuesday while still suffering from coronavirus, despite claims that he had from White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow.
- White House communications aide Ben Williamson tweeted that Trump "wanted to be in the Oval Office" but instead "stayed back in the residence working from there."
- "Safety preparations have been underway in the event he moves to working out of the Oval in the coming days," Williamson added.
Of note: Trump still wants a standalone bill to help airlines recover from the pandemic, along with other potential standalone stimulus measures, despite calling off negotiations on a comprehensive bill last night, Axios' Alayna Treene reports.
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.