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Trump seen as likely to run in 2024 as Facebook ban enrages GOP

05 May 2021
 Dan Ackermann

Sources close to Donald Trump believe he’s increasingly likely to run in 2024 — and that was even before the Facebook Oversight Board inflamed conservatives by upholding the ban on the former president.

Why it matters: Trump and his inner circle view Facebook reinstatement as crucial to his political comeback. The independent Oversight Board's decision, which gives the company six months to make a final determination, enraged Trumpworld.

Driving the news: Republicans instantly threatenedregulatory vengeance. Mark Meadows, former White House chief of staff under Trump, said on Fox News that the announcement was "a sad day for America."

  • "It's a sad day for Facebook because I can tell you a number of members of Congress are now looking at: Do they break up Facebook? Do they make sure that they don't have a monopoly?"
  • "I can tell you that it is two different standards — one for Donald Trump, and one for a number of other people that are on their sites and suggesting more nefarious things than what the president has been accused of, [and] actually go unnoticed, often."

Meadows said the discussion about breaking up Big Tech will begin "within hours" on Capitol Hill: "This is a sad day for America, but a sadder day for the Facebooks of the world, who have actually enjoyed a very wild, wild West kind of regulatory environment. I can tell you that's going to change."

  • The decision gives Trump a juicy new target. But he needs Facebook for a run — both for its fundraising power, and for identifying and mobilizing supporters.
  • His advisers submitted a lengthy written argument to the Oversight Board, and were cautiously optimistic that Trump would be re-platformed.

A top Republican consultant told Axios the decision "reaffirms the view that Big Tech is biased against conservatives."

  • "I don’t think there’s going to be single conservative in America who’s surprised by this," the consultant said.

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.