Trump to award three athletes medal of freedom
06 January 2021
President Trump will award three athletes the Medal of Freedom on Thursday, including a posthumous award to two-time Olympic gold medalist Babe Zaharias, according to White House officials.
Why it matters: The ceremony is part of Trump's final awards spree in the remaining days of his presidency. On Monday, he awarded the Medal of Freedom to House Republican Devin Nunes (R-Calif.). He's scheduled to dole out the same honor to Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) next week.
Details: On Thursday, Trump will also award the Medal of Freedom to golfers Annika Sörenstam and Gary Player. They were previously announced as recipients in March, but the ceremony was postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic.
- Beyond her gold medals, awarded for feats in track and field at the 1932 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, Zaharias was a professional golfer and won 10 LPGA major championships.
Worth noting: Of the 18 Medals of Freedom previously awarded by Trump, only one recipient has been a woman.
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.