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President Trump's choices to succeed Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg are down to two women, both federal appeals court judges.

The frontrunners are Amy Coney Barrett of Chicago, the early favorite, and Barbara Lagoa, who is viewed as easier to confirm. The Senate confirmed Lagoa 80-15 last year, so many Democrats have already voted for her.

  • Lagoa is a Cuban American from Florida, and Trump is being told the choice could help him win the state. He said Saturday he's never met Lagoa.
  • Even people in the West Wing remind us: With Trump, you never know till it's actually done.

Look for Senate Republicans to barrel ahead with the confirmation process as if they were going to vote before Election Day.

  • The vote could wind up being held after the election, in the lame-duck session in November. Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska say they want to wait. Two more objections, and there wouldn't be enough Republican votes to go ahead in the next 43 days.

The lame duck is the fallback. Top GOP officials at both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue see huge risk in waiting.

  • Say Trump loses ... or Republicans lose control of the Senate ... or both.
  • There'd be enormous pressure on Republicans to defer to the incoming winners. Some unexpected GOP senator could suddenly defect.
  • Collins said in a statement this weekend: "[T]he decision on a lifetime appointment to the Supreme Court should be made by the president who is elected on November 3rd."

That's why antsy Republicans — being called "fill the seat" hawks — want a pre-election vote.

  • Joe Biden yesterday urged Republican senators to resist jamming a nomination: "Please follow your conscience."
  • Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer appeared in Brooklyn last night with Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, vowing to fight a GOP rush.

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.