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Vaccinations, relief timing dominate call among bipartisan group of 16 senators

24 January 2021
 Dan Ackermann

Vaccine distribution, pandemic data and a cross-party comity dominated today's virtual meeting between White House officials and a bipartisan group of 16 senators, Senator Angus King told Axios.

Why it matters: Given Democrats' razor-thin majority in both chambers of Congress, President Biden will have to rely heavily on this group of centrist lawmakers — dubbed the "Sweet 16" — to pass any substantial legislation.

  • "If you were just listening on the call, I don't think you would have been able to tell who were the Republicans and who were Democrats and who were independents," said King (I-Maine).

Details: National Economic Council Director Brian Deese led the Sunday afternoon meeting, and several other top White House officials also joined the video call.

  • It was the largest meeting between the Biden administration and senators since Wednesday's inauguration.

What he's saying: There's absolute consensus" that the administration and Congress' main priority needs to be speeding up the rate of vaccination, King said.

  • The group plans to work closely with the White House to gather data about where the "bottlenecks" are in the current distribution system.
  • King added that the senators asked for data to back up the administration's pandemic proposal. "You know, how did they arrive at the numbers that they have?"

One big question they need to solve, King said, is how much unspent money from the previous coronavirus packages can be reallocated to the Biden package.

Timing: King said that while the administration did not lay out a specific timeframe, there was general consensus that this next stimulus bill should be done sooner rather than later.

  • However, looming in the background is the impeachment trial for former President Trump, which is roughly two weeks away.
  • King said "it would be desirable" to start moving on the next relief package before then, but "whether that's going to be possible I just don't know."

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.