Val Demings launches Senate bid against Marco Rubio with "law and order" message
09 June 2021
Rep. Val Demings (D-Fla.) officially announced her Senate campaign against Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) on Wednesday with a promotional video that emphasized her "law and order" credentials.
Why it matters: Demings, who was on the shortlist to be Joe Biden's vice president, is viewed as Democrats' best chance to win a Senate seat in a state that has tilted increasingly red in recent years.
The big picture: Demings' video highlights her experience as a Black woman with a background in law enforcement, namely as Orlando's first female chief of police.
- Demings, who sits on the House Judiciary, Homeland Security, and Intelligence committees, served as an impeachment manager for former President Donald Trump's first impeachment trial.
- In her "Never Tire" campaign video, Demings describes herself as having brought "law and order to a lawless president." She also attacks Rubio as close to Trump and "too tired to fight the efforts to suppress the people's vote."
Between the lines: Demings' emphasis on law and order stands in contrast to the message promoted by progressive activists who support the "defund the police" movement, which some Democrats believe hurt the party in the 2020 election.
The other side: Rubio posted a video on Twitter in response to Demings' announcement, calling her a "do-nothing House member with not a single significant legislative achievement in her time in Congress."
- "I've always known that my opponent for the Senate is going to be a far-left liberal Democrat. Today we just found out which one of them Chuck Schumer has picked," Rubio said.
Go deeper: Rep. Val Demings to challenge Marco Rubio for Senate seat.
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.