White House again refuses to disclose Trump's last negative coronavirus test
08 October 2020
White House communications director Alyssa Farah declined to tell reporters when President Trump last tested negative for COVID-19 on Thursday, marking at least the eighth time since last week that White House officials have refused to disclose the information.
Why it matters: One week after Trump revealed he tested positive for the virus, the White House still refuses to say when Trump's last negative coronavirus test was. The detail could help determine when he contracted the virus, who he exposed and the timeline of his illness.
The big picture: The White House is scrambling to respond to the outbreak as the list of officials who have tested positive for the virus — which includes senior officials like Stephen Miller and Hope Hicks — continues to grow.
- Several members of the White House press corps have tested positive and many are trying to figure out whether they and their families need to quarantine, Axios' Sara Fischer reports.
What's new: The Washington, D.C. Department of Health on Thursday asked attendees and White House staff at the Rose Garden celebration for the introduction of Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett on Sept. 26 to seek medical advice and get tested for COVID-19 by their local health department.
- Several people who attended the event later tested positive for the virus, including former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and Sens. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) and Mike Lee (R-Utah).
Go deeper:Trumpworld coronavirus tracker
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.