Texas companies: Culture wars bad for business
13 August 2021
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) is pushing his conservative agenda in hopes of riling up the state's Republican base ahead of the 2022 gubernatorial election, but major corporations are not having it.
What's happening: Companies with large footprints in the Lone Star State like Dell Technologies, American Airlines Apple, and IBM have a history of publicly criticizing Abbott's policies, including on voting rights and transgender issues.
- Now opposition to his anti-mask executive order is increasing and Abbott has called a special legislative session to tackle (among other things like voting restrictions) bans on vaccine and face-mask requirements in schools.
- “This is a very high-risk, high-reward strategy that he is pursuing, and other national Republican leaders as well, where they simply don’t believe the Covid crisis is going to cause the amount of deaths that many health professionals are suggesting that it might," James Riddlesperger, a political-science professor at Texas Christian University in Fort Worth told the New York Times.
Abbott has long considered a pro-business Republican. He is being squeezed by his desire to boost economic development while fending off "ultra-conservative challengers in the Republican primary vote" next year, Bloomberg writes.
- Notably, more liberal Texas transplants moving to the state could have an impact in the next election, Bloomberg notes.
The big picture: Abbott has hit back at companies criticizing his policies, telling Fox News that they "need to stay out of politics, especially when they have no clue what they’re talking about."
By the numbers: Abbott's popularity has been declining since 2020, according to a recent poll from the University of Texas at Austin, receiving only a 44% job approval in June, compared to his record high of 56% in April 2020.
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.