Toyota to cease donations to election objectors
08 July 2021
Toyota has announced it will cease donations to Republicans who objected to the certification of President Biden's electoral college victory.
Driving the news: The company revealed its decision, first reported by the Detroit News, in a statement on Thursday, saying it understood that its PAC's donations to those objectors, which far outpaced those of any other company, "troubled some stakeholders."
- Toyota's statement came less than two weeks after Axios reported the Japanese automaker donated $55,000 to 37 election objectors, the most of any corporate PAC by a significant margin.
Between the lines: Toyota faced immediate backlash over its donations, which went to some of the most outspoken election conspiracy theorists in Congress.
- On Thursday, the Lincoln Project, an anti-Trump group founded by former GOP political consultants, unveiled a TV ad attacking Toyota over its donations.
What they're saying: "Toyota is committed to supporting and promoting actions that further our democracy," the company said in its statement.
- "Our bipartisan PAC equally supports Democrats and Republicans running for Congress," it added. "In fact, in 2021, the vast majority of contributions went to Democrats and Republicans who supported the certification of the 2020 election."
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.