16 March 2021
The Biden administration issued new internal guidance Monday saying it would reduce daily coronavirus testing for White House staff to once a week, Axios has learned.
Why it matters: Now that a majority of officials working on the 18-acre complex have been vaccinated, the administration is relaxing some of its coronavirus restrictions — a step closer to normalcy.
Flashback: Unlike during the Trump administration — which had a lackadaisical attitude, sparking COVID-19 outbreaks in the West Wing and after a Rose Garden event — the Biden administration created a bubble around the president during the 2020 campaign that continued through his arrival in the Oval Office.
- President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris were vaccinated prior to being inaugurated.
- The White House reduced its West Wing staff count, required COVID tests for the employees allowed inside, as well as the routine wearing of N95 masks at all times and social distancing.
- A week into the job, Biden's medical team had already administered the coronavirus vaccine to several hundred staffers — with the goal of vaccinating all in-person staff within the first few weeks, as Axios first reported.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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.