A man known as a gifted athlete and hip-hop artist from Houston’s Third Ward on Monday died in Minneapolis police custody — an incident that has sparked nationwide controversy and led to four police officers’ firing.
George Floyd, 46, was identified Tuesday as the man seen in a now viral video showing a white Minneapolis police officer kneeling on his neck. Police said Floyd, who is black, matched the description of a suspect in a forgery case at a grocery store, and that he resisted arrest. Floyd told the unidentified officer that he couldn’t breathe, but the officer ignored the man’s pleas.
A prayer vigil was held Tuesday night in Houston’s Emancipation Park. Floyd’s family members attended, including Roxie Washington, the mother of his 6-year-old daughter Gianna Floyd.
“I don’t even have words for it,” said Washington, 38. “It’s cruel. They took him away from my daughter. She’ll never see her father again.”
Washington said Floyd was born in North Carolina and moved to Houston’s Third Ward as a baby. He grew into a talented athlete who excelled in football and basketball in high school and college, she said.
He attended Yates High School and later received a basketball scholarship to Florida State University, Washington said. She said he didn’t finish school and eventually returned to Houston, where he began making music with the Screwed Up Click, a hip-hop group led by legendary Houston musician DJ Screw.
He left the city for Minneapolis around 2018, after he struggled to find work in Houston, she said. There, he worked as a truck driver and most recently as a bouncer.
Floyd is survived by two daughters, including one from another relationship, Washington said. She described him as a good father while they were raising Gianna together.
“He was a gentle giant,” she said, choking back tears. “People mistake him because he was so big that they thought he was always a fighting person but he was a loving person…. and he loved his daughter.”
Former NBA player Stephen Jackson, originally from Port Arthur, also spoke about Floyd’s death on social media, referring to him as his “twin.”
“U will know who Floyd was,” Jackson’s post said. “Nobodies perfect but Floyd was loved by everybody when he’s friends wasn’t. Just the facts u gotta be from HTown to know what I’m saying. Rest Easy Twin we riding for ya.”
The four responding Minneapolis police officers have since been fired. Civil Rights Attorney Benjamin Crump, who is representing Floyd’s family, released a statement about the incident Tuesday.
“We all watched the horrific death of George Floyd on video as witnesses begged the police officer to take him into the police car and get off his neck,” Crump said. “This abusive, excessive and inhumane use of force cost the life of a man who was being detained by the police for questioning about a non-violent charge.”
Other countries in Europe have either yet to make announcements about letting tourists in, have chosen to stay open, or are due to reopen, to select states initially.
For instance, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania formed a travel bubble, allowing residents from only these countries to move between each other.
Meanwhile,Austria is set to open borders with Germany, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary on June 15, according to multiple reports. A health certificate must be presented upon entry, or else travelers are required to isolate for 14 days.
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) — An FBI investigation is underway and four officers have been fired following a fatal encounter Monday between Minneapolis police and an unarmed 46-year-old black man named George Floyd.
According to Minneapolis police, the encounter between Floyd and officers happened just after 8 p.m. Monday, when police were called to the 3700 block of Chicago Avenue South on a report of a man attempting to use forged documents at Cup Foods. WCCO asked a store manager about the police call, but they declined to comment.
Officers found Floyd in a car at the scene. He appeared intoxicated, police say. Officers ordered him to get out of the car.
“After he got out, he physically resisted officers,” police spokesman John Elder told reporters early Tuesday. “Officers were able to get the suspect into handcuffs and officers noticed that the man was going into medical distress.”
An ambulance brought Floyd to Hennepin Healthcare, where he later died, police say.
Overnight, video of the attempted arrest circulated on social media. Posted by Darnella Frazier on Facebook, the nine-minute video shows a white officer pressing his knee into Floyd’s neck behind a squad car. While lying facedown on the road, Floyd repeatedly groans and says he can’t breathe.
“He’s not even resisting arrest right now, bro,” one bystander tells the white officer and his partner, in the video. “You’re f—ing stopping his breathing right now, you think that’s cool?”
After about five minutes, Floyd stops moving and appears unconscious. People in the gathering crowd plead for the officers to check Floyd’s pulse. The officer on Floyd’s neck does not lift his knee until medical personnel arrive and carry him to an ambulance.
“There’s a black man who died and it could have been prevented, because all he had to do was get his feet off his neck,” McMillan said.
Another witness, 9-year-old Judeah Reynolds, spoke to WCCO with her mother present, Diva Reynolds.
“All the adults kept saying, ‘Get off him,’” Judeah Reynolds said.
“They came and woke me up, and the only thing my daughter could tell me is, ‘Mom, they had his knee on his neck and they killed him,’” Diva Reynolds said.
CBS News acquired video of Floyd’s initial arrest, which seems to contradict the claim that he resisted arrested, at least in the early stages of their encounter.
MORE: Video obtained by CBS News shows what appears to be the start of the confrontation between George Floyd & Minneapolis police officers. A restaurant’s security footage shows cops taking him into custody, but the restaurant owner says it does not show Floyd resisting arrest. pic.twitter.com/KR8r7B1WPl
Former Vice President Joe Biden, the presumptive Democratic candidate for president, tweeted his reaction to Floyd’s death Tuesday night.
George Floyd deserved better and his family deserves justice. His life mattered.
I’m grateful for the swift action in Minneapolis to fire the officers involved — they must be held responsible for their egregious actions. The FBI should conduct a thorough investigation. https://t.co/n1tdiUba0x
Leaders in Minnesota are calling for the officers involved to be held accountable. Rep. Ilhan Omar, who represents Minneapolis, called for the Department of Justice to investigate immediately.
“It is sickening to watch this black man be killed while helplessly begging for help,” she said in a statement.
Gov. Tim Walz and Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan also reacted to the incident, calling the video “disturbing” and demanding justice.
“The lack of humanity in this disturbing video is sickening. We will get answers and seek justice,” Walz said.
At a Tuesday morning press conference, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey spoke bluntly about the graphic video, which has circulated widely online.
“Being black in America should not be a death sentence,” Frey said. “What we saw is horrible, completely and utterly messed up.”
Thread: Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey calls the incident with a 40-something year old black man who died while under arrest “wrong on every level.” A FB video shows an MPD officer pinning the man down as he says he can’t breathe. “This does not reflect the values of MPD.” #wccopic.twitter.com/f9T6mvMkPI
— Christiane Cordero (@ChristianeWCCO) May 26, 2020
Attorney Ben Crump, who is representing Floyd’s family, says the officers’ unjust use of force over a non-violent charge cost Floyd his life. He released this statement to the media Tuesday evening:
Firing these officers was a good first step on the road to justice for George Floyd, but we need to make sure that the Mayor and the Police Chief fix the policies and training deficiencies that permitted this unlawful killing to occur. For four police officers to inflict this kind of unnecessary, lethal force – or watch it happen – despite outcry from witnesses who were recording the violence – demonstrates a breakdown in training and police by the City.
Today, George Floyd’s family is having to explain to his children why their father was executed by police on video. It’s essential that the City closely examines and changes its policing policies and training procedures to correct for the lack of proper field supervision; the use of appropriate, non-lethal restraint techniques; the ability to recognize medical signs associated with the restriction of airflow, and the legal duty to seek emergency medical care and stop a civil rights violation.
On Tuesday afternoon, the office of lawyer Tom Kelly confirmed they were representing one of the officers involved in the case, and confirmed his identity as Derek Chauvin. The identities of the other officers involved have not been released.
At the Tuesday morning press conference alongside the mayor, Minneapolis Police Chief Medaria Arradondo did not address the video specifically, but did say that he received information from the community that prompted him to reach out to the FBI. The investigation is now being led by federal authorities with help from the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension.
Officials from the FBI’s Minneapolis division released a statement Tuesday afternoon, saying in part the “investigation will focus on whether the Minneapolis Police Department officers involved willfully deprived the individual of a right or privilege protected by the Constitution or laws of the United States.”
The officers involved in Floyd’s death are on “relieved of duty status,” the police chief said. This is different from the typical administrative leave, but is still paid with no law enforcement duties. The names of the officers involved have yet to be released.
(credit: Darnella Frazier)
Lt. Bob Kroll, president of the Police Officers Federation of Minneapolis, said that the union intends to provide full support to the officers.
“Now is not the time rush to judgement and immediately condemn our officers,” Kroll said. “An in-depth investigation is underway. Our officers are fully cooperating. We must review all video. We must wait for the medical examiner’s report.”
The Hennepin County Medical Examiner’s office released a preliminary report early Tuesday evening, which just lists Floyd’s name, age, city of residence, and his time of death, which was Monday at 9:25 p.m.
Police started making a barrier around the precinct at about 7:30 p.m. as protesters began to swarm. One video shows some protesters sitting on the ground, while officers deployed smoke bombs or tear gas and flash grenades. Other videos show protesters smashing squad cars, precinct windows, and throwing bricks and rocks.
Floyd’s death is reminiscent of the death of another unarmed black man, Eric Garner. In 2014, he died after a New York City police officer placed him in a choke hold during an attempted arrest over selling single cigarettes.
Bystander video of the incident showed Garner telling officers, “I can’t breathe.” The phrase quickly became a rallying cry during the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement and national protests over police use of force.
The officer who placed Garner in the choke hold was fired but not charged.
….living in the state, no matter who they are or how they got there, will get one. That will be followed up with professionals telling all of these people, many of whom have never even thought of voting before, how, and for whom, to vote. This will be a Rigged Election. No way!
Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, shown here in February, decried the man’s death, saying, “All I can come back to is that he should not have died. What we saw was horrible and completely and utterly messed up.”
Steve Karnowski/AP
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Steve Karnowski/AP
Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, shown here in February, decried the man’s death, saying, “All I can come back to is that he should not have died. What we saw was horrible and completely and utterly messed up.”
Steve Karnowski/AP
The mayor of Minneapolis says four Minneapolis Police Department officers involved in the death of a black man in police custody have been terminated. The FBI is investigating the incident.
A 10-minute video widely circulated on social media and referenced by Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey shows a police officer using his knee to pin the man’s neck to the ground for multiple minutes.
The man has been identified as George Floyd by the mayor and by Benjamin Crump, a prominent civil rights attorney who says he has been retained by Floyd’s family.
In the video, Floyd repeatedly cries out and says, “I cannot breathe,” while the officer continues to push down on the man’s neck with his knee.
Floyd appears to become unresponsive after he has been pinned to the ground for several minutes. Bystanders plead with police to check Floyd for a pulse.
“He’s not even resisting arrest right now, bro,” one person is heard telling police.
Eventually, police and first responders are shown moving the still-unresponsive, handcuffed man onto a stretcher.
Four responding MPD officers involved in the death of George Floyd have been terminated.
Minnesota’s governor, Tim Walz, wrote on Twitter that “the lack of humanity in this disturbing video is sickening.” MPD spokesperson Garrett Parten declined to comment to NPR on the authenticity of the video.
The MPD said in a statement that an altercation occurred in South Minneapolis on Monday evening. It said officers responded to a report of forgery in progress. The police department said a suspect was sitting on top of his car and appeared to be under the influence when police ordered him to step away from the vehicle. According to the statement, he “physically resisted officers.”
“Officers were able to get the suspect into handcuffs and noted he appeared to be suffering medical distress. Officers called for an ambulance,” the department said. “He was transported to Hennepin County Medical Center by ambulance where he died a short time later.”
Police said that no weapons were used by the officers or the man during the encounter.
The FBI and Minnesota’s Bureau of Criminal Apprehension are now investigating the incident, which could include potential civil rights violations, Frey told reporters on Tuesday morning.
“I’ve been trying to find the words to describe what happened,” Frey said. “All I can come back to is that he should not have died. What we saw was horrible — completely and utterly messed up. This man’s life matters.”
“Being black in America should not be a death sentence,” Frey said. “For five minutes, we watched as a white officer pressed his knee to the neck of a black man. … When you hear someone calling for help, you are supposed to help. This officer failed in the most basic human sense.”
Frey and Minneapolis Police Chief Medaria Arradondo noted at the news conference that the officers involved were wearing body cameras.
“Our community continues to be traumatized again, and again and again,” Minneapolis City Councilwoman Andrea Jenkins said in a statement to local TV station KARE. “We must demand answers.”
Amnesty International USA called for the police officer involved to be held accountable for what happened, citing circumstances similar to those in the death of Eric Garner in 2014. Garner also famously said he couldn’t breathe as he was being apprehended by police in New York.
“We are incensed that nearly six years after Eric Garner uttered ‘I can’t breathe’ as he was killed by the New York Police Department, police officers still don’t seem to have learned to listen to a person’s call for help,” Amnesty’s Kristina Roth said in a release. “The police must be held accountable for this use of deadly force, that may also violate the department’s own policy.”
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California Gov. Gavin Newsom announced on Tuesday that he would ease the state’s restrictions on barbershops and hair salons for some counties in the state that meet certain health criteria.
The state, which issued one of the earliest statewide stay-at-home orders in mid-March, has been reopening its economy statewide in phases. The state is currently in phase two of its reopening plan, which has allowed for the resumption of retail businesses and manufacturing jobs with modifications.
Counties in the state that meet certain health criteria, including less than 25 new cases per 100,000 residents in the past 14 daysor less than 8% testing positive in the last week, are allowed to move further into the state’s reopening plan.
Newsom said 47 of the state’s 58 counties have “self-attested” to meeting the state’s criteria to move further into phase two, and starting Tuesday they will be allowed to reopen barbershops and hair salons with modifications, he said, including enhanced cleaning protocols and face covering requirements.
“Those counties will begin to allow for those kind of operations with meaningful modifications, with the appropriate protective gear, particularly face coverings that are so essential in that environment, sanitation requirements and the like,” Newsom said.
So far, those 47 counties have been allowed to reopen dine-in restaurant services with enhanced sanitation practices and modifications. Newsom has yet to lift restrictions on nail salons, bars and wineries, nightclubs and theme parks, among other businesses.
“We are advancing conversations with the legislature in particular supporting efforts to put out guidelines on nail salons and personal care, personal services,” Newsom said. “The issues there require, I think, a little bit more specificity, a little bit more nuance and details in terms of the guidance to satisfy our health experts.”
Some of California’s largest counties, however, like San Francisco and Los Angeles County, have yet to move further into the state’s reopening plan. Newsom has allowed cities to follow their own stay-at-home orders and ease restrictions when officials felt it’s safe to do so.
Both the Bay Area and Los Angeles have issued their own stay-at-home orders. Barbara Ferrer, director of the Los Angeles County department of public health, has indicated that the county’s stay-at-home restrictions will likely remain in place in the county through August, according to reports from NBC Los Angeles.
Newsom said that the hospitalization rate for Covid-19 cases in the state has remained stable and there’s now more intensive-care unit beds available, although he said the number of people in the ICU remains “stubborn but stable.”
“All of these numbers are part of those indicators that have to turn yellow to green so we can continue to march forward and indeed, they are turning yellow to green and we are marching forward as it relates to these modifications to the stay-at-home order,” Newsom said.
SAO PAULO (Reuters) – Brazil daily coronavirus deaths were higher than fatalities in the United States for the first time over the last 24 hours, according to the country’s Health Ministry.
Brazil registered 807 deaths over the last 24 hours, whereas 620 died in the United States.
Brazil has the second worst outbreak in the world, with 374,898 cases, behind the U.S. with 1.637 million cases. Total deaths in the U.S. has reached 97,971, according to Reuters tally compared with Brazil at 23,473.
Reporting by PEDRO FONSECA in RIO DE JANEIRO; editing by Tatiana Bautzer and Grant McCool
Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s (D) husband is being criticized for allegedly requesting that his boat be placed in the water in Northern Michigan before Memorial Day weekend.
Facebook posts from NorthShore Dock LLC and its owner, Tad Dowker, said the company received a request from Whitmer’s husband, Marc Mallory, last week, even as the governor had cautioned people not to flock to the area after easing coronavirus-related restrictions, The Detroit News reported.
The posts, which are no longer visible to the public, provoked Republican state lawmakers to criticize the Democratic governor and her family for not following her own guidelines.
Dowker first posted on Facebook on Thursday, three days after Whitmer announced the loosening of restrictions in Northern Lower Michigan and the Upper Peninsula.
“This morning, I was out working when the office called me, there was a gentleman on hold who wanted his boat in the water before the weekend,” Dowker posted, according to The Detroit News. “Being Memorial weekend and the fact that we started working three weeks late means there is no chance this is going to happen.”
“Well our office personnel had explained this to the man and he replied, ‘I am the husband to the governor, will this make a difference?’ ” Dowker added.
Dowker’s company released a second statement Saturday after he removed his previous post. The new post said employees didn’t have time to work with media requests and that Mallory was respectful and understanding when the company denied his request.
“After a long day of keeping crews running, adhering to the additional safety regulations that need to be in place to operate our small business and fielding calls from customers frustrated with our lagging installation schedule I was told the governor’s husband called asking for install availability,” the company posted, according to The Detroit News. “Up until this point we, as a company, had no idea we installed their dock or boat.”
Whitmer spokeswoman Tiffany Brown did not confirm or deny the allegations in the Facebook post, telling The Detroit News, “Our practice is not to discuss the governor’s or her family’s personal calendar/schedules. And we’re not going to make it a practice of addressing every rumor that is spread online.”
“There’s been a lot of wild misinformation spreading online attacking the governor and her family, and the threats of violence against her personally are downright dangerous,” she said.
Whitmer and Mallory own a property in the Elk Rapids area, according to The Detroit News. The governor had warned people who don’t live in the areas to “think long and hard before you take a trip” over Memorial Day weekend.
State Sen. Tom Barrett (R) condemned Mallory in a since-deleted Facebook post from Friday, saying that the governor had asked state residents not to “descend” on Traverse City, about 25 minutes from the couple’s property.
“In the army we have a very firm leadership understanding that the leaders in the unit eat last,” he told The Hill, adding, “They don’t cut in line. They don’t assert their privilege.”
Barrett said that he deleted the post after the governor’s office denied the allegations and requested he remove it. He said he since corroborated the story and asserts he was “drawn into a cover-up” by Whitmer’s office.
He said he didn’t repost the comments on Facebook to respect the business’s wishes.
Amy Cooper was captured on video on Monday calling the police on a man who says he asked her to put her dog on a leash in New York’s Central Park.
Christian Cooper via Facebook/Screen shot by NPR
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Christian Cooper via Facebook/Screen shot by NPR
Amy Cooper was captured on video on Monday calling the police on a man who says he asked her to put her dog on a leash in New York’s Central Park.
Christian Cooper via Facebook/Screen shot by NPR
Updated at 2:50 p.m. ET
A black man says he asked a white woman in Central Park to put her dog on a leash.
Then, video shows her calling police and telling emergency operators that the man was threatening her and her dog. The woman, who has been identified as Amy Cooper, has apologized. But by Tuesday afternoon she was fired from her job at an investment management firm.
“Following our internal review of the incident in Central Park yesterday, we have made the decision to terminate the employee involved, effective immediately. We do not tolerate racism of any kind at Franklin Templeton,” the company said in a statement posted to Twitter.
Following our internal review of the incident in Central Park yesterday, we have made the decision to terminate the employee involved, effective immediately. We do not tolerate racism of any kind at Franklin Templeton.
The encounter took place on Monday between the woman, who has since been identified as Amy Cooper, and the man who said he was bird watching. He was later identified as Christian Cooper. It started when Christian Cooper, who is not related to the woman, says he asked the woman to put her dog on a leash.
After video of the encounter was posted to social media, she said her behavior was “unacceptable.”
“It was unacceptable. And you know words are just words and I can’t undo what I did. But I sincerely and humbly apologize to everyone. Especially to that man, his family,” Amy Cooper said in an interview with NBC New York on Monday evening.
The Ramble is a wooded area of Central Park where dogs are required to be leashed. According to Christian Cooper, he started recording after asking her to leash her dog.
The woman is seen in the video approaching the man, holding the dog’s leash in one hand and pulling her dog by the collar with her other hand.
“Please don’t come close to me,” he says, appearing not move closer to her or retreat from her advancement.
As she approaches she tells him that she is going to take a picture of him and call police if he didn’t stop recording her.
Christian Cooper tells her, calmly, “Please call the cops. Please call the cops.”
“I’m going to tell them there’s an African American man threatening my life,” she responds.
She backs away from him and places the call while continuing to drag the dog by its collar.
“I’m in the Ramble, and there’s a man, African American, he’s got a bicycle helmet. He’s recording me and threatening me and my dog,” she said.
She repeats herself once more, though Christian Cooper never appears to come any closer to her.
By the third time she is yelling into the phone, this time far with far more panic in her voice.
“I’m sorry. I can’t hear. Are you there? I’m being threatened by a man into the Ramble. Please send the cops immediately!” she screams.
NPR has requested comment from both Amy Cooper and Christian Cooper but neither immediately responded.
The aftermath of the incident
In a statement to CNN, Amy Cooper said, ” ‘I’m not a racist. I did not mean to harm that man in any way,’ she said, adding that she also didn’t mean any harm to the African American community.”
Her employer, Franklin Templeton, initially said in a statement late Monday that it is investigating the matter.
“We take these matters very seriously, and we do not condone racism of any kind. While we are in the process of investigating the situation, the employee involved has been put on administrative leave,” the company said.
The encounter is being highlighted as another example of a white person calling law enforcement to report black people for doing seemingly banal things.
Christian Cooper said his encounter is not an uncommon experience for many black people in the U.S.
“I don’t think there’s an African American person in America who hasn’t experienced something like this at some point,” Christian Cooper told the The Washington Post.
“I don’t shy away from confronting the scofflaw when I see it. Otherwise, the park would be unusable — not just to us birders but to anybody who enjoys the beauty,” he said.
He went a step further in an interview with NBC New York and linked his experience to that of another black man, one who died during a recent encounter with a group of white men in Georgia.
“I’m not going to participate in my own dehumanization,” Cooper said. “We live in an age of Ahmaud Arbery, where you know, black men are shot, gunned down, because of the presumptions that people make,” he added.
So far three men, all of them white, have been charged in the killing of Arbery, who was shot dead in February in Glynn County, Ga.
“As of this evening, the owner has voluntarily surrendered the dog in question to our rescue while this matter is being addressed,” the rescue group said.
The dog was adopted from the rescue a few years ago, the group added. It reported that the dog is “safe and in good health,” and said it will not be making any further statements on the matter.
2020 hopeful Joe Biden wears a masks to lay a wreath on Memorial Day as he remains off the campaign trail; Axios reporter Jonathan Swan reacts.
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President Trump on Tuesday ripped the Obama White House response to the swine flu epidemic a decade ago when Joe Biden was vice president, as Biden‘s campaign likewise hammered the president over his handling of the coronavirus pandemic.
Trump accused Biden of being ineffective during the H1N1 outbreak, which infected more than 60 million people in the U.S. during the Obama administration.
“Joe Biden’s handling of the H1N1 Swine Flu was a complete and total disaster,” Trump tweeted Tuesday morning. “Even polls on the matter were terrible!”
The swine flu pandemic hit the U.S. in 2009. According to CDC estimates, between April 12 of that year and April 10, 2010, there were 60.8 million cases, 274,304 hospitalizations, and 12,469 deaths in the United States due to the virus. A vaccine was made available in November 2009.
As of May 25, 2020, the CDC has reported 1,637,456 COVID-19 cases and 97,669 deaths, although those figures include both confirmed and possible cases.
Over the weekend, Biden attacked Trump by implying that the president has been ineffective during the current crisis. On Friday, he posted a campaign ad that claimed the president “froze like a deer in the headlights” when the coronavirus outbreak hit the U.S.
The ad called Trump “unprepared,” “indecisive,” and “paralyzed by his fear of offending the Chinese government.”
The next day, Biden posted another ad that implied Trump was taking a cavalier attitude toward the pandemic.
“Nearly 100,000 lives have been lost, and tens of millions are out of work. Meanwhile, the president spent his day golfing,” Biden tweeted with an ad that showed clips of the president on the links juxtaposed with a rising death count.
Sunday, Trump pushed back by claiming that he had not played golf in months prior to the Memorial Day weekend, and that “Biden was constantly vacationing, relaxing & making shady deals with other countries” during the Obama administration. He also claimed that Obama himself “was always playing golf.”
The jabs exchanged between the president and his presumptive Democratic opponent have escalated in recent days. In addition to accusations about how they have each handled medical crises, Trump said during an interview Sunday that Biden is “not mentally sharp enough” to be president.
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Joe Biden’s national polling lead against President Donald Trump has been relatively stable for months. But the looming question for Biden is whether he can get the right combination of voters to turn out for him on Election Day — and in the right places.
Barack Obama beat his Republican challengers in 2008 and 2012 by driving historic turnout among African American voters and winning working-class white voters in Midwestern Rust Belt states.Replicating that exact playbook may not be realistic; Trump’s hold on white working-class voters can’t be underestimated.
“Michigan and Pennsylvania are prerequisites for a Biden victory,” said election analyst Dave Wasserman of the nonpartisan Cook Political Report. “After that, what can put him over the top? Is it Wisconsin, Arizona, or Florida?”
The Biden campaign strategy will take a series of carefully executed plays. Cut into Trump’s margins with rural and exurban voters in states from the Upper Midwest to Florida. Make sure African American, Latino, and Asian American turnout is strong in Sun Belt and Rust Belt states alike. Appeal to a subset of voters where Democrats have been racking up big wins lately: suburban voters (especially women) who may have voted for Mitt Romney in 2012 but are wary of Trump.
And — maybe the biggest play of all — see if the campaign can win or at least significantly cut into the president’s margins with older voters, a traditionally more conservative and reliable bloc that suddenly seems to be turning away from the president.A recent Fox News poll found voters aged 65 and older said they preferred Biden to Trump by 17 points. A recent Quinnipiac University poll also showed Biden 22 points ahead with women 65 and older (and Trump leading men in the same age group). These polls could certainly change, but they’re worrying sign forTrump, who won older voters by 7 points in 2016.
“Even if Joe Biden cuts the margin of what Trump won [with older voters], because they’re the largest single age group, it is a huge, huge game changer,” said Biden adviser and pollster John Anzalone.
It’s going to be tough to pull off. Trump has an incumbent advantage and vast financial resources. And Democrats could risk stretching themselves thin; as much as there are new opportunities, there are also a lot of areas where they need to play defense.The former vice president’s strength with the African American community may not be enough to garner Obama’s levels of support from black voters. The Trump campaign’s attempts to woo black voters certainly haven’t escaped Democrats’ attention, and they’re worried black voters in Midwestern states who stayed home in 2016 may do the same in 2020.
However he gets there, Biden needs to find the right combination of voters in the right states. And with the coronavirus and a tanking economy upending the political landscape, he may have more opportunities to draw a distinction between himself and Trump.
“At this point, we see very few voters as off the table,” said Becca Siegel, the Biden campaign’s chief analytics adviser.
Rather than replicate the Obama coalition, Joe Biden wants to build his own.
Biden needs to win with a combination of white and black voters in the Rust Belt
Biden’s national polling lead of 5.5 points over Trump, according to RealClearPolitics, certainly doesn’t mean the election is a lock for him. As Hillary Clinton saw in 2016, where you win is more important than how many people you win nationally; if you don’t have the Electoral College, you don’t have the White House.
The Cook Political Report’s most current Electoral College forecast projects Democrats currently have a slight advantage with 232 electoral votes in states that are either solid, likely, or lean blue, compared to 204 electoral votes in red states for Republicans. Keep in mind these ratings could certainly fluctuate. There are just six states that Cook currently rates as true toss-ups (plus Nebraska’s 2nd Congressional District; Nebraska is one of two states that assigns Electoral College votes to individual House districts).
Trump won all these toss-up states in 2016: Michigan, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Arizona, Florida, and North Carolina.
The Midwestern trifecta of Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin is an area where Democrats historically had solidly won presidential elections from the early 1990s, until Trump came along. Of the three, election forecasters believe Michigan and Pennsylvania are likelier to go blue in 2020 than Wisconsin.
Biden supporters and campaign staffers cheer after a campaign event in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on March 10.Bastiaan Slabbers/NurPhoto/Getty Images
The RealClearPolitics average of head-to-head state polls shows Biden up 6.5 percent in Pennsylvania, 5.5 percent in Michigan, and a smaller 2.7 percent lead in Wisconsin. (In the rapidly diversifyingSun Belt states, Biden has a 4 percent lead in Arizona, a 3.3 percent lead in Florida, and Trump has a 1 percent lead in North Carolina.)
Biden winning the three Rust Belt states will take a combination of strong African American turnout in cities like Philadelphia and Detroit, suburban voters, and working-class white voters where Democrats can get them. While Biden is strong with African Americans overall, Trump’s campaign is doing outreach that could cut into that lead.
“We should take the Trump efforts with black men and younger black men seriously,” said Addisu Demissie, former campaign manager for Sen. Cory Booker’s presidential run. “When you’re talking about margins in the tens of thousands in some of these states like Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Florida, that could be the difference. On the margins, any constituency matters.”
Polls so far show Trump still has a pretty strong hold on working-class white men nationwide, which he won by nearly 50 points in 2017. This is the core of Trump’s base, and they have largely remained loyal. Still, there is the potential for some movement among white non-college-educated women, who Trump carried by 27 points in 2016.
“There seems to be a bit more movement, you can peel a few more of them off,” said Monmouth University Polling Director Patrick Murray, adding that Biden is “certainly going to lose men in that group by a huge margin.”
Winning back working-class areas with Democratic roots and a heavy union presence in 2020 “isn’t rocket science,” said Rep. Conor Lamb, the Pennsylvania Democrat whose long-shot win in a 2018 House special election in western Pennsylvania was a sign of life for the party there. “You can win a lot of votes in these areas, but you’ve got to fight for them.”
When Lamb was first running in the special election, he met plenty of voters who felt left behind by the Democratic Party. “They just kind of felt ignored in a general sense,” Lamb told Vox. Although Clinton had poured resources into Pennsylvania, voters in rural areas outside of Pittsburgh where steel and coal-mining jobs were disappearing didn’t feel it. Many voted for Trump.
This year, Lamb said his constituents aren’t interested in hearing Democrats bash Trump as much as they are in issues that hit their pocketbooks, like the cost of prescription drugs, support for Medicare and Social Security, and well-paying jobs in Pennsylvania’s energy sector. Ties to organized labor in Pennsylvania and Michigan are still strong; less so in Wisconsin after state Republicans there passed a bill to gut unions.
“One of my messages to the Biden campaign has been and will be, it’s important to talk about who we are, what we are for, without mentioning the president,” Lamb said. “People want to know, ‘what are you going to do for me.’”
Rep. Haley Stevens, a moderate Democrat elected to Michigan’s heavily suburban 11th Congressional District outside Detroit, similarly said voters in her communities are tired of the constant partisan bickering in Washington, DC. It also happens the district had the 10th highest turnout in 2018, nationwide. It could see even greater turnout this year.
“We have a lot of people very eager to see the drama stop and see DC get to work for them,” Stevens said.
Biden needs to win over retirees to win Florida, the retiree state
The southern coastal swing state is key to any candidate’s victory on election night. It was crucial to Trump’s Electoral College win in 2016, when the Republican candidate over-performed Mitt Romney in white and rural exurban counties.
Clinton did well in Miami and Fort Lauderdale, but Trump’s performance in the corridor along Interstate 4, around Tampa and St. Petersburg, was too much for Democrats to overcome. They don’t want to make the same mistake twice.
Biden is currently leading Florida by 3.3 percent, according to RealClearPolitics. That’s causing some politicos who had written Florida off as a solid Trump win to rethink its competitiveness. If history is any indicator, the election there could be very tight; the last two presidential elections in the state were decided by less than a point.
“I’ve never understood why people didn’t think Florida was going to be in play,” said Florida Democratic strategist Steve Schale, Obama’s Florida state director in 2008.
An election worker assists a voter during the Florida primary in Miami, Florida, on March 17.Eva Marie Uzcategui/AFP/Getty Images
Like Arizona, Florida boasts a sizable Latino population, but it’s largely made up of Cubans and Puerto Ricans rather than Mexican-Americans in the southwestern US. Because Florida is home to a contingent of people who fled socialist governments in Cuba and Venezuela, its Latino population tends to be more right-leaning. The GOP has found success with this group in the past. Biden also bested Sanders with Florida Latinos in the 2020 primary.
“What’s fascinating there is it’s a population of people who for the most part came to the US with status,” said Schale, explaining why immigration issues aren’t as salient in Florida as they are in other parts of the country.
When it comes to November, Democrats are looking for opportunities along the I-4 corridor, and the suburbs and exurban communities between Orlando and Tampa are a prime target for them. Older voters account for another big reason why Florida is back on the table for Democrats in 2020. Florida is where many Americans go to retire, including large shares of retirees from places like Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania.
“The swing voters in Florida, they tend to be the retired versions of people who live in the upper Midwest,” Schale said. “[If] the Democrats do well in Florida, they’re also going to do well in the upper Midwest. And if they do well in the upper Midwest, they’re also going to do well in Florida.”
Older voters will be key in Florida, but they’re also a key contingent in really any Electoral College state, whether it be in the Rust Belt or Arizona.
As FiveThirtyEight’s Geoffrey Skelley wrote, Trump’s average margin with older voters in head-to-head polls this year is underperforming his 2016 margins. Among voters 55 and older, Trump’s current margin is 10 points behind where it was in 2016. And among voters 65 and older, the president’s margin is about 14 points behind where it was in 2016. Biden isn’t necessarily winning these voters outright in polls, but he’s catching up to Trump’s numbers. Biden’s team considers even cutting into Trump’s margins with older voters a win.
“We’ll all be cautious about what the margin is,” Anzalone said. “I think we’ll do better, I’m not sure we’ll win them, but even if we cut the margin in half, it’s significant electoral impact.”
To win Florida, Biden needs plenty of retirees in his corner. But he also can’t ignore younger generations in that state, or any other.
Polls around the country show Biden has some work to do with younger voters. These voters tend to be more progressive; they also tend to turn out less reliably than older voters. The former vice president is doing outreach; he has already assembled policy-focused task forces with his former competitor Sen. Bernie Sanders, a popular figure among the younger generation. But more work will need to be done to make up an enthusiasm gap.
“In a close and tight election, these are the difference makers, these are the people who could swing this election,” said Sanders’s former 2020 campaign Faiz Shakir.
A combination of Latinos and suburban whites could put Biden over the top in Arizona
With a 4 percent lead on the RealClearPolitics state polling average, Biden’s campaign seems particularly bullish on Arizona. This southwestern state is a traditionally Republican stronghold that’s trending purple, owing to a combination of a growing Latino vote and white, college-educated suburban voters.
“We believe there will be battleground states that have never been battleground states before — Arizona on the top of the list,” Biden campaign manager Jen O’Malley Dillon told reporters recently. “We are not only ahead [in Arizona], but we have a strong opportunity there to build our pathway to victory.”
Arizona voted for Trump in 2016, but pollsters see substantial demographic changes contributing to Democrats’ recent success there. Democratic US Sen. Kyrsten Sinema was elected in 2018, as was a Democratic secretary of state. And this year’s Arizona Senate race is one of the most competitive in the country.
“The reason states are moving bluer in the Southwest is we’re forming coalitions,” Rep. Ruben Gallego (D-AZ) told Vox. “What happened there is a combination of moderate white Anglos joining with progressive Latinos to win and put progressive Democrats in office.”
A number of Arizona Latinos are progressive, and the Democratic primary between Biden and Sanders was competitive for that reason. Biden’s team plans to do significant outreach there, and Gallego said the work of contacting Latino voters needs to happen as soon as possible.
Changing demographics in North Carolina make it competitive
Out of all the Electoral College toss-ups, North Carolina is the biggest reach state for Democrats in 2020. Trump slightly overperformed Mitt Romney in the red-leaning swing state in 2016, but its cities and suburbs are a growing worry for Republicans.
Trump’s razor-thin 1 point lead in North Carolina’s polling average reflects the state’s complicated political dynamics. In 2008, Obama was the first Democratic presidential candidate to win the state since 1976, and he did it by the slimmest of margins.
But even though Republicans have consistently won presidential elections in the state, the last three elections have been close, 2 to 3 points at the most. Many voters there are moderate, and Democrats successfully took the governor’s seat in 2016, a bright spot in an otherwise dismal election for them.
Joe Biden supporters celebrate his primary victory in Raleigh, North Carolina, on March 3.Eamon Queeney/The Washington Post/Getty Images
The reason North Carolina is so competitive this year, both with the presidential contest and the Senate race, is its growing suburbs. People are moving to North Carolina cities and their suburbs; in 2017 and 2018, a full 63 percent of the state’s population growth happened in the Charlotte, Raleigh, and Durham metropolitan areas, which are all considered blue spots and a potential opportunity for Democrats.
As Cook’s Amy Walter noted in a recent analysis, Super Tuesday election results in the state showed that the suburbs around cities saw markedly increased Democratic turnout; 61 percent of the vote for Democrats compared to 38 percent for Republicans (keep in mind, the Republican primary this time was less competitive with Trump as the incumbent). In 2016, Walter wrote, the Republican share of the votes in these suburbs was 54 percent Republican compared to 46 percent Democratic.
In addition to doing better in the North Carolina suburbs, Democrats will also have to cut down Trump’s margins in more rural areas and exurban communities if they have any hope of a good night there.
Obama won in 2008 in part because of enthusiastic black voter turnout, which also helped lift Democrat Kay Hagan to the Senate. Biden likely won’t be able to get the same levels of black support in North Carolina as the first black president did. His best hope there is combining strong black turnout with a surprising level of white suburban support, and cutting into Trump’s rural and exurban voters.
“This is very much about narrowing the margins from 2016,” said Anzalone. “I think that what Biden has going for him in terms of his connection with voters, he has the ability to narrow the margins with rural voters, with exurban voters.”
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Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer faced backlash from Republican lawmakers after a reported request from her husband to get the family’s boat out on the water before Memorial Day weekend — far from their home in Lansing.
Whitmer, a Democrat, famously has imposed one of the strictest lockdowns in the country, sparking frequent protests. What’s more, she’s told people not living in Northern Michigan to stay away from vacation spots there during the holiday weekend.
In Facebook posts no longer visible to the public, NorthShore Dock LLC and its owner, Tad Dowker, focused on what Dowker said was a request last week by Whitmer’s husband, Marc Mallory. The posts caught the attention of Republican state lawmakers, who said the governor’s family may not have wanted to follow the guidance she’s issued for the rest of the state.
“This morning, I was out working when the office called me, there was a gentleman on hold who wanted his boat in the water before the weekend,” Dowker posted, The Detroit News reported. “Being Memorial weekend and the fact that we started working three weeks late means there is no chance this is going to happen.”
He continued, “Our office personnel had explained this to the man and he replied, ‘I am the husband to the governor, will this make a difference?'” The docking company later noted that Mallory respectfully accepted that the accommodation would not be possible.
Whitmer spokeswoman Tiffany Brown refused to comment specifically on the matter, saying the administration wouldn’t address “every rumor that is spread online.”
She said in a statement: “Our practice is not to discuss the governor’s or her family’s personal calendar/schedules. And we’re not going to make it a practice of addressing every rumor that is spread online. There’s been a lot of wild misinformation spreading online attacking the governor and her family, and the threats of violence against her personally are downright dangerous.”
Last Monday, Whitmer announced restrictions would be lifted in some regions of Northern Michigan, but urged those who didn’t live in the region to stay away. “If you don’t live in these regions… think long and hard before you take a trip into them,” she said. “A small spike could put the hospital system in dire straits pretty quickly. That’s precisely why we’re asking everyone to continue doing their part. Don’t descend on [waterfront] Traverse City from all regions of the state.”
The vacation property Whitmer and her husband have owned is about 25 minutes from Traverse City, according to The Detroit News, but the family permanently resides in Lansing, over 150 miles away.
State Sen. Tom Barrett, R-Charlotte, said Whitmer had urged Michigan residents not to “descend” on the city. “Yet, what did her family try and do?” Barrett said.
“In the Army, we have a tradition that the leaders get in line for chow last behind everyone else in the unit,” he continued. “Here is the leader of our state. … Her family is trying to cut people in line.”
After rising to fame over her stringent coronavirus policy, Whitmer confirmed last week she had been in talks with the Biden campaign about a potential vice presidential candidate pick.
The governor attracted the attention of President Trump when she criticized the federal government’s response to the pandemic.
“I love Michigan, one of the reasons we are doing such a GREAT job for them during this horrible Pandemic. Yet your Governor, Gretchen ‘Half’ Whitmer is way in over her head, she doesn’t have a clue. Likes blaming everyone for her own ineptitude!” he tweeted after her comments.
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