Editor’s Note: Say What? is the segment of Liberty Nation Radio where we unveil some of the most wacky, astonishing, and damnable things uttered by politicians and the chattering class.
Tim Donner: In what may be among the most damnable episodes we have ever witnessed, the nation has recoiled in horror in the wake of another racially charged incident. But this time almost nobody is defending the police. One cop in Minneapolis shifted his full body weight onto his knee and pressed it down on the neck of a prostrate George Floyd, as horrified onlookers begged him to stop, until Mr. Floyd died right there or on his way to the hospital. And the three other cops in on the arrest did nothing to stop him.
This, in the progressive bastion of Minneapolis, where you'd expect the police to be far more constrained, given the political nature of that city. With the release now of multiple videos of that incident, we're starting to get a clearer picture on how Mr. Floyd was executed by police for an alleged non-violent crime.
Reporter, Inside Edition: It starts at 8:00 p.m. at this grocery store. Police are called because Floyd was suspected of passing a counterfeit $20 bill. 8:34, cops find Floyd in an SUV parked nearby and handcuff him. Surveillance video from a restaurant shows Floyd is not resisting as he's removed from the SUV. 8:38, he is marched across the street by two officers. Several missing minutes go by without video. The timeline picks up when a passer-by begins shooting video of a cop with his knee pressed into Floyd's neck.
George Floyd: I can't breathe, Officer.
Reporter: Floyd can be heard telling the cops he cannot breathe, 15 times.
George Floyd: I cannot breathe.
Reporter: The gathering crowd can see Floyd is unconscious.
Bystander: Bro, he has not moved. Not one time.
Tim: So, how severe is pressing your knee on the neck of someone lying face down on the ground? Listen to a forensic pathologist.
Dr. Judy Melinek: Pressure on the neck can make someone unconscious within seconds and then kill them on the order of minutes. What we see in the video is that there is pressure put on his neck for at least four minutes before he becomes unconscious.
Tim: Rest assured, there will be hell to pay for this, for cops, for communities torn by violent outrage about this, for ordinary people appalled by this incident. Four cops, one slowly draining the life out of a non-violent suspect, the others standing by and watching.
But it was another week, so, of course, there was another raging controversy over President Trump after he fired back at Twitter, which for the first time had fact-checked a political ad, his, saying mail-in voting will lead to massive voter fraud. Obviously an opinion, the type perpetuated all over Twitter every hour of every day, but this is Trump, so a brand-new standard is set. But not to be outdone, Trump laid down an executive order, demanding impartiality from Twitter.
President Trump: Today I'm signing an executive order to protect and uphold the free speech and rights of the American people. Currently social media giants like Twitter receive an unprecedented liability shield, based on the theory that they're a neutral platform. My executive order calls for new regulations under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act to make it that social media companies that engage in censoring or any political conduct will not be able to keep their liability shield.
Tim: Liability shield means Twitter and other social media sites have protection from lawsuits because they're only posting content from their users, not posting it themselves. So, are Twitter's actions a legitimate threat to free speech, or are Trump's, or is this just a shot across the bow from Trump and/or an attempt to get Twitter to bend?
Meanwhile, life goes on as we pass the 100,000-deaths mark from COVID-19, and the nation starts to get its mojo back with partial, and some full, reopenings across the land, in spite of the ever-more apparent desire by leftists in general and blue state governors in particular to keep us shuttered. But President Trump still has a re-election campaign to run over the next five months, and he made another one of those bold claims this week.
Now last week we discussed Trump's claims that we have prevailed over COVID-19 and that his is one of the greatest presidencies in history. This week, Trump made a pitch for why he needs a second term, to fight what he has discovered is the true enemy of the American people.
President Trump: I'm fighting the deep state, I'm fighting, I'm fighting the Swamp. And I said I was doing it, and I'm exposing the Swamp. I think if it keeps going the way it's going, I have a chance to break the deep state. It's a vicious group of people. It's very bad for our country. They never thought I was going to win, and then I won. And then they tried to get me out. That was the insurance policy. She's going to win, but just in case she doesn't win, we have an insurance policy, and now I beat them on the insurance policy. And now they're being exposed.
Tim: That was from an interview with Sharyl Attkisson on the show Full Measure. The response of the deep state, known until Trump as the permanent bureaucracy, is likely to be exactly what it's been for three-plus years of the Trump presidency: over our dead bodies. We will outlast you and re-establish our credibility and dominance as soon as Trump leaves and is replaced by a Democrat or perhaps a weak-willed Republican.
But the contrast between Trump and his presumptive opponent Joe Biden could not have been more stark this week. While Trump eschewed the mask in public appearances as he tried to pump up the reopening of the country, Joe Biden finally left his basement and visited a war memorial with his wife on Memorial Day, wearing an ominous-looking black mask, which triggered the expected back and forth.
President Trump: Biden can wear a mask, but he was standing outside with his wife, perfect conditions, perfect weather. They're inside, they don't wear masks. And so I thought it was very unusual that he had one on.
Joe Biden: He's a fool. An absolute fool to talk that way. Every leading doc in the world is saying we should wear a mask when you're in a crowd.
Tim: But Biden wasn't in a crowd. He was just with his wife. Nevertheless, Biden in his black mask, while Trump refuses to wear a mask in public, presents the perfect imagery for the two sides. Republicans desperately wanting to kick-start people's lives and the economy, Democrats pushing for lockdowns until, well, how about Election Day? That'll work.
But Biden spent much of the week backtracking and apologizing for what he said to podcaster Charlamagne Tha God.
Joe Biden: I'll tell you, if you have a problem figuring out whether you're for me or Trump, then you ain't black.
Tim: Was Biden taking the black vote for granted or, just as he said, being a wise guy?
But among the things uppermost in the minds of most in the political class, not to mention everyday Americans, is China. And this week the Chinese Communist Party doubled down on its tyranny, effectively ending Hong Kong as an independent state and folding it into the People's Republic of China. As National Security Advisor Robert O'Brien said, this is a seismic shift for global markets.
Robert O'Brien: It's hard to see how Hong Kong could remain the Asian financial center that it's become if China takes over. One reason that they came to Hong Kong is because there was the rule of law there, there was a free-enterprise system, there was a capitalist system, there was democracy and local legislative elections. If all those things go away, I'm not sure how the financial community can stay there. And I think you're also going to have a terrible brain train. I think Hong Kong citizens, many of whom can travel under certain circumstances, could travel to the United Kingdom or seek refuge other places, they're not going to stay in Hong Kong to be dominated by the People's Republic of China.
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