United States of America eSeries: Reckoning again with George Floyd's death

Tuesday 03.30.21

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by Paul LeBlanc and Zachary B. Wolf

: 'I believed I witnessed a murder'

Five bystanders who witnessed former Minneapolis Police officer Derek Chauvin kneel on George Floyd testified in court today about the horror and fear they felt watching Floyd slowly die.

The testimony in Chauvin's trial comes 10 months after Floyd's death sparked a summer of protest, unrest and a societal reckoning with America's toleration of anti-Black racism and aggressive policing.

Donald Wynn Williams II, a mixed martial arts fighter, testified that he was so disturbed by what he saw that he called 911 to report it. "I called the police on the police," he said. "I believed I witnessed a murder."

Chauvin, 45, has pleaded not guilty to charges of second-degree unintentional murder, third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter.

If convicted, Minnesota's sentencing guidelines recommend about 12.5 years in prison for each murder charge and about four years for the manslaughter charge.

But the trial -- which is being broadcast live in its entirety -- represents more than just Chauvin and his conduct. As CNN's Van Jones put it, the US justice system is on trial here.

The weight of the trial was clear Tuesday as witnesses recounted Floyd's final moments.

A teenager who took the most widely known bystander video, Darnella Frazier, testified that she saw her own Black father, brothers, cousins and friends in Floyd.

"I look at that and I look at how that could have been one of them," she said through tears.

"It's been nights I've stayed up apologizing to George Floyd for not doing more and not physically interacting and not saving his life. But it's not what I should have done, it's what he should have done."

Another witness became audibly emotional when asked about what happened.

"You could see in his face that he was slowly not being able to breathe. His eyes were rolling back, and at one point, he just kind of sat there, or laid there," the witness said.

The witness stopped talking for more than 30 seconds after saying it was difficult to speak about Floyd's death. "I was there and, like, technically, I could have did something, but I couldn't really do anything physically what I wanted to do because the highest power was there at the time."

Witness testimony in the trial is expected to last about four weeks, followed by jury deliberations.

Follow CNN's updating coverage of the trial here.

: Washington speed read

Justice Department announces hate crime probe. Attorney General Merrick Garland has launched a 30-day "expedited review" to figure out how the Justice Department can "deploy all the tools at its disposal" to combat hate crimes across the country, according to a memo released today.

Biden reveals history-making judicial nominees. The President unveiled a diverse slate of 11 judicial nominees, including three African American women for Circuit Court vacancies and a candidate who, if confirmed, would be the first Muslim federal judge in US history.

DNC to review presidential nomination process. The Democratic National Committee announced it will review the 2020 presidential nomination process, setting the stage for changes on how the party will choose who is at the top of the ticket in 2024.

Federal prosecutor looking at FBI's probe of Trump campaign. John Durham is looking at early aspects of the FBI investigation into former President Donald Trump's campaign.

All bite and no bark. The Bidens' dog Major has been involved in another biting incident that required medical attention, two people with knowledge of the incident tell CNN.

The incident, which involved a National Park Service employee, took place Monday afternoon on the White House South Lawn. The employee was working at the time and needed to stop in order to receive treatment from the White House medical unit.

: Infrastructure week(s)

Biden is aiming to pass his sweeping infrastructure and jobs proposal this summer, a senior White House official told CNN, setting an ambitious timeline to achieve his next major legislative goal.

How ambitious? Read this report from CNN's Jeremy Diamond, Lauren Fox and Betsy Klein :

It all starts tomorrow. The President will lay out the first of his two-pronged infrastructure proposal in Pittsburgh where he's expected to focus on repairing the physical infrastructure of the country while pushing for significant climate investments.

The second component will be pushed next month. The proposal laid out this week will be followed next month by a second major package aimed at addressing social welfare, with funds directed to expanding paid family leave, child care and access to health care, the officials said. That proposal is expected to be financed through a menu of tax increases that would target wealthier individuals and investors.

The key date to watch: May 31. In a sign of how quickly the administration is moving on its next major legislative priority, the senior official told CNN the White House wants to see substantive progress on advancing the legislation by Memorial Day -- May 31 -- as they work with Congress, which gives them just two months.

What are Republicans saying? The GOP has balked at enacting tax increases to pay for the measure and congressional Democrats are already laying the groundwork to advance the proposal through budget reconciliation.

Some expect that process could extend past the August congressional recess.

An infrastructure investment is sorely needed. The US scored a C- in the society's 2021 infrastructure report card, released earlier this month. It's the first time that the nation received a grade higher than the D range since the survey began in 1998.

: 📺: Mother of DC police officer rebukes Trump

Last week, Former President Donald Trump attempted to whitewash the history of the January 6 Capitol riot by pushing the false suggestion that his supporters were "hugging and kissing" police officers and posed "zero threat."

In reality, there was widespread violence, injuries to law enforcement officers and five deaths. One DC police officer, Michael Fanone, was stun-gunned several times, beaten with a flagpole and heard people screaming, "Kill him with his own gun."

His mom, Terry, had this to say about Trump's comments in an interview with CNN last night:

"What goes through my mind is really outrage."
"For us, for our family, and for each and every police officer that I know that Michael's in touch with constantly, it's outrageous."
"It's so dehumanizing. It's so devaluing."

📺Watch the full clip here.

: The future of the pandemic is in our hands

As we dove into last night, the US coronavirus response is at something of an inflection point.

Epidemiologist Ali Mokdad described it this way: "The warm weather and the vaccines are helping us. Our behavior is hurting us. That balance will dictate what happens in the future."

The two graphs below illustrate just that. After weeks of steep declines in cases and deaths, both are ticking back up.

Covid spread in the US. Gray bars represent the number of new cases reported each day. The dashed red line shows the seven-day moving average.

Covid deaths over time. Gray bars represent the number of new deaths reported each day. The dashed orange line shows the seven-day moving average.

It's not too late to change course. On this, public health experts agree.

What that will take, while vaccination numbers climb, will be doubling on safety measures that have proved to work: face masks, social distancing, avoiding crowds and regularly washing hands.

: What are we doing here?

We're trying to connect the dots at a time of political, cultural and economic upheaval.