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Lois Beckett in Los Angeles and Joan E Greve

George Floyd’s family urges Biden to pass a policing reform bill – as it happened

Evening summary

We are wrapping up today’s live US politics coverage. Here’s an updated summary of today’s key news. We’ll be back early tomorrow morning. In the meantime, don’t forget the super blood moon.

  • New York prosecutors are convening a special grand jury to hear evidence in their criminal investigation of Donald Trump’s business practices, sources told the Washington Post and Associated Press. The move is important, but does not necessarily mean that Trump himself will face criminal charges.
  • George Floyd’s family encouraged Congress to pass a policing reform bill after meeting with Joe Biden at the White House. The family’s meeting with the president came on the one-year anniversary of the death of Floyd, who was murdered by a white police officer in Minneapolis. “If you can make federal laws to protect the [national] bird, which is the bald eagle, you can make federal laws to protect people of color,” Floyd’s brother, Philonise Floyd, told reporters after the meeting.
  • Darnella Frazier, the 18-year-old whose cellphone video of Floyd’s murder challenged the official account of his death, wrote about the lasting trauma and grief of Floyd’s killing, as well as her pride in documenting the truth.
  • Biden expressed hope that lawmakers will soon reach a bipartisan compromise on the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act. “To deliver real change, we must have accountability when law enforcement officers violate their oaths,” the president said in a statement after his meeting with Floyd’s family. “We have to act.”
  • As of today, 50% of American adults are fully vaccinated against coronavirus, the White House said. Biden has previously said he wants to get 70% of American adults at least partially vaccinated by 4 July, and the White House said it is on track to meet that goal.
  • House minority leader Kevin McCarthy condemned extremist congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene for comparing coronavirus restrictions to the Holocaust. “Marjorie is wrong, and her intentional decision to compare the horrors of the Holocaust with wearing masks is appalling,” McCarthy said. Greene’s comments had sparked widespread outrage among members of both parties, who noted it was incredibly offensive to compare health precautions recommended by experts to the slaughter of 6 million Jewish people.

Where and how to watch tonight’s Super Blood Moon

US political news just does not stop. But don’t forget about tonight’s super blood moon, a lunar eclipse spectacle best viewed in locations on the West Coast of the US and across the Pacific.

You can also read some helpful tips on how to photograph the moon from our colleagues in Guardian Australia.

Breaking down the early reactions to the Trump investigation Grand Jury reports

Television news is providing some early reactions to the news reports about prosecutors convening a special grand jury for the criminal investigation into Trump’s business dealings.

The short version: yes, this could be a big deal.

It likely means that prosecutors are moving towards bringing charges against someone.

But that someone might or might not be Donald Trump.

What does a grand jury mean for the Trump investigation?

New York prosecutors have convened a grand jury to consider evidence in a criminal investigation of Donald Trump’s business dealings, the Washington Post and the Associated Press reported today.

How significant is this move?

Politico’s legal affairs columnist, Renato Mariotti, who has been writing about the case, offered some initial context:

The choice of New York attorney general Tish James to join the Manhattan district attorney’s criminal investigation is a signal that “there’s a strong likelihood that evidence has been established of intent to commit fraud,” Mariotti wrote in a column last week.

And David Fahrenthold, one of the Washington Post reporters who broke the story, offered some additional context on MSNBC.

Grand jury seated in New York for next stage of Trump investigation, source says

New York prosecutors have convened a special grand jury to consider evidence in a criminal investigation into former president Donald Trump’s business dealings, a person familiar with the matter told the Associated Press on Tuesday.

The development signals that the Manhattan district attorney’s office was moving toward seeking charges as a result of its two-year investigation, which included a lengthy legal battle to obtain Trump’s tax records.

The person familiar with the matter was not authorized to speak publicly and did so on condition of anonymity. The news was first reported by The Washington Post.

The Manhattan district attorney, Cyrus Vance Jr, is conducting a wide-ranging investigation into a variety of matters such as hush-money payments paid to women on Trump’s behalf, property valuations and employee compensation.

The investigation includes scrutiny of Trump’s relationship with his lenders; a land donation he made to qualify for an income tax deduction; and tax write-offs his company claimed on millions of dollars in consulting fees it paid.

The new grand jury could eventually be asked to consider returning indictments. While working on that case, it also will be hearing other matters. The Post reported that the grand jury will meet three days a week for six months.

Vance’s office declined to comment. A message seeking comment was left with Trump’s lawyer.

Updated

Avowed Proud Boy at the center of Nevada GOP controversy over election fraud

Nevada Republicans voted to censure a Republican secretary of state who investigated and concluded the 2020 election was not fraudulent. Now, a self-described Proud Boy is saying he participated in the censure vote, and some Republicans lawmakers are calling on the state party’s current leadership to resign as a result, the Washington Post reports.

It’s the latest example of bitter battles within state Republican parties over whether to embrace Trump’s Big Lie of election fraud.

At least 2 alleged Capitol rioters had guns, NBC reports

Another interesting detail from NBC’s Scott MacFarlane, who is covering the constant stream of news from the more than 400 cases against alleged participants in the 6 January attack on the US capitol:

The Guardian’s Jason Wilson reported recently about law enforcement documentation of explosives and weaponry at a range of far-right protests in 2020 and 2021.

'My childhood was taken from me.' Darnella Frazier on recording George Floyd's murder

A year after she recorded George Floyd’s murder on her cellphone, Darnella Frazier, now 18, released a public statement about her lasting grief over Floyd’s death, and how the trauma has affected her and her nine-year-old cousin, who both witnessed the murder, journalist Wesley Lowery reports.

“I used to shake so bad at night my mother had to rock me to sleep,” Frazier writes.

“A lot of people call me a hero even though I don’t see myself as one. I was just in the right place at the right time.”

Her entire family has been affected by the aftermath of Floyd’s murder, Frazier writes, describing “hopping from hotel to hotel because we didn’t have a home and looking over our back every day in the process.”

At the same time, she is also proud of her choice to record the video, the teenager writes.

“Even though this was a life-changing traumatic experience for me, I’m proud of myself. If it weren’t for my video, the world wouldn’t have known the truth. I own that.”

Updated

Romney, Murkowski say they support creation of 6 January commission

Breaking with other Republicans, senators Mitt Romney and Lisa Murkowski have both said they would support the creation of a 9/11-style commission to investigate the invasion of the Capitol by Trump supporters on 6 January, CBS News reports.

The chaotic Capitol breach forced lawmakers to flee or hide, and temporarily halted the official certification of Joe Biden’s election victory. But key Republican leaders have opposed further scrutiny of what happened on 6 January.

Capitol riot defendants argue that jail conditions are ‘psychologically damaging’

Defense lawyers representing alleged Capitol rioters who have been jailed before trial are now arguing that conditions at a DC jail are “damaging”, and that the defendants should be transferred or released, NBC News’ Scott MacFarlane reports.

The defendants making these arguments include Dominic Pezzola, a member of the Proud Boys, whose lawyer said conditions at the jail are “unheard of”, MacFarlane reports.

Updated

A somber image of George Floyd’s daughter at the White House

This is Lois Beckett, picking up our live US politics coverage from Los Angeles.

Associated Press photographer Evan Vucci shared this image of Gianna Floyd, George Floyd’s seven-year-old daughter, visiting the White House earlier today.

After a meeting with Joe Biden, members of the Floyd family spoke publicly, and Gianna led a chant of “Say his name, George Floyd!”

Updated

Today so far

That’s it from me today. My west coast colleague, Lois Beckett, will take over the blog for the next few hours.

Here’s where the day stands so far:

  • George Floyd’s family encouraged Congress to pass a policing reform bill after meeting with Joe Biden at the White House. The family’s meeting with the president came on the one-year anniversary of the death of Floyd, who was murdered by a white police officer in Minneapolis. “If you can make federal laws to protect the [national] bird, which is the bald eagle, you can make federal laws to protect people of color,” Floyd’s brother, Philonise Floyd, told reporters after the meeting.
  • Biden expressed hope that lawmakers will soon reach a bipartisan compromise on the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act. “To deliver real change, we must have accountability when law enforcement officers violate their oaths,” the president said in a statement after his meeting with Floyd’s family. “We have to act.”
  • Biden will meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin next month in Geneva, Switzerland, the White House confirmed. The 16 June summit will mark Biden’s first in-person meeting with the Russian president since taking office.
  • As of today, 50% of American adults are fully vaccinated against coronavirus, the White House said. Biden has previously said he wants to get 70% of American adults at least partially vaccinated by 4 July, and the White House said it is on track to meet that goal.
  • House minority leader Kevin McCarthy condemned extremist congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene for comparing coronavirus restrictions to the Holocaust. “Marjorie is wrong, and her intentional decision to compare the horrors of the Holocaust with wearing masks is appalling,” McCarthy said. Greene’s comments had sparked widespread outrage among members of both parties, who noted it was incredibly offensive to compare health precautions recommended by experts to the slaughter of 6 million Jewish people.

Lois will have more coming up, so stay tuned.

Updated

Senate confirms Kristen Clarke to lead DOJ civil rights division in historic first

The Guardian’s Sam Levine reports:

The senate voted Tuesday afternoon to confirm Kristen Clarke to lead the civil rights division at the Justice Department, making her the Black woman to be confirmed to the role.

The vote was 51-48, with Susan Collins, the Republican senator from Maine, voting with Democrats to support Clarke’s nomination.

Clarke, a career civil rights lawyer who is widely respected for her work on voting rights, politicing, and anti-discrimination, will lead the division of the department responsible for enforcing some of America’s most powerful anti-discrimination laws.

At the department, she’ll join Vanita Gupta, another longtime civil rights lawyer, who was confirmed to be the associate attorney general, the number three position at the department, earlier this year. The appointment of both women, widely praised by civil rights groups, signals the importance of civil rights enforcement to the Biden administration.

As the head of the civil rights division, Clarke will be responsible for enforcing the nation’s voting laws. She will take over at a moment when Republicans across the country have launched a brazen effort to restrict access to the ballot. The Trump administration was largely silent on voting rights enforcement and many are closely watching to see whether the Justice Department will aggressively challenge the new laws.

Clarke’s confirmation is also a major political win for the Biden White House. Republicans and Fox News host Tucker Carlson spent months attacking Clarke for an op-ed she wrote in college and tried to paint her as someone who would come to the role with an anti-police bias.

Clarke and Democrats strongly pushed back on those accusations, saying the op-ed, written decades ago when she was an undergraduate, was distorted and that she did not support defunding the police.

Kamala Harris released her own statement after she and Joe Biden met with the family of George Floyd this afternoon, and she said Congress must act “swiftly” to address policing reform.

“One year ago, a cellphone video revealed to the country what Black Americans have known to be true for generations. The verdict finding Derek Chauvin guilty of murder provided some measure of justice. But one verdict does not address the persistent issue of police misconduct and use of excessive force,” the vice-president said.

“We need to do more. After Mr Floyd was murdered, Senator Cory Booker, representative Karen Bass, and I introduced the Justice in Policing Act to hold law enforcement accountable and build trust between law enforcement and the communities it serves. Congress must move swiftly and act with a sense of urgency. Passing legislation will not bring back those lives lost, but it will represent much needed progress.”

Bass and Booker continue to engage in negotiations with Republican Senator Tim Scott over the bill, and the trio said yesterday that they “remain optimistic” about the chances of reaching a final deal.

“We must address racial injustice wherever it exists,” Harris concluded. “That is the work ahead.”

Updated

'We have to act' on policing reform, Biden says after meeting with Floyd family

Joe Biden has released a statement to commemorate the one-year anniversary of the murder of George Floyd, urging Congress to pass the policing reform bill named in his honor.

The president noted he met with some of Floyd’s family members in the Oval Office this afternoon, and he applauded their strength over the past year.

“Although it has been one year since their beloved brother and father was murdered, for the family – for any family experiencing a profound loss – the first year can still feel like they got the news a few seconds ago,” Biden said. “And they’ve had to relive that pain and grief each and every time those horrific 9 minutes and 29 seconds have been replayed.”

Biden emphasized that the conviction of former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin cannot be the end of the discussion when it comes to policing reform.

“Last month’s conviction of the police officer who murdered George was another important step forward toward justice. But our progress can’t stop there,” Biden said.

“To deliver real change, we must have accountability when law enforcement officers violate their oaths, and we need to build lasting trust between the vast majority of the men and women who wear the badge honorably and the communities they are sworn to serve and protect. We can and must have both accountability and trust and in our justice system.”

The president expressed hope that lawmakers will soon reach a bipartisan compromise on the policing bill and send it to his desk.

“We have to act. We face an inflection point,” Biden said. “The battle for the soul of America has been a constant push and pull between the American ideal that we’re all created equal and the harsh reality that racism has long torn us apart. At our best, the American ideal wins out. It must again.”

George Floyd’s young daughter, Gianna, led a chant of “Say his name, George Floyd!” after she and her family met with Joe Biden and Kamala Harris to commemorate the anniversary of her father’s death.

Floyd family encourages passage of policing reform bill after Biden meeting

Joe Biden and Kamala Harris’ meeting with the family of George Floyd to commemorate the anniversary of his murder concluded after about an hour.

Once the meeting wrapped up, Floyd’s family members and their attorney, civil rights lawyer Benjamin Crump, walked out to speak to White House reporters.

Crump said the meeting was “very personal” because Biden has gotten to know the Floyd family well over the past year, and the president offered his assurances that he was ready to sign the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act “any day”.

“He said that he doesn’t want to sign a bill that doesn’t have substance and meaning, so he is going to be patient to make sure it’s the right bill, not a rushed bill,” Crump said.

Philonise Floyd, one of Floyd’s brothers who participated in the meeting with the president, said it was absolutely imperative that Congress pass the bill.

“If you can make federal laws to protect the [national] bird, which is the bald eagle, you can make federal laws to protect people of color,” Floyd said.

Updated

Amid frustration over lack of police reform, Joe Biden hosted George Floyd’s brother Philonise, seven-year-old daughter Gianna and other family members at a private meeting on Tuesday.

The sombre anniversary was an opportunity for the president, whose own family has been haunted by grief, to demonstrate an empathy many found lacking in his predecessor, Donald Trump.

Jen Psaki, the White House press secretary, told reporters: “I think a lot of the meeting will be him listening to them and hearing from them on what they want the path forward to look like.

“He really wanted it to be a private meeting because he has a personal relationship and he wanted to hear how they’re doing, give them an update on his efforts to sign a bill into law and ensure there is long-overdue accountability.”

Biden to travel to Tulsa to mark 100th anniversary of race massacre

Joe Biden will travel to Tulsa, Oklahoma, next week to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the city’s race massacre, the White House has just announced.

The announcement comes a week after three survivors of the massacre testified before the House of Representatives about the need for reparations for those who survived the attack and their descendants.

The Guardian’s David Smith reported last week:

For nearly a century she was denied a voice by a culture of silence. Finally, at the age of 107, Viola Fletcher got a national stage on Wednesday to bear witness to America’s deep history of racial violence.

Fletcher is the oldest living survivor of a massacre that took place in Tulsa, Oklahoma, on 31 May and 1 June 1921 when a white mob attacked the city’s ‘Black Wall Street’, killing an estimated 300 African Americans while robbing and burning more than 1,200 businesses, homes and churches.

She was just seven years old at the time.

For decades the atrocity was actively covered up and wished away. But Fletcher and her 100-year-old brother are seeking reparations and, ahead of the massacre’s centenary, appeared before a House of Representatives judiciary subcommittee considering legal remedies. ...

‘I am here seeking justice,’ Fletcher said. ‘I am here asking my country to acknowledge what happened in Tulsa in 1921.’

The Guardian’s Sam Levine reports:

One of the companies involved in the unprecedented review of 2.1 million ballots in Arizona has ended its involvement in the effort, the Arizona Republic reported Tuesday.

The company, Pennsylvania-based Wake TSI, was only contracted to work on the review through 14 May, and chose not to extend its contract, a spokesman for the review told the Republic. Their decision to stop comes as the effort, executed at the behest of Republicans in the state senate, has come under national scrutiny for shoddy practices and bias.

Wake TSI was involved in overseeing the portion of the audit that dealt with a hand recount of the presidential vote and US senate race in Maricopa county (Republicans are also examining voting technology and the paper ballots were cast on). The firm overseeing the entire audit, called Cyber Ninjas, had previously pointed to Wake TSI’s involvement in a prior audit in Pennsylvania to assuage concern about Cyber Ninjas’ own lack of experience in election audits.

New details have come to light in recent days about Wake TSI’s involvement in Pennsylvania. On Monday, the Arizona Mirror reported that the firm had been hired by a non-profit linked to Sidney Powell, a Trump ally and one of the most prominent figures to spread lies about the results of the 2020 election last year.

StratTech solutions, an Arizona-based IT firm, will take over for Wake TSI and continue to count ballots in accordance with the procedures the company had already set up, according to the Republic. It’s unclear what experience StratTech has in elections, if any.

Biden and Harris meet with Floyd family to commemorate anniversary

Joe Biden and Kamala Harris are now meeting with the family of George Floyd to commemorate the one-year anniversary of his murder in Minneapolis.

The White House told the press pool about 20 minutes ago that the meeting, scheduled to begin at 1:30 pm ET, had now started.

Biden’s staff has said he intends for the meeting to be a private gathering, but members of the Floyd family may speak to reporters after it concludes.

After their meeting with the president, Floyd’s family members are scheduled to meet with Democratic Senator Cory Booker and Republican Senator Tim Scott, who are working on the policing reform bill named in Floyd’s honor.

The blog will have more details on the meeting as they become available, so stay tuned.

The White House expects to get Republicans’ counteroffer on a $2tn infrastructure proposal later this week, press secretary Jen Psaki said earlier.

Senate Republicans are due to meet to determine their next steps on infrastructure talks and could deliver their proposal on Thursday, Senator Shelley Capito of West Virginia said.

Republicans have said that they won’t back Joe Biden’s plan to pay for much-needed infrastructure repair and investment by altering the 2017 tax bill, passed under Donald Trump and when Republicans controlled Congress, to increase taxes on the wealthy and companies. They are expected to offer a pared-down proposal.

“We are waiting to hear back from Republicans on how they would propose to pay for it” if they won’t raise taxes, Psaki said.

Updated

Crew disappointed after DoJ bars Trump-Russia memo

Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, the group attempting to gain access to a Department of Justice memo about Donald Trump, possible obstruction of justice and the Russia investigation, has said it is “deeply disappointed” by a DoJ decision not to release the memo in full despite being ordered to do so by a federal judge.

William Barr.
William Barr. Photograph: Michael Reynolds/AP

In dramatic development late on Monday, the deadline for deciding whether it would comply or appeal, the DoJ said it continued to believe the full document should be exempt from disclosure.

At issue is a 24 March 2019 memo from the DoJ Office of Legal Counsel that was prepared for the then attorney general, William Barr, to evaluate whether evidence collected in special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation of Russian election interference in 2016 could support an obstruction of justice prosecution of the president.

Barr has said he looked to that opinion in determining that Trump did not illegally obstruct the Russia investigation. Critics of Barr say he ran interference for Trump, making sure the public did not see the full case against him or the full haul of evidence, effectively brushing Mueller aside.

On Tuesday, Crew president Noah Bookbinder said: “We are deeply disappointed … the Department of Justice had an opportunity to come clean, turn over the memo, and close the book on the politicisation and dishonesty of the past four years. Last night it chose not to do so.

“In choosing to fight Judge Jackson’s decision, the DoJ is taking a position that is legally and factually wrong and that undercuts efforts to move past the abuses of the last administration. We will be fighting this in court.”

The brief portion of the memo the DoJ agreed to disclose shows two senior leaders advised Barr that Mueller’s evidence could not support an obstruction conclusion regarding Trump’s behaviour beyond a reasonable doubt.

On Tuesday Crew said the “part of the memo that the DoJ did turn over may have been more revealing than they intended it to be”.

Bookbinder said it “provides further evidence that Attorney General Barr’s efforts were not aimed at making any real legal determination, but were instead aimed at publicly spinning the damning findings of the Mueller Report into a vindication of Donald Trump. The deception needs to end now.”

Brad Schneider, an Illinois Democrat, has said he is drafting a resolution to censure Marjorie Taylor Greene, the Georgia rightwinger whose comments on coronavirus mitigation and vaccination and the Holocaust have stirred up another storm on Capitol Hill.

In a tweet, Schneider said: “I hope that if [House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy] truly believes that what Rep Greene said was ‘appalling,’ he will join our effort to censure her.”

Schneider was quoting McCarthy’s statement on the matter earlier. As that statement also included an attack on the “Democrat [sic] party” for supposedly not investigating alleged antisemitism in its own ranks, it seems McCarthy is … unlikely to get on board with Schneider’s censure.

Schneider added: “Marjorie Taylor Greene continues to debase not only the memory of 6 million Jews murdered by the Nazis, but all those who fought and died defending Democracy against Hitler and his evil.

“It is shameful that the Republican Conference continues to let her define their party, and dangerous that they refuse to expel her. There should be no room for such unapologetic hate and antisemitism in our politics or our government.”

Today so far

The White House press briefing has now concluded. Here’s where the day stands so far:

  • Joe Biden will soon meet with the family of George Floyd to commemorate the one-year anniversary of his murder. The meeting comes as lawmakers continue to negotiate over the policing reform bill named in Floyd’s honor, the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act. Biden had initially hoped to sign that bill by today, but lawmakers have not yet reached a final deal on the legislation.
  • Biden will meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin next month in Geneva, Switzerland, the White House confirmed. The June 16 summit will mark Biden’s first in-person meeting with the Russian president since taking office.
  • House minority leader Kevin McCarthy condemned extremist congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene for comparing coronavirus restrictions to the Holocaust. “Marjorie is wrong, and her intentional decision to compare the horrors of the Holocaust with wearing masks is appalling,” McCarthy said. Greene’s comments had sparked widespread outrage among members of both parties, who noted it was incredibly offensive to compare health precautions recommended by experts to the slaughter of 6 million Jewish people.

The blog will have more coming up, so stay tuned.

Jen Psaki was asked about the recent uptick in anti-Semitic violence in the US, which started as the attacks between Israeli forces and Hamas escalated in Gaza earlier this month.

The press secretary pointed reporters to a tweet from Joe Biden yesterday, in which the president said, “The recent attacks on the Jewish community are despicable, and they must stop. I condemn this hateful behavior at home and abroad — it’s up to all of us to give hate no safe harbor.”

Psaki said the president considers anti-Semitism in America to be a “persistent evil” that requires consistent attention from those holding public office.

A reporter pressed Jen Psaki on why Joe Biden is not using the bully pulpit to urge lawmakers to reach a deal on the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act.

The White House press secretary replied that Biden remains “closely engaged” with the lawmakers who are negotiating over the legislation, adding that the president is “respecting the space needed” to reach a compromise on the bill.

Psaki also declined to offer a new deadline for signing the bill. Biden had previously said he hoped to sign the legislation by the one-year anniversary of Floyd’s murder, but that is today, and the negotiations are still ongoing.

Jen Psaki said Joe Biden will discuss the sovereignty of Ukraine and the jailing of a dissident journalist in Belarus when he meets with Russian President Vladimir Putin next month.

The White House press secretary confirmed this morning that the two presidents will meet in Geneva, Switzerland, on June 16.

Asked to respond to Republican criticism that Biden is rewarding Russia’s harmful actions by meeting with Putin, Psaki said, “We don’t meet with people only when we agree.”

She added, “President Biden is meeting with Vladimir Putin because of our country’s differences, not in spite of them. It’s an opportunity to raise concerns we have them, and again to move toward a more stable and predictable relationship with the Russian government.”

Updated

US to hit 50% of American adults fully vaccinated today, White House says

The White House press secretary, Jen Psaki, is now holding her daily briefing with reporters.

Psaki opened her comments by noting that the US will hit 50% of American adults fully vaccinated against coronavirus today. The press secretary said that figure was 1% when Joe Biden took office in January.

The president has set a goal of having 70% of American adults at least partially vaccinated by July 4, and the White House has said it is on track to meet that goal.

Updated

Gunshots heard near George Floyd Square as Minneapolis marks anniversary

Gunshots were heard near the intersection of 38th Street and Chicago Avenue in Minneapolis this morning, as crowds gathered at the site to mark the one-year anniversary of George Floyd’s death.

The intersection has come to be informally known as George Floyd Square since last year, when Floyd was murdered there by a Minneapolis police officer who kept his knee on the Black man’s neck for more than nine minutes.

The AP reports:

The Minneapolis intersection where George Floyd died was disrupted by gunfire Tuesday, just hours before it was to be the site of a family-friendly street festival marking the anniversary of his death at the hands of police.

Associated Press video from 38th Street and Chicago Avenue — informally known as George Floyd Square — showed people running and seeking cover as shots rang out. Police said one person later appeared at a nearby hospital with a gunshot wound, but it wasn’t immediately clear if that person was hurt in the incident near the intersection.

Philip Crowther, a reporter working for AP Global Media Services, which provides live video coverage to customers, reported hearing as many as 30 gunshots about a block east of the intersection. Crowther said a storefront window appeared to have been broken by a gunshot.

Here is footage from the moment that the gunshots were heard:

Updated

House speaker Nancy Pelosi also sent a “Dear colleague” letter to her Democratic caucus members reflecting on the one-year anniversary of George Floyd’s murder.

The Democratic speaker expressed hope that the Senate will soon approve the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, which the House passed in March.

Democratic congresswoman Karen Bass continues to work with Democratic Senator Cory Booker and Republican Senator Tim Scott to reach a bipartisan deal on the legislation, Pelosi noted.

“As Congresswoman Bass engages in negotiations on next steps, we remain hopeful that we will, in a bipartisan spirit, reach agreement and pass this legislation in its final form,” Pelosi wrote in her letter.

The speaker also reflected on how the country has lost hundreds of thousands of people to coronavirus over the past year. “We want the families to know that we will always carry the memory of those lost in our hearts. As we do so, we must salute the sacrifice of our heroes: our essential workers, who risked their lives to save lives. As we go forth, we must keep them in our hearts and on our minds,” Pelosi said.

Floyd family meets with Pelosi and Bass at Capitol

The family of George Floyd has just met with House speaker Nancy Pelosi and Democratic congresswoman Karen Bass at the Capitol.

Bass is one of three lawmakers, along with Democratic Senator Cory Booker and Republican Senator Tim Scott, who are negotiating over the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act.

Standing alongside Floyd’s daughter, Gianna, and several of his siblings, Pelosi told reporters, “Gianna said, ‘My daddy will change the world.’ Indeed, her prediction is coming true.”

Bass also pledged that the policing reform bill would soon make its way to Joe Biden’s desk. “What is important is that when it reaches President Biden’s desk that it is a substantive piece of legislation, and that is far more important than a specific date,” Bass said. “We will work until we get the job done. It will be passed in a bipartisan manner.”

Floyd’s family members will soon meet with Biden at the White House, and they will later sit down with Booker and Scott as well.

Updated

George Floyd’s family has arrived on Capitol Hill for meetings with lawmakers, as members of Congress continue to negotiate over a policing reform bill.

Asked what the family’s message is to lawmakers, civil rights attorney Benjamin Crump told reporters, “Pass the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act.”

The Floyd family will first meet with House speaker Nancy Pelosi and congresswoman Karen Bass, who is working on reaching a bipartisan deal on the policing bill.

The family will later meet with Democratic Senator Cory Booker and Republican Senator Tim Scott, who are also involved in the negotiations over the bill.

On 25 May 2020, a man died after a “medical incident during police interaction” in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The man was suspected of forgery and “believed to be in his 40s”. He “physically resisted officers” and, after being handcuffed, “appeared to be suffering medical distress”. He was taken to the hospital “where he died a short time later”.

It is not difficult to imagine a version of reality where this, the first police account of George Floyd’s brutal death beneath the knee of an implacable police officer, remained the official narrative of what took place in Minneapolis one year ago. That version of reality unfolds every day. Police lies are accepted and endorsed by the press; press accounts are accepted and believed by the public.

That something else happened – that it is now possible for a news organization to say without caveat or qualification that Derek Chauvin murdered George Floyd – required herculean effort and extraordinary bravery on the part of millions of people.

The laborious project of establishing truth in the face of official lies is one that Americans embraced during the racial reckoning of the summer of 2020, whether it was individuals speaking out about their experiences of racism at work, or institutions acknowledging their own complicity in racial injustice. For a time, it seemed that America was finally ready to tell a more honest, nuanced story of itself, one that acknowledged the blood at the root.

But alongside this reassessment, another American tradition re-emerged: a reactionary movement bent on reasserting a whitewashed American myth. These reactionary forces have taken aim at efforts to tell an honest version of American history and speak openly about racism by proposing laws in statehouses across the country that would ban the teaching of “critical race theory”, the New York Times’s 1619 Project, and, euphemistically, “divisive concepts”.

Read the Guardian’s full report on this alarming trend:

Barack Obama reflected on the one-year anniversary of George Floyd’s murder, saying he is hopeful about the progress he has seen over the past year to combat racism in America.

“George Floyd was murdered one year ago today. Since then, hundreds more Americans have died in encounters with police—parents, sons, daughters, friends taken from us far too soon. But the last year has also given us reasons to hope,” the former president said in a tweet thread.

Obama added, “Today, more people in more places are seeing the world more clearly than they did a year ago. It’s a tribute to all those who decided that this time would be different—and that they, in their own ways, would help make it different.

“When injustice runs deep, progress takes time. But if we can turn words into action and action into meaningful reform, we will, in the words of James Baldwin, ‘cease fleeing from reality and begin to change it.’”

Obama’s words come as lawmakers continue to negotiate over the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, which passed the House in March but has now stalled in the Senate.

Joe Biden, who will meet with Floyd’s family this afternoon, had originally said he hoped to sign the bill by today’s anniversary, but lawmakers have not yet reached a deal on the legislation.

Another member of the House Republican leadership team, conference chair Elise Stefanik, criticized Marjorie Taylor Greene’s comments about the Holocaust and coronavirus restrictions, although she did so without mentioning the extremist congresswoman’s name.

“Equating mask wearing and vaccines to the Holocaust belittles the most significant human atrocities ever committed. We must all work together to educate our fellow Americans on the unthinkable horrors of the Holocaust. #NeverAgain,” Stefanik said on Twitter.

Stefanik took over as conference chair earlier this month, after House Republicans ousted Liz Cheney over her criticism of Donald Trump and his lies about the presidential election.

Updated

Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer also condemned Marjorie Taylor Greene’s comments comparing the Holocaust to coronavirus-related restrictions.

In a floor speech this morning, Schumer, who is the first Jewish person to serve as Senate majority leader, described Greene’s comments as “sickening” and “reprehensible”.

“She should stop this vile language immediately,” Schumer said.

Congressman Adam Kinzinger, a House Republican who has repeatedly criticized minority leader Kevin McCarthy’s leadership in recent weeks, suggested Marjorie Taylor Greene should not be allowed to caucus with Republicans because of her “demented and dangerous” comparison between the Holocaust and coronavirus restrictions.

“I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again: while we cannot stop her from calling herself a Republican, we can and should refuse to let her caucus with the @HouseGOP,” Kinzinger said on Twitter.

McCarthy condemns Greene for comparing coronavirus restrictions to Holocaust

House minority leader Kevin McCarthy has issued a statement condemning Republican congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene for comparing coronavirus-related restrictions to the suffering of Jewish people during the Holocaust.

“Marjorie is wrong, and her intentional decision to compare the horrors of the Holocaust with wearing masks is appalling. The Holocaust is the greatest atrocity committed in history. The fact that this needs to be stated today is deeply troubling,” the Republican leader said. “Let me be clear: the House Republican Conference condemns this language.”

McCarthy’s statement comes four days after Greene, who has already been removed from her House committee assignments because of her extremist views, first made the comparison.

While appearing on Real America’s Voice network’s “The Water Cooler with David Brody,” Greene criticized House speaker Nancy Pelosi for continuing to enforce a mask mandate on the House floor because of the high number of members who have not yet been vaccinated.

“This woman is mentally ill,” Greene said of Pelosi. “You know, we can look back in a time in history where people were told to wear a gold star, and they were definitely treated like second-class citizens — so much so that they were put in trains and taken to gas chambers in Nazi Germany and this is exactly the type of abuse that Nancy Pelosi is talking about.”

Greene’s comments sparked immediate outrage from members of both parties, who pointed out that the slaughter of 6 million Jewish people should not be compared to the health precautions that experts have recommended to limit the spread of a potentially deadly virus.

Joe Biden has previously indicated he was hoping to meet with Vladimir Putin during his trip to Europe next month, and the two presidents’ senior advisers have recently been ironing out the details of the summit.

National security adviser Jake Sullivan met this week with his Russian counterpart, Nikolay Patrushev, this week to discuss the potential meeting.

“The discussions were held in a constructive manner and, despite outstanding differences, allowed for a better understanding of each other’s positions,” the White House said in a statement about Sullivan and Patrushev’s meeting.

“The sides agreed that a normalization of U.S.-Russian relations would be in the interest of both countries and contribute to global predictability and stability.”

Biden and Putin to meet in Switzerland next month, White House confirms

Joe Biden will meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin next month in Geneva, Switzerland, the White House has just confirmed.

The White House press secretary, Jen Psaki, said in a statement, “President Biden will meet with President Putin in Geneva, Switzerland on June 16, 2021. The leaders will discuss the full range of pressing issues, as we seek to restore predictability and stability to the U.S.-Russia relationship.”

Biden’s meeting with Putin will take place shortly after he travels to Cornwall, England, for the G-7 summit. It will make the US president’s first in-person meeting with Putin since taking office in January.

Deborah Douglas, Angelique Chrisafis and Aamna Mohdin report for the Guardian:

George Floyd’s murder felt like everything was the same and nothing was the same, said Miski Noor, an activist in Minneapolis, where Floyd was killed by a white police officer a year ago on 25 May.

“How many times have we seen Black death go viral?” asked Noor, the co-founder of Black Visions, which advocates for abolition, an approach to public safety that does not involve the police.

The high-profile murder of Floyd, who was pinned under the knee of a police officer for nine minutes and 29 seconds, captured the parallels between police violence against Black people across the globe, and evoked the deaths of Adama Traoré in France and Mark Duggan in the UK before him, even though the circumstances of the deaths differ.

And the execution reflected a common history of violence against Black people, from slavery to colonialism, that united protesters in a renewed global movement against the legacy of empire and its enduring racist symbols.

Since his death, those public images have rapidly come down – from the toppling of a statue honoring the slave trader Edward Colston in Bristol, England, to the official removal of the Confederate leader Jefferson Davis’s statue from the Kentucky state capitol.

This reclaiming of public history isn’t new, but Floyd’s death was the latest catalyst, said historian Robin DG Kelley. “There has been a continuous reckoning around public history and race,” said Kelley, Gary B Nash endowed chair in UShistory at the University of California, Los Angeles. “And it wasn’t his death but the presence of 26 million [protesters] and the fear it generated that compelled institutions to act.”

Philonise Floyd, one of the brothers of George Floyd who will meet with Joe Biden later today, said the murder of his brother continues to be “just devastating” for his family.

Speaking to CNN this morning, Floyd reflected on how his brother’s death has changed the country and the world in the past year.

“I think it’s moving slowly, but it’s making progress. I just want everything to be better in life, because I don’t want to see people dying the same way my brother has passed,” Floyd said.

He and his family’s attorney, civil rights lawyer Benjamin Crump, both expressed hope that Congress will soon pass a policing reform bill named in George Floyd’s honor. The Floyd family is meeting with some of the lawmakers working on the legislation later today.

Floyd told CNN, “When you see a police officer, you see somebody that you respect, somebody that’s out there serving America. And they [are] supposed to make sure that you are okay. But when an officer takes someone else’s life, to me, it’s not a mistake, because a mistake can be erased. You can’t get that person’s life back.”

Crump emphasized that Congress should not “squander” this opportunity to make meaningful change to policing in the US.

“America is finally having this conversation about racial reckoning, but that’s just talk if we don’t act. Now is the time to act,” Crump said. “Let’s do it in the name of George Floyd and all the others that have been taken from us unjustly by the very people who are supposed to protect and serve us.”

Joe Biden will on Tuesday meet the family of George Floyd on the first anniversary of his murder by police in Minneapolis – but miss his own deadline for police reform to address racial injustice.

The private meeting at the White House comes amid events in Minneapolis and beyond to mark one year since Floyd was killed when police officer Derek Chauvin knelt on his neck for more than nine minutes.

The president told a joint session of Congress last month he wanted the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act passed by 25 May. The legislation would invest in police training, ban the use of chokeholds and establish a national database of police misconduct.

The bill has been passed by the House of Representatives but is stalled in the Senate over issues including qualified immunity, which shields law enforcement officers from being sued by victims and their families for civil rights violations. Republicans have objected to it being scrapped.

Both parties acknowledged on Monday that they will not meet Biden’s self-imposed deadline but insisted they can still find common ground.

The Democratic senator Cory Booker, Republican counterpart Tim Scott and Democratic congresswoman Karen Bass said in a joint statement: “This anniversary serves as a painful reminder of why we must make meaningful change. While we are still working through our differences on key issues, we continue to make progress toward a compromise and remain optimistic about the prospects of achieving that goal.”

Biden to meet with George Floyd's family to commemorate anniversary of his murder

Greetings from Washington, live blog readers.

Joe Biden will meet privately with the family of George Floyd today to commemorate the one-year anniversary of his death. Floyd, a Black man, was murdered by a white Minneapolis police officer last year, which sparked nationwide anti-racism protests.

The White House press secretary, Jen Psaki, said yesterday that Floyd’s daughter, Gianna, and several of his siblings will be among those in attendance.

Offerings are left at George Floyd Square in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on Friday.
Offerings are left at George Floyd Square in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on Friday. Photograph: Nicholas Pfosi/Reuters

“He wanted this meeting to be private in order to have a real conversation and preserve that with the family,” Psaki said. “He has a genuine relationship with them.”

The meeting also comes as Congress struggles to reach a bipartisan deal on the policing reform bill that is named in Floyd’s honor.

The House passed the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, but a bipartisan team of lawmakers continues to negotiate over a version of the bill that can pass the evenly divided Senate.

The lawmakers said yesterday that they “remain optimistic” they can reach a deal, but Biden’s hopes of signing the bill by today’s anniversary have been dashed.

The blog will have more details on the meeting and the anniversary coming up, so stay tuned.

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