It was reported Wednesday that Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) was the only barrier to passing anti-lynching legislation.

Paul argued in his statement to the media that he thinks the language would turn lesser crimes into being considered a lynching. So he wants to edit the bill so that it would only qualify “serious bodily injury standard” that would only make it a hate crime if it’s a “substantial risk of death and extreme physical pain.”

It prompted Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) to take to the Senate floor with a fiery speech imploring his colleagues to act.

“This idea that someone would be brought up on lynching charges for slapping is absurd,” said Booker.

“I do not need my colleague, the senator from Kentucky, to tell me about one lynching in this country,” he went on. “I’ve stood in the museum in Montgomery, Alabama, and watched African American families weeping at the stories of pregnant women lynched in this country and their babies ripped out of them while this body did nothing. I can hear the screams as this body and membership can of the unanswered cries for justice of our ancestors. Every one of us is sensitive to that anguish, to that pain, as is the senator from Kentucky. And this week, the senator from Kentucky mentioned the colleague Justin Amash. I want to tell my colleagues on both sides of the aisle he is one of only four congressmen of the 435 to vote against the antilynching bill. That means this bill was supported by the leader of the Democrats, the speaker of the House. It was supported by the leader of the Republicans, the whip of the Republicans, the whip of the Democrats. 400-plus votes supported this.”

Booker said that surely if the bill was so “wrong” then the GOP leadership would stand up against it in unison. Instead, Paul is an outlier.

“If this bill is wrong, 99 senators are wrong. If this bill is wrong, then the NAACP is wrong,” he went on. “If this bill is wrong, then the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights is wrong. If this bill is wrong, then the Urban League of America is wrong. Legal organizations, civil rights organizations, Democrats and Republicans — tell me another time when 500-plus congresspeople, Democrats, Republicans, House members, and senators come together in a chorus of conviction and say now is the time in America that we condemn the dark history of our past and actually pass anti-lynching legislation.”

But it’s one man that is “standing in the way of the law of the land changing because of a difference of interpretation.”

Watch the full speech below:

British journalist Ed Luce called out Senate Republicans for covering a dying Trump administration that’s threatening U.S. democracy as it gasps for survival.

The Financial Times‘ chief U.S. commentator told MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” that President Donald Trump is trying to crack down on dissent and rally his hardcore base as the coronavirus and now nationwide protests against police brutality threaten his re-election chances.

“There are other Republican senators who are keeping silent because they know that what Trump is doing, what Trump is suggesting, is wrong,” Luce said. they’re scared of a backlash if they speak out.”

Luce, who warned of the Trump administration’s fascist creep in a new column, called on GOP senators to follow the example set by former Defense secretary James Mattis, former chairman of the joint chiefs of staff Mike Mullen and current Defense secretary Mike Esper and speak out against the president’s abuses.

“They need to speak out — it is his party,” Luce said. “Ultimately, they are enabling him. You know, I don’t think the threat of this situation can be overstated. Trump has his back to the wall. He will do lots of things to try and prevent his defeat.”

Luce said he was worried that Trump’s brutal crackdown on protesters set a dangerous precedent and energized his base, but he said that also disgusted more moderate GOP voters.

“Large, large minority Republicans strongly support these protests and support the continuing lockdown,” he said. “Now, these go directly against two things that Trump is really pushing for, the lifting of the lockdown and the racial polarization, the sort of panic element of these mostly peaceful protests.”

“I lived in many democracies, including America,” Luce added. “I’ve lived in many democracies. I know a dying administration when I see one.”

Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison will charge three fired Minneapolis police officers involved in the killing of George Floyd, and will elevate the charges against the other fired officer, Derek Chauvin.

Charges against Chauvin will be increased from third degree murder to second degree murder.

“The other three officers at the scene — Tou Thao, J. Alexander Kueng and Thomas Lane — will also be charged with aiding and abetting second-degree murder, according to the sources, who spoke on conditions of anonymity,” the Star Tribune reports.

“Thao was recorded watching as Chauvin continued to press on Floyd’s neck with his knee. Kueng was one of the first officers on the scene and helped pin Floyd down. Lane was detailed in earlier charges as pointing a gun at Floyd before handcuffing, and later asked whether officers should roll Floyd on his side as he was restrained.”

Floyd died of “mechanical asphyxiation,” an independent autopsy commissioned by the Floyd family concluded on Monday.

Ellison (photo) took over the case on Sunday.

This is a breaking news and developing story. Details may change. This story will be updated, and NCRM will likely publish follow-up stories on this news. Stay tuned and refresh for updates.

Image by Lorie Shaull via Flickr and a CC license