pushed in against his chest. also, we are able to see on the side that officer chauvin's knee is coming in. that's compressing in against his side as well. the ability to expand his left side here is enormously impaired. also, you are seeing that the size of the chain between the two -- the right side and the left side is very short. his left arm is also being pulled over. so it's preventing him also from expanding the right side. i have been focusing on the bucket handle and the pump handle on the left. but you can also see here that these are impaired, his ability to expand his chest. of course, the key factor you must keep that's in a sense seen here in one sense is the street. the street is what is having a

huge affect, because he is jammed down against the street. the street is playing a major role in preventing him from expanding his chest. >> thank you. if you could clear the screen, your honor. >> you can use the stylus if you need to draw on the screen. >> did you select another still image that you observed as mr. floyd struggled to breathe? >> yes. >> i'm going to show you what's marked as state's exhibit 942. if you could just identify it. >> i identify it. >> lay the foundation, if you wish. >> thank you, your honor.

>> you recognize this as the still image you selected? >> yes, i do. >> your honor, we offer state's exhibit 942. >> any objection? >> no objection. >> 942 is received. >> could you tell us, dr. tobin, what's the significance of this image of what we see here? >> what you are seeing is slightly different, but they marry together. if you look on the left side, you see his finger is pushing against the street. you also see the hands here of the officers around his left hand. you can see the left handcuffed arm as we discussed, you are seeing a more clear view here, how it's being really rammed into the back of his back. there's just no way he is going to be able to expand that. with the left image, you see the finger on the street. then on the right image, you see

his knuckle against the tire. to most people, this doesn't look terribly significant. but to a physiology person, this means he is trying to breathe with his fingers and knuckles. when you begin to breathe, you begin to breathe with your rib cage and diaphragm. the next thing you recruit after that is your sternum mastoid muscle, the big muscle in your neck. when those are wasted up, then you are relying on these types of muscles like your fingers to try and stabilize your whole right side. he is totally dependent on getting air into the right side. he is using his fingers and his knuckles again the street to try and crank up the right side of his chest. this is his only way to try and

get air to get into the right lung. >> doctor, showing you what's marked as state's exhibit 938, is this a related series of photographs and images? >> yes. >> your honor, we offer state's exhibit 938. >> any objection? >> no, your honor. >> 938 is received. >> tell us what we see here in exhibit 938. >> the focus would be -- the top panel is the same as the bottom. the bottom is a blowup of what you are seeing on the top. the focus on the left-hand side is his shoulder. again, as i mentioned when you have difficulty in breathing, you begin with the diaphragm, the rib cage. you go on to the accessory muscles like the sternum mastoid. one of the last muscles you will

use is your shoulder. you don't really use your shoulder for breathing. if you look on the left-hand side, the shoulder is extremely prominent. this is what people in a gym would call sculpting of the shoulder muscles. you are seeing them standing out very prominently. at this point on the left-hand side, he is taking a breath in, using his shoulder to try and get a breath in. then on the right side, you see between the breath where he is relaxing. and it's the two. so you see the marked affect on the left. you have to realize that the shoulder is a very ineffective way of breathing. at that stage, the chest is so expanded. when you contract your shoulder -- the chest underlying it is so expanded -- you get very, very little air in. it's a very poor way of

breathing. but it's what you have to do when everything else is failing, when you are in extreme, you will call on the use of the shoulder to try and breathe. >> dr. tobin, have we covered the first item that is handcuffs and the street? >> yes. >> let's talk about number two, the knee on the neck. explain why the knee on the neck is so significant. >> the knee on the neck is extremely important because it's going to occlude the air getting in through the passageway. >> is it possible, doctor, to perhaps even demonstrate with an anatomy lesson? >> yes. >> that may be relevant. >> to understand the knee on the neck, you need to examine your own necks, all of you here in the jury, like i am doing now.

the first thing is, if you put your index and thumb up here at the top of your neck, the first big thing is yourthe adam's app. it's sturdy. it's surrounded by cartilage. it protects the voice box, it's not going to be compressed by a knee on the neck. you go down from your adam's apple and you feel a little bump beneath that. these are the rings of cartilage of your trachea. this is your windpipe here. that's, again, because of the cartilage there, a knee on the front of that part is not going to cause compression. then bring your finger up to the

top of your adam's apple. up at the top of your adam's apple, you are over the hypopharynx. this is where it's located on your surface anatomy. >> why is the hypopharynx important for understanding this case, what happened? >> it's very important for understanding this case for a number of reasons. because it's so vulnerable. because it has no cartilage around it. it's going to be an area that's compressed. it's extremely small to breathe through. it becomes very important for being able to continue to breathe through. >> doctor, i want to show you what's been marked as state's exhibit 935 and 937.

could you identify just for the record -- tell us what is depicted. >> yes. i'm looking at 937, which is the hypopharynx. >> and 935. there we go. 935? >> i'm looking at 935, which is the hypopharynx with a coin. >> do these two images fairly and accurately depict the hypopharynx. >> received. >> using exhibits 937 and 935, could you help us to better understand what the hypopharynx is and what it does? >> what you are looking at here -- i don't know if this

works. it does. here where i have drawn in red is the top of your tongue. that's the tongue there. then above it is an empty space. then above that is the top of the hard area. the act of speech in mr. floyd becomes very important, how he was able to speak in all these different things. the structure that gives us speech are the vocal cords right here. they are in the voice box and in the larynx. we have a little area here called the epiglotis. that prevents food going the wrong way. we use for swallowing and eating and for breathing. when we are breathing, the air is going to come in through your nose, your mouth, go down

through the hypopharynx and through the vocal cords and into the windpipe, into the trachea and go on down into the lungs. when you are swallowing, that trap door will prevent the food going into the air passages and will direct it into the food tube at the back of the esophagus. the area of the hypopharynx is from the base, the first yellow arrow, down to the second yellow arrow, the larynx. it's that little area. that's the size of the hypopharynx. we know that the cross-section of area of the hypopharynx in adult people -- i have it here in the millimeters.

in the middle is the size of a dime. a dime is basically the size of what the hypopharynx -- it tells you how small and vulnerable this area. if it's decreased in size, it's a very tiny area. >> why is the hypopharynx important in the case mr. floyd? >> because it's going to be the area that will be vulnerable to occlusion from the knee on the neck. but in addition, the hypopharynx has another aspect. that is the hypopharynx is controlled by the size of your lungs. as your lungs expand, you increase the size with every breath. there's a regulation of that that's going on. >> was mr. chauvin applying force or pressure to the hypopharynx of mr. floyd that you observed?

>> at different times. it varied from time to time. >> are you able to tell us if mr. chauvin had put his weight directly -- his full weight on mr. floyd's neck, are you able to tell us what impact or affect that would have had on mr. floyd? >> if mr. -- officer chauvin had placed his knee directly on the hypopharynx, the area of the dime, and it never varied from there, and it kind of came in like a bull's eye on that particular area, then you would expect that this area would become totally occluded. i mean, he varied the position. mr. floyd varied the position of his head and officer chauvin also varied the position of his knee. it varied over time. >> if it had become totally occluded, then what?

>> it f it had become totally occluded, within seconds you are going to drop the level of oxygen to a level that will be -- produce oxygen deprivation in the body resulting in either a seizure or a heart attack, one or the other. >> do you have another photograph taken from footage at the scene that would help the jury understand this point? >> yes. >> i'm going to show you what's marked as state's exhibit 941. this is from exhibit 15 in evidence. do you recognize this photograph in 941? >> yes, i do. >> your honor, we offer state's exhibit 941. >> any objection? >> no objection. >> 941 is received. >> dr. tobin, tell the ladies and gentlemen of the jury what it is you mean to convey here in

exhibit 941. >> if you are looking, say, on the one at the left, and if you look at me first before you look at that, if you stick your finger in your ear and you draw a line from the finger of your ear going down through the vertebral bodies in your spinal column, you can get a line going down. you are looking at that axis. that's what i have down with the yellow dotted line. if you look at the first slide, you see mr. floyd's nose, his face is directly face down on the street. it's not at any angle. next thing is, again, don't look at the slide, feel yourself on your own neck. now if you put your hand at the back of your neck and you put -- you feel the bottom of your skull, where the skull -- the

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exactly is the location of mr. floyd's head and where is the location of officer chauvin's knee. >> in the photograph on the right, the knee is exerting, dr. tobin, greater force on the hypopharynx? >> correct. >> is it possible to calculate the amount of force? >> yes, it is. we can calculate the amount of force based on the weight of officer chauvin on his body weight taking into account how much gear weight, the gear he carries, and then also you have to remove out the weight of his shin bone and his boot. subtracting out all of these. then you can calculate the weight. >> can you also calculate the changes or narrowing in the space that people have to breathe through? >> yes, you can. separately.

>> would this be in any way akin to breathing through a small opening like a straw? >> yes, it would. when you have to breathe through a narrow passageway, it's like breathing through a drinking straw. but it's much worse than that, because breathing through a drinking straw, i mean, is somewhat unpleasant and not that unpleasant. then it gets much worse than that. >> as the spare narrows, is it more difficult to breathe through? >> enormously more difficult. we know that from physics. >> through physics then,that something that can also be calculated? >> yes, that can also be calculated. >> that type of a calculation, would it be specific, per se, to george floyd? >> no, it wouldn't. this would be for anybody. we know in terms of what happens physiologically when you have this level of narrowing, this is going to happen to everybody. >> can you please explain to the

jury what those calculations would show about the effect of a narrowing on the airway on breathing? >> yes. i believe there's an exhibit that relates to that. >> let me then show you what's marked as state's exhibit 940 and 939. >> sidebar. >> good thursday morning, everyone. craig melvin here. we have been watching and listening to the ninth day of testimony in the murder trial of derek chauvin, the former minneapolis officer charged with killing george floyd. we have officially entered the medical portion of the prosecution's case. we were just listening to dr. martin tobin. dr. tobin is a pulmonologist.

he testified that floyd died from a lack of oxygen. we just learned in the last hour that tomorrow we will hear from the chief medical examiner of hennepin county, the man who con conducted the autopsy. let's listen to the testimony. >> dr. tobin, tell us what's depicted here. describe this for us. >> this is a physiology experiment. what it is looking at is, what is the effort to breathe? that's what's shown along the y axis of the plot. then it is with different levels of narrowing. the very bottom one with the white triangles, the lowest curve, that's normal. there's no narrowing. we see that as the flow varies and shown in red is what would be the normal flow rate in a 46-year-old man. we can see what is the work that is done. if you look at the normal one

and then you look at 60% airway narrowing -- this is more narrow than breathing through a straw. you can see there's really no bigger increase in the effort to breathe. it's hardly different from what -- in terms of normal. then if you get 85% narrowing, now you see that the effort to breathe increases 7.5 times compared with what it was with no narrowing. you are seeing a huge increase in the work that is required. it becomes far more difficult to breathe as the narrowing becomes more narrow. >> doctor, let's look at exhibit 939. >> this is the science behind that plot before i showed you. this is just the equation in physics that tells you how that works. the key thing when you look at an equation like this, for me as

a fis physiologist, this tells when i see a square sign on top of it, and it is below the level on the equation, it is the denominator. i know with that that you are going to be fine all along for a period of time and then suddenly everything is going to increase enormously. you are going into what we call an exponential increase. that's exactly what we see on the experiment that was done where we are seeing there's really nothing happening at 60. it's nothing much. then at 85%, it suddenly takes off. if you head beyond 85%, it will be even more and more. based on the formula here, you can tell that as you are narrowing and narrowing, the effort to breathe is going to become extraordinarily high. at some stage, unsustainable. you are just not going to be

able to do it. >> in this case, the case of mr. floyd, the narrowing was of his hypopharynx? >> it was in the hypopharynx, yes. >> did mr. chauvin's knee on the neck then cause the narrowing of the hypopharynx? >> yes, it did. >> given the changes that you observed in mr. chauvin's knee on mr. floyd over time, were any of those changes significant from the standpoint of placing pressure on the hypopharynx? >> yes. they are extremely significant. >> let's look at exhibit 947. your honor, we offer exhibit 947, which is taken from exhibit

15. >> any objection? >> no, your honor. >> 947 is received. >> tell us what we see here in exhibit 947. >> what you are seeing is the orientation of officer chauvin, his body build is quite erect here. in particular, what you are seeing is that the toe of his boot is no longer touching the ground. this means that all of his body weight is being directed down at mr. floyd's neck. in many of the calculations, i excluded the effect of his leg and his shoe, because some of it was touching the ground. but here you can see none of it is touching the ground. we are taking half his body weight plus the weight of his -- half the gear and all of that is coming directly down on mr.

floyd's neck. >> i want to show you what's marked as exhibit 943. did you assist in preparing this exhibit? >> yes, i did. >> would it help you in explaining your testimony? >> yes. >> your honor, we offer exhibit 943. >> any objection? >> no, your honor. >> 943 is received. >> if your honor could clear the screen. thank you. dr. tobin, what do we see in exhibit 943? >> what we are seeing is that half of his body weight plus half his gear weight is coming down. that's 91.5 pounds is coming down directly on mr. floyd's neck. >> is that all we see? >> the reason we are seeing that

is because the toe is off the ground. there is no body weight sitting back. he is not hunkering back on his heels. everything is directed down on his knee. in this place, his shin and his toe and his boot is playing no contribution. >> were there times also when mr. chauvin's left knee was on the back of mr. floyd's neck? >> correct. >> when was that? >> when his knee is on the back, that's a separate set of forces. it's the same force but it's compressing a different area. it's compressing inside his chest. >> what about the time when mr. floyd would have had his face smashed directly into the pavement? >> when his face is into the pavement, at that time, like one of the ones i showed you, if it's coming down on the ligament, it's a huge weight for mr. floyd to try and breathe. he won't be compressing the

hypopharynx at the time when that's happening. all of these different forces are -- they are complex in terms of how they're interacting. but they're all coming to the same point. >> you paid particular attention, you told us, to the first five minutes on the ground. >> yes. >> how would you characterize mr. floyd's oxygen levels during the first five minutes that mr. chauvin was on top of him? >> we know that his oxygen levels were enough to keep him brain alive. the reason we know that is because he continued to speak over that time. we know that he made various vocal sounds for 4 minutes 51 seconds from the time the knee is placed on the neck. that's telling us partly that he is speaking. it's telling us, because you can't speak without a brain

being active. so we know there's oxygen getting to his brain for whenever he is making an attempt to speak. >> sidebar, your honor. >> that's dr. martin tobin testifying there in the murder trial of derek chauvin as we watch another one of the sidebars between judge cahill and the attorneys. let's bring in our legal experts for a moment here. kristin feddon. she was the lead prosecutor in the bill cosby trial. john burris is a criminal defense and civil rights attorney. thanks to both of you. apologies if i have to cut you off. it would seem as if so far, this testimony that we have just heard from the pulmonologist,

the idea that chauvin's toe was off the ground and he would have his full body weight on george floyd's neck for that long. that would seem to be significant. we will talk about that on the other side. let's take you back inside. >> a good breaking point. let the court now. >> your honor, this is probably a good time. >> let's take our 20-minute mid-morning break. >> okay. this is something that's become a bit customary here over the last eight or nine days. 20-minute mid-morning break. they are in recess for 20 minutes. we will take you back inside the courtroom when they resume. let's pick up where i just left off there. this idea from dr. tobin -- i had not heard this before. the fact that you had chauvin's knee on his neck not just for that extended period of time but the fact that for a portion of that time, his toe was off the

ground. how significant of a revelation was that for you? [ no audio ] i think we're a bit of an audio issue there. we will try to get -- there we go. you are off mute now. there you go. >> sorry. >> that's okay. >> i think it's extremely significant, because it shows that not only was chauvin's full body weight on mr. floyd at that point, but as well as the weight of everything that was on him, his taser, all of the things that make up his belt. i think overall, this is an excellent starting point for the prosecution's medical argument, which is significant. dr. tobin's testimony is clear. he offers solid visuals, including allowing the jury to feel various portions of their

neck. quite frankly, allowing them to relive what mr. floyd went through. it's digestible, comprehensible for the jury. dr. tobin's breakdown of the chain of events that led chauvin's actions to mr. floyd's death was well articulated. he worked backwards talking about how mr. floyd died from a low level of oxygen. it's significant for the prosecution. what was the cause of the low level of oxygen? the small breaths. what caused mr. floyd to have those small, shallow breaths? four forces. mr. floyd was prone on the street. handcuffed with his hands behind his back. knee on his neck. a knee on his back and side. those four forces that allowed mr. floyd's shallow breaths. all perpetrated by derek chauvin. >> john, this is a little bit more of what we heard from dr.

tobin, an expert in pulmonology. >> there are a number of forces that led to the size of his breath became so small. a series of forces higher up that are leading to that. the forces that are going to lead to the shallow breath are going to be that he is turned prone on the street, that he has the handcuffs in place combined with the street, and then that he has a knee on his neck and then that he has a knee on his back and on his side. all of these four forces are ultimately going to result in the low tidal volume which gives you shallow breaths. >> john, if you are the defense attorney and you are following

that prosecution's argument there, the questioning there, what do you do? how do you begin to try and unravel some of this? >> the important part here is, positioning. from the defense point of view, he has to show that there was a lot of movement on the part of george floyd himself that caused the officers to change their position. at a consequence of that, there were times that it might have been more difficult than others. at the same time, george floyd was causing this. my problem with that, of course, is as the doctor described, he pinned him down. george floyd is pinned down. everything you see is his struggling to breathe. from the defense point of view, you have to show that these movements that were taking place weren't a part of george floyd and that he had not moved, he was not resisting. there's a tightening that would not have occurred.

i'm not a fan of this particular argument. i understand that he wants to make that argument. in essence, what i see going on is that the way he is being held down contributed to the different ways he was trying to breathe. i think for the jury, it accounts for the jurors to know even though he could say he couldn't breathe but it was light breath that happened as a result of being held down. my point of view, i think that the prosecution is doing a good job here. the defense has to keep working to show that george was causing this and officers were moving around to accommodate the movement george was engaged in. >> gabe gutierrez is on the ground for us there in minneapolis. he has been there from the beginning. gabe, this witness, again, made it pretty clear just how difficult it was, based on his understanding of the evidence, how difficult it was for george

floyd to breathe. >> that's right, craig. your guests have been discussing, what we had seen, obviously, from the video is how george floyd was having trouble breathing because of the knee on his neck. what really also struck me from his testimony, craig, is the other ways that floyd was trying to breathe. i want to point to one section -- i don't know if we have the picture up. the doctor says, to most people, it doesn't look terribly significant. to a physiologist it's significant. the knuckle against the tire, that one point. george floyd's knuckles and fingers are trying to push up against the tire. that tells you, quote, that he used up his resources and he is literally trying to breathe with his fingers and knuckles. craig, that really just struck me as just the desperation that

george floyd must have been feeling at that moment as he was trying to gasp his last breaths. the testimony, i found to be particularly devastating for the defense. as you mentioned, how do you cross examine this witness? very world renounced in terms of his research. very effective testimony so far from the prosecution. it certainly wasn't as emotional as what we saw last week from the bystander witnesses. it was different from the use of force witnesses that we saw earlier this week. very key evidence, key testimony, rather, as we start to move into the medical phase of the trial. as you mentioned, it also sets up tomorrow's witness. we know it will be the county medical examiner that performed the autopsy. it was extremely key testimony from a witness that had incredible credentials, craig. >> gabe gutierrez there for us in a rainy minneapolis.

gabe, thank you. shaquille brewster also watching every second of this trial from minneapolis. shaq, we will come to you with that same question i posed to gabe there. what has stood out to you most so far today? >> craig, you know, gabe highlighted that main part. the big thing that the prosecution was trying to grab from this testimony is that cause of death. the idea that george floyd died from a low level of oxygen,s a -- asphyxia. he mentioned the handcuffs, knee on the back and on the neck. he mentioned the prone position that george floyd was in. we saw that as he was testifying he connected with the jury and made directions to them. asked them to trace their finger down their throat, for example. touch their neck. get a sense of the feeling that you have there. based on the pool report we got a couple seconds ago, it seems

as if most of the jurors are doing what the doctor is suggesting them to do. you saw that was a cause of one objection from eric nelson. i will read from it. the jurors in the court seem attentive and engaged by the visual aid. just about all of them do what the doctor asks them to do when he tells them to feel the back of their neck and goes through not only the visual aid but really gets that tactical feeling there. one other note that we have -- gabe mentioned this as well. we have andrew baker, the hennepin county medical examiner who will testify tomorrow. i think what you are seeing today is almost a prebuttal or the prosecution framing the testimony that we will hear from dr. baker. the reason why i'm saying that is because you have this pulmonologist saying that george floyd died of asphyxiation. that's a word you do not hear in the medical examiner's report. recent court feelings -- not

recent, investigators say dr. baker told them the autopsy revealed no evidence suggesting mr. floyd of asphyxiation. they talk about how there was no damage to the airway, thyroid. no brain bleeding and no bone injuries or internal bruising. this is the prosecution saying before you hear from dr. baker who examined george floyd, the only person to do the official autopsy of george floyd, they are putting this into context saying this is an expert who studies this, who studied the video. this is what he is saying based on what he is seeing not the physical aspects of george floyd. that's important that they are putting this into context, especially as we make the pivot to the medical testimony where between the prosecution and the defense, the jury is going to hear from a lot of experts, a lot of incredibly intelligent people who will say different things. craig? >> yeah.

most of our legal experts concluded this would come down to essentially a battle of the experts, if you will. stay with me for a moment if you can. we will have more coverage coming up. we will take you back to the minneapolis courtroom. in just a few minutes, we expect to see president biden in the rose garden. he will talk about steps his administration will take to try to stop gun violence or reduce it, at least. how much can they get done without congress on board? how is he going to ramp up the pressure on congress to act? we will dig into that right after this.

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any moment now, president biden will be speaking, laying out several executive actions to try and cut down on gun violence in this country. the president will be speaking in the rose garden alongside his attorney general. the doj will be heavily involved in the president's executive actions on everything from stopping the spread of so-called

ghost guns to issuing a firearm trafficking report, something that the agency -- no other agency has done since 2000. monica alba standing by for those remarks for us. monica, what are the specific actions that we expect to hear from president biden in a few moments? >> reporter: there are six of them. we will hear the president essentially talk about what he can do in the capacity of his power without congress. these are executive actions, most of which he is doing in coordination with the department of justice, that really the white house is framing as initial steps on gun control, on what he campaigned on for so long as common sense gun control. back when he was candidate joe biden, he wanted to promise on the campaign trail to address this on day one of his presidency if elected. of course, the coronavirus issue

was his priority. now, obviously, after the major horrific shootings in georgia, colorado and california, the white house decided today and now is the time to act. the president is using his executive authority to ask doj in particular to look into this issue of the ghost guns, which are the weapons that don't have serial numbers. they are untraceable. they are extremely problematic because, of course, there's no record of them. even if you have a bipartisan support, craig, for something like trying to expand background checks or do other things, to be realistic and frank here, the white house knows the path on capitol hill to getting anything accomplished is a limited and narrow one. that's why the president and the attorney general are going to be speaking about what they can do. this event is going to take place in the rose garden in a couple of minutes. there are some lawmakers in attendance, democratic ones. then also a lot of attendees really from the gun control

community, advocates, parents who have lost their children in these extremely tragic mass shootings, all of whom have been calling for this, and, of course, joe biden is someone who knows this issue well because he was the one tasked when he was vice president to deal he was vice president to deal with the issue after the sandy hook school shooting. you can expect the president to talk about all of that. this is what he can do in his narrow steps. he will urge congress to try to do more. right now on capitol hill, he is putting behind infrastructure. >> the rose garden ceremony, the two senators from connecticut will be there. and david shipman was named to

lead the atf. an adviser to the gun violence prevention organization started by former congresswoman gabby gifford, what can you tell us about the confirmation process ahead? >> it is notable because there hasn't been a permanent director of the atf in more than six years. the president feels that david is uniquely qualified to take on this task. but there are senator republicans saying they are nervous about appointing anyone who has spoken out about gun control and trying to tighten restrictions rather than loosen them. he faces an uphill climb. but earlier today the white

house communication director was on with hallie. she said there is no backup plan. we expect him to go through this process. they are hopeful that will happen. you mentioned some of the other attendees in the rose garden. former congresswoman gabrielle giffords is expected to be in attendance. the significance that she was shot in a superintendent in 2011. a lot of emotional words. we expect to hear from the president, vice president and attorney general with perhaps more emotional reflexes from those in attendance. >> monica, stay with me if you can for a few moments. president biden joined by members of congress raising the question how is he supposed to get any gun legislation passed in this evenly divided senate e.

saying pretty plainly, he will not vote to end or weaken the filibuster. >> before we get to filibuster where are their points to bipartisanship. >> to the degree there is anything in agreement, it's probably red flag laws. 19 states have those. some are reddish states like indiana and florida. there is a model red flag legislation being proposed as part of the actions put forward by the white house today. if i am watching any of these as the kind of thing that may get

bipartisan support, it's that. connecticut senator chris murphy will be at the white house event today. he has been tasked by chuck schumer on a goldilocks to check on background. i am told he has been working on this through the recess although there is no indication when such a compromise might come forward. >> gary, as you were reporting, we started to see some of the folks take their seats. former congresswoman gifford is there. i believe i saw dr. jill bide en take her seat. we expect the president to come out at any moment.

i apologize if i have to cut you off. senator manchin walking this op-ed seemingly trying to walk back reporting from the week before that he might be open to some sort of refirmation of the filibuster. >> he had appeared to waffle a little bit on this suggesting he might be willing to weaken it, but now locked in again. here is the vice president. >> vice president harris, president biden and the attorney general. >> over the course of my career i have seen gun violence up close. i have looked at autopsy photographs.

i have seen with my own two eyes what a bullet can do to the human body. i have held hands with the hands of parents who have lost a child. i have seen children traumatized by the loss of a parent or sibling. and i have fought my entire career to end this violence and to pass reasonable gun safety laws. time and again as progress has stalled, we have all asked what are we waiting for? because we aren't waiting for a tragedy. i know that. we have had more tragedy than we can bear. we aren't waiting for solutions either because the solutions exist. they already exist. people on both sides of the aisle want action. real people on both sides of the aisle want action.

so all that is left is the will and the courage to act. [ applause ] >> and president joe biden has the will and the courage to act. as a united states senator gun biden took on the gun lobby not once but twice, and he won. in 1993 he worked to pass the brady handgun violation prevention act. this law established a background check system and has kept more than 3 million firearms out of the hands of dangerous people. a year later he worked to pass another law to ban assault weapons and high capacity magazines for ten years.

and as vice president joe biden led the obama/biden administration's efforts to reduce gun violence. we were just reminiscing that he and i talked back then about his work because i was attorney general back then in california. his work worked from expanding the loophole to other things. president biden has great determination and greater empathy. he has seen the grief of all of those who have lost a loved one to gun violence. it is for them, for all of us that he will never, ever give up on this fight. it is now my great honor to introduce the president of the

united states, joe biden. >> thank you kamala, madam vice president. we are joined today by eric garland, attorney general, who i have asked to prioritize gun violence. it's good to see the second gentleman is here and the first lady dr. jill biden who cares about this issue deeply as well. i look out there and see so many members of congress who have led in this fight, so many of you who have never given up, so many of you who are determined to get

this done. we have a long way to go. it seems like we always have a long way to go. but also today we are taking steps to confront not just the gun crisis but what is actually a public health crisis. nothing i am about to recommend in any way impinges on the second amendment. these are phony arguments suggesting these are second amendment rights at stake. no amendment to the constitution is absolute. you can't yell fire in a crowded movie theater and call it freedom of speech. from the very beginning certain people weren't allowed to have weapons. the idea is just bizarre to suggest that some of the things we are recommending are contrary to the constitution. gun violence in this country is an epidemic. gun violence in this country is an