07/15/24 07/15/24 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] amy: from the republican national convention in milwaukee, this is democracy now! pres. trump: you want to really see something that is sad, take a look -- amy: donald trump was shot

saturday in an attempted assassination at a rally in butler, pennsylvania, just ahead of the republican national convention which begins today here in milwaukee. a bullet grazed trump's right ear. one spectator was killed, two were critically injured. the gunman was also shot dead. president biden is calling for national unity. pres. biden: it is part of human nature. politics must never be illegal battlefield, god forbid, a killing field. amy: we will speak to john nichols and then kris brown, the head of the gun control group brady, named after james brady, the former white house press secretary who was left paralyzed when a gunman shot president reagan in 1981. then to gaza. israeli air strikes killed at least 90 people in a massive attack on a designated safe zone

in the al-mawasi displacement camp. all that and more, coming up. welcome to democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. we are broadcasting from milwaukee. the fbi is attempting to pin down a motive after the apparent assassination attempt against former president donald trump on saturday. the shooting took place during a rally in butler, pennsylvania. pres. trump: if you really want to see something that is sad, take a look at what happened -- amy: a bullet grazed trump's right ear, leaving it bloodied.

50-year-old corey comperatore, a volunteer firefighter in spectator was killed as he attempted to protect his family from the gunfire. two others are in critical condition. secret service fatally shot thomas crooks after he fired. the justice department is investigating the shooting as an act of domestic terrorism. investigators believe crooks acted alone when he shot an ar-15 towards the rally stage from atop a nearby building, just minutes into trump's speech. some attendees said they spotted the gunman climbing to the roof and attempted to get law enforcement to pay attention and to intervene. moments after a bullet grazed trump's ear, a photographer from the associated press snapped a photo of a bloodied trump raising his fist with an image of an american flag behind him. many online commentators are speculating the incident and the image will help trump's election bid. president joe biden ordered a

review of the rally's security. he addressed the nation from the oval office sunday evening. pres. biden: there is no place in america for this kind of violence, for any violence, ever. period. no exceptions. we cannot allow this violence to be normalized. the political rhetoric in this country has gotten very heated. we have got to cool it down. we all have a responsibility to do that. yes, we have deeply felt strong disagreements. the stakes in this election are enormously high. amy: biden's team says it is pulling its television ads and pausing outgoing campaign communications following the shooting. this comes amid mounting pressure for biden to end his presidential campaign. 19 congressional democrats have now called on biden to step aside. before the attack on saturday, biden was reportedly grilled on a call with centrist democrats over his plans. the call was described to axios

as a disaster. the youth climate group sunrise movement publicly called on biden to step aside friday, saying the climate risk is too great. "another trump presidency would cause catastrophic and irreversible damage to our climate," the group warned. meanwhile, donald trump arrived here in milwaukee on sunday as the republican national convention kicks off. thousands of republicans are participating in the event where trump will accept the nomination for president. on the eve of the rnc sunday, dozens of people set up an unhoused encampment just minutes from fiserv forum, where the rnc is underway, to protest policies that have exacerbated poverty and a housing crisis nationwide. democracy now! was there. >> what it means to be in this encampment for us means putting a face to the poverty. poverty doesn't discriminate in the united states. it does not matter whether you are brand-new baby goods --

brand-new baby. amy: the encampment was organized by the poor people's army, which will lead a march later today. later in the program, we will also be talking to some of those involved. several other anti-trump protests are also moving forward today, including the march on the rnc. this is spokesperson omar flores. >> nothing really changes for us. i will say trump encourages this type of thing but we are going to continue with the family-friendly march. the shooting has nothing to do with that's, really. amy: we'll have more from the protests later in the broadcast as well as through the week. in gaza, israel killed at least 91 palestinians and injured 300 others when it bombarded the coastal area of al-mawasi near khan younis hundreds of saturday. thousands of gazans have been

staying in the designated safe zone of al-mawasi after fleeing other areas, including rafah. this is a survivor of the slaughter. >> some of us were outside the house and some inside the house. it is supposed to be a safe zone. for five minutes or airstrikes. i got on the floor. many were killed and got injured. many were killed and many injured. three minutes later after everything calmed down and when the ambulances arrived, warplanes started to fire again around the same place. amy: israel claimed it was targeting hamas leader mohammed deif, but deif's fate remains unclear two days later and hamas claims he survived the attack. the u.n. and others condemned the massacre. the council on american-islamic relations said, "president biden's continuing support for and silence about the genocide gives a green light for more israeli abuses and war crimes."

but israel's slaughter continues unabated. on sunday, israeli missiles targeted another unrwa school in the nuseirat refugee camp, killing at least 22 people. many of those who were sheltering at the u.n. school arrived after receiving evacuation orders from israel at their previous locations. deadly strikes have also been reported at the magazi and bureij refugee camps. meanwhile, rescue workers say they found at least 60 bodies under the rubble of the shujaiya neighborhood of gaza city following israel's withdrawal from the area last week after leaving it in ruins. on sunday, hamas confirmed ceasefire talks are still ongoing. we'll have more on gaza later in the broadcast. in the occupied west bank city of jenin, protesters marched following saturday's massacre in gaza. >> this is not the first

massacre committed by the occupation against children, women, and elders. the occupation is helpless against the resistance movement. they claimed they were attacking leaders of the resistance. we tell them, or cowards, murderers, and criminals. you only can women and children. -- you only kill women and children. amy: thousands of israelis also took to the streets of major cities to call on the israeli government to finalize a ceasefire and hostage deal. voters in rwanda are casting ballots today in an election that is expected to easily keep president paul kagame in office for a fourth straight term. he has been in power since 2000, making him the only elected president of rwanda since the 1994 genocide during which up to 1 million tutsis and moderate hutus were killed by militia members. ahead of the election, rwandan courts banned kagame's biggest rivals from running. rights groups have called out kagame's sweeping crackdown on the press and dissent, as well as the backing of m23 rebels in

the democratic republic of congo who have been accused of committing rape, murder, and torture. pakistan announced it is moving to ban former prime minister imran khan's pti party. this comes just days after pakistan's supreme court ruled pti is eligible for a number of seats in national and provincial assemblies. it also comes after another court acquitted khan and his wife of charges their marriage violated islamic law. imran khan remains behind bars on charges of inciting riots in 2023. the u.n. and others have deemed khan's detention arbitrary and said "it appears to have been intended to disqualify him from running for political office." in ecuador, five people have been convicted for the assassination of presidential candidate fernando villavicencio. he was a former journalist, shot dead at a campaign rally in quito last year. he was running on an

anti-corruption platform and had vowed to take on organized crime. this is his wife's attorney hugo espín. >> this is an important first step. i think the country needs transparency, needs to get intellectual others so there isn't impunity. the only way to get security in the country is by erasing impunity of any people committing a crime. amy: back in the united states, as anti-immigrant hate speech is expected to be a centerpiece of the republican national convention. a new report by human rights watch and the drug policy alliance reveals that the u.s. deports thousands of immigrants every year for drug offenses, many of which are no longer penalized under state law including marijuana-related offenses. the groups say that between 2002 and 2020, half a million immigrants were deported -- policies that have torn apart families and destabilized communities. and in texas, around 350,000

homes and businesses in the houston area remained without power sunday, a week after hurricane beryl slammed into the region. some residents have taken to sleeping in their cars amid scorching temperatures. texas governor greg abbott called for an investigation into centerpoint energy, which residents say were unprepared to respond to the disaster. this is deborah powell, a 72-year-old retiree from houston. >> there should be something the city could do to give these people lights and make sure that we don't suffer no more. this is h town. h town shouldn't have to suffer but we are suffering right now. i know the mayor just got in there so i'm not going to down him, but there's something the

mayor and everybody else that is connected with the city and the lights -- centerpoint. there is something they can do. what it is, i don't know. if i could do it, i would do it. amy: this comes as politico reports the biden administration rejected a request from centerpoint last year for $100 million to strengthen its poles and wires against powerful storms. meanwhile, at least two people were reported dead in vermont from heavy flooding cause by beryl as it continued to make its way across the united states. before arriving on u.s. soil, hurricane beryl killed at least 19 people across the caribbean. scientists warn such events will only become stronger and more frequent due to the climate catastrophe. and those are some of the headlines. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. when we come back, we will go to what happened in pennsylvania, the attempted assassination of

president trump. stay with us. ♪ [music break]

amy: "lonely people" by america. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. we are broadcasting from milwaukee, from the republican national convention. the fbi is continuing to investigate saturday's attempted assassination of donald trump. the former president was shot in the right ear during an outdoor rally in butler, pennsylvania. one attendee of the rally was shot dead. two others were critically wounded. video of the incident shows the bullet grazing trump's right ear as he was speaking to the crowd. pres. trump: if you really want to see something that is sad, take a look at what happened --

amy: secret service agents rushed the stage to protect trump and help take him away. a photographer from the associated press snapped and connick photo of a bloodied trump raising his fist with an image of an american flag behind him. authorities have identified the gunman as 20-year-old thomas matthew crooks, who lived in the pittsburgh suburb of bethel park. investigators believe crooks acted alone but have not yet determined a motive. the ar-15 used in the attack had been purchased by his father. secret service snipers shot crooks dead moments after he fired. part of the investigation centers on how the gunman managed to get on top of a nearby building located about 400 feet away from the stage. some spectators said they spotted the gunman climbing to the roof of the building, but they said attempts to get law enforcement to take action failed. on sunday night, president biden

gave a prime time address from the oval office. pres. biden: disagreement is inevitable. it is part of human nature. but politics must never be a killing field. i would politics ought to be an arena for peaceful debate, to pursue justice, to make decisions got about the declaration of independence constitution. we stand for america, not extremism but desis -- decency and grace. amy: some republicans directly cast blame on the biden campaign. republican senator of ohio jd vance, who is being considered as a possible running mate of trump's, said -- "today is not just some isolated incident. the central premise of the biden campaign is that president donald trump is an authoritarian fascist who must be stopped at all costs. that rhetoric led directly to president trump's attempted assassination."

on sunday, donald trump arrived in milwaukee where the republican national convention begins today. joining us now is john nichols, national affairs correspondent for "the nation." he has a new piece headlined "americans know political violence all too well." he lives in madison. he is joining us today from milwaukee. welcome back. it is great to have you with us. if you can respond first to the attempted assassination of president trump. >> it is horrible. political violence when it occurs at any time is an awful thing. when it is in the context of a campaign, this has a real impact because it causes people to question whether they might go to a campaign event. whether they might participate in the democratic process. no matter what you think about

trump, biden, or any of this, to have an incident like this occur at a campaign rally is a big deal. it is a big deal for this country. at the same token, it is not the first. this is very much something we have seen really throughout our modern history. it had four presidents assassinated, killed. amy: name them. >> abraham lincoln, james garfield, william mckinley, and john kennedy killed while serving as president. we have had a prominent presidential candidate killed at a campaign event where he accepted his victory in the california primary in 1968, robert f kennedy. we have had major candidates killed or harmed in other settings. we have had candidates for president badly injured. george wallace was shot on the campaign trail in maryland in 1972, permanently paralyzed.

in this city of milwaukee in 1912, october 14, teddy roosevelt, homer president of the united states, was shot in the chest as he was coming out to campaign, deliver a speech. literally in one of the buildings adjacent to where this convention will be held. amy: where the hyatt is right now where we got our press credentials. that is the new building that replaces the old hotel where he was speaking. >> that is precisely right. amy: he gave the speech anyway. >> i went back and read it over the weekend because it was such an amazing moment. roosevelt is the former president. he had already displaced the republican party. they did not nominate him so he was running as a third-party candidate. it was a very tense campaign. he knew that wisconsin was a big state for him. literally, he assessed himself. he knew had been shot in the chest muscle but he had had a 50

page speech folded three times in his pocket along with a glasses case. the bullet went through the speech, hit the case, they lodged in his chest muscle. he determined he could make it through. he was not coughing up blood, as he said, so he went and gave a 90 minute speech. incredibly, it was about the incident. he talked about violence, political violence. what he said at the end of the speech was that as a country, we have to learn to get over economic and social divisions so that we don't have more incidents like this. it was quite remarkable. amy: he was a hunter so he knew biology well and said, no, it is not in my heart or lungs and yet that bullet in him for the rest of his life. >> he made it through a 90 minute speech, though. if you read the speech, it is chilling. he literally said to the people, "i have been shot but that does

not mean nothing to me." he was a strong character. amy: bullmoose. >> he says it doesn't mean a thing to me because of the importance of what we're talking about for this country and the importance of getting beyond violence, getting beyond the divisions in this country. remember, roosevelt was running that you to the left of the democrats and the republicans in order to create what he referred to as a new nationalism, which was an effort to begin to address a lot of the economic inequality in the country. amy: ultimately, he did not win that campaign. >> snorted george wallace was shot on the campaign trail. -- nor was george wallace who was shot on the campaign drop. there's a tendency to a shoe it will have -- it will have a political impact. and,. but history suggests the country is horrified, the country reacts with sympathy, but it doesn't

necessarily say, oh, we have to elect this wounded warrior or this wounded candidate. amy: interestingly, teddy roosevelt had replaced mckinley who was assassinated when he didn't become president. >> teddy roosevelt was a remarkable story because he was assassinated -- his predecessor was killed and roosevelt ended up almost with two full terms as president because of an assassination. this is one of the things i think people need to understand. it is not a good thing, it is a deep tragedy. it is a horrific reality that assassinations, political assassinationss an attempt have been part of our history. amy: i want to read do you,

"american policy is has enter the most dangerous phase of its nearly 250 year existence. although the right is blaming the blood go left for the violence saying it is mean that trump has dictatorial tendencies responsible. the fact he did try to overthrow the results of the 2020 election and some of his accolades brought guns and ammunition to washington, d.c., for the purpose, including the proud boys, seems clear the lives of mike pence and nancy pelosi and others in the capitol had been in danger that day, had security not whisked them to safety. the mob called into being by donald trump chanted "hang mike pence" which is a call for an assassination. insiders have reported trump expressed support for the sentiment. as it was edge arranged mob came looking for pelosi at her house in san francisco and tried to kill her husband paul with a hammer when he found she wasn't there. donald trump's son mocked paul pelosi. as ultimately president trump --

president trump has continually made fun of pelosi around this." >> look, the thing to understand is that after an incident like this, there's often an effort like this to point fingers of blame and say something joe biden said or the democrat said caused this to happen. and vice versa. this is the nature of our politics. one of the things that i think is important to understand is investigation into what looks like a security meltdown at that rally. we don't know what this young man was thinking. we don't know much about him. we are starting to get a little bit of it. i think it is the height of irresponsibility to try and say, oh, something somebody said caused this to happen. the much better response -- frankly, i will remind you that we have been through moments like this before.

1968, martin luther king, jr. assassinated, robert f kennedy assassinated in june. imagine that moment we were in and you saw people, conservatives, democrats basically saying, let's try to chill this out. i think that is the right place to go. what i will counseled his we are in a very -- you read through a list of realities of our moments, things that have been said, done. i remember january 6 i was in madison and i am watching that. you say, where we at? what is going on here? i think a lot of americans have been through that. in a sense, we have been through three years or longer, maybe even 10 years, of incredible turbulence in our politics. this is an unstable period. if we pause and think about that

, we ought to be careful about who we blame. one last thing i will say on this that i think is important, my sense is that the individual, the candidate who can pull us back from this, who can say, as i think biden tried to do last night and say, hey, this isn't where we want to go come has a real potential to connect with people. i think people are feeling overwhelmed. amy: john nichols, tell us where we are in milwaukee. fascinating, the republican national convention has come here to milwaukee, a history of -- a proud history of a socialist city. >> i find it fascinating the republicans, who during this course of this convention will condemn socialism, i don't know, 300 times? 500 times? 1000 times? it has become such a part of their political messaging the last many years, even before

trump. this goes back a good 10, 15 years. newt gingrich was a big accelerator of this. i am fascinated they chose to come to milwaukee because milwaukee is a city, as alice cooper told us in "wayne's world," the one major city in the u.s. that is selected three socialist mayors. socialists ran the city from 1910 pretty consistently until 1960. i knew the last socialist mayor as a kid, frank zeidler. his office was about a block or so from where the convention is being held. the fact of the matter is, milwaukee socialists were successful. this city was seen as the best governed city, awarded as such, yet they did not back away from their socialism. amy: explain why they were called the sewer socialists. it was used as a pejorative but it wasn't. >> milwaukee was a city with a lot of public health problems. one thing the socialists did was, we're going to make this a

healthy city. and they did. one thing they proved, and a very short amount of time, they took milwaukee from being one of the most unhealthy cities in the united states to being one of the most healthiest. they had to retire the award for the healthiest because milwaukee kept getting it every year. amy: explain the sewer part. >> the sewers were part of it. yet to develop a sewer system. you spent a lot of money to make your city have safe, healthy water. simple thing but the milwaukee socialists loved that reality. they love they had done so well. in 1932, they had the convention in milwaukee. norman thomas came here. they came from all over the country. the milwaukee socialists were so excited, there mayor then, dan hoan, talked about the sewer so much that new yorkers said, they are just sewer socialists. amy: they were cleaning up after

the impacts of the industrial revolution, bringing sanitary sewage system to the city. >> if i dare may say, having known, they also said there cleaning up after capitalism. amy: so you just showed me a headline about what we are allowed to carry here in milwaukee in the security zone. what we can't carry and what we can. >> yes, there's been a real fight. in the convention hall, you can't have a gun unless you are a police officer, secret service, something like that. but in the area around it in what is considered to be what they call the softer zone, a zone where you have a lot of security and oversight -- it is right around the convention. the city has done at the request of security folks, they have banned tennis balls, hard water bottles ,tents. amy: you can't bring a water bottle? >> not a hard one.

the list is really long. tape is banned. tape longer than six inches. not guns. amy: you can bring a gun? >> they are not banned. that is because the state of wisconsin has preempted cities from banning guns, all sorts of guns. there is been an ongoing battle here in the city of milwaukee where the city council has literally said -- there are a lot of residents and downtown. downtown is a very developed downtown. they said, look, can't we have an exemption? can't we say let's keep guns out of this area? and they basically told them, you can't do that. it has been a huge battle in this city. the governor, just after this incident in pennsylvania, governor of wisconsin said,

can't we do something to have tougher restrictions on guns? again, not in the convention hall but the area around it. as it was said in one of the news reports just this morning, it doesn't look like it is going to go in were to actually do that ban. amy: no tennis balls or hard water bottles, but you can carry guns. which takes us to our next segment. john, i want to thank you for being with us. john nichols, "the nation" national affairs correspondent, and we will link to his new piece "americans know political violence all too well." he is the author of more than a dozen books, including his latest, co-written with vermont senator bernie sanders, titled "it's ok to be angry about capitalism." this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. we are broadcasting from milwaukee from the republican national convention.

saturday's shooting of donald trump is being widely viewed as the secret service's biggest failure since 1981 when a gunman shot president ronald reagan just over two months after reagan's presidency began. reagan was hospitalized for nearly two weeks. three other people were injured, including reagan's press secretary james brady, who was shot in the head and left partially paralyzed. brady and his wife sarah would go on to become prominent gun control advocates pushing for a bill that became known as the brady handgun violence prevention act. brady was also involved in a gun control organization that changed its name to the brady campaign to prevent gun violence. it is now known simply as brady. to talk more about saturday's shooting at the trump rally, we

are going to washington, d.c., where we are joined by kris brown, the president of brady. first, your response to what happened on saturday? you had this young 20-year-old with some ar-15-type rifle climbing this building and opening fire on the trump rally, raising -- grazing the former president over his right year, ultimately killing a spectator, two are critical he wounded. he was a neatly shot dead by secret service. your response? >> like john and i'm sure americans across this country, my reaction is one of horror. even though, to be honest, amy, we know gun violence is

omnipresent, we do expect higher scrutiny and security apparatus to ensure the safety of our candidates. but it is not perfect. in a nation a washed in firearms , firearms that are assault star weapons, which reports indicate was the kind of weapon the shooter used, design for the battlefield, it is not a stretch to understand that there is that kind of potential risk that exists. it is a horrific element of american life that we as brady want to ensure is no longer the reality. and there are simple common sense things we can do to reduce and, indeed, virtually eliminate this kind of risk from american life and politician seeking

office have very different perspectives about that very thing. as you covered even in the focus on the kinds of weapons that you can carry around the convention. you can't carry a water bottle, but you can carry a firearm. there's a deep inconsistency here in american life that needs to be tackled. just as jim and sarah brady devoted their lives to common sense gun laws, there's a lot more work we have to do here. amy: you just her john nichols describe the rules here in milwaukee right outside the convention center. hard water bottles, no. tennis balls, no. guns, yes. even when the governor attempted to modify this come the state said no. >> that is an increasing trend across the country. i will note, certainly, my thoughts and prayers go to

former president donald trump, associated with this horrific shooting. the reality when he was president, he tried to make what is called consider -- concealed carry microsoft study -- concealed carry her prosody about who could be permitted to carry a gun would be overturned. protecting the safety of citizens by local politicians, that would have been completely offended. and let's just be very clear. when trump was president, a major focus of his presidency, largely thwarted by organizations like brady, was guns everywhere for anyone at any time. we know in america washing guns,

where individuals are carrying guns in public places means much more likely those firearms are used in the subjective view of an individual to protect themselves. but the criteria for when and how that happens is up to the individual. and so we will see in that kind of america much more violence, much more actions just like this. and that is what deeply is concerning the people like me. americans across this country with children and hopefully grandchildren living in a world where reasonable and appropriate gun violence prevention measures save lives. and too often we are going on the brink of stopping that america from happening, creating a much more dangerous, highly charged, politically fraught environment in which to attempt

to advance democracy. and democracy and gun violence don't fit together. as you have noted, we have lost presidents. it is not just that, amy. it is also the people who stand by and come in a democracy to purchase a pate in it. that is the quintessence of democracy. someone like jim brady who served the president. it is not just the individuals, the candidate who is the target of these kinds of attacks. it is all of the innocent by standards who are effectively essential to have participatory democracy. we have to internalize that as well. amy: so, kris, i don't know how many people realize that the press room that we watch at the white house is actually called the james as brady press briefing room where all of the

journalists at the white house question the press secretary, etc. can you talk about the radically different approaches to guns of president biden and president trump? what are their policies? what was trump's when he was president? what has biden called for in the past? what has he been prevented from doing now? essentially, isn't he one of the people for the weapons ban that was in place in the senate for so many years? >> so much, amy. it is hard to encapsulate in a few minutes. the easiest way to synthesize this is it is night and day. one of the top priorities for former president trump was to overturn a lot of the most basic gun violence prevention laws that have been in effect for years and years and years.

when he first assumed the role of president after being sworn in doing arcane law called the congressional review act, he overturned an obama rule that would have ensured a process to remove firearms temporarily from veterans who are at risk of harming themselves or others. that was his top priority. any used a tool that had almost -- and he used a tool that had almost never been used in history to overturn that rule that have been the subject of review and discussion and public comment in support of the rule for years before it was finalized. he went on then to introduce two different pieces of legislation, neither of which ultimately passed because groups like ours opposed it. so much information came out. the first was concealed carry rep or soft city. which is to say permitting

across this country adopted by state and local governments, people like tony evers say this is the kind of permitting system we want to have heightened scrutiny about who gets to carry guns in public, is the person at risk or not, and we get to deny it. there was legislation to overturn all of these laws across the country. we successfully push that back. another bill dubbed the hearing protection act, but that would have basically switched how the sale of silencers occurs across the country, which are subject to heightened scrutiny under the 1934 firearms act. it would have removed those protections and allowed the sale of firearms, basically, in your costco or walmart or other major vendors where firearms are sold. let's be clear, the purpose of silencers from the 1934 time forward was to mu thet sound of

gunfire, making it much hardere for police to respond instantly to these kinds of horrific shootings. that is the stark reality of president trump and his focus fueled by one of his greatest investors for his campaign contribute in more than any other nonprofit, the national rifle association. let's contrast that to president biden. from day one on the campaign trail and this is consistent with his 40 year history as a public servant, he has said reduction of gun violence in america, the number one killer of our kids, is a top priority. and from day one, he has done everything he can to make that happen. he is responsible for passage of the most bipartisan legislation in the history of the gun violence prevention movement, the bipartisan saver community's

act. more than 50 republicans, including john cornyn from taxes , who is a chief cosponsor of that legislation, the. it called for expanded background checks across the country. incredible, unprecedented funding for community violence intervention. these programs are shown to work, to reduce things like homicide. by the way, under president biden, we have had record reductions in homicide in cities across this country. he offered a rule on ghost guns. he has authorized many more inspections of gun dealers across this country. an, we have more gun dealers and starbucks and mcdonald's combined. and this president understands it is not just about policy. policy is important. but unless you enforce that policy well, you will never have a true reduction in gun

violence. so he has someone at atf leading who is laser focused on giving gun dealers, given the atf the tools to inspect gun dealers and shut down the few of them, relatively, that are responsible for huge amount of crime guns that are flooding the market across the country. and he established the office of gun violence prevention, led by two survivors of gun violence. they fight night and day to have a whole of government approach to address this issue. the surgeon general has issued a report on gun violence as a public health epidemic. i could go on and on and on. and none of these actions are inconsistent with a reasonable view of the second amendment. i think that is really

important. amy: kris, i want to read a report that came out right before this weekend, the attempted assassination. this is from cnn. vending machines selling ammunition will be in grocery stores in alabama, texas, and oklahoma, a move that has generated mixed feelings from officials in those states. american round to shooters used to say -- used ai technology to scan the identification as well as facial recognition software to verify customer's identity according to the company's software. again, vending machines selling ammunition will now be in grocery stores in alabama, texas, and oklahoma. your final comment? >> well, i think this is a horrific trend and one the biden administration is aware of and deeply concerned about. we think the department of justice should look into this and seek action to shut it down.

if you're shopping in a grocery store in standing in line with your children, the idea that any person can come in and buy ammunition from a vending machine were all it is checking is, are you the person you say you are. it is not doing a background check. it is doing nothing to stop the sale of that ammunition other than to confirm you are the person you say you are. that is deeply concerning. as we know, we have a huge problem with gun violence in this country. and dealers, gun dealers in this country today sell firearms and ammunition. those clerks come the individuals that most quality gun dealers -- most of them are -- trained to stop sales if they view a person is at risk. ai is no substitute for that. this will make no -- amy: we have to leave it there. >> thank you.

amy: thank you so much. president of brady, one of the oldest gun violence prevention organizations in the united states, named for jim brady, who was shot in the head during the attempted assassination of former president ronald reagan. we come back, israeli airstrikes kill at least 90 people in a designated safe zone in gaza. hundreds more wounded. back in 30 seconds. ♪ [music break]

amy: "sea horse" by moondog. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. we are broadcasting from the republican national convention in milwaukee, wisconsin. israeli warplanes and drones continue to bombard areas across the gaza strip, killing over 90 -- 80 palestinians in the last 24 hours. the continued assault comes in the wake of israel's attack on saturday on al-mawasi, an area in khan younis designated as a safe zone, that killed at least 90 palestinians, half of them women and children, and injured

over 300 in one of the deadliest attacks in gaza in weeks. the u.n. and several countries condemned the bombing, which targeted thousands of displaced palestinians crowded in tents. the israeli military claimed without evidence that it was targeting hamas military chief mohammed deif. however, hamas denied the claim and israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu said in a televised news conference on saturday that it wasn't clear whether deif had been killed. israeli defense minister yoav gallant nevertheless praised the attack, saying hamas was losing its ability to organize, arm itself, or care for the wounded. also on saturday, the israeli military struck a makeshift mosque during noon prayer in the shati refugee camp in west gaza city, killing at last 20 palestinians. then on sunday, israeli airstrikes on a united nations school sheltering thousands of displaced palestinians in the nuseirat refugee camp killed at

these 22 and injured over 100 people. meanwhile, rescue workers say they found at least 60 bodies under the rubble of the shujaiya neighborhood of gaza city following israel's withdrawal from the area last week, after leaving it in ruins. this weekend, u.n. secretary-general antonio guterres told a donor's conference for the u.n. agency for palestinian refugees, unrwa, "just when we thought it couldn't get any worse in gaza -- somehow, appallingly, civilians are being pushed into ever deeper circles of hell." for more, we go to muhammad shehada, a writer and analyst from gaza. chief of communications at euro-mediterranean human rights monitor and a columnist at the forward newspaper, a jewish weekly in new york. he is joining us from copenhagen, denmark. welcome to democracy now! first of all, talk about the safe zone that israel struck on

saturday, killing 90, injuring hundreds of others. >> thank you so much for having me. the first thing is this is not the first time the conduct such an atrocity, such a carnage, bloodbath. then claimant was a hamas leader. it was done dozens of times in gaza. a couple of weeks ago israel and gaza city claimed a commander was there. we never heard any updates about that ever since, not even a confirmation or allegation that he was killed. this has been done with the deadly. the way the carnage unfolded is atrocious on every single level possible. israel used almost like carpet bombing. they dropped simultaneously about five bombs each, 2000 pounds on top of what they have

designated themselves as gaza's only humanitarian safe zone, crowding hundreds of thousands of people there by force. then they bomb them to kill and wound over 400 people. it did not stop there. after the carnage unfolded, as soon as ambulances and firefighters came to the area, israel started to bomb and target those as well. they killed multiple firefighters and attacked ambulance crews to delay the rescue mission in the area. what this reminds me of is basically if you remember in 2002, israel assassinated hamas 's top most wanted, most dangerous commander. the founder of the brigade. back then, the airstrike killed about 14 civilians. seven of them were children. the bush administration, george w. bush, came out and condemned israel in unprecedented terms and said this is heavy-handed and this impedes and prevents peace. now we are in a situation where

it is so insane that biden was only dead silent, not a word on this, but he's the one who provided the weaponry, the bombs that israel gladly obliged and rain down on the refugee humanitarian safe zone. you also had at that time, about 27 israeli pilots in 2000 two that declared they would not participate anymore in reserve service in the idf because of that human casualties, the high death toll. seven children. only seven. by this point you have near unanimous the -- unanimity saying this was more than just divide. although they cannot provide any evidence that mohammed deif was even there. we got to a situation where israel is being told you can do whatever you want from anything you want at all. that is basically the message they're getting from the biden

administration and the opinion and as well, european member states. the deadline that i keep hearing from sources close to the white house is that just don't engage in a regional conflict that involves iran and lebanon and bogs the united states down into that war. otherwise, carry on. we heard a lot of redline about rafah. as soon as israel went in and turned rafah into what humanitarian workers are calling a wasteland, nothing is left there come much virtually nothing. they burn, destroyed homes, left dozens of bodies to rot and decompose and get eaten by dogs and cats on the street. sometimes they scoop it with bulldozers and bury it with the rubble. we saw unprecedented ugliness that violates every norm not only of international law, but of common humanity.

biden is unwilling to put down a foot and say, you violated any my redlines. it is the same message from europe. i was in a meeting with the top european official and he gave us his tablet, circled it around the table, and showed us headlined imagery of gaza before and after. he said, look at this, what history is doing. he said, "their goal is to make gaza uninhabitable so if the war ends, people have to leave." european officials know. the same official said he is incapable of doing much because about 80% of european government just once israel -- wants israel to carry on. the only thing they've been asking for, for instance, the german foreign minister went to tel aviv, the only thing she

asked for was continued the killing, just kill fewer people. spread it across time so it does not look spectacular. acacia, history violates that. -- occasionally, history violates that. i cannot imagine this number is acceptable. amy: muhammad shehada, we are in milwaukee covering the republican national convention. can you talk about president trump's policy when it comes to israel? talk about his relationship with netanyahu. talk about what happened during the great march of return, moving the embassy, etc. >> basically, trump is second term as a nightmare for people in gaza because he is been very clear during the presidential debate that history once to carry on and continue this war and he is willing to indulge in that to finish the job.

when i talk to people in gaza, they react with immense fear about a second term. [indiscernible] he will empower every fundamental lunatic, extremist right-wing hawk to put them in charge as he did during his first term. he put a messianic israeli american as the american ambassador to israel to take what was termed at the time sledgehammer policy, destroy everything that would be there to enable a palestinian -- recognize settlements as not necessarily illegal under international law, remove the labeling of settlement product. amy: 10 seconds. >> and the fun hospitals. the problem is the biden administration hasn't been better in many ways. the last three years have been the deadliest since records

began in 2005. amy: muhammad shehada, thank you for being with us writer and , analyst from gaza. chief of communications at euro-mediterranean human rights monitor and a columnist at the forward newspaper, a jewish weekly in new york. that does it hour broadcast. we have a job opening of