07/18/24 07/18/24 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] amy: from the republican national convention in milwaukee, this is democracy now! >> president rug -- recommend -- represents america's last hope for what was lost may never be found again. a country where working-class boy born far from the halls of power can stand on this stage as

the next vice president of the united states of america. amy: ohio senator j.d. vance formally accepts the republican vice-presidential nomination to run with donald trump, the man vance once described as america's hitler. in a populist, anti-immigrant address, vance attacked joe biden for supporting free trade agreements and the iraq war. we will air excerpts of vance's rnc speech and look at his views on domestic and foreign policy. close together we will send our kids to war only when we must. as president trump showed with the elimination of isis and so much more, when we punch, we are going to punch hard. amy: all that and more, coming up.

welcome to democracy now!, democracynow.org. this is war, peace and the presidency: breaking with convention. i'm amy goodman. president biden has tested positive for covid and cancel a campaign speech wednesday evening as he headed back to delaware to self-isolate. the white house said biden has mild symptoms and is being treated with the anti-viral drug paxlovid. he was set to address the unidos u.s. conference in las vegas to appeal to latinx voters. earlier in the day, he was seen greeting supporters with close physical contact just days before his covid dynasties went public. >> is there anything that you would look to personally come not anybody else, not other pendants, not even perhaps family members, that you would look to to say if i see that, i will reevaluate?

pres. biden: if i had some medical emergency. if a doctor said i have this problem or that problem. amy: later in the same interview, biden appears to forget the name of his secretary of defense lloyd austin, referring to him as "the black man." separately on wednesday, california congressmember and u.s. senate candidate adam schiff publicly called on biden to "pass the torch" after reports he told donors privately biden could cost democrats the presidency and the senate if he stays in the race. this comes amid reports that top democrats nancy pelosi and party leaders chuck schumer and hakeem jeffries have directly expressed concerns to president biden over his ability to beat trump. meanwhile, president biden has been the subject of backlash this week over comments he made in an interview with journalist speedy morman, where biden claimed he was very supportive of palestinians.

>> are you a zionist? ayden co. yes. -- pres. biden: yes. do you know what a zionist is? by the way, i and the guy that open up all the assets. i made sure they got the egyptians to open the border to let goods through an medicine and food. amy: biden's comments come as israel's u.s.-backed war on gaza has now killed nearly 39,000 palestinians according to official data, though the true death toll is certainly much higher. among those killed was muhammed bhar, a 24-year-old man from gaza city. bhar's mother says her son, who had down syndrome, was separated from his family before israeli

soldiers unleashed a combat dog on the young man, who was mauled to death as he cried out "khalas ya habibi," meaning "enough, my dear." muhammed bhar's mother, who heard his cries through their home's walls, says he was non-verbal and these were the only words they had ever hear him speak. the red cross warns hospitals in southern gaza are at breaking point due to the spike in patients as israel intensifies its attacks across the territory. only 10 of 26 u.n. healthcare facilities in gaza remain operational. israeli lawmakers overwhelmingly passed a resolution opposing palestinian statehood. it's the first time the knesset has passed such a resolution. also on wednesday, united nations chief antonio guterres blamed a surge in illegal israeli settlement expansions in the occupied west bank for scuppering a future two-state

system, saying -- "recent developments are driving a stake through the heart of any prospect for a two-state solution." meanwhile, palestine's u.n. ambassador addressed a security council meeting in new york wednesday, where he called for an end to the "most documented genocide in history." this is riyad mansour. >> there is a global consensus in support of the palestinian people's right to self-determination and a two state solution in line with u.n. resolutions and international law. there is more convergence under palestine question that any other matter on the international agenda. and there is one isolated fanatic government rejecting this consensus and attacking every institution entrusted with upholding the international law based order. amy: here in milwaukee, ohio,

-- or in milwaukee, ohio senator j.d. vance accepted the republican vice-presidential nomination wednesday as he took to the stage on day three of the republican national convention. vance appealed to the working-class and voters in the rust belt swing states. vance touted to his appalachian roots and lashed out at president biden over his foreign policy record, including biden's support of nafta, which vance blamed for exporting thousands of u.s. manufacturing jobs to mexico, as well as then senator biden role in the iraq war, supporting it. vance is a u.s. marine veteran who served in iraq. vance also promoted tougher policies on china, which he's described as the biggest threat facing the u.s. and blamed biden for skyrocketing inflation. vance was introduced by his wife usha vance, the daughter of indian immigrants. much of the rnc has centered anti-immigrant hate speech and policies. among the other speakers yesterday were donald trump jr, texas governor greg abbott, and former trump adviser peter navarro -- who was released from

a miami federal prison earlier on wednesday before flying to milwaukee to deliver his speech. navarro served four months in prison for contempt of congress after he defied a subpoena from the house select committee investigating the january 6 insurrection. "the wall street journal" is under fire after it dismissed hong kong-based reporter selina cheng after she was elected last month as chair of the hong kong journalists association, hong kong's largest media union. "the wall street journal" claims her firing was due to restructuring. selina cheng spoke to reporters wednesday. >> at that time he demanded i resign from my position. i told him that ai refused but he said the position was incompatible with my position at the wall street journal. he said employees of the wall street journal should be promoting press freedom in places like hong kong.

he said this place is not like some western countries where press freedom has already been established. amy: "the wall street journal" is owned by rupert murdoch, who was at the republican national convention this week. colombia's government announced it's ending a ceasefire deal with the largest faction of dissident members of farc, the revolutionary armed forces of colombia. the long-anticipated agreement had been brokered last year by the government of leftist president gustavo petro. this is colombia's defense minister ivan velasquez. >> colombia's military forces received in order to carry out offensive operations with full capacity against these organizations that walked away from the generous offer by the government as it seeks peace. amy: a ceasefire with a smaller faction of the group will be extended for three months as peace negotiations continue. in texas, anger is mounting over continued power outages more than a week after hurricane

beryl barreled through the houston area. harris county officials say at least six heat-related deaths have been reported due to the blackouts. one woman was found dead in her sweltering home tuesday, a day when the heat index reached 110 degrees fahrenheit. some 60,000 people still did not have electricity as of wednesday. the center for energy poverty and climate released a report this week warning low-income households are particularly vulnerable to intensifying heatwaves, as 31 states offer no protections against summer power shutoffs when people cannot afford to pay their utility bills. officials in afghanistan say torrential rains in the east of afghanistan have killed at least 47 people and injured hundreds of others in recent days. the international rescue committee warned the situation is only likely to get worse, and called on international donors to step up, saying, "decades of conflict and economic crisis has meant that the country has faced setback after setback as it tries to find its feet."

wednesday marked the 10th anniversary of the police killing of eric garner, who died after an officer held him in a chokehold, which is a band procedure. the now ex-nypd officer daniel pantaleo remains a free man after a jury and the justice department declined to charge him for killing garner. yesterday, community members joined ?eric garner's mother, daughter, and cousin to march to the site of garner's killing on a staten island street. eric garner's pleas of "i can't breathe," captured on video by a witness, became a global rallying cry. and dr. bernice johnson reagon who started the vocal ensemble sweet honey in the rock and cofounded the freedom singers died tuesday at the age of 81. in the early 1960's, she performed with the student nonviolent did grenada committee, bringing songs and organizing meetings.

she joined democracy now! and 2008 to celebrate the life and work of another civil rights musical icon odetta and recalled her own musical trajectory. >> sweet honey in the rock, which came out of it either workshop, was going to be a cappella, was going to do songs that came out of the struggles and the stages of life of people on a community-based level calling people to take attention to issues that we needed to be addressing as responsible citizens. and that singers, artists really had a big role to play in challenging society and culture, to transform itself and to do better. and so absolutely come the freedom singers and the freedom song in the civil-rights movement is formative for me,

both as a singer and composer and as a scholar. amy: bernice johnson reagon's daughter also an acclaimed musician shared the news on social media wednesday of her mother's death and included a quote from her mother, "i was here before i came. and when i die, i am not leaving." and those are some of the headlines. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, war, peace, and the presidency: breaking with convention. coming up, ohio senator j.d. vance formally accepts the republican vice presidential nomination to run with donald trump. stay with us. ♪ [music break]

amy: "give your hand to struggle" by bernice johnson reagon. founder of sweet honey in the rock. she passed away at the age of 81. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, war, peace, and the presidency: breaking with convention. i'm amy goodman. nermeen: and i'm nermeen shaikh. welcome to all of our listeners and viewers from around the country and around the world. on wednesday night, ohio senator j.d. vance formally accepted the republican vice-presidential nomination two days after he was picked by donald trump. the man vance once described as america's hitler. prior to his embrace of the maga movement, vance was a vocal critic of trump. he once described trump as "reprehensible," an "idiot," and "noxious." j.d. vance first gained fame as

the author of the best-selling memoir "hillbilly elegy: a memoir of a family and culture in crisis" about growing up in appalachia. the book was also made into a movie. vance is a graduate of yale law school who served in the marines and became a venture capitalist. he won a close republican senate primary in 2022 in part thanks to billionaire tech investor peter thiel, who spent a record-breaking $10 million to support vance's campaign. on wednesday night, vance was introduced by his wife lucia vance, a lawyer who once clerked for john roberts and future supreme court justice brett kavanaugh when he was a federal judge. this is part of j.d. vance's speech at the republican national convention on wednesday night. >> never, go my wildest imagination could i have believed i would be standing here tonight. i grew up in middletown ohio.

a small town where people spoke their minds, built with their hands, and left their god, family, community, and our country with their whole hearts. but it was also a place that had been cast aside and forgotten by america's ruling class in washington. when i was in the fourth grade, a career politician by the name of joe biden supported nafta, a bad trade deal that sent countless good jobs to mexico. when i was a sophomore in high school, that same career politician named joe biden china a sweetheart trade deal that destroyed even more good american middle-class manufacturing jobs. when i was a senior in high school, that same joe biden supported the disastrous invasion of iraq. at each step of the way in small towns like mine in ohio or next-door in pennsylvania or

michigan, all states across our country, jobs were sent overseas and our children were sent to war. amy: republican vice presidential nominee j.d. vance, a senator from ohio, addressing the republican national convention. he has been nominated as the official vice presidential candidate on the republican ticket along with president donald trump. we are joined now by two guests. here in milwaukee, as we cover the rnc, is chris lehman, the d.c. bureau chief for the nation. his new piece is just out today headlined "j.d. vance's phony

populism thrilled the rnc. the rest of us shouldn't be fooled." he also wrote recent profile "american hell-egy." joining us now in atlanta is independent journalist zaid jilani who is a very different view. he has written for the intercept, thinkprogress, newsnation, and more. his new piece for compact magazine is headlined "why the left gets j.d. vance wrong." we welcome you both to democracy now! chris, we're going to begin with you here in milwaukee. can you respond to vance's address last night and who vance is? >> well, how much time do you have? yes, you know, vance was a known sort of media quantity because of the wild success of his memoir which was trotted out in

2016, largely by liberals trying to understand the trump phenomenon after the election. and vance leveraged his life story into this sort of political parable where the noble heartland working-class was betrayed -- pretrade by faith -- betrayed by faithless leaders in washington, narrative i many ways that is valid and true. but what vance continue to do, and we saw in the speech last night, he has the washington ruling class, which i am from washington and a certain do not think highly of the leaders but they are not in fact the ruling class. the ruling class are the owners of capital. they are people like peter thiel , vance's big tech sponsor, and vance himself who has worked as a venture capitalist. so there is a very adroit sort

of pea going under the shell moment when he talks about the ruling class in washington. he also declared from the podium the gop is going to be the party of the workers my both union and nonunion -- which is a very important disclaimer because republican party is not prounion. there trend of posture as the party of the forgotten men and women who are suffering under biden's economic policies, but in point of fact, they are the party of the owners, party of the bosses. there's this cultural populism that vance very effectively embodies that pushes all of those issues to the side and makes the question, are you sort of aligned with the working-class? and that spares you the need of having to do much in terms of concrete policy to actually improve their lives.

nermeen: if you could talk about this cultural populism that chris just mentioned? what does it consist in and why does it have the kind of appeal it does? >> i think much of what chris said was true in terms of describing the broader republican party. at least since ronald reagan and probably a little before, the republican party has been the party largely siding with the owners, bosses, capital. i think a lot of what has happened recently is a little bit of a door has creek open toward something else. i will give you one example. when donald trump ran in 2016 he's been a lot of time criticizing american trade policy. much of the left responded saying, this guy outsources everything, doesn't care about unions, what is he going to do?

when trump came into office, he appointed and renegotiated nafta and made it more pro-worker. he pulled u.s. out of transpacific partnership. the other 95% of the stuff he did i think would have been exactly the same as what jeb bush would've done or any reaganite republican. i don't want to exaggerate the nature of trump opening the door to populism in the republican party. much of it is cultural as well as chris said. the republicans won working-class voters by about 4%. if you believe the latest polls, they are going to win the working-class by about 23 points in 2024. i think part of that is the backlash to inflation. it is not entirely biden's fault but it did occur under him. it is in alignment with cultural values, the working-class people were skeptical toward immigration. i think more skeptical toward some of the cultural turns in

the country on issues i transgender rights. i think the main cultural issue with democrats has the advantage is abortion. it was notable last night j.d. vance, despite being very pro-life, suggesting prior he wanted to be on abortion national, never brought the issue up which is part of the compromise i think vance will have to make now that he is joining the republican party led by donald trump. he will be a vice presidential candidate j.d. vance, no longer senator. i think that where i disagree with chris is that i think we have a bias where we tend to see our side as different, we have many different types of people on our side. at the other side is all the same. it takes place in politics and social issues and culture and race. the difference with vance is i think vance's view has evolved

for opportunistic reasons or sincerity or a mx. about to where he does see the republican party is misguided in many directions. last night was probably the first vice presidential speech in 40 years in the republican party where he never talked about shrinking the size of government, cutting taxes, or reducing government spending. that is remarkable. vice president mike pence would never have given a speech like what j.d. vance said last night. i am sitting here in georgia. j.d. vance is on a bill with my senator to lower the price of insulin, to clawback excess bank ceo compensation, on bills to fight credit card monopolization, bills that deal with issues like railway safety. i think he has carved out a third way between reaganism and progressivism. he's not a progressive democrat. he is never going to sponsor medicare for all her call for

max of tax increases on the rich because i don't think he believes in that redistribution. i think it started to go from a personal responsibility point of view which is hillbilly elegy which honest it was probably the consequence of his trauma of his childhood. tomorrow outlook this is why are these people addicted to drugs? why are these people shifting jobs? because jobs don't exist. i think he has moved more in that direction. the question is, can he move the entire republican party in that direction? i don't think he can right now because the vice president is not that powerful of a position. but the republican party may moderate more on some of these work and family issues and step a little further away from reaganism. nermeen: chris, if you can respond to what zaid said? i want to quote from vance himself writing in 2016 in the

atlantic, kind of describing as mentioned, the circumstances in which he grew up and what he sees as the common thread running through communities who support trump, what he calls trump's faithful. this is 2016, he wrote -- "a common thread among trump's faithful, even among those whose individual circumstances remain unspoiled, is that they hailed from broken communities. he kind of denounced trump's campaign. if you could talk about that, the kind of support base of trump, what its origins are, what finds those people, and then also respond to what zaid's comments were. >> i don't actually disagree that much with what zaid just

said. i wrote earlier this week that vance represents potential future shift and the republican party and trump's selection of him and all sorts of ways, the party has been flailing for a while trying to figure out what the next post trump phase of its evolution is going to be and trump himself, which is kind of contrary to his character, has settled on vance is a partial answer to that question. he does represent -- it was striking, not only opportunistically to not mention abortion in a speech, but these other sort of callouts to what governments should be doing on the part of workers. that is remarkable to hear in the setting of republican convention.

as to what vance wrote in 2016, i don't want to go into confessional j.d. vance mode myself, but i also found endeavor point, iowa -- davenport, iowa, now the riverboat gambling of the upper midwest. i have seen the fallout from the broken communities that vance has described in his own work from my hometown. it is a real thing. the last time i was in davenport, it was during the holidays. i drove by a billboard sign that said "need christmas cash, turn in a drug dealer." those dynamics are real. the democratic party does bear a not inconsequential responsibility via the neoliberal romance with free

trade, the kind of b.s. line that manufacturing workers who are out of a job can just learn to code and adapt to the new information economy. the problem, again, and this is probably where zaid and i differ a little more, i don't see the republican party end at the of the day moving toward what he was describing as redistributive policies. i don't see them really significantly backing the priorities of unionized workers. i am very skeptical. we also saw very immediately like at one point, vance had a line in his speech that, you know, we in america welcome newcomers but on our terms. the question is, what are those terms? the answer was furnished by lots of proud boy placards in the

hall last night that read "mass deportations now." right now the trump pivot on immigration that happened in 2016 is what is driving most of this, what i call pseudo-populist rhetoric. and not to get too geeky, the historical populists are worth studying because everyone is talking about populism as the sort of errant force on the right. the original populists were redistributionists. they created a new model for the american currency system that would reward productive labor and punish monopoly capitalists. it is all in the historical record. somehow in the discussions of latter-day populism, we never go back to the origins and look at what was really the last significant mass movement to create economic democracy in this country. and the fact we are now using

that term to describe whatever it is that j.d. vance is turning into, and as you noted, he is a shape shifter. he uses his personal life story as a launching pad for all sorts of other narratives about the future of the country and the plight of the forgotten working-class. but at the end of the day, the forgotten working-class is going to stay forgotten, in my view. amy: i wanted to get a response from zaid jilani. yesterday, just looking at some of the tweets, progressive texas commerce member? start challenged his workers -- by backing the union boosting legislation, the pro act in a social media post he wrote --

if you can talk about j.d. vance? when it comes to this kind of legislation? >> that is a great question. it makes a lot of sense that congressman gosar is doing that because i would say that is probably the highest national is passing that bill. it helped we can ride to work, strengthen i think labor organizing actions across united states. i think the reason why you're not going to see republican supporting something like that is because it would basically be going from zero to 100. the nash republican party has been -- the past 40 years, maybe a little bit longer. i think stuff like what sean o'brien is trying to do from the teamsters is build that relationship that maybe he won't go zero to 100 but he might go zero to 10. j.d. vance and josh hawley,

probably the leader -- i was a more populist than vance for a number of reasons -- supported the uaw strike. the strike against the big three. marco rubio supported unionizing amazon warehouses in the south, where i live post of these are not endorsing -- they are steps in the right direction. josh hawley was only republican but with the democrats -- the nlrb ruled that would have succeeded had kyrsten sinema, joe manchin, and i believe angus king that broke ranks and supported the big business position. josh hawley came out against right to work late last year after defending it for i think the first six years -- five of his first six years. think about how long it took for gay rights activists to give us the democratic party to endorse gay marriage. barack obama did not even endorse it in his first term.

he had to deal politics like everyone else. i think what is happening here is labor is starting to try to influence the republican party because they are starting from so far behind and a party so dominated by capital. they had to kind of get this put in the door and see where they can go from there. i don't think republicans are going to become more prolabor than democrats anytime soon. 10, 15 years maybe but not now. i do think working people cannot really win if they only influence one little party in the u.s. think about every other big interest in the u.s. -- wall street, big banks, pharmaceutical industry, aipac. all of them support members in both parties. it took a long time to build that level of influence. it is not a matter of every member is within 100% but they're trying to get their foot in the door and push them. i think that is kind of what is happening with labor and the republican party. if i were the republicans, i

would think on one hand, of cash from -- you have a ton of cash from those trying to keep j.d. vance out. but at the same time, you have all of this money on one side but your voting base is becoming more working-class. you won a working-class vote in 2020. maybe you can get a few more people in the rich suburbs of atlanta or milwaukee or so on and so forth or you can start to lean into these workers and start building out your base that way. the most unread -- underrepresented segment are americans there skeptical of immigration, skeptical of the social and cultural terms on the left but who actually want more policy that supports workers and families. i think that his argument that advances would have to make within the republican party.

he is going have to make that argument to trump. look, sir, if we want to be a working-class party, you have to be a working-class party. it means having to shake up 40 years of inertia of the republican party being the exact opposite direction of these things. nermeen: let's go back to j.d. vance rnc speech last night here in milwaukee. >> months ago i heard some young family member observed their parent's generation, the baby boomers, could afford to buy home when they first enter the workforce. i don't know if this person observed if i will ever be able to observe a home. the absurd cost of housing as a result of so many failures and it reveals so much about what is broken in washington. i can tell you exactly how it happened.

wall street barons crashed the economy and american builders went out of business. as tradesmen scramble for jobs, houses stopped being built. the lack of good jobs led to stagnant wages. and then the democrats flooded this country with millions of illegal aliens. [boos] so citizens had to compete with people who should not even be here for precious housing. joe biden's inflation crisis, my friends, is really an affordability crisis. and many of the people i grew up with can't afford to pay more for groceries, more for gas, more for rent, and that is exactly what joe biden's economy has given us. so prices soared, dreams were shattered, and china and the cartels sent fentanyl across the border adding addiction to the heartache.

nermeen: chris, your comments on what he said? >> again, it is a narrative that in many ways is true and compelling but note the abrupt pivot to the idea that immigrants are driving up the cost of housing. what is driving of the cost of housing is the cost of credit. not to sound like a historical broken record here, but that is determined by the federal reserve. that is determined by the base of the republican party. so this is -- again, when i think back on my own rustbelt childhood, the people i grew up with were not xenophobes.

what is dangerous about this political moment in many ways, the last nine years we've had a republican party saying, you are in distress, or suffering, your jobs have been shipped overseas, blame people who have come to this country by other than legal means. they are the cause. and again, that is a cultural pivot and a way to kind of say, don't look at the man behind the curtain. it is ludicrous to claim undocumented immigrants who are also members of the working-class are somehow driving up the cost of housing. it is an obvious sort of pivot. i think that analysis is largely

right but at some point, to really solve the problems of the working-class, first of all have to let the working-class organize itself as a political force and you have to acknowledge immigrants are significant contributors to the health of the economy. it is the reason america hasn't had the post-covid depression that other western countries have is because of the immigrant workforce is able to pivot and fill the demand once the worst of the covid pandemic was over. my view is we should embrace those workers. we should welcome the contributions. we should allow them to unionize. we should have the muscle participants -- full participants.

amy: as we begin to wrap up, zaid jilani, if you could talk about the historical precedents of both economic populism and extreme nationalism as this coining of the term "the new right" with the rise of j.d. vance being thrown around right now. remember, he is a vice presidential nominee. and who is going to determine policy. today, president trump also hoping to be not just 45 but the 47th president, will be speaking and how much power will j.d. vance have in shaping policy? >> both of those are great questions. first to get to the historical parallels, look, i'm sitting here in atlanta, georgia, one of our most historical figures was thomas watson. thomas watson was a populist leader who at the beginning of his life believed strongly in

multiracial coalitions. he even organized bands of georgian men to protect african-americans from lynchings. he was a powerful multiracial populace. toward the end of his life, became a white supremacist post of anti-black, anti-jewish, klan-alligned. populism is foten -- often people versus machine. the question i think for the populist movement on the right is you want to be aligned with the working-class. i think these people genuinely do. i know j.d. vance's chief of staff. i think he sincerely believes in his ledges convictions. he is a jewish american. he believes in the old testament scriptures, what they say their greed, exportation. i think you brought that to josh hawley's office when he worked for him. the question is, do these things

applied to non-americans? i do think a populist rights movement is a very nationalistic and its orientation in way that populists on the democrat side or not. i think that can come at the expense of the human rights of people outside the u.s. whether they be migrants or people in other parts of the world. i think vance has spoken a little about how he is worried israel will repeat the mistakes after 9/11 like biden did. we are largely responsible for the situation in gaza now. i do think that is a real shortcoming of the populist movement on the right, at least from the point of view of someone maybe who is not on the right. maybe people on the right don't see it as a shortcoming. the second question is important. some vice president have a subtle impact on the presidency. you might think about dan quayle or kamala harris like that. i don't think either are

particularly guiding policy and the administration. others like dick cheney basically wrote to foreign policy for george w. bush. it is a little bit of a wildcard. i think a lot of the people around trump be people that donors want to put in there. i think a lot of the business elite of the republican party do not like vance or his staff or who he is as a person and fear he may go in a more populist direction and will probably try to install the people are -- trump reportedly wanted jd diamond -- jamie dimon to be secretary treasury. he is a full on does she wants as many immigrants as possible, way to reduce wages and save money. i think this will be a real question for vance, how does he navigate sort of not getting kicked out of the republican party with his views but also influencing them?

the reality is, if trump was elected and things went well, vance would probably lead to the party by 2028. he would be their front runner for the presidency and he would have total control over the executive branch and over the direction of the political party. for now, he may have to suck it up and compromise when republicans are doing things like installing people were anti-labor across the government , when they're putting judges all over the country that are shutting down laws that are beneficial to workers and families. it is a tough compromise for them make. i think -- i want to close with this, the line he told that you quoted about america's hitler is different. it was into my college classmate who is now georgia state representative. i knew him fully both studied in georgia. he told josh she worried that trump would either be america's hitler or a nixon that could be

sort of useful. i think that vance came to the conclusion that trump is sort of a nixon figure that could be useful. but he picked nixon i think for risa because he knows trump has all kinds of flaws. i think vance is sucking it up and compromising on some of his values and views on trump in particular to do this. whether it pans out for him is a big question and whether it pans out for the rest of the country is an even bigger question. amy: i want to thank you both for being with us. best the beginning of the discussions. zaid jilani, independent journalist. we will link to your piece "why the left gets j.d. vance wrong." and chris lehmann, thank you so much. we will link to your piece, the nation d.c. bureau chief, your piece out this morning "j.d. vance's phony populism thrilled the rnc. the rest of us shouldn't be fooled." coming up, we look at j.d. vance's views on foreign policy with matt duss.

stay with us. ♪ [music break]

amy: "sweet honey in the rock" performed by sweet honey in the rock with bernice johnson reagon, one of the groups founders. she has passed away at the age of 81. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org. war, peace, and the presidency: breaking with convention. i'm amy goodman with nermeen shaikh. nermeen: we are continuing our look at donald trump's running mate j.d. vance. as a senator, vance has advocated for cutting aid to ukraine, increasing support for israel, and taking a harder line on china. during his address on wednesday night, he briefly spoke about foreign policy. >> together, we will make sure

our allies share in the burden of securing world peace. no more free rides for nations that betray the generosity of the american taxpayer. together we will send our kids to war only when we must. as president trump showed with the elimination of isis and so much more, when we punch, we are going to punch hard. together we will put the citizens of america first, whatever the color of their skin. we will in short make america great again. amy: that was republican vice presidential nominee j.d. vance speaking for the first time as the republican vice presidential

nominee wednesday night here in milwaukee at the republican national convention. we are joined in washington, d.c., by matt duss, the executive vice-president at the center for international policy. former foreign policy adviser to senator bernie sanders. matt, welcome back to democracy now! near the beginning of j.d. vance's speech last night, he attacked president biden for his support of the iraq war, right when president george w. bush led the united states into the war with iraq march 19, 2003. he did not talk about president bush. he did not say the president was republican at the time. he did accurately say like hillary clinton, joe biden has supported that. but can you explain that?

he himself had joined the marines after the 9/11 attack and went to iraq to serve in the public affairs division in 2005? >> i think that is generally consistent with the story he is telling about his own political conversion but the story he wants to tell america about trumpism is that he was misled. he was told by washington elites this was a just war, a necessary war, and was lied to. so he did his duty and want to serve in the marines in iraq but then came to realize that war was based on a lie. of course, that is a valid argument. it was based on a series of lies and untruths and had enormously disastrous effects for the region but also for the united states. and that is, again, and harry were president biden is -- an

area where president biden was a strong supporter and never has fully accounted for his support of the war. nermeen: if you could talk about some of the other positions that vance has articulated in the past, not just on iraq -- which she spoke about last night -- but also ukraine, israel, iran, and china, which he sees as the greatest threat to the united states. >> if you look at what he is saying and what he said in the past, it is very aligned with trump. i think trump does get credit for attacking the kind of foreign policy establishment, the hawkish bush administration in the mistakes they made, but also the foreign policy establishment more broadly -- democrats and republicans have made. but if you look at the actual record of trump's presidency, it was quite militarist. it was not isolationist. it was not dovish inin any

respect. it is not that the united states will be pulling back from the world necessarily, we will be much more aggressive in advancing our own kind of perceived interest. if you look at some of the steps trump took with north korea, we came closer than ever before to a war with north korea in 2017. we were on the brink of war with iran in january 2020. there was the attempt at regime change in venezuela. i think it is important to understand all of these in the background, even while we recognize the validity of the critique of the foreign policy establishment we have seen from trump and now from vance. amy: let's go to senator jd earlier this year because he did not talk that much about foreign policy in this address at the rnc, but speaking earlier this year about u.s. relations with

israel and what he would like to see in the future. >> a big part of the reason why americans care about israel is because we are still the largest christian majority country in the world, which means a majority of citizens in this country think their savior -- i can't myself a christian -- was born, died, and resurrected in that narrow little strip of territory that is that it's rainy and. the idea there is going to be an american foreign policy that doesn't care a lot about that slice of the world is preposterous because of who americans are. we have an opportunity to ensure israel is a ally in the true sense but sometimes those interests won't totally overlap with the united states and that is reasonable but they're fundamentally self-sufficient. three we get there and israel is by combining the abraham accords approach with the defeat of hamas that gets us to a place where israel and the sunni

nations can play regional counterweight to iran -- we don't want a broader regional war. we don't want to get involved in a broader regional war. the best way to do that is to ensure israel with the sunni nations can lease their own region of the world. nermeen: if you can respond to what vance said earlier this year? you just co-authored a piece with daniel levy. here we have vance talking about bolstering u.s. relations with israel. speaking in the midst of the war , that israel's assault on gaza have been happening for several months when he spoke. >> i think there are two parts of what you just played, those remarks from vance. what he said at the beginning about the kind of political support, particularly christian americans -- i grew up in the

evangelical church so i can relate to what he's talking about. there's a deep understanding and seven the, culturally, religiously, and politically for the state of israel for a whole bunch of reasons. i think that is valid and important understand that. but i think there's a separate conversation about what is the correct policy if people care about israel, what leads to security not just for israelis but to palestinians, for palestinians, and for people across the region. i think that is where we're going to have real disagreement. you heard vance praising the abraham accords. unfortunately, the abraham accords are not a formula for genuine security. it is important understand what the countries in the region, israel, united arab emirates, some of these other countries see the purpose of the abraham accords as an that is sustaining their own undemocratic rule. i think that ultimately is not going to be a formula either for security for israel and the long term, certainly not for the

palestinians. i think the fact -- i don't want to blame the abraham accords for october 7 attacks but i will note the logic behind the abraham accords, which the palestinians could just be pushed to the side and managed in perpetuity that is the logic in which the environment in which the october 7 attacks happened. you have to understand that. unfortunately, this is not an area where the biden administration is able to offer a counter argument because president biden himself has adopted the abraham accords and now kind of pretense they can be a basis for regional peace. amy: we would be remiss in the last 30 seconds of we did not ask about biden having covid. so close to bernie sanders, your former boss. we just have 20 seconds. do you see biden stepping aside and the significance of this moment? >> i am -- it is hard to predict but i will say the concerns from a lot of democratic leaderships

have not gone away. that is where we are now. i think the covid diagnosis only adds to that. amy: matt duss, thank you so much for being with us, executive vice-president at the center for international policy. former foreign policy adviser to senator bernie sanders. stay tuned for ano amy: from then

national convention in milwaukee this is democracy now! >> so tonight i stand here humbled and i am overwhelmed with gratitude to say i officially accept your nomination to be vice president of the united states of america. amy: