07/19/24 07/19/24 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] amy: from the republican national convention in milwaukee, this is democracy now! pres. trump: i am running to be president for all of america, not half of america. because there is no victory in winning for half of america. so tonight, with faith and

devotion, i proudly accept your nomination for president of the united states. thank you. amy: donald trump accepts the republican nomination just five days after surviving an assassination attempt. while giving the longest acceptance speech in convention history, trump accused democrats of cheating in the 2020 election. he repeatedly claimed there is migrant invasion of the united states and praised hungary's authoritarian leader viktor orban. we will get response. then protesters marched in milwaukee to call for justice for samuel sharpe who was killed by ohio please officers here for the rnc. and d'vontaye mitchell who was killed by security guards last month outside the hyatt regency hotel. >> my name is naisha mitchell.

d'vontaye a was my big brother -- was my brother. we need answers and we need justice now. 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. donald trump took the stage to close out the republican national convention here in milwaukee last night. in the longest ever speech recorded at a party convention, trump formally accepted the republican nomination. as in previous campaign addresses, trump promised to "launch the largest deportation operation in the history of our country" and "drill, baby, drill."

we will have more from the rnc after headlines. meanwhile on the democratic side, several outlets are reporting democratic insiders believe "we're close to the end" of vines presidential run and that he could step down as soon as this weekend. montana senator jon tester, who is in a close reelection bid, became second democratic senator to call on president biden to drop out of the race. this comes as "the washington post" reports former president obama has privately told allies that biden should reconsider staying in the race. biden is now in isolation suffering from covid. in gaza, israel has bombed another u.n. school in gaza city. it's at least the ninth u.n. school shelter israel has attacked in the past two weeks. deadly attacks have also been reported in the bureij and nuseirat refugee camps, killing at least 13 people.

in khan younis, health officials exhumed and transferred the bodies of at least 12 gazans who were killed when israel attacked and besieged the red-crescent run al-amal hospital earlier this year. the mother of one of the victims traveled from gaza city to retrieve her son's body. >> he was martyred at the red crescent hospital. they shot him and he had a loaf of bread with him that he had to beg for to get for his daughter. they shot him in the head. he was mashed with blood. he was just thrown there all day long. they were not able to move him. they pulled him when they brought him to be burned here. i was able to know his whereabouts. they called me to inform me my son had died. a risk my life to come here but i said to myself if i will die, i will die. i put a piece of paper on my chest with my name on it and i kept walking by the sea. i asked around until i reached

here with his sick father. amy: a new report by oxfam on israel's weaponizing of water pence water supplies plummeting by 94% over the past 10 months due to israel's blockades and non-stop bombardment. even before october 7, gazans' access to water was severely restricted. the destruction of gaza's water treatment plants has led to people resorting to using sewage-contaminated water, which contains pathogens that lead to diarrhea which is especially deadly for children, and diseases like cholera, dysentery, hepatitis a, and typhoid. meanwhile, palestinian health authorities say the poliovirus has been found in sewage samples from gaza. yemen's houthi movement has claimed responsibility for a drone attack on a residential building in tel aviv, which killed one person. a houthi spokesperson warned it will continue attacking targets inside israel. until today, israel had

intercepted the majority of houthi strikes. meanwhile, hezbollah has claimed three separate attacks in northern israel amid mounting tensions on the israel-lebanon border. in bangladesh come up to 28 people have been killed as student-led protests continue across the country amid widespread anger over government quotas on public sector jobs. hundreds have been injured as riot police clashed with protesters thursday, deploying tear gas and rubber bullets in the capital dhaka and other cities. telecommunications were disrupted friday with television news channels going off the air. this is a protester in dhaka. >> how can i government run these attacks? we have been saying since the beginning we are students. this is a matter of common sense that over 50% of the jobs cannot be given away to quota holders. a normal state cannot be run like this.

amy: top u.s. airlines, including delta and american airlines and united and spirits, were unknown number of carriers -- were among a number of carriers forced to ground hundreds of flights across the country friday morning due to a massive communication outage. the outage, parts of which have been resolved, appears to stem partly from microsoft software update issued by the cybersecurity firm crowdstrike. the i.t. crisis also hit mass transit, banking, and health services. a british court sentenced five climate activists to record four- and five-year prison terms for participating in a zoom call to plan a peaceful protest on a major london highway in 2022. the activists, who are with the direct action group just stop oil, were convicted of conspiracy to cause a public nuisance in a case which has triggered widespread outrage. michel forst, the u.n. special rapporteur on environmental defenders, warned, "this

sentence should shock the conscience of any member of the public." meanwhile, greenpeace u.k. said, "we're giving a free hand to the polluting elite robbing us of a habitable planet while jailing those who're trying to stop them." outside of the london courthouse, protesters gathered to support the activists -- who have become known as the whole truth five -- as a van carted them off to prison. this is just stop oil spokesperson graham buss. >> we clearly do not live in -- a functioning democracy would be one in which we could act, we could make a change, we would be allowed to protest. the nonfunctioning democracy we have is one in which oil companies and very wealthy people determine what our laws are, which we get the chance to vote once every five years and it makes no bloody difference at

all where we see governments -- a new government coming in with virtually the same policies as the one that went out. how can you talk about a functioning democracy when we are in a climate collapse and our government is not recognizing it and not protecting us? it is absolutely disgraceful. it has to stop. amy: back in the united states federal appeals court has , a blocked the biden administration's student debt relief program that lowered payments for millions of people. the ruling stems from a suit filed by republican states, affects the say plan. this came on the same day the biden administration canceled another $1.2 billion in student debt for about 35,000 people working in public service jobs. a texas-based nonprofit that contracts with federal immigration authorities subjected unaccompanied migrant

children to pervasive sexual abuse for nearly a decade. that's according to a lawsuit filed by the u.s. justice department wednesday detailing how workers at southwest key programs repeatedly sexually assaulted children under the organization's care between 2015 to 2023. workers also forced children to perform sexual acts pose for nude photos while threatening the children so they would fear reporting any of the abuse. southwest key is the largest private provider of housing for unaccompanied migrant children and receives grants from the health and human services . it contracts with the office of refugee resettlement. lou dobbs died thursday at the age of dobbs spent two decades 78. at cnn before becoming one of fox news' star presenters. among other things, he repeatedly spewed false anti-immigrant and racist talking points. he helped spread the "birther" theory against president obama. a diehard trump supporter, dobbs

was let go from fox after the 2020 election in the wake of trump's election fraud scandal after helping buoy trump's lies. back in 2007, lou dobbs appeared on democracy now! this clip starts with democracy now! host juan gonzalez grilling dobbs over his lies demonizing immigrants. >> all we needed to do was raise the economic level in mexico and the entire immigration problems would decline in this country. >> are you telling me what we agreed upon? >> we don't agree because your demonizing the illegal immigration as a separate issue. >> how can use my name and anti-immigrant in the same breath? amy: when we hear comments like one third -- from you. we have played them. one third of prisoners --

one third of prisoners are immigrate or not true. >> that is as straightforward as we can -- amy: you made an announcement and you'll say here it is not true. amy: to see our full hour with lou dobbs, go to democracynow.org. a russian court has just convicted wall street journal reporter evan gershkovich of espionage. gershkovich, u.s. citizen, was tried behind closed doors. he was arrested nearly 16 months ago and accused of spying on a military factory for the cia, charges "the wall street journal" slammed as baseless. earlier this week, russia's that it is holding talks with the u.s. on a possible swap involving evan gershkovich. and those are some of the

headlines. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, war, peace, and the presidency: breaking with convention. coming up, donald trump accepts the republican nomination just five days after surviving an assassination attempt. stay with us. ♪ [music break]

amy: "pimps" by the coup. this is democracy now! democracynow.org. war, peace, and the presidency: breaking with convention. i am amy goodman. nermeen: and i'm nermeen shaikh. welcome to our listeners and viewers across the country and around the world. donald trump accepted the

republican nomination on thursday night, just five days after surviving an assassination attempt. clocking in at over 90 minutes. he began by recounting what happened in butler, pennsylvania, on saturday when a bullet grazed his right ear as he was giving a speech. f pres. trump:s i stand before you in this arena only by the grace of almighty god. in watching reports of the last few days, many people say it was a providential moment. probably was. when i rose, surrounded by secret service, the crowd was confused because they thought i was dead and there was great, great sorrow. i could see that on their faces as i looked out. they did not know i was looking

out. they thought it was over. but i could see it and i wanted to do something to let them know i was ok. i raised my right arm, looked at the thousands and thousands of people that were breathlessly waiting and started shouting fight, fight, fight. nermeen: trump demonized migrants, seeking refuge in the united states. trump vowed to carry out the largest deportation campaign in u.s. history. pres. trump: the greatest invasion in history is taking place right here and our country. they are coming in from every corner of the earth, not just from south america but from africa, asia i'm of them at least. they're coming from everywhere. there coming at levels we have never seen before. it is in invasion, indeed, that this administration does absolutely nothing to stop them. there coming from prisons,

jails, from mental institutions and insane asylums. the press is always on me because i always say this, has anyone seen silence of the lambs? the late great hannibal lector. he would love to have you for dinner. [laughter] that is insane asylums. and terrorists are coming in at numbers we have never seen before. bad things are going to happen. that is why to keep our families safe, the republican platform promises to launch the largest deportation operation in the history of our country. amy: donald trump was introduced by dana white, chief executive of usc, ultimate fighting championship. the evening also featured kid rock and the wrestling legend hulk hogan. >> but what happened last week

when they took a shot at my hero -- and they tried to kill the next president of the united states. enough was enough! let trump-a-mania make america great again! amy: hulk hogan's appearance at the rnc may have surprised many, but he actually has something in common with trump's running mate j.d. vance -- both have ties to the right-wing billionaire tech investor peter thiel. thiel reportedly spent as much as $10 million to help hulk hogan sue the website gawker.com. the successful suit brought down the website.

thiel also spent $10 million to help j.d. vance get elected to the senate in 2022. to talk more about donald trump and the state of the republican party, we are joined by two guests. benjamin wallace-wells is a staff writer at the new yorker. his most recent piece is headlined "the rise of the new right at the republican national convention." he is joining us here in milwaukee just after the conclusion after the republican national convention. and maria hinojosa is a pulitzer prize-winning journalist and founder of futuro media. she is the host of latino usa. she is joining us from new york. we welcome you both to democracy now! we're going to begin with maria. what is stunning, and not just last night, thursday night when president trump, the former president hoping he will be not only 45 but 47 -- which was on everyone's baseball caps -- it was not only his longest speech

in convention history, but in almost all of the references of speakers throughout the week, if there was a theme, it was attacking immigrants every which way. as murderers, as drug dealers, the assault, the invasion from the border. can you talk -- you were just in milwaukee -- about the significance of what has just taken place here? >> my god, amy. if i let it actually get into my heart, i would want to start crying -- which i'm not going to do because i am a seasoned journalist. but when you lay it out that way, that is the reason why i wasn't tuning in every night. because it is all -- i'm sorry to say -- but it is lies. that is ultimately what we're talking about here. what we do know is the

republican platform under donald trump is very clear. it is over and over and over about attacking immigrants, refugees, migrants, and travelers. what we don't have on the others in terms of the democratic party is a response to that. there isn't a response to build a wall, which is precisely what we need. in the case of the republican national convention, having been in milwaukee -- which, by the way, is a hugely immigrant city. i don't know you probably haven't had the opportunity, milwaukee has an extraordinary street food culture, particularly, tacos. they love their tacos in milwaukee. this notion you have a republican convention in a city that has a huge immigration population, undocumented and documented, but somehow everybody is safe in milwaukee. it does not jive with the narrative, the constant

narrative of what donald trump says about who we are. what we know -- it is not me. i travel across the country. i talked immigrants and refugees every single day of my life. but we know what the justice department has said, what the fbi has said. that crime over the past three decades has decreased by 49% in the united states. meanwhile, what the congressional budget office has said is that immigration and immigrants are going to grow the american economy by $7 trillion over the next decade. you cannot have it both ways. the role of the journalist is to not repeat the lies of an authoritarian. that is why what has happened at this republican national convention is so problematic for me as a journalist. because we cannot be the ones who are repeating these claims and not doing the work of

constantly doing the fact checking. it is impossible to do. specifically on the question of immigration, lying over and over again. i am sorry i got emotional. i hate when that happens. but when you go one by one by one, i think, what country do our live in? if everything he said is true, then our american economy would be tanking. actually, there would be rampant crime across the streets. that is not the truth. and even trump supporters can say that because they just open their eyes, they know that is not true. nermeen: maria, could you explain what you think the fx -- the effect and the influence of j.d. vance, the selection that trump made as his running mate, his vice president? >> well, i think it is a really smart choice.

i am trying to understand j.d. vance motivation behind his decision to push -- to become trump's vice president considering he was a never trumper for a chunk of his earlier political career. i think he is an attractive person. when people talk about once trump dies, what is going to happen with the maga movement? you can see it following under someone like j.d. vance. it is a good choice if you believe in that entire rhetoric. the problem of j.d. vance is he has been on the record so many times -- and the record is not forget when you say things about donald trump and how much you can't stand him and how much she is a problem for the country and how you don't trust him and how on the question of immigration he is wrong -- and now you have j.d. vance fawning over donald trump. so there is definitely some

interest on his part. of course, i would like to speak with his wife who is an immigrant, to understand how she is putting this all together. nermeen: benjamin, could you talk about -- amy: his wife's parents are immigrants. nermeen: if you could talk about your reflections on the convention last night? you also covered the 2016 convention and you were there last night when -- you are on the floor when trump gave his over 90 minute speech. your response? >> well, it is very interesting. the first three or four days were pitched as a display of unity. to a degree, more valuable. in 2016, there been tremendous protests, counter protests, over the outside of the hall from activists who opposed trump

would also inside from delegates and other candidates will stop ted cruz famously gave a speech which he declined to endorse trump. it was a very contested and tens event. this was supposed to be this move made-for-tv, everybody's on the same team republican party. and for a while, for the first two days, it looked that way. there wasn't so much difference between the maga wing of the party and the traditional republicans, more government conservative wing. people seemed to accept j.d. vance who have previously been seen as -- i think last night through that into question. trump was straightforwardly weird. he began with this kind of odd but interesting account of his

shooting. just a horrifying event. in some ways, historic to get a first-person account of it. he went on for another hour. he had no clear message to deliver. he was supposed to be talking to swing voters. he did not offer them very much. there is a way in which the whole party seemed to set up his convention as a way to declare "we are done with 2016, done with that internal and external conflict, we're about to win a big victory. amy: you have hulk hogan, kid rock grabbing his crotch. you have ucf, dana white introducing trump and he talked about how important that was. what is it so obvious, as we said, this whole issue of peter

thiel' is connection, the billionaires connection to hulk hogan that he is the right-wing billionaire, reportedly spent as much as $10 million to help hulk hogan sue gawker.com. that was the same amount of money thiel spent to help get been selected to the senate in 2022. talk about who peter thiel is and why this matters. >> it is a really important question and i think the money in silicon valley and this dissident right money in silicon valley is moving through a lot right now, including this convention. thiel is a billionaire. he was one of the founders of paypal, one of the most influential investors in other technology companies in silicon valley.

he is quite right wing. he came from a sort of libertarian politics. in 2016, he spoke at the republican national convention and his support of trump at the time was crucial to grounding him as the sort of not just a tv star or an extremist, but somebody who had support within the business community. vance's career i think would not be possible without peter thiel. the $10 million in the 2022 senate election -- amy: in ohio. >> pushed him to make a sort of legitimate candidate at a time when the republican establishment in ohio, there wasn't one particular candidate who was behind, did not know him very well, and wasn't backing him. i think it is important to dwell not just on thiel here, but on

the question of silicon valley money. elon musk this would pledged $45 million a month to support a trump super pac from here until the election. amy: almost $200 million stop >> 1/5 of what the truck campaign cost in 2016. up until fairly recently, one of the big dramas around trump's campaign was whether he could raise any money. donors had backed away from him and part because of his many trials and the questions about whether he would continue through the election. this is a situation where you have a relatively few people that have been able to bail out both the men at the top of the republican ticket. amy: i'm peter thiel, people talk about some of his crazy ideas. what are those ideas? >> this is a little bit outside of my immediate memory, so i

don't know how much i can give you here but he has talked in very sort of sweeping terms, you know, about his pessimism that america's ideas of democracy continue to exist. efforts to build alternate colonies. amy: i want to go back to maria hinojosa. she was recently here in milwaukee. i want to talk about j.d. vance. you talked about him being in ever trumper and becoming, i don't know if it is a forever trumper or a trumper for now, now the vice presidential nominee, you have his comments back in 2016 where j.d. vance said, "trump makes people i care about afraid.

immigrants, muslims, etc.. because of this, i find him reprehensible. god wants better of us." maria? >> right. and that is on the record, so you can't walk away from that, j.d. vance. again -- amy: by the way, i should say, when we ask all about the fact he called trump america's hitler etc., i'm asking senators about this, delegates about this. what did ron johnson say, when i said, what you say that he said america's hitler? there's a talking point on this. then he met him. that is what they say. he changed. >> right. but actually what i was going to say is the opposite of that, that it wasn't that moment when

he met him but rather that j.d. vance began to believe all of the misinformation and disinformation that has been repeated over and over again by this candidate and the party and that he somehow -- amy, the biggest problem that i have with this moment in our country is the disconnect between what we are being told by trump and republican party and maga versus what is real life. yes, there is no denying that inflation is a real issue. no doubt. but when he talks about the question of immigration and crime and the economy and the stealing of jobs, you know, it is just not jiving with what we're saying. i am in bethlehem, connecticut, a red part of the state. what i see in my little community are people who have never been to the border, near

very -- never very much interact with anyone who speaks spanish, let's say, but we are here, immigrants, in this community, in bethlehem. we are working. you can see us through the diner that doesn't have a wall where you can see who is cooking and cleaning. so they are here. you see them. they are making or food. they are cleaning your lawns. they are in the hospitals as clinicians, doctors, etc. this does not jive with the rhetoric of our country is being overwhelmed by criminal immigrant element. that is where j.d. vance, who once was considered something of an ally to immigrants because of the way he spoke, because of the kind of midwest kind of certainty about the presence of immigrants and refugees, now goes incomplete opposition to

what he was saying before. the problem, amy, you and i are new yorkers. we have been in new york for decades. and so the notion of donald trump is actually -- again, i hate to say this, but we all know he is a con man. you understand this as a new yorker. he is the guy doing the three card monte. what we have to understand is that the rest of the country actually falls for the three card monte, as many of them do when they come to new york. they're like, wait, what happen? i just lost 20 bucks. you have to have your wits about you. for me, it is a smart choice, actually, for j.d. vance. i think you are exactly right, he is a fern out -- for now trumper. he's a good continuation for what donald trump has started. where he will go, who knows?

maybe that is his play. i have a hard time believing that. nonetheless, i think was a smart choice. nermeen: maria, let's go to some of the claims that trump made last night. you have, unlike most, direct knowledge of what the situation is at the border having been several times in the last four months. if you could explain what you saw as against the things trump said and then also explain how trump's policies, what he is proposing outcome are different or similar to what he pursued in his first term. >> i just got back. i was only there once and the last four months and we were on the border just south of tucson. the important thing for people to know, and i know there like, wait, what? where we were, it

was 21 miles of wall with 19 openings. you're like, wait, what did she just say? so this wall that trump built -- as you know, it it was bill clinton who started the wall, just to be clear. this was not a trump wall that he built. he made reparations. he increased the height from 15 feet to 30 feet, which is actually very important because when you go up to 30 feet, if you're trying to climb the wall, that is at the point where you develop vertigo. the number of traumatic brain injuries from people trying to climb now a 30 foot wall has increased by pretty extraordinary percentages. but you have these openings through the wall. it doesn't make sense. that is why i'm trying to explain to people. wait, there is a wall 21 miles but you have 19 openings? therefore, if you are a migrant or refugee, or getting a mixed message. and as the border patrol told me

when we were there, this is but a speedbump. it does not keep people out. so when i was there -- on the day i was there in the height of the invasion, i saw three people, two people -- two people who actually crossed across the wall and they were kneeling down and praying once they had gotten onto the u.s. side of the wall. they were not running from the border patrol. they were not escaping. they were not carrying drugs or weapons or anything. they were praying. and they were transported by good samaritans to a now makeshift refugee camp that exists on the u.s. side of the border where migrants and refugees will wait for the border patrol to come and pick them up. so the reality of the border has changed, yes. because people understand you can no longer run from the border patrol.

the border patrol is going to try to disburse you. usually come you get injured when that happens. so now you cross and just sit down. it is kind of like this peaceful protest of just i'm going to sit and wait. so this goes completely differently to what we are being told is happening on the border. why are there large numbers of people when they do come? because of title 42 and precisely the remaining and mexico policy, which forced people to stay. so this country's policies created that stopgap. there always people coming and going. again, if it was true what donald trump says that immigrants are destroying the american economy, then we would not have factual information is as the american economy is growing. so we have to put that into perspective. now, what donald trump is saying about the greatest mass deportation ever seen in american history?

what does that look like? we have already lived through this. we lived through this actually during the middle of the george w. bush administration, which was theuptick post on 11 of the immigration detention and deportation mass industrial complex. it starts around 2003, 2004. we see it increase with barack obama. his biggest mistake that he should've college eyes for -- should apologize for post of i'm sorry, barack obama, but you need to accept responsibility for that reality. it increases under donald trump to a point where it is about taking children away from parents. that is where we have gone. it is not just building the wall. it is that we are taking children away from parents. i think it is going to be an attempt to do this on steroids. let me just finish by saying more money is spent on immigration detention and deportation in terms of law

enforcement than all federal law enforcement agencies combined. and the border patrol is the largest law enforcement agency in the country. so we are facing a reality where people are like, oh, it is just going to affect immigrants. no. i say if you are an american citizen of any sort, you're going to need to figure out how you're going to show your papers to a border patrol agent because it can happen. that is kind of where we're going. it will touch you. nermeen: i want to bring into this conversation in cleveland, ohio, the home state of trump's vice presidential running mate j.d. vance, nina turner, former ohio state senator. she is a senior fellow at the institute on race, power, and political economy at the new school.

nina turner, welcome back to democracy now! if you could begin by responding to trump's speech at that republican national convention last night? >> it was trump being trump come his bluster. there was not a whole lot of vision. it was him complaining as he does and taking credit for every wonderful thing that is happen in america and blaming every terrible thing on the democrats. no surprise he walked his crowd through an it by minute almost of the assassination attempt to get his crowd riled up. so it was trump in rare form doing what he does, which is to be able to be a faux populist line through his teeth in terms of his exaggerations -- quite frankly, any of the working-class people in that crowd should be afraid. they should be very afraid. amy: i wanted to play for you a

part of j.d. vance's speech wednesday night at the rnc. >> my work taught me there is still so much talent and grit in the amick and heartland. but for these places to thrive, my friends, we need a leader who fights for the people who built this country. [applause] we need a leader who is not in the pocket of big business but answers to the working man, union and nonunion alike. [applause] a leader who won't sell out to multinational corporations but will stand up for american companies and american industry. [applause]

a leader who rejects joe biden and kamala harris' green new scam and pfister bring back our brave -- great american factories. we need president donald trump. amy: so that was j.d. vance on wednesday night. nina turner, if you can talk about everything from what they're calling now -- and it is a buzzword here -- green new scam instead of green new deal. he was talking about the teamsters president sean o'brien addressing the republican convention. last night president trump was not naming many names but he definitely named sean fain's name, the head of the uaw, attacking him viciously. if you can explain the significance of what both j.d. vance and trump are getting at? >> president trump is picking

the wrong fight with president sean fain. as we know, the summer solidarity was a spectacular success. president fain and other unions are calling for a national strike to happen in 2028. i hope that is the case where workers from all backgrounds, all walks of life unite in solidarity to push back against the billionaire class and the corporate interest in this country that don't want to see working-class people live a good life. now j.d. vance, amy, in some of that speech i was shaking my head. we do need a president that will put the working-class people ahead of corporations. we do need a president that will line up the supposed value of this countries with policy. the problem is, president donald trump is not it and neither is j.d. vance. i am -- i am old enough to remember when he came come heaving j.d. vance come up with a picket lines of one of the uaw sites here in ohio and

was greeted by congresswoman marcy kaptur as she said, is this your first time here? he nervously shook his head, yeah, it was his first time here. she exposed him and very few words that he came to that picket line for show. he did not come to the picket line to stand in solidarity with working-class people, particularly those of the uaw. there was a president trump is slamming the uaw. i want him to know, yes to notice -- know that sean fain is a street fighter. i cannot wait to see how this unfolds. the uaw is on social media making it clear that president donald trump is a scab, that he will not stand up for working-class people. amy: benjamin wallace-wells, we have to talk about what is happening outside the republican national convention. that is on the democratic side. this latest news of president

biden now has covid, he is in isolation. enormous pressure from this interest democrats -- centrist democrats and many others, although the progressive squad and bernie sanders have still embraced him saying he has to pull out of the race. >> not only that, but he has been struggling to raise any money at all right now. i think we look at what happened in the republican convention, and some of your viewers may be thinking how is this going unchecked? the reason it is going unchecked is that biden has been in such decline. he has been unable to prosecute the case against the republicans come against what is happening in the convention for a while. some of that is because he is caught up in this drama over his own campaign and whether it will survive. but some of it is also because he lacks the energy and political coherence he had even

a few months ago. so all of this -- all of these dynamics were talking about around the convention, around his anti-immigrant aggression, around the populism, the natural counterpoint to that should be an aggressive democratic pushback. right now we are not getting it and that is why there is such a strong push from the democratic party, for many in the democratic party to convince biden to step down. nermeen: just to go back to the republicans and what they were saying, your recent piece is "the rise of the new right at the republican national convention." all of the issues we have been discussing, if you could just put them in the context of this wider ideology that is been formed? >> it is a retreat to nationalism. and there are strains in it that are more libertarian, strains that are more protectionist.

in policy towards immigrants, in foreign policy and trade policy, the big same is a theorizing of trumpism and a retreat to nationalism. amy: we want to thank you for being with us benjamin , wallace-wells, staff writer at the new yorker. nina turner, former ohio state senator. and we have been joined by maria hinojosa, the pulitzer prize-winning journalist. protesters marched in milwaukee to call for justice for two black man who have just been killed in the last two weeks, samuel sharpe and devonta smith jewel. back in 20 seconds. --d'vontaye smith. back in 20 seconds. ♪ [music break]

amy: "land of confusion" by genesis. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, war, peace and the presidency: breaking with convention. i'm amy goodman. we are broadcasting from milwaukee just after the republican national convention ended. nermeen: here in milwaukee, protesters marched on thursday through downtown to call for justice for samuel sharpe and d'vontaye mitchell. sam sharpe was a 43-year-old unhoused black veteran who was shot dead here in milwaukee by police officers from ohio who were here in wisconsin as part

of a group of 4500 law enforcement officials here for the rnc. the shooting took place a mile from the rnc's proceedings. sharpe's death came weeks after security guards at the hyatt regency hotel in milwaukee killed d'vontaye mitchell, a 43-year-old black father who died after security guards pinned him to the ground. amy: democracy now! was at the vigil on thursday. this is karl hars, a cousin of d'vontaye mitchell. klux >> justice for who? >> d'vontaye mitchell. >> when we want it? >> now! >> we literally do that chant every time we see each other now. it sucks. it really sucks.

that is how i greet my family now. his mother, his brother, his sister, his other brother, his other cousins. milwaukee isn't so small. it isn't. they try to make a small but we are not. we won the nba championship. we got the arts. i don't even care and more because it doesn't show compassion for my family, other families. i never in a million years thought it would be my family. i never thought every week we would be doing some type of protest, some type of march, some type of shedding some type of light on the situation. they come here and make money off our city, but when we are hurting and we need them, they are not there. they turn their back on us.

at this point, we are on the outside. they're probably watching this from their beautiful binoculars and fine wine glasses and going on about their life. but we have to remember those moments where i have to see my cousin's body on facebook, instagram. and you know what? and we have to pay the same respect to the family that is also here supporting us, sam sharpe, treated as if he did not matter. he mattered to us. we just want you to understand he could have been your family member. he could have been your brother, your cousin. he could have been your loved one. >> my name is naisha mitchell. d'vontaye was my brother. i was his big sister. we're going to keep fighting for justice. we appreciate your support. we ask for the community to keep

on coming out with us, standing with us until we get some answers. no one has been charged. no one has been arrested. they're waiting on autopsy results. but we saw the video. we also the video. why do we need autopsy results to determine if these people need to be arrested or convicted of a crime? we saw them murder him in broad daylight. we need answers and we want it now and we need justice now. >> my name is katrina games. i'm here on behalf of my nephew for his mother's sake. most people who know sam sharpe, they know he has -- his case is unbalanced. he wanted to be on his own. he did not want us but we had to take care of him. he told us all that god told him to go and help in that community. and that is what he did. before the police -- for the police you just shoot him like

that, 27 bullets. come on? you shot him. if he was someone else, if he was of a different race -- and i hate to bring race into this. but you would not have killed him like that. you would not have shot him like that. 27 bullets. all he was doing was trying to protect himself. he went to the police and they did nothing. and now my nephew shot. he is shot and he is dead and it is just horrible. >> my name is angela sharp, sam sharpe's sister. first of all, this bible and that bible that my sister is holding, this is all that is left of sam. besides his dogs. all of you up there and overhear -- and overhear, when your kids grow up and they get into an

altercation of philip after protect themselves because we live in a country where everybody wants to protect themselves, how do you want the situation watching your child in an altercation with someone else? how would you want a situation to be handled? there's no way you're going to tell me you want it to be handled like that. there is no officer, no mayor come no chief of police that is going to tell me that you would want a situation to be escalated like that that did not have a gun. talking about this is a threat to life. how do we know if this is a perpetrator or victim? how do we know? we are sick and tired of this. we want answers. for now, all i'm going to say is we appreciate every single person that has come out day after day, that supported our family.

we love sam. we will always advocate for him. you're not going to make him out to be a knife wielding criminal because that is not who he was. the streets know him. the police don't. you don't get to tell this narrative. we are going to tell it. we are sick of it. and today, that narrative stops. >> we will eat another friendly for -- family friendly protest march. klux justice for who >> justice for who? justice for who? >> samuel sharpe! >> the hotel employees here --

that killed my cousin and tried to sweep it under the rug. they did not know d'vontaye had family. the media tried to say he came in here causing a nuisance and when police arrived, he was unresponsive. they forgot to say the employees of the hyatt hotel here cap temperaments 15 minutes until he died. no justice -- >> no peace! amy: that was d'vontaye's cousin speaking outside the hyatt hotel in downtown milwaukee thursday. tune in for our other our when we talk about the recent killings of these two black men here in milwaukee, sam sharpe. we will be joined by his sister and d'vontaye. stay tuned for the other our of special breaking with convention coverage right here at

democracynow.org or on your local station. a special thank you to the media crew here who helped produce today's show.