to try and prosecute from what, what we heard of from, of the attorney general merit garland is that it's not just a matter of donald trump, the former president declaring that he is running for reelection in 2024. it's also the fact that joe biden, the incumbent, has all but made his formal declaration. but it has, i basically left all the hints that he does intend to run for reelection. and so because of that potential perceived conflict of interest, because the attorney general does report to the u. s. president and serves at the pleasure of the president, mary garland, has made the decision which is not a popular one according to was some on social media. to give this work to another lawyer, someone who has justice, department experience, someone who has been involved in the investigation of criminal cases. someone who

has been involved in matters that are very difficult to prosecute. he noted the mr . smith some experience dealing with war crimes. in kosovo. and so this is a situation where the justice department is trying to make certain that this work is completed. but that there is not any way of accusing the department of trying to tilt the scales for or against donald trump, or is working at the specific behest of joe biden. this is a matter of trying to remove at perceived conflict of interest, a rosalind what have for donald trump's representatives being saying about all of this. they have not said anything. it was, are widely reported before his declaration on tuesday that the former president believed that by saying he was going to run for reelection, that the justice department wouldn't be able to continue its investigations. but as we heard the attorney general just say,

there are 3 different matters to directly involving the former president and those investigations will continue rosalyn jordan a many thanks live for us there in washington d. c. well let's re cut per one of our top stories now kenya's former president of or when does leader have agreed on the need for fighters to withdraw from capture territory in east and democratic republic of congo. and in 23 fighters have made major gains in recent weeks. advancing towards goma as fighting with government forces intensifies. the congolese government is accused to wander of supporting the group that wandered denies. this attempts to restore peace will resume on monday in nairobi to it's as troubles appear to be deepening with reports that hundreds more employees of quit in response to an ultimatum from new chief executive, ellen musk, it old workers to sign up for long hours at high intensity on thursday will leave

with 3 months severance pay, twitters office buildings around the world have been closed until next week. casting doubts and the social media platforms ability to keep going. stay with us because her up front is coming up next for remember, you can get much more all of our stories on our web sites, including preparations for the world cup. that, of course, is an al jazeera, don't come stay with us for more news shortly. news, news, news, news. what we go has been grappling with recovery of the series of natural disasters most recently hurricane fiona in september. but the problems don't and their fragile infrastructure economic crisis independent on the us all staying in

the way of puerto rico's ability to pick up and move on to how can the island rebuild and recover to speak to the former mayor of san juan harmon, julian cruz next, but 1st donald trump was to be president of the united states. again, americans come back, starts right now. warner president launched his bid this week from his home in mar level florida. something else mc comes just after republicans failed to score the kind of when they were hoping for the midterm elections with high profile lot, among trump into a candidate. but what does another trump campaign mean already deeply polarized country? joining me to discuss this is renowned author, scholar and activists, this week headliner, michael, erica, the professor michael eric dyson. thank you so much for joining us and up front. thanks for having me. my friend, former us president donald trump, has officially announced his bid to run for president in 2024. what do you make of this? well,

this is the perfect storm of unmitigated narcissism meets political opportunism. ah, it is certainly wrecking the potential fortunes of the republican party. i think they've rejected the whole contests and have settled on figures like if not exclusively governor ron de santis of florida. he, after all, is the re max of donald trump equally authoritarian. ah, but with a, a panache and a style, a kind of palatable autocracy, if you will, that donald trump simply doesn't have, he's more brutal. he's more blunt. and i think it's really forcing the republican party finally, ah, to come to grips with the effect of trump ism. so the republican party is really going to have a come to jesus moment because of his candidacy. there is a quote from speech that people are repeating a lot. he said, anyone who truly seeks to take on this rigged and corrupt system will be faced with

a storm of fire. that only a few could understand. he's painting himself as the people's champion. could that tone make him more palatable to the republican base? could that give him a 2nd life in the american electoral mind? well, it is base as proved in the past to be a highly gullible, or at least desperate enough to believe that that kind of political rhetoric doesn't mask the kind of chicanery that we saw going on. in other words, here was a guy who said, i'm going to be for the average joe. and when he got into office, he was a bunch of billionaires and multi millionaires who were running the show. now that happens in most administrations, that's not exclusive to donald trump, but when you claim to be the people's champ, um and when you lose use that kind of populous language. and then the deliverables have to be judged differently. so this is donald trump brilliantly, ah, seizing the moment, understanding what's at stake, reading the wrong, so to speak,

and giving the folk what they want. donald trump knows all along that he can't deliver on what he promises, but he promises, regardless, because that is part of the political theatre of a donald trump and it has not failed him so far. and it may indeed be successful this time around as well. why, as you alluded to a bit ago, the 1st sign of failure for trump might be that the folks he back weren't successful. so we can safely say, you know, trump supporters or shot back candidates, rather i don't have the kind of gravitas and power that they had 4 years ago. what does that me? why? yeah. first of all, when you look at the coaching tree of bill, bella, check and you go, you know, is great as he was, the folk that he put into the li ain't doing so well. so if we look at donald trump is bill ability. since they've had some kind of, i'm going, i'm going to know for my home cuz we got international audio that is a, a, a celebrated us football coach to the new england patriots. that's right. arguably

the greatest of all time. some have made that argument. so yes, a coach of football forgive us for using that term in an international audience here. we know it's not football in the classic sense, but he's the guy who's a great coach and the coaching tree. that is the people who coach under him and then go on to have their own teams. haven't necessarily done as well as the original figure. so donald trump is able to, we've, you know, this web of tremendous care, prisma and appeal. he was more successful. the 1st time around, as you recognized then as you were pointing out right now, and i think what it says is, the spell is wearing off. the magic is dissipating for those who are referred to political figures. but it may not indicate that donald trump has really spent, ah, his last bit of fortune here. his political capital is depleted to be sure, but it's not a completely wiped out. and if you can say anything about donald trump,

it's the ability to reinvent himself. the supporters of from the people who are die hard people who still to this day say trump is our president. do they friend the red wave that the, or the non red wave that happened and say, you know what, it's time for us to come out and assemble again. will this galvanize and, and draw out his supporters? or is this evidence that he doesn't have as much support as we thought? no, i think it's the former and that the latter, i think look, those people are so ah, die hard and their commitment to donald trump, you know, to death do us part. and then they want to get married after after they go to heaven, so to speak, and after in the after life. and donald trump is experiencing a kind of political after life, right. he was president, he lost that to political death for most presidents, but maybe not for donald trump because his base is so deeply committed to him. that no matter what happens, the people who disagree with him are read as counterfeit. and i do believe that

donald trump, surprisingly perhaps to the chagrin of many, ah, still maintains a powerful hold on the bread and butter republican. not necessarily the elite who were disingenuous to begin with. they knew donald trump was lying, they knew he was full of tricks and bad faith. they knew that he was doing stuff that was really antithetical to the constitution and certain rule of law. but they went along with it because it was of the best way to ride his coat tails. now that they've tried to get off and cut those coat tails and sees on to someone else, i think the bread and butter republican has not yet given up on donald trump. you earlier, you talked about round the santas as a potential heir apparent to donald trump. some say they're similar, some of suck some. it said that he's more polished up. we had one guest once they, he, donald trump, who can read. you know, there are lots of different ways to think about the same,

but one thing that connects them to be sure to trump is the idea of right wing populism. um, if we see the shift away from trump, have we simply paved the way not for a more mainstream political candidate or returned to the so called status quo, but simply opening the door to another right wing populace, perhaps potentially more polish like a de santis or other full yes you nominal baptist preacher and there's a scripture that says when you cast out the demon, if you don't put some melts in its place, 7 worst demons than the 1st one are going to come occupy that space. and donald trump did create a kind of donald trump sized vacuum. i do believe that those, you know, out loud talks about round the santos are true. he's more polished, which means he's more sophisticated about his chicanery. he's more sophisticated about his autocracy. he's more sophisticated by his fascist impulses, but he had braces the explicit language that ties him to donald trump's if you will,

or most of her been supporters. but he understands that the methodology has to wet here and conform to traditional conceptions of law and order. and that may be indeed where he has a leg up on donald trump for those who want to distance themselves from donald trump, because they know he's wrecking the machine. but they want to embrace round de santis because he brings the spirit of donald trump to bear world. is the media play and all this? i can't help but think that there's a way that in covering his announcement so extensively, ah, we are aiding his bid. we devote so much different to his every move are we supporting his candidates and i'm being so critical is what we're doing it right at this very moment. right. there's a way that we have been assessed with donald trump's as 2016. and in doing so, we've given him unearned media unearned advertising. he's getting free publicity every day. are we repeating the same mistake of 2016 by giving trump so much time?

yes, this the paradox, right? because if you don't cover it, then you're left out in the competition for the resource of attention. and if you do cover it, you're just adding on and giving him a kind of, you know, a gravitas, a kind of legitimacy that otherwise he wouldn't have, you know, in the hip hop culture, they have that full mo, filling of missing out. well, donald trump has the photo feeling of trumped out. cuz ill on the one hand, if you don't trump in, then you're not like what you didn't hear. you didn't listen to what he said. you didn't pay attention to his body language. you didn't talk about right, we've all become truck deconstruction as we are trying to figure out what the heck donald trump is about what he's saying. did you see his left eye twitch? did you notice that his hair was pushed to the right further? right. we're doing all this trop analysis and, and that the reality is yes, he is the creature of the media. but he's been the master of the media and having

mastered the media in reality television, he understands how to push the envelope and to push the right buttons to get the media to pay attention. there has been a surge in white nationalism during trumps presidency. we saw an increase in electron denial ism, we've seen, ah, the january 6th insurrection. ah, we seen a 55 percent increase in the number of white nationals hate groups during the trump era. it's according to the southern poverty law center. when we think about trump running for president, again, do we have any reason not to expect a similar search? now? ah, in fact the opposite is true. it can be predicted was reasonable confidence that a similar surge will occur. that, you know, when you're trying to catch one of these live servers and you're dealing with the search, and during the search you pay more. that's what we pay more. we pay more doing the

surges of, of trump and white nationalism. we pay in terms of political capital that's precious to us. we pay in terms of lives, laws we pay in terms of an erosion of the american spirit. we pay in the refusal to acknowledge that white supremacy is the ultimate arbiter of truth in our political scene. you know, what january 6th proved to us is that people were willing to be hypocrites and, and when you told him they were hypocrites, they didn't even care. you say you like, you know, blue lives blue lives matter. and yet the police were equal if were easily disposable that day, they were seen to be enemies right out there. this is of people who said that they were committed to american, yet they were dragging through the halls of congress, the most vaunted symbol of american democracy. a banner of betrayal called the confederate flag. they don't care, wait a minute. i thought you loved the police but beaten them up. i thought you were

concerned about real democracy, but you're waving a flag that is the ultimate sign of betrayal to america. not really see all of that before we go when you see all of that. is there any reason to be hopeful for the future of american democracy? if trump is able to reemerge even at this stage as a legitimate political figure? yet here's the hope. now it's a, it's a negative hope, so to speak. ah, but you know, if thou jumper's reelected, that is got to say something to the folk who don't support him and, and look as many people as there are that support him there. millions more who don't the will no longer just the donald trump because what will have been revealed is that there is something roiling beneath the surface that is fundamentally in opposition to us as human beings. that was going to happen that, that could happen. and to finish my thought about what happened on january 6th, the real religion, the real politics, the real force of society,

the real democracy is whiteness. a particularly virulent, narrowly focused narcissistic. whiteness is the real basis of what america is about. the great philosopher beyond say, jacell knows said a when giving in a war to the football quarterback x football quarterback. ah, collin, catherine said that it is been said that american racism is so deeply entrenched in the country that it's identified with america itself. so that when you challenge racism, it looks as if you're challenging america. so many more people will come to grips with the fact that this is not simply about donald trump. this is about a way of a life that we of embraced. and i think the fall will be precipitous. and i think the revelation will be thundering, but we have to continue to, to really not away at that resistance. that's the only choice we have. because if

they can win that battle of the will and they can make us believe there is nothing we can do about it, they will have won the ultimate prize, which is the conversion of us into a kind of hopeless not of voters who don't even use what we have at our disposal, a lever to make a difference in this democracy. like michael argon, thank you so much for joining us in a front. thanks for having me. my for the in september of hurricane fiona hit, the island of puerto rico, causing mass destruction, catastrophic flooding and island wide power outages. the u. s. territory may have been able to cope with the hurricane to some degree, except it was still recovering from the devastation caused by a category 5 hurricane in 2017. the islands residents have faced continuing issues from a fragile electrical grid to a faltering economy of puerto rico, struggles to climb out of bankruptcy. but the problems don't stop there. there has

been a decline in manufacturing, chronic food insecurity. and what many of the islands residents essentially view as neglect by the united states government? so how does puerto rico recover and stabilize for the next climate disaster? joining us to discuss this is carmen jolene cruz, the former mayor of san juan, puerto rico and fellow at mount holyoke college in massachusetts. he's also the host of a new park f card she wrote weeks about everyday women who are changing the world. one community at a time, julian, thank you so much for joining us. an upfront you've seen the devastation after the hurricanes up close when you were the mayor. when you left offs in 2020 the island hadn't recovered from the impact of hurricane maria. and now in fact, it was still recovering from maria in september when fiona hit. it's talk to me about what it looks like on the ground. you just got back. talk to me about that. well, 1st of all, there's a lot of people are very angry and they have

a right to be. but they're also about to leave. and i think that's the worst of sasha that there can be. there are still communities that don't have electricity. hospitals that are faltering in their providing services that would people have to understand is that, and you, you mentioned that a little bit we were still recovering from hurricanes each month and money yet, which was $1.00 right after the other financial bankruptcy. there were 2 coastal storms. then there were 2 major earthquakes, and then there was the pan. that's all in a for your time span. so it's one crisis after another. and what people are seeing is, 1st of all, there is the trump administration that discriminated against puerto rico. and the money started flowing into puerto rico in 2020, even though it had been appropriated some time before. but would people are seeing

on the ground is, is a lack of vision. and according of the local central government, or puerto rico of the resources that come into puerto rico and the mayors are saying, give me the money. and let me put all these plans moving forward. what it looks like. it's like a war zone that doesn't recover. you mentioned the sort of crisis in 2017 is at least partially being linked to the trumpet administration discriminating against puerto rico. now, we're in 2022, there's a biden administration. how distinct is the response in recovery effort now versus then i understand there's lots of problems on the ground. so in some ways it seems like it's not that different. there is a difference in tone and understanding right out one through paper, towel shadows, and that g insurance is still continues to haunt the united states. and the other

one is really going out of the way the biting administration to say, hey, look, let me see what i can do without dictating energy policy. the problem is that what has been done in the grant in puerto rico sometimes contradicts the energy policy. in the u. s. i. e, you know, you, you can have it both ways. you can say, let's go green here, but then, well, let's not go back. there is money still from of, let's talk about that money. i'm glad you mentioned money. you've talked about the distribution of money before fema, the federal emergency management agency allocated $28000000000.00 for recovery effort. this is public assistance funding. right? um 5 years later, this happened 20005 years later. only about one 5th of it has been released of there been additional funds allocated post fiona, but the issue,

as i say it isn't really allocation as much as it is being able to use public assistance money for recovery. why is access to the money, right? wise access to the money such an issue? one of the things was that it was withheld by the past administration, but now it's slowing. right? so you think, well, what is the problem will be my just went into an agreement with the central government in puerto rico and the sub recipient of the central government are the municipalities. so there's this entire red tape. you know, the map requires certain aspects in order to give them money, but then the central government of puerto rico requires additional money. and it is, it is ludicrous. you know, there are many years waiting for bridges to be built, their citizens waiting for bridges to be built for roads to be thanked. all over puerto rico. i have to wonder how much of the flow recovery effort,

how much of the overall condition put a recall is tied to the fact that you have such a sort of uneasy untenable kind of political status. you know, you have one represent, one representative in congress doesn't get to vote. you've been to us territory since the late 18 hundreds, but never had to kind of political representation that would come from say, statehood. is this the reason for the neglect? but if you had more of a voice in congress with that matter, well, let me put it to you this way. puerto ricans call on your territory is a euphemism for a colony. and we are a nation twice invaded 1st by spain, and then by the united states, show what people and myself have been advocating is for a process of self determination. first of all, the question that you ask is a very good one. what puerto, ricans be better off with representations in congress well, or african americans are better off and voting rights to having representations in

congress. this is a fight that has been congress. ma'am john lewis gave is like to make sure that everyone, not only african americans, but that everyone in the united states have a right to bode our women that are seeking abortions, better with representation in the united states senate or a congress. so what we're looking for is to be seen to be respected, entering a real process of self determination. we're all puerto rican voices can be heard. and all man colonial is you know, it's the current standards in the colony. we shouldn't include the current status, but you sort of advocated for a kind of complicated relationship to the kind of colonizing power of the united states. you talked about a free association, you know, rehabilitation for puerto rico, that's not exactly statehood and that's not exactly the kind of for independent

nation that many people advocate for. and so something you're sort of advocating for a relationship where you have some of the representational power of a state, but also a kind of sovereignty that comes from being an independent nation. well, one of the things that the u. s. has already already has with the wireless and the money on this type of situation. but listen, in 1917. the u. s. made puerto ricans us citizens, 941. puerto ricans had heard citizenship by law, so that can change tomorrow. let's say that congress goes even crazier than they have certain time. and they say, we're going to strict that out in puerto ricans will no longer be born citizens of the united states. what would i am saying? and you're right, and i'll answer your question. what i'm saying is that there is a mentor way. i'm having a justified relationship with puerto,

with between puerto rico, us just 5000000. puerto ricans in the u. s. and i'm one of them right now. and when i go back to puerto rico, january, i'll be part of the 3200000. puerto ricans that live in puerto rico shell. there is a responsibility when you put food on the ground. when you checked the contraceptive pill in puerto rican women. when you tested agent orange into one of the largest reinforces in puerto rico. when you use the island of the ac is as target practice, mom did and read it to other countries to be able to use it. there's an obligation to at least provide the people of puerto rico, the opportunity to decide what the future of the relationship with the united states should be. so regardless of what i believe, which i believe in pre association, more importantly than that is that the process is a process that is transparent,

that it democratic and that stage the implications of people voting for each one of the options and your manor so that there can be no translation into puerto rican spanish, which will have nothing to do with the reality of what bad well would actually, well really, and i want to thank you for your time with us on up front and of course, best of luck. thank you everyone. if we're going to recovery, that is our show up front. we'll be back next. ah and with

every footstep moving in the st with the world to bring health equity for all to be together again with the ones far apart with transformation and collaboration, indonesia urges and leave the world in moving forward as one cover together recover stronger many of us living with the effects of ecological breakdown. so what would be stories in which technology, the promise of salvation for the planet, billionaires big tech and an unwavering faith in innovation? alleyway investigates, with a tech no optimism is helping or hindering the fight against climate change. it's a distraction, is self delusion. it is, hey,

i just masking over it all hail the planet episode to on al jazeera from sports champion to bed bound, i felt one's investigates how the nfl escaped paying billions of dollars to former players who suffered devastating brain damage playing america's most popular sport . i'm sorry you didn't die before 2015. good luck to you and your family. i know where he got c t from papa. when i looked at it, it's all about his brain being bruce because of the block force. when you get plane a position blood sports on a jazz eda, i care about how the u. s. engaging with the rest of the world. we're really interested in taking you in to a place you might not visit otherwise and feel as if you were there. ah, i'm ne, parker and london with the top stories on al jazeera.