08/17/16 08/17/16 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] amy: from pacifica, this is democracy now! >> the commission is gravely concerned for the safety of civilians, including the reported 100,000 children living in aleppo city where violence has reached new heights in recent weeks as the warfare intensifies over control of armed group-held neighborhoods and remaining supply lines. amy: as the united nations wars of a humanitarian crisis in the besieged syrian city of aleppo, we will speak with a syrian-born doctor who recently returned from aleppo. >> i thought we were entering hell.

, it was 10not hell times worse than that. amy: then hillary clinton taps former interior secretary ken salazar to head her transition team. salazar has backed the keystone xl pipeline, the transpacific partnership, and the expansion of fracking. >> i think hydraulic fracking is very much a necessary part of the future of natural gas. because without this new technology, the amount of natural gas that we have available here in the country is a very diminished amount. amy: we will speak to investigative journalist david sirota in ken salazar's home state of colorado. all that and more, coming up. welcome to democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. russia's defense ministry says it has used a base in western iran to carry out air strikes in syria. the ministry reported the strikes hit targets in aleppo,

idlib, and deir al-zour provinces. the strikes are the first time russia has carried out from third country since it began its military intervention in syria class civil war and a base and renders it a capability to intensify its bombing campaign in syria. this comes as fighting has intensified in and around aleppo. the united nations is warning of a dire humanitarian crisis as millions are left without water or electricity. gravelyommission is concerned for the safety of civilians, including reported 100,000 children living in aleppo city where violence has reached new highs in recent weeks as the symmetric warfare intensifies over control of armed group-held neighborhoods in the principal remaining supply lines. amy: we'll have more on syria after headlines with dr. zaher sahloul, the founder of the american relief coalition for syria. in news from the campaign trail, democratic presidential nominee

hillary clinton's transition team, which would set up her administration if she wins the white house, will be run by former top aides to president obama. clinton's campaign said tuesday the team will be led by former interior secretary ken salazar. salazar has previously supported fracking, the trans pacific partnership, and the keystone xl pipeline -- initiatives clinton's presidential primary opponent senator bernie sanders opposed, forcing clinton to change her some of her own -- on those issues. other members of the team are former obama national security adviser tom donilon, former obama aide neera tanden, former michigan governor jennifer granholm, and maggie williams, the director of harvard's institute of politics. the group will lay the groundwork for a possible clinton administration, and help the president-elect make key decisions during the period between the election and the inauguration if she is elected. we'll be joined later in the

show by david sirota, senior editor for investigations at the international business times, to discuss clinton's transition team. meanwhile, republican presidential nominee donald trump has reorganized his campaign staff for the second time in two months. he has named stephen bannon, the executive chairman of breitbart news to be his campaign's chief executive. kellyanne conway, who is currently a senior adviser to trump will become the campaign , manager. the shakeup appear to sideline trump campaign chairman paul manafort, who is facing questions about his years of political consulting work in ukraine, where he advised former president viktor yanukovych. "the new york times" has reported that handwritten ledgers unearthed by ukraine's newly formed national anti-corruption bureau show $12.7 million of cash payments that were slated to go to manafort. it is not known whether manafort actually received the money. to see our interview with award-winning "rolling stone" journalist matt taibbi about manafort's time in ukraine, go

to democracynow.org. meanwhile, former fox news chair roger ailes is reportedly advising donald trump on next month's debate between him and hillary clinton. ailes resigned from fox news in july. he has been accused of sexual harassment by more than 20 women, including fox news's megyn kelly, andrea tantaros and gretchen carlson. ailes has also been accused of running his own "black room" operation out of fox news, in which he used fox money to hire private detectives and political operatives who carried out ailes' personal campaigns, including targeting journalists. trump has called ailes a friend and has defended ailes after the harassment allegations. donald trump is set to receive his first top-secret national security briefing today. he will be accompanied by former defense intelligence agency head michael flynn. flynn was paid last year by a russian state-funded tv network

to speak at its 10th-anniversary gala. new jersey governor chris christie, who heads trump's transition team, is also expected to join trump at the briefing. this comes as "the new york times" is reporting that new jersey governor chris christie's administration forgave millions of dollars of taxes owed by donald trump's casinos to new jersey, even after state auditors raised concerns some of the casinos' tax filings were fraudulent. when christie was elected governor in 2009, new jersey was seeking nearly $30 million in taxes owed by trump's casinos. two years later, under christie's leadership, the state settled with trump for only $5 million. donald trump visited wisconsin tuesday, where he called for more police to patrol low-income communities. his visit comes only days after uprising sparked by the fatal police shooting of 23-year-old african-american sylville smith.

trump's approval rating among african-americans is between 0% and 1% according to a number of polls. this is donald trump speaking in the overwhelmingly white community of west bend, wisconsin. problem in our poorest communities is not that there are too many police, the problem is that there are not enough police. more law enforcement, more community engagement, more effective policing is what our country needs desperately. just like hillary clinton is against the miners, she is against the police. leave me. amy: trump also visited milwaukee tuesday, where he met briefly with milwaukee county sheriff david clarke, who sparked controversy with his speech at the republican national convention last month, when he called the occupy and

when he celebrated the acquittal of a police officer charged in the case of freddie gray, who died from injuries sustained in police custody in baltimore. meanwhile, the city of new york has agreed to pay more than $4 million to settle a wrongful death lawsuit filed by the family of akai gurley, an unarmed african-american father who was killed by a police officer in the stairwell of a brooklyn housing project in 2014. new york city police officer peter liang fatally shot gurley as he was walking down the stairwell with his girlfriend because the elevator was broken. officer liang says he accidentally fired his gun. following the shooting, officer liang first texted his union representative before making a radio call for help as gurley lay dying. a jury convicted liang of manslaughter earlier this year, but a judge made the rare decision to reduce officer liang's conviction to the lesser charge of criminally negligent homicide and sentenced him to 800 hours of community service. as part of the settlement, officer liang will pay $25,000 to kimberly ballinger, the mother of gurley's young

daughter. in louisiana, at least eleven people have died as rescuers continue to search for missing people amid historic flooding. more than 10,000 people have been forced to relocate to shelters, and president barack obama has declared the area a federal disaster zone. more rain is in the forecast for the region this week. meanwhile, in california, authorities have ordered more than 80,000 people near los angeles to evacuate as a fast-moving fire continues to grow. fed by strong winds, bone-dry brush, and 100-degree temperatures, the blue cut fire is the latest in a series of destructive wildfires ravaging california, amid the state's climate change-fueled drought. so far this year, california fires have killed eight people and destroyed hundreds of homes. this comes as scientists have confirmed july was the hottest month ever recorded, making it the 15th straight month to smash global temperature records amid

human-fueled climate change. meanwhile, in rio, the olympic games are nearing the end of their second week. this comes as a new study in the british medical journal the lancet shows that by the 2084 olympics, rising temperatures will make it nearly impossible for most cities to host the summer games. the study points out that only 70% of the u.s. olympic marathon team completed their trials in los angeles earlier this year, which were the hottest trials on record. in yemen, residents of the capital sanaa say a u.s.-backed saudi-led airstrike killed nine civilians tuesday. this comes as doctors without borders calls for an independent investigation into monday's strike on a hospital, which killed as many as 15 people. monday's attack on the hospital marks at least the fourth time u.s.-backed, saudi-led airstrikes have hit a doctors without borders-supported hospital in yemen during the 17-month conflict. the group says it had provided the saudi-led coalition with

coordinates for all four of these hospitals, so they would not be struck. this is francoise bochet-saulnier, doctors without borders' legal director. -- we did not want it. ow we are left -- amy: and in pennsylvania, immigrant mothers detained with their children at the berks county residential center have entered their second week of a hunger strike. their protesting the government's claims they are

released after 20 days. by the end of august, at least three families will have spent a full year in custody at the berks facility. organizers say -- secretary ofo homeland security jeh johnson -- and those are some of the headlines. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. juan: and i'm juan gonzalez. welcome to all of our listeners and viewers from around the country and around the world. in the latest escalation of the war in syria, russia has begun launching air strikes from an iranian air base. "the new york times" reports this marks the first time since world war ii that a foreign military has operated from a base on iranian soil.

the international committee of the red cross has described the fight for aleppo as "beyond doubt one of the most devastating urban conflicts in modern times." the united nations is warning of a dire humanitarian crisis as millions are left without water or electricity. this is you and spokeswoman -- u.n. spokeswoman alessandra vellucci. >> gravely concerned about the children were violence has reached new highs in recent weeks as the symmetric warfare intensifies over control of armed group-held neighborhoods in the principal remaining supply lines.

amy: on tuesday, a british aid the direscribed situation in aleppo. in this video he posted online. >> i just had to watch a woman lose three of her children who were killed, crying over their dead bodies. people just got killed not far from here. we were just there yesterday in a market. people just got tilled. we have 70 dead bodies. you can hear what is going on here. we need to get the message out. people are being killed, ok? we need a no-fly zone in syria. this is a massacre going on. week, 15 of the last 35 doctors in rebel-held eastern aleppo wrote a letter to president obama calling for help in getting humanitarian aid to 300,000 civilians trapped in the area, and an end to syrian and russian bombardment of the besieged city. the letter said that there is an attack on medical facilities

every 17 hours, and doctors were being forced to decide who will live and who will die. amy: according to the humanitarian group physicians for human rights, there have been more than 370 attacks on 265 medical facilities during the five-year conflict, as well as the deaths of 750 medical personnel. overall, the death toll in the five-year syrian conflict has reached close to half a million people. it is this place about half the population with more than 6 million civilian -- syrians displaced and nearly 5 million syrian refugees outside syria's borders. to find about more about the humanitarian and medical crisis in syria, we're joined by dr. zaher sahloul, founder of the american relief coalition for syria and senior advisor and former president of the syrian american medical society. he has visited aleppo five times since the war began. last week, he addressed the u.n. security council on the humanitarian crisis in syria.

he was a classmate of bashar al assad in medical school. dr. sahloul is a critical care specialist in chicago. welcome to democracy now! when you heard about the latest attack, even since you have just returned from aleppo, russia attacking from iran, your thoughts? and then describe aleppo to us. >> my thoughts and my colleagues thoughts from aleppo, which i keep contact every minute with them, is the same. everyone is bombing syria and no one cares about ending the crisis. it looks like the russians are having fun bombing syria from different parts. they are bombing isis and also civilians. the al-assad regime is bombing cities and historic sites and civilians with all kinds of

weapons. the iranians are bombing aryans. everyone is bombing syrians. the story that is not being told in the media -- i mean, when people know about syria or hear about syria, they think it is something related to isis or that something that is collocated, but what is happening is civilians are suffering every day. children are being mutilated and killed with barrel bombs and air missile bombs. hospitals and schools are targeted, markets are targeted. an old sites like the city of aleppo are being destroyed. this is the tragedy we are living in. we have half a million people killed so far, half the population displaced. so far we do not have a light at the end of the tunnel. juan: you mentioned barrel bombs. what exactly are those and who is dropping them? >> barrel bombs are an invention of the syrian regime. it is a very cheap way to manufacture mass destruction. i have seen it with my eyes in the victims a barrel bombs in my

several missions to syria, especially to the city of aleppo. these are barrel am a big barrels stuffed with tnt and shrapnel. they come in all kinds of sizes and shapes. there flown from helicopters on urban areas come on hospitals, on civilian neighborhoods and food markets and schools. i took pictures of the victims. i took pictures of the buildings that have been destroyed with errol bombs. it is a dumb bomb. it is not a smart bomb. it can kill a lot of people. billy thing -- when you go to aleppo, and this is something that if you go there and you will see children pointing to the sky and then you see this helicopter and you hear the sounds of the helicopter and throwhis dot with another dot and you have 30 seconds to run or pray because

you do not know where the barrel will hit. it is happen for the past three years. it has caused a lot of displacement. let's not forget julian people of aleppo are displaced -- julian people of aleppo are displaced. no one else has helicopters. juan: how are the medical facilities and hospitals able to function on the day-to-day basis? if you could talk about that. i'm in, what is the relationship between the various rebel groups in the hospitals. do they interfere with your group? is the government paying for the salaries of these doctors? talk about the system, how it is operating. >> right now what we have in syria, we have different areas in syria that are also out of the control of the government. these are areas that are controlled by the different rebel factions. and also, you have areas in syria that are controlled by the kurdish troops and areas controlled by isis. but we operate mostly in rebel controlled areas because there

are millions of people in need for medical and humanitarian aid in these areas, and the united nations are unable to reach them from damascus, from government-controlled areas. we reached them from turkey, from jordan. you have hospitals that are are reestablished in cities like aleppo u anidlib and other places -- and idlib and other places. the government does not pay salaries. they do not pay salaries for areas out of their control. so doctors and her sister than on ngo's to support them come to pay for their salaries. many of these hospitals have been targeted multiple times. it looks like their systematic targeting by the russians lately to hospitals because these hospitals treat everyone, of course, including the people who are injured by the fighting and snipers in the shelling. but what i've seen in aleppo, mostly civilians are the victims of barrel bombings and shelling.

i have seen children -- i'm in, in the last mission, a child that was five years old, he was a victim of barrel bombing. he has a spinal cord injury. he was on life support. during my stay, he was between life and death. fortunately, one dayfter i left, he died. he had cardiac arrest. i saw a woman who was about 25 years old and pregnant in her third month. to barrels fell on her house. her older son, nine years old, was killed. the youngest daughter was killed. she was brought to the hospital and had internal breathing. her fetus from her unborn child, was also dead. she was survived by a seven-year-old son. i took his picture and try to talk with him. he could not smile. he was very traumatized. you will see this over and over in aleppo. the doctors are overwhelmed by the number of casualties and victims. they cannot do enough surgeries to save everyone. themselves ary

targeted. one of the doctors told me he was working for 72 hours and that he does not mind working for a long time, but the worst hehtmare that he figures if goes home and discovers his wife and children are also killed were the target of barrel bombing. amy: what about the children? you have said that you cat food and grass? ini mean, that has happened syria under siege. according to the united nation, there are 800,000 -- 850,000 people under siege by their own .overnment in many areas aleppo now, which became under a siege, you have 300,000 people, among them 85,000 children. they are under siege. i visited an orphanage that is also underground for protection. the children over there had to

wait for the doctors coming from chicago. three physicians came from chicago. during that play, they were talking about they were scared that they will have to eat grass and tree leaves the same with the children elsewhere have done stop in one city, we had children who died because of starvation. their fear became a reality. we have this whole area, 300,000 people in aleppo under complete siege. juan: you called for the international community to provide some kind of safe passage for medical personnel and for victims of the bombing. how would that work in practice, given as you mentioned come all that haveious groups different control of different areas of a city like aleppo? >> before the siege happened, it has been going on for more than five weeks, the road to turkey and to other places in syria was

open. that is the same road i went to aleppo through and left aleppo through. right now it is blocked by the syrian regime and also assisted by the russians and the iranian paramilitary. if the united nations keeps this road open, so we can have patients evacuated to turkey, you now have all icu beds in aleppo full with patients. they are overwhelmed, so they need to evacuate patients. children right now waiting for turkey and taken to other places in syria. also the humanitarian aid into aleppo. what the russians have suggested a couple weeks ago is to have a human to turn corridor where families are allowed to go to western aleppo. it is controlled by the government. of course, no one trusts the russians or the government that is bombing their children and bombing the hospitals, and no one took the russians up on their offer. what they're asking for is humanitarian corridor with the

oversight of the united nations. amy: i want to turn to another video by british aid worker tauqir sharif with the head nurse of the hospital in aleppo. >> it was a sunday and the hospital was targeted. we got hit three times in a row.

amy: that is the head nurse of the children's hospital in aleppo. have justsahloul, you returned from there. you are a medical school classmate of bashar al-assad? do you know him? have you spoken to him? >> yes, we were in medical school for six years. we graduated together in 1988. we did together the hippocratic oath that every physician should do no harm and should say the

lives, even the lives of their enemies. i met with him after he became .resident three times we used to do medical before the crisis. inet with him as the president. i asked him one time, i was naive, i came from the united states and i told him, are you planning to have democratic reform in syria? he had this very long answer then he told me, syrians are not ready for democracy. two months before the arab spring started in, he was at the same -- asked the same question the "wall street journal" and had the same answer. when we talked with him, he is very personable. he is a humble person. especially when he was a medical school. no one excited them to be that brutal. no one expected him to oversee the destruction of half his country and displacement of half the population, killing half a million people. this is a puzzle to us.

but definitely, he has changed since he took power in syria. juan: you have said the crisis in syria is contributing to the rise of the islamic state. could you explain how you see that happening? >> definitely. the same pictures you are showing come the same pictures i have see killed, the women who are killed, the elderly who are killed -- i mean, i've seen a disabled child who was deaf and mute who was the victim of a barrel bomb. i mentioned during my testimony to the security council the story of a child 10 years old who was the victim of a barrel bomb was on life support waiting for evacuation. the security council was not able to evacuate her and she died the next day after my testimony. these pictures and stories are circulated in the social media. they are used by isis and other extremist groups to recruit only inl extremist, not

syria in the middle east, but europe and the united states. there's a direct connection between what is happening in aleppo and what is happening in san bernardino and belgium and nice. unless we stop this gushing wound in syria, we will continue to have terrorism and chaos. we are suffering because of the implication of the refugee crisis in europe and route the world. one out of four refugees in the world, we have 20 million refugees, one out of four is from syria. in order to stop this crisis and , we haveislamophobia to stop people from being displaced in syria. people are fearful from barrel bombs. i went to jordan and lebanon and greece. when i talked to people, why are you leaving syria? they mention the barrel bombs. al-assadion the brutality. we have to stop the al-assad retell it he -- brutality in the

russian attacks. amy: you met with president obama a few years ago. you are from chicago. you gave him a letter. what did you ask of him? in july 2013.him there was a reception in the white house and i had 30 seconds to talk with him. i delivered a letter on behalf of of the syrian medical society and syrian positions, asking them to protect hospitals and protect civilians. the same way provided to bosnia during the conflict. i told him his legacy will be determined by what he does and what he does not do in syria. he laughed and said, my legacy will be determined by other things. i told him, mr. president, your legacy will be determined, the most important factor will be syria. i still believe syria will determine his legacy. the fact that president obama did not follow his pledge when he had his redlined and did not enforce it, i think this is what is causing the chaos and extremism and the refugee crisis we are facing right now. amy: dr. zaher sahloul, thank

you for being with us, founder of the american relief coalition for syria senior advisor and , former president of the syrian american medical society. he has visited aleppo five times since the siege began. last week, he addressed the u.n. security council on the humanitarian crisis in syria. when we come back, we go to denver, colorado, to look at hillary clinton's transition team if she is elected president , who would be in charge. stay with us. ♪ [music break]

amy: lena chamamyan, "sway wa beyehada elasar." this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman with juan gonzalez. juan: hillary clinton has announced former interior secretary ken salazar as the head of her transition team. salazar is a former united states senator from colorado who now works at william hill the one of the most influential lobbying firms in washington. some groups have criticized his election or his selection due to his vocal support of fracking, the trans pacific partnership, and the keystone xl pipeline. molly dorozenski of greenpeace usa said -- "if clinton plans to effectively tackle climate change, the last thing her team needs is an industry insider like ken

salazar. salazar's track record illustrates time and again that he is on the side of big industry, and not of the people. his most recent opposition to the anti-fracking initiatives in his home state of colorado directly undermines clinton's alleged support of local control over fracking." amy: in addition to ken salazar, other leaders include former obama adviser tom donlan, center , andac and progress head maggie williams. for more we're joined by david senior editor for investigations at the , international business times. he's joining us from the home state of ken salazar in denver, colorado. start off by talking about the selection of the former interior secretary, former colorado senator ken salazar, to head the transition team of hillary clinton. >> the clinton campaign announced this in the last 36

hours. ken salazar will head the team, hillary clinton is elected, would help build the administration. it is an important appointment because many people believe the personnel is policy and the people who are going to run the transition team are going to be looking at thousands, potentially, of appointment across the federal government in a prospective hillary clinton administration. so who is at the top of this transition team, what their beliefs are, whether politics have been, is very important to understanding what may be coming in a clinton administration policy wise, and whether those policies in a clinton administration will reflect the policy promises from hillary clinton on the campaign trail. has: for years, ken salazar been a vocal proponent of fracking. in 2014, he said --

"we know that, from everything we've seen, there's not a single case where hydraulic fracking has created an environmental problem for anyone. we need to make sure that story is told." fracking in 2011 when he was still interior secretary. quite i think hydraulic fracking is important part of the future because with this new technology, the amount of natural gas we have available here in the country is a very diminished amount. i think hydraulic fracking can be done in a safe way, in an environment only responsible way, in a way that does not create of the concerns it is creating across the country right now. juan: what about his position on fracking? >> ken salazar comes from colorado and a part of the corolla -- broader political establishment that supports fracking in a very aggressive way. the business committee supports fracking in a very aggressive way.

we've had five at the local level where cities and towns have voted to ban or restrict fracking. the state government has tried to use its power to effectively disenfranchise those communities from using that power to block or restrict fracking. there is a ballot measure to further restrict fracking. ken salazar has come out against that, then one of the icons in the political establishment against that. he is somebody who is very close to the oil and gas industry and somebody who is been a big defender of fracking in the face of evidence that there are reasons to be concerned about the environmental and public health effects of that process. about the mostlk individual, one of the most influential lobbying firms whom ken salazar works for, who else they represent? >> they represent corporate clients across the board, cigna, for instance. cigna is a health care giant fighting for a merger with and

him. william hill represents them. delta airlines, verizon, investment firms, i mining comedy. wilmer hale is a major law and lobbying firm. ken salazar is not a registered lobbyist at wilmer hale. he is a partner. interestingly, hillary clinton had published a year ago an op-ed deriding the revolving door where lawmakers leave orice and become lobbyists help special interests. she specifically said she was concerned about lawmakers who go into that line of work, public policy work, for corporate clients, but do not register as a lobbyist -- which seems to fit the description of ken salazar. juan: the other appointees seemed to be largely either former obama officials or close confidants of hillary clinton. on the top transition team. your sense of this sort of lack of an open tent in terms of creating a transition team that would support other americans? >> look, hillary clinton

campaigned as a progressive, increasingly so facing the primary challenge from bernie sanders, so i think there was some hope by folks that her transition team and her administration will reflect something that is a little bit different from what people have come to believe is clintonism and more progressive brabson the obama administration. this transition team seems to suggest more of continuity with the establishment, that the people primarily who are leading this are people who come out of the obama administration come out of the wing of the democratic party that is close to the business community, that is generally understood to be the establishment. we have not seen the policy yet, but personnel is policy, this looks like a signal to the establishment that this is a continuity kind of government that is going to be put out there. , lastavid sirota

november, ken salazar along with another former interior secretary bruce babbitt cowrote a piece in "usa today" backing the tpp. they wrote -- -- tpp is a strong days trade to that will level the field for workers to help the class families get ahead. it is also the greenest trade deal ever." those are the words of ken salazar, the new transition team had four hillary clinton. >> that is a very important op-ed for people to understand right now, especially when there are fears that hillary clinton will ultimately back a version of the trans pacific partnership she becomes president. she is said she is against it, but prior to running for president, she up and helping the obama administration pushed that trade to her transition team is summit -- cheap has been publicly out there since leaving government, pushing that deal on environment of grounds. there are provisions that may make it easier for america to export front asked across the globe so i think this

complicates the questions of where hillary clinton in her administration may be on trade agreements like the trans pacific partnership. amy: in 2014, ken salazar also pushed for the construction of the keystone xl pipeline. he told the associated press that he believed construction could "be done in a way that creates a win-win for energy and the environment." david sirota? >> again, what we see from ken salazar's record a summit he very close to big energy interests that have business before the federal government. what does it mean for the future when anothereleposa pike?nstance, comes down the we don't know. veerus and helpinge willave staff the clinton administration. that he will have a hand in putting personnel into the administration across the federal government, whether he has litmus test, whether he brings in people who he is close to from his own politics, that

will be a question from a big question, for hillary clinton. amy: david, you have written a lot about the clinton foundation. a lot of the news this week centers around the e-mails of hillary clinton. the state department has agreed to provide the conservative watchdog group judicial watch with e-mails that have been uncovered following the fbi's probe into hillary clinton's use of the private e-mail server from 2000 9-2013, her tenure as secretary of state. we know some of these e-mails relate to the clinton foundation. can you talk about the significance of this? >> look, i think the connections between the potential -- the potential connections between the state department and the clinton foundation have been relatively well documented in the lead up to this question about specific e-mails. look, we know that money from foreign governments was going into the clinton foundation at a time that hillary clinton was america's top diplomat.

at a time when the clinton state department was approving weapons deals for many of those foreign governments. we know that companies were paying bill clinton speaking fees at the same time that they were lobbying the state department. we know that other interest, other corporate interests were giving to the foundation when they have business with and/or were lobbying the state department. the e-mails will provide potentially a more granular detailing of potential connections between the state department and the clinton foundation. the fact of the matter is, the clinton campaign has argued there was no quid pro quo. will there be a smoking gun e-mail? it is hard to say. do we know money went into the clinton foundation from interests that have business before the state department? absolutely. that is the fundamental issue at play here. amy: david sirota, thank you for being with us, senior editor for investigations at the international business times.

we willing to your articles at democracynow.org. when we come back, we will be joined by danny glover and the well-known anti-police brutality activist larry hamm talking u.s. hillary clinton, politics, and police brutality. stay with us. ♪ [music break] amy: radiohead here on democracy now!

i'm amy goodman with one gonzalez. juan: we look at police brutality. regionally introduced legislation that would require the state attorney general to review every death at the hands of law enforcement stop one of the key backers of the new jersey legislation has been larry hamm, check the people's organization for progress in new jersey. amy: we recently spoke to larry hamm and actor danny glover in philadelphia at the democratic national convention, interviewing them the morning after the mothers of children killed by police or vigilantes spoke at the dnc. i began by asking larry hamm to talk about the significance of that rare moment at the convention. >> it was very painful. let me say first of all it was next ordinary moment. i've been involved in electoral politics going back to the national black political convention in and i couldn't 1972 have imagined a moment when a major political party would have the mothers of victims like

these premiered and presented at so it was an extraordinary a national convention. and the mothers presented moment. and the mothers presented themselves well. and they spoke well. and there's nothing that the mothers said that i could disagree with. i love those mothers. but at the same time, i wish someone would have said police brutality must stop. nobody said that, i mean, unless i missed it. police brutality must stop. in the two years since the death of michael brown people have been , 2500 killed by police in the united states. last year, 1135 killed. this year, 506 killed. and it goes on and on and on. no one said -- and you had the mothers -- the mothers who actually spoke, two of the three, their sons were victims of racist violence, not police brutality, per se.

but no one said racist violence must stop. nobody talked about the numbers of incidents. and i wouldn't expect them to do so, but you have to understand, there was a whole segment of the convention that kind of dealt with this issue. they brought the chief of police from pittsburgh to speak. and the emphasis was on community-police cooperation, gun control. but nobody's talking about police brutality. i support the black lives matter movement. but we're saying black lives matter, black lives matter. no one is saying stop police brutality. our people are being killed in the street. and the people who are killing them are not being held accountable, not being indicted, not going to trial, not being found guilty. and this is the problem. you know, we don't want police -- i'm not -- one of these chiefs talked about, "well, they expect so much of the police, to be this, that."

not expecting that. what we expect, don't kill unarmed black people. and if you do it, you have to face the same consequences as if i would have done it. and this is the problem. and it was a very painful moment for me when the mothers spoke, but they did well. i have no criticisms of those women in pain. but in new jersey, we have abdul kamal who was killed by the irvington police, shot 15 times. he had a cellphone in his hand. jerame reid got out the car with his hands up -- it's on video -- shot at point-blank range by a black police officer, braheme days. kashad ashford, shot four times in the head while he was unconscious. little 14-year-old radazz hearns, shot seven times in the back. you know, and it goes on and on. and somehow, the discussion is always deflected, and these --

the murders of those police in dallas and, i believe it was, in baton rouge, you know, every time the movement seems to get white-hot and there's a real sharp focus on the police, something is used to deflect and to fuzzy that focus. and we got to get that focus back. we got to get it back, and we got to force every possible change that is needed to deal with this problem. amy: well, larry, you have been pushing for this for decades. i don't know if a week goes by where democracy now! doesn't get a press release from people's organization for progress in newark, new jersey, where you are holding another protest somewhere in new jersey -- >> yes. amy: around a person who has been killed or someone you're remembering or demanding some kind of change. what is that change that you feel is so critical to really make a difference in this country to deal with police violence? >> well, right now, with the

cases that we're dealing with in jersey, the four i just mentioned, we want the u.s. attorney for new jersey, paul fishman, to launch civil rights investigations into the deaths of kamal, reid, ashford, and the shooting of hearns. in all of those cases, there were no indictments -- nobody indicted, nobody going to trial. and we want civil rights investigations. not that we're saying that that in itself is a panacea, but one of the reforms we need in new jersey, we need an office of the special prosecutor just to -- independent office of special prosecutor just to investigate these police shootings. and bernie sanders had something in his platform. he said that every time the police kill someone, there should be a special independent investigation. but there is a whole agenda of reforms that are needed. but what we need at this moment

is to hold together this critical mass that seems to have come together at this moment to bring about fundamental change. juan: well, you know, one of the things i'm wondering -- maybe danny might want to comment on this -- is this is not a new story. in fact, if you go back to the chicago race riot of 1919, the used st. louis riot of 1917, the detroit right of 1942, newark in 1967, detroit almost always mass , insurrections in the black community have resulted from police violence. and i've come to the conclusion, i think -- i don't know if you agree -- that every 20 years, police departments of america change personnel, because most of the cops are in for 20, 25 years and they retire. and there's no institutional memory or legacy, so you have a new generation of cops that are on the street right now that weren't there in 1992 during rodney king, who weren't there in 1960, and the institutions themselves don't train and make that a part of their training of

the police to how they are supposed to respect the black and brown communities of the country. so you have to go through these -- through these spates of tides of sudden killings, and then resistance by the communities, before the new generation of cops recognizes you can't be doing that. people are going to resist you. >> thank you, larry, for all of the work that you've done over the years. we go way back and know each other for some time. and certainly, i want to talk the video itself, which so moved me. and as i sat here -- because i wasn't there last night in the convention center, as i sat here and watched it before we -- and listened to the words and all that stuff, i just thought about what a great moment, what a moment, what a signature moment and a key important moment. we must remember this moment, that moment, not the election

after, but for decades to come. remember this moment because maybe within that, there's a context of the situation where we can -- we can create some kind of different narrative about this, our relationship. and it goes back, our relationship with w enforcement. it goes back since before the it goes back to the slave civil war. militias. it goes back. it goes way back to after the civil war the relationship with , law enforcement and every thing. we could go on and on and on. but it is the culture of it. it's the culture within the department, which seems to perpetuate itself and sustain itself, in some sense. now, certainly, when i thought about -- when they talked about the movement, i was thinking about, well, when we talk about black lives matter and those courageous women who began that and then built that -- >> absolutely. >> they've talked about police brutality. it's right up on right up on the agenda. but they've been inclusive of

other dynamics. when you talk about black lives matter, you have to talk about education. you have to talk about all the different things that affect black lives, the lives of young black children, all the time, every single thing. i remember when i worked for city government in the model cities program, the office of community development in 1971 for six and a half years. we knew in the hunters in the point, bayview-hunters point, a predominantly black community, we knew how many jobs were going to be coming there this summer, summer jobs and everything else. i'm not saying the model wasn't perfect, but there was a different kind of engagement. all of us who came through and witnessed what happened with the black panther party, when they talked about community, community and police protection and all those things. but they added other things to the program -- free breakfast for children, free education, free health care. all those become a part of what black lives matter. in a larger context, in a larger time, it's a caring about our whole being who we are spiritually, who we are

physically, etc. amy: i want to intone these three mother's names. we're talking about geneva reed-veal, who was the mother of sandra bland. sandra bland who was taken by a police officer in texas who was , taken to jail. she could not afford the bond. she is taken to jail because she was pulled over, supposey for , not signaling a traffic lane change. then you had lucia mcbath, mother of jordan davis, young teenager who was in a car with his friends thanksgiving in a parking lot playing music. and a white man drove up, annoyed by their loud music, instead of just pulling his car away, he ends of opening fire on them and killing jordan. and finally lesley mcspadden, who , was the mother of michael brown, who was killed by a police officer two years ago.

at the democratic national convention, all standing, and also eric garner's mother was standing there. >> yes, yes, exactly. amy: does this -- danny glover, what does this mean for you in terms of who you will vote for? did this surprise you, as you heard this took place? you have long been a surrogate for bernie sanders, as larry hamm was a supporter of bernie sanders. larry, i think you're going to go in maybe a different direction than danny glover is who are you going to vote for? going who are you going to vote for? to go in casting a final vote. ? do you know at this point, danny glover? >> i'm going to be very frank. when i go to the polls, i'm going to vote for hillary clinton. i'm going to be very frank about that. i think that the idea of donald trump as president, see, is also

a frightening idea. but i know at the me time, in voting for hillary clinton, i want to put the kind of pressure on her. i want to make her live up to that platform and everything else. i want us to exceed what has been put in that platform. i want us to see a movement come out of this. now, in the event that she wins, we're going to fight in the still. event that she doesn't win, we're going to fight still. there's no worse coming, in the in the event she doesn't. i mean i'm going to go -- i know , where black people are going, and i'm going to go with them. i'm going to go with those mothers. you know what i'm saying? i'm going to go with those mothers, because my mother, if she was here, she would have hugged those mothers, and she would have been weeping in front of the television. and i'm going to go with those mothers, absolutely. juan: larry? >> yes. i'm going to follow the guidance of the standard-bearer bernie sanders, and i'm going to

vote for hillary clinton. it's a choice between neofascism, donald trump, and neoliberalism, hillary clinton. donald trump must be defeated, and not just defeated, he must be defeated decisively. there must be a repudiation of these ultra-right-wing and fascist tendencies that are supporting him and that are in his movement. the struggle against neoliberalism, which has been going on for the past 40 years, will continue after and the november 8. bernie sanders movement is at a critical stage. bernie sanders did something that was tremendous in the political arena. he widened the space for progressive politics. but more than that, he proved that there is a critical mass of people in the united states that

will support progressive, even radical, politics. and the challenge at this point is for all of those forces -- because there is one force. there is the bernie sanders movement vis-a-vis the democratic party and the establishment and corporate leadership of that party. but within the bernie sanders movement itself, there are many tendencies. the question is are those , tendencies going to be able to resolve their contradictions to the point -- not eliminate them, but at least modify them to the point that they can hold together and keep this movement going? or are they going to explode, amy: larry hamm and actor denny glover speaking with one gonzalez and i last month at the democratic national convention in philadelphia. that doesn't for the show. i will be speaking friday night.

check our website. democracynow.org. democracynow.org.

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