♪ [captioning made possible by democracy now!] >> from pacifica, this is democracy now. setonald trump who wants to its eyes with our people has regard that a few months ago he labeled iran a terrorist nation. he is against the iranian nation to his score and wants to feel sorry for a romney and's, there is a question, open to suspicion. >> 22 people dead in iran and hundreds arrested as authorities used tear gas and water cannons to quell the large anti-government protests since 2009. president trump tweets it is trying for change in iran prompted frustration from the

iranian president. we will get response from glenn greenwald, a founding editor of the intercept and speak to him about his new report facebook says it is the leading accounts at the direction of the u.s. and israeli government. as donald trump denies collusion with russia during his wide-ranging interview with the new york times, we will speak to glenn greenwald against the special prosecutor robert mueller's ongoing probe. >> they're trying to take the only faction worse than donald trump, the deep state, the cia with its history of atrocities and say they should engage in a where they take the elected president and prevent him from enacting his policies. it is extremely dangerous to do that. >> all that and more coming up. ♪ welcome to democracy now, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman.

in iran, at least 22 people are dead and hundreds have been arrested as authorities used tear gas and water cannons to quell the largest anti-government protests since 2009. the protests, which began last week and quickly spread to cities across iran, are targeting high unemployment, income inequality, and housing costs. protesters have also targeted iranian supreme leader ali khamenei and president hassan rouhani. on sunday, rouhani said iranians have the right to protest but said violence would be met with a firm response. >> i ask all of the security forces, the police forces who have not behaved in a violent way towards the people, exercise their restraint so nobody is hurt. at the same time, to preserve our country, our nation, our tranquility and peace, we must be firm and act decisively. amy: president donald trump responded to the protests, tweeting, "the people of iran are finally acting against the

brutal and corrupt iranian regime. all of the money that president obama so foolishly gave them went into terrorism and into their pockets. the people have little food, big inflation, and no human rights. the u.s. is watching!" trump's tweets drew a rebuke from iranian president rouhani, who noted that trump called iran a, "terrorist nation like few others" in a speech last year. president trump ring in the new year with his son and wife in his mar-a-lago resort in florida for a club member spent $600 a piece for a chance to join him for a dinner. speaking briefly to reporters outside of the party, donald trump boasted about republican tax cuts for the wealthy and opening up and war, the arctic national wildlife refuge to oil and gas drilling. trump: we are off to a great start with great tax cuts and anwr and getting rid of the

individual mandate which was very unpopular. we will have a tremendous year. amy: meanwhile, pakistan summoned u.s. ambassador david hale monday to explain president trump's first tweet of the new year. early monday, trump tweeted, "the united states has foolishly given pakistan more than $33 billion in aid over the last 15 years, and they have given us nothing but lies & deceit, thinking of our leaders as fools. they give safe haven to the terrorists we hunt in afghanistan, with little help. no more!" north korean leader kim jong on -- north korean leader kim jong-un declared his nation a fully-fledged nuclear power monday, sang in a televised new year's day speech he was prepared to launch a nuclear attack against his enemies, including south korea, japan or the united states. >> the entire united states is within range and a nuclear button is on my desk, this is reality and not a threat. amy: kim said north korea would

now focus on mass producing nuclear warheads and ballistic meanwhile, kim made an apparent peace overture towards south korea, saying he might send a delegation to next month's winter olympics in pyeongchang. south korean president moon jae-in welcomed the overture, saying he's asked north korea to open high-level talks next tuesday to discuss the olympics and north korea's nuclear program. in the democratic republic of congo, security forces have killed at least seven people amid protests over joseph kabila's refusal to step down as president. among those attacked by police were catholic protesters, who were met with tear gas and concussion grenades as they marched through the capital kinshasa following sunday mass. president kabila's term expired in december 2016, and under congo's constitution he's ineligible to seek a third term. but kabila has delayed a new election to pick his successor until december. this is maman louis, a protester in kinshasa.

>> we are tired, we have never had peace in this country, nothing works and we do not eat well, the president is young and can leave it to someone else and come back later. it is in that, we do not want him. amy: on sunday, congolese authorities cut off internet access and text messaging services in parts of the country in a bid to stifle dissent. in the gaza strip, palestinians held a funeral march saturday for a 20-year old man killed by israeli forces during friday protests against president trump's declaration of jerusalem as israel's capital. at least 13 palestinians have been killed in protests since trump's declaration. elsewhere, israeli forces fired tear gas at palestinians in west bank cities, including bethlehem, jericho, and ramallah, injuring at least 20 protesters. the protests came as hamas fired three rockets into southern israel, prompting israeli tanks and a warplane to fire on southern gaza. there were no reports of

injuries in the exchanges. meanwhile, an israeli military court has indicted 16-year-old palestinian ahed tamimi on 12 charges, including throwing stones and aggravated assault, after a viral video showed her slapping a soldier in the occupied west bank. the incident came after israeli troops shot tamimi's 14-year-old brother in the head with a rubber-coated steel bullet and fired tear gas canisters into her family's home. mondoweiss reports that the soldier actually slapped the 16-year-old girl first, causing her to slap back. on monday, israeli prosecutors asked a military judge to keep tamimi jailed while she awaits trial. in afghanistan, a bomb blast ripped through a crowd of mourners in the eastern city of jalalabad on sunday, killing at least 15 people and wounding more than a dozen others. the was no claim of responsibility for the attack, which targeted the funeral of a local government official.

the attack follows last week's bombing of a shiite cultural center in kabul, which killed 41 people and injured dozens more. in syria, government forces are continuing a massive bombing campaign on the rebel held damascus suburb. video uploaded to social media on new year's day shows massive explosions ripping apart entire buildings in eastern bothe which has been the -- the seized by syrian forces since 2013. there are currently about 400,000 civilians in the region where supplies of medicine, food, and water are dwindling. in egypt, gunmen opened fire on worshipers at a coptic christian church in cairo on friday, killing 11 people in an attack that was claimed by isis. friday's assault was the latest on egypt's christian minority -- it follows an attack on a sufi mosque in egypt's sinai peninsula in november that

killed 305 people. in china, an estimated 10,000 people marched through the streets of hong kong on monday, protesting a crackdown on free speech and on the city's autonomy under the "one country, two systems" policy. the new year's day protest capped a year that saw chinese authorities jail pro-democracy activists and oust elected officials. in denver, colorado, a gunman at leastfle to fire 100 rounds in an ambush-style attack at police who were responding to a disturbance. the suspect, iraq veteran matthew riehl, shot and killed sheriff deputy zackari parrish and injured four others officers, as well as two civilians. the shooting occurred on the final day of a year that saw more than 300 mass shootings, including the deadliest in modern u.s. history in las vegas, which left 58 dead and

more than 500 injured. in hollywood, more than 1,000 prominent actresses, writers, and directors have launched a project aimed at combating sexual abuse and harassment in the film industry. the time's up campaign follows on the heels of a torrent of allegations of rape, sexual assault, and harassment against powerful men that began with reports into sexual abuse by movie mogul harvey weinstein. the initiative seeks to raise $13 million for a legal defense fund to help working-class women bring sexual abuse charges. it also seeks to reach gender parity at hollywood studios and talent agencies, while penalizing companies that tolerate persistent harassment, the campaign also seeks to end nondisclosure agreements that silence victims. among those participating are

director ava duvernay, producer kathleen kennedy, and actors natalie portman, reese witherspoon, cate blanchett, eva longoria, and america ferrera. propublica reports the trump administration is working to add a question on citizenship to the 2020 census, a move that immigrants rights groups say would suppress participation in the census by immigrants, altering how congressional districts are drawn and cutting off federal dollars to areas with large immigrant populations. in a statement, vanita gupta, president of the leadership conference on civil and human right, said -- "this request suggests that at least some in the administration are trying to jeopardize the accuracy of the 2020 census in every state and every community by deterring many people from responding, making the data collected in this crucial once-a-decade operation less accurate and useful for all of us." in california, sales of legal

recreational marijuana began with the new year on monday, as about 100 dispensaries opened their doors in major cities. under state law, adults 21 and over can possess up to an ounce of marijuana and can grow up to six plants at home. marijuana sales are now allowed along the entire west coast, including alaska. under federal law, marijuana remains a prohibited schedule 1 drug in the same category as heroin and lsd. 4.5 million u.s. workers will see a pay raise beginning this week after 18 states and 19 cities increased minimum wage. the increases range from 35 extra cents for our to an extra dollar per hour in maine and michigan. most of the increases came about as part of voter act ballot measures or new state laws. those are some of the headlines. this is democracy now,

democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. >> welcome to our viewers around the world. today we spend the hour with pulitzer-prize winning journalist glenn greenwald as we look back at some of the major stories of 2017, and ahead to 2018. we begin with president trump's foreign policy and iran, where at least 22 people are dead and hundreds have been arrested, as authorities used tear gas and water cannons to quell the largest government -- antigovernment protest since 2009. the protests, which began last week and quickly spread to cities across iran, are targeting the country's high unemployment, income inequality and housing costs. protesters have also targeted iranian supreme leader ali khamenei and president hassan rouhani, on sunday, rouhani said iranians have the right to protest but said violence would be met with a firm response.

>> i ask all of the security forces, police forces who have not behaved in a violent way towards the people, i ask them to exercise restraint that nobody is hurt. in order to provide our country, our nation, our tranquility, we must be firm a act decisively. >> donald trump responded to the protest monday in one of his first tweets of the new year, writing, "iran is failing at every level despite the terrible deal made with them by the obama administration. the great iranian people have been repressed for many years. they are hungry for food & for freedom. along with human rights, the wealth of iran is being looted. time for change." the president about the comments. >> donald trump who wants to sympathize with our people has forgotten that a few months ago

he labeled the iranian nation a terrorist nation. a person against the iran nation wants to feel sorry for a iranians, there is a question, open to suspicion. >> president trump just tweeted that the people of iran are finally acting against the brutal and corrupt iranian regime, all of the money that president obama so foolishly gave them went into terrorism and into their pockets. the people have little food, big inflation, and no human rights, the u.s. is watching." for more we are joined from rio de janeiro, brazil by going greenwald, the pulitzer prize-winning journalist and editor's -- editor of the intercept. i hope the news for you this year is good. can you respond to what is happening in iran? protest that surprised not only the iranian leadership that --

but people all over the world. is an extremely sophisticated and complex country, 80 million people. i think that, when it comes to analyzing what is driving the protest in iran, we should defer to iranians, people in their civil society and to avoid overnight experts who pop up in the west and opine on these matters from afar without much knowledge. even within the commentary of iranians, you see conflicting accounts of whether the primary impetus is economic or greater political rights, demands of the government reform or a desire to change the government. i think, all we can say from afar is that protesting one some government without being shot in

the street or arrested is a universal human right and we should have solidarity with people who are agitating to make the government better. but i think we can and have to comment on is the posture of the united states government and western governments in terms of foreign policy and how they are responding to the events in tehran. that we can comment on and should. it is worth remembering that for a long time it has been the top item on the foreign-policy agenda of lots of factions to have regime change in iran. going back to 2005, 2006, the neocons came in after they toppled saddam hussein is real men go to tehran. they were most eager to facilitate regime change in iran. there is a lot of interest in terms of agitating for instability in iran. from people who pretend to care about the iranian people but who could not care less about the

iranian people. start with donald trump who tweeted his concern for the welfare of iranians, the same president who not more than three months ago announced a ban on iranians coming to the united states. he has aligned with the world's worst and most savage dictators, including in saudi arabia and other places around the world, lots of western commentators who are posturing about being concerned about human rights in iran are people in think tanks funded by other dictatorships and repressive tyrants in the same region. when itd be skeptical comes to people like donald trump or people in washington think tanks pretending to want to intervene in iran out of concern for human rights or the welfare of the iranian people. when it comes to foreign policy, the best we can hope for is the united states stays out of what is a matter of political dispute inside iran.

>> you mention saudi arabia, not just saudi arabia but egypt, or the philippines, all countries for which donald trump has had praise for the dictators and the authoritarian leaders of these countries. to suddenly come up with comments about the rights of the iranian people to rise up against their leaders. it should not be surprising for trump but gives food for thought for anyone who thinks the administration has concerned by human rights. all,s, i mean, first of the centerpiece of u.s. foreign-policy in the wake of world war ii through the cold war and even with the fall of the soviet union has been to align with and to embrace and support dictators, tyrants, and repressive regimes if they serve the interest of the united states.

anybody in the right mind who take seriously pronouncement from official washington that they are motivated by anger over repression or a defense of the political rights of people in other countries is naive at best. just this week, there was an amazing leak that politico published which was a state department memo written to secretary of state rex tillerson that explicitly said what has been long obvious but put into words so clear, that human rights is not actually something the u.s. government believes in, it is a cudgel it uses to undermine and bash countries that do not serve its interests. they use to investigations of human rights abuses to undermine and weaken governments contrary to their agenda. while the memo said, this is not me saying this, it said they overlook and sanction repressive behavior on the part of their allies. it goes beyond the trump

administration, look at how official washington works in terms of the leading think tanks, the brookings institution , incredibly popular now among liberals is funded with tens of millions of dollars by the government of qatar, one of the most repressive regimes and the funded by -- it is the government of united arab emirates. when you hear people like that or people in the trump administration who have aligned themselves with the world's most savage dictators for decades, funded by tyrants, or tending that they are motivated by desk pretending that their motive my -- pretending that they are whining to liberate people, you should know there are other agendas and it matters because it is not just, we are exposing some progress in or deceit, it

is because what someone's motives are when they intervened in other countries determines the outcome. look what happened in libya for anne-marie slaughter and hillary clinton and john kerry pretended to be motivated the interest of the libyan people wants omar qaddafi was killed and removed ,rom office, the real goal everybody forgot about libya and it fell into utter chaos, militia rule, slave trade has returned and isis is raining. when you do not care about the interest of the people, you only pretend to as a pretext for it, it alters the outcome in ways that are never desirable. >> the significance of what is happening in iran for protests around the world. the message it is sending, something president trump may not be as interested in and what it means for the nuclear deal. the iran nuclear deal that donald trump is trying to pull out of. >> right.

one of the interesting aspects of this kind of cynical manipulative behavior when it comes to pretending to side with protesters, when in reality the agenda is different is that it can't in an unintended way, sparked protests and the right of rebellion elsewhere which is opinethough we should not on the internal affairs of iran from a distance, because it is too complicated and opaque for us to meaningfully do that, what we can and should do is reaffirmed the right of people everywhere to protest against the government without being in prison or detained without being shot with tear gas, and without being killed, which is happening in iran. as donald trump of holds this value, it can spark protests and this kind of egos of reform and

rebellion and people demanding government treatment far beyond what he may intend here in the united states, there has been the most robust protest against the trap of illustration we have seen in the united states -- the trump administration we have seen in the united states and decades, his justice department is prosecuting protesters, when you see things like what is going on in around, poor people without political rights standing up against the government can inspire people around the world. amy: we will break and when we come back, a wide ranging discussion and we want to begin --h your latest piece, "facebook says it is deleting accounts at the direction of the u.s. and israeli governments." we are speaking with the pulitzer prize-winning journalists, a founding and her of the intercept, glenn greenwald who is joining us from rio de janeiro, brazil. stay with us.

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>> we are spending the hour with glenn greenwald his new report is about facebook censorship says it iscebook deleting accounts at the direction of the u.s. and israeli governments. he writes that facebook representatives met with the israeli government to determine which facebook accounts of palestinians should be delete it on the grounds that they constituted incitement, alternatively israelis have virtually free reign to post whatever they want about palestinians and calls by israelis for the killing of palestinians are commonplace on facebook and largely remain undisturbed, including a recent facebook campaign calling for a vengeance against arabs in

retribution for the killing of three israeli teenagers appeared >> this follows president trump's recognition of jerusalem as israel's capital and a right-wing push to get a two state solution. the new york times reports prime minister benjamin netanyahu party for the first time has urged the annexation of jewish settlements in the west bank and the nation's top legal officers pressed to extend israeli law into occupied territory, in addition the israeli parliament after a late-night debate voted early tuesday to enact stf new obstacles to any potential land for peace deal involving jerusalem. that is in the "new york times." we continue our conversation with glenn greenwald, the pulitzer prize-winning journalist and founding editor of the intercept. your piece but is facebook says it is deleting accounts at the direction of the u.s. and israeli government. can you explain which accounts are being deleted and how you

found this out? >> sure. within the last week, facebook deleted the facebook account and the instagram account, facebook owns instagram of the president -- ae texan republican monstrous tyrant, not much doubt about that, there are credible reports he is presiding over the torture and killing in some cases of lgbts within his republic. he has killed and kidnapped and tortured political dissidents and has free reign over the republic although he reports to moscow but has autonomy over how to run the chechen republic and is an awful tyrant. when facebook decided suddenly to delete the accounts of the head of the state, who had a

total of 4 million followers, they did not say we are doing it because he is an awful tyrant who has done the things i just said. they said the reason we did it is because he was placed on a list the united states government state department manages and the treasury department manages in which he is now the target of sanctions, which means under the law we, facebook, are obligated to obey the dictates of the united states government and no longer allow him to use our services. this rationale is dubious. other people on the same list like the president of venezuela and many of his top officials who continue to use facebook actively. what the rationale means, if you think about it, the u.s. government, according to facebook, has the power to dictate to facebook who it is allowed to use the platform to communicate with the world, and who will be blocked and he will be banned.

you can take the position on the one hand that facebook is a private company and it has the right to determine who uses its platform, which is true, the first amendment does not apply to facebook. silicon valley giants have become so powerful and massive, and particular google, facebook, and apple, they are akin to public utilities, to almost their own private nationstates than they are to average corporations that have competition. eliminatee power to someone from facebook is almost the power to eliminate them from the internet. to hear facebook say it is the u.s. government, the donald trump administration has the power to tell us who will use facebook and who cannot is extremely chilling. especially since already last year they prove they were willing to do the same thing when it came to the israeli government. there was an article in the new york times detailing that the israeli right, the dominant faction in israel, is finally

open about the fact that the real goal is not a two state solution or a peace process, it is the annexation of the west bank. these politicians openly advocating this are the same ones who summoned facebook executives in october of last and directedting them to delete the accounts of a huge number of palestinian activists, journalists, college hitters, and facebook obeyed in almost every case, even though israelis are free to say the most heinous an awful things about palestinians, including incitement. facebook now is collaborating with the most powerful government on the planet, the israelis and the americans in particular to determine who is allowed to speak and who is not and what messages are allowed to be conveyed. an thing moreof threatening or menacing to internet freedom and the promise of what the internet was supposed to be that behavior like this. >> is there any indication of the people, the palestinians who

were targeted by the israeli government, that any of them were under u.s. sanctions? any reason for the united states to support this? or was this an israeli government facebook conflict with the israeli government insistence? facebook wanted to continue in israel, they would have to do this? >> it was bullying and coercion are part of the israeli government and they said to facebook, we will enact a law that requires you to delete the accounts of whatever accounts our government identifies as guilty of incitement. the only way you can avoid us putting this law in place which would say facebook failure to obey real result in fines and could result in the blocking of facebook in israel, the way china blocks facebook and other companies that do not comply with its censorship orders.

they said you can avoid this law if you voluntarily obey the orders we give you about who should be deleted. theyook, whether because were driven by business interests and not wanting to lose the israeli market, or ideology, they support the israeli viewpoint of the world, which ever one of the motives may be driving them, complied with the israeli demands. this is the critical point everybody listening thinks about, there is a growing movement on the left, in europe and the united states, to support censorship as a solution to this kind of growing, far right movement. let's plead with silicon valley executive to keep fascists offline or hope our government will not allow fascists to speak. aside from the fact that it is incredibly counterproductive, because when you try to censor movements, you only make them

stronger. the premise of the idea, as we see in this case, is really warped. the idea that silicon valley executives or u.s. government officials are going to use censorship our to help and protect marginalized groups, i think it is absurd in almost every case, when we see the entities using censorship hours, they use them to target marginalized groups and serve the most powerful which is why facebook blocked palestinians but not israelis, because palestinians have no power and israelis do. the more we and power these entities to censor, the more we will endanger marginalized groups is that is you ultimately will be suppressed. >> you had this amazing moment in the house and senate recently , the hearings with the heads of google and twitter and facebook. where you had this demand on the part of the republicans and the democrats for censorship.

the democrats using the pretext of russia, saying why did not you delete these accounts. >> yes, the idea that somehow our political salvation rests in placing into the hands of the already obscenely powerful silicon valley executives feared the further power, they do not want to have, to determine what political messages are allowed on the internet, to determine who is allowed to communicate on the internet and who isn't, is incredibly menacing. just last week, twitter promulgated a new policy in response to the demand you were just describing. they said, you are no longer allowed to use twitter to advocate or incite violence, except, if you want the violence to be done by governments or militaries.

you are allowed to go on twitter and say, i demand the u.s. government nuke north korea out of existence or say, i want the israeli government to incinerate every person in gaza. you are not allowed to go on twitter and say, as a muslim i believe it is a responsibility of muslims to fight back against aggression. or as a north korean, i want to defend against imperialism. under the guise of begging silicon valley to save us from bad political speech, what is happening is the most powerful factions are empowered to say what they want and the least powerful factions are censored. no matter how well-intentioned it is, always the result of these calls for censorship. amy: you also talk about, would facebook ever there censor american journalist or politicians who use violence against american enemies.

facebook'sook at rationale for why they censored the president of the chechen republic, they said we had to do it because he was put on a list of people who were sanctioned by the u.s. government. just last month, the iranian government issued a list of sanctions that included a bunch of canadian officials. the russian government has issued a list of people who were sentient that include u.s. business people and u.s. officials. facebook would never honor the sanctions list of the russian government or the arena government and remove u.s. officials or canadian businesspeople. it is one-sided, it is only serving the dictates of powerful governments. you can go on twitter and facebook pretty much every day and see calls for extreme amounts of violence to be directed against iranians, against people in gaza or the

west bank, to be directed against people in the muslim world. obviously facebook and twitter will never remove that kind of incitement to violence because that is consistent with the policy of western governments. the only people who will be removed are people otherwise voiceless and opposed to western foreign-policy, that is why it is so ill-advised, so dangerous, no matter how well-intentioned to call for silicon valley jacobs or the u.s. government to start censoring political speech. >> let's turn to a topic you have written quite a bit about, robert mueller investigation over possible collusion between the trump administration and russia in an attempt to influence the 2016 election. have been critical about how corporate and commercial media have dealt with the issue, especially the debunked expose that cnn issued several months

ago about in the mail that seem to prove collusion. could you talk about that? >> i think a couple of things are important to point out, from the beginning, everybody, i include myself and everybody i have read and heard, said it is obtusely possible that the russian government was the primary culprit when it came to the hacking of the emails of john podesta and the dnc. what russia and the united states has done to one another, nobody should put it past the russians to do this and it is also possible that there were people in the donald trump campaign that were aware after the fact it was done and who helped somehow to decide how the information would be disseminated. i think, given the implication that this issue has come in

terms of number one, the relationship between two dangerous nuclear powers, moscow and washington, who on many have almost obliterated the planet through the change of nuclear weapons and who are at loggerheads with one another. and the climate in washington in which any interaction with russia is something that is a ground for suspicion. we have to be very careful as journalists and citizens to make sure we do not get ahead of ourselves in terms of the claims we are making, we have to adhere to the evidence available before we decide official claims of the cia and the nsa and fbi, agencies with a long history of lying and deceit and error, but for we accept them as -- before we accept them as true. over the last year or year and a half is large media outlets in case after case acting very

recklessly, publishing story that turned out to be completely false and needed to be retracted and were discredited. that enables donald trump to encourage people not to trust the media. no matter your views on russia, and i think it is dangerous that the u.s. and russian relations are probably at their worst point as they have been sent before all of the soviet union,s donald trump would serve the interests of the reactions, in reality -- russians, the countries are a great tension. i think we all have an interest in making sure our political discourse and media reports are grounded in reality and fact. while robert mueller has produced four indictments, they all have been for either lying to the fbi or money laundering. not have alleged actual criminal

collusion between the trump campaign and the russians. what i have said all along and what i still say, we should let an investigation proceed until the end and look at the evidence , only then should we reach conclusions because it is dangerous to use supposition and speculation, and all kinds of guesswork you make accusations which can have serious consequences. we have seen the dangers of that over the last year. amy: the issue of collusion with russia that was a key focus in president trump's recent, rare interview with michael schmidt of the "new york times." near the beginning of the interview, donald trump launched into a discussion about russian collusion and they quote him as saying, "virtually every democrat has said there is no collusion, even these committees that have been set up, if you look at what is going on.

it has really angered the base and made the base rubber, my basis for longer than it has ever been, great congressman, some congressman had been unbelievable in pointing out what a witch hunt it has been feared it has been proven that there is no collusion. by the way, i did not deal with russia, i won because of the better candidate." he says throughout the interview that there was no collusion. if you can talk about what he says and talk about his attacks on robert mueller? some say if he would leave robert mueller alone robert mueller will vindicate him. >> there is a lot going on there. trump's statement that all democrats say there is no collusion is a typical lie. all kinds of democrats, most say they believe there was collusion. he did not write about, none have presented evidence. there is a point in the

interview he saw dianne feinstein last month admitting there is no evidence of collusion which is not what she said. it is instructive to watch , the seniortein democrat on the intelligence committee and gets regular briefings from the cia about the evidence. she did go on cnn last month and was asked a series of questions about whether she has seen evidence about a variety of collusion, she essentially said i have never seen any evidence. andwent on cnn in may explicitly said after a cia briefing that she is not aware of any evidence. of actual collusion between the donald trump campaign and the russians. you have donald trump doing what he does in the interview, constantly lying about what democrats have set and about the nature of the investigation here is a tax on robert mueller are stupid for the reason you said, although hopefully, robert mueller, if he is professional, will not be affected by the

attacks and follow the evidence. what is really going on is this, if you look at how our political media works, the part of the political media that is partisan , the way the right-wing media grew was during the clinton years when rush limbaugh and the drudge report and fox news fed on scandal after scandal after scandal of whitewater and vince foster, and ultimately became star investigation. and then the fox news growing more during the obama years with all kinds of fake scandals. now, large parts of the media, msnbc, lots of liberal websites growing exponentially by constantly not talking but donald trump's dangerous foreign policy or the ignoring of climate, that a decision over the russia scandal and getting great benefits from it. that is what happened, we have a balkanized media that sees

audiences, whatever they want to hear, without any journalistic standards and the incentive is to constantly inflate and exaggerate and make it as sensational as possible and people are eating it up to the profit of the media outlets. .hat is what is going on when donald trump says it is energizing his base, he is right, it is dividing america between i hate donald trump and therefore will believe everything about rush i hear versus i love donald trump and will believe nothing. it is intensifying these divisions. amy: we will break and come back to our discussion with glenn greenwald, one of the founding editors of the intercept. this is democracy now! and we will be back with him in a minute. ♪

am amymocracy now!, i goodman. >> earlier this month, three major u.s. news ellis promoted a story alleging that wikileaks has eagerly offer the trump campaign special access to dnc emails before they were published and suggested the correspondents prove collusion between the trump family and russia since the u.s. intelligence community regards wikileaks as an arm of russian intelligence. the information was false. amy: we continue our conversation with glenn greenwald, the pulitzer prize journalist who writes about this and other issues. can you set the record straight? you said on twitter after this report that slate notes because cnn and msnbc peru's desperate used to provide transparency about how they got their big story so wrong, we do not know the answer to the key question and probably never will because they are bearing it.

-- burying it. talk about the story and how it was reported and people are fleetingly covering these things. -- following these things. >> yes, it is worth remembering how dramatized cnn presented the story as being, they presented it as the smoking gun that would bring down the trump presidency and prove collusion. shortly after, msnbc and cbs said they confirmed the story independently and were on air for hours doing the same thing, the biggest story of the day by far. pointed to as evidence that donald trump collated with the russians. what cnn said was that there was personl from an unknown to donald trump and donald trump, jr. offering them access to the wikileaks archives, to the archive of email that

wikileaks did not publish but pointed to before they made them public, suggesting that the trump campaign was given special, early access to this archive of emails that have been hacked and that prove collusion. the entire report was false. false because it was based on the inaccurate date of the mail -- email. the date was not sent before the emails were published but sent after the emails were public, some guy saying you should look at these emails that everybody was already aware of and the story collapsed. all journalists make mistakes, i have made mistakes and you have made mistakes, and when you make a mistake, the bigger the ,istake, the more this is true explain to the public how it is you got wrong what you got wrong, what went wrong in the process. did somebody mislead you or did you make a mistake and analysis?

cnn said that they had multiple sources who told them about this and characterized it as having taken place before the emails were public, which was wrong. the question that came up, an obvious question, important, if plausible that one person could look at this email and misread the date, the date they said was september 4 but it was september 14. you can see one person misreading it but cnn said multiple sources gave them the date of september 4. msnbc and cbs said the same thing. how did multiple sources get this wrong? how do they all get the date wrong in the same way for exactly the same purpose? msnbc admitted their story was false because the washington post got hold of the email and showed it was

false. they refuse to do what journalists demand every day that other people do, other companies and corporations do and government officials do, provide transparency about their mistakes. to this day, cnn refuses to say to the sources were who gave them the wrong date and how it is they all got the date wrong, innocently and in good faith, a delivered attempt to deceive the public, that is what a rhodes trust in media outlets, when they claim up and hide behind corporate and lawyer statements, and refused to provide basic transparency about their own behavior, how do they have credibility to turn around and demand transparency from government institutions and officials or corporations when they refused to provide it themselves? that is the most disturbing part of the story, not just a huge mistake, not just a huge mistake that has been one in a long series of similar mistakes come all year to the same political agenda, to inflate the

trump-russia story but their refusal to explain what happened and how they made such a monumental mistake, and whether they were disabled -- was arately misled or it closet with accident that multiple people made at the same time. >> i want to ask you about an article you wrote in september, shortly after sean spicer's having been ousted from the white house got an appearance at the any awards -- at the emmy awards. you talk about the quickness of how disgraced people in administrations suddenly get rehabilitated, you listed all of the bush administration people because somehow the bush administration, the formal people in that and missed ration are being welcomed and even on liberal talk shows on commercial television. think, if you went back and looked at, not just the bush

years, but the obama years, the person -- a journalist or pundit or commentator probably the single most disgraced and discredited was the neoconservative editor-in-chief of the weekly standard, bill kristol. not just that he was a vocal advocate of the iraq war, his sins and crimes extend beyond that. he advocated for torture and was one of the people who wanted to go and go to war with iran. at have regime change in tehran. during the obama years, he accused justice department lawyers who represented guantanamo detainees of being jihadists and called in the al qaeda seven. -- he is ammy as smear artist, somebody who has constantly live, defended the most atrocious policies, and suddenly last year, because he was a critic of donald trump, he

is now welcomed on msnbc almost on a daily basis and talked about as if he is a person whose insights are to be valued and a person of high ethics. this is what you see in american politics, people who have no accountability for what it is they do. we talked about why the american media is held in such low esteem on the part of the public and that is one of the reasons. in ordinary life, if you go to your job, and you make a series of her rent this mistakes, you will be fired -- of her rent this mistakes, -- karen does -- live --es -- david from you get promoted, one of the most prestigious journalists -- journals is the atlantic and the editor in chief of the atlantic's jeffrey goldberg, who in 2002 and 2003 was writing articles in the new yorker saying that side of the zhang --

out of the same had a relationship without -- saddam hussein had a relationship with al qaeda. is of these people do continue to rise and get embraced and rehabilitated because there is zero accountability. the more power you have the more you are able to commit grave sins and lies and crimes, and continue to succeed. it should be the opposite and in media, you see that probably more than anywhere else. amy: what is happening with sean spicer? >> the example of sean spicer is particularly amazing. most people are in agreement that the trump administration has systematically lied to the public. all governments lie. administration has taken it to a new level and the face of that for the first six months was sean spicer who live

to the public on a daily -- who d to the public on a given basis, the most amazing thing is that he was given a fellowship at harvard in the kennedy school, the same program that originally game a fellowship to chelsea manning, who risked her liberty to provide the most valuable journalistic archive we had in american journalism, the archive she did to wikileaks about the iraq war and afghanistan war. she was part of the same fellowship program sean spicer received and the cia objected to chelsea manning being given this honor at harvard rescinded the offer to chelsea manning and said we have to preserve the integrity of the program while allowing not just sean spicer but corey lewandowski, a former top donald trump campaign official who lied repeatedly to become part of the same program.

that is the point i am getting at, chelsea manning has no power in washington and therefore accountability for her, she spent seven years in a brutal prison and pass her offer rescinded at the demand of the cia by harvard. but sean spicer and corey lewandowski who yield influence in washington, they continue to climb the ladder. no matter what they do. amy: we have to leave it there and i thank you for bring with us. glenn greenwald, pulitzer prize-winning journalist. in new york city, police brutality activist erica garner died saturday after an asthma induced heart attack i just 27 years old, the daughter of eric garner, she struggled for justice and her father's case who died in a police chokehold as he gasped "i can't breathe" 11 times. democracy now! is produced by a

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