03/13/18 03/13/18 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] amy: from pacifica, this is democracy now! >> why take money away from that school that is not working to bring them up to a level where school that is working? >> we should be funding and investing in students, not in inool buildings, not institutions, not in systems. >> have the public schools in michigan gotten better? >> i don't know. i can't say overall they have all gotten better. amy: betsy devos, the billionaire repuican activist turned education secretary, is under fire after she appeared on "60 minutes" and was unable to defend the right-wing education

policies she has pushed for decades, first in michigan, then across the country. we will go to michigan for the latest. then to louisiana. newly disclosed documents reveal a state intelligence agency regularly spied on activists opposing construction of the bayou bridge pipeline, owned by energy transfer partners, which would carry nearly a half-million barrels of oil per day across louisiana's wetlands. >> what our governor is telling us, because these documents say from the governor's office of homeland security. our governor is saying if you want to make your community better, we will follow you. not only is it going to be the governor's office, but the national guard, the fbi, and the state police. seriously? amy: plus, we will look at a bill to allow armed secret service agents at polling booths. a bipartisan group of 19 secretaries of state have called the proposal unprecedented and shocking.

all that and more, coming up. welcome to democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. in syria, war monitors say at least 42 people have been killed in recent days as the syrian government continues its bombing campaign and ground offensive against eastern ghouta, outside the capital damascus. on monday, u.s. ambassador to the united nations, nikki haley, warned the united states is prepared to act if chemical weapons are used in eastern ghouta. >> any nation that is determined to impose its will through chemical attacks and in human suffering, most especially the outlaw syrian regime, the united states remains prepared to act if we must. it is not the path we prefer, but it is a path we have demonstrated we will take. and we are prepared to take it again.

amy: activists have accused syria's government of using chlorine gas and incendiary white phosphorus munitions. syria's government denies using chemical weapons. in more news from syria, thousands of civilians are fleeing the northwestern city of afrin as the turkish military begins a siege of the syrian kurdish city. the turkish military offensive, launched on january 20, aims to oust the u.s.-backed kurdish people's protection units, known as the ypg, from the city. defense secretary james mattis has arrived in kabul for an unannounced trip to afghanistan. his trip comes after afghan president ashraf ghani offered to begin peace talks with the taliban without precondition. the taliban has also recently published an open letter expressing its desire for peace talks and calling on the american people to pressure president trump to the negotiating table. president trump has continued to walk with the nra and to walk back his promises to support gun

control in the wake of the high school massacre in parkland, florida, which killed 14 students and three faculty. on monday, president trump tweeted -- "on 18 to 21 age limits, watching court cases and rulings before acting. states are making this decision. things are moving rapidly on this, but not much political support, to put it mildly." the court cases have all been brought by the national rifle association. a recent poll shows the vast majority of americans, across all age groups, support raising the minimum age for purchasing firearms from 18 to 21. the trump himself said he supported raising the minimum age as recently as last week. but on monday, white house spokesperson sarah huckabee sanders tried to claim trump was not walking back his promises. >> look, he has not backed away from these things at all. as i just said, they are still outlined in the plan, but he

cannot make them happen with a broad stroke of the pen. you have to have some congressional component to do some of these things. without that support, it is not possible. amy: meanwhile, the youth-led movement for gun control continues to gain political support. as high schoolers plan to walk out of their classrooms across the country on wednesday. among those who haven't forced the new movement is oldest a warriors coach steve kerr, who compared the students to anti-vietnam war protesters and pledged to join the march for our lives on march 24 in san francisco. he made his remarks in newark, california at a town hall. kerr was 18 years old when his father malcolm kerr, the president of the american university of beirut, was shot dead in his office in 1984. the republican-controlled house intelligence committee has ended its investigation into alleged russian meddling in the 2016 election, saying the probe found

no evidence of collusion between trump's campaign and the russians or even evidence that russia was trying to help trump win. but on monday, florida republican congress member tom rooney, a member of the house panel, broke from the party line and said there did appear to be evidence that russian propaganda benefited trump. democrats on the house intelligence committee have also blasted the decision to end the probe. the top ranking democrat on the panel, adam schiff, said -- "by ending its oversight role in the only authorized investigation in the house, the majority has placed the interest of protecting the president over protecting the country and history will judge its actions harshly." the guardian is reporting president trump's son, donald trump jr., has a previously undisclosed business relationship with texas hedge fund manager gentry beach, who has enjoyed special access to top u.s. officials since trump took office.

last year, beach met with top officials from the national security council to push a plan to increase business opportunities in venezuela. he's also attended a private lunch with interior secretary ryan zinke. ethics experts question whether beach has gained the access to top administration officials because of his business relationship with trump's son. trump's personal lawyers are trying to stop "60 minutes" from airing its interview with adult film star stormy daniels about her alleged affair with donald trump in 2006 and 2007. and about his attempts to allegedly hush her. the inton monday, daniels offero return a $130,000 hush money payment she received from trump's personal lawyer only days before the 2016 election. multiple news outlets, including "the wall street journal" and "the washington post," say this

payment could have violated federal election law. daniels has sued to overturn the nondisclosure agreement, calling the deal invalid. a bipartisan group of secretaries of state are condemning a proposal to allow ated secret service agents election polling stations. the proposal has already been approved by the house as part of the homeland security department reauthorization bill. on friday, 19 secretaries of state wrote a letter to senate theers urging them to drop proposal, calling it unprecedented and shocking. we will have more on this story after headlines. in a rare move, president trump has blocked the singapore-based company broadcom from purchasing the american company qualcomm. trump cited a threat to national security in blocking the $117 billion acquisition, which would have been the biggest deal in technology history. president trump is heading to california today to see prototypes of his promised border wall.

it will be trump's first trip to california since he took office, and it comes only days after his administration sued california over its so-called sanctuary state laws limiting police cooperation with federal immigration agents. major protests against trump's trip are planned in los angeles and in tijuana, mexico. trump's trip to california comes as the san francisco spokesman for ice has resigned, saying trump administration officials have repeatedly and falsely exaggerated the number of people who evaded arrest after oakland mayor libby schaaf warned the community about impending ice raids across northern california. attorney general jeff sessions and others have claimed up to 800 people were able to avoid being detained by ice because of the mayor's warning. the former san francisco spokesman for ice, james schwab, says the real number is far lower and that he quit "because

i didn't want to perpetuate misleading facts." authorities in austin, texas, say the three package explosions that have killed two people over the last two weeks are connected and that race may be playing a factor in the bombings. two more packages exploded on monday in separate parts of austin, killing a 17-year-old african-american teenager and seriously injuring a hispanic woman. a third explosion on march 2 killed an african american man. both victims killed in explosions of the relatives of prominent members of the african-american community in austin, texas. in india, tens of thousands of farmers from the state of maharashtra completed a six-day, 110-mile protest march to the state capital mumbai at dawn on monday. the farmers are demanding waivers for agricultural loans and the right to forest land.

upon their arrival in mumbai, state officials said they would meet the farmers' demands. and the 2018 izzy award will be shared between four investigative reporters -- the intercept's lee fang and sharon lerner, truthout staff reporter dahr jamail, and city lights author todd miller. sharon lerner won for her reporting on corporate pollution, clean from the chemical giant dupont. dahr jamail for his work on climate change and the u.s. military. todd miller for his new book on climate refugees, "storming the wall: climate change, migration and homeland security." and lee fang for his investigative reporting on money and politics in the trump era. this is fang speaking recently on democracy now! about how gun manufacturers are targeting some people, even amidst the rise of an unprecedented youth-led movement for gun control. >> also, there is new and analysis from the gun industry showing that young people are not buying guns like older

generations for hunting. they are mostly kind of imitating videogame culture. they're going to gun stores, buying targets of vampires and zombies and going to the gun range and buying sophisticated weapons, lots of ammunition. this is, as one gun industry executive said, the xbox generation that they're trying to target. so even as there is a new youth-led student movement calling for gun control, this is coming at a time when the gun industry is hoping to grow their market share by selling more guns to young people. amy: the izzy award is presented by the park center for independent media and named for legendary dissident journalist i.f. stone. 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. a bipartisan group of secretaries of state are condemning a proposal to allow armed secret service agents at

polling stations. the proposal has already been approved by the house as part of the homeland security department reauthorization bill. on friday, 19 secretaries of state wrote a letter to senate leaders urging them to drop the proposal, calling it "unprecedented and shocking." massachusetts secretary of state william galvin, a democrat, told the boston globe -- "this is worthy of a third world country. i'm not going to tolerate people showing up to our polling places. i would not want to have federal agents showing up in largely hispanic areas. the potential for mischief here is enormous." amy: the league of women voters also criticized the proposal. the group's president chris carson said -- "this is just one more attempt this administration has made to attack voters and flagrantly dismantle core tenants of our democracy. on monday, the secret service issued a statement claiming reports about the bill have been

grossly mischaracterized. the agency said -- "the only time armed secret service personnel would be at a polling place would be to facilitate the visiting of one of our protectees while they voted." we go now to washington, where -- to washington, d.c., where we are joined by kristen clarke, president and executive director of the lawyers' committee for civil rights under law. welcome to democracy now! why are you so concerned about this bill as it has now been approved by the house and will be voted on by the senate? >> this proposal is truly chilling and jarring. the idea of having federal law enforcement agents patrolling, roaming inside polling places harkens back to tactics that we saw during the jim crow era. law enforcement historically has been used to discourage and depressed minority voter turnout. so this latest proposal truly harkens back to dark tactics that we have seen used

effectively to keep people away from holes in our country. in our country. the senate has not moved on this forgetbill, but we can't that this proposal, in so many respects, mirrors the language that president trump used on the campaign trail. at a 2016 rally in pennsylvania, that told his supporters they should go out and watch and look after they are done voting. he told his rally attendees that we need to call up the sheriff and we need to call the police chief to watch and monitor polling sites. this is truly a threat to democracy. we should be working to make sure our polling sites are neutral ground, where all voters can feel safe and free to go out

and cast their ballots. federal law enforcement agents would absolutely depressed and discouraged minority voter turnout. this is something we have to fight back on. juan: what do you make of the administration's argument this is basically just clarifying the ability of the secret service to enter polls with protect these, which presumably would be the president or the vice president going to vote? >> it does not match the language of the writer, which broader more sweeping. the language set any officer or any agents of the secret service would be allowed to enter polling sites. this is a moment that requires we remain vigilant. we cannot forget that this administration is the same one that launched the so-called election integrity commission, whose sole goal and purpose was to lay the groundwork for voter

suppression. so once again, we have this administration taking truly unprecedented action that would make it harder for people to vote and that would discourage people from coming out to polling sites this midterm election cycle. amy: the plan has also been opposed by many republican secretary of states including jon husted in ohio. he said -- "the fact that the u.s. senate would even consider enacting a law that would allow a president to place secret service agents in polling places is shocking. the frightening irony is that in creating additional safeguards to prevent russian meddling in american elections, these senators would open the door to unprecedented federal intrusion that could lead to an american election system that looks more like putin's russia." kristen clarke, if you could respond to that and the significance of this being bipartisan group of secretaries of state? >> that's right.

the 19 secretaries of state that have come out against this proposal, it is a bipartisan group that makes clear there are people on both sides of the aisle that see this as meddling in the way they would conduct elections in their state. joe arpaio in arizona is somebody who unleashed sheriffs outside polling places in maricopa county years ago. during the jim crow era, we saw this used as a familiar tactic to depress african-american and latino voter turnout. all of this distracts the public's attention away from real threats to democracy today. i am this heart and by the fact that congress, congressional committee, shutting down its inquiry into russia's meddling in our election. i am disheartened by attorney general jeff sessions, who has not brought a single voting rights case on behalf of

minority voters during his tenure at the justice department. we have deep concerns that this proposal is a thinly veiled attempt to resurrect the now disbanded election integrity commission. all of these are tactics really aimed at suppressing the vote during the 2018 midterm election cycle. and we need the public to remain vigilant. at the lawyers committee for civil rights under law, we lead the nation's largest nonpartisan voter protection program, election protection. it is anchored by an 866 -our-vote hotline. we encourage people to speak up if they see officers outside the polls. many states exley have laws that expressly prohibit police officers from being anywhere near polling sites. we know this stands to be a

barrier for voters. our polling sites should be where people are able to freely cast their ballots during elections. amy: i want to thank you, kristen clarke, president and executive director of the lawyers' committee for civil rights under law. as we speak on this day of pennsylvania's special election that is taking place there. we will cover it tomorrow. this is democracy now! atn we come back, we look the "60 minutes" interview with the education secretary betsy devos. stay with us. ♪ [music break]

amy: "all blues" by miles davis. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman with juan gonzalez. juan: education secretary betsy devos is facing new criticism after struggled sunday to explain why schools in her home state of michigan are faring poorly under the policies she championed.

devos is a billionaire republican activist who once served as chair of the american federation for children in michigan, where she promoted school choice and worked to expand the state's use of private charter schools. many educators say the results of devos' policies in michigan have been disastrous. welcome on sunday, betsy devos appeared on "60 minutes" and was questioned by leslie stahl about her policies. >> why take money away from that school that is not working to bring them up to a level where that school is working? >> we should be funding and investing in students, not in school buildings, not in institutions, not in systems. >> but what about the kids who are ck at the school that is not working? what about those kids? >> in places where there have been a lot of choice that has been introduced -- florida, for example -- the studies show that

when there's a large number of students that often to go to a different school or different schools, the traditional public schools actually, the results get better as well. >> has that happened in michigan? of great options and choices for students. >> have the public schools in michigan gotten better? >> i don't know. overall -- i can't say overall they have all gotten better. >> the whole state is not doing better. >> there are pockets that the students are doing well. >> but you argue if you take the funds away from the schools will not happening. you have a huge influence here. >> i hesitate to talk about all schools in general because schools are made up of individual students attending them. >> the public schools here are doing worse than they did. >> michigan schools need to do

better. there's no doubt about it. >> have you seen the really bad schools, maybe try to figure out what they are doing? >> i have not intentionally visited schools that are underperforming. >> maybe you should. >> maybe i should, yes. juan: criticism of her comments have an overwhelming. this is the latest bunch of mercy to mark her first year in office. under her leadership, the department of education has rolled back title ix guidelines on handling sexual assault on college campuses and revoked dozens of policy documents detailing the rights of disabled students. devos also has refused to say whether the federal government should prevent private schools that accept public money from discriminating against some students. amy: for more, we're joined by allie gross, a reporter with the detroit free press. she covered education in michigan as a freelance reporter and was a teach for america teacher in a detroit charter school. her piece on betsy devos includes an article for vice

headlined "out of options: school choice gutted detroit's public schools. the rest of the country is next." welcome to democracy now! first, respond to the "60 minutes" interview. >> oh, wow. just even the clip you played, i feel like there's a lot there. i will start with the beginning we need she is saying to invest in students and not institutions or systems. i guess i can say as a former teacher in our reporter who has been covering the schools and just as some of who has attended school, we can all cut of agree that schools are so much bigger. what makes an education is the curriculum, the teachers, the school buildings. i don't exactly understand what secretary devos would be implying by saying we need to just invest in the kids. it is all of those other moving parts, the system, the

institution that actually makes an education. so i think that is kind of the first red flag. i don't know who or what would be educating students if it is not investing in those very important systems that exist. i guess the other aspect there is, what we are ready see, especially in michigan. in michigan, we have, obviously, charter schools. we also have at the same time charter schools came about, the state legislature also passed proposal a which has money following students. so about $7,500 follows each student in the state. when you have those two things together, competition paired with this money following students, it creates this chaotic system and it also makes it far more difficult for really any of the schools to provide the kind of full education that

they would normally be able to. so professor hammer, who is a professor at the university that has written a lot about this, he describes it as a positive feedback loop. so if you have a student who is at a detroit public school who decides to leave and that $7,500 leaves with them, what can happen is the overhead cost, you know, having teachers paying for heating inside the building come all of these overhead costs don't suddenly dissipate because the student leaves. so schools have to make cuts. when they make cuts, maybe they will get rid of a social worker, get rid of an art class, maybe they will cram more students into a classroom. those cuts make the school less appealing. so you have more students who then in turn leave the school. when secretary devos says we cannot invest in systems or institutions, i would argue based off through porting i have

done and also being in the school, that you really do need to invest in those institutions. juan: allie gross, in terms of the role of betsy devos in the mushrooming of charter schools in michigan -- many folks across the nation are not familiar with her particular role in that. could you talk about that as well? >> sure. we can scale back a little bit. it is not just secretary devos come it is her whole -- it is her family. 1993nt to scale back to when discussions in michigan began about charter legislation and also proposal a, which i just discussed. 1994 is when the charter legislation passed. kurt guyette, who i think has been on the show before and i am a big fan of his, he wrote this amazing piece in 1996 for the detroit metro times. it details the beginning of the charter school movement in

michigan. and why i think this piece is so important, it was written just two years after the charter legislation passed. this does not have all of future analysis that we can look back on. it is talking right in the moment. it gives a really interesting perspective . whatkurt found, there were four families and two include the prince's.d the the four families donated $250,000 between 1989 and 1994 to school reform organizations that were pushing for the charter legislation. so they were very much behind passing this. they also were donating to governor john dingell are at the time, who when he came into office, his two big things were breaking down -- giving less power to the teachers union and

also to lower property taxes, which were both made possible through proposal a and charter schools. describes, he talks about the motivations. he says the four families that were really kind of bankrolling this legislation, they all were toy much a part in donating religious organizations and activities in the united states at the time and were pushing for nind of the christianizatio what he describes in the way he describe explicit, using chartes to get funding for per a gold schools. against michigan voted vouchers schools. this was maybe another route. yet to reassess how -- if voters are not going to vote for andhers, money for private

religious schools, what is another method by which we can do that? and the two main strategies that came about with this charter school movement was, one, creating this narrative of public schools in crisis. because once you can get the public to believe that public schools are failing, it is far easier to convince them that an alternative is necessary. the second step would be coming up kind of with this middle ground. if people don't feel comfortable giving public dollars to private institutions, you have charters -- which is this more palatable -- it kind of falls between, i guess you could say, public dollars and private management. aan: i want to jump in for second. on the issue of public money and private management, one of the problems with charter schools is their very little accountability. yourself had that experience

working in terms of accountability? of that, yes. i worked at a charter school for three years in detroit. the hool wast, somethin that wasind of frustrating to me wasexactly what you are saying, there was not a lot of financial account ability. my second year at the school, our superintendent at the time announced he was going to be leaving the district to go work for an organization called the good schools resource center. he was going to be in charge of providing resources to not just my school anymore, but dozens of schools across the city, charter and public. i found this to be pretty peculiar at the time because my reallylacked -- it had poor test scores. we did not have any curriculum. i was a teach for america teacher with five weeks

training. i was kind of brought into the classroom with no curriculum. i think we a few kind of textbooks sitting in the classroom. but i was creating curriculum based off what i thought made sense for fifth grade students. i will be completely honest, i had no clue what i was doing. announced the superintendent leaving, it maybe question the bigger educaon landscape in detroit. again, my school was deemed because superficially a looked really pretty. we had great marketing. it was deemed one of the better charter schools, one of the better schools in the city. so this disconnect surprised me. my third year, the superintendentad are ready presence onained a campus. he would still be able to call meetings. i found this to be odd. at a meeting my third year in

may that he had called, he was no longer our superintendent, i was fed up. and because i knew i was probably not going to stay at the school any longer, i had kind of an advantage over some of by colleagues in the sense that we were not unionized. so many were afraid to maybe speak up. a because i knew i was not planning on leaving, i had that leverage. i asked him, are you on payroll? , no, and continued on with the meeting. i hadas leaving, because a meeting with a parent, he stopped manny was like, lady in red -- he did not even know my name. he said, i'm not on payroll but my consulting company is. that to me was mind-boggling post up here we are in may, who is he consulting? how did none of the teachers do about this consulting gig? what my classroom to not have a working pencil sharpener, it was so hard -- sorry.

amy: before we get to the end of the segment, i wanted to go back to betsy devos appearing on "60 minutes" asked about the criticism from students in parkland, florida, on the trouble administration's response to school shootings. >> i give a lot of credit to the students there for really raising their voices. and i think that they're not going to let this moment go by. >> they want gun-control. >> they want a variety of things. they want solutions. >> do you think teachers should have guns and the classroom? >> that should be options for states and communities to consider. i hesitate to think of my first grade teacher -- i cannot ever imagine her having a gun and being trained in that way. but for those who are capable, this is one solution that can and should be considered. but no one-size-fits-all. every state and every community

is going to address this issue in a different way. amy: while president trump castigated republican senators and his now well-known meeting that he had saying, don't be afraid of the nra, it looks like right now he has walked back all of his push for comprehensive gun-control and is walking in lockstep with the nra. allie, we have like 30 seconds, if you can respond to guns in schools and the activism. >> i cannot even imagine personally having a gun. all of my teacher friends i have spoken with, they do not feel catchable having guns. michiganchigan --two republican legislators have recently started working on a inl to allow guns to be classrooms with teachers, that would require 80 hours of training for those teachers. just set aside, i don't know what teacher has that time for that training. your lesson planning, you are working with parents, or can with your students, lesson

planning. there is so much that goes into the classroom. there seems to be so many problems that could come about by having guns in the classroom. amy: allie gross, thank you for being with us, reporter with the detroit free press. covered education in michigan as a freelance reporter, and was a teach for america teacher in a detroit charter school. this is democracy now! when we come back, we look at the growing resistance to an energy transfer partners pipeline that is going through louisiana. called the bayou bridge pipeline. stay with us. ♪ [music break]

amy: "cottonmouth" by coco robicheaux. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman with juan gonzalez. juan: in louisiana, newly disclosed documents reveal a state intelligence agency regularly spied on activists opposing construction of the bayou bridge pipeline, which would carry nearly a half-million barrels of oil per day across louisiana's wetlands. the documents show the louisiana governor's office of homeland security and emergency preparedness regularly drafted intelligence memos on anti-pipeline activists, including a gathering of indigenous-led water protectors who haveet up a protest encampment along the pipeline's route. amy: other newly revealed documents show close coordination between louisiana regulators and the company building the pipeline, energy transfer partners. in some cases, state regulators

used language drafted by the pipeline company in its public documents. this comes just one week after a u.s. district judge in baton rouge ordered a temporary injunction against construction of the bayou bridge pipeline in order to prevent further irreparable harm to the region's delicate ecosystems while court challenges proceed. critics of the pipeline include retired lieutenant general russel honore, who led the relief effort after katrina. he is featured in a new short film by the louisiana bucket brigade about the pipeline. >> i'm lieutenant general of the notice states army. i spent over 37 years in the united states army. in 2008 and moved back to louisiana, my home state. most people have some reference to me in hurricane katrina. joint has forced commander.

-- joint task force commander. the state of louisiana has been blessed with natural resources. but we are the second largest energy producer in america. that comes at a cost. will from the oil and gas industry has hijacked our democracy.

in this area. -- we can't afford nothing else in this area. it is always the poor, the blacks, indians, or hispanics.

they think they can just walk over people. we're going to be the ones who suffer the burdens. >> they build on top of african-american community's where they don't expect a fight. and there's no such thing as the pipeline is never going to leak. it is going to happen, and is just a matter of when. amy: that produced by the louisiana bucket brigade. for more, we're joined by three guests. pastor harry joseph of the more than century-old, more than 130 year old mount triumph baptist church in st. james. and anne rolfes is founding director of the louisiana bucket brigade, which is producing these films. and pamela spees is the center for constitutional rights' senior staff attorney on the #nobayoubridge case. she is also from louisiana, from lake charles. you are the beginning of the pipeline and, reverend, you are the end of this pipeline.

let's begin with pam. you are from there and you are bringing this lawsuit. and as we started this is, talking about the surveillance of the activists, people like the reverencd of people like anne. talk about what you have found and the significance of this project. >> there are a number of lawsuits that we have filed on behalf of of the groups who are opposing this pipeline. and one of them was against the department of environment quality for these records. astonishing to see, probably not surprising for folks who have lived in fact of theut the surveillance, that it was confirmed, that you have intelligence officers in the governor's office of homeland security who are doing these these smallof groups, right, who are doing everything they can to engage in civil disobedience and protest

this project and try to stop it before the permits. those assessments are being sent to all of the other law enforcement agencies and to the heads of the environmental regulatory agencies. yet what we did not see a meme is that we got from this agency is any discussion of the pipeline's history of accidents. so here you have a pipeline company, which is notorious in the industry for its record of leaks and spills, and yet we did not see anything in these records that showed any concern, any discussion about that. is yet what the concern is the folks who are opposing it. juan: the extraordinary record of these emails and the surveillance you uncovered, it is as if they were investigating a criminal operation here just because you were opposing th pipeline. the intelligence officer who offered the emails, at one point

says "in the case of terrorism to a friend indication of a crime before investigating it is to wait too long. there's no guarantee of success, but there has to be a guarantee of effort. let's make it hard to hurt us. if you see something suspicious, report it." anne rolfes, when you saw the females, what was your reaction? i do see something suspicious and it is that energy transfer partners has polluted drinking water around the country. they have a track record of accidents. that is with the agencies glibly just clearly should be investigating. investigating. on the one hand, it is a pretty ridiculous situation and yet their forwarding a picture of me to the fbi and the department of -- and other agencies into the national guard. then when i see footage from north dakota and from standing rock of the national guard on site using rubber bullets on people and tear gas, i mean, it

is chilling -- which is what they intend. amy: the dakota access pipeline in north dakota that also owned by energy transfer partners, as is the bayou bridge. >> the bayou bridge is the southern leg of the dakota access pipeline. amy: what about the connection of the sheriffs and louisiana to what is happening in north dakota? you have spoken about this. >> yes. there's a pair scald st. charles parish were the sheriff was president of the national sheriffs association. he took a trip to standing rock to help martin county, which is where the pipeline is, help the sheriffs department there and had a very aggressive facebook post saying the people who are objecting to the pipeline were violent and castigating opponents as people who deserved law enforcement watching them.

again, that is concerning for us. what we then see our sheriff do is stand in front of a gas pipeline explosion louisiana just shortly thereafter when a man was killed saying no problem here. , but fire in the swap nothing to see here. talking to the news cameras as if this is normal and as if this is ok. pastor harry joseph, the impact, first of all, the overall industry, the energy industry on louisiana and specifically on yourommunity and your concerns about this pipeline? >> we are ready have a lot of stuff in our area where plants -- with this pipeline coming in, that is just telling me there is going to be more tanks. the tanks they a have, they leak. wen they bleed those tanks, breathe whatever is coming out. what i'm concerned about is we

don't know what is coming through the pipe. we don't know what we're going to be breathing. people are sick. people are dying from cancer. nobody wants to take responsibility for what is going on now. who is going to take responsibility in the future? amy: talk about what you're facing right now. >> we are in a community where we don't have a way out if something do happen. we have the sunshine bridge and townwe have a little called moonshine. between the sunshine bridge and moon town, you're talking about 30 miles. between that, they have plans. that oil field tanks. we have people that live there. them, thatnd between was her exit route. bought that and shut it off. so now people can't get out if they have to get out. we have been fighting for at least three years to get a right

away. our local government cannot give us a route away step amy: was your community consulted when it came to the building of this pipeline? >> yes. the community, we all -- we went to court. we went to the community. we went to our local meeting. do not want we this, but they still voted it in. a our community, we have panel of councilman. in our area of three blacks and four whites. when they voted that out, a lot of people was hurting because we had a 4-3 vote. we just knew we were going to win this, and we lost it. amy: it was along color lines? >> four white and three blacks. we knew we had it won because one of the councilman, i want to say that their district, he asked the question, what is

coming through the pipe? they told him, they could not tell them. amy: he said what oil? >> coming through and they said they could not tell him. i knew then that we had won. but in the end, he still voted yes. juan: pamela spees, in terms of what the way the companies have worked together with local officials and even the state to crack legislation on this, can you talk about that as well? >> what we're seeing in the records is the working together on the approval process for these projects, but we know there is a massive lobbying the corporatet interests, the oil and gas interest are built into the political process. it is the go to concern as opposed to folks showing up and

trying to bring a different voice into the discussion. the deck is stacked. i think -- for folks who are from louisiana, who grew up there, it is something that was in the air that you breathe and you understood that was the case. changing now as folks are beginning to question the. after the bp spill and watching what happened at standing rock and a growing awareness about this pipeline and who is behind it, it is actually bringing more folks -- juan: what about the argument the company says they are growing jobs, making a possible for the community to thrive? >> what has been so interesting about that is what these folks have documented on the job site. who arehe workers constructing this pipeline appeared to be from out of state. that is something that these folks have documented and tried to read to the attention of

government edwards -- governor edwards, who is used this as a rallying point for support for this project. amy: i want to turn to clip them cera week, an annual energy conference in houston. this is energy transfer partner ceo kelly warren. -- kelcy warren. >> talking about some and he needs to be removed from the gene pool, we had people drilling holes in our pipe, julian holes. now, they did not know we do not have oil in the private a time, but had they, they would have found out in a very, very bad way. we are combating something that is relatively new, but it is all of our problems. we were slow to respond. i think i mentioned we talked earlier, we were slow to respond to social media. we had a ceo, me, that was kind of out of touch with that a little bit, behind on that. and we don't do that anymore.

we monitor social media, and there is constant lies been said about our company that we're having to police. amy: if you can talk about, anne rolfes, if you can respond to what else he warned said, the ceo of energy partners, who he was referring to? >> in louisiana, there is nobody who has her hand on the equipment, fully with the women. i think that is a distraction from the issue. we understand who is the violent party. the violent parter is energy transfer partners. others have taken actions to stop the pipeline, but that has been very rare and what we're doing in louisiana is peaceful disobedience that is within our rights. there is ad say that reason people are taking action like that because the systems that are supposed to be protecting us are clearly

failing, as we are seeing in louisiana. amy: there's a protest outside cipriani's for u.s. bank is being honored. why? anu.s. bank is receiving award for being a good corporate citizen, when in fact their funding and filling the violence of energy transfer partners. we will be there to encourage u.s. bank to keep the promise that it once made not to fund the pipeline because it is their cash flow that is perpetuating the harm and the abuse in louisiana. i mean, we have serious violations happening already in our state where they are going in and chopping down cyprus that are 100 years old, where they're going into a community that is already overwhelmed by pollution, already overruled by racism and adding to the problem . juan: pastor joseph, what are you hoping to get a college dinner protest here in your presence there? >> we're hoping that some of the listing will -- we already have

enough in our community and we don't need nothing else because we have people that are living there now, trying to figure out how they're going to get out because people there, we're not rich, we are poor people. are wondering what we're going to do because we have to raise our kids. we have our children coming up sick. we have a lot of people that would love to get out in the community. amy: we have to leave it there, but we will continue to follow the story. pastor harry joseph and anne rolfes and pamela spees. we have this breaking news. president trump has just fired secretary of state rex tillerson and replaced him with cia director mike pompeo. trump announced gina haskell will be tapped to succeed pompeo the cia. she was responsible for running a secret cia black sites in thailand were prisoners are

waterboarded and tortured. [cap

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