09/18/15 09/18/15 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] amy: from pacifica, this is democracy now! >> we are the people left behind when a loved one got into what was supposed to be a safe car, but gm car, a car that gm knew for years was dangerous and defective. our daughters, sons, sisters, brothers, mothers, fathers, wives and husbands are gone because they were the cost of doing business gm-style.

amy: federal prosecutors have agreed to settle a criminal probe into general motors for concealing an ignition switch defect linked to at least 124 deaths. gm will pay $900 million but no executives will be prosecuted. too big to jail? we will speak to a woman whose 16-year-old daughter died in a crash caused by a faulty ignition switch, as well as longime consumer advocate ralph nader. 50 years ago he wrote the ground breaking book, "unsafe at any speed: the designed-in dangers of the american automobile." motors knew about the defect in 2004. they kept getting feedback of fatalities, crashes, airbags not going off, engines being shut off. they covered it up. amy: and we will speak to university of maryland school of law professor rena steinzor, author of, "why not jail?:

industrial catastrophes, corporate malfeasance, and government inaction." all that and more, coming up. welcome to democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. federal prosecutors have agreed to settle a criminal investigation into general motors for concealing an ignition switch defect linked to at least 124 deaths. under the deal general motors , agreed to pay $900 million as part of a deferred prosecution agreement, but no gm executives will be prosecuted for covering up the deadly defect. we'll speak with ralph nadar and the mother of a crash victim caused by the faulty ignition switch after headlines. in news from europe, croatia has closed the majority of its border crossings with serbia following the influx of more than 13,000 refugees this week. this comes after hungary's violent crackdown at its border. the european union commissioner for migration condemned the continent's borders crackdown

thursday. >> there is no wall you would not climb, no sea you wouldn't cross if you are fleeing violence and terror. i believe we have a moral duty to offer them protection. inscribed in international and your p and laws. amy: donald trump is facing hall q&a during a town when some and stood up and asked when the united states would get rid of muslims. ok, i like this guy. >> i'm from white plains. we have a problem in this country, it's called muslims. we know our current president is one. you know he is not even an american. >> we need to question.

>> but anyway, we have training to killere they want us. that is my question, when can we get rid -- >> where going to be looking at a lot of different things. a lot of people are saying that and saying that bad things are happening out there. we're going to be looking at that them plenty of other things. amy: hillary clinton tweeted -- "donald trump not denouncing false statements about potus & hateful rhetoric about muslims is disturbing, & just plain wrong. cut it out." later, trump's campaign issued a statement to the washington post saying -- about 100 people gathered in front of macarthur high school in irving, texas thursday night for a rally in support of the 14-year-old muslim student who was arrested after bringing a homemade clock to school.

after the teachers said the device looked like a bomb police , interrogated, handcuffed, and arrested mohamed and took him to a juvenile detention center, and he said it reminded him of times was bullied in middle school. >> i felt like it was a criminal , i felt like a was a terrorist. i felt like all of the names i was called. >> what do mean all of the names you were called? >> and always called -- in middle school i was called a terrorist, called a lawn maker, just because of my race and religion. ahmed story has gone viral. president obama tweeted "cool clock, ahmed." he is been invited to visit m.i.t.. he says he will be transferring schools. for most senator bernie sanders has introduced new legislation

aimed at banning government contracts with private prisons. the presidential candidate said thursday that banning for-profit incarceration is the first step to ending the system of mass incarceration. >> as a first step, we need to start treating prisoners like human beings. private companies, private corporations should not be profiteering from their incarceration. amy: house republicans have voted for legislation to end government funding for planned parenthood for setting up a budgetary showdown that could force a government shutdown by the end of the month. senate republicans are also proposing anti-choice legislation that would outlaw all abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy. this comes after senate majority leader mitch mcconnell failed to secure enough votes to defund planned parenthood last month. a recent reuters poll shows the majority of americans support federal funding for planned parenthood. pope francis will arrive in cuba saturday for a visit he says he hopes will help end the

u.s. trade embargo on cuba. new regulations to lessen the u.s. trade embargo are expected to be released today by the white house. pope francis will spend four ysysysdays in cuba, where he mat with fidel castro, depending on his health. in burkina faso, at least three people have been killed during protests as the military authorities sealed the borders, canceled flights and imposed a night curfew following an apparent military coup. on wednesday, the presidential guard, which is loyal to burkina faso's former longtime president blaise compaoré, detained interim president michel kafando and dissolved the transitional government. in south sudan, at least 182 people have died in an oil tank explosion in the western town of maridi. officials are warning the death toll could continue to rise given the lack of nearby facilities equipped to treat the burns. pakistani officials say at least seven people have been killed in a u.s. drone strike in pakistan today. the strike hit a vehicle in

south waziristan. meanwhile, also in pakistan, military officials say at least 16 people have died after taliban attacked a mosque near an air force base friday. -- air force base. voters in greece are headed to the polls for a snap general election sunday. syriza party leader alexis tsipras and conservative new democracy party leader vangelis meimarakis are nearly tied in the polls. meanwhile, dozens of former syriza lawmakers, frustrated with tsipras, are now running with the new anti-bailout party popular unity. former prime minister alexis tsipras forced the snap elections after he resigned last month. the second-highest ranking official at fifa has been placed on immediate leave and is facing an investigation over the alleged black-market sale of world cup tickets. jérôme valcke had served as the secretary general of fifa for 8 years. he is the latest official to be investigated in the growing corruption scandal that has

thrown the world soccer governing body into turmoil. in mexico, authorities have arrested a gang leader known as "el gil" who they say was involved in the disappearance of the 43 students from the southern state of guerrero nearly one year ago. the families of the missing students and an international group of experts have rejected the government's accounts of events. the expert's report earlier this month said the mexican government's investigation was deeply flawed, and pointed to the role the federal police and military played in the student'' disappearance. in iceland, the city council of the capital reykjavik has voted in favor of a motion to boycott israeli-made goods for "as long as the occupation of palestinian territories continues." a local elected official said in a local radio interview that the goal of the boycott is to pressure israel to stop the occupation, which is illegal under international law. betty blake, the mother of retired tennis star james blake, has written about her son's being tackled by nypd officer

james frascatore. video footage shows like, who is biracial, standing outside manhattan's grand hyatt hotel when the officer approaches him, wraps an arm around his neck, tackles him down, digs his knee into his back, and handcuffs him. police say they mistakenly identified blake as a suspect in a credit card fraud probe. in an editorial for the "new york daily news," betty, who is white and grew up in england, wrote -- "it seems there's no end to racism in this country. in fact it seems to get worse." , and the legendary media activist everett parker died thursday at the age of 102. in the he led an effort to have 1960's, the license of a jackson, mississippi, tv station revoked for attempting to squelch the voices of the civil rights movement. at the time, parker was director of communications of the united church of christ. parker filed a petition to deny renewal with the fcc, initiating

a process that eventually got the station's license revoked by a federal court and had far-reaching consequences in american broadcasting. you can go to our website at democracy now! to see our interview with everett parker. and those are some of the headlines. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. federal prosecutors have agreed to settle a criminal probe into general motors for concealing an ignition switch defect linked to at least 124 deaths. under the deal, general motors agreed to pay $900 million as part of a deferred prosecution agreement, but no gm executives will be prosecuted for covering up the deadly defect. last year, gm recalled 1.6 million cars containing faulty ignition switches that could cause their engines to stall while cutting power to brakes, airbags, and steering systems. on thursday, u.s. attorney preet bharra announced the gm

settlement. >> we're here to announce the filing of criminal charges against general motors company related to the company's failure to disclose the safety defect from its regulator and from certain purchasers of its preowned cars. at the same time, this office and gm have entered into a deferred prosecution agreement to resolve those charges. as part of the agreement, gm has agreed to pay a $900 million penalty or forfeiture am a the appointment of an independent federal monitor for a period of three years, and make critical factual admissions. the statement of fact details how gm designed the missing switch for the cobalt another compact cars with such low torque that it could slip out of the run position into accessory or off while the car was driving. cutting power to the engine can also cut off power to the front airbags. so if the key slipped out of the

run position during the crash, the driver and front passenger can lose the protection of those airbags. amy: the justice department's deal with the gm has been widely criticized by consumer advocates and families who lost loved ones. clarence ditlow, head of the center for auto safety, said -- "gm killed over a 100 people by knowingly putting a defective ignition switch into over 1 million vehicles. today, thanks to its lobbyists, gm officials walk off scot-free while its customers are 6 feet under." the $900 million gm settlement is 25% less than the record $1.2 billion toyota agreed to pay last year to concealing safety defects. to talk more about gm, we are joined by three guests. ralph nader is a longtime consumer advocate and former presidential candidate. 50 years ago he published the ground breaking book, "unsafe at any speed: the designed-in dangers of the american automobile." rena steinzor is a professor at the university of maryland school of law and immediate past

president of the center for progressive reform. her latest book is called, "why not jail?: industrial catastrophes, corporate malfeasance, and government inaction." and laura christian is with us. she is the mother of amber rose who died after her 2005 , chevrolet cobalt crashed and the air bag failed to deploy on july 29, 2005. amber was 16 years old. since then, laura christian has become an auto-safety advocate. she runs the facebook page "gm recall survivors." let us begin with you, laura christian. can you go back to that day -- i hate to make you do this, but the day of your daughter amber rose's debt and talk about what happened. where was she? and sheas at a party was on her way out and hit an incline. her car went airborne, struck

multiple trees and she was and down by the dashboard itself. unfortunately, she did not make it. i got the call early that morning. i can still imagine it, it is like i am still there some days, standing by the glass door and hearing that just screaming, no! us what you tell understood at the time happened? >> shortly after, at her funeral, emts approached us and told us the airbags did not deploy and should have deployed. in investigator was hired shortly after, which told us that the car was actually in the accessory position, which we now know shut down the power brakes, power steering, and also caused the airbags never to deploy. amy: do you think it is the ignition defect caused her death? >> absolutely.

that has been confirmed by our investigator and by ntsa and later on, finally, by gm. amy: what is your response to -- $900 billion settlement $900 million settlement? >> i would love to know how they come up with that number. it is ludicrous that gm can write a check to get away with what is tantamount to murder, in my opinion. the fact there are going to be absolutely no individual prosecutions, i mean, that means all of our loved ones that died, they will have died in vain. i can't comprehend this. has the u.s. attorney spoken with you? will your family be compensated? and how do you feel about the compensation? bute did settle with gm, this is not about the money. speaking with -- i did speak with the department of justice previously. they let me know that they were

finding it very difficult to find ways to prosecute individuals. now, i'm not a legal scholar. i can't really voice opinion to this, but having worked in law enforcement before, i know there are ways. this is not the first time a corporation has done acts of evil doing. and others have been prosecuted for it. why not this time? i really want the answer to that question. amy: on thursday, general motors ceo mary barra held a 15 minute news conference in which she discussed gm's agreement to pay $900 million to end u.s. criminal in mission -- ignition switch probe. >> we let those customers down in that situation. we did not do our job. and as part of our apology to the victims, we promise to take responsibility for our actions. beingaccept the penalties

announced today because that is what it means to be held accountable. but apologies and account ability won't count for much if we don't change our behavior. but we can be proud that we have. amy: that is general motors ceo. i want to turn to ralph nader. ralph nader, your response to this settlement? >> it is absurd settlement. it doesn't do terror future behavior by general motors. nobody went to jail, nobody is indicted. the company wasn't indicted. the justice department under attorney general loretta lynch and the obama administration created a new doctrine called "crimes without criminals." they charge gm with a crime, but the company was not indicted and no officials were indicted. imagine individuals being able to get away from that. that is a double standard between the privileges and

immunities that are dedicated to corporations by the u.s. government and the way individuals are treated. that therefar, amy, are motorists who were charged with vehicle or manslaughter because they were involved in crashes due to gm's defect. as the corporate crime reporter pointed out, gm did the crime, the drivers do the time. i think the focus has got to be on congress, the pending highway bill has to include criminal penalties for auto companies for violating safety standards for cars and parts if they do so willfully knowingly. as rena steinzor said, they can be prosecuted and sent to jail. amy: let me ask you about the times piece today points out the u.s. attorney site in internal investigation conducted for gm a survey verbal in determining the penalties paid by the automaker.

the two law firms hired for that inquiry had previously done legal work for gm in court papers show the chair of the firm helped recommend -- represent the automaker in the talks with the justice department. your response? >> as professor of law already set from stanford, this is a strange situation where gm takes -- itindependent reviewer is quite condemnatory -- then he gets hired as the defense counsel against the justice department will step that does not pass the smell test. there's a lot involved here, amy. u.s. taxpayer bill $50 billion after the collapse in 2009 or so and the government in return for plusailout became a 60%

shareholder. so the u.s. government owned in effect gm. and what did they do for five years under the obama administration when they owned gm? they did not restructured gm, requiring compliance officers, engineerscontent is so gm could go until them about defects in cars without losing their jobs. they did not do anything except bail out general motors. so they lost a great opportunity to also investigate this ignition switch. i mean, it was not a secret. gm has covered up the switch problem which killed at least over 124 people since 2002. you have the classic conditions for criminal behavior. you have a known defect by people inside gm. you have deaths and injuries increasing. you have a cover-up. you don't tell u.s. government, the auto safety agency in five

days what you're supposed to tell them -- that is another violation of the law. u.s. attorneyt by for the southern district of new york under orders from the justice department and probably the white house. it was a copout. it is easy to go after people for insider trading, as these u.s. attorney does, but when it comes to really going down in enforcing the law against corporate crime, he back down. and then he gives the excuse, well, gm has this conflict internal structure and we could not find out who was accountable. nonsense. as the professor pointed out, they have done exactly this and other cases, but it was small fry. they went after some food company that contaminated people and now they want to send as the head executive of the small company to jail will step know, gm bailed out by the u.s. subjected to all kinds of

statement technology for 50 years, suppressing known safety defects, losing market share to foreign importers and lobbying on capitol hill against criminal penalties against fuel efficiency, while it was being billed out and then stonewalling the same auto safety agency under the same u.s. government that is trying to enforce the auto safety laws. amy: on thursday, the u.s. attorney praised gm with its cooperation with authorities. >> from the moment top management came forward to disclose the defect in february 2014, the company's cooperation and remediation has been fairly extraordinary. we conducted a swift and robust internal investigation. that doesn't always happen, i can to you. again the prosecutors in my office real-time updates about the findings of that internal investigation come often revealing to the office what witnesses had said, even before

gm management was filled in itself. amy: that is the u.s. attorney preparest. as "the new york times" point out, prosecutors focused on a relatively short period of time, only 20 months from the spring of 2012 to february 2014 when gm began recalling 2.6 million older cars to fix the switch, but the complaints go back more than a decade with a number of people inside the company saying told thatwere being they should not raise this issue. >> that's right. it is classic cover-up over a period of more than a decade as the center for auto safety has pointed out. but now looking forward, what we have to do is focus on commerce and fred upton, the chair of the committee in the house handling the highway bill as we speak him and senator john soon from south dakota, the chair in the senate,

and push was senator richard blumenthal and ed markey and others have been saying, put criminal penalties in that auto safety law, after some 50 years of stonewalling and lobbying by gm. otherwise, more people are going to die, more people will be injured. we will have a two-tiered legal system and it will be a double standard against what people can't do and what corporations get away with. this is what has to be a major issue in the presidential campaign, if they can ever get around to serious issues. it has to be a major issue. the corporate crime wave washing over the country and homicidal fugitives from justice like general motors getting away with it again and again in spite of terrific media coverage again and again by "the washington post," "new york times," did not make any difference to the u.s. attorney or the attorney general.

or the white house. amy: who gets the money? >> the money does the government gets 900 million dollars, which is like a drop in the bucket for gm. by the way, that is tax money recycled. gm from the bailout still has billions of dollars of taxpayer money in its treasury. their artwork lawsuits being filed a negotiations going on as we speak, at least 1300 or so cases, next of kin claiming compensation for their loved ones, and injuries. that is not fully disclosed yet as to what has happened, but it looks like it is imminent. we have the tort civil justice system coming to gm, they will all write it off -- gm will write at all. and the surrender by the justice department. amy: the u.s. attorney does say that individual prosecutions could take place.

this isn't over. >> let's put them on the hot seat and see if he and other u.s. attorneys will do so. they often than all that when they know they have caved to corporate power. they dangle the prospect of future prosecutions, but rena steinzor can explain that that is largely public relations. amy: we will come back to this discussion. our guest is our ralph nader, took on gm a long time ago and has for 50 years. in fact, jim was forced to settle with him when it came out that they were spying on him as he was taking on the auto giant. laura cristian is also our guest, mother of amber rose who died in a car crash in 2005 as a result of the faulty ignition switch. and we will be speaking with rena steinzor who wrote her , latest book is called, "why not jail?: industrial catastrophes, corporate

malfeasance, and government inaction." back in a moment. ♪ [music break]

amy: this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. about the $900 million settlement that has been reached between the u.s. justice department and gm over the deaths of over 124 people for faulty ignition switch that they know about for over a decade. among our guests today, nor christian, mother of amber rose who was 16 years old when she died as a result of this faulty ignition switch in the car which

crashed. ralph nader, who has long taken on general motors, and rena steinzor who wrote the book, "why not jail?: industrial catastrophes, corporate malfeasance, and government inaction." professor, can you respond to this settlement and what you think needs to happen? do you think the government sold out to general motors? >> yes, i think the government sold out to general motors and what it did is part of a much larger trend. the name of this kind of agreement is deferred prosecution agreement. and what that means is, companies can pay a hefty fine that to them is just the cost of doing business, and avoid any admission that they committed criminal acts. the u.s. attorney has filed a statement of facts about what happened here that in and of itself is pretty shocking.

there were efforts to cover up the ignition switch defect going back as far as 2001. at one point, the gm engineer in charge of the switch secretly changed the part without telling anybody, and so cobalts from 2005 and saturns from 2005 on or safe, but cars were left on the road, hundreds of thousands of them, that still had the faulty switch that gm acknowledged was faulty by changing the part. gm spent years procrastinating. they had various workgroups, task forces who sat around wondering what to do. they still drug feet went outside counsel said they were under risk of tort cases.

they rushed to the justice department said, i'm sorry, and were able to escape without having to plead guilty. this happened most notoriously in the case of hsbc, the huge worldwide bank which was laundering money for a mexican drug cartels. the justice department gave them the same kind of settlement, deferred prosecution agreement, which is a favorite of the obama administration's justice department and really denies justice to the victims of the bad acts that are covered in a statement, but never brought to court. nader professor, ralph mentioned drivers were prosecuted even though general motors knew it was their fault, they had a faulty ignition switch. can you tell us some of the stories of those drivers? >> yes.

the one that is most vivid in my mind is the case of candace anderson who was driving a saturn and she ran the car into a tree after she lost control of it. it is really important to try and focus on how upsetting it is to have a car stall out as you are driving it. you lose the steering, the brakes, the airbags you find once you crash are not working, but by then you have already been through this terrible experience. unfortunately, her fiancé was killed in that crash and she was .ndicted for reckless homicide fortunately, they gave her probation, but not until her parents had emptied the retirement account to pay for her defense. and only years later did a judge admittedr plea when gm

that the switch was faulty. so the double standard for white-collar criminals in the average person -- and the average person is revealed and sharp relief by this very sad case. amy: let's turn to samantha dente of toms river, new jersey, describing what happened when she drove a gm with a faulty ignition switch. >> driving this car was like playing a game of russian roulette with high safety and that of my friends. i can't even begin to explain the fear and confusion that runs through you that moment when you have no control over your car. i cannot copy and the loss of these families behind their going through. my hope is the horse stops right now. i don't want any more drivers to be mourned by family and friends because an automaker hid a deadly problem. the federal government failed to take action and drivers like me were kept in the dark. amy: derry have samantha denti,

professor. continue with the point she is making. >> i also want to make clear that the reason, supposed reason for not being tough with gm, for letting them walk, in addition to the fact that they apologized so nicely, is that there is a gap in the law. it is certainly true it would be much better to have strong provisions that targeted hiding defects very specifically, but what gm is guilty and u.s. attorney did it knowledge this of wire fraud, it sold these cars, preowned compacts as safe, even though they knew there were ignition switch problems. they did not replace the switches on the cars, it sold itself, and certify they were said to the people that bought them. it advertised them in the media and pushed these sales.

and that is multiple felonies could be charged on the basis of that, and have been charged in other cases that involved deadly products, including peanut butter that was contaminated by salmonella. the justice department went to trial on that case and the sentencing is next monday. they got felony convictions. the company was small, that is one difference. there a compounding pharmacy up in massachusetts that sold steroid injections contaminated by fungal meningitis, and 64 people died as a result. that company has been charged with conspiracy and second-degree murder. so the justice department is perfectly well how under existing law to make tough cases. we need stronger laws, but it is no excuse for what happened here, which is to turn their back on the victims basically,

and not hold the company countable. there isn't a victim who is spoken out that is satisfied with the settlement. amy: laura cristian, are you not consulted in any way since the settlement money doesn't go to you, it goes to the government? >> you know, it doesn't have anything to do with the money, in my opinion. none of the families that have spoke to, and i spoke to quite a few, none of us care about the money. what we care about is seeing real justice. and to us, the only thing that is going to mean is someone actually going to jail. the one thing that we are vehemently denied by the federal government, for what purpose, i don't know. is gm just too big? i don't understand. amy: you met with mary barra, as the correct? talk about the meeting, the ceo of general motors. >> i found her to be extraordinarily cold him actually. you have to picture the room.

we're in a very large conference room. 30 family members, kleenex in front of each and every one of us. mary barra at the head surrounded by her to attorneys. and each family member told their story. there was not a dry eye in that room -- with the exception of mary barra and her to attorneys. she said the same thing over and over again, "i'm so sorry for your loss." when i asked her about what they were doing and with a be willing to park those vehicles, she would not answer me, saying this was under investigation. ask about pending legislation to improve auto safety. this is democratic senator richard blumenthal followed by democratic senator ed markey, who you have worked with, laura cristian. >> senator markey and i are here today to urge you, general motors, to address the unconscionable acts of your

company in failing to disclose serious defects and many of your cars. innocent lives were lost. through our americans right now driving defective cars amid down highways at great speeds, whose lives are at risk. there unaware of the risks they're taking. senator blumenthal and i have introduced legislation that will improve vehicle safety and increase reporting and transparency so that the public knows sooner about possible deadly defects. amy: ralph nader, how would that work? >> basically, it was say that any company that knowingly and willfully violates government safety standards resulting in death and injury can be criminally prosecuted and as well, the officials inside the company. so it is prosecution of the company, prosecution of officials. andsenator from nebraska fred upton for michigan have

been blocking senator blumenthal and senator markey's efforts. they deserve to be contacted by people all over the country. if we had criminal penalties when we were pressing for them in 1966 and the gm lobbyist led by lloyd cutler, the corporate lawyer, blocked that, you would not see the situation today. how many times do corporate executives privately have to tell people, the only deterrence is fear of jail. that is what it is. what we have now is corporations who got chartered many, many decades ago to limit liability of shareholders, now have limited the liability the corporation itself. and the mockery is that general motors and mary barra come of the ceo, are using shareholder to paynd taxpayer money this flimsy $900 million offlement fine and they're scott free. i'm in, listeners have got to be very indignant about the way corporate criminals get off the

stuff they get very indignant when individual criminals, street criminals don't get severe penalties, but they don't get as angry about corporate criminals and the toll of dead injury and disease that is traced to corporations like hospital induced infections, medical malpractice, air pollution, unsafe products, occupational disease -- we're talking hundreds of thousands of deaths plus more injuries and disease every year that are doesn'tble, but the law exist. amy: but don't the studies show when corporate -- individuals accountable, when there is the threat of jail, the crime goes down? >> of course, but we haven't had much experience with what you just described, amy. the wall street crash, nobody responsible for it in jp morgan, citigroup, merrill lynch, aig --

they were not prosecuted. it is to but eliot spitzer was no longer attorney general. he would have done that. but they were not prosecuted. they caught a few large traders, insider trading, that doesn't affect the crash of wall street, and employing 8 million people, shredding pensions, mutual funds. and they have the gall after they jump ship and take their own companies and wall street to go to washington where the former head of goldman sachs was the secretary of treasury and amending to get a bailout. citigroup got a huge multibillion dollar bailout on a weekend secretly talking with the officials in washington. this country is being corporatized into the ground. it's democracy is being driven into the ground. the rights of people -- that is why we are very heartened by laura cristian and the victims and the families of the victims because they are not going away.

victims and families of products defects over the country should organize, network, and go after the members of congress. emika: just to under -- quick stare us down we testify. they can't steer people like laura cristian down. amy: limit go back to some of the reports from the last year. this is reuters 2014, former head of general motors corporate polity audit warned the company's board in a letter in ago, that is 13 years it needed to stop the continued shipment of unsafe vehicles and recall suspect vehicles that were already in customers hands. this is years before amber died. the letter from william akeley are shows that gm's directors and top management were told about serious safety defects in vehicles that were coming off the production lines more than 11 years before gm recalled millions of vehicles for faulty ignition switches linked to at

that time, at least 13 deaths. last year, business week wrote about cortland kelly, a third-generation 30-year gm employee who was the former head of a nationwide gm inspection program who was forced to sue gm in 2003, 12 years ago, after the company repeatedly ignored his reports of flaws. and business week also reported on how gm's outside lawyer peter kelly preston cortland kelly jim not part oft was his job description. kelly said, my job and simon is a gym employee is to make sure our customers are safe and anyway that i can. that is my understanding, kelly said. gm said, but was it your specific understanding that you were charged with the recent once ability for monitoring information relating to vehicles other than the small cars? those were quotes from

depositions. when you listen to this, laura cristian, your feelings? >> absolute disgust. once again, gm puts profit above safety, as they always have. this is nothing new. this is truly nothing new. there's one thing i do want to point out, so many people out there think that this is something that isn't going to happen to them, so they don't get active, they don't take part in they don't write their senators, don't write the representatives. was oneke first hand, i of those people that thought this was never going to happen to me. the likes of jim would never affect my life directly. and i continue it has. -- such that such corruption exists is not entirely shocking. the fact that we allow it to continue to exist, that we don't

prosecute when these rear itself in the glaring light of day -- amy: who do you think should be prosecuted? >> certainly, rated giorgio. amy: explained for those who are not familiar. >> he is the engineer that was in charge of this particular mission switch. he was the one who knew there was not enough pressure or torque in these vehicles, meaning it was going to be able to go from the on position to the accessory position. he knew this. he gave the order at delphi to go and manufacture this particular part, even though it did not meet gm's on specifications. he later on had the model changed itself, had the switch redesigned, but did not change the actual part number. that is concealing it, not only to all consumers everywhere, not

only to the federal government, but to gm as well. i understand it made it little more difficult to figure out what was going on. nevertheless, it did come to light. counsel in gm new. basically in some cases, strong-armed certain victim's parents, family members, to accept minimal amounts of money, in some cases, bullied them against suing gm at all. amy: professor, why aren't these people prosecuted when you have specific people that are known -- and i know this can go right up to the top, obviously, talking about many years now? >> that is a really good question. actually, certainly, you're going to build and so that illiterate more than i. -- you will be able to answer that more than i. >> i think it is the lack of will on the part of the prosecutors.

they just don't have the stomach to bring the cases, for reasons that i can't understand. and it is worth taking one step laura is talking about the consumers who have trouble with their cars. remember the toyota's's sudden exhilaration? now we're in the massive recall airbags, the gm ignition switch. last year the 64 million vehicles were recalled. some of them were for non-safety defects, but the vast majority were for safety defects. so we clearly have a problem throughout the auto industry, and yet we have not seen individual prosecutions. and toyota got another one of these "i don't have to admit i'm wrong" settlements, different prosecution agreement.

it paid more money because it wasn't as contrite with the as gme department itself was. but as laura has said, so eloquently, the money, which is really not a big deal to these companies at the cost of doing business, does not have the same to turn affect in the future to save other consumers. amy: the justice department understands this full well. last week the justice department unveiled new guidelines intended to increase the prosecution of executives involved in white-collar crime. the deputy attorney general said -- again, that is the deputy attorney general sally yates.

ralph nader, your response? >> words, words, words. in addition of lack of will by federal prosecutors, there is anticipatory greed. carly a month goes by when the new york times or wall street journal doesn't report a top federal prosecutor leaves the job and triples or quadruples his or her salary by going to the very corporate law firms that were defending these corporations. so this merry-go-round that goes on -- if you are federal prosecutor and you know if your to check your not going to get that half a million or million dollar your job, there is and it is majority -- and inhibitory factor. it affects the justice department. some people will just google it and see a few days ago another top prosecutor in new york left to join a firm. the other thing is, a quick point, when was the last time in a reporter asked any of these

presidential candidates in the last 50 years, what is your position on corporate crime. what is your position on corporate crime abuses and violence of taxpayers come of contracts, people's lives and injuries and their health and safety? that is the big taboo, amy, that is going on here. amy: i want to ask you to stand thishe next, to call comment on the next campaign, but i want to get more christians last comment on what you're doing on facebook right now as you organize. >> and continuing to reach out tuesday to the family members and other people that have been affected by these recalls, but also to give information. what recalls are out there and also people have questions. my car's been recalled and the parts are not in, gm or the auto manufacturers out there will not give me a loaner. what do i do? i try to help people individually and i try to give advice as well as comfort to

people that are going through the same thing. amy: the facebook page "gm recall survivors." thank you for being with us to lord christian the mother of amber rose who died after her 2005 chevrolet cobalt crashed and the air bag failed to deploy on july 29, 2005. amber rose was 16 years old. i also want to thank professor rena steinzor, professor at the university of maryland school of law and author of "why not , jail?: industrial catastrophes, corporate malfeasance, and government inaction." ralph nader or stay with us to comment on the elections this year. we will be back in a moment. ♪ [music break]

inigo jimi hendrix died on the state in 1970.

this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. our guest is ralph nader, ran for president of the united states a number of times. ralph, i would ask about the meeting yesterday, town hall meeting, donald trump held in new hampshire during the q&a, the first person to stand up said president obama his muslim and asked when the us could get rid of muslims. he is called on by donald trump who response. >> ok, i like this guy. >> i'm from white plains. amen. we have a problem in this country, it is called muslims. we know our current president is one. you know he is not even american. >> we need this question. >> but anyway, we have training camps brewing where they want to kill us. that is my question, when can we get rid -- >> we're going to be looking at

a lot of different things. a lot of people are saying that and saying that bad things are happening out there. we're going to be looking at that and plenty of other things. amy: that was donald trump. i want to get to what he then said afterwards, what his campaign said. they issued a statement for "the washington post" saying -- he did not back off his response or what his supporters said in this q&a. your response to this, ralph, and overall, talk about what we've witnessed this week with the republican debate. respond to trump first. what should he have said? >> what would be of said if the man said that jews instead of muslims? what would he of the said if you said christians instead of muslims? obviously, donald trump is tone deaf about the rights of muslims in this country. we're supposed to have equal

rights under the law. what can a stereotype racism does he require in his audience before he stands up against it? amy: would you call him a racist? well, we will let him answer that question. he certainly is not rejecting ,acist comments that are made and that is the first sign. amy: what about his call for 11 million immigrants to be deported from this country? >> that is so absurd. you see, he gets away with absurdity. he has an immunity that would taint any other political candidate because he is so outrageous and the press things he is outrageous, so they give him a pass. it is amazing. it is sort of like the way the media did with ronald reagan. they had such low expectation levels of him that when he exceeded them, he was a surprise. but donald trump is fulfilling some important functions, amy. he is disrupting the slick

corporatism of the other candidates. for example, you said, why do we -- the big rich guys -- why do we give money to politicians? well, because then they'd do whatever we want them to do. that is a great quote. he was asked, what is your copies go bankrupt four times? he said, that is a competitive advantage. all these companies do that. he is exposing the fraud of bankruptcy law when it comes to compare to student loan defaults. he is making the statements which are very valuable. who knows where it is going to end up come a but it is all a circus. he is the chief circus barker, clearly. all of these issues, you talk about them on your program, other serious programming, go by the wayside. we have trivialized the campaign to select the leader of the

so-called greatest power in the world. amy: we just have a minute. we talked to but after bernie sanders announced his candidacy for the president, now he is ahead of hillary clinton in the polls in new hampshire and in a number of polls in iowa. your response to what this means? >> what we all knew, there's a left right coalition behind main liket, they don't connie capitalism or violation of civil liberties. they want criminal justice reform. very worried about empire broad and all the waste in the government and the pentagon and elsewhere. so he is tapping into it. he now needs to broaden out and has to have a corporate crime policy, not just to wall street -- antiwar street policy. yes to deal with military and foreign-policy. everyone i know of in the progressive world are waiting to see how he will take on hillary clinton, the master corporatist and the master militarist, the latest being the turmoil in

libya spilling over africa, that was hillary's war against the recommendation -- amy: ralph nader, thank you for being with us. democracynow.org. [captioning made possible by democracy now!]

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