01/20/16 01/20/16 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] amy: from pacifica, this is democracy now! >> one of the things happening that people don't see, there are two of the richest people in the world, the koch brothers, who have gathered around them a group of about 400, 450 billionaires and multimillionaires to put together a jackpot of the most $900 million and they're going to try to spend that to influence the election on so many levels that people cannot

even see what is going on. amy: democrats and republicans are expected to spend about $1 billion getting their 2016 nominee elected. there's a third group that will spend almost as much. it's not a political party and it doesn't have any candidates. it's the right-wing political network backed by the billionaire koch brothers, charles and david koch. today we speak with "new yorker" staff writer, jane mayer. her explosive new book, "dark money: the hidden history of the billionaires behind the rise of the radical right." among her revelations, the kochs' father, fred koch, built oil refinery personally approved by adolf hitler. althat andore comi up. welce to demracy now decracynowrg, the r and peace port. i'm amy goman. inakistan,unmen have stormed the university and the

northwest, killing at least 30 people and injuring dozens. the attackers stormed the university earlier today under the cover of morning fog. the taliban commander initially claimed responsibility, but another spokesperson issued conflicting statement condemning the attack. initial accounts but the death toll at 30, but there are reports it could be much higher. ishigan governor rick snyder apologizing for the crisis of lead poisoning in flint's drinking water during his state of the union address last night. the poisoning began in 2014 when an unelected emergency manager appointed by snyder switched the water supply to the long contaminated and highly corrosive flint river in a bid to save money. complaints about the water in a month of withing the switch, but it took about a year and a half before the water was switched back. in tuesday, snyder acknowledged his government failed the people of flint. >> to you, the people of flint,

i say tonight as i have before, i am sorry and i will fix it. no citizen of this great state should endure this kind of catastrophe. government failed you. federal, state, and local leaders, by breaking the trust you placed in us. i'm sorry most of all that i let you down. you deserve better. amy: governor snyder's state of the state came after documents obtained by local news outlets showed officials at the city, county, and state level new 15 months ago about a potential link between the flint river water in a deadly outbreak of legionnaires disease that has killed 10 people and sickened dozens. people using the water were only told of the potential link last week. outside his speech tuesday, residents rallied to continue ands for his resignation arrest. among those present was melissa mays, who says her children have suffered a rash of lasting

health problems from cognitive impairment to anemia as a result of the poisoned water. >> they brought poison into our homes, we fed it to our children. we were promised it was safe. the state failed us. they lied. they took away our rights to protect our children and our families. they have taken a way our children's futures. we're here to say that we are not going to be your him's anymore. amy: meanwhile, more than 80 public schools in detroit are closed today amid a teachers sickout over black mold, rat infestations, crumbling buildings, and inadequate staffing. this comes as president obama plans to visit detroit later today for the detroit auto show. the supreme court has announced it will take up president obama's executive actions on immigration. in 2014, obama unveiled a program to shield an estimated up to five million undocumented people who are parents of u.s. citizens and permanent residents from deportation. but a coalition of 26 states filed suit, and last february, a

judge in texas halted the program. the supreme court's upcoming decision could impact the balance of power between congress and the president, and the lives of millions of undocumented people. a decision is expected by the end of june. former alaska governor and 2008 vice presidential nominee sarah palin has endorsed donald trump for president, marking the highest-profile endorsement of a republican candidate to date. palin made the announcement in iowa, a state where her backing could give trump a boost less than two weeks before the caucus. >> isn't he known for being able to command, fire -- [cheers] are you ready for a commander in chief? are you ready for a commander in chief who will let our warriors do their job and go kick isis as s?

ready for someone who will secure our borders, to secure our jobs, and to secure our homes? ready to make america great again? are you ready to stop for trump? -- stump for trump? amy: today's "new york daily news" cover showed a photo of palin and trump pointing at each other with the headline, "i'm with stupid." less than 24 hours before she endorsed trump, palin's 26-year-old son, track, was arrested for allegedly hitting and kicking his girlfriend and pointing a ar-15 assault rifle at her. a review of the private home email server used by hillary clinton while she was secretary of state shows the server contained information classified at higher levels than previously reported. officials reviewing they emails found information deemed to top secret/sap, which stands for special access programs, a level of classification beyond top secret. clinton has previously said none of the emails she sent or received were marked classified

at the time. the news comes as clinton's democratic presidential rival, vermont senator bernie sanders, has increased his lead over her in new hampshire. just weeks before the primary, sanders is leading clinton by 27 points, 60% to 33%. speaking in iowa tuesday, sanders said clinton is no longer the inevitable candidate. >> when i began a campaign, people said, well, you're running against an inevitable candidate. secretary clinton is the inevitable candidate of the democratic party, you might be able to raise some good issues, but you can't win. well, when we started, we were at 3% in the polls. we were 50 points behind. today the inevitable candidate does not look quite so inevitable as she did 8.5 months ago. meanwhile, sanders is facing criticism for saying last

week he opposed reparations for slavery. author ta-nehisi coates meanwhile has published a rebuke writing -- "sanders says the chance of getting reparations through congress is 'nil,' a correct observation which could just as well apply to much of the vermont senator's own platform. if this is the candidate of the radical left -- then expect white supremacy in america to endure well beyond our lifetimes and lifetimes of our children." in a vtory forress freom, a british appeals court ha ruled e uk's sweepi counteerrorismaws is "incomtible" wh fundamtal ghts. the case concerns david miranda, partner of investigative journalist glenn greenwald, who used documents from nsa whistleblower edward snowden to expose u.s. mass surveillance. miranda was detained and questioned for nine hours at london's heathrow airport in 2013 under british counterterrorism law while transporting some of the snowden documents. last year, the high court in london dismissed a challenge by miranda, saying his actions met

the law's definition of terrorism. but on tuesday, the appeals court partially overturned that ruling. miranda tweeted -- "thrilled with the court ruling! my purpose was to show uk's terrorism law violates press freedoms. and journalism isn't 'terrorism.' we won!" human rights watch has called for all businesses to stop operating in, financing or doing business with israeli settlements in the occupied west bank. the groups the report titled , occupation inc., also calls on countries like the united states to "funding given to the israeli government in an amount equivalent to its expenditures and related infrastructure in the west bank." the settlements have been deemed illegal under international law. the report comes after the u.s. ambassador to israel, dan shapiro, said israel appears to have two standards for adherence to the rule of law in the west bank -- one for jews and one for palestinians. shapiro made the remarks monday at a high-profile security conference in tel aviv. >> too many attacks on

palestinians lack of vigorous investigation response by is really response. too much vigilantism goes unchecked. there seems to be one for israelis and another for palestinians. amy: animal rights activists are protesting plans by the university of washington to build what they say would be the largest underground animal testing facility in the united states. here in new york, protesters targeted the home of richard cavallaro, ceo of skanska usa, the construction firm contracted to build the lab. michelle jurahge was among the protesters who marched three miles to cavallaro's house in long island saturday. >> it is a large construction company that was contracted by the university of washington to build an underground animal research facility. if this lab is built, thousands of different kinds of animals, including primates, guinea pigs, cats, and dogs will be subjected to terrible torture and eventually be killed. amy: two people were arrested attempting to scale richard cavallaro's home with a banner

urging him to drop his contract to build the animal testing lab in seattle. a new analysis by the "new york times" finds drug overdoses are driving the death rate of young white adults in the united states to levels not seen since the end of the aids epidemic more than two decades ago. the increase makes young, white adults between the ages of 25 and 34 the first generation since the mid-1960's, during the vietnam war, to experience higher death rates in early adulthood than the generation that came before it. the death rate rose much faster for those without a high school diploma. a new report shows the richest 62 billionaires in the world now own as much wealth as half the world. the oxfam report is timed to coincide with the meeting of global elites at the world economic forum in davos, switzerland. it shows the wealth of the poorest half of the world's population -- that's 3.6 billion people -- has fallen by $1 trillion since 2010, while the wealth of the world's richest 62 people has increased by more than half a trillion dollars.

and a photographer on assignment for amnesty international in burkina faso has died after she was wounded in friday's attack in ouagadougou. leila alaoui was a celebrated french-moroccan photographer working on a project about women's rights. she was 33 years old. and those are some of the headlines. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman with juan gonzalez. juan: welcome to all our listeners and viewers from around the country and around the world. this year's election season is set to be the most expensive ever with some estimates topping $10 billion. three groups will each spend about $1 billion on behalf of a presidential nominee. the first two are who you'd expect -- democrats and republicans, the country's dominant political parties. but the third group is not a political party, and does not have a single candidate running for office. instead, it's a network of right-wing advocacy groups backed by the billionaire energy tycoons, charles and david koch.

according to its own estimates, the koch network aims to spend nearly $900 million on the 2016 presidential and congressional races, more than doubling its amount in 2012. the kochs' political machine now eclipses the official republican party in key areas, with about three-and-a-half times as many employees as the republican national committee. charles and david koch's 2016 spending comes as part of an effort to funnel hundreds of millions of dollars to conservative candidates and causes over the last four decades. their net worth is a combined $82 billion, placing them fifth on the forbes 400 list of wealthiest americans. the kochs' political operations have exploded in the six years since the supreme court's citizens united decision, which removed limits on campaign spending by ruling that donor money is a form of free speech. citizens united has allowed the kochs and others to spend

spend -- spend millions in "dark money," political donations where the source is kept secret. amy: the story of the koch brothers and an allied group of billionaire donors is told in a new book by new yorker reporter jane mayer, "dark money: the hidden history of the billionaires behind the rise of the radical right." jane mayer traces how the kochs and other billionaires -- including mellon banking and gulf oil heir richard mellon scaife, chemical tycoon john m. olin, and electronics magnates harry and lynde bradley -- have leveraged their business empires to create a political machine with unprecedented influence over politics at the national, state, and local level. beyond elections, these billionaires have also influenced the political sphere by using their money to create right wing think tanks, endow university positions, and fund research favorable to their right-wing agenda, including climate change denial, opposing health care reform, and thwarting government regulation. the kochs' political empire is so vast it's been dubbed the , "kochtopus," with organizations including americans for prosperity and citizens for a sound economy. mayer's book contains a number

of revelations and new details. she begins with the kochs' father, industrialist fred koch. mayer reveals that fred koch helped build an oil refinery in nazi germany -- a project approved personally by adolf hitler. the refinery was critical to the nazi war effort. its oil fueled german warplanes. before that, fred koch built a refinery for joseph stalin's russia. fred koch went on to become an original leader of the right-wing john birch society. charles koch was a member when the group campaigned against the civil rights movement in the 1960's. jane mayer also uncovers evidence confirming rumors that the koch brothers tried to blackmail their own brother, frederick, into giving up his share of the family company by threatening to out him as gay. it also emerges that the epa has named the kochs' company, koch industries, the single biggest u.s. producer of toxic waste. mayer recounts her own potential brush with the koch's empire: after she profiled the brothers in a 2010 piece for the "new yorker," a private firm was hired to discredit her reporting. although tre's no definite

proof, mayer says that clues leading back to the kochs were everywhere. and she explores the kochs' multi-year effort to undermine president obama, starting with a secretive meeting of right-wing donors the week of his inauguration. jane mayer joins us now. a staff writer for the "new yorker," her new book is, "dark money: the hidden history of the billionaires behind the rise of the radical right." welcome to democracy now! >> thank you. amy: let's start with this explosive revelation about the koch brothers father, fred koch. business and his involvement with nazi germany. >> well, he built what became the third-largest refinery in germany during the build up to world war ii. it was a refinery that from the start was meant to help the military effort of the third reich. it was clear hitler was looking for ways to refinery own oil so

that they could fuel the war machine was building up at that point. the refinery was begun, the contract was begun in 1934 and was finished in 1935. one of the things that the father koch was especially good at, he apparently was a brilliant engineer himself, was refining oil in the really high-octane fuel that would be good for the warplanes. it had to be done in a special way. juan: interestingly, the kochs acquittal of your work for but they only responded to 20 -- two of the allegations will step the released a statement specifically on this area, they say -- "mayer falsely implies that fred koch was working to aid and abet germany's tyrannical regime during world war ii, and further implies that two of his sons, charles and david koch could somehow share these fictional

sympathies. it is a sad commentary on today's media environment that we have to respond to such irresponsible and reckless attacks." they claim many companies, like ford and general electric and others also were involved in germany before the war. >> there were other american companies, ford especially has been singled out. it is true, though, what they're saying, facts are facts. they basically confirmed the father dealt the refinery, designed the cracking unit, which refines the fuel, and that became a key asset for the nazi -- juan: one of the things you note in your book, this is the part of the biography of the father that is not included -- >> it is not to say, what they're kind of ducking down is -- the book does not say that fred koch or the sons were nazi s. that would be a ridiculous statement. it says specifically fred koch's views of the nazis are unknown,

but he worked for them, made money from them, and this chapter was kept hidden from the koch industries history that is up online. amy: why was hitler -- >> one of many secrets -- the truth is, the book grew out of a 20 story i did for "the new yorker" it's turned out to be the tip of the iceberg. there is so much that is not known, that it took five years to document all of this. amy: why was hitler personally involved in improving the refinery? >> his underlings were not going to approve it and the partner, leverage davis, working with fred koch, was a nazi sympathizer and the u.s. considered him a nazi agent, actually. he was the partner and he needed an ok from hitler. to get it, he had to speak with hitler himself. hitler reminded the project. gave him an autographed copy of "mein kampf." and forth to back

germany a lot. one of the things that -- you must when on the hindenburg. at the last minute he was detained. it blew up in new jersey right before the war started. he imported or somehow the family wound up with a german nanny who brought up the two oldest boys, frederick and charles, charles is used on today is one of the two koch brothers. the nanny herself was a nazi sympathizer of such fervor that when hitler invaded france in 1940, she had been with the koch family for five years but she said she needed to leave and wanted to go back to be with the furor to celebrate. it was strange. it was -- it is a fascinating family. it was a strange upbringing. s am not saying they were nazi

, but what i am saying is this family was politically from the start filled with very strange influences. amy: and fred koch's involvement in the founding of the john birch society and what that is? >> what happens is, the father also worked for stalin. built the oil refineries there installing's first five-year plan. he comes back to the u.s. and he is horrified by what he has seen of stalin and it becomes just an absolutely was sort of vitriolic anti-communist and that leaves two him being a founding member john birch society. he passes those views on to his sons. and both david koch and charles koch, the two known as the koch brothers, were members of the john birch society, which kind of defined the anti-communist right-wing fringe in american 1950's and 1960's. juan: i want to go back to the beginning of your book. you start with the inauguration of president obama in january

2009 and all the attention and the enthusiasm that generated across the world and in the united states. you also say that very month, there was a secret meeting that was convened by the kochs of billionaires and multimillionaires with the completely different agenda. if you could talk about that? >> the book is not just about the kochs. the kochs on their own would probably not have the influence they have. what they've done is a magic trick, attracted around them -- purposefully built what they call an unprecedented network, a pipeline they talk about, were that govern about -- gathered about 400 extraordinary wealthy conservatives with them to create kind of a billionaire caucus almost. and that is the group that met for just as obama was being inaugurated, soon after that, they met to figure out, how can we abstract this? they regarded it as a catastrophe that obama had been elected.

they wanted to see of they could stop change from taking place in the country and keep the order the way it had been for them during the bush years and maybe even push it further to the right. it is ans not -- organization that i think people need to understand is not just about elections. they have been playing a long game that started 40 years ago when charles koch really got involved in politics in the beginning. they wanted to change not just who rules the country, but how the country thinks. there are very antigovernment. and they have pushed this kind of antigovernment line for 40 years through many different channels. ideas asd of a war of much as anything else. juan: you also talk about the secrecy with which they operate. you quote fred co., the family patriarch as saying, "the weld espouses the one that gets harpooned.

>> many tell me, they're not just under the radar, they are underground. and for many years, just were almost invisible. the kochs used to call koch industry the biggest company of never heard about. the second largest private company in america and has $115 billion a business a year and most people did not know what it was. many americans used their products and don't realize. dixie cups, stan mastercard vet, lumber,eorgia pacific colder northern told the paper. there are so many products that they have flooded the american market with yet us people don't realize that that is coming from these two brothers who own most of the company and are pouring the money into far right-wing politics. amy: we're going to keep talking about this with jane mayer, stay -- staff writer for "the new yorker" and author of, "dark

money: the hidden history of the billionaires behind the rise of the radical right." stay with us. ♪ [music break]

amy: this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman with juan gonzalez. our guest for the hour is jane mayer, staff writer for the "new yorker," author of "dark money: , the hidden history of the billionaires behind the rise of the radical right." if you think about what is happening in this country, the rise of inequality quality, why climate change action doesn't way --in a more systemic many different issues. jane mayer talks about some of the power blocks

behind the major obstacles, the bloc. start with where you're getting your information. >> i interviewed hundreds of people for this. i have many new documents also. one of the things that was interesting to me -- i mean, i wanted to this wondering, why does the government seems so dysfunctional? as you said, why can't something be done about global warming and congress? scientific committed he goes one way and congress goes the other. american public opinion supports doing something about global warming, commerce will do anything. what is holding it up? money. the fossil fuel interest in others, and you can see it in here, there is -- it begins long ago. in about 1976, there was a plan laid by charles koch to build what he called a radical movement to change the way america voted and thought.

and he said, we need to "destroy" the status to paradigm and start a movement. he modeled it on the john birch society. paper that is quoted in here that he wrote in 1976 about how he was going to found a movement and launch it. so this has been a long, long running project. he has built it up. he is an engineer. he's extraordinaire wealthy. he has worked with a number of smart people to build this push,k to try to sort of push, push the country in his direction. juan: you talk about when it comes to climate change, direct interest that koch industries has an climate denial. can you talk about the refinery in minnesota and its importance in terms of polluting the planet? >> sure, their fortune is built on fossil fuels. they are refiners and they have tremendous number is a pipelines. they own a huge amount of the tar sands that are up in canada.

so if america moved off also -- moved allld also fuels, it would be catastrophic to the business. it is a direct interest they have in this. i try to follow the money in the denial of climate change, and an awful lot of it goes back to the kochs and their circle. they have a number of other fossil fuel companies that are part of their network, their group, this group of 400 or so. members are secret, but there is one guest list that actually was left behind somewhere, so we have been able to see a little bit of who the members are -- at least, at one point. it includes any well-known players and a number of fossil fuel interests. juan: i want to ask about the hedge fund people that are involved in this as well. steve schwarzman, steven:. >> there are a number of very

well-known finance figures who were extraordinarily wealthy and one of the things that this group has worked hard to do is keep sort of tax breaks for billionaires, really, for hedge funds. one is the third interest loophole, and they wanted -- carried interest loophole, and they wanted to keep it. there was talk the democrats may try to close it. so this brought a flood of money from the finance community into this group to keep that loophole open for them. it means that hedge fund managers pay taxes at 15%, which is lower than almost, you know, any decently paid american pays more in taxes than many of these people. amy: so let's talk about how they built their power. you got a hold of several hundred page history called "stealth: the history of charles koch plus political activities."

where did this come from and talk about the four brothers, it is not just the two charles and david. >> it is an amazing family feud that took place inside this family. there was a brothers, as you say, two of them formed one team and two formed the other team. they were in court for 20 years against each other fighting over who was going to get to run the company and have more access to the family fortune. one of the brothers who was estranged, bill koch, commissioned a history. he hired a historian who actually have been hired previously by koch industries to do its own history. so it was a historian who worked at george mason university and he did a history for bill koch of what the other brother, charles, was doing politically. it is called "stealth" because he describes a secret plan by manipulatetry to american politics. it is fascinating. it is full of the details,

including this paper that i mentioned that charles wrote in 1976 that no one had seen before. juan: part of the documents you uncovered was a sealed or at least permission on a sealed deposition that involved the battle between the brothers and attempt by charles and david to blackmail their own oldest -- the eldest brother, frederick, to out him as gay according to the deposition. >> it's true. this is a painful theme in this. it gives you an idea of just how rough these guys play. you have three brothers trying to set up the fourth, who they thought was gay. they basically hold a kangaroo court. falsenvite him under pretext. he walks in, three are facing them in chairs. he is supposed to sit across

from them. they accuse him of being gay. they say, we're going to tell our father you are gay unless you give us your shares in the company. the brother that was accused, frederick, the oldest, he stood up and said, "i never want to her about this again" and walked out. all of this described in a deposition that has remained sealed during all these years. it gives you just a glimpse, i think, maybe how ruthless these players are. amy: how did you get a hold of it and what happened with the company then, with bill and frederick? >> well, i can't say how got a hold of it, but i can say it is absolutely unrefuted. that this is the real thing. for 20 years, there was fighting between these two sets of brothers, two against two. in the end, charles and david triumphed and they run the company, owned the company for the most part. there are a few other shares at a few scattered other people have, but basically, they own

virtually the whole company. the two that were left out got decent size of inheritances and went off on their own ways. juan: on the other part of your book that the kochs jointly challenge, claiming this information on this court battle was especially the information in the deposition, was rejected by a jury and they trapped in a was false allegations. >> the allegation they blackmail the brother? well, it says in the book that charles denied it, but this is a deposition sworn to be true by bill koch, who was in the room at the time. so i think, take it for what it is. facts are facts. amy: i want to turn to charles koch in his own words. speaking at the wichita metro chamber 2015 annual meeting, koch was asked to explain what good profit is. his latest book is called, "good profit: how creating value for others built one of the world's most successful companies." this is part of what he said.

>> good profit is creating superior value in society by helping your customers improve their lives. that come ass does i say, by creating superior value for its customers and by more efficiently using resources and driving creative destruction . and while you're doing it, do the best job of keeping people safe and protecting the environment. and if you do a superior job of all those, believe me, you will be profitable. and if you don't, you won't last. that is our philosophy. amy: so that is charles koch speaking in his own words. i wanted to talk about the company and the environment.

said that kocha industries was the largest of the single biggest producer of toxic waste in the united states. in 2014, according to the toxic release inventory, koch industries had consistently appeared among the top five u.s. producers of toxic waste. >> yes, and there's a university of massachusetts in amherst study, too, that says they are one of only three companies that has been among the top producers of air pollution, water pollution, and climate pollution. there are huge history of environmental violations. they say they have worked hard to improve on that, and i think they probably are better than the were way back in 1990's, maybe, but at that point, they had some of the largest environmental judgments against them that it ever been brought in the u.s. they have a checkered history on

the subject. i was there in wichita when charles koch gave that speech. it certainly caught my year when he mentioned that one of the things you need to do is have a good and bimetal record. i'm glad he thinks that is important. amy: talk about climate change, but go further with what they have done around this issue, the groups that have been set up, the money that is been funneled into either of his get or deny human induced climate change. >> what you have to understand is the koch have built out of an assembly line to manufacture political change. it includes think tanks, which produce papers. it includes advocacy groups that advocate for policies. and it includes giving money to candidates. you put those three together and they pushed against doing anything about climate change on all those three fronts at once. so you get papers that look like

they are real scientific opinions doubting that climate change is real, and you get candidates who have to sign a pledge that the largest political group is americans for prosperity. they have a pledge that says if you want to get money from this -- from their donors, you have to sign a pledge saying that if elected, he will do nothing about climate change that requires spending any money on the problem. 156 members of congress currently has signed that pledge. so is sort of is a recipe for how to tie the hands of the country from doing anything on this. juan: what are some of these think tanks? also, talk about the role with alec. >> that is the other thing that is so interesting, they have created a think tank and helped funded and honest every state. in fact, in every state, there's

at least one of these think tanks called a state policy network and they worked with the group alec. you all probably know about it. the corporate's -- funnels money -- an and legislative exchange council. >> there is a reason they want the name kochtupus. there are many different tentacles and state legislators were money goes a lot further. amy: david koch actually ran for congress, set right, 1980? >> he ran to become vice president of the united states in 1980 and this is one of the questions i had, so he ran in 1980 the libertarian ticket. he got something like 1% of the vote. amy: not congress. vice president. >> vice president. it gives you an indication, they were so far right, they were running against ronald reagan because they thought he was too liberal.

so that time, -- a really fringe ine furthest america and even conservatives denounced their views. william buckley called it an --o to terrible terry newsom totalitarianism. what is interesting to me as a reporter, how did this group, these two brothers and the others around them, get from the furthest fringe to the center of gravity in the republican party? it is pulled their way so far during these 30 years since then. juan: you mention the phrase buckley used, talk about the freedom school and how david koch was involved with this little-known operation in colorado. >> it was in colorado springs, colorado. even before he ran as vice president on the libertarian party, he was, i guess a young man in his 30's, and was very attracted to the school called

the freedom school that was run by a man named charles left of who had a very odd background, had a lot of legal brushes. they taught a kind of fanatical libertarianism that was all love -- almost anarchist. andhead of the school, this called himself and auto crest. they wanted to shrink to the point they could not tax, wanted to get rid of the epa, wanted to get rid of pretty much much of the federal government. the historical view of this group was the robber barons were america's heroes in the gilded age really was the golden age and it was a completely revisionist view of america and charles koch was so supportive of it, he became a trustee of the school.

amy: we're talking to jane mayer . when we come back, we want to find about her own history in investigating the koch's will stop to that lead to an investigation of her and her reporting? and continue to talk about the size of the operation. as we said at the beginning of the show, the republican and democratic parties are expected to spend each something like $1 billion in the 2016 elections. there's another party that will spend about that much -- not a se, but therty per $900 billion -- $900 million, close to $1 billion that we're looking at today. jane mayer, staff writer for "the new yorker," in her book is called, "dark money: the hidden history of the billionaires behind the rise of the radical right." stay with us. ♪ [music break]

amy: this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman with juan gonzalez. our guest for the hour is jane mayer, staff writer for the "new yorker" and author of the new book, "dark money: the hidden history of the billionaires behind the rise of the radical right." so that song that bob dylan was just singing, talking about the john birch society were not only fred koch, the patriarch of the family, but charles koch also was a member of the john birch society. john birch society club general eisenhower president what eisenhower a communist? >> yes, they thought dwight eisenhower was a communist. they saw conspiracies behind all kinds of things. i have to say that i am told charles koch did not buy all of the far-fetched and spears he theories, and he really went in a slightly different direction. he was more preoccupied with becoming a kind of radical

economic libertarian my meaning he wanted to get the government to just let businesses do what they wanted to do and that the free market rule america. and so he has fought to keep taxes really low, get rid of almost all regulations on business. this is really what he has focused on, not so much on communism. in theou also describe book has some of the gatherings of this caucus, of the billionaires, as also at times made it uncomfortable for the established republican figures like senator john cornyn at one point and talk about their ability to empower the radical right in congress. >> i mean, when obama was elected, there was a dilemma within the republican party. it was, do we work with him and ,ry to get as much as we can sort of the old-fashioned way of politics where you make compromises, or do we simply just go on strike and try to

demonize him and obstruct everything, shut down the government? there's a big argument that took place in front of the coat donor group very early on. and the side that won and won over the hearts of the donor group, was the side of jim demint, who was then the senator ,rom south carolina who said obstruct, obstruct, obstruct. and from that point on, we are talking -- amy: he would later quit to become the head of the heritage foundation. >> that's right. but at that point, it was a choice and this group puts money into stop obama anyway you can. so part of also what i try to tell the story of here -- and you have to kind of follow the money through the chapters. it is not just an election force, it is this club has become a force of obstruction against governing so that when obama proposes the health care

plan, this group funnels money to many, many different front , unseen to then american public, pop-up and oppose the health care plan and drupt meetis. i don't know if peoe rememb the to hall meings, i ink inhe summe of 201when it wasust pandemonium breaking out. laidere actually plans among this group to pour money in, get people riled up, and make them think that this was going to have death squads, things like that. they got people very upset. juan: and the connection to the tea party? >> they put a lot of money to the tea party. i started writing about them in the summer of 2010. at that point, the spokesman for the koch's said he had nothing to do the tea party. i went down to a weekend meeting , the biggest coat group was holding, americans for texas, andin austin,

there they were giving seminars to tea party members on how to organize. so they really -- and d the peoe i interviewed down there evidently had gone soundbites because there are saying, are you kidding? the tea party, we have been to the tea party before, it was cool. i think what is interesting to me is, as you have been saying, there have always been democrats with a lot of money, republicans with a lot of money. the history of the country has been, you know, suddenly big money players. what you hear -- have here is a list of third-party, the money party, and servant of outside pressure group that is acting as a force field pulling the republican party, particularly, to the right. amy: with 3.5 times as many employees as the republican national committee. >> and a larger budget by two times the budget that republican national committee had in the 2012 presidential campaign. you're talking about a pretty

professionally organized operation. there is a new paper i thought was really interesting by professor at harvard that came out just last week, "the koch affect." it describes what has been built by them and their allied donors as akin to a national party. juan: in july, speaking at the naacp annual convention in philadelphia, president obama praised the koch brothers for their involvement in the campaign to reform the criminal justice system. this is what he said. people in both houses of congress together, it has created some unlikely bedfellows. you've got van jones and newt gingrich. you've got americans for tax reform and the aclu. you' got theaacp andhe coatthers --

[applause] you have to give them credit. you have to call it like you see it. juan: a day after president obama's speech in july, we interviewed mark holden, senior vice president, general counsel's for koch industries on why the koch brothers were getting involved in a coalition to reform the criminal justice. >> charles koch and david koch are classic liberals that believe in expansive liberties and limited government. if your goals are to honor the bill of rights and to remove obstacles to opportunity, special for the poor and disadvantaged, yet to be the criminal justice arena. to answer your question, as van pointed out, what worked 20 or 30 years ago doesn't work today and we have to have the intellectual honesty encourage and humility to correct that in our businesses we do that all the time when things aren't working. to his point, what we're

seeing happen in the states is really a template for what should happen of the federal level and making sure everything we do and enhances public safety and honors the bill of rights entries everybody in the system as individuals with dignity and respect, particularly, the victims, law-enforcement, the incarcerated, the accused and their families. juan: that was more cold and, senior counsel for the koch industries. this whole issue of them getting involved in the criminal justice reform? >> mark holden is a very eloquent advocate for criminal justice reform. the kochs have long cared about criminal justice reform. but what people may not realize is they have pushed a different kind of reform the most liberals have. what they would like to do is get rid of many crimes that have to do with pollution, that have to do with corporate crimes, tax crimes. they want to weaken prosecution of companies like their own. .ow there is a tiny overlap if you did a diagram of where the far right and everybody else overlaps, they would like to see

sentencing reform for drug offenders at this point -- which nonviolent drug offenders, which is in important issue him a it is good they're talking about it. that ist something cared about until 2014. i have a new piece out and "the new yorker" that notes in 2014, they launched a huge public relations campaign to change their image. they are involved in what david axelrod described as one of the biggest rebranding efforts anybody has ever launched. i see this as certainly part of it. the reason i do is, you will see, if you read this book, were earlyapes that doubt from one of the meetings where they describe how they need to change their image. they did not win the presidency in 2012, despite the money to put behind mitt romney. they went back to the drawing

board and try to figure out what they were doing wrong. and they did a huge number of polls. they came to the conclusion that the public thought they were greedy and didn't trust them. and so they speak in this tape about how we need to prove that we have good intent and we care about other people. and at that point, they launched a number of programs that have to do with doing good works for the poor. so i see this as quite related to that. amy: what happened you, jane, after your big exposé in 2010 in "the new yorker" magazine? >> this was something that had never happened to me before, but even though i have covered all kinds of things from wars to the cia come up at i-70 found myself about to be -- i suddenly found myself about to be attacked in the press. the right-wing press. on charges that were drummed up by a private eye that had been

digging into me. and that private eye, it turned out -- and i report about this in the book -- was working with top koch operatives who run them in the book. it is all been checked. the kochs that heather chance to say it is not so. they have never denied it and neither has the detective. they tried to plant misinformation about me in the press. luckily it was so falls, nobody ran with it. amy: explain the whole story. >> i was working at "the new yorker" at the time and on january 2011, david remnick, the e-mailed byalled or to publications that wanted go with stories saying i was a plagiarist and supposedly had stolen lines from four different other writers. now, nobody has ever accused me of this in my life.

the stories were things that have been out for years. david asked me, what is this? i took a look and i really realized i better call the authors and see if they have any complaints. none of them did. all in on the record saying, this is a plagiarism, we have no complaints against jane. they were willing to be stand up people and back me up. i went back to the right-wing news organizations and said, "this is false. you're the statements from the writers." they never published these. i wonder what had happened and so did "the new york post" which was about to do a story on it and the media reporter there started asking, who is trying to smear jane mayer? he started doing a series of stories of floating the idea that the koch brothers were behind because they have been unhappy with the big piece i did about them. anyway, it took years -- really, three years, but eventually, i was able to connect the dots.

you'll see the story in this. amazingly, the detective they hired to do this was the former commissioner of police in york city, howard safer -- [laughter] i am glad to say it was ridiculous. in fact, one of the stories i was supposed to have plagiarized from -- amy: he is supposed to put out fires, was also the fire commissioner. >> anyway, one of the stories i was supposedly had plagiarized from, the author said, not only did you not plagiarize from me, you credited me in the next sentence and linked to me online. then it turned out my own husband had edited the story. it was "the washington post" so i guess i was supposed to have been plagiarizing for my husband. it fell apart, but it was really ugly. amy: did say for comment? >> he has been asked multiple times in the sibley says, "i can't comment."

amy: jane, what most shocked you? you have been investigating the kochs and the koch in part for many years. what most shocked to in writing this book? >> i think the conference of nature of what they built. as i said earlier, what i wrote before was about the tip of the iceberg but this was -- it is a comprehensive political machine manufacturing political change in the country. and it operates on many, many levels with tons of money. it is hard to describe it unless you read the story, but it filters through so many -- it'st levels that fascinating. in some ways, it is a testimony to charles koch. he is an engineer who looked at american politics and thought, how do you manufacture change here? what widgets does it need?

what do you do? he is been a terrifically successful businessman, and he has brought the country far in the direction it was considered fringe not that many years ago. juan: some of the most surprising participants in the group that you do not expect would be in the group? >> i think this interesting these new york finance people are in it because for the most part, they don't share this radical worldview. wealthst care about accumulation, basically. and, you know, david koch's involvement in this himself, he is the wealthiest resident of manhattan. his name is on every cultural institution here. he trials in circles that are full of open-minded people -- he travels in circles that are full of open-minded people, yet he is backing this machine that is pushing the country in a direction i think many manhattanites by be surprised by. amy: jane mayer, thank you for

being with us, author of, "dark money: the hidden history of the billionaires behind the rise of the radical right." that does it for our broadcast. democracy now! is looking for feedback from people who appreciate the closed captioning. e-mail your comments to outreach@democracynow.org or mail them to democracy now! p.o. box 693 new york, new york 10013. [captioning made possible by democracy now!] democracy now! is hiring a director of finance and operations a

- hello. i'm john cleese. it seems that beneath all the apparent differences that separate the world's religions, there's a deep undercurrent that points towards what is called oneness or unity consciousness, the single indivisible essence of all creation. to get some further understanding of this, we're going to explore the concept from both the mystical and the scientific perspectives with an east indian physicist and a british mystic. so settle back, take a slow, deep breath as we join our trusted guide and host, phil cousineau, on this fascinating episode of global spirit, the first "internal travel" series.