06/16/16 06/16/16 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] amy: from pacifica, this is democracy now! >> fundamental disconnect with the american people when these tragedies continue to occur and we just move forward with business as usual. remain onm going to this floor until we get some signal, some sign t that we c cn come together on these two measures, that we can get a path forward.

amy: senate democrats led by chris murphy of connecticut have wrapped up a nearly 15-hour filibusterer calling for stricir gun controrol in the wake of the orlando massacre, but will it does but what exactly was agreed to? we will get t the latest. then to the presidential race. >> i am donald trump. i wrote the art of the deal. i have made billions and billions of dollars dealing with people all over the world and i want to put whatever that talent is to work to this country. amy: today, we look at trump the businessman and a series of new investigative articles that expose trump's shady business dealings in atlantic city, his failure to pay hundreds of former employees and contractors, and new evidence from a pulitzer prize money journals that trump did not even pay his taxes. all that and more, coming up. welcome to democracy now!,!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report.

i'm amy goodman. president obama is slated to visit orlando, florida, today, following sunday's attack on an lgbt n nightclub in orlandndo, flororida, which k killed d 49 e and was the deadliliest massss shshooting i in modern u.s. . h. the massacre has reignited calls for gun control by senate democrats, who mounted a nearly 15-hour filibuster that ended early this morning after republicans reportedly agreed to hold a vote on gun contrtrol measures, including prohibiting peoplen the govevernment'ss terrrrorist watctch list fromm obtaining gun licenses and exexpanding background checks to include gushows and internet sales. connecticucut democratic senator chris murphy launcnched the filibuster a little after 11:00 inin the morning on wednesdaday. >> imf my withth end. end.. am at my witss i've had enougugh. i've had enough of the ongoing slaughter off innocents and body. of inaction in this

so i i'm goining remain on this floor until we get some signal, some sign that we can come together on these two measures, that we e can get a papath forw. pidemic inin ag this memeaningful, bipartisan way. amy: it was the 9th longest filibuster in u.s. history. about 90% of americans support stricter gun control measures, while new cbs news poll finds 57% of americans support a full nationwide ban on assaultt weapons -- up from 44% last december -- although, this was not one of the issues republicans have agreed to vote on. we'll have more on the filibuster aftfter headlines. presumptive republican presidential nominee donald trump has said he'll meet with the national rifle association today to discuss gun control measures to prohibit people on terror w watch lists from purchasing firearms.

the nra has endorsed trump. meanwhile, donald trump reiterated his call for bans on muslim immigration and called for increased surveillance of muslim communities, including at mosques. he spoke at a a news conferencen atlanta, georgia wednesday. ,>> we have to stop on a temporary basis, at least, but we have to stop people from pouring into our country. we have to stop it. until we find out what the hell is going on. and we have to go and we have to maybe check, respectfully, the mosques, and we're to check other places. amy: a new cbs news poll finds the majority of americans disapprove of trump's response to the mass shooting in orlando. during trump's speech in atlanta, members of the press corps symbolically saved seats for the "washington post" reporters who had been banned by trump from covering his events. trump has also banned buzzfeed, the huffington post, the daily beast, the des moines register, the union leader, univision, and fusion.

meanwhile, government agencies are refusing to release public records about sunday's massacre in orlando, florida. multiple media sources have reported shooter omar mateen called 911 during the time of the assault and declared his allegiance to isis, but the city of orlando is refusing to release any 911 calls. other agencies are refusing to release documents about mateen's security guard license, and records from mateen's brief stint as a corrections officer. barbara petersen of the first amendment foundation said, "they are trying to control the stream of information. they are trying to control what people know." this comes as a a federal grand jury is reportly considering whether to indict omar mateen's wife, noor salman, on criminal charges related to the attack. multiple news outlets, citing unnamed sources, have reported she know about the planned attack ahead of time and even drove mateen to the pulse club one night. but other reporters have cast doubt on these claims. sam husseini of the institute for public accuracy reports one of noor salman's close friends says salman is saying that she

knew nothing of her husband's plans and never drove her husband to the club. husseini writes, "she is apparently telling people around her that virtually everything you're hearing about her is a lie.e." meanwhile, the intercept is reporting an orlando-based imam named marcus dwayne robertson has received a slew of death threats after fox news inaccurately reported robertson had been arrested for alleged connections to omar mateen. fox cited d anonymous government officials claiming mateen had been radicalized through robertson's online seminary. but rorobertson had not beenen arreststed and mateen was neneva stududent of robertson's semina. in facact, the two never hadad y contact. robertson told the intercept -- "some members of the media decided to start pushing their own narrative in order to build this mentality that is trying to foment hatred and blame us for these terrible acts. they've put our lives in danger." video of utah's republican lieutenant governor spencer cox has gone viral after he

apologized to the lgbtq community for hihis own homophoa during a vigil in salt lake city on monday. highwent to a small rural school. there were some kids in my class that were different ththen me, d somemetimes i wasasn't kind to . i did not know it at the time, but i know n now they were gay. i regret not treating them with thee kindness, dignity, anand respect, the love that they deserved. for that, i sincerely and humbly apologize. speaking out to the straight commmmitted the, how did you fel when you heard 49 people hadad been gunned down by a so proclaimed terrorist? that is the easy question. here's ththe hard one. did that feeling change when you found out the shooting was in a gay bar at 2:2:00 a.m. in the morning?

if that feeling changed, then we're doing something wrong. amy: from the campaign trail, a single hacker using the name "guccifer 2.0," has claimed responsibility for hacking into the democratic national commmmittee's computer network d obtaining a trove of donor information and a 200-page anti-trump playbook. the dnc had previously blamed the attack on the russian government. on wednesday, the hacker leaked the "donald trump report," which was created in december 2015 by democratic strategist warren flood. the playbook highlights the dnc's strategies to take down trump, which include focusing on how trump is a "misogynist in chief" and a "bad businessman." well, for more on donald trump's business practices, we'll be joined later in the broadcast by a roundtable of award-winning reporters from the "new york times," "usa today," and the "daily beast." in more news from the 2016 election, the aclu has sued the city of cleveland over restrictions on free speech .

-- free speech cleveland officials are planning to impose during the republican national convention in july. cleveland hahas demarcated a 3.3 square mile event area in downtown cleveland that will be subject to broad restrictions during the convention, including banning everyday items such as umbrellas with metal tips, glass bottles, canned goods, large backpacks and sleeping bags. , the lawsuit argues the bans of such items are arbitrary and will criminalize the homeless community. the city has also delayed issuing permits for marches and parades for months, making g it difficult to plan. in news from the u.s. war in afghanistan, u.s. defense secretary ash carter has reportedly told nato the u.s. is again reconsidering the proposed withdrawal of u.s. forces. the u.s. currently has 9800 u.s. troops in afghanistan. the current plan is reduce this number 5500 by the end of this year. carter's comments wednesday come as nato countries agreed to extend the mission in afghanistan through 2017 and to keep the network of baseses acrs afghanistan in place.

tens of thousands of palestinians living in the israeli-occupied west bank are withthout access to safe drinkig water during the holy month of ramadan after israel's national water company began siphoning off water supplies to multiple west bank cities and villages. meanwhile, european union officials are warning 95% of the water in the israeli-occupied gaza strip is currently not fit for human use. this comes as u.s. officials announce breakthroughs in talks over increased u.s. military funding to isrsrael. while visiting israel for the talks, u.s. deputy secretary of state antony blinken spoke out. under this administration, the united states has invested nearly $24 billion in foreign military financing for israel since 2009.9. far more than for any other country, more than at any other previous time in the history of the u.s.-israel relationship. we are also prepared to sign a new tenure memorandum of understanding that would

constitute the largest single pledge of military assistance from the united states to any country in our history. amy: he also said u.s. military funding to israel currently amounts to $8.5 million every single day. a new report by the netherlands-based peace organization pax accuses 150 financial institutions, including u.s. banking giants jpmorgan chase and bank of america, of investing billions of dollars in companies manufacturing internationally-banned cluster bombs. the weapons contain bomblets which fan out over a wide area and often fail to explode e unti civilians pick them up later. in florida divers have found the , body of f a two-year-old boyoy following an alligator attack at disney's theme park just outside orndo, floririda. totoler lane g graves of nebrasa was attackcked and dragged away from his familily on the shohorf a man-made lake on t tuesday night. disnsney has closesed the beacht its florida resorts in the wake

of the attack. in oakland, california, a second police chief has been ousted in less than a week amid a massive scandal in which multiple oakland police officers are facing allegations of statutory rape and human trafficking after allegedly having sex with an underage girl who was working as a sex worker. on wednesday, oaklkland mayor libby schaaf removed ben fairow as interim police chief. he had been appointed only six days earlier after former police chief sean whent resigned amid the scandal. and today marks the 50th anniversary of stokely carmichael's historic "black power" speech in greenwood, mississippi, on june 16, 1966. carmichael was speaking after james meredith, the first black student to attend the university of mississippi, had been shot and wounded by a white man during the "walk against fear" from memphis, tennessee, to jackson, mississippi. following the shooting, carmichael declared to a crowd of 3000 people -- "we been saying 'freedom' for six years. what we are going to start saying now is 'black power'." speaking years later, carmichael explained the decision to adopt

"black power" as the movement's slogan.. >> luckily for us, the net in greenwood, k keene had to go doa television thing i think for "meet the e press," so he had do go to memphis a am a he was not therere the night in greenwood. they saiaid, don't hit too muchn freedom now, but hit the need for power. there, rix wasot saying, hit them now. i kept saying, give me tim wewe drdropped like power. they h have been primed and respond immediatately. i myself, to o be honest, i did not expect that enthusiastic response. amy: stokely carmichael adopted the name -- he died in and those 1998. are some of the headlines. this democracy now, demomocracynow.org, the wawar ad peace report. i'm amy goodman. return to thee gun-control debae on capitol hill. for nearly 15 hours, democratic senator chris murphy of

connecticut led a filibuster calling for stricter gun control in the wake of the orlando massacre that left 49 people dead. murphy began the filibuster at 11:21 eastern time in the morning on wednesday. with help from allies, he kept the filibuster going until 2:11 this morning saying that , republicans have agreed to hold votes on measures to expand background checks and prevent people on u.s. terrorism watch lists from buying guns. murphy accused the republican-led senate of failing to address the nation's gun epidemic. >> i think the people notice when we remain silent -- i know it is unintentional, but it seems to some people as if we don't care about what happens when we don't try to do anything about it. and i understand we have deep disagreements here about how to proceed, but with the exception of one week in 2013, we have not brought a debate to this floor in which we try to hash out our differences. republican leadership did not

announce in the wawake of orlano that we are going to spend this week working o on trying to enat measures to make sure that another mass shooting doesn't happen. and a fundamental disconnect with the american people when these tragedies continue to occur and we just move forward with this is as usual. so i'm going to remain on this floor until we get some signal, some sign that we can come together on these two measures, that we can get a path forward on addressing this epidemicic ia meaningful, bipartisan way. amy: on the presidential campaign trail, hillary clinton tweeted her support of murphy's effort, saying -- " some fights are too important to stay silent. preventing gun violence is one of them. stand strong @chrismurphyct." meanwhile, donald trump suggested in a tweet that he

will push the nra to accept some new forms of gun control. he wrote -- "i will be meeting with the nra, who has endorsed me, about not allowing people on the terrorist watch list, or the no fly list, to buy guns." meanwhile, the cover of today's "boston globe," features a large photo of a military style ar-15 next to just three words "make it stop." for more we're joined by caroline fredrickson, president of the american constitution society for law and policy. welcome to democracy now! you are in washington, d.c., with a knife longest filibuster in u.s. history took place on the floor of the senate will stop -- where the night long as filibuster in u.s. history took place on the floor of the senate. quite i think it is pretty important to recognize the republican leadership has been unwilling to even discuss the most limited, basic, commonsensical restrictions on access to guns. and after this historic filibuster, they have agreed to

allow votes to go forward on a couple -- again, we could be asking for a lot more, but these are some basic measures that the senate will move forward to a vote on. at least the american people can get these senators on the record. amy: talk about this. one of them is a no-fly ,no buy. explain what that is. >> essentially, we have these terrorist watch list in the united states or the government has determined that people are perhaps terrorists were associated with terrorists and they are dangerous. the no-fly list prevents them from getting on an airplane. the no buy list would extend that to the purchase of guns and saying, you know, as we might think another commonsense measure, that if you are thought to be a terrorist and we won't let you fly, we should probably not let you buy a gun. amy: there's something interesting that happened with republicans yesterday on this

issue. because the republicans have been so opposed, along with the nra, to any kind of regulation, they find themselves on the side of the terror watch list saying that there should be a way people can get off it -- which is interesting, and i think a lot of people would agree with that. what happens when you are p on this list and you have no recourse? they are calling for this now because they're saying, if people can't get off it, they can buy guns. so explain what they're pushing for. >> well, and i think all of us who care about civil liberties should want to make sure that those lists are fairly come to an there's a process for getting off if there is a mistake. i know the aclu where i used to work has long pushed for that. i think that is important. but the idea is, what we need is a pcess that can recognize and deal with mistakes, but not put up a false effort to simply

derail with the democrats are trying to do -- just what i am very for the nra and the republican leadership is aiming for here. amy: explain. >> the best way to get something off the public stage is to set up meetings and to say there's going to be a dialogue and a discussion. take a long time to finally reach the end, which is that you can't get to an agreement. i am somewhat skeptical, but i do think the democrats should be pushing as hard as they can. the filibuster is an important tool to bring people to the table. i think senator murphy was right not to back down simply because some republicans said they were discussing a possible compromise with senator feinstein. at the end of the day, that compromise discussion fell apart. similar murphy was right to keep to the floor. i think the democrats have to continue to use these tools in order to make sure any agreement is one that actually has teeth. amy: california democratic

senator dianne finds that has released new statistics showing more than 90% of known or suspected terrorists have attempted to buy a gun since 2004 have passed a background check and been cleared to do so. the data from ththe government accountatability office shows between 2004 and 2015, nearly 2500 people on the watch list applied to purchase weapons. 2300 of them were approved. last year, individuals on the terrorist watch list were involved in background checks to purchase firearms, 244 times can only 21 of those were denieded. caroline fredrickson? >> i think it shows, we have a problem here. i know the fbi itself is talking about better ways to raise those warning signals up. but really, i'm sorry, but if you can get on an airplane or you can't get on an airplane, you really should not field a buy a gun. you should not be able to buy an automatic weapon of the kind that was used in orlando. we could ever that tragedy.

amy: talk about an assault weapons ban. what is amazing is cbs just did a poll does have more than half the country is for an assault weapons ban. this week we did an interview with one of the leading activists from australia after the tense mania massacre 20 years ago -- tasmanian massacre 20 or's ago this spring, australia with allll of the crocodile dundees, turned around in 10 days -- and fact, they all said you are a web to need an automatic weapon to kill animals. they turn that around completely and enforced strict gun reform and since that time, 20 years ago, there has never been a mass shooting in australia. gun violence down 50%. but it seemed off the table yesterday, even for the democrats. >> well, you know, it is a real shame. i think one of the things we need to bring to the table and

the discussions about gun violence in the u.s. is data. the data you just cited about the ability to prevent a mass shooting by getting rid of or making it impossible for average citizens to buy such a dangerous ,eapon, a military style weapon you know, it speaks for itself. we should be governed data like that. we should be having an actual reasonable discussion about what measures can be taken. that does not deny hunters the ability to go out. as you said, i think real hunters dodon't want to shoot dn animals would automatic machine guns. we're not talking about restricting hunting rifles. but really, let's look at what is out there. where these mass shootings -- you know, what are the weapons that are being used? i think if people could just be reasonable and sit around a table, we could come up with some appropriate regulations that would continue to allow people to exercise their second

amendment rights, but not enable dangerous people who want to engage in mass murder to go outt anand buy these guns without any restrictctions. amy: we have spent time talking about the terror watch list, but what about overall in society? i mean, when you have, for example, the young man in connecticut who gunned down the 26 school children and six staff and teachers in sandy hook. when you have the young man who killed people at the aurora movie theater in colorado. these are not people who would traditionally put on a terror watch list. these are people who are extremely unstable, had various ways whehere people could see tt they were, and also the issue of domestic violence -- which was raised on the floor of the senate yesterday. but as so often in these cases,

you can trace back to a man who beat his wife or partner, as is the case with omar mateen. his first wife leaving him after four months. >> amy, you raise a good point. this isn't a one-size-fits-all answer, but there are a variety of proposals that have been suggested -- even as we go back to the assault weapons ban. something that has been law in the past. we lived under that law. we lived under that law. it is constitutional, even under this supreme court's most restrictive version of the heller decision. there are a lot of limits that are constitutional that we can consider. and certainly expanding background checks, enforcing them. president obama has proposed tightening up some of the existing loopholes that would ensure that people who are

engaged in domestic violence, that would extend to people who are not in a married relationship but to others -- people with serious mental illnesses and other dangerous individuals would be barred from getting a gun. i i think we can all agree that makes a lot of sense. amy: and in the case of the ar-15, which is the mass shooter's weapon of choice, whether it is adam lanza in connecticut -- of course, that is where chris murphy comes out of. he had just been elected to the senate when ththe sandy hook massacre took place. whether it is james holmes at the aurora massacre or whether .t is mateen here in orlando 10 y years, momore than a decade ago, the assault weapons ban was allowed to lapse. what you think it's chances are of being reinstated with more

than half the population, according to cbs, saying they want to see it again? >> what we need is political will. we need people to stand up to the nra. it is about time. they are out of step with where the american public is on so many gun issues. as you mentioned, 90% of the american public wants stricter gun safety laws. i think we need somebody to say, you know, enough. it is time for us to actually move forward. we're going to protect second minute rights and ensure hunters can have their guns, but we're also going to ensure that dangerous people and military style weapons are -- can't meet. that those people cannot buy those guns, that the guns are not available. it is about time. we've seen way too much of this. you know, the tragedies keep mounting. amy: we will continue to cover this and see what happens. caroline fredrickson president

, of the american constitution society for law and policy. when we come back, we look at donald trump's business record. a number of journalists have been delving into his business practices. stay with us. ♪ [music break]

amy: this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. an anti-donald trump playbook compiled by the democratic national committee has leaked online following this week's report that the democratic national computer's can -- democratic national committee's computers were breached by russian hackers. human, -- in the document trump is pilloried as a , bad businessman and misogynist

in chief. well, instead of devising a dossier on trump, the dnc could've just encouraged voters to pick up a newspaper and read the facts for themselves. a series of new investigative articles reveal trump's shady business dealings in atlantic city his failure to pay , contracted workers over the years, and his decision to partake in what may amount to calculated tax fraud -- a felony. we begin by looking at a lengthy article this past weekend in the "new york times" detailing how donald trump bankrupted his atlantic city casinos, but still earned millions. reporters ross buettner and charles bagli write -- "even as his companies did poorly, mr. trump did well. he put up little of his own money, shifted personal debts to the casinos and collected millions of dollars in salary, bonuses and other payments. the burden of his failures fell on investors and others who had bet on his business acumen." their new article is headlined, "how donald trump bankrupted his atlantic city casinos but still earned millions." and charles bagli,

welcome. russ, let's start with you, how trump profited on failed casinos. >> i think the most surprising thing to me was the pattern of repeated over and over again, ,hich is him buying high mortgaging even higher, and then promising that everything was going to be wonderful. the inevitable happens that they run out of cash. the casinos cannot support the debt he has put t on. he is able to get his investors to take a haircut, a big cut in the money they have upcoming, and the pattern starts all over again. that repeated itself four times and probably would have been a fit except investors had it with them. " " four times bankruptcy? >> yes. amy: which is interesting because many people who support donald trump, those who go up out to his rallies, talk about just this country needing jobs and we need a businessman to run

this country correctly. >> that is right. that is the central core of his candidacy. amy: charles, tell us the story of the empire that donald trump assembled in atlantic city. layout the hole boardwalk geography. >> voters in new jersey approved gambling in atlantic city in the late 1970's. easily development of a bunch of casinos down there. donald trump came in in the second wave. in 1982, he got licensed and sought opportunity and he you back on other people's efforts there. he had a great location. yet a piece of land right next to the -- on the boardwalk next to thehe convention center. he didid not have the money to actually correct the casino, so --arrah's.era h

they let him have half the profits.s. so that was his first casino. the second casino, hilton, i just about completed a casino in the marina district that could not get licensed. donald bought it. hisas directly across from patrons casino or harrah's casino. they were outraged about this. that partnership ended will stop donald now has two casinos. all of this was bought with debt . there wasn't a lot of money that donald was putting into the properties. so then he is no sooner done acquiring two when resorts international, which was the first company to build a casino, is now building what they say will be the biggest casino in the world. the chairman died. donald made a play for the company. got into a fight with merv

griffin, the talkshow host. they ended up splitting the baby. so he got the taj mahal. he told regulators, don't worry, i'm going to do fine here, i hate junk bond debt. it m makes for junk companies. within five minutes later, he turned aroround and put $675 million more debt, high interest debt, on the properties. so here he is now with three casinos by 1990 -- amy: trump taj mahal. >> trump taj mahal, and there all caps it with each other. trump taj mahal opens. $58 millioning off ultimately that you're from his other two casinos. it was a fatal amount of debt that was there. the control commission was appalled at the high level of debt, $3.4 billion on his entnte emempire that point.

amy: so hohow, rest, did he make money?y? , each time he took it out, created a big pot of cash that could have supported the business for some number of years, that could have been reinvested in the business to make the casinos look better and work better. instead, what seems to happen is it supported the bottom line that was winding and he pulled out large -- lagging and you pulled out $1 million he are basically for them using his name, rose to $2 million later on. you charged the casinos $300,000 in your for occasional use of his jet. he took a $5 million bonus in 1996, which was the year that the stock both hit its people and then sunk and began a long start -- slight from which it never recovered. amamy: in september, this is former hewlett-packard ceo carly fiorina sparring with donald trump. >> there are a lot of us americans who believe wewe are going to have trtrouble someday paying back the interest on our debt.

because politicians have run up mountains of debt using other people's money. that is in fact were cicely the way you ran your casinos will step you ran up mountains of debt as well as losses using other people's money and you were forced to file for bankruptcy not once, not twice, four times. a record four times. why should we trust you with the finances of this nation? >> i've made over $10 billion. at a casino company -- caesars file for bankruptcy. most everybody in atlantic city is a must in trouble -- maybe i will blame chris. atlantic city is a disaster. wait a minute. i let use the. atlantic city is a disaster and i did great in atlantic city. i knew when to get out. my timing was great and i got a lot of credit for it. amy: "i knew when to get out.

my timing was great." charles bagli? >> absolutely not. the problems in atlantic city started in 2006 when a pennsylvania started opening up casinos and siphoning off potential revenue for atlantic city. but dodonald was fullbore from 1990 to 2004, in fact, he was finally ousted from the company because the management did not want him around anymore. write, "close examination of regulatory reviewews, court recordsds, secy filings by the " "new york time" leaves little doubt that mr. trump's casino business was a protracted failure without now says his casinos were overtaken by the same tidal wave that eventually slammed this seaside city's gambling industry. in reality, he was failing in atlantic city long before atlantic city itself was failing . it even as his companies did

poorly, mr. trump did well. he put up little of his own money, shifted personal debts to the casinos, and collected millions of dollars in salary, bonuses, and other payments. the burden of his failures fell on investors and others who had bet on his business acumen." suffered?ner, who do you tell stories of the people who got hurt in this massive failure in atlantic city? >> there were several large categories of people, one where people who worked on the initial tataj mahal. that bankruptcy, they really shorted contractors who were owed money. they have performed work and had not been paid. they negotiated very small amountnts for those people to be paid. we quoted one person in in the article his father almost lost her business, took $.30 on the dollar for the work he a done on the taj. andothers were bondholders stockholders. some of those, as mr. trump has said, w were sophistiticated investors who should've been able to look at the balance

sheet and see what they were getting into. others were people who had their interment -- retirement invested or had their and retirement invested through mutual funds. ,e s spoke with one stockholder one point was $500,000, and was left with essentially nothing. and it got how unusual is it for businessman. four the group sees? >> i think it is somewhat unprecedented. the idea that wall street continued to give him money, not once, not twice, three, four times, i mean, we were kind of holding onto our heads when you look at the full record down in atlantic city. i don't think i've seen anything like it. more recently, a number of casino companies have had trouble in atlantic city because the market is shrinking. as other states put casinos online. experience, i have never seen anything like it.

amy: was a state takeover similar to flint? >> the state takeover of atlantic city? amy: what they're proposing. atlantic city has been a mess for a long time. you can see the casino industry has been there for more than 35 years, and it still looks like a gap to city. lots are sitting vacant. the state is edging toward a takeover of the city where there's a long history of corruption. i think there's equal blame for the city, the state, and the casino industry. amy: we're going to go to break and come back to this discussion and broaden it out to usa today reporters a reporter for the daily beast, looking at donald trump's record from atlantic city -- well, and beyond. we are talking with russ buettner and charles bagli, who wrote a piece, a major front page sunday piece in "the new york times" called, "how donald

trump bankrupted his atlantic city casinos, but still earned millions." back in a minute. ♪ [music break]

amy: this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. they we're looking at business record of the presumptive republican presidential nominee donald trump. we turn to look at a new usa today expose that found hundreds of former employees and contractors have accused donald trump and his businesses of failing to pay them for their work. victims have included a dishwasher in florida, a glass company in new jersey, a carpet company, a plumber, 48 waiters, dozens of bartenders at his resorts and clubs, and even several law firms that once represented him in these labor lawsuits. joining us from m new orleans is .teve reilly

his new exclusive is headlined "hundreds allege donald trump , doesn't pay his bills." steve reilly, welcome to democracy now! what evidence do you have for that? tell us these individual stories. >> the broader context, "usa today" started by gathering the history of litigation involving donald trump and his companies more than 3500 lawsuits which involve trump copies of the last several decades. our most recent article we looked within that body of litigation at lawsuits involving allegations of nonpayment against donald trump's companies specifically, more than 60 lawsuits along with hundreds of other mechanics, liens, judgments, other filings which indicate there are allegations donald trump has not paid contractors, workers, employees for their services. so i can talk about specific examples. iel article discusses the fr

cabinetry company based out of philadelphia which did work on the casinos in atlantic city in the 1980's. they built registration desks, slot machines. there is a dispute at the end of their work about $83,000. the allegation is that donald trump did not pay the company for the work, which eventually contributed to the bankruptcy of that company which employed in the 1980's.s amy: let's go to paul friel speaeaking to "usa today [c[captioning made p possible by dedemocracy now!w!] >> he did some work for r a contractor, general for a hotel called harrah''s tht trump bobought. dodonald said, well, honestly, e owee you the money and we e are willing to l let you be happy wh whwhatou paid on the contract

anand -- or, you can sisimply te -- amy: steve reilly, expand on that. >> the company decided, you know, what they do is that what approved a punch carard by the general contractor. the work was essentially approved, according to the gentleman who just spoke, paul friel. they went for the final payment and were called into a meeting with donald and robert trump and were told, you're not going to be paid the final invoice of about $83,000, but you are welcome to come back and do future work for the trump organization. cabinetry, and he tried to recoup the money and hired a lawyer, but dropped any attempt to regain that money because of legal fees eventually. after that, paul friel related

of the company was unable to find work in atlantic city from that point on. amy: you talk about juan carlos who own the paint spot in south florida? >> that's another example of a company. this is a case that is still ongoing that is disputed of her paintwork done at the doral resort in florida. there's a foreclosure proceeding and a dispute over payment for the work k there. it is still going on right now. amy: you also talk about trump's companies having been cited for 24 violationss of the fair labor standards act since 2005 for failing to pay overtime or minimum wage according to the u.s. department of labor data. can you talk about what you found their -- there? >> those are dispute since 2005 over back wages and overtime and minimum wage. trump, as a result of those cases, without paying back wages

in both cases to some of his hourly employees at trump mortgage and one of his casinos. amy: steve reilly, i would to turn to audio of your interview with donald trump will stop you raised allegations b bdishwasher and other hourly employees who said they were not paid fairly by trump. the article mentions a couple of allegations i believe a dishwasher a couple of other hourly employees and some department of labor citations for violations of the fair labor standards act. unpaid overtime? >> when is this? >> u.s. labor department violations were in 2005 and 2008. >> 10 years ago. steve.s ago, i have thousands of employees. you're talking about a dishwasher from 10 years ago. you don't sound like you're going to be very good to me out

of that's ok. i treated him fairly, steve. how do you respond when a reporter from a newspaper that you respect also talks about a dishwasher 10 years ago saying he did not get paid? >> write -- >> not fair reporting. i pay my bills on time. i am proud to do it. i one of the best records in the country for paying on time, steve, ok? >> so your company doesn't have any systematic effort -- >> we pay everybody what they're supposed to get paid and we pay on time. we e employ thousands and thousands of people. amy: steve reilly, i want to play one more x with your interview with donald trump. >> yet people who say you allege they did shoddy work and in response to that, you're comforted did not pay them at all. have ale do bad work, we contract -- i actually pay on time and even ahead of schedule is people do good jobs.

steve, if somebody does a bad job, as far as i'm concerned i'm a they violated their trust and their contract. you understand that. i pay my bills on time. i'm proud of that. i am a believer of that. amy: steve reilly, your response, that again, donald trump being interviewed by you for "usa today"? >> we heard mr. trump's response to some of these cases. that, you know, indicates that he did not make full payment or his companies did not make full payment for work is a case where the work was late or incomplete or shoddy. that does contradict some of the allegations that we reviewed, you know, especially the friel story that they were invited to come back and do future work, that type of story was related by a couple of other contractors as well.

and also, regarding the u.s. department of labor violations, you heard mr. trump did not directly speak to those. he feels it was 10 years ago, we did notue, but get a full, you know, response as to his feelings about those late payments to hourly employees. amy: as you write with your reporting coinciding with "new york times" reporters we were talking to, the taj mahal, records released by the new jersey casino control commission in 1990 show at least 253 subcontractors were not paid in full or on time, including workers who installed walls, chandeliers, plumbing. this is also what you found, russ and charles. >> i think what had million dollars worth of claims at the taj mahal in 1990, 1991. amy: how much? >> i think what hundred million dollars. it created a huge turmoil in the

community and atlantic city because a lot of these were small businesses. when you don't get $83,000 andnd then you h have to go hire a lawyer to fight for you, you can bankrupt a small business. amy: what was donald trump's response to your a article, rus? >> he did not question any of the points at we made some of that he pulled a lot of money out and is revenue lagged behind other casinos, nor that he shifted his personal debt onto the shareholders in his casinos. some of the more specific things, he said he did not recall. the thing he stressed over and over a again that he wanted to make sure that everyone who ththought about is understood ws that he personally made a lot of money from the casinos. and he wasn't too concerned that other people might have not done well. amy: we're going to turn to one of your former colleagues, a new "xpose in "the daily beast

called "new evidence donald , trump didn't pay taxes." joining us from rochester, new york, david cay johnston these to work at "new york times" now reporting for the e "daily beas" ananother publications. david, what did you find? >> donald has s done a good jobf trying to give a number of things out o of the pupublic red and shshut down investigations, bubut i found two tax appeals he filed from the year 1984. one with the city of new york and one with the state. in one of these two cases, donald filed something called the scheduled c, what a freelancer files. he reported zero income and $626,000 of expenses with no receipts and no documentation. that is something that could be construed as tax fraud. during the hearing, which lasted whodays, the cpa and lawyer had done donald trumps taxes for years was shown the tax return and he said, "well, that is my signature, but i did not prepare

that tax return." was a photocopy. of course, you can put a name on a document with a photocopy machine. my first big reporting award was for just such a device used by a corrupt michigan politician. nottrump organization did respond to any of my questions. the trump campaign. donald was hit in one case with a 35% realty and in the other case, the 25% penalty was not applied only because nobody could find the original tax return, which i think suggest that a photocopy is what was mailed in in the first place. it also shows in this two cases and the year 1984, donald paid no federal income taxes and there's good reason to think he doesn't pay them now because of a provision in federal law that allows large instant professional to live without paying income taxes. amy: in may on "good morning

america" donald trump fielded questions from george stephanopoulos it out his tax history. >> what is your tax rate? >> none of your business. but i find very hard to pay as little tax as possible. amy: david cay johnston? >> well, i t tnk that tetells yu the way he snapped at t the question that donald has no intentionn of producing his tax returns.s. if elected president, he won't do so. addingmn showed how by one line to the tax code, congress could make public the returns of presidential candidates who appear on the ballot from any state. 1920's, tax returns were public record. there's no reason not to do this. those republicans who are very distressed about mr. trump, i would think, might be very interested in this as a way to bring forth the things that trouble them. amy: you said it quickly before that clip, go back to why hee

dodoesn't have to pay taxes? >> because if donald is anywhere near as wealthy as he claims to be, and d donald has acknowledgd under oath that he basically makes up numbers that make him look good -- if yes enough depreciation from his buildings, he is allowed to use that to offset income from the other things like selling ties made in china and running golf courses. effectively, he didn't get a zero interest loan from the government on his taxes. my column in march, i showed how if trumps numbers he is publicly said were true, then he stands to make about $130 million net profit off his income taxes from a single year. the taxes would have onlnly been 23 million dollars. amy: you write, the tradition of presidential candidates disclosing their tax returns has an august purpose, making sure

another criminal is not a heartbeat from the presidency or in the oval office. you note the disclosure commission space to winnsboro active resigned as vice president 1973 been pled guilty to attacks from. elaborate on this tradition. >> when richard nixon was in the white house and famously said i'm not a crook and his tax returns were audited, he released tax information. it turned out his tax returns were in fact corrupt. his tax lawyer went to prison over it. agnew resigned as vice president of pledged to a felony involving tax crime. that is the reason candidates have been releasing returns since then. for example, we have hillary clinton of bill clinton's tax returns going back to the 1980's. by the way, they changed the way they did a tax returns because ofof an article i wrote in "new york times" showing they had paid more than twice as much federal income tax as a law

requires, even know they paid almost $10,000 that year for tax advice. amy: again, congress, you're saying, could with a very easy one line movement to the tax code force donald trump to reveal his hand? >> what they would do a sibley direct the internal revenue service to post the tax returns that it has online for any presidential candidate who appears in let's say 10 or more states. that is an objective standard so it would apply to him or clinton, donald trump, and gary johnson, and perhaps some others. trump nono doubt would try to challenge it as a bill of attainder, which the constitution prohibits but if it is objective standard, that should not stand. i don't see any reason not to do this. i think would be a great public in effect because donald trump signed those tax returns under penalty of perjury.

his assertion that he cannot release them because he is being audited or not only absurd, but what about all of his returns up to the year 2011, which are no longer under audit? i fought my fellow journalists for not asking him, where are your 2011 and earlier tax returns, since they are no wonder -- no longer under audit? >> you write, tax returns were public record and newspapers routinely reported the precise income and tax paid by prominent americans. what changed? >> well, some of those prominent americans did what wealthy people always do. they spent some money getting people in congress to change the law. that would not happen anymore. i think it is a good disinfectant, but in this case, i'm proposing would only make them public for presidential candidates who are going to appear on the balance of -- pick a number, 10, 15, or 20 states, and the government being the one doing the disclosing. to know our need

president or the people we are going to vote for as president are not crooks. amy: deeply donald trump engaged in outright tax fraud? >> i think there is incredibly strong evidence of that. i think that it explains thoroughly donald reasons for not disclosing. thee work that was done by other three reporters who have been on the show, all about things i've been intimately familiar about, is excellent and accurate work. donald has a long history of not paying people, saying things that are not true -- not just to the news media, but under oatath -- of not paying his bills, of stuffing his own pocket while shorting other people. and to donald, there's nothing wrong with that. his own reality. donald is a narcissist. and you and i exist for only one of two purposes, either to adore donald or to be a foil to build more support from those people who are door donald. amy: we have to leave it there.

thank you for being with us, david cay johnston, russ buettner, charles bagli, and steve reilly. i am amy goodman. things f laura: puerto rico is being

strangled with dead. what is the solution? kahn talksarles about the solution. we visit with the urban bush wowomen who are making chchange their dance anand you get a feww words from me. welcome to "the laura flanders show." where the people who say it cannot be done take a backseat to