♪ from pacifica this is democracy now. bernie sanders: the message to mr. trump is that we're not going back. we won't accept a preident that tries to divide us by race, gender, sexual orientation, nationality. we are not going back. long andtruggled to

we're not going to retreat back into bigotry in this country. amy: today, a democracy now special senator bernie sanders for the hour. in his first extensive broadcast interview since the election, sanders talks about donald trump, the future of the democratic party, the death of fidel castro and his message to supporters. bernie: throughout history, serious people have fought back. that is where we are now. it is not acceptable. it is really not, for people to throw their hands up and say i'm depressed, i'm giving up. it's not about you. it's about the future of this planet. it's about your kids and your grandchildren. it is about american democracy. it is about the very fundamental issues and nobody in this room or in this country has a right to say i give up. on the other hand, you have to jump in and start fighting.

that's senator bernie sanders for the hour. all that and more coming up. ♪ to democracy now. i'm amy goodman. today coming this holiday special, we will spend the hour with vermont senator bernie sanders, the independent, self-proclaimed socialist from vermont who shocked the political establishment by nearly beating hillary clinton in the democratic primary. since donald trump's victory on november 8th, sanders has emerged as one of the most powerful voices in washington. he just published a best selling book titled "our revolution." i i sat down with bernie sanders at the free library of 28th.elphia on a member we will air the interview later in the broadcast, but first let's turn to an excerpt speech he gave that night.

bernie: people are interested in knowing, well, how did trump win? how did he win the electoral college? one of the things that he did was tap into an anxiety and a level of pain that we don't often see on cbs or nbc. he said, preposterously i might add, is that he, of all people, was going to take on the astonishment. he was going to take on the economic establishment. he was want to take on the political establishment. he was going to take on the media establishment. and people in a lot of desperation, people who are hurting, responded to that. i thinkf the problems we have as a nation -- by the way, in the back of the book, one of the important chapters, if you get tired, skip to the back. [laughter] -- if you don't like taxation or immigration or form, go to the back. "corporate media,

a threat to democracy," and it talks about the roles of corporate media in our society and politics in particular. but what is going on in this country is that we live in a very silo-ized nation. what it means is we all live in our own world basically. we associate with people who think the same as we do. there is somebody who says how code trump have wondering? no one i know would have voted him. that a lot ofngs middle-class people, upper middle class people don't know is that, yes, we are better off economically today than we were eight years ago when bush left office. there is no debate on that. but for 40 years in this country, on the democratic and republican administrations, we have seen a shrinking of the

american middle class. we have seen more and more income and wealth inequality, so that today the top 1/10 of 1% now owns almost as much wealth -- the bottom 90% 90%. and today, we have 43 million people living in poverty, some in really dire straits. one of those things i did in the campaign, that i wanted to do and i did, was to go into parts of the country where media rarely goes. i wanted to be talking to people and i wanted to see if we could get some national exposure. and in a sense, i failed. we had media following me all over the place. what they call embedded media, from all the networks in major newspapers. but basically, they did not write about what we were seeing in various parts of the country. and let me just talk a little bit about that. facts somethese are of you know and some of you

don't. what want you to understand the pain and the hurt that millions of people are experiencing. you are a single mom in philadelphia. you are making $30,000, $40,000 a year. you have a baby. you need childcare in order to get to work. you know how much childcare costs? you tell me. $15,000 a year? more? anybody know? what do you do if you are making $30,000, $40,000 a year and you or me -- and you are paying $15,000 for childcare? in washington, i have a young woman working for me and she is paying $32,000 a year for childcare, where it is more spencer than anywhere us in the country. health care, would talk about the games of the double care act and it's true. it made some progress. today, 28 million people still have no health insurance and many, many others have high .eductibles and high copayments

they cannot afford to go to the doctor when they get sick. you know that? we lose thousands of people every single year -- and i talked to doctors all over the country -- people walk into their office profoundly sicick d the doctor said, why didn't you come in here a year ago when you first develop your symptom? and they said, well, i didn't have any insurance and i had a high deductible and i could not afford it. many of those people do not make it or it up in the hospital at great expense and great suffering. one out of five americans today who go to the doctor and get a prescription cannot afford to prescriptiond up -- cannot afford to fill the prescription. people in pennsylvania are cutting their prescription drug pills in half because they cannot afford to pay for the medicine that they need. what do think you are feeling when you go to the doctor because you're sick and you walk into the drugstore and the medicine is so spencer you

it?ot afford to fill you got it in pennsylvania and vermont and all of this country. adding togetether millio o of seniniors, disabled it? veterans, people with disabilities. they are trying to get by on $10,000, $11,000, $12,000 a year social security. you can do the arithmetic as well as i can. you are 80 yeaears of agage, yoe sick. social security is your sole source of income, as it is for many people. try to get by on $12,000 a year. worker -- and i think trump really capitalized on this one. you are an older worker, 55 or 60 years of age. half of the older workers in america --do you know how much money they have in the bank as they await retirement? anyone want to guess? zero. try to think of yourself at 60

years of age. you are going to retire in five years. everything being equal, you are probably making less in real inflation accounted for dollars than you did 20 or 30 years ago. you will retire in five years. you've got nothing in the bank. how are you feeling about the establishment and what the democratic party has done to you or the republican party has done for you? you are scared to death. and maybe in fact, you are one manye millie -- one of the millions of workers who had a factory job with the union behind you and you were making good middle-class wages, had good benefits, had a pension. but one day, your employer told you they are shutting down that plant because they can hire people in china for a dollar or two dollars an hour. and now you are making 50%, 60% of what you made when you have that manufacturing job. you can be a college graduate,

somebody who saved and scrimped schoolt to college, left $50,000, $60,000 in debt, and now you are making $14 an hour. again, do the arithmetic. you are stuck with that debt year after year after year. you have a debt, but you don't have the income to pay it off. i remember distinctly talking to a guy in nevada who said he took out his student loan 25 years ago. he is more in debt today than he was when he took it out. and he's scared to death, literally, that they are going to garnish some of his social security in order to pay that student debt. i was in the dell county in west county in- mcdowell west virginia, the southern part of west virginia. but what makes mcdowell county unique, what makes part of kentucky and that region unique, is they are part of a situation today where millions -- this is

quite unbelievable -- but this is the despair that trump spoke to. millions of white, working-class people are dying today at ages younger than their parents. history has been around -- not only in our country, but all over the world -- is that my generation lives longer than my parents are my parents generation lived longer than their parents. that has been the trend because of the improvements in public health, in permits and so forth. we are making some congress -- some progress. but millions of people today are living in such despair, for whatever reason, and maybe amy and i will discuss this, is that they are turning to opiates and heroin. alcohol andning to getting all kinds of diseases associated with alcoholism. and they are turning to suicide. women and men.

these are people who, if they are lucky enough to have a job that is $10 an hour, $11 an hour, they are not going anywhere. the kids are not going anywhere. that is the kind of pain that summary like a trump spoke to. i was in pine ridge in south dakota, which is a native american reservation. the life expectancy in pine ridge is equivalent to guatemala, a poor, third world country. unemployment is rampant. poverty is rampant. suicide is rampant in pine ridge. i was in baltimore, maryland. i don't know how different itun. poverty is rampant. is here in philadelphia, but in baltimore, you have tens and tens of thousands of people addicted to heroin. astronomical numbers. people debate exactly what the number is. and there is no treatment available to them. , which a walk one nigight got the secret service a little nervous because we were working -- walking in an area that was

the select, only boarded up buildings, and nighttime. ebix's a drug bazaar. everybody knows it. that's what people are -- it becomes a drug bazaar and everybody knows it. that's where people are buying and selling drugs. dealing witheople heroin, dealing with opiates and no treatment available for them. in minority areas, african-american areas, latino areas, youth unemployment, 20%, 30%, 40%. i was in new york city. took a walk with some people in the city council. they need $17 billion to rehabilitate public housing in new york city alone. you got people in public housing living in rat-infested, mold-infested housing in new york. what's the point? the point is there are a lot of people hurting in this c country

are and -- country. and their pain does not get on cbs or nbc. and some of them mistakenly bought that trump was talking to them. he talked a whole lot of stuff. we will see in fact what he delivers. but please do not forget that, as we speak today, there are a whole lot of people in this country who are hurting. what media does and what media loves is conflict and political gossip and polls and fundraising and all that stuff. what media loves is to focus on the candidates, what the american people want is for us to focus on them. not the candidates. not anymore. and what this book does is do that. it deals with what i think in some of you will agree in some of you may not agree, with what i think are the major issues facing our country.

the decline in disappearance of the american middle class, poverty, income and wealth inequality, but it doesn't only lay out the problems. it provides very specific solutions. questionon -- why are we the ony major country on earth not toto guarantee health care to all people? why are we the only major country not to have paid family and medical leave? why do we have a higher rate of childhood poverty than almost any major country on earth? why are we not dealing more aggressively with climate change? the bullyinge more jail, disproportionately african-american, latino, native american, than any other country? we have far more people in jail than china does. we spent $80 billion a year locking people up. does that make sense? is there a way out of that? what do we do when we have 11 million people who are undocumented? what does it mean to move to a

competence of immigration reform and a path toward citizenship? in a highly competitive, global once used to have the best educated workforce in the world? 30 years or so? our people in this country graduated and went to college in a higher percentage than any other country on earth? that's not the case anymore. and the gap between those countries who are graduating more people from college than we are is getting wider and wider and wider. what is this portend in terms of the future of our country? so we lay the issues out on the table, discuss the problems and also provide some real, concrete solutions. and that's what i think we have to do as a nation. and in terms of media, there is a chapter that says maybe it's time for media to start focusing on the real issues facing our country. it was embarrassing. i read this as i wrote the book. turns out, if you looked at -- i think it was the sunday morning -- i, bernie sanders alone

say this not the bows, but to show you how pathetic the situation is. discussion orthe the mention of poverty took place when i was on the shows. so what does that say about a country when there's honest no discussion of poverty, no discussion, almost no discussion of climate change? very little discussion of income and wealth inequality? no discussion of the role of the corporate media. and i'm glad that amy is going to be appear in a minute. what she has done is shown that it is possible, although very difficult, to go outside the corporate media and develop your own network. but what does corporate media talk about? what do they not talk about? where do we go forward in media is a very important issue. amy: vermont senator speaking on november 28 at the library of philadelphia. when we come back, we sit down for a public interview. us is democracy now.

back in a minute. ♪

in this holiday special, we are spending the hour with vermont senator bernie sanders. i recently interviewed him before a live audience at the free library of philadelphia. the date wasas november 28th, ,s than three w weeks after donald trump's defeat of hillary clinton. where were you on election night? sen. bernie sanders: home. amy goodman: and talk about what you went through. sen. bernie sanders: well, when the results cameme in from indiana, i was very nervous. we had an outside chance with a conservative democrat to win that seat. no one thought that clinton was going to win it.

and he got beaten rather badly, and i started getting nervous. and it was downhill from there. i went into the evening ththinkg that it was about a two-to-one shotot that clinton would win. so, i mean, i wasi was not shocked that trump wonsurprised, but not shockedfor the reasons, some of the reasons, that i gave. but i will not deny to you that it was a very depressing evening. i did not want to deal with the media. i didn't want toi was invited to be on, you know, a million different things. i didn't even show up at the state event, you know. so, i will not deny that it was a depressing evening. and since then, i've been thinking as hard as i can, with other people, about how we go forward and what the best response is. amy goodman: this also catapults you into the position of the most powerful, non-democratic democrat in the country. [laughter] sen. bernie sanders: well, there are not too many non-democratic

democrats who are in the united states senate, so it doesn't say much. [laughter] but i think your point is that last week or two weeks ago chuck schumer, who is now the leader of the democrats in the senate, put me on leadership. and he gave me a position that i wanted, and that is to be chair of the outreach effort. and what i am going to do is use that position, with your help, with all of your help, to transform the democratic party. [applause] you know, it is very easy to beat up on people when they're down, and that's not my intention. you know, secretary clinton and her supporters are hurting now. it's not my intention to be beating up on them. but it goes well beyond the presidential race. right now in the united states, as you know, mr. trump will be inaugurated.

right now, the republicans control the u.s. senate. democrats, i had hoped, we thought we had a better than even chance of gaining control. we did not. we'll end up with 49 seats. democrats picked up a few seats in the house, but the republicans will continue to control the house. not only that, in about two-thirds of the states in this country, there are republican governors. and in the last eight or so years, democrats have lost some 900 legislative seats in state capitols all over this country. so i think any independent assessment, without casting any blame, says the current approach has failed. all right? when you lose, you know, it's like they always say about the football coach: you know, if you're zero and 10, you're not doing well. well, the current approach clearly is not succeeding, and we need a new approach. and the new approach, i think, is to, a, create a 50-state strategy.

that means we start playing ball in states that the democrats have conceded decades ago. but more importantly, we create a kind of grassroots party, where the most important people in the party are not just wealthy campaign contributors, but working people, young people, people in the middle class, who are going to come in and going to start telling us what their needs are and give us some ideas as to how we go forward. and i accept this responsibility as outreach chair with a lot of trepidation, but also with excitement. i'm going to be going around the country to try to do everything that i can to create a party which represents working people and not just the 1 percent. amy goodmaman: and the issue of who will head the democratthe dnc? sen. berninie sanders: i amm strongly supporting a congressman from minnesota named keith ellison. [a[applause] and the reason, i've knonown keh fofor a number of years.

keith h is the chaircoco-chair, along with raul grijalva, of the house progressive caucus, which is, by definition, the most progressive caucus in the u.s. house. and keith fundamentally believes, as i've indicated, that we need to make a major transformation of the democratic party, we need to make it into a grassroots party, and he has some very specific ideas as to how to do that. so i'm strongly supporting keith, and i'll do everything i can to [inaudible]. amy goodman: and the significance of his being the first muslim congressmember at a time when the president-elect says he wants to set up a muslim registry? sen. bernie sanders: obviously, there is great symbolism in that. but to me, to be honest with you, as somebody who is not a great fan of identity politics, i am supporting keith because he is a strong progressive whose whole life has been about standing up for working families and the middle class and low-income families. but your point cannot be denied. and that is, it will be a

statement to the entire country that the leader of the democratic party is a muslim, that we want a party of diversity, that we will not accept for one second the bigotry that trump has been espousing during his campaign. [applause] amy goodman: what do you think donald trump represents? sen. bernie sanders: i mean - amy goodman: and who do you think he represents? sen. bernie sanders: that's a good question, and i don't know that i can give you a definitive answer, but this is what i think. for a start, in terms of the campaign, what he did is, as i indicated in my remarks, he touched a nerve. and it would be wrong to deny that. there are some people who think that everybody who voted for donald trump is a racist, a

sexist or a homophobe or a xenophobe. i don't believe that. are those people in his camp? absolutely. but it would be a tragic mistake to believe that everybody who voted for donald trump is a "deplorable." they're not. these are people who are disgusted, and they are angry at the establishment. and the democratic party has not been clear enough, in my view, about telling those people, whether they are white, whether they are black, latino, asian american or whatever, women, gay, whatever, that we are on their side. and too often what we look at is identity. you're a woman. well, that's good, but we need more women in the political process. we need more african americans in the political process, more latinos. no question about that. but we need people who will have the guts to stand up to the billionaire class and corporate america and fight for working families. amy goodman: you were considered

a fringe candidate. maybe you, yourself, considered yourself a fringe candidate. when did the moment come when you actually felt the bern? [laughter] [applause] sen. b bernie sanders: well, i'l tetell you. this is what i thought, you know, and it's been a crazy two years. but, you know, what i thought is, look, i wasn't born yesterday, and i wasn'tyou know, i didn't just get involved in politics two years ago. i've been representing the state of vermont for 25 years in congress. i was mayor of the city of burlington for eight years, where i took on democrats and republicans to win election. and i knew, you know, that the message that we hadi could see it in vermont. you go to the rural areas, by the way, where people are not necessarily pro-choice, where they may not be enthususiastic about gay marriage, where they may or may not believe that climate change is real, but they

are sick and tired of having to work two or three jobs, not being able to send their kids to college, worried about their own parents. i picked that up, ok, in vermont. and i thought that the message that resonated in vermontand i won my last election in vermont four years ago with 71 percent of the vote. i did not believe for one minute that vermont was any different than the rest of the country. but what ended up, to answer your question, what happened is, before i decided to runand the book goes into itwe went around the country. and we did, honestly, you know, politicians always say, "well, the people asked me to run," you know, after they had already made a decision to run. but the truth is, i didn't know. how responsive would people be to our message? well, i'll never forget. we were in on a beautiful sunday afternoon in los angeles - maybe

the weather is always beautiful there, i don't know. but anyhow, it was - and i thought nobody would show up at a meeting. we had the musicians' union hall. we had 500 people coming out: "run, bernie, run." we were in minneapolisthis is a funny story, which we relate in the book. you know, we didn't know our way around minneapolis. so we were driving around. suddenly, we see this long line of people, and i comment to the guy next to me. i said, "i wonder what concert is going on." well, it turns out, 7,000 people were there for an event. this is early on. and what we were beginning to see with the turnouts, the turnouts at our rallies, more and more people coming out, more and more excitement, more working people, more young people, who indicated to me, in a million different ways, they were sick and tired of establishment politics and establishment economics. they wanted real change. and i will tell you, as the campaign progressed, that it was an awe-inspiring moment, a humblingng moment, to be walking out on a stagei think it was in portland, oregon, where the

trail blazers play in the nba, and you look out, and there are 28,000 people at a rally in portland, 25,000 in seattle, 27,000 in los angeles. so people were starting to come out. the word was getting around. and it was especially gratifying to see so much beauty in the faces of young people who want real change in this country. amy goodman: and yet, who heard you were the people in that room, in each place. you were having the largest rallies of anyone, including donald trump, certainly far surpassing hillary clinton. but what donald trump had that you didn't was the media. and, you know, that was repeated over and over by those that owned the media. you know, "he is good for us." so, it wasn't just fox. it was all of the networks that were trump tv. sen. bernie sanders: right. that's right. amy goodman: he didn't have to travel. he was piped into everyone's homes. sen. bernie sanders:absolutely. amy goodman: march 15th, super

tuesday iii, was the night when rubio gave his speech, and ted cruz gave his speech, clinton gave her speech, and donald trump, they waited for half an hour for him to give his speech and showed the open podium, as they often did. they showed more of the open podium waitingng for donald trup than ever playing your speeches. that's what - those were all the candidates that ninight. and they played all their full speeches. they did not play one word of your speech. you were speaking in phoenix, arizona, to the largest rally of any of those people that night. they didn't even speculate where you were. sen. bernie sanders: i wish i could disagree with you. [laughter] no, no, no, amy is raising a veryand we go into it in the book. i was stunned. i mean, you know, in the middle of the campaign, you're not figuring out this stuff or thinking about it. turns out that from january 1st, 2015, i think, through november 2015, abc evening news had us on for 20 seconds.

amy goodman: what was it you did that was so newsworthy? [laughter] sen. bernie sanders: and it wasn't much better on nbc or cbs, all right. and that's just the simple truth. and there are a couple of points. i think, amy, correct me if i'm wrong, but i think the guy who's head of cnn said, "hey, trump has been fantastic for us." i mean, literally said that. "we're making huge profits from trump." and the point to be made is, we had the misfortune of actually trying to talk about the problems facing america and providing real solutions. trump was tweeting out about how ugly or horrible or disgusting or terrible his opponents were, in really ugly terms. perfect for the media. that is a great 12-second sound bite. but to talk about why the middle class is in decline or why we have massive levels of income and wealth inequality can't be done in 12 seconds. and second of all, it's not something that they are, frankly, terribly interested in. amy goodman: it was les moonves, who is head of cbs, who said,

"it may not be good for america, but it's good for us." sen. bernie sanders: cbs? amy goodman: cbs. sen. bernie sanders: yeah, i think a guy at cnn said something similar, because if you say outrageous things, this is what cnn lives for. that's what they live for. and then they got to have somebody else: "did you hear what he said? oh, my god, it's terrible." and they go on and on. and that's, that is coverage. here is something. during the primary campaign, somebody, i think it was the shorenstein school of media at harvard, just over there. they studied the kind of coverage, and they said that something like 90 percent of media coverage during the primary and i don't think they got any better during the general was all on this kind of stuff, gossip; 10 percent on issues, which surprised me. ♪

amy: this is democracy now, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. in this holiday special we are spending the hour with vermont senator bernie sanders. i interviewed him before a live audience at the free library of philadelphia in late november. i asked him about the dakota access pipeline and why he supports the native water protectors who have led the resistance against the $3.8 billion pipeline. bernie: number one, we're

dealing with sovereignty rights for native american people, an invasion of their own property, in violation of treaty rights, which is an endemic problem in this country. number two, you're talking about an area where, if the pipe bursts, water, clean water that goes to millions of people in that region, could be severely impacted, at a time when we're all concerned about the amount of clean water that we have. and thirdly, and most importantly perhaps, you're talking about whether or not we should be in any way supporting a pipeline which is piping in filthy oil at a time when we need to transform our energy system away from fossil fuel to energy efficiency and sustainable energy. so those are the three issues there. i think what we have done is, number one, demanded that the president do what he did with keystone. a lot of people put a lot of pressure on the president, and he finally did the right thing. and that is to kill the keystone pipeline, which, by the way, under a trump may be reopened

again. but that is what he should be doing. and certainly, the demand must go to the north dakota authorities that the kind of military presence that exists there is simply not what is acceptable. so, we have written to the president. we are going to continue to put pressure on the president to do everything he can to protect the native americans in the area and the protesters in the area. amy goodman: let me ask you about that famous moment in one of the debates with hillary clinton where you said you didn't care about the damn emails. do you feel the same way today? sen. bernie sanders: what i said, and sometimes it got taken out of context, is that there was an investigation going on and that i wanted to spend, that history, 10 years from now, trust me, no one will remember these damn emails. what they will worry about is people not having healthcare.

they'll worry about climate change. they'll worry about poverty. they'll worry about infrastructure. and my point was, and the media often doesn't play that whole statement, i said, you know, "i'm sick and tired of hearing about your damn emails, because that's what the whole campaign is about. why don't we talk about, a, the collapse of the middle class, income and wealth inequality, healthcare, education, how we move the country forward? and that was the thrust of my point. it is not my style, and sometimes, amazingly enough, i get criticized for it, for running, you know, ugly and negative ads. i prefer to stay on the important issues facing the american people. there are other areas we could have gone, as well, that trump went into, that we chose not to do it, because i think, in my own state, i can tell you that people do want to hear a serious discussion on serious issues. that's what we tried to do. amy goodman: well, let me tell you the reason i ask this now. this issue that was hijacked by the right, wing media and trump himself, but the issue of the secretary of state setting up

this private email server, and she has her husband, who's the former president and running a multibillion-dollar foundation, meeting with heads of state, as well, and yet they don't have accountability here, what this means not only for them, but if this becomes a model, for example, for president trump. he runs a vast business empire. sen. bernie sanders: absolutely. amy goodman: he is the top government official. if he decides to set up his own private email server and decides that he can disappear tens of thousands of email, there won't be a government record of what is actually going on. sen. bernie sanders: right, right. i mean, i think that's a fair point. and i think, with trump, the major point is this guy has business enterprises all over the world. and you're looking just at immense, immense conflict of interest. every decision that he makes is going to impact his bottom line of some business that he owns all over the world. so i it remains a huge issue.

and i got your point, too, obviously, you know, and that is the valid criticism of having a private email when you're doing government business. amy goodman: and now his cabinet appointments, your thoughts on the direction he's going? [laughter] sen. bernie sanders: well, i think this is where, and what our job is, in fact, as i mentioned earlier, i'm going to be, i think, in indiana on monday night. and we're going to go to the carrier plant, where you have a situation where carrier is, you all remember air-conditioners, they make furnaces in indiana, actually. and they decided, they announced last year they're going to shut down two plants in indiana, throw 2,100 workers out on the street. this is a company that pays top dollar to its ceos, head guy makes $14 million. couple of years ago they had a severance package for a former ceo. you know what the guy got as a golden parachute?

$171 million. and now what they want to do is shut the plants down and move to mexico and hire people in monterrey for three bucks an hour. so it becomes symbolic of a disastrous trade policy. and we're going to be there. but to answer your question, what we have got to do now, to those people who voted for trump, because they said, "well, you know, this guy sounds reasonable." trump sent out a tweet where he says, "i am the only republican candidate for president who will not cut social security, medicare and medicaid." right? well, believe me, every american, every person in this country, if i have anything to say about it, will know precisely what is going on with social security, medicare and medicaid, because, as you've indicated, they are beginning to appoint people who are typical right-wing republicans who want to privatize and cut social security. and our job, and we've got it. we've got every statement that trump made during this campaign. and we are going to hold him accountable.

every person in this country will know what he said and what he is doing. trump said, "one of the issues that i think a whole lot of people are deeply concerned about is the high cost of medicine in this country." trump said during the campaign he was going to take on the pharmaceutical industry. he was going to allow for medicare to negotiate prices with the drug companies, allow people to reimport medicine from canada and other countries, where the price is often half as much as it i is in the united states. well, you know what? we are going to remind the american people of precisely what donald trump said about that and many other issues. amy goodman: so now you have someone like betsy devos chosen to be the new secretary of education, sister of erik prince, who, you know - sen. bernie sanders: blackwater. amy goodman: is founder of the mercenary firm blackwater.

sen. bernie sanders: and multibillionaire, a multi, multibillionaire, i think, very active in politics in michigan. amy goodman: and massive supporter of voucher system for education. and then you have mike flynn, the nanational security adviser nominee. and this goes to another point of, though it's critical to hold trump accountable, starting with the dedemocrats, on n the issuef the kill list, president obama's kill list, hisis using extrajudicial powers, executive powers, to kill people, can be americans, without a judge, a jury, without them being charged with a crime. that's president obama, and he's extending those powers. your thoughts on president obama's use of the kill list and then the idea of president trump using his kill list?

sen. bernie sanders: well, look, you know, when we talk, obviously, i disagree with obama in using, unilaterally deciding who's going to live or die. and, look, it goes without saying that, you know, we are concerned, i am deeply concerned, about virtually everything that trump is talking about and has talked about in his campaign and the kind of people that he is appointing. but what's going through my mind right now is to figure out the most effective way that we can fight back. that's really what i am focusing on right now. and what i will say, and what i believe to be the case, the republicans are many things, but they're not dumb. and if millions of people begin to stand up and fight back, they're going to be thinking twice about doing very bad things. i'll give you just one example, amy. a couple of years ago, sad to say, not only all, virtually all republicicans wanted to cut socl security. there were a number of democrats who did, as well. and some of us in the senate,

organizing a defending social security caucus, we worked with senior groups all over this country. we got millions of signatures on petitions coming in. and you know what? they backed off. they did not cut social security. so, i think if there's, if there's a lesson to be learned right now, when we are fighting for huge stakes, we're fighting for the futurefuture of the planet in terms of climate change. we're fighting for the future of american democracy. we have got to mobilize people and rethink our commitment in terms of what our role is in the political process. and the message i just want to make here in philadelphia and across this country is it is not good enough to say, "well, hey, i vote every two years. i vote every four years." that's fine, but that is not good enough. what we need to do is to be thinking every day the kinds of role we can play in educating and organizing and mobilizing people to defeat this horrific agenda. and i do believe that if

millions of people do stand up and fight back, we can stop him from doing some really awful things. and that's what i am trying to do right now. and we've got to mobilize people to do that. [applause] amy goodman: and i know we just have a few minutes, but this is an historic period. fidel castro just died on friday at the age of 90. during the campaign, hillary clinton tried to redbait you by raising your support of the sandinistas and talking about you being favorable towards fidel castro. but i was wondering if you could talk about the significance of the life and legacy of fidel castro and talk about the u.s. in relation to latin america today. sen. bernie sanders: well, it's not just latin america. you know, i think what we can say, and i've been to cuba two or three times. i think jane and i went in 1989 for the first time, and i've been back a couple of times, and

jane had some educational work in cuba. a lot of positive things that can be said. their healthcare system, for a third world country, is quite good. it's universal. all people have healthcare without any expense. last time i was there, i visited a hospital, where they do very, very serious and good work. they come up with a lot of new drugs, actually, in cuba, i believe. their educational system is strong. but in truth, their economy is in pretty bad shape. and in truth, you don't do very well if you dissent in cuba. so i think, you know, if you look over castro's long life, he overthrew a terrible dictator, supported by the united states of america, batiststa. some very positive changes came about. and we can argue 'til the cows come home to what degree american interference created the kind of society that exists in cuba today. so that you could say there are some positive things in cuba, some very negative things. fifty years after the revolution, people still can't dissent with freedom. the economy is terrible. but i think it raises the

question, i was on a sunday show yesterday, and somebody was raising a quote that i made about castro 30 years ago. and, you know, somehow, they have decided that fidel castro is the only, that cuba is the only nondemocratic country in the world. see, saudi arabia is fine. many other countries in the middle east are fine. and whwhat we need to o do, as a nation, is really start educating the american people. you know, amy, i'm sure, that in 1954, way back when, we overthrew a democratically elected government in guatemala, which unleashed decades and decades and decades of horror in that country, supported terrible people in el salvador. we engineered the overthrow of salvador allende in chile, democratically elected, the first time a person democratically elected in chile was overthrown through the

united states and the cia. but those issues somehow don't quite make it onto abc. but i think it is important to understand our role in the world. in iraran, we overthrew, what ts it?? 1954? mr. mosaddegh. amy goodman: 1953. sen. bernie sanders: '53, mr. mosaddegh. and how many people are familiar with that? did people know that? good. not a lot of people, certainly, young people don't know that. but in 1953, at the bequest of british oil companies, the united states government helped engineer a coup of a guy who was democratically elected, who was thinking about nationalizing some of the oil industry there. he was replaced by the shah, who turned out to be a very brutal, brutal man, which then resulted in what we have today with khomeini coming to power. but these are issues that virtually do, correct me if i'm wrong. have you seen many shows about that on n nbc? you know, it's just not something to be talked about. amy goodman: tune into democracy now!

[laughter] sen. bernie sanders: all right. amy goodman: it's a good show. and your thoughts that donald trump said that he would have won the popular vote but for the millions of people who voted illegally? sen. bernie sanders: i know this will shock you. [laughter] i personally do not believe every single thing that donald trump says. [laughter] no, but i did mention in my remarks that that was ayou know, this iswe can go back and look at all of the totally absurd and nonfactual statements that trump made. you know, and i am not a guy in politics who really likes to attack viciously my opponents. it's not my style. but i felt obliged during the campaign to say something that was just patently true, and that is that trump is a pathological liar. and, you know, i mean, he was saying, and the danger is, it may be, you know, everybody lies.

you know you're lying. but i fear very much that he may be not even knowing that he lies, that he believes that he sawthe only person in the world who saw in new jersey muslims on a rooftop celebrating the destruction of the twin towers, the only person in america who saw it, and he's utterly convinced that he saw it. and he may well be convinced of that. it may not be a lie; he may believe that he saw that. but this statement, as i mentioned earlier, the danger of this statement is not just that it is delusional and incorrect, is that it sets, if you have a president who believes that millions of people voted illegally, you're telling every republican official in this country to suppress the vote, to make it harder for people to vote, whether they are immigrants, whether they are people of color, whether they are poor people, young people or old people. that is the danger of that statement. and that's something we have got to fight tooth and nail.

amy goodman: will you be running for president again? [laughter] sen. bernie sanders: oh, now you sound - [applause] ok, now, she waited 'til the end of the program to sound like a mainstream media person. [laughter] amy goodman: well, will i, do i continue to sound, do i continue to sound that way if i ask you, would you ever consider leaving the democratic party, that you're actually not a part of? [laughter] and -- sen. bernie sanders: wellwell, let me answer the other question, is, four years is a long time. i've got to, you know, i'm going to be running for re-election

most likely in two years for vermont to the senate. and there's just an enormous amount of political work that has to be done at this, at this moment. i think, you know, as now having been recently appointed a member of the democratic leadership, my job, with the help of everybody in this room, look, we're going to ask a lot from you. and here's the bad news. we don't want just your money. see, and one of the things that bothers me isand i will take this onis democrats spend an enormous amount of time raising money. and i have, for those people who were kind enough to donate, and we appreciate it very much, i've got to ask you a favor. do not take up so much time, and i mean this very seriously, time of the candidates. they, if i have anything to say about it, they're going to be going to kansas and mississippi and alabama, where they're not going to be raising money, they're going to be talking to working people. so we need financial support, but we don't have the time to spend an evening with 10 people. we need your financial help, but you have to allow serious people

in politics to go out and start talking to working people so that we can transform the politics of this country. [applause] amy goodman: is that, is that a yes for 2020? [laughter] sen. bernie sanders: so, no comment for 2020. it's a statement that, it is a statement we have to worry, believe me, about 2017 and 2018. and again, let me repeat what i have said throughout the campaign and i believe absolutely from the bottom of my heart. politics is not about a person. we transform this country not by electing some guy or woman to be president. we transform this country when millions of people stand up and fight back. that will result in good leadership on top. so the goal right now is not to worry about who's going to be running in 2020 or 2080. the goal now is to mobilize millions of people around a progressive agenda. [applause]

amy goodman: and finally, many people are deeply concerned about the two-party duopoly. you, yourself, are an independent or a socialist. would you ever consider a third-party run -- sen. bernie sanders: well, i amy goodman: like joining with the green party? sen. bernie sanders: you know, i did that. in vermont, as many know, i defeated democrats and republicans to become mayor, defeated democrats and republicans to make it into the congress. recent years, democrats have been more sympathetic. and i've been a member of the democratic caucus for 25 years. so right now i would not have accepted the position of leadership if i was not serious about fundamentally reforming the democratic party. so that's where my head is right now. [applause] amy goodman: thank you. bernie, the last question is,

sen. bernie sanders: this is your fourth last question! amy gogoodman: for people who ae feeleling deeply disiscouraged t now, what did you learn from your campaign this time around? where you almost won. sen. bernie sanders: let me just say this, and the feeling of, i wouldn't use the word "discouragement." the feeling of maybe frustration, depression, all of which is valid, but here's what i hope that everybody remembers. anybody who knows anything about american history, you know, think about what this country, and i don't mean to be ultra-patriotic here, but think about the issues that we had to confront. think about 120 years ago. there were childrenchildren, kids, 12, 10 years oldworking in factories, losing their fingers. people fought back. they fought to create unions. think about the women's movement. think about the civil rights movement. think about the gay rights movement. think about the environmental.

think about all of the hurdles that those folks had to overcome. we were, during the course of the campaign, amy, i don't know if you know this. i didn't know it 'til last year, we were in birmingham, alabama. and all of you, you know, probably remember the horrific bombing that took place in birmingham. you remember that, where 12 children were killed? i did not know, until i was at that church, that that month in birmingham, do you how many bombings there were in that month? testing you, amy. i'm asking you a question. amy goodman: two hundred? sen. bernie sanders: no, but there were a lot. point being, what's the point? the point is, you know, i thought there was one terrible bombing. there were 13 bombings. that city was under siege by terrorists who did not want to see the voting rights act passed. and people fought back. so, where we are now is in a difficult moment. i don't want to minimize the difficulties facing us. but throughout history, serious

people have fought back. that's where we are now, and that is exactly what we have to do. it is not acceptable, it really is notfor people to throw their hands up and say, "oh, i'm depressed. oh, i'm giving up." it's not about you. it's about the future of this planet. it's about your kids and your grandchildren. it is about american democracy. it is about some very fundamental issues. and nobody in this room or in this country has a right to say "i give up." on the other hand, you've got to jump in and start fighting. amy: senator bernie sanders in an interview recorded on november 28th at the free library in philadelphia. his new book is titled our revolution. if you would like a copy of today's broadcast them you can go to democracynow.org. that does it for today's show. democracy now is produced by mike burke, nermeen shaikh, carla wills, laura gottesdiener, deena guzder, sam alcoff, robby karran, hany massoud, charina nadura, and andre lewis. mike di fillippo, miguel nogueira and paul huckeby are our engineers. special thanks to becca staley,

julie crosby, hugh gran, david prude, ariel boone, vesta goodarz and anthony manzo. i'm amy goo

[soothing instrumental music] ♪ [peaceful folk music] ♪

- we bought 40 acres in 1993 and decided it would be a great place to finally build a home and retire. - i am fifth generation. my great-great-grandfather homesteaded here. hup! let's go. let's go. the gate's that way. let's go. what are you waiting on, maya? hup! sara, go on. go on. - we have 300 head of elk that come down out of the high country. they're incredibly beautiful. - i'm a fourth-generation rancher. when i was little, dad would let me have two cows out of the herd so i could have my own herd.

- one of my favorite things is the redwing blackbirds. and then it's usually, "honey, honey, the redwing blackbirds are back," you know. this has been my favorite place i've ever lived in my life, i must say. - this, representatives, is on your watch. - people have called and complained to every regulatory-- - the house and senate considered legislation today directing president bush-- - today's witnesses represent oil companies that have made more than $36 billion in profits. - $120 a barrel. now is not the time for-- - there she is. [laughs] we call it our new neighbor. neighbor 907. - we are in a split estate situatioion where we own the surface and someone else owns the mineral rights. and what happens in colorado, and i think in most western states is, the mineral rights are dominant.

- the law on mineral extraction goes back hundreds of years atat saythe e miral owowr has a right to extctct thaminenera antoto a ctainin eent, can extract it animimpacthe s surce without compsasation - we have 70 acres here, and i can't coconvince them tt they need to drill somewhere besides 200 feet from our house. - the energy policy has been to drill, drill, drill, and drilsosomeore. - th'' a v verstrong inindury. the'veot a a tmendououamount of politic influen and awful l o of moy. - as a civil servant, i spoke out, but it's difficult to do so, because you feel constantly that you're risking your job

and urur famy's ture. - oh, yeah, it burns. - yeah, i'd say. - as i sat there and looked out my window into my backyard, all i ululd thk wawas, "t"the'no way i can st o outf thisis "i'sitting re with alofof theight rources. ese peop need he." this i ibeforenyny proems,s, before wliveved riflele and th everying change - [groans] - they're motivated by profits, and unfortunately, they're motivated by short-term profits. they don't take the long view. - a couple of times i said, "you come out here and live. you come out here and live in my house for a week."

i have no rights. [sniffles] - ththe rocky mountains are seeing an unprecedented boom in oil and gas drilling. montana, wyoming, colorado, new mexico, utah, ththe bo is hahaeningg all over t country. the is oilnd gas orations in 3states rht now, but the rocky mountain states are really seeing the vast majority of the expansion. and it's overflowing into communities where people are seeing this right in their backyards. - i'll show you where they wanted to put this location, one of the first places that they wanted to put it. - they just surprise you and say, "we have to put a well out there," and you don't have any say in it.

- a split estate situation is when somebody who owns the surface of their land does not own the resources that are underneath their land, for ample, oil and g or othth minerers. a prive e pers cououldwn a house with land, anthe feral govement or anoer prite individl might own the resources under it. the person who owns the oil and gas has rights to access that oil and gas, whh means at w whoer ownwnthe surface prabably c't ntrorol at happens on theirir own propepe. - all of a sudden, i'd just find new stakes out in the middle of my alfalfa field. i believe this stake represent their outer boundary of their pad. just guessing it would be about 200 feet from our house, which is awfwful close. - 'cause we say, "we don't want the smell," and they say, "well, i'd rather smell a gas well than livestock." and i said, "you're crazy." i said, "you can't get sick from smelling livestock." - you feel so helpless, you knowow.

- the split estate is a a concept that dates back to when the english king reserved his rights to gold and silver deposits, despite who owned the land. as america was homesteaded, the government continued the tradition of this kind of separate ownership. - don't believe for one minute that anything is off-limits. 150 feet away from your house, one e and a half timimes the lengthth of the derrick, so if it falls over, it won't hit your house. we see this look on people's faces. they get that look and they say, "well, wait a minute. "that can't be right. that's not fair; that can't be." but it is. that's the way it is. - this is an active drilling rig near a small house showing just how close the two can be and how large the pad is. during drilling, a site can cover several acres before it is reduced to a smaller pad for the producing well. for decades, the oil and gas industry has bbbbied crereat a regulatory climate

whh h has ved d thway for the current drilli b boom. back in 2000, after the bush-cheney election, there was a dramatic acceleration in drilling activity. both had received large contributions from oil and gas interests, and the vice-president had been the chief executive of halliburton, a major player in the drilling industry. in 2005, the administration's energy bill passed with support from members of both political parties. it provided the gas and oil industry with billions of dollars in subsidies, tax breaks, and research money. - 65% of the current subsidies go to gas and oil, and you have this imbalance. we ohtht to ve 6 65%r morere 80% ought toe e goin to alternativerewablbl, to energy efficiency. - the energy bill makes practical reforms to the oil and gas permitting process to encncourage new exploratio. after years of debate and division,

congress passed a good bill. - orlyn and i were married in 1988. i was a pharmaceutical chemist for many years. my husband is a civil engineer with a specialty in water, and he is retired. a few years ago, we ran into some real problems with the oil and gas industry, because they havave begun drilling here. encana oil and gas contacted us in the early sprining of 2004 with the proposal that they would put wells on our land, and the bulldozers showed up one day and began ripping and tearing before we had signed a surface use agreement. we were told that they didn't owe us anything.

we were just finished. i suppose you want to go too, huh? once they bonded on, they began putting a pipeline in across about five of our hay fields. they drilled four wells. these are the two condensate and produced water tanks. the natural gas is immediately piped into a pipeline that goes across our fields, and so it's sent off into the pipeline off to either chicago or los angeles. - garfield county, located high in the colorado rockies, was always a quiet, rural area for its residents t t in t 199990s things started to chan.. s s and l drdrilng began to boomm and development has expanded dramatically each year. - when i first came to colororao 27 yeaears ago, e e ener p produion was s r oil, anatat theime e th therereas the synthetic fuels rprporatn, and it wasllll abo oilil sle.

natural gas,hehey di'have pipenes for it, and so they were trying to figure out what to do with all the natural gas. they knew there was a a lot, bubut there was no u f for i at theheime. now, natalal gas is theheiggest thing tha's gog on in wesrn coloro. - righwhere we're snding, had a spill. you can just see over my head here. we've got the neighbor's wells, i don't know--three, four of them over there-- and that stack closest to us blew one day. it looked like old faithful had shot off over there. - the separator spewed paraffin out all over the pad and on over into a good number of acres of our pasture, and that paraffin was laced with btex chemicals, hydrocarbons of various kinds. - we were concerned that it would cocontaminate in the ditc, and the grasses were heavy and dry and what not, so we just burned the ditch and the hydrocarbons

along with it so we wouldn't get it in our ditch water. - i think they'll go straight over the hill, porque-- you u can e where eyey-- - he w we're g goi that t y! - we'll p ' southth of th. onceou get ototop ofhe h hil baja a v a adóndestátán las otras. my greatrarandfaer c cam this valley obobablybout 184 and the ute indiss had capted this ung g gi. whoa settle dn. my gatat-grafathther bought this girl and lar r marrieheher. e e was chititi, which ululd ma uss lf spanish d d halfativive ericanan i havevever 100,0 acres of ranan land on my permit.

when isesed toome e upere with my dad in the late '40s, early '50s, there wasn't a single-- not even one--oil and gas well. now there's-- i mean, you can't even count them, there's so many. - conocohihillip opereres about 10,000 wells hehere in the e basi which isn n incriblele mber o owells try andananageon dailylyas. and so, as a splple ample,e,ws d look at what o w wells shou bg if wspspend ve m mines per well, it takes aboutine e mont to g gthrough that pross. - evything bowow us wn h her isrmenta canyon. so if you get up on the big harris mesa benches,

those benches are just littered with wells, approximately 500 all total. and now with the new well spacings that they approved, they will go from about 500 to about 1,500 within the next 20 years. - we drill, it averages about 350 new wells per year. when you take the colorado side and include that, we think that conoco phillips has probably another 10,000 wells that we wi drill iththe ban overerhe next 40 years, say. - the sharply crcrease drililng gilbertrmenta's ranch is typical of what has happened to vast expanses of northern new mexico land. a satellite image shows the crisscrossing patterns of access roads and wells extending for hundreds of miles across san juan county and northwest new mexico. - the land surface has been scarred up so bad that i can't recognize it from the first time i saw it.

- the ranchlands of san juan county aren't the only areas inundated by drilling rigs. in the towns near gilbert armenta's land, there are wells everywhere, in neighborhoods and near schools. - the gas industry has been here for 50-plus years, and we do drill in populated areas. you cagogo outere e a uple hundred yards from ts s offi anfifind aroducingell.l. cococo phiips s ishe lararst producern the san juanasin. enen youook k athe totot between our workrcrce dictlyly anththen iirececy, ople w wking for us, it's about 8% of the lalal popatioion. we' a very large emoyoyer inhe basasinere. inindust hasas bught job and momoney to thehe county, but for gilbert armenta, the price has been much too high.

- this gate would be the gate to enter into my property. the oil company had me completely locked out for 2 1/2 years. the only way they would give me a key to enter my own property is if i agreed to keep the gate locked at all times. the industry has the mentality that it's all theirs and don't belong to nobody else. and that's at they llll us wh t they me o outo drililhere on our lands "it'ours. you're in ouway." - weust thin the goodeighbor ogram is something that was somewhat elementary. and it's just respect, because if you don't, two things will happen. first t the gernmenen ll regulate you, d d a loof t tim gulate y out of siness. and cocond inew mexi b becom an unfriendl busisine environment, and oianand gaindudustes go elslshere.

dodon't ththin the state wantthat. the oil and gaindustry doesn't want that. we have a very large emphasis with our 325 member companies about being a good neighbor, about talking to people, abt t dointhe thin thahat u would do in your neighrhrhood with your xtxt dooneighbhb. - when they were doing this pump jack, i wasn't home at the time, and anyway, they brought in this huge rig to put that machine on there. they had already agreed several years before to fence off the old cemetery. my great-grandfather is buried here and his son, filomeno armenta, who probably died about 1914. when i came down, i saw the porta-potty. the porta-potty was-- i said, "well, they kind of put the porta-potty a little bit too close." and there was a huge pile of gravel

right on top of the cemetery. the first thing when we saw it, we were in shock. the markers were sandstone, and one e of the markers was an old cedar post. and i haven't been able to locate the cedar post or what the heck they did with it. i don't knknow if they hauled it off as trash. theyey totally wiped outut the cemetery. at my own expense, i came in, and i put this pipe fence to make sure they don't do it again. when i put t this fence up, they sent me a letter telling me they were going to sue me. they wanted me t to furnish prpf that it was ththere. they had reneged on protecting the cemetery as they promised, and now i don't know where none of the markers are.

- in the u.s., in the lower 48 onshore, the boom that is currently going on is driven a lot by tecechnolog there haveeeeen a t of tececological advances thth horontatal illingng with fracture stimululation. - one of the key elements to finding and getting ththe resource out of very tight sand or hard rock

is a fraining press.s. "fraing" is stst a srt w wor for "fraracturg." - hydrlilic frturiring or "fracking" as it's commonly called, is a drilling technique first commercialized by halliburton in 1949. - it comes in with very high-powered water and sand, d d a slhtlyly spy mixtu, anall l itoes s is it goes down, and it just fractures little tiny fractures in the rock, and then the sanand goes intno those frfractures and allows the gas to escape. and then the gas flows into the pipe and up to the surface and to people's homes. - draulic acturing isarargelyespoponsle for the domestic drilling boom. because of its high cost, it was not widely used until recently, in the 1990s, when the price of natural gas shot up high enough to make it affordable. - and really what was not economical over the last 50 years or so is now economic,

and it should continue, particicular if f pres stayayhere they are. - th i is-- heherere theheeserve ps here. - drththeo cbornrn isne of f e world's leadinauauthoriess on endocri-d-disruingg emicals s the environment anand thr imimpa on huhuns. - down in rere, e e truc arere cocong all the way from delt which is0 0 mileto h her - she has beentutudyin the e emicalss used bththe instryry r drilling and extractio andodocumeing g thr effefes. - basically r r firslistst the c cmicals at were being us was this ver v very ortt and untereststg list th e epa p togogetr. it certainly wa''comprehensive, we kw.w. we f fou out v vy rapidly thatt t was smamallist. ey do't tellll youveryrythg that's a a proct.. u may y ly get 5% of what's inhahat oduct,t, anthe rest of itit is proprietary or they y st don't veve it. thth don't haveo.o. iti's wawar, and it's sand, and it's s a suactatant in o oer words,

but it is also pprieieta, bebecauseverery ngle fracng company, etether 's a umumber or it's a bjervices ort's a lliburto they selthat thes is the bt produc anand it's propririary. itould b be ke divivging, yoknow, why your ccolatetes bett than sebody se'chocolat because u u have ose ingrients.s. - oiand gas desits below ound contain toc compous th are bught to e surfac duringrillin ese compnds llute thenvironmt ancan cae health pblems. but thimpacts drillin e made eveworse byhe chemil produc thatare inj. dr. coorn has cument ov 200 products used in colorado drilling. over 90% contain chemicals with adverse health affects. - in each fracking incident,

they use approximately 1 million gallons of fluid. each well can be fracked as much as ten times. they're fracked at different depths as they co h higheand d hier toward the surface. ch of wh e bebeininjected undergrground are coming back up and sitting in these huge open pits, almost in people's backyards. - this is condensate produced water. it's the water that comes out of the bottom of the wells that they keep telling us it's only water and it's safe and it won't hurt you, and it's not water. i mean, look at ththe film it leaves on the plastic, the liners, after they pull it out. this one's been here for three years. and for two years, they misted off of it. they ran a sprinkler system over the top of it all the time. that's an attempt to evaporate the water. when they clean it up, they won't take this stuff, all of it out. they'll just take a track hoe and just start ripping it, put some of the soil in it,

they'll bringn n someoilblbond and mix in it and bury it rit t wherit''s settttg. - ere is n anyny pof t tha there'e's been anything harmfu in t f frackg flflui thatt are used to fracture t w wells - - you owow, r fluidsdsre not toxic. i know we get lolot of i think there's lolot ofisundedetanding of what is actlllly in theseluidids. - i haha fracking fluid ken righouout of frarackg trucuc in my office. i've had it in my mouth, i've tasted it, and'm st f fin - for peopleho are telling y thatat tse products are safe, first,sk them whathey y ha been n ained in. two, find t who'payingheir salar and third, actually hand them a real glassful of something at you he e take from a aevaporation pond and ask them to drink it. - i think it's just so important for people to understand that we live here and love it also. soso why would we mess in our nest?

[laus]s] - dee anhaharoldoffmfmeier live across the road from t b bell rm,, surrndnded ban er-incncasing number onanaturagas s wes. - we werinin bed acactuly, slslping, and we heard ts s pop,and d th . he said that the well was on fire, and my husband went to try to go outside, and it was too hot on the deck, so he couldn't. - the wind was-- - it was blowing right thawaway. - wards s r house. - anththen thfirere trus cacame buthey waid way do, becausthere wanothin th could d had to waifor mostf it to bn out and th foamed threst of it. - yeah. so i think ty y wereherere basicacay for our homes, you know, t they ught fir oromethihi, you kn,, e ofof o strucucres. - dudustri acciden anand ills are mmonon these c commuties.

betwee202003 a 200008, itits estimated atat the werere 435 spspls in colorado. nearly q quart of f the spills are lievevedo haveve contaminated either grod d or sfacece wer in the sta. - every timewewe heathisis. "it'fifine. 'fine. aiait ansee.e. let's wawa and seeee." and then se hohorrle thihi happens, you kno a a litt fararth down dry hollow road is t d dividcreeeek. - okay, here we .. - ththa's s ere lisa bracken anand hefamimilyive. - this ibaback whe it w w first d disvered. we got a a calone day, ril 1s1s from a neighbor, steve thompson, d he sd,d, "y knonow, foundndome stuff down heronon my plee "thadodoesn't t lo rightht i think yoshshouldomee lookokt it." and heaiaid, "'s not nonormal." - see all them bubbles in that water up there, bob? looks like little fish jumping?

- jesus, yes. - that's all gas coming up there. - on both his and our properties, there was the evidence of bubbling in the creek. we didn't know what it was. it looked like a pepsi can. there was just an eruption of bubbles fizzing all over the place, in the reeds and in the water. it's percolating all over this field. - there's just thousands. this field is just covered with them. - we've been here 18 years, and this is the first time i've seen anything like this. - and it's funny. it just started happening the day they started fracking. - we notified the epa, dow, the health department, and then we called and notified the state. and my dad ntnt dow black k cloud, he's of native american heritage, and decided, okay, they're not listening to us. he waded into the water, and when he did, a cauldron of bubbles just erupted all around him. - in an effort to convince authorities that the bubbling was not occurring naturally,

lisa and her family demonstrated that the gas would ignite. - oh, yeah, it burns. - yeah, i'd say. - keep your face out. - yeah, i am. - so he lit some of these vents on fire and demonstrated a flame a foot high, a sustainable flame, from some of the things that were coming up in the creek. - water samples taken from the groundwater in the divide creek seep area showed levels of the carcinogen benzene, 48 times government standards. gas was released into the creek for 55 days before the well believed to have caused the seep was resealed. - after they remediated the well, evidence of the seep largely disappeared. here, it wenawaway. and pepi's s plac on lgegggge's,s, it dimished siifificany, and d ere's still some evidee e of itherer but t 's the on ngngerinpresesen. - to thidaday, gacontinins to bubble up

t the sp'main e et point on pepi ngngegg's nd. - so what theyrere tryg toto d contain everything, the contamatation, righin a. buththere stitillenzenene toluene in tre, d d nobo knonowsow lonon it's going t take, or if ev, , real, eveverhing is g gng to bebelearedp. - accoining to statatent provided by ththe enna c corrationon "nothinghahat enna d did s out t of compliance "with the regulations in place at that time. "extensive monitoring following the incident "indicates there was no contamination "of residential water sources as a result of the seep. "an air convection system is in place to remove benzene from the groundwater in the plume area." - they come in and they put into the creek a sparging unit, okay. now, what a sparging unit does, according to what encana says,

is it takes the water and it roils it up and it mists it, anthe benzene, which is th cancncerausingngngredient, it takeses theenzene ouof theheater, d d it ps into t airir. [laughs] problem solved. so the people downwind can breae it insteaofof theeoplple downwnream drinking it. they had los11115 miion n cuc feet of gas into the gunund. r runs wn t to e riveve d d downo whwhersilt picks up its drinkinwawater and where rifle picks its s drking w wer. ye, that's wherit goes. encana w ordered pay a fe of $37200. - it's a pretty spot and, like i sayere, th is s prtinene ld, basically, wod be foromebody- if sebody was to have little heaway. who do you tnknk i coulsellll ito?

sa "well, ah, it's ni, t there's a little bzene comingutut of e ground [laus]s] ye.. - ilills a grorounater contamination can occu anywherehere's illingng industryepepreseativives often try to downpy theienvironmental imctct. - the e has t bebeen e ie in the sta o of nemexico ere war was s ntaminated by o operatis ththat aually nt into a consumer'ss placof business or a home. we talk abt t ruing ththe ter. there hasn't been one drop of water delivered to a consumer for consumption in the 100,000 wells that we drilled in 90 years, ever been polluted or contaminated. - the fact that i've heard, and, bob, correct me if i'm wrong, is that the oil and gas industry has self-reported 900 instances ofof groundwater contamiminatn since ththe '90s. that's self-repororted. arare you saying that there has never been an instance

where oil exploration in new mexico has actually resulted in the contamination of our water supply? - that was delivered to the consumer? yes, that's what i'm saying. - but that wasasn't deliveretoto the consusumer, that is there underground, you're acknowledging that there has been contamination in those cases? - i'm not sure if there's been contamination. i'm acknowledging that there has been some cases of a concern at oil and gas that has gotten close to a water table or in a water table, but not in a water table that's delivered for consumption. - this i is "colorado matters" some coloradans who live near oil and gas wells say drilling is making them sick. - the recent spike in oil and gas drilling in colorado is havining a biimpact.. - but ere'lilittle informion out the effect of all thatrillllinon humum health. - - in 24, s somresidedes in garfield ununty began to complain that they were getting sick as a result of the drilling activities in their neighborhoods. a young woman from silt, laura amos,

was one of the earliest and loudest voices. - as everyone in this room probably knows, my groundwater has been contaminated with methane, williamsport gas. there's a lot of people in this room with contamination and pollution issues. so who then is responsible to me for that loss of my welfare if it's not you, the gas commission? - if a well is drilled next to your residence or near your residence within the legal setbacks and there's a perceived or real impact on your property value, we don't address that. - in 2001, gas wells were drilled using the fracking technique a mere 500 feet from the amos home. underground, the drilling breached their water well, causing their drinking water to fill with gray sediment and fizz like soda pop. the colorado oil and gas conservation commission tested the water well and found methane

but said it was safe. but they warned the amoses to keep a window open so the methane gas wouldn't build up and cause an explosion in their home. the amoses stopped drinking the water but continued to bathe in it. - a young woman called me from garfield county and said that she had developed a rare adrenal tumor, that s had hadhihis indent with her well. that was the beginning. i mean, when she called, it just sent chills up and down my spine. she had been breast-feeding her daughter through the period when ty y weresingng t waterer that they re told s safe. she was thing r baby in theater itheir ho. they were breathing this stuff that was coming into their house. - she later found out that a chemical that had been used in the 2001 fracking has been linked to adrenal gland tumors. when she went to encana, they denied using it on that well or any other.

months later, the oil and gas commission admitted that it had been used after all. - laura was told her water was safe, but we found out later, they neverer tesd itit f 2-be.. ey waiteuntil fo years aftethe incint to go backo see ifosossibl they c cld find me. that was long nene. okshe spe tothther pplee her neighborhoo she begato see if anydy else wahaving t kind of health pblems shhad, anthen oths begatelling abt peoplehey heard abou ani was ju amazed at t n numbe of peop that were iololved. and thouough "ththiss maybyb a serious prlem. wh is goinon ovethere?" - ter yes of mountg medil bills, delued propey, and minishing tions, laura aged to a metary selement wi encancorporatn, e company sponsibl for her oblems. the ttlement stiputed

e stop tling her ory publly, which ishy she wasot inteiewed for is film. many filies'tories ke hers wi never be ld becae of cpany setements thatequireilence. - d as iat therend looked out window to my bayard, l l i cod ththinwas, "i'm getting inlved in isis. ere'no way i can st out of is." ani'm sitting re with all othe righreresours. the peopleeed help - let's goverr ononhe trampoline. - s spitef ththe ll explosion and fire, dee homemeiste has s ayed in her house, surrounded by her children and grandchildren. - this kind h helpse. itivives m a ttle me steaeaness

until cacan gr somometng. you kn, , theyere e dog okayay as lg g as t rigigs d thatat weren't there and it was jtt ththe rking g ll, and you stl l got iffsfs ofofmells anthat, and i ju c coul't outsisi. it wa't inhehe hou. but then they brghght in e tempmpary rig, becausththey we ving p pblems with one oththe hos, i i tnk, and then the slllls alstarted againin beuse they were dogg ththe ackingng and itll blows righover h he. we had oneacack the bebehi us. we h t two othe e si heree that we all working, you know, flaring thth gas and i got mu m more l ter ththfire. atateveras t the just t rned and came rig a at me yoknknow, wasas le somemedy hajust dumped chemicals on me. finally, i coul't std d it anymor anmomondayy huhusbd tookoke tohehe emeencycy rm the hospital. and he sai " "wellwe''re goioi to do some bloodorork, and enen we'llll dsome x xays and cat scan

and i idid, "y know,w,his is cmical. esese archememics." said, "i don't t thinyou'u're ing to find anything." and heamame ba, heheaid, "all the tests arincoconcsive." and i said, knonow. my body full ofhemicals, and th''whwhy i'm m ck." - there is no waa physicnn n trtrultreatt what he's seng.. theyave not enen giv the e st of tsese checalsls at are being used. when seoeone mes totohem with-- some oththese ok l lik clinical, ordinary disdeders, they need d do a ttle q qstioning. because itouould vy wewelle that it is a chemical that ty y werexpososedo, anand ere mamabe a way to. but eyey ca't ve prprer treatment if they're n awawaref whatat . - cayoyou gedownwn? i veve 21 andkdkid d one great. - whoa! - oh. [laughing] yeah, ththey' been prty s sic

they'veve had coldsds, asthma - the girls veve allad ng infnftions, sinus fefectio. liam's asma''s reallyad. he's on four didierent memecines. - basically we found th i if yowerere ttake all of the chemica atat aresedd in a aarticular state, alysys whe youou s the highest percentage ofofossible health effec,, itit's alalwa skin n ritation, eye riritaon, blbltering, nunuses,sthmhma,oughinin and then this fefect lled s sensitizing, itchy skin, burny skin. yoyou kn, itit's yoyo health, but it's evythihing it's hoyou u li. urur quaty o of fe is just gone. [laus] yeah. but i pepe i i d't ha to momo away.

dedee stl lilive on dryryollow roro. orortly ter r th intererew, dee's soand d dahter-i-ilaw anththeir ur c chiren moved t of the state. when they veved, thr r respatorory oblemsms disappeared. inin 200 thehe bh/chenen administratio's

environmental protection agency asserted that fracturing does not threaten drinking water. this was challenged by a 30-year epa environmental engineer, weston wilson, acting under protected whistle-blower status. - the former chairman and ceo of halliburton, dick cheney, within aew monthof comin intoto offe asas ve president, he wasressurin the admistrator epa, chriie todd-itman, exempt draulic acking om the se drinkingater act regution. fromy own int of vie as a thnician, i just thohtht it ry a alaing that epa technalally hahad scribebe how ticic the mataterls arere xic at the pointf f injeion,n,

and stl l comeut withth summary that ss s theyon''t needed to be reported or gulated. that led me, inin t fall l o'04, to object on technical grounds. then the inspector general of epa began an investigation of my complaints. and seraral mohs i intthat,, congssss toothe e rert om epa sayinghahat frkingng did nonopresent a risk, along wi oththernforormaon, and exemptedydydraul frackin fr regululion under e sa d drinkg wawateact. that leaves you and i as the american public in this position: we cannot know what the industry injects in ouranand. it is emempt fr beingngeported. - there are dederal la thatrotect our eironment like the can air a,, thclean n ter act, thsasafe dnkining ter acac anand iturnsns o that t e oil and gas induryry is emptpt fromom vy impopoant provisions of those laws.

me of the exememions date back for cades. it ha't been partisanhing. the haveeen officis from difrent pares at have suppord d exemions fofor thoil l angas ininstry. wh happens is, politicians from stas s wher there's a lae energyndustry often suort meases that e benefici to the dustry. - down the colorado river about 9 miles to the west of silt is the town of rifle.

- [speaks indiininctly - thiss s whene lilived in g glenwoo this is fofore athining,any prp, before we ved in rlele. this is 19. we've been maied, ke, 10years. aughter] i'm 54, and shs . e's anged. she'changed so much. there's a traditional chris picture. here's a traditional steve picture. - in 1993, chris and steve mobaldi decided to leave california to move to colorado. - we both got laid off from our work cacause bototh lunteeeed to be laid off becauswewe wand to g g out of california, move to colorado where it was beautiful and clean air and clean water. - they found themselves in garfield county looking for a new home.

- there's chris. - hi! - hi! - in 1995, they bought their dream house, a fixer-upper in a rural neighborhohood outsidede rif. it was shortly after chris and steve moved in that drilling rigs began to appear on some of their neighbors' land and in the surrounding hills. - and then everything changed. chris would get in the shower, and heher skin turned brigight . i think k it was in '96.. and it hurt. her skin, it was burning, on fire. she would swell. - steve began to develop symptoms as wel - i'fefeel dzy.. i'd get bloody noses. - why would anyone think that something happening cocoupleileses dn the e ad could ssssiblye cacausg this h hlth change in the b body?

u u see ood d dirders,s, at is caed idiopath hemoraging. so you g bloodeyes, bloody nes, and also blood in the urine. d d a nuer o of ople who called me id they had thisondition - i was afra s she w gonnbleeeed death. she'd wakep in theorning, and she uld be covered inlood. r nose wld be bleeng ju like cry, and the llow s covered th blood the shee wereovered wh bloo - wellround 50% of thehemicals cae e suchhingngs asidney y mage, cardvavascul problbls. and thenhehe nex and d very troubublesome are the neurological effects. - chris' health began to deteriorate rapidly. e began losing h sight, had severe hdaches,

anhad pain in her han and fee there were two sururgeries to remove e a pituitary tumor, and she developed a rare neurological speech impairment. it bece e incrsingngly difficult for r r to sak c clely. -'vead s seval patatnts who have been viving sptomoms since the time th t they we e expos toil and gas exploration nearheirir hes. these are all l people in a small cluster around rifle. - last year, epa got several citizen's requests from garfield county, and the citizens were saying, "gosh, my drinking water might be contaminated "by this practice, "or the air we breathe might be affected. epa, can you look into it?" epa should have. mylf and another sff perso hadad ppared d e letters, and we were ready w write to the coloro o oiland gacocon

that we felt that th p practe caed emimint subanantialisisk to plic drinking water sourc and that epaasas gon ke over the investigatio however, as soons wewe gothatt to our politil appoinee susupervors,s, they canceeded ththatnvestitition. so epa did notnvnvestite the e gitimate complaints from citizens gararfid counun. - whenhey wererilling, could feeit grindg unrneath t ground,ou know, der our use. and th we'd el these plososio, and itouould ske d diss and rattle pictures, d it dried for the ngest ti. and the pit was even closer, and they'd burn it. they would just flare it off. the wind blew right to our house. - if you lived in a rural, residential area and you wewere in a low-lylying area,, yourououse w a low-lng arere thatouould aumululat ese gases when they me o off thtank b,

you may be breathing those for 12 hours a day. - those chemicals again, neurotoxicants. people complained when they stepped out of their automobiles or out of their homes that they got a whiff of some air, they collapsed. they shook. they seemed to have loss of memory, dizziness. - in 1997, as chris' symptoms were getting worse, a water well near the mobaldi's was blown out and contaminated by drilling. accocording to state records, on september 15, 1997, barrett resources lost well control while drilling the bernklau gas well. - then the gas companies came out and told everybody not to drink the water, and they actually started delivering water to us. then they came back and told us that, "your water's safe to drink." so we started drinking the water again. - when the exposure is through a water pathway, people aresusuallyivenen a alteteate drinking water suppl

you don't think of it, but there are a lot of sources of water vapor in the house: your dishwasher, every time you flush the toilet. and you breathe it in, anyoyou abrb i it rough . urur dosof e volalale organic compounds fr the shor waterwille seve you would have gotten from the drinking water. - after we started thinking, "hmm, something's not right," put a glass of water out and left it sit overnight, and there was, like, a little oil slick on top. and then-- [laughing] it burned. and this is the water that they said was safe to drink. - she had a high thirst, and it makes h expxpose que didiffent anan herusbaband's.s. not ly w washe at t e house a much larger actition of the time-- heouould goff f toork---

t t she d a a mu higheheuse t the wl wawate that w w further exposure for r. - in desperation, chris and steve moved to grand junction, colorado, abandoning their home and a place that had been their dream. - we just up and left, you know, the place, and it was valued at $440,000, and we just walked away from it. - and she reported that she was somewhat better, by no mes s good bu oh, perpsps 30% oror 4 improrod being aw from th h home. and if s would go back toetririevsome belgingss or go to vis n neighrs that they'd d had that t evious home, she wod d feelickk ananfairly qckly. - ththink mostst a of ouou neighbs s haveoved awa and all the people that occupy the houses now are all people that work for the wells.

crow no oil! no gas! oil! - y're not a aut compepeate people for full lulue ofosss of t tir propey. - and anodody this s om at thihis-- - the's growowinresiststce on the part ofeoeople whlilive ithe e pa of drilling. - they' l lyi to us! - i i obct to o y companan who ll come in and drive people ouout ofhe h hom that wbubuilt th oururwn hands anhohomethat w whave every right to expec to le e out oudadays i [cerers anapplplau] - i have tsasay th lilivi with h is development has afcted o lives nearly ery way aginable with nother recose, someme ldownerss have b. my well s blown t july 18th of 2006. - last summer, while you folks probably had air conditioners going on,

i had to stay in my house with a respirator on. - well, i was offered a motel for myself, you know, and some food. it doesn''t help the situation. we all can't just move into a motel. there's a lot of us. - it's clear that those who do the mineral extraction know the risks of mineral extraction. they don't know the specific health effects, but they know that this is an activity which impacts both the environment and humanity. they've known it for many, many years. - it's unbelievable that someone says "toxic." i mean, the federal government-- the federal government and the state government will tell you, thatat stuff in the pit is not hazardous and n not toxi. - well, that's not true. - a lot of the chemicals used are proprietary. we don't know. isn't that the case? - no, what is in that pit? what is in that pit is s sand, wood chips, drill bits, water, and gel that came out of the hole.

- and not any of the fracking chemicals? - well, the fracking chemicals go in here. the fracking chemicals are in there and when the fracking-- - much of that waste isn't dredged right back up and put in the pits? - it's put in the pit, and it's not hazardous by definition of the federal or state government. - our goal is zero incidents and zero impac thehe eironmeme, anwe' not the, obviously. we do veve injies.s. we do have slls. but we t a and pventnt tm, ananwe do the best tt t we c.. - it's noany y mo dangerous thanalalkingcrososs e roadada. i i an, you know, it's not-- , , it's not y momoreangeroro. thisiss natural gas. we''re notalking oil or oil slls. 'naturagagas. nono, 's not any more dgegerous pppplaus - house llll 134may y bene of the most significant inings that waccomplied inhis legiative seion. it reoanized t coloradoil angas consvationommissio and b belie it t brgs a better balance to the coisission

so that i's t dodomited by a a one intnterest grououp. but we'rere gon be e reonsiblbl as w we mo fororwa. we're gna b be ndful ofofhe impacact as the number of drilling applications climb and as the number of impact complaints climb as well. [crowd mururmuring] [applause] he h how a youou dng? i'okokay. yes, i underand.d. - lf of the state c coloro moree sitsbove aas-beari zone,

and so ts is an sue that wl bebe wh us for r ny, many years to come, and ththdecisions that wmamake today are gog g to dinee hohothis will all transpire ovov the nex20 years. - am i too mhh onouou? ohoh, no i coululcarry you. - nowewe're f fin here comststairschriris. ststeps. [s[sobbi] - doouou neehelplp toto get your legs in, or c y you g thehem by yourself? - [waiai] - w.

- williams is going to have to respectfully decline to participate in your project. we struggled with this decision, but we feel like-- - i need to let you know that we transfer all video

and radio media contacts over to-- - well, i think at this point, no, i'm not interested, and at this particular point, i don't think there is a story. - we do wish you the best in your endeavors, and thank you for your consideration. [soothing instrumental music]] ♪ - ♪ seems like a good time ♪ to stand up ♪ for love in other forms

♪ we would do fine ♪ to be still ♪ in the quiet of our hearts ♪ we would do great ♪ to come together ♪ and listen for the smallest voice ♪ ♪ and welcome her home ♪ with us ♪ to safe haven ♪ ♪ we can be all this and more ♪ ♪ we can be what we have always dreamed of ♪ ♪ we can be all this and more ♪ ♪ we can be what we have always dreamed of ♪ ♪ yes, we can ♪