01/27/17 01/27/17 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] amy: from park city, utah, this is democracy now! trump: much of the media is very dishonest. honestly, itit is fake news. they make things up. amy: donald trump continues his attack on the media as his top bannon callsephen the opposition party and says it should keep its mouth shut. we will look at the rise of bannon and how he turned breitbart news into an online haven for white nationalist.

the mexican president enrique pena nieto cancels an upcoming a meeting with trump at the white house. we will look at trump's false claims that millions of people illegally voted in the e electi, hehelping hillary clinton when e popular vote. >> what you have presented so far has been debunked. pres. trump: look at the pew reports. >> i call the author and he told me they found no evidence -- amy: while no evidence of mass footer fraud has been found, public records shows several members of trump's inner circle and family a are registered to .ote in more than one state the list includes steve bannon, jared kushner, sean spicer, his daughter tiffany trump, and steve mnuchin. all that and more, coming up. welclcome to democracy now!, democracynow.org, the wawar and

peace report. i'm amy goodman. the planet is closer to a catastrophic disaster than at any time since 1953. that's according to the scientists behind the doomsday clock, a symbolic timekeeper that tracks the likelihood of nuclear war and other existential threats. on thursday, the scientists moved the clock's minute hand 30 seconds closer to midnight. ththe hour now sits at 2.5 minus before doomsday. this is rachel bronson of the bulletin of atomic scientists. >> perhaps most troubling has been to concerns that are adding to an already challenging global landscape. cavalier has been the and reckless language used across the globe, especially in the united states during the presidential election and after, around nuclear weapons and nuclear threats. and the second is a growing disregard of scientific expertise.

expertise that is needed when it comes to responding to pressing global challenges, including climate change. there is a troubling propensity to discount or outright reject expert advice related to international security, including ththe c conclusions of intelligence experts. amy: scientists are planning for a major march on washington, called the march for science on d.c. the idea came after millions of people rallied in d.c. and in cities across the world last saturday for the women's march on washington to protest the inauguration of donald trump. memexican presesident enrique pa nieto has canceleled a meetiting with president trump that was scheduled for next week as tensions between the two countries rise. the move came after trump announced plans wednesday to expand the border wall between the u.s. and mexico, a wall trump has repeatedly said he would force mexico to pay for. on thursday, mexico's top diplomat wasas at the white houe to help pave the way for the visit when his team received word of a trump tweet suggesting

that if mexico were not willing to build the wall, it should cancel the trip. trump claims the two leaders mutually canceled the upcomingng meeting -- a statement pena nieto has refuted. thisis is former mexican presidt vivincente fox. >> it is stupid. it is crazy. imagine him going toto congress and saying to the american congress to authorize a budget come to lend money to build a useless wall -- a wall that is complete waste of money and which is useless. and he tells congress not to worry, i will get mexico to replace the money. mexico will pay for it. well, trump, here you go. amy: on thursday, white house press sesecretary sean s spicerd the u.s. would impose a 20% tax on all goods imported from mexico and use t the proceeds to pay for the expanded wall. that the u.s. would build. but after widespread outrage at the plan, spicer walked back his statements only hours later, saying the import tax was just

one idea. we'll go to mexico city for more on the u.s. and mexico standoff later in the broadcast. donald trump is making his first official visit to the pentagon as president today. "the new york times" reports the white house has drafted a presidential directive instructing defense sesecretary james s mad dog mattis to ramp p u.s. military action against isis. the military action could inclclude u.s. army helicopteres and ground artillery in syria. in hits firirst -- in his tetelevised interview w as firsrst president, trtrump also openly embraced torture, including waterboarding, saying torture absolutely works.. trump's comments sparked immediate criticism, including from international human rights experts and lawyers. this is ian seiderman with the international commission of jurists. >> this is almost unprecedented. we just came through many years of cleaning up the mess in this area that was made by previous u.s. administratation under

presidident bush. but even the bush and administration, while it engaged in torture and has been well documented, was very careful not to publicly condone torture. in fact, and a number r of case, president bush himself as well as a number of officials condemned torture. they understood it was criminall activity. they s saw it as something embarrassing and to be covered up. amy: on thursday, top ranking republicans, including house speaker paul ryan, senate majority leader mitch mcconnell, and senate armed services committee chair john mccain, signaled congressional republicans would not change the laws on the use of torture. ryan said -- "t"torture is ilillegal.l. we agree with it not being legal." british prprime minister therea may also indicated that britain may stop sharing intelligence with the cia following trump's endorsement of torture, saying -- "we condemn torture and my view on that won't change."

may and trump are scheduled to meet for about an hour today in the oval o office, marking the first visit by foreign leader to the white house since donald trump ttook office. prime and is to may, house speaker paul ryan, and other top republicans were all speaking out against torture from the republicans annual three-day retreat in philadelphia, which trump also attended thursday. more than 5000 people took to the streets of philadelphia thursday to protest trump's visit to the city and to denounce republican policies, including the efforts to repeal the affordable care act. trump's first executive order, signed only hours after his inauguration, made the promptt repeal of obamacare the administration's top priority. the administration has already pulled ads for the 2017 enrollment season of obamacare off the air, including the ads that were already paid for. the deadline to sign up for new plans is january 31.

the entire state department's senior level management was ousted by the trump administration. the news wrote thursday, sparking widespread concern. former state department chief of staff david wade told the "washington post" -- "it's the single biggest simultaneous departure of institutional memory that anyone can remember, and that's incredibly difficult to replicate." trump is continuing to call for a major investigation into voter frauaud as hee stands by his lis about the 2016 election, despite the fact that his claims have been widely debunked by experts. trump is falsely claiming that he lost the popular vote to hillary clinton because 3 million to 5 million unauthorized voters participated in the election. this is trump speaking in his first televised interview as president, with abc's david muir. >> when you say, in your opinion

villains of illegal votes, that is something that is it's truly fundamental to our f functioning democracy affair a pre-election. you say you're going to launch an investigation. pres. trump: sure. >> what you presented so far has been debunked. pres. trump: take a look at the pew reports. >> i call the author in he tell me they found no evidence. pres. trumump: then why did he write -- amy: while experts have found no evidence to support trump's lies about widespread voter fraud by unauthorized immigrants, they have found at least five examples of voter fraud from trump's family members or inner circle. "the washington post" reports trump's son-in-law and close white house adviser jared kushner, trump's daughter tiffany trump, trump's chief strategist steven bannon, white house press secretary sean spicer, and treasury secretary nominee steven mnuchin were all registered to vote in two different states -- something that trump has claimed is evidence of voter fraud. we'll have more on trump's voter fraud claims later in the broadcast. the trump administration's war

on the media escalated thursday, when trump's chief strategist steve bannon called the media "the opposition party." in a "new york times" article published thursday, bannon said -- "the media should be embarrassed and humiliated and keep its mouth shut." bannon is the former head of the right-wing breitbart media, which frequently publishes racist, sexist, anti-immigrant, and xenophobic news. we'll have more on trump's war on the media after headlines. the trump administration has announced plans to publish a weekly list of c crimes committd by unauthohorized immigranants living in so-called sanctuary cities, where local officials and lalaw enrcrcemenare e refusg to comply y with federal immigration authorities efforts to speed up deportations. the plans for the weekly list, to be published by the homeland security department, were included in trump's executive orders that were signed on wednesday. author andrea pitzer, who is currently writing a book on nazi concentration camps, points out trump's proposed list recalls a

nazi germany-era policy by which the nazi institute for research on the jewish question kept files on crimes committed by jews. the list is part of trump's attack on sanctuary cities, which also includes threats to cut their federal funding. mayors of sanctuary cities nationwide have vowed to resist trump's attacks. but miami-dade county mayor carlos gimenez has already announced the county will drop its sanctuary city status and comply with trump's executive order. in texas, governor gregg abbott says he will cut state grants to austin, a sanctuary city, and has vowed austin sheriff sally hernandez will lose her job unless she forces local police to begin cooperating with federal immigration agents in order to speed deportations. president trumpmp is expected to sign more executive orders cracking down on immigration in the coming days, including one that would temporarily ban refugees from resettling in the u.s. and block all visas from

being issued to anyone from syria, iraq, iran, libya, somalia, sudan, and yemen. the department of homeland security has already halted trips to interview refugees abroad. the interviews are an essential part of refugee admission and resettlement. the anticipated crackdown is sparking widespread protest in the u.s. and abroad. on thursday, oscar nominated iranian actress taraneh alidoosti said she is boycotting the academy awards ceremony over trump's proposed visa ban, calling it racist. "the washingngton post" reports trump personally pressured the head of the national park servicice to find and d provide photographs ofof the inauguratin day crowds on the national mall in efforts to counter news reports about the inauguration 's low turnout. trump and white house press secretary sean spicer have repeatedly lied about the crowds size, saying more people showed up to trump's inauguration than any other in u.s. history, which

-- history. in fact, hundreds of thousands showed up compared to 1.8 million who attended obama's inauguration in 2009. trump reportedly also told ahead of the park service he was angry the services twitter had retweeted a photograph showing a side-by-side comparison of photos from trump inauguration and obama's inauguration in 2009. in africa, the gambian president adama barrow arrived back in gambia on thursday following the depaparture of longtimime leader yahya jammeh, who had initially refused to step down. barrow's supporters lined the streets to celebrate his return from senegal, where he'd fled and held his inauguration last week in the gambian embassy in senegal's capital. this is one of barrow's supporteters. today,re very happy adama ng the president

barrow. today is the happiest day. we are here to enjoy. him andreparing for welcoming him. amy: hundreds of people on hawaii s say they will protest against facebook ceo mark zuckerberg this weekend over his filing of lawsuits to force hundreds of residents including , native families, off their land in order to make his hawaiian beachfront property as private as possible. native hawaiian professor kapua sproat of the university of hawaii said -- "this is the face of neocolonialism." zuckerberg now says he's reconsidering the lawsuits. vice president mike pence will speak today on an antiabortion rally on the national mall called the march for life. it will mark the first time in 44 years that a sitting vice president will address the crowd, which i gathered each year since the 1974 roe v wade

decision legalizing abortion. is well-known for his antiabortion views. his speech comes only days after trump's administration reinstated the global gag order, which bans u.s. funding for any international health care group that performs abortion, advovocates for the legalization ofof abortion, or even menention the w word abortion.. in ohio, federal judge has ruled ohio's new lethal injection process is unconstitutional host of the really concerns the use of a sedative which has been linked to botched executions in alabama and other states. thursday's ruling delays three scheduled executions in ohio. also in ohio, bresha meadows, a 15 euro girl who allllegedly kikilled herer abusive fatathers been transferred to an adolescent treatment facility after spending 170 five days in a juvenile jail. jonathan meadows, her father, reportedly made life for his family a living hell, routinely attacking his wife, breaking her

ribs, fracturing her blood vessels -- three-drug method to see our full coverage of bresha meadows case, go to democracynow.org. and george orwell's "1984" has become a best-seller in the days after donald trump took office. penguin, the publisher, reports a 9500% sales increase since last friday, the day of trump's inauguration. the classic dystopian work introduced the world to the terms "big brother," "thought police," "newspeak," and "doublethink" -- words that many are finding have new meaning under the trump administration. to hear a rereading of "1984," o to democracynow.org. and those are some of the headlines this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. the battle between donald trump and the press escalated thursday

after one of trump's top advisers called the media the opposition party. in a rare interview with the "new york times," trump's chief strategist steve bannon said -- "the media should be embarrassed and humiliated and keep its mouth shut and just listen for a while." bannon added -- "i want you u to quote this. the media here is the opposition party. they don't understand this country. they still do not understand why donald trump is the president of the united states." bannon is the former head of right-wing breitbart media, which frequently publishes racist, sexist, anti-immigrant, and xena phphobic news. while he rarely speaks to the media, he is planning a key role in the new administration. according to reports, bannon wrote part of trump's and our penned hisand executive orders on every thing from expanding the border wall between the u.s. and mexico to weakening the affordable care act. he also recently capped the national security editor sebastian gorka, and immigration reporter, to join the trump

administration. meanwhile, the president himself was interviewed by fox news' sean hannity last night and described much of the media as fake news. pres. trump: much of thehe media ---- not all of it -- is very, very dishonest. honestly, it i is fake newews. they make e things up. >> between twiwitter, instagram, facecebook, i think you hahave reached 5050 millionon people.e. we know now from wikileaks, some of these networks were colluding with hillary's campaign to defeat you. newspapers,major the dedebit networks that ususee word " "liar." does that makeke you want to rethink entirelely how this s in administraration will dedeal wih the media? pres. trump: they are ththe liar whwhen sean got up,, he talklked abouout the auaudience and saidi had the largest audience. i did. i had the television and all of the sources.

the largest audience in the history of inauguration'n's. i did. they arere so d demeaning and ty are so disishonest. in manany cases -- >> i i don't t remember them treaeating barack obobama this y all step pres. trump: that could never have happened. amy: joining us right now is sarah posner investigative reporter with the nation institute. in august, she wrote a headline grabbing article for mother jones about steve bannon titled, "how donald trump's new campaign chief created an online haven for white nationalists." her most r recent piece inin rog stone is titled, "trump makes good on his nativist campaign promises." sarah posner, welcome back to democracy now! first, commentnt on stephen "the newstatements to york times" that the press is the opposition party and should keep its mouth shut. >> well, this is an effort by the trump administration to first.ate the media

second, the comments are directed not just at the media, which i would predict is going to be not intimidated by banann, but also directed at bannon's own audience at breitbtbart news and the entire constellation of the alt-right, for which banning claims that b breitbart is the platform. you tell me in july that breitbart is the platform for the alt-right. so this is an effort to de-legitimize the media in the eyes of the breitbart audience, the trump phase more broadly -- by suggesting that the media has dishonestly covered donald trump, when in fact, the chief complaint that has been lodged against the media by the trump administration and amplified on by president trump last night in that clip you just played, is based on hard facts about numbers that donald trump does

not like. now, ironically, the alt-right spends much of its time deriding universities across the states as havens for week and mystical people who need safe spaces and sugar warnings. the president of the united states, meanwhile, cannot accept the cold hard facts of how many people were at his inauguration and sent his press secretary out to complain that the staff had been demoralized by the coverage, which was just based on those facts. could tookyou more about -- if you could talk more about steve bannon, the top aide to president trump, telling the media to shut up. breitbart news. talk about this institution. also, bringing in twowo more breitbart news reporters to the

inner circle of the white h hou. suggests does take a look at breitbart news. i know a lot of people dodo not want to lolook at it. they consider it too be fake news, rightfully so, basically just propaganda. but looking at it and reading some of the coverage and reading the headlines will give someone a lot of insight into how the trump administration is functioning. because bannon has the president's ear. breitbart news was founded by the conservative activist andrew breitbart. bannon took over after breitbart died suddenly about four or five years ago. under bannon's leadership, even former reporters and editors at breitbart have said that it became a haven for the alt-right

, for what nationalists, for racists. the so-called coverage that was written by its reporters feeds into these racist and xenophobic themes and portray's refugees and immigrants as criminals. derived the black lives matter movement. in the coverage is not news, it is definitely from a very far right perspective. if you read it, it will cause you to question your sense of rereality, it is exactly what they're looking for. you read it and think, wowow, ts is not what i've seen with my own eyes. that is exactly what the trump the administration wants the public to start questioning. so bannon, when i interviewed him at the republican national convnvention in july -- like i said, he told me that breitbart is the platform for the alt-right.

he denied that the alt-right is a white nationalist movement, but basically admitted it is an etho-nationalist movement and pointed to these groups in eurorope that were the model for the alt-right. and he said these nationalist movements were alive and well in the united states before president trump became a candidate for president, that he did not create this movement. in beeee credited summit heels with really -- been accredited someone else with this movement, that is just session, who is about to become trump's attorney general. amy: let's go to steve bannon speaking in 2013 at the future ofof conservatism conference. at the timime, bannon wawas the executive chairman of breitbart news. --i thhink you fewer fighting if you're fighthting to save ths country, fighting to take this country back, it is not one to be sunshine and patriots, it is

going to be people who want to fight. andrew breitbart was all about the fight.t. we call ourselves the fight club. all not in agreement at that we need to be the party of input the. by that, i mean false empathy. that is just a slow walk the state's him. there's a certain point in time you would have to explaiain that these programs have not worked and they have enslaved people. amy: sarah posner, your comment on steteve bannon? >> well, this is part of the ideology that has fueled the alt-righght and fueueled t tru's rise. the e idea that t the civil rigs movement or the women's rights movement has altered american society in terrible w ways, that it has changed life for white americans in ways that have been detrimental to them. bannon'sis a fight in

own words over the soul of what america is. is america pluralistic democracy authoritarianand nationalist, populist society? and this is the battle that steve bannon is waging from within the white house and trying the media into it -- drawing the media into it by portraying the media as an institution that is not an institution that is protected by the first amendment of our constitution. you noticece in those, that he made that you just played, he does not talk about the constitution at all or how the constitution protects a free press or the free-speech rights and many other rights of americicans. he portrays all of that as having run a amok, basically.y. this is one ofof the chief advisers to o president trump right n now. chief strategist to presisident trtrump. facedteven bannon has

questions about d domestic abuse anand anti-s-semitic comments. he was charged in 1996 with misdemeanor domestic violence, battery and dissuading a , witness. a santa monica, california, police report said bannon grabbed his wife at the time, mary louise piccard, "by the throat and arm" and threatened to leave with the couple's twin daughters. babannon pleaded notot guilty te chcharges, which w were dropped later that year when piccard did not appear in court. she claimed in divorce proceedings bannon pressured her not to testify. piccard also said in a sworn 2007 court filing that bannon made anti-semitic comments when the two argued over whether to send their daughters to a private school. according to one document, piccard said -- "he said that he doesn't like the way they raise their kids to be 'whiny brats' and that he didn't want the girls going to school with jews." so this report of him grabbing his wife by the throat, now this whole idea of really trying to choke the press by telling them to "shut up." it isis fairly obvious, even without t those a allegatis

in the domestic cases -- whichch bannon hasas denied -- i think t is obvious that he is bebehaving like a bully. if you have seen n the reactionf the prress -- there was a clip gemsng around last night of clappe tapper. the press is not going to listen or be bullilied by steve bannono "shut up." you and i boboth know thatat. i want to popoint ouout someinig about the anti-semitism charge. something that struck me wheheni interviewedd bannon in july was that i asked him about what hadd happened to one e of his former employees at breitbart, a reporter and e editor by the nae of ben shapiro. after shapiro left breitbart in the wake of breitbart not standing by its reporter michelle fields after she was grabbed at a trumpmp press

conference by then trump campaign manager corey lewandowski, he was subjected to a barrage of anti-somatic abuse -- shapiro was -- on twitter and other social media, you know, and so on. one prime example of it was after he had announced on twitter the birth of his and his wife's second child, so when tweeted back at him "to the ovens with all of you." i asked babannon about that at e convention. he cut me off before i could even finish the sentence and said, "then shapiro is a whine r." i was surprise because i would've thought most people would have said something more along the lines of, i'm very sorry that happened to my former employee and i do not condone that kind of behavior. but instead, he just said that shapiro was a whiner. i thought that was telling of

what bannon thinks about that kind of harassment and abuse online, and how seriously he takes the charges of anti-semitism. amy: sarah posner, thank you for being with us, with the investigative fund with the nation institute. most recent piece we will link to in rolling stone "trump makes , good on his nativist campapain promises." also author of "god's profits: faith, fraud, and the republican crusade for values voters." when we come back, the mexican president cancels his trip to washington, d.c., saying mexico will not pay for the wall. stay with us. ♪ [music break]

amy: "no wall too tall." this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. parke broadcasting from

city, utah. mexican president enrique pena nieto has canceled a meeting with president trump that was scheduled for next week as tensions between the two countries rise. the move came after trump announced plans wednesday to expand the border wall between the u.s. and mexico -- a wall trump has repeatedly said he would force mexico to pay for. on thursday, mexico's top diplomat was at the white house to help pave the way for the visit when his team received word of a trump tweet suggesting if mexico were not willing to build the wall, it should cancel the trip. trump later claimed the two leaders mutually canceled the upcoming meeting a statement , pena nieto has refuted. trump spoke more about the wall later in the day after a meeting with republican lawmakers. pres.. trump: the hour of justie for the american worker has arrived. border security is a serious, serious national issue and problem. a lack of security poses a substantial threat to the

sovereignty and safety of the united states of america and its citizens. most illegal immigration is coming from our southern border. i have said many times that the american people will not pay for the wall. amy: the u.s. already has 700 miles of fencing, tens of thousands of motion sensors, law enforcement agents along the u.s.-mexico border. on t thursday, sean spicer said the u.s. would impose a 20% tax on all goods importeted from mexico and use the proceeds to pay for the expanded wall. this was after the mexican president canceled the presidential visit to see trump. after widespread outrage at what spicer announced, he walked back his statements only hours later saying the import tax was just one idea. the proposal would require new legislation. republican senator lindsey graham criticized the suggestion, saying on twitter mexico could retaliate with its

own tariff and that it could be a "huge barrier" to economic growth. in a national address wednesday night, president enrique pena nieto said mexico will not pay for trump's wall. >> i regret and is approved the decision by the unite states to continue with the construction of the wall, which has for years, far from uniting us, divided us. mexico does not believe in walls. i have said time and time again, mexico will not pay for any wall. amy: for more, we go to mexico where we are joined via democracy now! video stream by laura carlsen, director of the mexico city-based americas program for the center for international policy. she's joining us from san miguel de allende. welcome. can you talk about what is going on now with this escalation of tension in the mexican president canceling this presidential visit to see trump next week? a veryre witnessing

bizarre situatation. this was a direct provocation to mexico by tweeting on thursday morning that if pena nieto did not agree to pay for the wall, he might as well not come. he was essentially forcing president enrique pena nieto to cancel his trip. there is no way he could have sustained us. it is no surprise that mexico won't pay for the wall. this is the most inane proposal and probably the recent history of diplolomacy -- or i should s, anti-diplomacy. there is no so respecting nation on earth, i guarantetee you, tht would agree to pay for a wall built by foreign country on foreign s soil that essentiallys built toto keep out itits own citizens who have been defined as undesirable elements. it is important to note that this definition has almost no basis in fact. the clip we played about trump's statement that our southern

borders are insecure, there is no evidence -- and i have talked to people through the security system -- that there is any threat coming up from mexico over the southern border into the united states. in fact, the united states has paid millions and millions to supposedly secure the southern border. and what it has caused is this racist reaction against mexicans as if they were threatening, when that exley helped carry donald trump into the presidency. so this international crisis in diplomacy was carefully planned, and we have to take that into account. trumpnesday, donald issued executive orders calling to begin construction of the wall and a series of orders regarding immigration, enforcement measures to begin deportation of many -- over finally an undocumented mexicans in the country. thathappens the same day

the foreign arrives in mexico to begin negotiating the meeting bebetween donald trump and pena nieto the following tuesday. that is a slap in the face. that immediately began to cause a crisis. major pressure on pena nieto starting wednesday from mexico to say, you cannot go to this meeting. the next day, he tweets this again, forcing pena nieto to cancel. so what he is essentially saying, and with a 20% tax, is, we can destroy you. he is setting up a situation that not only bullies mexico, bubut places them in a no-win situation and could lead to dire consequences for both countries. aboutan you talk mexican-u.s. border organizing?? activists on both sides of the border, laura? >> since the trump campaign, there has been a no trump movement coming up with

committees in both countries. and now that h he is president, there is a lot of scrambling to build binational connections. essentially, where there is a recognition that the threat of donald trump to both the people of the united states and to the people of mexico is severe. we see it here with the way he has cast the binational in aionship i into jeopardyy show that we don't really know what the purpose is, to strerengthen hisis hand and renegotiation of nafta, is it to simpmply keep up the campaign promise that was always impossible, or if it is to mexico in the news in order to create conditions where he can mobilize his basase to supportt this massiveve deportation and aggression a against mexican community's in the united states? people are coming together. in many sectors, t they're beginning to seek connections that were built at the beginning of the nafta negotiation when it

wawas a rescue missionon that my could h haveof nafta a negatitive impacact on people. and therere it is s worth meneng that in terms of the n nafta recognitioion, we know from 20 years of experience, it has never been a question of which nation wins or loses, but a question of the people -- workers, consumers, and others -- losing as transnational corporations gain privileges. it kind of waned for a while. and now it is happening again. of course, micro organizations that are in the united states and defending the rights of migrants as they prepare for these deportations and the hate crimes arising ever since his campaign wite