05/05/17 05/05/17 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] amy: from atlanta, georgia, this is democracy now! pres. trump: we have a failing health caree -- i shouldld not y this t to migrarate friend from australia because you have better health care than we do. amy: as republicans to the passage of the plan to repeal and replace the affordable care jeer.emocrats

meanwhile, even as trump fails the republican victory, he touts universal health care in a meetining with the australian prime minister. the suffering still continues. now that i know it is not a civil matter anymore, it is a human matter. alton is no longer here, but his voice will still be heard through us. we love alton and we do not want this to end. remember his name. family ofis the alton sterling who was killed by police in 2016, calling for louisiana's state's attorney general to bring criminal killersagainst his after the trump justice department declined to bring federal charges against them. we will also go to france where voters head to the polls sunday to pick between former

investment banker emmanuel macron and far-right politician marine le pen. and him repress or carol anderson -- and emory professor carol anderson. part of what happens when african-americans advance, when they gain access to the citizenship rights, you see a out of policies emanate congress, out of the white house to knock back those advancements. amy: all that and more, coming up. welcome to democracy now, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. we are broadcasting from atlanta, georgia, as we traveled the country covering the movements changing america. the house of representatives on thursday voted narrowly to do

away with the affordable care act, replacing it with a healthcare bill that would traumatically rolled back medicaid provide billions of , dollars' in tax cuts for the wealthy gut protections for , patients with pre-existing conditions, and add tens of millions of americans to the ranks of the uninsured. the legislation passed by a vote of 217-213, with 20 republicans and every democrat opposed. house speaker paul ryan rushed the vote at the request of president trump, before the congressional budget office had a chance to score the bill, meaning republicans voted in favor of legislation whose full impact remains unknown. speaker ryan hailed the vote as an historic achievement. cook's a lot of us have been waiting seven years to cast this vote. many of us are here because we pledged to cast this very vote.

amy: president trump celebrated the passage of the bill in a rose garden ceremony with republican congressmembers, saying the legislation would lower healthcare premiums. but a center for american progress analysis found that surcharges on premiums for patients with pre-existing conditions could rise by over $140,000 for some cancer patients, while some women could see a 450% rise in the cost of insuring a pregnancy. the legislation would also block medicaid reimbursements to planned parenthood for one year unless the women's health group agrees to stop offering abortions. after the bill's passage, members of the democratic caucus led a protest against republicans outside the capital, chanting "vote them out!" this is vermont independent senator bernie sanders. sen. sanders: president trump, you do not stand with the working class of this country when you throw 24 million people

off of health insurance, when you raise premiums for older workers, when you defund planned parenthood, and when you cut medicaid by $800 billion. and then on top of all of that, you get $300 billion in tax breaks to the top 2%. with theot standing working class of this country. that is going to war against the working class of this country. amy: the health care bill faces a steep climb in the senate or republicans control just 52 out of the 100 seats. we will have more on the house healthcare bill after headlines. in new york city, thousands of protesters marched thursday to the uss intrepid, a decommissioned aircraft carrier on the hudson river, where president trump later met with

australian prime minister malcolm turnbull. it was trump's first return to his hometown since the inauguration. protesters banged pots and pans and chanteted anti-trump slogans as police cordoned off streets near the site of trump's visit. this is jennifer epps-addison of the center for popular democracy. >> this is the most hateful president our country has ever seen. his work is targeting immigrants and young people and poor people and the elderly. we're here to build a country that really stands for every single persoson who lives within its borders. we are here to say we resist this regime, we resist the politics of hate. instead, where here to build a country based on opportunity and freedom and equity for everyone. amy: the president trump arrived at his meeting with prime minister turnbull more than three hours late after trump lingered in washington to celebrate the house's passage of healthcare legislation. at a joint appearance, trump praised australia's healthcare system..

pres. trump: we have a faiailing health care e -- i should nonoty this to o my friend from austraa because you have better health care than we do. amy: australia has universal health care, with a government run health care system known as medicare which is funded in part by a tax on wealthy australians. president trump thursday signed an executive order relaxing rules on tax-exempt religious groups that could expand the role of churches and religious leaders in u.s. politics. in a statement, american civil liberties union director anthony romero promised a lawsuit, saying -- "the actions taken today are a broadside to our country's long-standing commitment to the separation of church and state. it's clear that the trump administration and congressional leadership are using religion as a wedge to further divide the country and permit discriminatition." in georgia a federal judge has , ordered elections officials to reopen early voting registration

ahead of a june 20 special election for the state's 6th congressional district. the election here pits democrat jon ossoff against republican karen handel in a race that's surprisingly close for a conservative district and which could be a bellwether for the 2018 midterm elections. georgia shutdown voter registration march 20. but with thursday's order, residents will have e until may1 to register. meanwhile, georgia's republican governor nathan deal on thursday signed a bill allowing students and others to carry concealed weapons on college campuses. the law was strongly opposed by police chiefs and university presidents who will now be required to implement the law before it goes into effect on july 1. in international news, in france, voters head to the polls sunday in a presidential election that pipits former investment banker emmanuel macron against far-right politician marine le pen.

macron on thursday won the support of former u.s. president barack obama, who urged french voters to reject the politics of fear. marine le pen, who has campaigned on an openly xenophobic and racist platform, faced protests thursday as she visited a trucking company in brittany. protesters shouted, "out you fascists!" and threw eggs at le pen hitting her once in the , head. meanwhile, activists with greenpeace unfurled a giant banner on the eiffel tower in paris friday emblazoned with france's national motto, "liberte egalite fraternite" and hashtag #resist, calling on voters to reject le pen and her party. we'll have more on the french elections after headlines. in mexico, the committee to protect journalists blasted president enrique peña nieto for faililing to shield media worke, saying criminal gangs and corrupt officials use

kidnap and murder with impunity to silence critics. this is cpj coordinator carlos lauria. >> the reality is that violence against journalists is a problem that does beyond journalism. it is affecting fundamental human rights of all mexicans, includuding j journalists and reporters. it is inhibiting the possibility that mexicans openly debate the problems that the flicks socociy and indirectly it is also affecting the stability of the country's democracy. amy: more than 100 journalists have been murdered in mexico since 2000. and last march was the worst month on record, with at least seven journalists shot across mexico. in argentina, human rights groups are condemning a supreme court ruling that could bring an early release to hundreds of people convicted for human rights abuses during the u.s. backed dirty wars of the 1970's. this is estela de carlotto, president of the association of grandmothers of the plaza de mayo. >> foror the peoeople, the clear message is this does not affect

those of us who have already been affected for 40 years. it affects the children of the people, the grandchildren and great-grandchildren of the people. what is not judged and condemned will be repeated. and those who disagree that history will be repeated will face what our children suffered. the 30,000 disappeared. amy: an estimated 30,000 activists were tortured and disappeared in the late 1970's and early 1980's by argentina's right-wing dictatorship. back in the united states, thousands of homeowners in flint, michigan could face , foreclosure over unpaid water bills, even though the water from their taps is poisoned with lead. this week, the city sent some 8000 flint residents letters warning them they'll have tax liens placed on their homes if they don't pay outstatanding war bills by may 19. those who can't pay by the end of next february could lose their homes. flint's water crisis began in

2014 after the unelected, state-appointed emergency manager for the city of flint changed the source of the drinking water to the flint river in order to try to save money. the river water corroded flint's pipes, causing t toxic lead to leech into the city's drinking water. officials say flint's water is still unsafe to drink without a filter. in chicago, a union representing nursing home workers struck an 11th-hour deal thursday to avert a strike that would have seen as many as 5000 certified nursing assistants, janitors and laundry , workers walk off the job. members of seiu healthcare illinois will see raises 40% or more over the life of their new, three-year contract. and in new haven, connecticut, eight unionized graduate students at yale have entered their second week without food, in a hunger strike aimed at forcing their university to the bargaining table. graduate students in eight different departments voted in february to join unite-here local 33, but yale administrators are contesting the results. the hunger striking students fearar they could bebe strippedf their ununion memberership if ye dedelays long g enough for prest trump to appoint conservative

members to the national labor relations board. the appointments could mean the nlrb will overturn a ruling last year that classified graduate student teachers as employees eligible to form unions. -- to join unions. and those are some of the headlines. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. republicans in washington have moved one closer to repealing obamacare. on thursday, the house narrowly approved a move to repeal parts of the affordable care act. they passed legislation that would result in tens of millions of people losing health insurance while providing a massive tax break to the rich. >> the bill has passed and laid upon the table. amy: however, the future of the bill remains in doubt as republican senators have vowed to write their own healthcare bill instead of taking up the house bill. shortly after the vote, president trump hosted

republican lawmakers at the white house rose garden for a celebration. pres. trump: this is a great plan. i actually think it will get even better. this is, make no mistake, a repeal and replace of obamacare. make no mistake about it. amy: while president trump praised the bill, most major medical organizations and the aarp warned the bill will cause serious harm to patients and drive up the cost of healthcare. the congressional budget office was not given enough time to score the legislation, meaning the house voted on the bill without knowing its projected impact. the cbo projected 24 million people would lose health insurance under an earlier version of the republican bill. the bill was opposed by almost every sector in the healthcare industry including hospitals, , doctors, health insurers and consumer groups. critics of the bill faulted numerous provisions. under the new bill, health insurance companies would be allowed to charge customers with pre-existing conditions as much as they want. the list of pre-existing conditions include rape, sexual

assault, postpartum depression, cesarean sections, and surviving domestic violence. it would roll back the expansion of medicaid and cut medicaid by $880 billion over 10 years. the bill also puts a cap on federal spending per person, including seniors and children under medicaid. , the bill also blocks medicaid funds going to reimburse planned parenthood for providing preventive care to women. we are joined now by two guests. in washington, d.c., is margarida jorge, co-executive director of healthcare for america now & healthcare for america now education fund. and here in atlanta, monica simpson is with us, executive director of sister song, a women of color reproductive health collective. we welcome you both to democracy now! we're going to begin with margarida jorge. can you explain what it is the republicans passed in the house? > you have covered a lot of . i could continue and say a lot

of even worse things about it, but let me say a couple of things. one thing is that the affordable care act was largely a bill that created a set of rules for insurance companies. the rules for these insurance companies were critical because if you remember before the affordable care act, insurance companies could charge whatever they wanted for pre-existing conditions. they could charge a woman more for an insurance policy than they would charge a man for a comparable policy. and that policy often would not even include things like birth control or maternity care or prenatal care. so a lot of these rules really address issue of fairness, equity, and protected consumers from being overcharged. many of those provisions, some of the most popular provisions in the bill are being rolled back. and that is unlike what folks are hearing about the pre-existing conditions and insurers being able to wait

pre-existing conditions in certain states and charge people 30% if their coverage lapse, does away with able protections against annual caps and limitations on coverage. and certainly, things like essential health and if it's, the team categories of essential health benefits that insurance companies are now required to cover. i feel like it got a little publicity, but not much. it used to be insurance companies could pretty much sell anything they wanted as insurance. so they would sell policies that had just catastrophic coverage, or as i said, they would sell policies to women that did not cover gynecological care. part of why the essential health benefits peace of the obamacare is so critical is because it mandates that insurance policies have a standard, and that they cover, you know, things we might think about as basic but that previously were not covered. there are things like mental health coverage,

hospitalization, angela tori care if you need to go to the hospital in an a balance, prescription drugs. if you have someone -- we have lots of folks who require prescription drugs to control conditions or as part of their treatment. so some things we might consider to be pretty basic things. those are critical. the second thing i would sort of lift up is -- i have found there hahas been confusion about this, but the cuts to medicaid are not just cuts to the medicaid that has been expanded in state so more people can get coverage. the cuts to medicaid actually go after traditional medicaid. this is the medicaid that most folks in america are familiar with that covers elderly people, covers many children -- 40% of recipients of medicaid in this country are children. it is the largest payer

family-planning, planned parenthood and others providing with family-planning services. in many states, it is a largest payer of birth. in florida, it pays for over 50% of all births. this is a program that is andntial to people's lives has been essential long before the aca came along. and a proposal in this bill would fundamentally change that program forever, creating permanent cuts to the program that would really ration care and shifting enormous burdens to state budgets that been might even force cuts in other services. there is a lot of bad stuff in this bill. we did spend quite a long time talking about it. i just wanted to highlight those things that i feel like sometimes don't get as much asas attention. amy: what does it mean the cbo did not score this? when the first health care bill that went down was scored -- right before the cbo scored it, the republicans were making

great headway. then as soon as the cbo scored it and said 24 million americans would lose health care, there was not a chance this bill was going to pass. the president trump insured that thisis vote would happen befefoe thee scoring by the congressionl budget office. what is the significance of this? whatat do you expect w we will n when it is scored? >> i think we will learn the impact of the bill is worse than we thought. it should not be any s surprise that the republicans havave done eveverything they y can to o obe the impact of the e bill. this whole process has been conducted without one single hearing. the reconciliation process is being used to rush this through. it is only thanks to the activism, the support, the outrage of the public at town hall meetings and during recesses that we have even been able to get this mess information. keep in mind, the plane from the

beginning was the republicans wanted to have this piece of legislation passed through both chambers and on the president's desk to sign on his first day in office. it is been quite an accomplishment to delay that and force them to answer questions about the impact of the bill. certainly, the impact overall is not just on health care. it really raiseses questions tht i think are bigger questions about the administration and about republicans in congress, what they actually believe about democracy that they would rush a bill that could potentially restructure 1/6 of the economy without even basic data from a nonpartisan source about what the impact is going to be, through a process that did not give anyone an opportunity to weigh in, offer information. the fact they did not go to any experts. that is what often when we hear the republicans talking about the impact of the bill, they say things that are just silly. in fact, it is not based on any

data or anything factual. amy: i want to turn to chris collins who admitted he did not actually read the health care bill despite voting for it. this is collins speaking to cnn's wolf blitzer. >> i have to rely on my staff and i can probably tell you that i read every word and i would not be telling you the truth, nor would any other member. we rely on our staff and we rely on our committees will stop i am comfortable that i understand this bill in its entirety without poring through every word. i'm just being quite honest. amy: margarida jorge, i wait your response to this. want to go do your response on this. going back a couple of years, you have, what was it, paul ryan who said, will speaker pelosi wait for the final number from the cbo? i don't think we should pass bills that we have not read, that we don't know what they

cost, paul ryan said in july 2009. >> well, here you have it. i think this is part of his overall hypocrisy that we are seeing. many republicans expressed a lot of uncertainty about this bill. this last amendment that would do so, the upton-long amendment, which did not do much to improve the bill but added a tiny amount of money to high risk full's of people probably already in an effective way for p people who have health care needs to manage the health care needs. upton said, even as he added this amount to the high risisk pools, i'm not sure this is going to be enough. i'm not sure this is going to work. this beat ofhink the process, the commitment of the republicans to keep their promise to their political base was what has been driving t this push on repeal and will continue to drive their ideology around

health care. it always has. that will continue. i frankly think they are not that preoccupied with facts. from collins is a frightening quote. what a decision to have made that impacts so many people in his state, in his district and acroross the country without e n reading the bill. the bill is not even that long. it makes me wonder, did you read the amendments? theink the whole process -- bill is terrible, the process has been terrible and disturbing. it does not bode well for what is going to happen moving forward in the next step of the process. i want to bring monica simpson into the conversation, the executive director of sister colora women of reproductive health collective. what has happened, the penalizing, cutting off funds to planned parenthood if they provovide abortion -- which is

what they do. how will this affect people? >> it greatly affects peoeople, especially the folks we work with every single day, the most marginalized communities, low income communities. it impacts her access to health care. that is what really troubles me about the moves of this administration. it does not seem like they are censoring the need of the most marginalized communities. they're not thinking about the lives of these communities. thinking about how this will affect planned parenthood in defining those services, yes, provide abortion access because abortion access is part of overall health care. for women. also noteportant to is this also prevents screenings, very important screenings around cancer. it provides maternity care. it provides an opportunity for people to have sti/std screenings. to have an administration move in this way that limits and prohibits that is really scary.

really scary for us on the ground. amy: what has the situation been for georgia? georgia's governor nathan deal did not vote for medicaid expansion. >> no, he didn't. we saw this across the region. southern activist were fighting for all across the region, medicaid expansion. hundreds o of thousands of folks still fill in the gap, not being able to have access to the services that they need for themselves and their families. when we already were dealing with the large gaps, to now put this on top of that really continues to send the message that this admininistration does not care about the lives of the american peoeople. amy: monica simpson, i want to ask about something else that in washington.ay president trump signed an executive order to allow religious organinizations, whate described d as greater freedom n political speech. your thoughts about this measure

and what it actually means? it does not mean it goes i into force.e. it would need congress to pass it. >> but this is also troubling. if we look at the narrative behind what this executive order means, he is trying to move not religious people -- he is talking about a certain type of religious person. he is talking about the fundamentalist, those who are trying to have political power to move a certain agenda. for those types of measures, we see things that happened like in the state of north carolina with transgender bathroom bills. we see those types of legislations whenever you move this type of religious liberty forward that he is calling. what we know historicically is religious -- religion has been used to move some really harsh things forward. we can go back to the beginning --re slavery was definitely we talked about how they use religion to justify slavery.

if we continue to take that down the line, like, we can see things like that start to creep in a again. be in't want people to jeopardy. we don't want p people to live n fear. moving those types of things for, executive orders, that is the message he is sending. amy: and it also means that preachers, ministers, religious people could endorsese candidats from t the pulpit. >> absbsolutely. why we have separation of church and state. but that is not what happens whenever you move these types of things forward. and if i want to thank you, monica simpson, executive director of sister song, a women of color reproductive health collective here in atlanta. and margarida jorge, co-executive director of healthcare for america now & healthcare for america now education fund and washington, d.c. stay with us. ♪ [music break]

amy: this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. in france, voters head to the polls sunday in a presidential election that pits former investment banker emmanuel macron against far-right politician marine le pen. macron on thursday won the support of former u.s. president barack obama, who urged french voters to reject the politics of fear. le pen, who has campaigned on an openly xenophobic and racist platform, faced protests thursday as she campaigned at a trucking company in brittany. protesters shouted, "out you

fascists!" and threw eggs at le pen hitting her once in the , head. le pen has called for france to crack down on immigration and leave the european union. for more, we go to paris where we're joined by yasser louati, french human rights and civil liberties activist and researcher. it is good to have you with us. can you talk about the significance of this runoff election this weekend? actually, theon past 35 years, in 2002 there was a huge demonstration against the arrival of marine le pen's father in the second round of the election. that is what you do not see that many mass movements. that is not happening out of a coincidence. is a point of convergence from the far left to

the far right. they can disagree on anything, but when it comes to stigmatizing -- everyone agrees. theher example is that ththree openly religious candidates, altogether, 46% of the vote during the first round. regardless of whether marine le pen makes it to the presidential palace, her ideas already won. the signal was sent last summer which actually [indiscernible] they spoke about identity politics. they were very vague. marine le pen talked about shutting borders without saying how she would prevent a recession. said he wants to launch a nation of start up

companies. that will decimate the working class. why? they will be dependent on [indiscernible] huge corporations online without much benefits. , yasser wrote a piece louati. hitler or uber. explain. >> donald trump and hillary clinton [indiscernible] they have to choose between an openly racist candidate like marine le pen or white supremacy . on the other hand, you have

emmanuel macron who sends a signal of, yes, it is going to be about empowering people through entrepreneueurship will stop the problem is his version countryty is you run a like you run a company. the problem is nothing in his theram actually goes aside working class. they tap you on the shoulder and say [indiscernible] the lesser of two evils.

urgency is to block marine le pen from becoming president, but the next the upcoming parliamentarian elections. macron will depend on parliament. [indiscernible] activists with greenpeace unveiled a giant banner on the awful tower -- eiffel tower. >> today's action is the banner deployed behind me with the .alues of our national motto yet it was to remind people the importance of these values two days before the presidential election and to say that today

the biggest threat of the zeiss is the potential election of marine le pen and the national front. thatamong the issues marine le pen has raised, the far right xenophobic candidate, was that the french did not round up jews in paris and put them in the stadium.. yasser louati, you are an arab-french human rights activist. the response to this, the denial of a well known fact about the holocaust? that, it first heard was beyond words. the french police we have today ones who sent the the kids to the death camps. higighnment that allows state officials to carry these policies.

after the collaborationist government who round up the jews , after that government fell, they continued with their careers within the french apparatus. what marine le pen is trying to do is whitewash the crimes of france. [indiscernible] that was also a strong signal to [indiscernible] she had to make that declaration in order to ensure her ideological base saying france

was not guilty. france was guilty of collaborating with the nazis and sending its own jewish kids to the death camps. there's no question about it. now marine le pen is try to minimize the application. the same people who tell you colonization brought some goods into africa. no, it did not. as long as you have a domination of one group over another and of legitimize the killing innocents because they happen to be from a different make background or religion, that makes you a criminal. one last point, marine le pen herself, her party is the direct inheritance of a direct legacy from the people who run the jews in the 1940's. amy: yasser louati, thank you for being with us. we will continue to follow what happens over the weekend. french human rights and civil liberties activist and researcher speaking to us from paris. and we come back, we will speak with the head of the naacp about

what has happened in louisiana with the killing of alton sterling and the justice department closing the case without an dotting the police officers. also, a teenager killed in dallas. we will get the latest and we will speak with carol anderson who just won a major literary award. she is a professor at emory university. her book is called "white rage." stay with us. ♪ [music break]

amy: this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. the south, in atlanta, georgia. we're going to talk about what happened in baton rouge, louisiana. the family of alton sterling, an african-american father of five who was gunned down by police in 2016, called wednesday for the state's attorney general to

bring criminal charges against his killers. the call came after the justice department declined to bring federal charges against officers blane salamoni and howie lake. sterling family lawyer chris stewart said the u.s. attorney's office provided new details about the killing, including how officer salamoni shot sterling six times. >> we learned some new things today. we learned that officer salamoni walked up to out in sterling and put a gun to his head and said "i will kill you, bitch." you heard me correctly. we heard from them that officer salamoni kept instigating the situation. you heard me correctly. hasattorney general phenomenal case because no police officer conduct themselves like that. amy: in a statatement, louisiana attorney g general jeff landry promised a thorough investigation into whether to charge officers lake and salamoni.

alton sterling's aunt, sandra sterling, said she was devastated afterer learning new details about how her nephew was killed. >> what i heard today, the suffering still contntinues. now that i know it is not a civil matter anymore, now it is a human matter. alton is no longer here, but his voice will still be heard through us. stay behind us as we love alton and we don't not want this to end. remember his name. amy: alton sterling's killiningn july 5 of last year sparked nationwide protests s against police brutalility. for more, we go to washington, d.c., where we're joined by cornell william brooks, president and ceo of the naacp. he's also a longtime human rights advocate, civil rights lawyer, and minister. welcome baback to democracy now! let's start with alton sterling. what are you calling for at the naacp? >> we are calling for the attorneys general of the state of louisiana to conduct a thorough investigation into vigorously pursue charges

against these police officers. the fact that mr. salamoni put a gun to alton sterling said -- sterling's head, referred to him with a slur, cursed him, if you will, those actions suggest is propensity to use violence and those actions also put into mr.ext any actions by sterling. this whole encounter from than ang to end was less few minutes. in other words, from the time mr. sterling was confronted by these police officers, having a gun put to his head, and being shot, less than 30 seconds after he was pinned to the ground, took place in a matter of minutes. this is not standing operating procedure. this is not standing -- standard policing. we are asking that the attorney general conduct a thorough investigation, that he consider the full range of the officer's

conduct during the encounter. it also the kind of officer he was. and is. this happens with brutal regularity, as you know quite well. a young black man is 21 more times likely to lose his hands at the police than his white counterpart. this occurs with brutal normality that we cannot countenance. we cannot put up with. yes, the state investigation should continue because the state standard as opposed to the federal standard is broader and lower, not easy to meet, but easier to meet than the federal standard that the department of justice declined to pursue charges under. astounding, truly

the only people arrested in the case and the death of alton sterling were two men. one was a man who owned the triple s convenient store. they took his video. he had video, surveillance video at the store. and the other person was chris leday, who works at a military base here in georgia, saw video from bystanders, posted it online. before he knew it, he was handcuffed and frog marched across the military base. and he was jailed. this is for posting the video. we see how horrifying that video is that alton sterling was shot at point-blank range as he lay on his back. >> that's right. three in the chest, three bullets in the chest, three in the back. what is so frightening is these investigations, state and federal, are being conduducted n an atmosphere, dangerous silence

and presumption. dangerous silence in the since this code of blue prevents people from coming forward, inhibits a free and frank discussion and testimony -- which is what has happened in so many instances. also, the code of dangerous presumption. namely, the conduct of officers is presumed to be reasonable, assumed to be reasonable in the face of god awful facts. the fact this man lost his life in a matter of moments, in a matter of moments after being accosted by police officer, spoken to in the most vile way with a gun homeland does pointed to his head, visit everything, not only about the value or lack of value of alton sterling's life, but the value of black lives across the country and the lack of humanity that black lives recorded in this country. i was a that extends to the

lives of others. members of the move -- muslim community, lgbt, latino. we have wrote policing going on. we have far too many prosecutors, far too many police chiefs and an attorney general who does not of -- appreciate the breadth and reality of this. amy: i want to turn to the case of jordan in dallas, texexas. blackr oliver shot the teen in the head while he was in a car leaving a party. oliver was fired tuesday. this is the attorney for jordan edwards family speaking at a news conference. >> this happened saturday. the family is extremely raw. the community is extremely rough. they're demanding transparencyy and we on bebehalf of the family are demanding action. action from the balch springs police department and action

from the dallas county district attorney's office, and change. we are declaring war on bad policing. this has happened far too often. we are tireded of making t the e rhetorical demands, as having the same hashtags. amy: you went, cornell william brooks, to dallas right after this happen. talk about what is happening there. >> you have come as you said, a family that requested that marches and demonstrations not be done until after the funeral. they are grappling with the most in conference abu grief -- in coppery and civil grief. you have a larger community beyond the family grieving. community grieving, schoolmates grieving. we conducted a prayer vigil at we conductedesent

this prayer vigil to train young people in civil disobedience and nondirect action and to pray for the family and the community. what we know is where we have seen young black and brown lives taken at will and at whim of the police in case after case after case of cross this country, it is only because of public pressure that these cases get any attention and any pretense of investigation anywhere in the country. so we have to keep the pressure of. we have to continue to make these cases and these names known. what we know, the fact that people are grieving. beyond that, we also know that -- we noticed that community members are demanding that we not go through this same cycle hashtags created,

police offering explanations i do not explain, and investigations do not lead us to anywhere. and charges that do not lead to convictions. we have to break this ugly and loop. we went to this prayer vigil, but we're also talking about -- considering pursuing an independent investigation, hiring our own investigators, looking into this matter ourselves. this has been done before. it is an option. it is a way of bringing evidence forward. in ferguson, we worked with the prosecutors to encourage people to come forth. perhaps we need to conduct our own investigation to get people to come forward, to get them to speak about what happened here. the point being here, amy, is that we cannot continue doing business as usual when business as usual is resulting in the

death and destruction of black lives all across this country. the fact of the matter is, in the last century, the naacp brought in and to lynching. se in blueing by tho was brought to an end. the decision to do so has to begin at the top. that means our attorney general. justicertment of acknowledging the reality of this. you cannot add a blessing and a benediction to bad policing by saying you're not going to use decrease.rren say that dissent degrees and holding police officer's accountable leads to crime as opposed to two bothasing crime and making police officers and communities safer. this we know. this is a moment in our democracy where we have got to

not only call for reform, but demand reform. and that means not only lawyers and the courts pursuing charges, pursuing prosecution a bad police officers, but activists in the streets engaging in serious civil disobedience, serious disruption of business as usual, and bringing the system of police misconduct and brutality to a grinding halt. amy: were you arrested once or twice and senator sessions office protesting -- >> twice. amy: in senanator sessions's' oe were protesting him becoming the attorney general of the united states. i want to thank you cornell william brooks for joining us, head of the naacp. we turn to another guest. we're broadcasting from atlanta, georgia, home to emory university. i want to bring in carol anderson. her book "white rage: the

unspoken truth of our racial divide" just won the national book critics circle award for criticism. jurors called it "a searing critique of white america's systematic resistance to african-american advancement." carol anderson, welcome to democracy now! that picture i saw of you winning the award, you are rather surprised. has notr of your book been lost on anyone. in these last minutes we have together, can you talk about the significance of what is happening right now? >> what t we're seeing is the penultimate in white rage. president.ack pay we had african-americans and latinos coming out in scores of voting for the first time, for dissipating in this democracy. thisrticipating inn democracy.

there has been a response to in fact undermine a and undercut tt black advancement. what we now w have is donald trump. it is with voter suppression, giveven felony disenfranchisemet in florida, given the chicanery and north carolina, the chicanery in wisconsin with all of the voter ids, back and forth, that in fact led to this very narrowed victory set foot a white nationalist regime in power in the united states. and from there, you then get these policies, such as jeff sessssions, the attorney genera, who happened to greet donald trump surrounded by women in antebellum dresses. to give you a sense of what make america great again means to them. they put up the standing up

for law enforcement page. >> yes. that is law and order. that is pure dog whistle from the nixon and reagan years. what that has led to has been the mass incarceratition of african americans and latinos. what it has led to is the undermining of the civil rights act of 1964 and the voting rights act of 1965. amy: what do you say, professor anderson -- there are those who say donald trump is an outright racist, white nationalist. others say he is just speaking his mind.d. he tosses political correctness. what do you say? >> i say that is a load of hooey. he started his campaign by getting the groundwork with the birtherism, demanding to see over on his birth certificate. and then he launches his campaign by saying mexicans are andst and -- rapitsts criminal.

what normally would have let distance, through the gop base in to a depth of fervor where the latest pollsls have shown wt was driving his base was not all of his economic anxiety that pundits talked about, but the increasing diversity of america. the fact of america was becoming more black and more brown, s so can'tite space said "we have that. we have got to somehow security power and the resources of the united states in our hands alone." amy: your book came out before donald trump was integrated, but it is called " "white rage: the unspoken truth of our racial divide." how does this presidency underscore what you have found? >> it underscores a beautifully because you see all of this masking in terms of language. for instance, take the health care bill that trump pushed forward, the one that just pass the house.

when you begin to really look at it, it goes after women, after the poor, and he goes after black people. he goes after those who are getting out of their place. but it is doing so in this really a knock your us -- in aqua's leg which of democracy -- in oculus language of democracy. in fact, it is going to impoverish and sicken millions upon millions of americans. and have a massive transfer of wealth to the top 400 families. under the guise of democracy. that is white rage. amy: thank you for being with us, professor carol anderson chair of the african american , studies department at emory university. she is author of the book "white rage: the unspoken truth of our racial divide," which just won the national book critics circle award for criticism. and that does it for our show. by the way, we have openings for a video news fellow and many

internships. check our website and apply immediately at democracynow.org. citye on our many democracy now! c covering the momovement changing g america t. i will be speaking -- go to democracynow.org for a complete list. democracy now! is looking for feedback from people who appreciate the closed captioning. e-mail your comments to outreach@democracynow.org or mail them to democracy now! p.o. box 693 new york, new york 10013. [captioning made possible by democracy now!]

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