05/24/17 05/24/17 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] amy: from pacifica, this is democracy now! >> it is now concluded on the basis of today's investigation, that the threat level should be increased for the time being from severe to critical. this means their assessment is not only an attack remains highly likikely, but further attack a be imminent. amy: britain is on high alert

deploying thousands of soldiers , to the streets following monday's suicide blast that killed 22 people at a pop concert in manchester. we will go to london and speak to tariq ali. then we look at the "i" word. >> i rise today, mr. speaker, to call for the impeachment of the president of the united states of america for obstruction of justice. amy: democratic congressman al green of texas join us to talk about why he is drafting articles to impeach president trump just four months into his -- trump's term. plus, we look at donald trump's budget compares to his campaign promises. pres. trump: i'm not going to cut every social security like evevery republican o or medicair memedicare. other republican is going to cut. they don't know where the money is. i do. amy: that was donald trump in 2015. now president trump is proposing

massive e cuts to medicaid and other programs to assist low-income citizens in order to give the rich more tax breaks and find more military spending. we will speak to nobel prize winning economic joseph stiglitz. all that and more, coming up. welcome to democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. in britain, nearly 4000 soldiers have been deployed nationwide in the wake of a suicide bombing that killed 22 people and injured scores more at a concert monday night. the victims were mostly young girls and parents who had taken their daughters to the concert by american pop star ariana grande. authorities have identified the bombing suspect as salman abedi, a 22-year-old british man whose parents emigrated from libya. early this morning, police arrested three more people in manchester as part of the investigation. isis has claimed responsibility for the attack.

prime minister theresa may has announced thatat the threat levl in the u.k. will be raised from severe to critical, indicating another attack may be imminent. we'll go to london for more on the bombing with political commentator, historian, and activist tariq ali a after headlines. in the u united states, presidet donald trump has lawyered up, appointing attorney marc kasowitz to represent him in the ongoing investigation into whether the trump campaign colluded with russian officials to allegedly influence the 2016 campaign. kasowitz has worked for trump for over a decade. he threatened to sue the "new york times" if it didn't retract an explosive story in which multiple women accused trump of sexual harassment. kasowitz also represents russia's largest bank. he works at the same firm as former senator joe lieberman, one of trump's front-running candidates to lead the fbi, followowing trump's firing off former direcector james cocomey. memeanwhile, former r cia direcr

john brennan testified to the house intelligence committee tuesday, describing how he'd grown concerned last year about possible collusion between the trump campaign and russian officials who allegedly influenced the 2016 presidential campaign. courts i encountered and aware of intelligence that revealed contacts and interactions between russian officials and u.s. persons involved in the wasp campaign that i concerned about because of known russiaian efforts to suborn such individuals. and it raised d questions s in y mind, again, whether or not the russians were able to gain the cooperation of those individuals. amy: former cia director john brennan went on to say he was worried the russians would lure trump campaign officials onto a "treasonous path."

brennan's testimony tuesday came as the senate intelligence committee issued subpoenas for documents from two of former national security adviser michael flynn's businesses. this is committee vice chair mark warner. >> we issued to subpoenas to the twtwo michael flynn businesses e were aware of. , bothintel llc and inc located in virginia, with the sub is that specific list of documents because while we disagree with general flflynn's lawyers to rotation of taking fifth, it is even more clear a business does not have the right to take the fifth of it is a corporation. amy: general flynn has pleaded the fifth and refused to comply with the senate intelligence turning overpoena documents related to his meeting with russian officials. all l of this comes as trump continues his first foreign trip as president, meeting with pope

francis at the vatican this morning. an apparently cheery president trump standing beside the glum looking pope. the white house report reads -- "the pope did not same thing. he did not smile. we were quickly ushered out at 8:33 a.m.." pope francis has been highly critical of trump, one thing "a person who thinks only about building walls, wherever they may be, and not building bridges, is not christian." on thursday, trump is slated to meet with french president emmanuel macron and european union officials in brussels. a new investigation by the "new york times magazine" reveals how trump's s son-in-law and white house senior adviser jared kushner's companies act as neglectful and litigious landlords of low-income housing units in baltimore. the article chronicles how kushner companies hound low-incomeme tenants with a

barrage of lawsuits, eviction notices, a and late fees, even when the tenantsts were in the right. tenants also described terrible maintenance practices, which created nearly unlivable condititions for somome familie. philippines president rodrigo duterte has declared martial law in the region of mindanao. this is the philippines presidential spokesperson. >> the president has called me and asked me to announce that as of 10:00 p.m. manila time come he has already declared martial o ofor the entire island mindanao. this is possible on the grounds of existence every billion because of what is happening in mindanao. amy: president duterte declared indefinite martial law after militants seized control of key buildings in marawi city, sparking a battle with the philippines' military. duterte said the martial law would be no different than what

the philippines experienced under dictator ferdinanand marc. this comes as a new transcript obtained by the intercept reveals that president trump praised duterte for his bloody war on drugs during their phone call in april, saying he's doing a "unbelievable job on the drug problem." more than 7000 people have been extrajudicially killed by police or vigilantes since duterte launched his so-called war on drugs last june. human rights groups have accused duterte of using the campaign as cover to kill activists and community leaders. during the call, trump also boasted to duterte that the us -- the u.s. has two nuclear submarines off the coast of north korea, though h trump addd "notot that wewe want to use tht all." in news on iraq, the u.s.-backed iraqi military is opening an investigation ininto a allegatis of human rights violations committed by its troops fighting isis in mosul. an iraqi photographer who

embedded with an elite unit of the iraqi military has accused the forces of torturing and raping isis suspects in an article published by the germamy newspaper der spiegel. this comes as airwars says airstrikes carried out by the u.s. or iraqi air force reportedly killed dozens of civilians in the shifa neighborhood of mosul on sunday and monday. and a newly declassified pentagon audit had revealed that the u.s. army has failed to keep track of more than $1 billion worth of weapons and military equipment, including tens of thousands of assault rifles and hundreds of armored vehicles, in iraq and kuwait. amnesty international, who obtained the pentagon report, said -- "it makes for especially sobering reading given the long history of leakage of u.s. arms to multiple armed groups committing atrocities in iraq, including the armed group calling itself the islamic state." meanwhile, in syria, airwawars

says u.s.-led coalition airstrikes n near raqqa reportey killed up to 15 civilians, including two children, on sunday. the syrian observatory for human rights says u.s.-led airstrikes hahave killed 225 civilians over the papast month, including 44 children. in bahrain, soldiers raided a -- security forces raided a sit-in near the home of aa prominent shia cleric, killing at l lst one protester and arresting over 200 more in the village of diraz. the crackdown came after the cleric sheikh isisa qassim receiveded a one-year suspspendd jail sentence e over charges of corruption. he''s the e most prominent shiaa clcleric in the sunni-ruled kingdom m of bahrain, whicich is also a close u.s. ally and home to the navy's fifth fleet. in tunisia, thousands of people gathered tuesday for the funeral of a protester who was killed by police during demonstrations over jobs and economic inequality in southern tunisia.

anouar sakrafi died monday after he was run over by a police truck during the demonstrations outside an oil and gas plant in tataouine. protesters torched two police stations following his death. back in the united states, the justice department has sued fiat chrysler, accusing it of using illegal software to bypass emissions regulations. the epa accused fiat chrysler of installing the software on more than 100,000 ram pickup trucks, allowing the car to bypass emissions control systems and spew significantly higher levels of pollution. another car company, volkswagen, has admitted to using software to rig some 11 million vehicles worldwide, allowing them to emit up to 40 times more pollution than standards allow. and in chicago, thousands of people marched tuesday in advance of mcdonald's annual shareholder meeting today,

demanding $15 minimum wage and better working conditions. despite rain, fast-food workers, home care aides and other low-wage workers poured into the streets, holding signs reading "mcjobs cost us all." protesters also gathered outside amazon's annual shareholder meeting in seattle tuesday to demand better conditions and contntracts for amazon workers,s well as that the company stop advertising on the far-right wing website breitbart news. and those are some of the headlines. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. on tuesday, the trump administration unveiled its $4.1 trillion budget. the plan includes massive cuts to social programs, while calling for historic increases in military spending.

the budget proposes slashing $800 billion from medicaid, nearly $200 billion from nutritional assistance programs such as food stamps and meals on wheels and more than 72 billion dollars from disability benefits. the plan would also completely loannate some student programs. it would ban undocumented immigrants from receiving support from some programs for families with tilden, including the child care tax credit. on tuesday, senator bernie sanders of vermont slammed trump's budget. sen. sanders: this is a budget which says if you are a member of the trump family, you may receive a tax break of up to $4 billion, but if you are a child of a working-class family, you could well lose the health insurance you currently have through the children's health program and massive cuts to medicaid. at a time when we remain the only major country on earth not to guarantee health care to all, this budget makes a bad situation worse.

worse in termsn of health care. in other words, this is a budget that provides massive tax breaks for billionaires and corporate to tense massive cuts of millions of megan's to been upon. toldd trump campaign and the american people he would be a different type of republican. that he would take on the political and economic establishment, that he would stand up for working people, that he understood the pain that families all across this country were experiencing. well, sadly, this budget exposes all of that verbiage for what it really was -- just cheap and dishonest campaign rhetoric that was meant to get votes. nothing more than that. amy: that was senator bernie sanders of vermont. the aclu, naacp, and planned parenthood have all come out criticizing the budget. some conservatives are also

crcriticizizing the budget. republican congressman mark meadows of north carolina told the "new york times" -- "meals on wheels, even for some of us who are considered to be fiscal hawks, may be a bridge too far." the budget also calls for a historic 10% increase in militatary spending, and another $2.6 billion to further militarize the u.s.-mexico border, including $1.6 billion to build trump's border wall. in a rare proposed benefit for families, the budget allocates $19 billion fofosix weeks s of paid parental leave for new families -- a project that has been spearheaded by his daughter and senior white house adviser, ivanka trump the budget projects 3% economic growth, which economists say is widely unrealistic. unlike previous presidents, trump is unveiling his proposed budget while he is abroad.d. david stockman, former budget director for president ronald reagan, said -- "this budget is dead before arrival, so he m might as wellle out of t town."

well, , for more, we go to joe stiglitz, nobel prize winning economist, columbia university professor, and chief economist for the roosevelt institute. he is the author of numerous books, most recently, "the euro: how a common currency threatens the future of europe." joseph stiglitz, welcome to democracy now! can you respond to the budget that has just been revealed? >> it is like everything else, it is made up. you could say it is a collection of lies put together. it doesn't make any economic sense. i don't think anybody has looked at it can fathom the economics. you mentioned one thing, the 3% growth rate. which is the largest deviation in estimate relative to the cbo on record. when i w was chairman of the council of economic advisers, we wanted to be responsible and we

always were conservative and very careful getting the views of everybody. one, to make sure our numbers were reasonable. he has made no pretense to be reasonable. what is striking is while he assumes there is going to be more growth, if you look at the budget, it is designed to reduce growth. ,e cuts out support for science for r&d -- which is the basis of productivity growth. he cuts out support for job retraining, so when people leave one job, they can be trained for the next job. he cuts out support for pell grants so those who have low income can get the education so they can live up to their potential. all of these are things that actually lower economic growth. so i would say this is not a

growth budget, this is a no growth bududget. then he has the numbers. like -- to have things mindbending. he says he is going -- elsewhere, he said he is going to eliminate the state tax. this budget says that he is going to raise several hundred billion dollars more money forming a state tax that is zeroed out. you can make a statement that if we lowered the state tax a little bit, maybe people would more andd to dine maybe we would get more revenue. but one thing you don't need a anyis zero times number is zero. if you as zero estate tax, no matter how many people are dying at how wealthy they are come you're going to get zero revenue. remember, what he is doing, he is cutting out the estate tax economyefits .2% of the

-- of our society. you have to have estate of more than 10 million if you are a married couple in order to pay anything on the estate tax. and meanwhile, he is cutting benefits for ordinary americans, education, health as you mentioned, food, nutrition. system ofofst the social protectction that we have created, but even the bottom safety net that is -- catches people when they are in trouble. amy: let's go to donald trump two years ago speaking may 21, 202015, to the right-wing outlet the daily signal. mr. trump: i am not going to cut social security like every other republican and i'm not going to cut medicare or medicaid. every other republican is going to cut. even if they wouldn't, they don't know to do because they don't know where the money is. i do. amy: and he was campaigning, he said -- he was campaigning

against other republicans when he made the point "i'm not going to cut medicare, medicaid, or sosa security." we had endless choices of clips to choose from. >> he light. he is cutting medicaid, the lalargest cut to mededicaid even beyondnd what was in his repeal and replace that did not get very far. these are even bigger medicaid cuts. in terms of so security -- social security, onene important papart is benefit payments. that is really important. say, autoget to accidents, cancer, all caps of things -- amy: they get hurt at work. >> they can't work. he is cutting back. it is an important part of our social security security people -- we provide as a s society coe as a basic system of social protection. he is cutting back on those expenditures.

all i can say is, you look at that clip and what he is doing today is just the opposite. amy: you're talking about cutting -- already the proposed budget from the house was massive when it came to cuts, something like $880 billion in medicaid cuts. 616 -- $616ting billion more that would basically gut medicare. >> that's right. it is not just for poor people. it is a major problem for our elderly who have to go into old knowomes, hospice -- you -- it is an extraordinarily important program. another way of seeing the massive misuse of these cuts, when you look at what we call a discretionary, that

is to say you take out sosa security and medicare, and you take out the military. in allroposing a 40% cut of these programs. remember, these programs have been cut year after year for the last 25 years under both democrats anand republicans. so it is not like there is a lot of fat. these are already fairly lean. what he is doing is just taking an ax to them. 40% reduction. the consequence of -- i don't think even he understands. for instance, we would lose the vote at the u.n. if he carried out his programs. --basically, we are saying one amy: what do you mean? support c cting out t the for international organizations. if we do not pay our dues, our cord is, to the u.n., we will

lose our vote. importantre an part is that this is a consequence of what he is proposing. there is no discussion of what the implications of this 40% cut in government. there are some programs that could be cut. that is clear. but he hasn't gone pruning. he has taken an ax and said, "oh, i can get a balanced budget if i pretend i'm going to take a 40% cut from somewewhere." .my: let's go to mick mulvaney >> for years and years, we have simply looked at a budget in terms of the folks who are on the back end of the programs, the recipients of the taxpayer money. we have not spent nearly enough time focusing our attention on the people who pay the taxes.

amy: your response? >> totally wrong. i was in the white h house for four yearsrs. we did a very, very careful analysis o of the benefits and cost, how it would affect taxpayers, ordinary consumers, the rich, the poor, the middle when we evaluated the program. we were very aware that this was money that people had worked for and earned. that on the otother hand, they need help in a whole variety of areas. help in sending their kids to system, in buying a home amy: this would drastically shrink low-income student loan program. >> s some of thehe programs ulde wiped out. , we havedream gradually understood, is really

a myth, the fact that anyone can go from the bottomom to the top. what is remnant of that american dream, he is saying, of a good i'm going to hit it with a sledgehammer." the environmental protection agency faces a 31% cut, the steepest cut of any agency or department across the governrnment. during a press conference on tuesday, a reporter asked mick mulvaney about the epa cuts. >> can you characterize the treatment of climate science programs and cuts to those? and you describe those as a taxpayer -- >> you tell me. i think the national science foundation last year used your taxpayer money to fund a climate change musical. do you think that is a waste of your money? >> what about climate science --

>> i will take that as a yes, by the way. amy: joseph stiglitz? >> every government program has privateinancial and sector makes mistakes. in 2008, let a misallocation of trillions of dollars. i don't want to pretend every program is perfect, but if you get rid of the environmental protection, we're going to be suffering from dirty air, dirty water, toxic waste that lower our health. here's the point. he wants faster economic growth. a less healthy america is not what a be productive. amy: and the massive increase in military spending. you have written books about this. >> we're fighting you might say a war on terrorism. but another aircraft carrier is not going to win -- help us in

the war on terrorism. , that fight with russia in the form that it was, ended a quarter century ago and yet we're spending money as if it has not ended. we have been spending lots of money on weapons that don't work against enemies that don't exist . if he used that criteria that he said for shutting down a department, the defense department would have been shut down long ago. the hammersoilet, that cost $100, things like that. if we used the criteria of misspending, the defense numberent the's illustration one. amy: so we just have a minute. republicans have joined with democrats in condemning the saying that this budget is dead on arrival. he has not released -- he has a released when he is out of town. what happens here?

you are in the white house under president clinton. what happens to this budget? >> actually, the house budget committee starts putting together their own budget. this would be a little bit in their background. it would give a little bit of impetus to the extremists. it is so ironic, he is talkingng about islamic extremist while he is in saudi arabia in your we have budget extremist back home, really extremists. it is giving license for that kind o of extremism and thinking about the social fabric in our country. but they will go ahead on their own and try to structurere the house led by ryan is going to come up with a more extreme budget then i think is going to be acceptable to the american

people. fortunately, the senate will try to be -- tame it in, bring it in. a good chance that they will be able to compromise. that is to say, they want to be able to put together the numbers that work. what happens then is the government operates on a continuing resolution where what you say is, we have to figure out how to make a new budget. we will keep the old budget for another three months or six months until we can reach an agreement. amy: i want to thank you pray much, joseph stiglitz, nobel prize winning economist, columbia university professor, and chief economist for the roosevelt institute. author of numerous books, most recently "the euro: how a common currency threatens the future of europe." this is democrcracy now! when we come back, the "i" word. impeachment.

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amy: this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. on capitol hill, former cia director john brennan testified to the house intelligence committee tuesday, describing how he'd grown concerned last year about possible collusion between the trump campaign and russian officials ahead of the 2016 presidential campaign. >> i encountered and am aware of information and intelligence that revealed contacts and interactions between russian officials and u.s. persons involved in the trump campaign that i was concerned about because of known russian efforts anduborn such individuals it raised questions in my mind whether or not the russians were

able to gain the cooperation of those individuals. i don't know whether or not such collusion -- your turn -- such collusion existed. i don't know. but i know there was a sufficient basis of information and intelligence that required further investigation by the bureau to detetermine whether or not u.s. persons were actively conspiring, colluding, with russian officials. amy: former cia director john brennan went on to say he was worried the russians would lure trump campaign officials onto a "treasonous path." brennan's testimony tuesday came as the senate intelligence committee issued subpoenas for documents from two of former national security adviser michael flynn's businesses. flynn himself has pleaded the fifth and refused to comply with a senate intelligence committee subpoena demanding he turn over documents related to his meetings with russian officials. meanwhile, democratic congressman al green of texas has announced he is drafting articles of impeachment against trump. green first raised the issue of

impeachment on the floor of the house last week. >> i rise today, mr. speaker, to call for the impeachment of the president of the united states of america for obstruction of justice. i do not do this for political purposes, mr. speaker. i do this because i believe in the great ideals that this country stands for. liberty and justice for all. the notion that we should have government of the people, by the people, for the people. i do it because, mr. speaker, there is a belief in this country that no one is above the law. and that includes the president of the united states of america. amy: that was texas d democratic congressman al green of texas on the floor of the house last week.

well, al green joins us along with john bonifaz. we welcome you both to democracy now! congressman al green, , why have you stepped out as the first person calling for donald trump's impeachment? >> thank you for having me on, amy. this is something that i take very seriously. it is not something that i did on a whim. it was after much thought that i concluded that when the president fired the head of the fbi who was investigating him, the president, and the president went on to say on national tv that he did it because of the investigation, thereafter, of course, there was some tweaking -- tweeting done that might amount to intimidation all of these combined is enough to conclude the president has

committed an impeachable act. impeachment is not mean the president will be removed from office. the house and peaches. the senate would have a trial. in then after the trial senate, the president can be deposed and removed from office. i would also add this if i may. there is a difference between the collusion that is being alleged in the obstruction of justice. the obstruction of justice is clear. it took place. the president confessed to mr. holt he did it because of the investigation, that the russian thing was a made up story. the is enough to impeach president. i believe all of these other things are important. when you are assessing the evidence as a trial lawyer, in terms of the hierarchy of evidence, you can have something that you consider primary. this is something the case is really going to hinge on.

and then there are things you might want to do it at a secondary, things that can be tertiary and quaternary. it you don't have to have all of those things. you do have to have the fact that the president, in his own words, said that he was firing a person because he was being investigated. amy: so you have cnn reporting askedent trump michael rodgers and dan coats to publicly state that president trump's campaign did not colluded with russia to allegedly influence the 2016 election. according to cnn, the request came after former fbi director james comey publicly confirmed in march the fbi was investigating possible collusion between the trump campaign and russian officials. both coats and rogers refused to comply with trump's demand, which they reportedly found inappropriate. coats also testified yesterday -- the significance of all of this, congressman green? >> this is additional evidence

that will support the primary evidence that has got your attention. all of this evidence indicates the president had a great deal of concern. that concern can emanate from the fact there are things that could be harmful to it. whether it is ever reuven that he colluded or not, whether he is convicted is not important. important in the sense that it shows additional things, but when it comes to the obstruction of justice, that act was down. and what happens with the collusion is a totally separate occurrence. -- i assure you the president is going up to come before the bar of justice, which is the house of representatives. i don't say that in the sense he will appear before the house. but there will be an impeachment resolution before the house because any of the 435 members of congress can file an

impeachment resolution with articles of impeachment. i have not relinquished my right to do so. i reserve the right. at some point, if no one knows does it, i will fifile articlesf impeacachment against the president.t. amy: some say, why not let the special counsel, the former fbi director robert mueller, do his job? do his investigation? >> i want to see him do his investigation. that investigation seems to be directed more toward collusion than obstruction of justice. i think both are equally as important. i think he should do his job. i do not have an acid test for when the resolution will be filed. i am just giving an assurance there will be one filed because the president has obstructed justice. i sure people also that when it is filed, it will be something that is thoughtful, that has been clearly vetted. i sure people also thati have pe assisting me for constitutional scholars. it is not something that is done

arbitrarily. it is something done with a great deal of intentionality. amy: congressman al green, is it true you have received death threats? to a townhahall memeeting saturday where you replayed r recordings of threatening voicemail messages left for you. let's go to these to the particularly disturbing messages. i want to warn our viewers and listeners, the calls contain graphic racial slurs. >> hey, al green. we have individual for you. we will give you a short trouble for we hang your [bleep] ass. >> this is another one of the voicemails. >> you ain't going to impeach nobody you [bleep] you will be hanging from a tree. i didn'tt amy: commerce and green?

these you got under was message machine? >> we did. they have been turned over to the capital police. there will be an investigation. our hope the person super but traded this kind of ugliness will be caught in that they will be properly prosecuted. but i also said at the town meeting, and i will share again now, that this type of effort to intimidate will not stop what we are trying to accomplish. it won't thwart our efforts once until a. we will move forward. i am concerned about my staff. we have a lot of young people who work in our office. intern who still in high school. persons making these kinds of harmful threats literally saying that will murder me, these

things create a good deal of concern for my staff. so we're going to do all we can to protect ourselves, but we sure peoeople that we willll continue to move forward. finally, i really want to make this point, this had to be exposed because you cannot hide feet. if you hide hate, hate will grow and fester. hate becomes emboldened. see you have to expose it. you also have to expose it so the american people to know that people of color live with this .ind of behavior it is not something we have to assume want to be perpetrated upon us. these are ugly statements, but it does not matter whether you are the ceo of a major corporation or a member of congress. people in this country, some, not all, believe they can intimidate you by threatening to lynch you. one more thing. support far

outnumber the heat full kohl's. they far outnumber those who would perpetrate discrimination. i wawant to ememphasize this bee i believe in america. i do believe that my country, the country i was born in, the country i love, i salute the flag, i believe this country is moving in the right direction. there are some bumps in t the roadad, butut we are moviving ie right direction. i believe that we will still believe in liberty and justice for all. i believe we still believe this is a country where all persons are created equal. so i think we just got to deal with these issues. we cannot hide them. they have to be exposed, but i still am grateful to be in this great country. amy: congressman al green, thank you for being with us. john bonifaz is also with us, free speech for people. you came on democracy now! like

within a week of the inauguration, calling for the impeachment of donald trump. how have things changed? you focused on violations of the emoluments clause at the time. explain what your concern was with that and is that still what you feel are grounds for impeachment? >> thank you for having me. i am honored to be on with you and congressman green this morning. we have launched this campaign with roots action on the day of our website.ion at more than one million people across the country have called for this impeachment investigation in light of the president's direct and ongoing violations of the anticorruption clauses of the constitution, his refusal to divest fully from his business interests placed them on a collision course from the day he took the oath of office. we have since expanded the grounds for our call for an impeachment investigation to include obstruction of justice in light of the shocking revelations that the president

fired the fbi director to try to stop a criminal investigation that may incriminate him as well as other associates in his campaign. congressman green is an american hero. he is standing up for our constitution and our democracy at this critical moment in our history. we are urging people all across the country to join us at our website to stand with him and to make sure that this president be the accountable via impeachment process. amy: how does this move forward right nonow, john bonifaz? >> it is incumbent upon all of us around the nation who believe in our constitution and the rule nolaw and democracy that one, not even n the president of the united states, is about the law, that we stand up and stay with congressman green, call on our members of congress to join him in making this call to issue an impeachment resolution to start the process in the u.s. house of represesentatives. i know there are people who are

saying, well, we need to get the facts out. and we do need to get the facts out. it is congressman green has stated, we already have these facts. they're talking about other facts. the facts are out on obstruction of justice and on the violations of the anticorruption clauses of the constitution. we are dealing right now with a constitutional crisis in which this president is openly defying the rule of law in our constitution. people all across the country need to stand up. nine community's, including the los angeles city council, have already passed resolutions calling on congress to take this action. brookline town meeting in brookline, massachusetts, is going to vote this thursday on this question. many other communities in the weeks ahead will do that as well. people can go to our site and download a local resolution and have it passed in your community. hold an impeachment town hall as congressman green did ththis pat saturdayay. get your community talking about this critical question of ouur

titime. this is about our constitution and democracy, a and we all need toto stand up. amy: commerce and out grereen, have republicans come to you in support -- any of your republican -- and if the republican congress members? >> well, i've had republicans to say to me that they oppose these ugly things that have been set. i have not had any republicans to tell me about the resolution that i am proposing for the impeachment effort. that is because i have not asked -- i have intentionally not approached colleagues on this issue. this is a question of conscience for me. i hope that my colleagues will approach it as i have, but i will not ask anyone to do this. i am not lobbying anyone. i have concluded that this has to be done and my hope is that others will see things similarly. but if they do not, i will understand. i think the people of the united

states of america have to get involved. it is a participatory democracy. if the people will advance their will, the will of congress will be advanced. amy: the hill has reported that commerce member just in a mesh of michigan, republican, admitted trump may have committed an impeachable offense if he asked fbi director james comey to drop the fbi's investigation into flynn. amash is at least the second republican to openly say trump may have committed an impeachable offense. also carlos curbelo of florida , said this on cnn last week. your thoughts? >> i think a good many people see the obstruction of justice and good many people understand that obstruction of justice is impeachment. i think it is beneficial that three members of the republican party have given these indications, but i also understand that there are good

many members who will be silent and kill -- until given the opportunity to vote. at that point they will voice their opinions. my hope is that they will have heard from enough of their constituents so they better understand the will of the people. i think the will of the people will prevail. it is just a matter of making sure people understand what the issues are. and finally this on the question of others, i believe that others will have to speak up the opportunity to do so as more things come out, as there is more evidence presented. i think we have not seen the last of this evidence that is ultimately going to be presented. but i also know that we already have enough to impeach because of the firing and because the president confessed on national television that he did it because of the investigation. amy: well, texas congress member al green, john bonifaz of free

speech for people, thank you for joining us. we will continue to follow your actions on the floor of the house, congressman green, and this whole impeachment movement around the country. when we come back, we will go to london to speak with tariq ali thet the suicide attack at manchester arena. stay with us. ♪ [music break]

amy: a shout out to the school who is visiting democracy now! today. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. as we turn to britain where nearly 4000 soldiers have been deployed to support local police departments in the wake of a suicide bombing that killed 22 people and injured dozens at a concert in manchester monday night. the victims were mostly young girls and parents who had taken their daughters to the concert by american pop star ariana grande. authorities have identified the bombing suspect as salman abedi,

a 22-year-old british man whose parents emigrated from libya. he lived just miles from t the stadium that hosted monday's concert. is that first appeared in the press after it was leaked by u.s. officials to journalists, even of the investigation was still unfolding. british authorities say they don't believe abedi acted alone in carrying out the bombing. police have reportedly detained four people in manchester as part of the investigation. isis has claimed responsibility for the attack. prime minister theresa may has announced that the threat level in the u.k. will be raised from severe to critical, indicating another attack may be imminent. >> this morning, i said the joint terrorism analysis center, the independent organization responsible for setting the threat level on the basis of the intelligence available, was keeping the threat level under constant review. it has now concluded on the basis of today's investigations

that the threat level should be increased for the time being from severe to critical. this means their assessment is not only that an attack remains highly likely, but the further attack may be imminent. amy: monday's suicide bombing marked the deadliest terror attack on british soil since the 2005 london bombings. big -- it came just weeks before britain's general election. we go to speak with tariq ali, political commentator, historian, activist, filmmaker, author, and an editor of the new left review. his latest book has just been published titled "the dilemmas of lenin: terrorism, war, empire, love, revolution." welcome back to democracy now! talk about the manchester bombing, the significance, the reverberations right now, and the investigation that is going on. >> well, so far we know very little, amy, about from dust above what you are already reporting on screen. we don't know whether this

22-year-old suicide bomber was part of a larger group. we do know that the weapons he carried to blow himsmself up wee of a cruder sort. any people, most serious and seasoned observers of terrorism, are denying that he was linked to isis. isis itself in deep crisis in the middle east, is claiming any attack wherever it happens in the world is carried out by one of its own. basically, very little h has ben revevealed by the british intelligence services so far. there was an initial report saying they knew his identity and knew who he was, but nothing more has been said. the fact that he is of libyan dissent, was born in this country, and his transfer libyan exiles, can't be

unlinked to the war that was monthsn libya, the six bombing carried out by nato, the fact that country now is totally wrecked. we have a pattern. this atrocity happens. we all do now to it. 95%, 96% of the muslim community is opposed to all of this -- which is all true. then people like myself and a few others from the antiwar movement say, this is not unrelated toto the war on terror that is been going on now since 2001. every arab country that is occupied, wrecked, has a consequence in europe. so we are part of a sort of where vicious now cycle the wars go on and terror attacks carried out, usually by

tiny jihadi groups or by individuals, appears to be, in this case, goes -- very little attention now is paid to the foreign policy link with these things, amy. and that is a bit worrying. these things started happening in europe, the united states, after the involvement of f the west in quite a brutal way in what is going on in the arab world. in the other point to be made is these terrorist attacks are not confined to europe. they take place every single day in iraq, in syria, in afghanistan, in pakistan, and yemen, are rain. so when you have president trump visiting saudi arabia, backing their war in yemen, backing their war in all rain, people feel the west is colluding with these people, and it has

absolutely nothing to do with freedom and democracy. amy: speaking tuesday in bethlehem, president trump responded to the attack in manchester. pres. trump: this is what i've spent the last few days talking about during my trip overseas. our society can have no tolerance for this continuation of bloodshed. we cannot stand a moment longer for the slaughter of innocent people. attack, it was mostly innocent children. the terrorists and extremists anand those who give them aid ad comfort must be driven out from our society forever. amy: that is president trump, tariq ali, your response? >> well, the response is fairly straightforward. that innocents are being held by united states policies in different parts of the world.

there are seven wars going on at the moment. trump had promised to change course, as we all know, and everyone was a bit surprised. to thehas now returned normal behavior of an american president. he bombed syria. he has made friends with saudi arabia. stephen b bannon, you k know, trapped in a connectction of arb andnd diplomats in saudi arabia. it is business as usual. we all deploy the loss of life of innocent peoplee -- do floor the loss of life of innocent people. everyone does. it we cannot have double standards in which we say someone killlled in europe, ther lives are more valuable than the lives being taken in large parts of the muslim world. and unless the west understands that these double standards provoke and anger more people, it will carry on.

how do youou stop it? there are all sorts of things going on in britain. -- tells to prevent schoolteachers to spy out in. it tells students, if you hear one of your students can honestly muslim, saying something that is unacceptable, report him. asking children and teachers to spy on school students -- amy: couldn't the manchester model be used? you showed the parents. you talk about the children who have died. and use that model for children killed in yemen, iraq, afafghanistan? name the names? >> absolutely. this model should be used. but the media is not under our control or under the control of most people who want to look at the world seriously and not in a cartoonish way.

not amy: always -- an ec we have to leave it there. tariq ali

reyes: welcome to the show. illegal gold mining has created a pocket of poisonous destruction in the amazon forest 10 times the size of manhattan. the police have been cracking down on the small-time miners, destroying their crude camps and sometimes putting them in n jai. but the amazon is a big place, and authorities say they can't keep up. i iegal minining has helped make peru one of the world's largrgest exporters of