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tv   Democracy Now  LINKTV  January 9, 2018 3:00pm-4:01pm PST

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trump administration ins temporary -- ends temporary protected status enacted in 2001. this comes as trump says he will only extend daca for nearly 800,000 young dreamers if democrats fund a border wall. then the reverend dr. william barber and others launch a new poor people's campaign inspired by dr. martin luther king's 1968 action.. >> we believe that w we need a theained moral push backk chchallenges the immoral public policy direction with the moral vision. i like to o call it restoring moral dissent, moral dreams, and moral to fibrillation. amy: we will speak with reverend william barber as well as jonathanal minister hartgrove, who as a young man, worked for the pro-segregationist senator strom thurmond. today he is organizing with reverend barber in what they
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call fusion politics. all that and more, coming up. welcome to democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. in a major attack against immigrant communities in the united states, the trump administration has announced it is ending the temporary protected status for up to 250,000 salvadorans who have been living in the united states since 2001. the temporary protected status, known as tps, had given the salvadorans legal permission to live and work in the united states. it was enacted in 2001 after a devastating pair of earthquakes hit el salvador. the announcement sparked immediate protests at the white house and a news conference in new york city. this is salvadoran tps recipient urania reyes. >> we are begging to our president trump and of the
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foric to stand up and ask our permanent, not temporary, legalization. we have been in the u.s. for more than 20 years and they did not give us any permanent status. i think we are honorable people. we do the work other people don't want to do. we are very little money. we pay for housing and taxes and school for the children, for my three children, and they go to the school. and today, i feel very sad because they want to take the tps from us. amy: the salvadorans will now have 18 months to leave the u.s. or find a legal way to remain in the united states. the move will also affect nearly 200,000 children of salvadoran parents who have tps. these children are u.s. citizens. on monday, many immigration advocates expressed concern the united states is planning to support the salvadorans back to a country gripped by violence
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and poverty, which has been exacerbated and fueled by decades of u.s. military and economic intervention in el salvador and central america. this is community organizer sara ramirez speaking outside the protest at the white house. >> never will a physical wall stop migration because the basis of our coming to this country is not because we thought it would be fun or just wanted to. it is because of situations in our country that work historically provoked, not us, that forced us to migrate. amy: last year, the trump administration announced it is also ending temporary protected status for tens of thousands of haitian, nicaraguan, and sudanese immigrantnts living in the united states. we'll have more on the trump administration's tps announcement after headlines. in more news on immigration, president trump is meeting with republican and democratic lawmakers at the white house today to debate the future of nearly 800,000 young undocumented immigrants known as dreamers and funding for trump's border wall. trump is demanding $33 billion over a decade to fund the expansion of the militarized
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border wall and to hire 10,000 additional immigration agents in exchange for protections for the undocumented young people who had been protected under daca -- that's deferred action for childhood arrivals -- before trump rescinded the obama-era policy late last year. immigrant rights groups and democratic lawmakers have slammed trump for trying to use the dreamers in order to win his far-right, anti-immigrant demands. white house chief of staff john kelly, formerly the secretary of homeland security, has been in charge of reaching out to lawmakers for the talks and will be at today's meeting. over the weekend, while speaking at a press conference at camp david, president trump vowed there will be no resolution on daca without billions of dollars in funding for the border wall. pres. trump: we want the wall. what is going to happen? we're not going to have daca. amy: in news from washington, special counsel robert mueller is likely planning to interview
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president trump as part of mueller's investigation into whether the trump campaign colluded with russia during the 2016 election. "the new york times" reports mueller told trump's lawyers last month t that he will l proy seek to interview the president, although he has not yet sent a formal request for the interview. so far, mueller has brought charges against four former trump aides, including trump campaign manager paul manafort, trump campaign adviser rick gates, and trump campaign foreign policy adviser george papadopoulos. speculation about oprah winfrey potentially running for president in 2020 is continuing to build, following oprah's powerful lifetime achievement award acceptance speech at the golden globes on sunday night. on monday, a number of democratic strategists came out endorsing or praising the idea. meanwhile, president trump's daughter and advisor ivanka trump also tweeted out a celebration of oprah's golden globes speech and hollywood's new "time's up" initiative to stop sexual harassment and violence.
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ivanka tweeted -- "just saw @oprah's empowering & inspiring speech at last night's #goldenglobes. let's all come together, women & men, & say #timesup! #united" ivanka's tweet sparked widespread criticism online, given that her father has been accused of sexual harassment or assault or misconduct by at least 16 women. president trump's nominee for secretary of the department of health and human services is slated to appear before the senate finance committee for his confirmation hearing today. alex azar is a former executive of the multibillion-dollar pharmaceutical company eli lilly. president trump nominated azar to head the heath and human services department after trump's former pick, tom price, resigned from the position amid a scandal over his use of military and private charter flights, which cost taxpayers up to $1 million. on monday, politico reported that when alex azar was a top executive at the drug company eli lilly, it tested the company's highly profitable
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erectile dysfunction drug on children in efforts to extend a multibillion-dollar patent that was soon to expire. critics say azar helped the company game the patent system, testing a sex drug on children in order to extend their profitits. officials from north korea and south kokorea met today y in the demilitarized zone for the first high-level talks in more than two years, amid rising tensions on the korean peninsula, largely sparked by president trump's repeated threats to launch a nuclear strike against north korea. during the meeting, north korea said it would send a delegation of athletes, officials, and cheerleaders to the 2018 winter olympic games in pyeongchang, south korea, in february. the two countries will also reinstate a military hotline that was s suspended for nearly two years. in tunisia, anti-austerity protests are spreading across
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the country after the government announced it was raising taxes and hiking fuel prices. at least one protester was killed and five others were injured amid a police crackdown against the protests on monday. the tunisian interior ministry says the 55-year-old protester likely died after inhaling tear gas. in turkey, the deputy prime minister has announced the state of emergency imposed after a july 2016 failed cououp attempt will be extended for another three monthshs. >> this state of emergency will be extended again. as a procedure the national security council needs to take and advisor decision, and this must be discussed in the cabinet meeting. probably this will be on the agenda during the next meeting of the national security council. amy: activists say the turkish government has used the failed military coup and the state of emergency to enact a far-reaching crackdown against dissidents, journalists, teachers, intellectuals, human rights activists, opposition lawmakers, and kurdish communities in turkey.
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back in the united states, in an unexpected move, the republican-controlled federal energy regulatory commission has rejected the trump admininistration's prproposal to bolster coal-fired and nuclear power plants. trump has repeatedly promised to bolster coal production and the number of coal jobs in the united states. but his plan to do so, which was outlined last fall by energy secretary rick perry, has faced widespread opposition from not only environmentalists, but also a wide array of corporate interests, incncluding dow chchemical and koch industries. mumultiple former energy commisission chairs have alsoo criticized t the plan, saying gt would raraise electricy prpric across the northeast and midwest. in alabama, residents have raised more than $150,000 to support tina johnson, whose home was burned to the ground only months after she came forward to publicly accuse alabama republican senate candidate roy moore of groping her without her
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consent back in 1991. the destruction of johnson's home on january 3 is being investigated as possible arson. johnson says she suspects the fire is connected to her decision to come forward about her experiences with roy moore, who lost december's highly controversial special senate election after at least 9 women, including johnson, came forward to accuse him of sexually harassing or assaulting them when they were teenagers, one as young as 14 years old. in washington, d.c., members of the lgbt community are speaking out about the brutal murder of a young african american lesbian named kerrice lewis. the 23-year-old woman was shot and burned alive in the trunk of a car on december 28, in one of the final homicides of last year. after minimal media coverage of the possible hate crime, residents and activists took to twitter using the hashtag #say hername to mourn the death of
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kerrice lewis. in harlem, new york, hundreds attended the funeral of erica garner who died at the age of 27 december 30 after an asthma -induced heart attack, four months after giving birth to her second child. erica's father, eric garner was killed when police officers in staten island russell tim to the ground, , applied a fatal chokehold inn 2014. inside the church last night, erica was usually giants -- eulogized by al sharpton who talked about erica's unflinching determination to get justice for her father. sharpton said while they say "she died of a heart attack, no her heart was attacked that day," referring to july 27, 2014, the day police killed her father. sharpton went on to say, "justice is in a coma in the eric garner case." the police officer, then ok taleo, still works in the nypd.
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there have also been a federal civil rights charges brought against him and others responsible for r eric garner's debt. also attending the funeral, hip-hop artist and actor common in the father of michael brown, killed by white police officer in ferguson, missouri, to exaggerate eric garner was killed instead and island. there was conflict in the midst of the funeral over the exclusion of erica's grandmother eric garner's mother gwen carr, , causing a number of people to leave, including a group of mothers of children killed by new york police like katiadou diallo, the mother of amadou diallo. a number of new york police officers walked with erica's coffin out of the church. after the funeral, several dozen black lives matter activists took to the streets. at least one person was arrested. before they marched, i spoke to qb of shut it down nyc, a friend of erica garner. would do a rally weather
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was nine degrees or 10 degrees, three people were four people, we marched to her father's memorial. we said a few words and that was something that just became a part of our lives. that is a unique situation were you have to grow up in front of the world. the woworld watched your father not get justice, then you're pushed into the limelight. you are basically living a life you did not ask for. she did not ask to be an activist. it was kind of a choice made for her. she is demeaning what all of us are demanding, pantaleo to be fired. the officer who murdered her father. he is still actively working with nypd. there is no justice and there still isn't justice. just at nypd at her funeral, that is the last thing in the world she would have wanted, to have the nypd in the church, to be involved in the funeral. i want herer to be remembered by how much she loved her children.
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she just had a three-month-old. she had an eight-year-old. she loved those kids. i want people to remember that. she wanted justice. she never got it and she died never getting it. the fight is not over. it is not over. >> what we want? justice! if we don't get it? shut it down -- amy: we are standing of the church where eric garner was memorialized and police are arresting one of the protesters outside. >> the man is still being paid for murdering erica garner. please keep that in mind. that man is still on salary with the nypd and his daughter is now
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dead. amy: that's valerie ross, one of scores of f protestors who tooko the streets after the funeral of erica garner. she will be laid to rest today in linden, new jersey. and those are some of the headlines. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. we turn now to look at the battle over immigration in washington.. prpresident trump is it with republican and democratic lawmakers at the white house today over his offer to protect the nearly 800,000 young undocumented immigrants known as dreamers in exchange for $18 billion to build a border wall. the meeting comes one day after the trump administration announced it is ending the temporary protected status for his many as 250,000 salvadorans who have been living in the u.s. since 2001. temper a status known as tps, given the salvadorans legal
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permission to live and work in the united states, enacted in 2001 after a devastating pair of earthquakes hit el salvador. it sparked immediate protests outside the white house and in several cities. a tps recipient spoke. we are begging to our president trump and to the ask foro stand up and our permanent, not temporary, legalization. we have been in the u.s. for more than 20 years and they did not give us any permanent status. i think we are honorable people. we do the work other people don't want to do. we are in very little money. we pay for housing and taxes and school for the children. for my three children, and they go to the school. and today, i feel very sad because they want to take the
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tps from us. the people who brought our children here with us and who brought them here when they were young, it is not their fault. it is our fault. we were looking for an improvement after our country was destroyed by war. and after that, in 2001, it was destroyed by the earthquake i'm jane were 13, 2001. i hope they give us legal status. that is what we are asking. we are honorable people, worthy of this country, in this country is our country because we spend our lives here. amy: the trump administration has already said it will end to protected status for tens of thousands of haitians, nicaraguans the sudanese progress living in the u.s. for more, we are joined now by two guests. rodman is a student stony brook university and a member of make the road new york. he is a u.s.-citizen whose parents are salvadoran tps recipients. he asked us not to use his last name to protect his family. and we're also joined by anu joshi, immigration policy
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director at the new york immigration coalition. we welcome you both to democracy now! rodman, tell us about your family. what will happen? recent price by president trump's announcement yesterday? >> thank you so much for having me on your program. i am the son of to immigrant parents from el salvador. i mom and dad both have tps. they had been living on long island for the past 25 years. my parents and my sisters and me consider ourselves to be long islanders because that is our home, that is where we have been going to school. everyone we know is from long island. the news that we received -- the announcement yesterday was absolutely devastating. i think we were kind of anticipating it. for the past few months, we have been living in the state of fear and anxiety. ,ut actually hearing the news
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it is a nightmare for us. amy: what does it mean? >> to as a means our sense of protection, our sense of security, all of that is going to vanish. amy: your accounts would be sent back in 18 months? >> that risk -- it is very possible. it is very possible my two parents who have been living here since the early 1990's, working and contributing here on long island, it is very possible they will be sent back to a country they have not visited in over 20 years. amy: what would happen to the three e of you? you are u.s. citizens? >> i was born here as were my two sisters. on our parentsch for not only financial support, but emotional support. i think a lot of things that me and my sisters are able to accomplish in life, whether it is school or work, it is because
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all of the support our parents have given us. for not onlynkful all of the sacrifices they have made, but also the examples they set for us. they are my role models. they have given us the tools that makes us become very responsible. amy: temporary protected status was extended to her parents because of the earthquakes, because of what happened in el salvador? early 1990's left before the earthquake. they left during the civil war. they were escaping the civil war. salvador is a country where there is no real job opportunities, no stability. there is corruption. they escaped in the early 1990's. then there was the devastating earthquake that devastated the entire country. countrycame to this seeking stability, seeking a better future for themselves and their family, pursuing the american dream. , i'mem, the american dream
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emi two sisters would be up to get an education. talkanu joshi, can you about what this means for 250,000 people, and then we have to extend another 250,000 for kids like rodman? >> this administration already eliminated tps for nicaragua, haiti -- haiti been the next largest population. rodman'she people like parents and hundreds of thousands of people like rodman's parents across the country, this means that in 18 months, the businesses they have started are going to shutter. the companies where they work or going to lose employees. the places that federal government, the state, local taxes they pay are no longer going to be paid. the mortgages they own, the houses that they own, almost one third of salvadorans on tps owned their home or have a mortgage, are not going to be paid. these people are completelely
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integrated into american society, have been here for over two decades, many of them, are going to be pushed into the shadows. it is really unconscionable what this administration is doing. i think with these four decisions and the attacks in termination of the different action for childhood arrivals program, we see this administration is really pursuing an aggressive extremist immigrants and all communities of color. amy: salvadorans have been major labor organizers as well. do you see this as an attack on labor community? >> 100%. yesterday we had a union member, housekeeper online island, was been a member for over 15 years. we had a cook from unite here who has worked at the same restaurant for 17 years. he started as a dishwasher and out is a cook.
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with tps, he has two children. this is an attack on labor and working people. itit is alsoso an attack on peoe who have started b businesses ad raise families. amy: amy: to hugo rodriguez, a salvadoran beneficiary of tps who spoke at monday's press conference in new york city. >> we have one foot here and the other in a republic el salvador. even though my heart is always in that country, for me, living here is my predecessor said, is a matter of life and death. the guess we cannot go back to our country. there are a lot of compatriots who have tried it and try to start a life there, and they have not been able to do it because of the evil our country is suffering. president trump and the politicians do not know who the beneficiaries of temporary protected status are. we are not gang members. we are not criminals. we are people that as the majority of people who live here, we came following adrian, an american dream -- a dream
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that, sadly, we cannot have in our countries, but it was possible here. we achieve it thanks to our work. amy: your response? >> i don't understand how anyone can look at that and say that is someone that is not contribute in two hours society. administration is doing is not about keeping our country safe remaking this country greater. it is about making our country worse by trying to push into the shadows or worse, the poor people like hugo, who are just raising their families a making a living. amy: rodman, you mention the civil war which often people do not refer to as the civil war in salvador because the city shows overwhelmingly it was the u.s.-backed military government and paramilitaries that were killing off the majority of people -- as happened in nicaragua, the illegal war in nicaragua when it came to the contras. the u.s. was not supposed to be supporting the contras, but was getting around various laws.
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can you talk about this, as my colleague juan gonzalez wrote a book called "harvest of empipir" people fleeing. sadly, you're disconnected violence in their country. and then when they get here, being told a have to go back. >> to that point, the creation of the temporary protected status program was in response to the u.s. involvement in el salvador in the early 1990's. so it was recogngnition by our government that we have created a part of this problem and we needed to provide safe haven, to protect these peoplple. we could not send them back into that violence. if you look at el salvador as a country right now, it has the third highest homicicide rate in the world. 17% of its gdp comes from remittances from the united states. if you try to send or repatriate hundreds of thousands of people into a country where it has weak
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government institutions, where violence is rampant, gangs are every day, itouth is going to destabilize the region. and that is not going to be good for the united states, either. amy: i want to put this in the larger context of what is happening in the white house. you president trump meeting with democrats and republicans. , ledis not often the case by the chief of staff in the meeting, general kelly. general kelly, who before being chief of staff of president trump him a was head ofof department of homeland security and before that, in charge of southern command. can you talk about the significance of trump saying this weekend at camp david that it is daca in the wall or no daca? >> let's be clear, he did not just say daca in the wall, and he said an additional agents -- amy: customs and border patrol.
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and endingrsity visa family reunification, which has or so forommitte decades. he laid out a laundry list of the most extremist anti-immigrant agenda in exchange for 800,000 young a situation he created when he terminated daca. we are telling senator schumer innew york and the democrats both sides of the house and senate that they need to stand strong against this. that this is a wish list -- it is not a wish listt at all. i don't know what it is. this is not in good faith. amy: df confidence in the democrats? >> maybe. university, is your
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and esteemed university around the country, standing up for you and other students who have temporary detected status themselves or in your case, your parents? students, we have started a club trying to push our administrators in stony brook to adopt policies that would benefit students, not only who have daca, but also for parents, for students whose parents have tps. for example, i sometimes the pen on my cares for financial support to pay my tuition. amy: it is in new york's interest that your tuition is paid. >> we really depend on our administrators, but also our local and state representatives to become advocates for us and really push for legislation that is going to benefit people like me and my family. i think that investing more money into ice agents or having
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local police department collaborate witith immigration s misguided. we need a representatives to really push for permanent legislation, like permanent residency for my parents. once you really invest in communities like my community and my family, that is one of the best ways you can really upuplift this country.y. amy: how are salvadorans on long island organizing? affecteds news has everyone from where i come from on long island. long island has a large auditorium and haitian population -- large salvadoran and haitian population. everyone is in a state of panic. organized.getting we have a group that where we are doing workshops for know your rights and also telling people like me who are citizens, we have a lot of power once we share our stories.
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we also have lots of voting power. it is important for us to get organized come to know our rights. our character of always been there for us. it is really urgent we stand up for them. amy: i want to thank you both for being with us. rodman, i hope soon to be able to say your whole name, but while you feel your family is vulnerable, we will stick with your first name. rodman is a student stony brook university. he is a u.s.-citizen whose parents are salvadoran tps recipients. anu joshi is immigration policy andanu joshi is immigration policy director at the new york immigration coalition. this is democracy now!w! poorwe come back, a new people's march. in unusual coalition. we will be joined by the reverend william barber as well as an evangelical minister who worked for the segregationist presidential candidate longtime senator strom thurmond, now joining in a poor people's
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march. stay with us. ♪ [music break]
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amy: "young latin and proud" by helado negro performing here in our democracy now! studio. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. as the nation prepares to mark martin luther king day next monday, modern day civil rights leaders have launched a new poor people's campaign inspired by the historic 1 1968 action led y king and the sououthern christin leadership conference. >> millions of young people grow up in the sunlight of opportunity. america, is another and this other america has been ugliness about it that despair.s hope into
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and this other america, millions of people find themselves walking the streets in search for jobs that do not exist. amy: that was dr. martin luther king speaking about the 1968 poor people's campaign. in the coming months, organizers are planning six weeks of direct action at statehouses across the country and the u.s. capitol to call attention to systemic racism, poverty, the war economy -- the work, economy, and ecological devastation. we are joined by two of the organizers of the campaign. reverend dr. william barber is president and senior lecturer of repairers of the breach. he's the leader of moral mondays and the author of third reconstruction: moral mondays, fusion politics, and the rise of a new justice movement." we're also joined by jonathan evangelicalrove, minister and director of the school for conversion in durham, north carolina. he is author of the upcoming book, "reconstructing the gospel: finding freedom from slaveholder religion."
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while the have organized together for years, they were not always in political agreement. barber grew up in the black-led freedom movement. wilson-hartgrove grew up as a white southern baptist and he served as a page for the late south carolina senator strom thurmond, a fierce foe of the civil rights movement and supporter of segregation. wilson-hartgrove's political transition began after hearing reverend barber preach. we welcome you both to democracy now! reverend barber, talk about the significance of dr. martin luther king day and the new poor people's march, 50 years after his. >> on the fifth of january, we launched after traveling to 15 states doing regional trainings, organizing 1000 people in 25 states, district of columbia that have committed to do direct action, civil disobedience,
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training, preparing for voter registration, to launch a move that. we have black and white and brown, young, old, gay, straight, jewish, muslim, people of faith, people not a fate coming together. 50 years later, amy, what they where doing is writing something called auditing of america 50 years later. and to talk about the souls of poor folk. so often the poor are dismissed. we don't even talk about the poor. we talk about the middle class, working class. 50 years later, we have nearly 100 million poor and working poor people in this country. 14 million poor children. 50 years later, we have less voting rights protection then we august 6, 1965. 50 years later. strom thurmond, for instance,
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filibustered the civil rights act for a day. ryan mcconnell and boehner a filibustered the voting rights act now for over 1700 days. we have tremendous ecological devastation. when we look at, for instance, systemic voter suppression and you map it. we have done some maps. every state where there is high voter suppression, there's also high poverty, denial of health care and living wages, denial of labor, union rights, attacks on immigrants and womomen. it is the same statetes. this is not for the poor. it is with the poor and launching a multiyear campaign that we are beginning now. amy: i want to ask you, jonathan wilson-hartgrove, about your life story. for young people, they may not have even heard of strom ththurmond, one of the longesest-serving senators inin. history, also ran for president
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on a segregationist platform. what was your involvement with him? >> that was 1948. i was born in 1980, so i was not very aware of that either growing up. i grew up in a southern baptist culture that told us if your faithful, your republican. i wanted to do all the good for jesus, so i was trying to make it to the white house. when i got there, i began to realize that something was not quite right in terms of these values that i was taught of love and justice and concern for the community and what was happening there, which was really about holding onto power. i began to realize what reverend barber was saying, my people in north carolina and the south had been duped. we were told that this was good for us and good for america and good for the world. as a matter of fact, that they were using religion to serve this white supremacist agenda that really was not very different from what he is advocated in 1948 or the 1950's
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and 1960's, but had changed its language a bit. i was very grateful for reverend barber teaching me that history, beginning to realize that there really has been a movement that has pushed for an inclusive democracy in this country since the 19th century, and that effort to reconstruct this country is also very faith-rooted and reconnected because of our faith, and begin realize there were some leaders were using that faith to serve whiteenda of thihis really supremacy campaign. amy: did you understand this when you were a page for senator thurmond? very confused. that is why needed a teacher like dr. barber here. amy: did you ever confront senator thurmond's she began to believe in a different path? >> know. he was in his 90's and i don't think was open -- the only serious conversation he ever had with me was selling me when i got to d.c. is a 16-year-old young white man from north
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carolina that i ought to be carefully because this is a dangerous town. that is the way race was talked about in that movement. still is. amy: let me p play clip of senar strom thurmond speaking in 1948 when he ran for president as the nominee of the pro-segregationist states' rights democratic party, more popularly known as the dixiecrats. thurmond spoke out against harry truman's civil rights platform. that it isy means another effort on the part of this president to dominate the country by force and to put into effect these uncalled for and these damnable proposals under the so-called guise of civil rights. i tell you the american people from one side or the other had andabhor such a program. and if they don't, the next
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thing will be at the telly and dust totalitarian state in these united states. amy: the philosophy of segregation carried on. as you watch what happened in virginia in charlottesville this past summer, did you see the echoes of strom thurmond as the self proclaimed fascist, self-proclaimed wasn't a premises marched across the university. >> you realize what he is doing there is preaching. he is preaching in the public square. that is what folks like richard spencer are trying to do. they're trying to bring -- amy: who organized the march. >> they're using religion to do it. i had to learn that whiteness is a religion, the people are sold on. and someone like me who wants to follow jesus, needs to be converted from the religion of whiteness to the religion of jesus or many other traditions that are willing to embrace a kind of universal humanity that
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whiteness can't embrace. compatriotsyour respond to what you preach now as a minister? >> well, i think a lot of times when it is framed as something against what people are doing, they react. everyone is defensive when you attack what they are. but when you hold forth the imitation of the part of something iago this poor people's campaign we're talking about now is a movement that is for everyone. said i'm the d.c. white trash they threw out and they forgot to burn. but i am part of the movement, too. the constructivism of the movement is an invitation that many people are beginning to respond to because if you are a poor person in north carolina or alabama, what you realize, at the end of the day, these people
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who say "vote for me because i'm a good christian leader," are not serving your interest is. you don't have health care were living wage because the same people who say they're standing up for god and righteousness when they are voting for voting against the interest of poor people whether you're black, white, brown, or whatever. amy: let me ask you something. roy moore was defeated, but someone tweeted out that night when it was even closer on december 12, "if we can beat a pedophile by .8%, we can do anything." that was the tweet. reverend barber, if we can beat a pedophile by .8%, we can do anything. honestly, a sarcastic comment. how could it have been that close. no see the homeless teen -- home of tina johnson's free to the ground as people raise money for her, one of roy moore's accusers. think johnston hit on something. it is important to remember that
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the movement for justice has always been biracial. abolition movement was biracial. the civil mode -- civil rights movement was biracial. the first poor people's campaign was not just dr. king. it was cesar chavez, jewish, the welfare workers rights workers, surely, who had organized. in some sense, we lost that sense of fusion politics and that is what moral monday has an about. with the poor people's campaign is about. not only can we beat a pedophile , but the reality is, if we we went tolicy -- alabama and they said we could not organize whwhite ministers o --nd up against what he had roy moore had allegedly done to children, but his policies. 65% of the people who were arrested on moral monday were white. amy: in north carolina where you were. >> where i am now. i'm saying, do you have health care?
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all of the southern states denied health care, the people who got elected by voters suppression, use that power to deny health care, , the majority of the people being denieded are white. when you don't have a living wage, the majority of the people being affected are white. there are 8 million more white people poor than there are african-american. we have got to show how people are being played. you can't always look justst at charlottesville or strom thurmond. they changed that line which after 1968. they said, we can talk like that anymore. we have to talk about tax cuts and forcedment cuts busing. that is the language of the southern strategy. it changed, but it was the language -- it was coded to say, number o one, loses what needs o change for your life to be better. the policies are going to hurt mostly black people and brown people in a percentage basis,
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but it is also going to make people think that black peoeople are the problem. to ans why trump went all-white audidience and thenn talked about black people. what do theyey have to louisiana code one of the things -- what do they have to louisiana code we need a poor people's campaign, a national call for a moral revival. we need to re-shift the moral narrative. on trips looking "mental status. it is the wrwrong thing. i mean, i'm own opinion, but dr. king talked about america being sick. we're talking about an individual. we should be examining that tax policy. we should be going down the list and looking at how are these policies that t the senators and others past impacting the poor? even the democrats did not talk much about the poor. we should be talking about the judges he is trying to put
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quietly like the one out of north carolina, tom price, but the senators -- he is not doing this by himself. if we get a fix seated on a person rather than do what dr. king said, examine the societal moral crisis that creates characters like trump, that empowers them, then we're in trouble. we have to deal with the sickness of the society. dr. king said lastly, any society that puts more money in war than it does in social uplift is headed toward spiritual death. when we have an exacerbation of racismvoter -- systemic through voter suppression, we have extreme poverty, ecological devastation, and a war economy and a mixed up moral narrative were people can literally run for office, amy, and look you in the face of the "ifif you elect me, i i will take your health
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care," and get elected. "if you elect me, i will put hundreds of thousands of people out of the country." and say that boldly. we have more than a personality problem. we have a moral crisis. the only thing that can combat that is a movement that challenges that crisis. amy: we're going to go to break and come back to this discussion. your listing to the doctor reverend william barber of from north carolina and minister jonathan wilson-hartgrove of the school for conversion in north carolina. they are starting a poor people's march 50 years after dr. king's. stay with us. ♪ [music break]
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amy: performing here in our democracy now! studios in 2010.
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this is democracy now! i'm amy goodman.n. as the nation prepares to honor dr. martin luther king, modern-day civil rights leaders have launched a new poor people's campaign inspired by king's historic 1968 action led by king and the southern christian leadership conference. we're speaking to the reverend dr. william barber of repairers of the breach. as well as it on jell-o go minister jonathan wilson-hartgtgrove, who was s oa page for strom thurmond. the man who replaced strom thurmond is republican senator lindsey graham. this is what lindsey graham had to say when he appeared on "the view" on monday. >> he beat me e like a drum. he ran against 17 republicans and crushed as all the stuff he ran against the clinton machine and won. all i can say is, you can say anything you want about the guy. i said he was a xena phobic
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religious they get. i ran out of things to say. e1. guess what? he is our president. close your calling him xenophobic -- >> i did that. >> you did. and my view, he's my president and he is doing a really good job. amy: very interesting what senator lindsey graham had to say. we're joined by dr. william barber and minister jonathan wilson-hartgrove. your thououghts? >> i'm sitting here thinking, i just want to mention, the cochair of the poor people's campaign is probably looking at that and like me saying, what in the world? you say that as during the campaign and you laugh about it. another person is in office and you say they're doing a good job. policies -- and you're
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supporting the policies. so here's the question. if you're supporting g the policies of a racist, xenophobic am a what does that make you? that is i would have to have a policy focus. remember, it was lindsey graham i believe and others who came out quickly, tim scott, against what happened in charlottesville. most politicians will be shrewd enough to do that. that doesn't mean they are white supremacists and nationalist. graham, mr. is, mr. scott who is black -- you can be black and be a supremacist, at least one who encourages it and i think you can be -- where do you stand on restoring the voting rights act? where do you stand on health care? because you do know that when you cut health care, you heard a large percentage of african-american people in your statate. where e do you stand on living
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wages since 52% of african-americans make less than living wage, 64 million people who make less than a living wage in this country? where do you stand on immigration reform? declaresichard spencer emigratition is the fifirst bate of white supremacy and white nationalists in the modern era. that is what he has actually said. the question becomes, not are you loud like trump and are you -- you carry on the antics of trump, it is the policies of what nationalism and white supremacy. mr. graham, where do you stand sessions, whojeff has a history of standing against the voting rights andd trying to prosecute people fighting for those rights? where do you stand? your committee, mr. graham, the committee you are on, allowed thomas fire to come through out of north carolina almost make it
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to the federal bench, who is a known nazi sympathizer and also ist who is beenac behind every voter suppression act and north carolina. farr, whoabout thomas you also wrote about. >> i would to step back because i'm try to work on -- i think we are too trump-y. farro pointed out, thomas would have never got to the judiciary if it wasn't for citizen richard burr and senator tillis from our state -- by the way, he was the architect of the voter suppression when he was bigger of the house, who denied to do black women -- to black women and a federal prosecutor -- they denied them even getting
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a hearing. they didn't even allow them to get a hearing and then once trump gets in, they pushed forward -- so we can't just lay this reality of what we're seeing at the feet of trump. diesels a symptom of a -- if he was gone tomorrow or impeached tomorrow, the senate and house of representatives and ryan a mcconnell and graham and all of them would still be there. what we have found, amy, will we look at them, no matter how crazy they called him or names they called him were angry they get with him, it is all a front because at the end of the day, they might disagree with his antics, but they support his agenda. amy: i want to turn to something that happened that might have surprised a number of people last week. and that was president trump abruptly shutting down the advisory commission on election integrity after it failed to any -- after it failed to
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provide any evidence of voter fraud. the commission's chair, kris kobach, blamed a "barrage of meritless lawsuits" for the investigation's closure after most u.s. states and the district of columbia refused to share data with the commission. can you talk about -- is this a victory? >> no. it is and it isn't. the claim of fraud is fraudulent in itself. the first thing the trump administration did is pull out supporting a case out of north carolina that the supreme court was surgicalaid racism. think about that. the first thing his ag appointee does is say, i am no longer going to protect voting rights. he has turned the attorney general office away from protecting voting rights. we have is fraudulent committee and they now shut it down, but it has done its job. they are playing to a certain base. they have sown the theory of voter fraud, and that is saying
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they could not prove a because the lawsuits blocked them. it is all a game and we have to unpack it and we need a movement to do that. amy: how are you moving the movement forward? >> what is really important with this poor people's campaign is it is local groups all over the country coming together, people impacted by these issues realizing the folks in washington are not serving them. so what we can learn from dr. king and from that whole movement 50 years ago is that a diverse fusion coalition of people coming together and insisting on change in the priorities is what changes the country. we cannot look from more leadership from washington. >> the first action will be the monday after mother's day. we're going for 25,000 people engaging in civil disobedience over six weeks to launch a movement. to launch the movement, not end the movement. and go reverend dr. william barber, repairers of the breach, an evangelical minister jonathan wilson-hartgrove, school for conversion north carolina,
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organizing a new poor people's campaign. that does it for our show. 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
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