08/22/18 08/22/18 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] amy: from pacifica, this is democracy now! >> today as you heard, michael cocohen pled guiltyy to eight felony charges. five of those dealt with tax evasion for the years 2012-2016, in which he failed to report approximately 4.1 million dollars in reported income. amy: talk of the possible impeachment of president trump is growing in washington after trump's personal attorney

michael cohen pleads guilty and directly implicates the president in making illegal payments to influence the 2016 election. meanwhile, trump's former campaign chair paul manafort is .onvicted of eight charges we will speak to investigative journanalist marcy wheheeler. then the trump administration rolls back obama-era coal pollution regulations even as its own data shows the rule change will cause up 1400 more deaths a year by 2013. -- by 2030. pres. trump: we love clean, beautiful west virginia coal. we love it. and you know it is indestruibible. amamy:nd wee go to north carolin wherststuden at t thuniverersity of north carolina ha toppled the "silent sa confedete statue

[cheers] amy: we will sakak with unc doctoral student maya lilele who was at monday's ppling. she was arrested earlier ththis year for dousing the confederate memorial with red paint and her own blood. all that and more, coming up. welcome to democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. guilty. president trump's lawyer and campaign chair, president trump's longtime personal lawyer and fixer michael cohen has to eight criminal charges, including tax evasion, bank fraud and campaign finance violations. cohen admitted in court that trump had directed him to pay off two women, adult film star stormy daniels and playboy model

karen mcdougal, to keep them quiet during the 2016 campaign. cohen's lawyer lanny davis wrote on twitter -- "if those payments were a crime for michael cohen, then why wouldn't they be a crime for donald trump?" davis then appeared on msnbc and said cohen is willing to speak with special counsel robert mueller about a conspiracy to collude with russia during the 2016 presidential campaign. davis later also told the "washington post" michael cohen knows about trump's participation in a criminal conspiracy to hack into democratic party officials' emails during the 2016 election. meanwhile in virginia, a jury found trump's former campaign chair paul manafort guilty of eight charges related to tax fraud, bank fraud, and one charge of hiding a foreign bank account. he faces another trial next month. we'll have more on michael cohen, paul manafort, and president trump after headlines.

president trump traveled to charleston, west virginia, for a campaign rally tuesday, where he celebrated his administration's move to dramatically rollback regulations for coal fired power plants. pres. trump: we love clean, beautiful west virginia coal. we love it. and you know, that is indestructible stuff. in times of war and conflict, you can blowup those windmills. they fall down real quick. you can blowup those pipelines. they go like this. you are not going to fix them too fast. you can do a lot of things to those solar panels, but you know what you can't hurt? coal. you can do whatever you want to coal. amy: the trump administration's own analysis says the environmental deregulation could lead to as many as 1400

premature deaths every year by 2030. we'll have more on rollback on regulations for coal fired power plants later in the broadcast. during trump's west virginia rally last night, he also slammed espn for saying it would not air the national anthem before monday night football games during the upcoming season. while the policy is not new, trump seized on it. the nfl says it will not punish the players for protesting. trump frequently attacks nfl athletes for kneeling or raising their fists during the national anthem to protest racism and police brutality. in syria, the syrian army is expected to soon begin its offensive in the northwestern province of idlib, the syrian opposition's last major territory in the country. three million people currently live thehere, half of whom are internally displaceded this is s the u.n. humanitarn adviser jan egelan >>umanan suffering like phaps none we have seen even bebeforen

this conflict.t. it could be worse t than aleppo, worse than eastern ghouta and rocco. amy: in uganda, demonstrations are mounting in the capital kampala, where protesters are protesting the arrest of prominent opposition legislators critical of longtime president yoweri museveni. on monday, ugandan security forces cracked down on the protests by firing live ammunition and tear gas into the crowds. in saudi arabia, prosecutotors e seekeking the death penalty against activist israa al-ghomgham, making her the first woman to possibly face the death penalty for human rights work in saudi arabia. she was arrested in 2015, along with her husband, for their roles in organizing anti-government protests in the aftermath of the arab spring. republican california congressman duncan hunter, the second member of congress to endorse candidate donald trump, has been indicted for campaign finance violations, along with his wife, only weeks after the

first congressman to endorse trump, chris collins of new yoyork, was also indicted. prosecutors sahuntnter and his wife misused campaign funds for personal expenses, including expensive vacations and their children's school tuition. hunter is up for reelection in november. his challenger is up-and-coming progressive candidate 29-year-old palestinian-mexican ammar campa-najjar. president trump's top economic advisor larry kudlow recently hosted white nationalist publisher peter brimelow at a birthday celebration at his home. brimelow founded the anti-immigrant website vdare.com. last week, white house speechwriter darren beattie was fired after news broke of his 2016 appearance on a panel with brimelow. in climate change news, the strongest ice in the arctic has begun to break up for the fit time in cocordedistotory earlieththis yr, t temraturere soed in thararctico 4545 degrees above rmrmal.

meanwhile, mh h of t weseste united statehahas be blalanked in tckck, hardouous oke frfr the rang, clime chan-driven ldfires. in s martin parish, uisiana, activists fighti the constrtion of e bayou idge pipelineay they e facing increasi police reprsion. police tasered and arrested one water protector monday, only a few days after a journalist and three water protectors were arrested and charged with felony trespassing on saturday. the 163-mile bayou bridge pipeline is being built by energy transfer partners, the same company behind the controversial dakota access pipeline. meanwhile, in north dakota, prosecutors have dropped all serious charges against former north dakota congressional candidate chase iron eyes, who had been facing up to six years in prison for participating in the resistance to the dakota access pipeline. this is chase iron eyes speaking only days after his arrest on february 1, 2017.

>> we talk about the arrests. they are above 700 in number that includes dog attacks, it includes water cannons and some freezing temperatures. the negligent or intentional risking of human lives. it includes the line, the law enforcement agencies lying about the criminal conduct. so there is a lot happening. there's a lot they need to be held accountable for. amy: and in tacoma, washington, immigrant rights advocates say over 200 immigrants detained at the northwest detention center launched a hunger strike and work stoppage as part of the tuesday nationwide prison strike. the strikers said -- "we are taking part in a hunger strike nationwide demanding change and closure of these detention centers, we are acting with solidarity for all those people who are being detained wrongfully, and stand together to help support all those women who have been separated from

their children, and to stop all the family separations happening today for a lot of us are also being separated and we have u.s. citizen children." and those are some of the headlines. thisis is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace reportrt. i'm amy goodman. talk of the possible impeachment of president trump is growing in washington after tuesday's stunning legal developments. in new york, trump's former personal lawyer michael cohen pleaded guilty to eight criminal charges, including tax evasion, bank fraud, and campaign finance violations. 200 miles away in virginia, trump's former campaign chair paul manafort was found guilty of eight charges related to tax fraud and bank fraud, as well as hiding a foreign bank account. the cohen case is likely to put the president in the most legal jeopardy. michael cohen worked for trump

from 2006 until this year. he admitted in court that he arranged to illegally pay out money to two women, an adult film star and a playboy model, to keep them from speaking during the 2016 campaign about their affairs with donald trump. cohen said the payments were made "in coordination with and at the direction of a candidate for federal office" and that they were made "for the principal purpose of influencing the election." cohen's lawyer lanny davis wrote on twitter -- "if those payments were a crime for michael cohen, then why wouldn't they be a crime for donald trump? davis later appeared on msnbc and said cohen is willing to speak with special counsel robert mueller about a "conspiracy to collude" with russia during the 2016 presidential campaign. davis also told "the washington post" cohen knows about comes participation in a criminal conspiracy to hack into democratic party officials emails during the 2016 election.

michael cohen becomes the first former truck official to plead guilty to criminal charges. he joins former national security advisor michael flynn metro's former campaign deputy campaign manager rick gates, and former trump foreign-policy advisor george papadopoulos. michael cohen will be sentenced on december 12. he will likely be sentenced to 4-5 years in prison. meanwhile, in virginia, a jury convicted manafort on eight of 18 charges but the jury could not reach a verdict on the other counts. sentencing experts expect him to receive a prison term of about 10 years. the manafofort charges stemmed from special counsel robert mueller's investigation into russian meddling in the 2016 election, but the case against manafort focused on work he did before he became president trump's campaign manager. manafort was accused of hiding millions of dollars earned in ukraine in overseas bank

accounts and failing to pay taxes on the money. on tuesday, president trump briefly spoke with reporters about the manafort verdict. pres. trump: i feel badly. i must tell you paul manafort is a good man. he was with ronald reagan. he was with a lot of different people over the years. i feel very sad about that. it doesn't involve me, but i still feel -- you know, it is a very sad thing that happens. this has nothing to do with russian collusion. this started as russian collusion. this absolutely has nothing to do -- this is a witchhunt and it is a disgrace. amy: the question now is whether cohen and manafort will cooperate with mueller's investigation in exchange for a lesser sentence. or will presidenent trump pardon one or both men? to help answer these questions and more, we are joined by investigative journalist marcy wheeler. she runs the website emptywheel.net.

she is joining us from michigan. welcome to democracy now! twopic day yesterday when of president trump for serious -- trump, his personal lawyer michael cohen, and his former campaign chair paul manafort both guilty. talk about the verdicts yesterday. need as not often we split screen for guilty verdicts. usually that is reserved for sporting events. verdictsort guilty were pretty much expected because the case against him was a slamdunk. it was tax fraud. it was some bank fraud. the charges the jury was not able to reach a verdict on involved charges where rick gates' testimony was central, so it seems like some people on the

jury may not have found him all that credible. and also one charge where trump says it did not involve him. that is not true. there is one charge for manafort was trying to get a loan in 2016 from a banker in chicago and promising him positions once trump took the white house. the impression is the jury decided that he was going to get -- manafort was going to get that loan regardless of what kind of claims he made to the banker, so those are the charges that he wasn't found guilty on. but they are both tax cheats and both involved in other crimes. the very interesting thing for trump are the two hush money payments involved with the cohen crime because there he quite clearly said -- and the criminal information says, i think it was named trumpord, basically. did not name him by n name, but

said the person went on to become president of the united states. amy: well let's go -- - >> go ahead. named him as being part of the conspiracy to pay off these women so as to hide these affairs before the election. amy: let's go to u.s. deputy attorney robert khuzami announcing the felony charges michael cohen pled guilty today. >> pled guilty to eight felony charges. five of thosese dealt with tax 2 2012-2016the years in which he failed to report approximately $4.1 million in reported income. in addition, mr. cohen pled guiltyty to two campaign finance charges, one for causing in unlawful corporate contribution and a second one for personally making excessive personal contribution, both for the purpose of influencing the 2016 election.

in addition, what he did was he worked to pay money to silence two women who had information that he believed would be detrimental to the 2016 campaign and to the candidate and the campaign. in addition, mr. cohen sought reimbursements for that money by submitting invoices to the candidates company, which were untrue and false. amy: rc wheeler, really the biggest news while paul was the campaign chair for president trump, you have michael cohen not only saying he committed a crime -- he was not even indicted, he displayed guilty yesterday in a kind of unusual move where this happen all very fast. he not only said he was guilty, but he said that the president was guilty of ordering him to do this. >> right. in his statement in the

courtroom -- we don't get cameras there, so we can't play it, but in his statement in the courtroom, he was very clear that he did this with the involvement at the behest of donald trump. while the russian investigation is going to name trump and technically did in the indictment, it made it clear that he asked for russia to hack hillary and they immediately did. but here he is named explicitly, so it is the first time in these wide-ranging legal investigations that he is being named and being accused of committing a crime to cheat to get elected, basicically. amamy: let's go to michael cohes attorney lanny davis speaking tuesday night on msnbc. >> mr. cohen has knowledge on certain subjects that should be of interest to the special cocounsel l and is more than hay to tell the special counsel a al

that he knows, not just about the obvious possibility of a conspiracy to collude and corrrrupt the amamerican democry system in the 2016 election -- which the trump towewer meeting was all about -- but also knowledge about the computer crime of hacking and whethther r not mr. trump knew w ahead of te about t that crime,, and even cheered it on. wewe knonow he probably cheerert on, but did he also have private information? in the code that is lanny davis. talk about the significance of what he is saying and what kind of information he is offering to robert mueller. >> it is not quite clear. mueller did not take him up on

that, at least as far as has been made public. clearly, cohen implicated trump in the hush payments, but he is not, as part of yesterday's plea agreements, he has not publicly implicated trump in any of the russia-related crimes. so i'm not convinced this guilty plea is more important thann manafort's guilty verdict yesterday, because trump a long time ago said, "i think i'm ok as long as the manafort does that flip on me. paul manafort is really the old one that can bring me down." cohen claims he has information about when trump knew certain things about the hack and leak. but even omarosa says she already talked to mueller's people about that, so it is possible -- several things are possible. one is that cohen is right and he will go talk to mueller and he will get some lesser sentence because he does it.

it is possible that mueller does not need cohen's cooperation and mueller wants to index cohen for the conspiracy as well. it is possible that mueller just does not want to cooperate with cohen because he is been spending so much time talking to the press. with george papadopoulos, for example, soon as pop it off was went to the press, he stopped trying to cooperate with pop it up lists entirely. we don't actually know. what we do know is according to trump's own understanding of the circumstance them a for whatever that is worth, paul manafort is the one person who can bring him down. rick gates has been cooperating since february and rick gates knew most of what paul manafort new and rick gates is the only one of the many people that you described as who had are ready pkllead who got a sweet deal. he got excuse from all of the crimes that paul manafort was found guilty of yesterday, some other ones.

he was excused from some of his own role in the coconspiracy wih russia. rick gates, as far as we know, is the one who is offering the big cooperation and that puts both cohen and paul manafort a much shakier ground as they believe they're going to get a lesser sentence by cooperatiting with mueller. amy: and who exactly is lanny davis? it is interesting michael, and has chosen him as his lawyer -- michael cocohen has chosenen his his lawyer. president clinton in the 1990's, when he was president, former legal advisor. >> right. is not to benction a lawyer. cohen has a different lawyer that used to work in the southern district of new york. the lawyer was picked because he does the people who are prosecuting him in new york and he has the ability to the extent it is possible to negotiate a plea deal. lanny davis' job is to go on to be a statements like he did yesterday. that has really been his

function for a long time now. in some ways he's the democratic equivalent of paul manafort. he is about press these days more than he is about lawyering. again, i'm not sure working the press is going to get you a plea to with robert mueller. he has made it very clear he does not want any of this in the press. theoesn't want to work via press. he is been unbelievably good at not linking anything. and so hiring a democratic lawyer to go and appear on tv and make allegations about the president isn't necessarily going to help cohen' is legal plate at all. amy: what about burning wonder whwho are heading up the senate committee that is investigating russian investigation saying this might influence what michael cohen has said it might want to question him and what this means is that michael cohen going before congress.

>> subtest of -- he already testified before the senate intelligence committee and said he did not know of any prior knowledge of the june 9 meeting. and some of the public statements that he and lanny davis have made seem to contradict that. yesterday, the senate intelligence committee in the wake of this plea to, basically, contacted his lawyers and said, does his prior testimony before the committee, does it still hold? they have threatened to call him back. you know, i am a little bit jaded about what richard byrd is doing here. the investigation, yes it is credible, yes it is bipartisan. there are only seven people investigating it according to public reports. they are still working on reviewing what the intelligence committee new by january 2017, so they are not getting to the guts of whether there really was collusion. so it is sort of richard byrd's

job to test these claims and go on tv and claim there was no collusion rather than really to get to the core of whether there was or not. i think that is more what is going on here than really trying to get to the bottom of things. but we will, because the senate intelligence committee already got testimony from michael cohen, we will learn quickly whether he is backing off his prior testimony because of yesterday -- amy: and might want to get more testimony from him. i'd like to turn to democratic senator richard blumenthal who said in a statement tuesday that the white house was looking increasingly like a criminal enterprise. this is blblumenthal speaking to cnn's wolflf blitzer last night. >> we're in a watergate moment where the two parties have to come together. we need bipartisanship now more than ever to protect the special counsell and to stop -- and a must underscore stop -- any

consideration of pardon, which undoubtedly will be -- to pardons the right paul manafort if he wants to. >> but he would be screaming to the world, i am guilty. and he would so undermine the credibility of his office that it would be a disaster of the nation. and it would very possibly be an obstruruction of justice because he would be misusingng that powr to protect himselflf as a target of that investigation. any code that is senator blumenthal speaking on c cnn. marcy wheeler, the possibility of pardoning paul manafort and/or michael cohen? >> cohen has our he won't take a pardon, which i doubt, but that is what lanny davis is saying on tv. in january or february, "the new york times," reported trump had printed offered both descriptively offered them pardons.

and a lot of what has happened inin the manafort case, you sort of have to believe that because yesterday's verdicts were not a surprise. the case was overwhelming against him. so it was sort of suicidal for him to go through trial because his sentence will be much stiffer -- i mean, just as a comparison, as you said, he is expected to get at least 10 years where cohen will get five or fewer. similar kinds of crimes, right? manafort is going to get twice the sentence. one of the most logical explanations for that is he is expecting a pardon. but because robert mueller already knows -- and fact, this is one of the questions that he wants to ask trump, apparently -- mueller already knows that this pardon has been offered preemptively. i think that would count as obstruction of justice. it is also not that easy to do well. the last time we were in the

situation, george bush commuted scooter libb e's sentence right when he was about to go to prison and that meant that libby was not going to prison, but fit thell retained his mimic privilege against testimony. that is the kind of thing he would have to do with manafort. it is not clear that would be a not to silence manafort going forward. if you pardons manaforort today, then manafort is -- depend on how broad it is, then manafort can be asked to testify without incriminating himself on the russia stuff, which is what trump has already said is what manafort is most threatening to him for. so it is sort of hard to do. it is unclear whether he will -- i mean, he is pardoning everyone anyway, but it is not clear that is going to achieve the objectives he really wants, which is to skate free of what he himself has done with the conspiracy to win the election.

amy: we can say -- >> with multiple conspiracies, there is a conspiracy to silence the women and this conspiracy to work with russia to win the election. now we can speak in multiple terms. amy: ready giuliani said in a statement -- "there is no allegation of any wrongdoing against the president in the government's charges against mr. cohen. it is clear that, as the prosecutor noted, mr. cohen's actions reflect a pattern of lies and dishonesty over a significant period of time." on sunday, he appeared o on "met the press" with chuck todd to defend president trump. >> look, i''m not going g to be rushed into having an testify so he gets trapped into perjury. would you tell me, he should testify because he is one until the truth and you should not worry, well, it is someone's versrsion ofof the truth, not te truth. he did not have a conversation -- >> truth is truth. isn't.it

the president of the united states has, "i did not -- >> do you realize -- >> don't do this to m me. >> truth is the truth to me. >> donald trump says "i did not talk about flynn with comey." , says, "you didid talk about it." amy: rc wheeler, i want to go a step further to this issue of impeachment and what it can happen. we are 11 weeks away from the midterm elections comeme also brett kavanaugh, they're trying to push him through before the election, the possibility of f e flipping of the house or senate or the house and the senate. but what about this possibility of impeachment? >> well, we don't know. playing games, neither arare credible. it is not there he even understands the legal risk the president is under. stoppedld really being invited on tv because he is not providing any news or

anything credible. but mueller knows that. mueller knows that rudy is playing games. mueller knows that rudy is trying to stall. mueller knows that rudy is trying to stall long enough to get kavanaugh confirmed. so we don't know and mueller is not telling what he plalans to o in response. one of the things that was newsworthy and less yesterday is he extended the cooperation, the continuation of michael flynn's sentencing, but only until september 17 -- which are shorter than any of the other extensions, continuations. so that suggests mueller has got some things up his sleeve in the next 24 days. and i would not be so surprised to expect some major moves from mueller while rudy is on tv kind of playing with the press and uttering nonsense. we don't know what is going to happen. i am sure mueller recognizes the risk of the stall games that rudy and trump are trying to play.

i guess we just wait to see how mueller is going to respond to that. amy: before we end, i would ask about your personal connection to the mueller probe. last month you wrote -- "sometime last euro to the fbi provided information on a person who i had come to believe that a significant role in the russian election attack on the u.s. this leded you to being witnesso special counsel robert mueller's investigation. explain. .> sort of i would to the fbi about something that was not part of the mueller investigation. as i understand it, is subsequently got moved under the mueller investigation. yeyeah, i have a little insight into things that are not yet public about people unrelated to trump. i did in that post note the present in question knew what trump was doing within 15 hours of the polls closing in 2016 after the election.

but beyond that, i can't really explain what the person that went to the fbi about did. it just -- it does lead me to believe that there are a lot of things about the mueller inquiry or things that are now under mueller's investigation of people just are not aware of in public and that i think will surprise -- feeling amy: did you reveal your sources to him? what you did -- explain what you did publicly. >> i went and talked to the fbi about something that i believe this source had done, roles i believe he had played in the election. way i didthat -- the it was in part an effort to protect my other sources and to protect my readers because i believe if i had not done that, the fbi would come and start getting call recor for .veryone who goes to my sites i went to them and said, you can have this, but i'm not going to talk to about any of my other sources or any other journalists or what have you.

it was sort of a preemptive i viewed asop what somebody doing ongoing damage without impacting my other equities, i guess. amy: originally, he was a source and then you came to the very -- to be very concerned about him so told the fbi who he was. >> correct. amy: what was it that he did that you felt needed to be exposed? >> yeah, i'm not going to say that. i think it will become clear in the future. it was clear at the time i made the decision to go to the fbi that he was engaged in ongoing serious damage and hurting other people, hurting innocent people. i felt like i could not stay silent about that any longer but i also felt like i could not go to the press -- i could not just publish it because in my understanding, that would probably exacerbate things and leave him to do something

unreasonable. it might lead to increasing the damage rather than decreasing. amy: marcy wheeler, thank you for being with us independent , journalist who covers national security and civil liberties. runs the website emptywheel.net. speaking to us from michigan. this is democracy now! president trump, as all of this was unfolding,'s former campaign chair, his longtime lawyer and fixer guilty. he went to to west virginia to hold a rally and make an announcement about the rollback in missions regegulations that will lead to o it is belied wellll over 1000 people dying prematurely in the years to come for a year. stay with us. ♪ [music break]

amy: this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. return to west virginia where president trump rallied supporters last night to announce a massive rollback of obama-era environmental regulations on coal-fired power plants and carbon dioxide emissions that contribute to climate change. trump's "affordable clean energy" proposal would allow individual states to decide on their own whether to curb emissions. the environmental protection agency's own data shows as many -- the plan could cause as many each00 premature deaths year by 2030. "the washington post" reports the deregulation could release mean 12 times more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere over the next decade. the current head of the epa andrew wheeler is a former coal industry lobbyist. he is the one who replaced scott pruitt, who had to resign in

disgrace. this is president trump speaking at the rally interest in, west virginia, tuesday night. pres. trump: we love clean, beautiful west virginia coal. we love it. and you know, it is indestructible stuff. in times of war, in times of conflict, you can blow up those windmills. they fall down real quick. you can blowup those pipelines. they go like this. and you are not going to fix them too fast. you can do a lot of things to those solar panels, but you know what you can't heard? coal. you can do it every one to coal. very important. westtrump also said virginia has one of the strongest state economies s in e cleanest country in the planet [captioning made

possible by democracy now!] we go now to washington, d.c., were we are joined by mary anne hitt. thank you so much for being with us. why do you start off by talking about what he announced yesterday. we are talking as we hear people cheering about the number of premature deaths as a result of his environmental rollback by his own data, what, 1400 premature deaths a year by 2030, the number of new cases in upper respiratory problems, perhaps 15,000, a rise in bronchitis, etc.? >> they have long been our biggest climate pollution but also our biggest source of all sorts of other pollution like mercury and soot and smog and water pollution. so by rolling back these climate

safeguards for power plants, the epa's own numbers show up to 1600 premature deaths every year to be attributed to this rollback. and this has long been high on the wish list of the coal industry to rollback obama's signature climate standard, the clean power plan. that is what trump announced in west virginia yesterday. and while it is refreshed rate in for all of us who breathe just frustrating for all of us who breathe and parents worried about what kind of world they're bringing their parents into, there's a little bit is that fundamentally we believe this proposal will fail. amy:y: the regulations themselvs acknowledge in fine print the 1400 more premature deaths a rollback result of the will stop >> indeed. it is a pretty shocking admission, frankly, from the agency that is supposed to protect public health and safety, the epa, that they are putting 1600 lives a year in

danger to benefit coal executives, to benefit them who are runnining power plants i can no longer compmpete against renewable energy, that are polluting our air and water and frankly,te, and are, facing stiff c competition these days from when and solar. so putting the h health of our families at risk for regular americans at r risk, to bail out coal e executitives and a furthr line theheir pockets is pretty epa,ing admission from the but that is what t trump has ben doing. these are the same coal executives that put him in office. there are lots of photo circulating about themiterally handing their r wish list over o his agencies. so it is not a surprise, but it is also something that i believe is ultimately not going to succeed. amy: the role of andrew wheeler in all of this, who replaced the disgraced former epa administer scott pruitt? wheeler, the former coal

lobbyist? >> andrew wheeler has taken over from scott pruitt, who left in a scandal, notoriously, for his corrupt dealings from soundproof phone booths to expensive fountain has a much, much more. part of the reason i believe this has taken so long to come forward come this rollback of the clean power plan, is because of all of the scandal that surrounded scott pruitt. frankly, i think this policy bears all of the hallmark of the same corrupt administration, which is a handout to coal executives that andrew wheeler, on his -- in his first interview , was very clear he was going to carry forward the agenda of scott pruitt, that puts our health at risk to bail out some coal executives. one thing that is also important to note, though, for mr. wheeler and his leadership at the epa, is that the clean power plan

from to reduce carbon 32% 2005 levels by 2030. so 32% from the electric sector. we are already at 28%. we have almost reached the targets of the clean power plan almost a decade at of schedule because of grassroots leadership and leadership f from stateses d cities retiring g coal plants ad replacining themem with clean enerergy. drew wheeleler may be trying to do the bidding of his former bosses at coal companies, but the reality is coal is not coming back thanks to grassroots leadership and market forces. andrew wheeler and donald d ump cannot stop that progress. they can slow it down and make it more difficult, but it is not something they can stop. amy: and then you have andrew wheeler recently finalizing the epa's first new regulation to start rolling back the standards protecting waterways from toxic coal ash. >> yes. thatmericans are not aware

one of the largest sources of pollution in this country is toxic water pollution from coal-fired power plants, which the coal ash left behind in power plants includes very nasty substances like mercury and arsenic and lead. it is stored in these unlined, holes in the ground in over 1000 communities across this country. safeguardsno federal for how it was disposed of until obama came into office. another item on the wish list of the coal industry for trump was to remove those coal ash safeguards. that is something that scott pruitt also did. he managed to get the first over the finish line rollback of those coal ash standards. with the good news is, we actually won a court victory yesterday in the sierra club, earth justice, and many other organizations, that is going to call into question whether that rollback can go forward. rollbacksre these endangering our health, but many of them are, we believe,

illegal, violating the clean air act, clean water act, flying in the face of these bedrock in mermel statutes designed to detect our health and safety. another thing to remember about the dirty power plan, the coal ash rule rollbacks and all of the rest, they have a long road ahead before the actually get over the finish line. they have to go through public comment and survive court challenges and as we saw yesterday with the coal ash rule, when you're twisting the clean air act and clean water act to do the bidding of fossil fuel executives, you very well they be running afoul of the law . amy: the plan trurump's epa wans to replalace was a at the centef president obama's regulatory efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from power plants. this is obama announcing it august 3, 2015. prpres. obama: today we are rere to announce america's clean powewer plan, a a plan two yearn the making in the single most imimportant step america has evr

taken in the fight against global climate change. amy: president trump in 2015. mary anne hitt -- that was president obama in 2015. mary anne hitt, as we wrap up, how set in stone is -- are his plans here and what to people around t the country, do they he any role in whether they will -- this rollback will be implemented? >> absolutely. the status of this is it is a proposal that requires 60 days of, so people can comment. there will be public hearings. there will likely be legal challenges. people can weigh end. even more important thing that people can do is join efforts to retire coal plants around the country and replace them with clean energy. we retired a coal plant every 16 days while trump has been in office. we're retiring coal plants at the same rate under trump as we were under obama.

we have over half the coal plants in the u.s. announced to retire. we're not building any new coal plants. existing planse are already announced retire, and the remaining ones are having a very hard time competing with wind and solar. those are decisions that are made at the state and local level. those are decisions made by state, made by cities that are being driven by grassroots pressure. movementond the coal around this country of over 100 organizations that has led the charge to retire coal plants and replace them with renewable energy. that is progress that donald trump can't stop. it cannot be stopped with his dirty power plan, regardless of how it fares in the courts or in the court of public opinion. wherever people are around the country, they are undoubtedly connected to a coal plant or an opportunity for clean energy that could use their voice through many wonderful organizations. amy: thank you for driving up from west virginia for this

conversation, director of the sierra club beyond coal campaign. we will link to your latest piece of the sierra club website headlined "two truths and a lie: trump won't save coal or slow clean energy with clean power plan rolollback." this is democracy now! when we come back, a woman who through her own blood and red paint on a confederate statue. folks were at it again monday night and they toppled the monument honoring confederate soldiers on the campus of unc. we will speak with maya little. stay with h us. ♪ [musibreak]

amy: "phenomenal woman" laura ohm-vula. we end today's show in north carolina, where hundreds of student protesters in chapel hill toppled the "silent sam" confederate statue at the universisity of north carolina monday night on the eve of the first day of classes. the statue was erected in 1913 to honor confederate soldiers and has been the target of repeated protests. video ototage ows prottersrs surrndnding e statueith h ta banners. then the statue was toppd.d. this is universi o of noh carolina doctoral ududent ya little speaking atononday'ss protes shfaces charges ofroropert destction and possib expulsion r r pourg rered k and her owblblood thehe stue during an rlrlier otesest april. but th is maya and a night. >> the statue that honors slave

owners. at the statue i felt degraded and havalso been harass.. i veve beesurvrveied byy police . i th c calle a nigge. from theah wi be hung trtree rht a abo silenensam. amy: protesters teter trd toto bury t t toppled statue's he but fificialtookok iaway. sile sam, as the stae e is called, is the latest nfnfedere momonunt to o me down in north caronana arod uned s stas. confederate soldiers monenent in drum was toppled last august, two ysys aft thehe ute the righrarally chaharltesvilil, virginiawhere a man was killedrotestinthe white supremacts. decembe work crs remove two nfederatstatues om pas in mphis, teessee. civiwar-era ndmarks d coederate numents so came dodo in new leans an baltime. r more,e're gng to duam, noh cacarona come speak th maya ttle. you ju heard h speakin

mond night. talk abo the sigficance the ppling othis statu for me,t is ver siificant. this h been a ry long btle with theniversit the rst timehe statuwas ndalizedr paintedas 19, the daafter main luer king s assassated. years ler, the mbers of our comnity, stents, workers, people our mmunity ok it up himself to dohatnc would not do d reve the stue and memoriized thoseho have lost their les to whe supremy. y: talk abo what yodidn apl and wh you havbeen arged wi. in ril, i d what i ve be doing ts past yr, which is aing histicalontext t the ite suprecist monument knn as silent sam. i poured my blooinin rednk o on the e atue because it si sanitized and yet it isounded

on this idea oviviolen towarar blacpeoplele it was dedicated durg g the dededicaon speech. talking about whipngng a bck woman until her skirwawas insure in shreds. for it to sit at the university without the context is historically wrong. amy: can you talk about the charges you are facing right now? >> right now i'm facing criminal charges for vandalism. i will be tried in orange county, which is very historic in many ways. orange county is the same place that james lewis cates' as murderers were tried in 1973. it is also the same place that baird rustin and many of the first freedom writers were tried after being stopped in chapel hill. my court date is october 15 atat 9:00 a.m. amy: talk about what you did in

april. blood andi threw my red ink on the statue. i was providing the context that i as a black person and the other black students, workers, and community members who had to walk by the statue of the degraded everyday had to see -- which is a little news hanging on our campus, which is a mememorial to violence toward black people, to the people who enslaved my ancestors and sold her chilildren. i pouring my blood and red ink on the statue, imemorial to viod black hope to contextualize it. amy: your chancellor of the university of north carolina, colorful, called the removal of the silent sam statue "unlawful and dangerous," but she did acknowledge on tuesday in an open letter that the statue "has been divisive for years, and its presence has been a source of frustration for many people not

only on our campus but throughout the community." what is your response to what she has said? >> when i think was actually unlawful and dangerous was the chancellor's decision to not act -- in fact, to only act around silent sam to harass and use university police to spy on student protesters and antiracist activist. what is actually unlawful and disrespectful is forcing black students to study on c campus wiwith buildings namedftfter sve owrs comes study oa campus in which the forefront was a memorial to the people who enslaved their ancestors, who continued to disenfranchise, mumurderand d coit violence towards them in the 1920's an duri j jim cw. amy: i want to -- >> t thehancelellor's response n the university's reonse, whhh s toto pish anantarget antiracist a actists, was much

more unlawawl and disrespectful than what ma communi members did, whi was cougeously remove the stae. am i want go backo the story yotold a aut the whi suemacist indusialist jian rrpeaking the 1913 unveilg of theilent sa stat on the c campus anlumni waalso a veran of the cil r. hepoke abo how jus100 rds fromhe statu he had, in the wks immedtely aft the d of theivil war personal "horse-ipped" a blacwoman "uil her srts hungn shredsbecause on the stets of ts quiet llage she d public insulteand magned a sthern la, and th rushed r protecon to the univerty buildgs where was ationed garrisonf 100 federasoldiers i rformed e pleasi duty in thimmediatpresencef the enti garriso and forhirty nits afterrds slepwith a doub-barrel ot gun uer my head." so dcribed yreelings

mond nighthen the lent sam stat was toped, a femonths after you hhrown yo own ood on t statue. >> it waone of t most memorialize, to ta o our seetsts back from racists with and without badges and to topple thatat statue. amy: can you describe exactly how it went down monday night? >> i'm not sure, actually. amy: and what would -- it came down,e made a real m mightsounund,ell inin the dirt. we all cheered. amy:hey y waed to bury the head? >> i think many people touough dirt on the head.

again, we have bn struggngng against this statue, against instututionawhite suemacacy ununc r so l lg, since black studentsavave been at this iviversi. thcommmmuny arouou the area has also suggled with white supracacy atnc.. it wasas joyous moment for stenents and for workersndnd mmununit members to know that we are abltoto defd ouoursves ter protect our comninity, d totopacism a white supremacwithin i amy:aya litt, whatould you like tsee the stae replac by >> i thinkhat unc s the portunitto honor t sistance to whitsupremac at unc by ectingtatues t peop who havfought ainst this whiteupremacyand also those o havbeen murred by it. would bnice to e memori to jes lewisates whoas murder in 1970y weiss om system morcycle ng. it wou be vely to see

memorio the unmed blac womawho rusheto the universi campus r safety d wabeaten by juli carr. amy: maybe there will be a statue for you, maya little. what message do you have for president trump today? i think the same message that we have had for chancelloror fot and others. when they do n nothing to protet us, when they do nothing to protect black and brown people in this country, we fight back. we take things into our own hands and we protect ourselves and fight against racism. and that is what we will continue to do. amy: what are you majoring in? what is your doctorate in? recent chinese history. amy: i want to thank you so much for being with us.

university of north carolina doctoral student maya little arrested earlier this year for dousing the confederate silent sam memorial with red paint and her own blood. that statue was toppled on monday night. democracy now! is looking for feedback from people who appreciate the closed captioning. e-mail

hello. welcome to nhk "newsline." i'm miki yamamoto in tokyo. people in western japan are bracing for strong winds and torrential rain as a typhoon approaes the island. it could makeandfall a early as thursday night. the meteorogical agency say