08/23/18 08/23/18 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] amy: from pacifica, this is democracy now! >> is the president has stated

on numerous occasions, he did nothing wrong. there are no charges against him. just because michael cohen made a plea till does not mean that that applicants the president on anything. amy: as fallout mounts over trump attorney michael cohen's guilty plea and trump campaign manager paul manafort's conviction, senior democrats are pushing for a halt to sprinkler justice brett kavanaugh's confirmation process. a handful of democratic lawmakers are breaking with leadership in pushing for impeachment. we will be with congressman out green of texas who first openly call for trump's impeachment last year. >> i rise today, mr. speaker, to call for the impeachment of the united stateshe of america. amy: plus, we will go to north carolina where the state's historical commission has voted to keep confederate monuments on

the grounds of the state capital. we will speak with the african-american commissioner who cast the dissenting vote, and then to white nationalists in the white house, a week after one of trump's speechwriters was fired for speaking at a what's up or mrs. conference, trump's economic adviser larry kudlow admits he hosted a prominent white nationalists publisher at his home. all of that and more, coming up. welcome to democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. president donald trump lashed out against his former fixer and personal attorney michael: wednesday, one day after cohen pleaded guilty to a cruel charges of including to campaign finance violations that appeared to book a trump as an unindicted co-conspirators are. cohen admitted in court tuesday he arranged to illegally count money to two women, adult some star and a playboy model, to

keep them from speaking during the 2016 campaign about their alleged affairs with donald trump. cohen indicated trump directed the payments which were made for the purpose of influencing the election. on wednesday, trump fired back tweeting -- amy: speaking in an interview with ainsley heart of fox and friends that air this month, trump falsely stated payments were not a violation of campaign finance laws. pres. trump: later on i knew. you have to understand, what he did, and they weren't taken out of campaign finance, that is the big thing. that is a much bigger thing. to they come out of the campaign? they came for me. amy: trump's comments came as he hinted at a possible pardon for paul manafort, who was convicted on eight criminal charges tuesday, quitting tax evasion am a bank fraud, campaign-finance violations.

trump tweeted -- at the white house, press secretary sarah huckabee sanders repeatedly insisted trump had loss. the laws -- no >> i'm not going to get into the back-and-forth details. as the president has stated on numerous occasions, he did nothing wrong. there are no charges against them. just because michael cohen made a plea deal does not mean it that implicates the president on capitol hill, a number of key democratic senators are calling for a halt the nomination process for supreme court justice nominee brett kavanaugh until special counsel robert mueller completes his investigation. sit a minority leader chuck schumer noted judge kavanaugh has taken an expansive view of president's powers and would likely act to protect trump

against any criminal prosecution. >> it is unseemly for the president of the united states to be picking a supreme court justice who could soon be, effectively, a juror in a case involving the president himself. in light of these facts, i believe chairman grassley has scheduled a hearing for judge kavanaugh too soon and i am theing on him to delay hearing. amy: meanwhile, talk of impeaching president trump continues to grow despite objections from congressional democratic leaders. after headlines, we will speak with democratic congress member al green who is a leader of the effort to impeach the president. new york state investigators have subpoenaed michael cohen to testify as part of their investigation into whether donald trump and three of his children used the nonprofit foundation called the trump foundation for illegal campaign

activity and as a virtual piggy bank for repeated self-dealing. this is it a press says cohen' is testimony could help bolster a future case against the foundation or possibly against trump himself and could lead new york's attorney general to request copies of donald trump's tax returns, which trump has refused to make public. in june, new york attorney general barbara underwood filed a civil suit against the trump foundation saying it used charitable funds to illegally coordinate with trump's 2016 presidential campaign to settle lawsuits against trump family businesses and even to purchase a $10,000 portrait of donald trump hung at one of his golf resorts. beenry's government has accused of cutting off food to migrants living in transit camps in a bid to get them to drop their claims for asylum. on wednesday, human rights watch became the latest group to accuse hungary's anti-immigrant government of using starvation as a weapon, writing -- "it's completely outrageous and

absurd that people have to turn to the courts to get a slice of bread. this disregard for people's well-being smacks of a cynical move to force people to give up their asylum claims and leave hungary." in more news on migration, naval ships in malta on wednesday brought ashore over 100 migrants rescued at sea, along with the bodies of two people who died attempting to cross the mediterranean. in italy, a ship carrying 177 migrants docked in sicily on tuesday, but authorities have not allowed most of the asylum-seekers aboard the ship to disembark. earlier today, authorities allowed children to leave the boat, but have said adults must remain aboard until other european countries agree to take them in. in north africa, about 100 african migrants pushed through razor wire as they crossed a fortified border separating morocco from the tiny spanish enclave of ceuta tuesday. and in bosnia, scores of refugees and asylum seekers showed reporters cuts and bruises saying they were beaten by croatian police who turned

them back to a camp of about 5000 migrants near the bosnia-croatia border. in georgia in the united states, election officials in a rural for the mentally black county are facing charges of voter suppression after they announced plans to close seven of their county's nine polling places ahead of november's midterm elections. randolph county officials say they're closing the polling sites because they don't comply with the americans with disabilities act. but critics charge the move is aimed at suppressing the votes of african americans. the county's action would likely have triggered a justice department review under section 5 of the voting rights act of 1965. but in 2013, the supreme court effectively ended those protections. in charlottesville, virginia, a judge sentenced ku klux klan leader richard preston, jr., to years in prison wednesday, after four he pleaded no contest to a

charge of firing a pistol into a crowd of anti-racist protesters during last august's "unite the right" rally. video of the incident shows preston, who was wearing a bulletproof vest, walked up to an african-american man at close range and fired a shot at the ground right in front of him. preston then turned around and walked past a line of state troopers, who witnessed the shooting but did not move. in north carolina, the state historical commission voted 10 -- nine to two wednesday not to remove three confederate monuments from the grounds of the state capital. this comes two days after the protesters tore down the so-called silent sam confederate statue at the university of north carolina, chapel hill. we'll have more on the fight over confederate monuments later in the broadcast. we will have the african-american commission member who voted to take away the confederate monuments on capitol grounds in north carolina. a california county assuming internet service writer verizon in a lawsuit contending the

trump administration's decision to and net neutrality protections is endangering lives. county -- just one half of 1% of its usual speed, inhibiting operation during the summers mendocino complex fire. the largest wildfire in california's history. under net neutrality rules set by the obama administration but revoked under the current fcc chair, verizon's move to throttle data would have been illegal. hawaii's governor has declared a state of emergency as one of the central pacific's most powerful hurricanes on record approaches the archipelago. hurricane lane briefly reached category 5 status, the highest ranking, before weakening slightly to a still-powerful category 4 storm with maximum sustained winds of 145 miles per hour. it's expected to sweep just west of hawaii's big island later

today, and authorities warn it could bring a year's worth of rain to parts of hawaii within just hours. the storm is the most powerful hurricane to threaten hawaii in recorded history. climate scientists say increased ocean temperatures from greenhouse gas emissions are driving more powerful storms like hurricane lane. and in honduras, human rights groups are condemning the government for failing to and date a single person for killing 31 people during protests challenging last november's election results. the protesters were killed during a brutal military crackdown and its reports of widespread fraud and vote rigging. families of victims say they have been subjected to harassment and death threats after pressing for justice. this comes as the daughter of internationally renowned honduran environmentalist for to cancerous, who was assassinated caceras who was

assassinated. her daughter spoke to reporters. the rico process has been carried out in the midst of great irregularities in the investigation hinted by the public prosecutor's office, which is monopolizing investigation and has denied the status of victims in this process, refusing to inform us the handle and the information that supports the investigation. however, in parallel, we have always made the effort to both hypothesis and determine individual responsibility of each person. amy: and those are some of the headlines. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. nermeen: and i'm nermeen shaikh. welcome to all of our listeners and viewers from around the country and around the world. fallout from president trump's former attorney michael cohen's plea deal and former campaign manager paul manafort guilty verdict is continuing to grow in washington. on capitol hill, a number of key democratic senators are calling

for a halt to the nomination process for supreme court justice nominee brett kavanaugh. senator cory booker of new jersey said -- "no american citizen should be able to choose the person who will be judging them when they're subject to a criminal investigation should those matters, before that judge." his comment came a day after trump's former lawyer, michael cohen, directly implicated trump in committing a federal crime. cohen admitted he arranged to illegally pay out money to two women, an adult film star stormy daniels and playboy model karen mcdougal, to keep them from speaking during the 2016 campaign about their alleged affairs with 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." meanwhile, talk about the possible impeachment of president trump is also growing.

earlier today, trump was asked about impeachment during an interview on fox and friends. away from the midterms, hard to believe. if the democrats take back power, do you believe they will try to impeach you? iss. trump: i guess something like high crimes -- i don't know how you can defeat somebody who has -- impeached summit who is in a great job. if i ever got impeached, i think the market would crash. i think everybody would be very poor because without this thinking, you would see numbers that you wouldn't believe. amy: the need to impeach campaign has announced claims to spend over one million-dollar's and adds to push for impeachment. the campaign is funded by tom steyer. the democratic leadership has resisted calls for impeachment. "the new york times" reports house democrats readers have privately urged members to avoid the topic of impeachment. some see fear it will hurt the

parties chances in november. other democratic lawmakers have been publicly pushing impeachment for over a year. we go now to one of the first, to houston, texas, where we're joined by democratic congressman out great who introduced articles of impeachment last year. welcome back to democracy now! wantabout why you president trump impeached now, and have your reasons changed over this year? you were the first openly introduce articles of impeachment against the wishes of the democratic establishment. >> thank you for allowing me to be on the program. this is a very sad time in the history of our country. this is not something that i enjoy talking about, nor is it something i would like to do. but i think it is becoming increasingly clear that the president will have two options. one, he can resign from office. two, he can face impeachment. impeachment is something the

framers of the constitution provided for a time such as this and a president said just trump. the president does not have to commit a crime to be impeached. in fact, the president is not likely to be indicted, which means he is not likely to be found guilty of a crime while he is sitting -- which means that if this comes before the house, it won't, for the house as a president who has been found guilty, but rather as a president who is alleged to have committed certain offenses that are onerous to the constitution and that harm society. and what this president is doing is karmic society. more specifically, what mr. had astated in court, he lawyer. he is a lawyer. he says that he and the president of the united states conspired. he did not use that exact word, but that is what it means when you say the president directed you and you followed through. so they conspired to commit an offense.

the president may never be found guilty of it, but he can be impeached for it. it is my opinion the judiciary committee is not doing its job. this whole impeachment investigation is being outsourced. the framers of the constitution intended for the judiciary committee to do this. gather information, make decisions, move forward. if the judiciary committee does not move forward, then i think it is incumbent upon the 435 members, each of whom have the opportunity to bring articles of impeachment, to consider doing so. i will surely consider doing so. nermeen: representative green, as you are aware, many of your democratic colleagues in congress are saying the crucial thing to do now is allow robert mueller to go ahead with the investigation. i would like to turn to one of those senators, elizabeth warren, of massachusetts, being questioned about why many democrats remain hesitant to

talk about impeachment proceedings. cnn anchor john berman questioned her on wednesday. --what i am here from you and you're not alone -- is reluctance to talk about the "i" word strictly. why would you be reluctant and look at this as an impeachable offense? >> i am not nervous, i just want to be effective. the way that any of us are effective is to say, let's get all of the evidence. let's get all of the pieces out there. or take robert mueller. let him -- protect robert mueller. let him make a full and fair report to all of the american people. and when we have got that, then we can make a decision on what the appropriate next step is. green,: representative your response to what senator warren said? is the key thing now to let mueller go-ahead with the

investigation? reasonsf the preeminent for my being a democrat is because within the democratic party, there is not a belief that you must have unanimous duty -- unanimity of thought. we are allowed to have our own ideas. i respect the ideas of all of my colleagues. i believe that while their ideas should be respected, i, too, have ideas that must be respected. it is my opinion that you cannot allow an unfit president to continue to cause harm to society. let's take just a few examples quickly. when those persons in charlottesville were saying, "let and soil," many of them worked in places that probably served jews and minority persons. one can only imagine what would happen to the food of a person who is of african anders -- ancestry that is being served by one of those bigots.

let's take the example of what happened at the border with those babies that were being separated from their mothers by virtue of a policy instituted by this president. that was a form of bigotry that is intolerable. we don't have to allow the president to continue to harm our society. the framers of the constitution contemplated that there would be a president who would do things even more horrible than this, but also things as horrible as can subset that president be removed from office. and the framers concluded that no person should be above the law and of the president should not be beyond justice. it is justice that we seek for the people of this country, and the president should be impeached, does that have to commit a crime, only has to have his case brought before the house of representatives and 218 people decide that he has committed an impeachable act.

amy: i want to turn to dust >> if the judiciary committee does not act, i will. amy: i want to turn to a recently resurfaced clip of trump ally senator lindsey graham. this is back almost a decade ago in 1999, actually, 20 years ago. then-congressman graham argued for the impeachment of president bill clinton in 1999, for seeking to hide evidence of his affair with white house intern monica lewinsky. this was recently highlighted on msnbc. >> you don't even have to be convicted of a crime to lose your job in this constitution republic. if this body determines that your conduct is a public -- as a public official is quoted at about than normal. because impeachment is not about punishment. impeachment is about cleansing the office. impeachment is about restoring honor and integrity to the office. amy: senator now lindsey graham is not exactly speaking in the

same way. congressmember -- in addition to congress member out green, we're joined by ron fein, legal director at free speech for people. he is the co-author of a book that is just out right now. the book is called "the constitution demands it: the case for the impeachment of donald trump." you are not in congress, ron, you are part of the movement around the country calling for the impeachment of president trump. you have been doing that for quite some time now. did yesterday, the day of the guilty pleas and verdicts, change your demands? and if you can lay them out? i think yesterday was a very big day. i want to commend representative green as well as some other brave members of congress who have been calling for impeachment before this point. but what happened yesterday with michael cohen, the personal

lawyer to the president of the united states stating in open court that donald trump directed him to commit crimes is a game changer. it is going to have repercussions that will be felt over the coming weeks. what is important to know, as representative green said, this is not the only basis for impeachment hearings. the judiciary committee is long overdue for impeachment proceedings on a whole range of grounds about donald trump. nermeen: representative green, you said earlier that trump's case should be brought before the house of representatives to a vote about whether trump should be impeached. but do you think there would be sufficient support for that vote? if it is you said that not brought to the house, you will act. what exactly do you intend to do? ther. king reminds us that time is always right to do that which is right.

we cannot allow political expediency to trump the moral imperative to save our country from the harm that this president perpetrates. i have no desire to be first. but if the judiciary committee does not act -- and it has a duty and responsibility to do so -- i am going to get back to congress. i will wait to see what the judiciary committee will do. if it does not act judiciously, then it isn't, and upon me and other members to take -- incumbent upon me and others to take this before the floor. it won't be found any place as long as he is president and we have a responsibility. i will live up to my duties and obligations. by the way, whether we like it or not, whether we won it or not or whether we oppose it, impeachment is going to be on the ballot in november. amy: what about that issue? some people say, why impeachment? let people vote. they voted for president trump, even if millions more did not

vote for president trump, but let the election aside who will be president. why is impeachment such an important tool for you, congressmember? theirst, let me acknowledge author that is on with us. i think was very kind, but his advice is quite clear that impeachment is an option. here is why shouldn't afford with impeachment. because of the harm the president is currently doing to our society. you cannot allow this harm to continue. at some point, the harm can certainrreparable in circumstances. we don't want our country to become a country where persons of color who are arrested by the police may be harmed because the president has said, before police officers, when you arrest a person, when you get them in custody, you need not be nice. that is encouraging persons to violate the constitution.

we don't want the persons who were in charlottesville to think they now have cover for their dastardly deeds and the ugly protests. we want this country to be what it is said to become a place where one can receive liberty and all can receive justice. that is what america is about. that is what i am about most of not about my career. to have the character, the kurds, the belief that we have to stand on the constitution? i believe we should. amy: to michaelt's turn caputo talking about impeachment to cnn's poppy harlow wednesday. he spoke about the november elections. >> i've been kind of parting ways with some of the republican consulting class in washington now for quite some time. i really believe that the vote -- the voters make on november six is going to boil down to if

they vote for republican, member of the house representatives, vote against impeachment. if they vote for democratic or challenger, they're voting for impeachment. >> you think that is all it is about? >> i think it always has been. charge that cohen has made, we know they now have enough to do it. it is about impeachment. >> yes or no. is the president closer to impeachment today than he was 48 hours ago? >> i believe so. nermeen: ron fein, can respond to what he said in an interview? >> look them people have a lot of different motivations for voting, but i think the issue of impeachment is owing to be on the ballot. and whether that is democrats or republicans, people are looking to hold the president to account for what he is done. as representative green has said, this is not just about the plea that michael cohen injured.

trump has been violating the constitution is literally the day he took office when he was violating the foreign and a mystic and monument clauses of the constitution, which are anticorruption provisions, because he takes payments through his businesses from foreign governments. and because he was allowed to get away with that, because congress has done nothing about it since the moment he took office, he has learned the lesson of impunity, that he can get away with more and more, including directing law-enforcement to prosecute and harass his political adversaries and his critics, including obstructing justice, including undermining the freedom of the press by trying to use the levers of government to punish critical media. so impeachment is high crimes and misdemeanors. some of those will be criminal offenses like the one that michael cohen has implicated trump income and others are abuses of power and of office that may or may not also be statutory crimes. but as we lay out in the book, trump has already accumulated a

record that justifies immediate impeachment hearings. we should be starting now. amy: ron fein, at the same -- >> may i say amen to what he said? i would like to say amen. amy: ron fein, i would ask about what else is developing. on tuesday, yet the guilty pleas and the guilty verdicts against trump's former lawyer and his former campaign chair. that is the same time, you this revving up for the hearings, the confirmation hearings for judge kavanaugh to become a supreme court justice. you wrote a piece in newsweek. she co-authored it -- you co-authored it. it is not the direction the senate is going in right now, though many democrats are calling for it. explain the significance of what is taking place right now before the november elections. kavanaugh's

confirmation hearings need to be put on pause. that is r two reasons. the first is the president should not be able to nominate and have confirmed any justice to the supreme court while he is under these types of investigations because any justice he would nominate would be in a position to hear cases that would directly affect the president's own criminal liability and perhaps impeachment as well. for example, whether the president can become health to testify or even speak to investigators if he refuses a subpoena. and that is particularly true for brett kavanaugh because he has gone on record as saying the president, a sitting president, can't even be investigated because it would interfere too much with his time. so the senate needs to put those hearings on pause, wait for criminal investigations to play out, wait for beach and proceedings to play out, then after all of that has been resolved, then and only then should the city begin to

reconsider a nominee the supreme court. what youyou lay out believe the articles of impeachment should be, ron fein? >> in the book we identified eight and since then we have identified two more. even though the book was released just a week ago, the finishing of the manuscript happen and then trump keeps committing more offenses. a very first one was violating the foreign emoluments and domestic emoluments clauses of the constitution. this is something the framers of the constitution identified as an impeachable offense in the constitutional debates. there is no dispute trump is violating it. effect commerce has not taken -- thesince day one is a fact congress has not taken action since day one is travesty. we have two grounds that overlap with the mueller investigation and two that don't. the emoluments clauses are not part of the mueller investigation. he is not looking into them. they are not part of the scope

of his investigation. we're not going to learn about a monuments from robert mueller. we will possibly learn more about two other grounds. one is the extent to which trump was involved in conspiring to solicit help from a foreign government during the 2016 election, which is a violation of federal campaign finance law and a serious threat to our democratic institutions. and also, the extent to which he obstructed justice by working to frustrate and impede the investigations into himself and some of his associates. what we will learn from the robert mueller investigation may be some internal discussions, but the public evidence that is already out there -- which we have laid out in the book -- is only enough for congress to conclude trump has worked to obstruct justice. we have also identified trump's directing law-enforcement to prosecute political adversaries and critics as grounds for impeachment. that was part of the articles of impeachment against richard

nixon. as representative green has said, advocating illegal violence and underlining does undermining equal protection under the law, he urged police to be rough with suspects and he gave aid and comfort to neo-nazis and white supremacist after charlottesville. in addition to that, we have identified undermining freedom of the press by his constant attacks on the press. not just words, but also use of the levers of government as grounds for impeachment. since the book came out, we have identified two more. one is cruel and unconstitutional treatment of migrant children and their families. and the most recent one is what just happened with michael cohen, which is we now have enough evidence to tie trump to violating campaign law, conspiring to do so, by paying hush money to silence his former mistresses in order to influence the 2016 election. nermeen: representative green, i

would like to get your comment as well brett kavanaugh's forthcoming confirmation hearings for supreme court justice. what do you think should happen and what are the potential rulings, the issues he will be ruling on, if he is made supreme court justice that directly pertain to trump? >> i think it is very likely he will have to rule on the president's impeachment the cousin i am confident that it will happen. it is just a matter of time. the country is not going to tolerate this kind of behavior emanated from the presidency. i think he may have to rule on some issues related to this. i think he has already indicated he is averse to having the president, a president, investigated. he seems to think while the president is in office, the president is totally immune to scrutiny.f judicial and that is unfortunate. but i do believe he should not

be appointed currently. i think there should be a time for us to consider these other options associated with the presidency. and after that, maybe we can move forward. but he is currently the person that the president would have there ostensibly to be a great justice, volcker verbally it appears -- covertly it appears to support him in a time of need as it relates to impeachment. i'm very disappointed in the senate. i'm disappointed in the way they have approached not only this nomination, but a previous nomination. the merrick garland seat was hijacked. there has to be some justice accorded the country for what happened merrick garland. i am opposed to moving forward because of that circumstance as well. it is time for us to come to some conclusion as to how we

will consistently handle these judicial nominations. the senate has changed the rules when it benefits the party in power. that is not just. finally, if i may add this. we have a constitution that shows us the way to deal with these circumstances. it really now is about will. will we have the will to do what we know the framers of the constitution intended? and if some of the is interested, read federalist 65. reads the dust read the words of alexander hamilton. it was concluded this will be a great time of turmoil, the parties would become recalcitrant, that it would be difficult to do, but it was something that should be done if we find that a president seeks to be beyond justice. not and those words, but that is the essence of federalist 65. amy: we want to thank you both for being with us. congressman al green, democrat

from houston, the first to openly introduce articles of of thement in the floor house of representatives against president trump. and we want to thank ron fein, legal director at free speech for people. his new book is called "the constitution demands it: the case for the impeachment of donald trump." when we come back, the sole african-american dissenting voice on the north carolina historical commission that voted yesterday to keep three confederate monuments on the capitol grounds in raleigh, just two days after students toppled silent sam, confederate monument on the grounds of the university of north carolina. stay with us. ♪ [music break]

amy: this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. nermeen: we turn now to north carolina, where just two days after protesters tore down the so-called silent sam confederate

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members the 17-mber nor carona histocal commsion, d the on african mac and woman. she islso the tt stinguisheprofessoof won's udies andirectorf afcana wom's udies at greensro'bennett llege an chaiof the nth carola afrin americ heritag commsion. thk you fojoining us, ofessor hnson. can you lk abouthis vote two daysfter thetudents topplesilent s, a monunt noto one pson but e coederate ldiers w were studentstnc -- thebrought it dow throughirt on i face -- the commissn conned d votes t kp the the coederate monents on e grnds of t capitol lk abouthis decision you ssented om. all, foou, fit of havi this oprtunity speak with you. sterday s the coman nati of really nths of deleration by studyommittee. e study mmittee nsisted fivef us on t the strgle

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they we erecte oour arhugeootprint ate capil ground is eeteonuments height. at is a huge stateme to make about e confedacy. so we ha sever ideas aut wh should one. anthe vote yesterday reflected three resolutions, three ways in theh we were addressing issue. i voted consistent with the statement that i made, which is to remove those three memorials and to place them in more appropriate venues. nermeen: what about, professor johnson, the vote to -- or three resolutions you say, and one of them, the possibility was giving a description, providing context to these memorials kamaishi say,

not statues? can you expand your vote on that decision, on the issue? >> yes. by voting to say no that they should be removed, and my consistency and my vote was that not only are -- is it hard to rehabilitate those statues and to put that kind of signage around that should be there, that i also felt that i had to be consistent again with what i no toting and to say that particular resolution. it doesn't mean i'm against bringing to the capitol grounds depict or monuments that the ways in which african-americans and native americans have contributed to north carolina. so my vote wasn't against that. it was keeping consistent with the idea that those three statues should not be on the

state capitol grounds. the capitol grounds that are for all of north carolinians. i thought if we voted to remove them, it would be an opportunity for us to rethink citizenship. because those monuments also were about abrogating the citizenship of african-americans , and by extension, other nonwhites. this isn't just about black and white. this is about how is it we're going to understand ourselves as full citizens of our state and of this country? amy: this is so significant. we were recently in bonn, germany, and there wasn't any discussion there about the fact that in german you don't see monuments to hitler's and the people say that is because we can't remember even the evil that he did. they say, they don't belong is memorials. in the united states, you have one flashpoint after another. two days ago you had the

students taking down silent sam and last year the flashpoint for charlottesville was the was supremacists wanting to keep up a confederate statue of robert yulee, even his great-grandson said he should be taken down. but this issue of these monuments, in your view of what happened and whether this incident discussion, the commission overwhelmingly about your objection voting to keep these monuments, yet down the road at university of north carolina, they toppled silent sam. >> this is correct. this is not settled business. even though we made a vote that we did yesterday in the commission has rendered its decision and as a member of that committee and of the commission, even though i was dissenting, i do have to continue to be a part of an tive cmittee aactive

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st with us ♪ [musibreak] amy: this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman with nermeen shaikh. nermeen: we ended the hour looking at how multiple people close to donald trump have direct ties to white supremacist. president comes top economic advisor there he kudlow has admitted he recently hosted white nationalist publisher peter brimelow at a birthday celebration at his home. brimelow founded the dare.com.

a panelist at the h.l. mencken , conference call the gathering of "white nationalists and pseudo-academic and academic a panelist atracists." for more, we're joined by richard cohen. welcome back to democracy now! talk about the latest developments. >> i don't think they are entirely surprising, amy. we've seen a real cross-fertilization between some hard-core people in the anti-immigrant movement in the trump administration. jeff sessions, stephen miller, and now these revelations. it is reflection of trump, his policies, and his heart. these people are not renegades.

they are not people who weasel their way into the the administration uncorrupted trump. they reflect his views. he chose them because of their views. amy: talk about who dare beattie was speaking at the hl mencken conference and what that was. >> the conference is kind of an incubator for alt-right ideas. wasle like richard spencer its founder, one of its founders. they have an assortment of academic racists who speak there every year. it includes people like peter brimelow. it is quite incredible that darren beattie would have been there in 2016. he gave a speech that was really music to the ears of his audience. it was very trump-y.

he talked about globalism as being one of the things that was responsible for the errors, as he put a can of immigration. you talked about movements conservatism being dead and a new form of right-wing intelligentsia emerging. i know that was music to the ears of the racist who listened him. amy: and you explain -- stephen miller is still in the trump administration. explain what vdare is. >> vdare is a website that brimelow started. it is a publishing platform for white nationalists, people like jared taylor, some who said that people weren't capable of forming civilization. someone who said -- he was the spokesperson for the organization from which dylann roof drew the idea that there was a genocide against white

people. i think it is been a mouthpiece for the radical white white nationalists, and has images and promised 20 years now. amy: can you talk -- >> i went to mention one thing about brimelow as well. brimelow was actually someone that stephen miller and richard spencer brought to duke university when they were both students there. miller was an undergraduate. stephan spencer was a graduate student. there's some evidence for it that spencer was kind of a mentor for stephen miller during that time. nermeen: where do you see this going, richard cohen? you've expressed concerns about the white nationalists who are in the white house, but talk about what has been going on outside as well. in different places around the country. >> well, i am concerned, of

course, with white nationalism within the administration that i am outside of it. after charlottesville, we saw some of the players who have been prominent their kind of retreat into the background from the bad publicity as result of heather heyer's death. we saw the tech industry clamped down on them. at the same time, we saw you emergency -- new emergent elements of the whites from assist movement come to the four, particularly in places like portland, seattle, with the rise of a group called the proud boys. amy: i want to ask about what happened on a recent tweet. trump tweeting --

former kkk grand wizard david duke and the far integrate -- vdare talking but genocide. response wrote -- again, this coming just after trump speechwriter fired after was revealed he spoke at a whites from assist conference. talk about the latest attack on south africa and what it means. trump has history of tweeting racist ideas. the idea that he would pick out south africa from all of the countries that have problems in the world is quite incredible. you might remember dylann roof, the person who massacred nine people in a church in charleston, had the emblem of

the former south african regime on his coat as well as the emblem of the former regime in rhodesia. of course he believed there was a white genocide of a. trump tweeting this kind of thing is really play into the hands and energizing the right as evidence by tweets of people like david duke that he mentioned. amy: and he tweeted this right after their was a segment on fox news. finally, we just spoke with professor johnson in north carolina, the only african-american woman dissenting vote on keeping the confederate monuments. on this first anniversary of the white supremacist rally in charlottesville and the vote to keep these monuments, you have done so much work at the southern poverty law center on the significance of these monuments. and they voted to keep these monuments on the capitol grounds in north carolina two days after the students at unc toppled the

confederate monument there, silent sam. >> there are probably about 1500 confederate monuments, markers, even some army bases named after confederate generals. it is -- the country needs to come to terms with this racist past. these monuments were erected as basically a celebration of white supremacy at the turn of the st century, and then again duringhe heighof massi restance t degregati i the 50' a 1960's. th ought tcome dow amy: tt are even teous litary bes, as y point out, nam for conderate militaryeroes. so-called. >> and these people were treasonous folks. they were fighting against the united states. the idea we name military bases after them is incredible. it is a reflection of the power in ae southern senators

bygone era. amy: we want to thank you for being with us. richard cohen is president of the southern poverty law center. that does it for our broadcast. happy birthday to julie crosby! democracy now! has a job opening for a broadcast engineer here in our new york city studio. find out more at democracynow.org. democracy now! is looking for feedback from people who appreciate the closed captioning. e-mail your commen qeqeqeqeqeqeqe

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