08/27/18 08/27/18 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] amy: from pacifica, this is

democracy now! togoing home for a while treat my illness. i have every intention of returning here in giving many of you cause to regret all of the nice things you said about me. and i hope they press on you again that it is an honor to serve the american people in your company. thank you, fellow senators. amy: senator john mccain has died of brain cancer at the age of 81. we will host a roundtable discussion on the former pow who became a six term senator and two-time presidential candidate. we will look at the obituaries and what is being omitted with ,he intercept's mehdi hasan code pink founder medea, norman solomon, author of "war made easy." then we will speak with norman solomon about how democrats

voted this weekend on a key progressive demand after the 2016 campaign to strip the power of superdelegatetes in choosing the party's presidential nominee. reducg t wl supeelegatest. w they wl refrn from voting othe firspresidenal nominating ballot in removing any doubt about -- amy: and we go to ireland where pope francis marked the first papal visit to the country in 39 years by analogy the failure of -- acknowledging the failure of the church authority to address the abuse. >> the failure of ecclesiastical authorities, bishops, priests, and others adequately to address these repugnant crimes has rightly given rise to outrage and remains a source of pain and of shame for the catholic

community. amy: we will go to dublin to speak with a member of snap -- the survivors network of those abused by priests -- and with a former priest and long-time supporter of clergy sex abuse victims. all that and more, coming up. welcome to democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. republican arizona senator john mccain has died at the age of 81. the senator and two-time presidential candidate was battling a malignant brain tumor for over a year. on friday, his family announced he was ending his treatment, and he died saturday afternoon at his home in arizona. senator mccain served as a naval pilot in the vietnam war, spending five years as a prisoner of war after his plane was shot down in 1967. he spent two years in solitary confinement and twice attempted suicide.

he eventually signed a statement he would forever regret, confession admitting to "crimes against the vietnamese country and people." this experience made mccain a life-long opponent of torture. yet upon his release and return to the united states, he wrote an article expressing support for president nixon and the u.s. bombing of cambodia. after mccain's election to u.s. senate in 1987, he consistently promoted war and u.s. military intervention abroad, including in the first gulf war, afghanistan, and iraq. in 2008, he ran for president vowing to deploy a surge of u.s. troops to iraq. mccain was also known for reaching across the aisle and working with democrats on some key issues. in 1995, he worked with john kerry, also a vietnam war veteran, to provide political cover for president clinton to normalize relations with vietnam. last year, mccain famously voted

thumbs down against the repeal of the affordable care act. he also recently opposed cia director gina haspel's nomination because of her role in post 9/11 torture. former presidents george w. bush and barack obama will eulogize mccain at his funeral at the national cathedral on saturday. cnn is reporting mccain did not want president trump to attend. we'll have more on mccain's political legacy after headlines. in chicago, democratic party officials voted to vastly reduce saturday the power of superdelegates in choosing the democratic party's presidential nominee. the new rules, voted on at the the national committee's summer meeting, will prohibit superdelegates from voting on the first ballot of the presidential nominating process at the party's convention. the change comes after the highly contentious role of superdelegates during the 2016 democratic primary between former secretary of state hillary clinton and vermont

senator bernie sanders. we'll have more on the democratic party vote and superdelegates later in the broadcast. pope francis traveled to ireland where he met with survivors of sexual abuse by catholic priests and acknowledged the grave scandal of church sexual abuse. it was the first papal visit to ireland since 1979. this is paul redmond, one of the abuse survivors who met with pope francis. >> we are looking for wholehearted apologies. certainly, we got one today from the pope. but whether or not that will translate into huge official apology from the church is another matter. but it is whether that translates into actual action. that is what really matters to us. and to survivors around the world. 1.2 billion catholics around the world are desperate to see their own church actually finally just confess and a tone for their

sins. it is long overdue. amy: pope francis himself is now facing calls to resign after a former top-ranking vatican official released a 7000-word letter sunday claiming the pope knew about allegations of sex abuse by high-ranking cardinal theodore mccarrick, but failed to punish him. mccarrick faces allegations that -- pope francis has refused to comment on the accusations. we'll have more on the pope's visit to ireland later in the broadcast. the trump administration says it is cutting more than $200 million in aid to the west bank and gaza. palestinian leaders are denouncing the move, accusing the trump administration of weaponizing humanitarian aid in . this is wasel abu yousef of the palestine liberation organization. >> the united states of america and president trump's administration is blackmailing and putting pressure on the palestinian people. this decision cuts the egg, including the last $200 million. .e were expecting it

but the united states of america practices the blackmailing in the context of passing what is called the deal of the century. amy: the cuts to humanitarian aid comes after the trump administration already withheld $65 million in funding for unrwa, the u.n. agency that provides humanitarian aid to palestinians. they cut that earlier this year. the united nations has issued a new report calling for burma's top military generals to be investigated for genocide against rohingya muslims. this is christopher sidoti, a member of the independent fact-finding mission. >> the fact-finding mission has concluded on reasonable grounds that the gross human rights violations and serious violations of international humanitarian law that it has found amount to the gravest crimes under international law. these have principally been committed by the military. the mission has concluded that criminal investigation and prosecution is warranted,

focusing on the top generals in relation to the three categories of crimes under international law. genocide, crimes against two-minute he, and war crimes. amy: meanwhile, a burmese court has postponed the verdicts against two reuters journalists charged with violating burma's official secrets act. at the time of their arrest, kyaw soe oo and wa lone were investigating a massacre committed by the burmese military targeting rohingya muslims in the village of inn din nearly one year ago. they are facing up to 14 years in prison. their verdict will now be announced on september 3. in afghanistan, authorities say the head of isis in afghanistan was killed in an airstrike in nangarhar province saturday night. abu saad erhabi and 10 other members of isis were reportedly killed in the airstrikes carried out by the afghan military and u.s.-led coalition forces. in more news from afghanistan, a suicide bombing outside an

election commission office in the eastern city of jalalabad killed at least seven people on saturday. in argentina, a corruption scandal has engulfed the country as prosecutors investigate an alleged kickback scheme involving government contracts under former president nestor kirchner and his widow and successor, cristina fernandez de kirchner. authorities have already arrested more than two dozen people and raided the home of cristina fernandez de kirchner. she says the investigation is a political ploy by the right-wing administration of the current argentine president mauricio macri and has compared her situation to the prosecution and jailing of brazil's former president luiz inacio lula da silva in brazil. act in the united states in jacksonville, florida, authorities say a man opened fire at a restaurant hosting a madden 19 video game tournament sunday, killing three people, including himself, and wounded

11 more. a warning, this video is disturbing. >> it is going to be hard -- [gunfire] >> what is he shooting with? >> oh! streamedis video was live. authorities say the shooter was a 24-year-old man named david katz from baltimore. sunday's shooting occurred only two days after another shooting in jacksonville, florida, at a high school football game. one person was killed and two more were wounded in that shooting. across the united states, a prison strike continues nationwide as prisoners demanded better food, fair pay for work, and an end to what they are calling "modern day slavery." on saturday, protesters gathered outside lee correctional

institution in south carolina to demand better living conditions for prisoners detained inside. seven prisoners died during a riot at this prison in april. meanwhile, at least six people continue to hunger strike inside the northwest detention center in tacoma, washington. >> i am on a hunger strike for four days. i don't drink or eat. i am eight months here. amy: on saturday, about 100 students and protesters gathered at the university of north carolina chapel hill for competing rallies near the site where students toppled the "silent sam" confederate stute week o. duringaturday's protts, a handful white sremacist marched th conferate fla, while a ch largegroup of anti-rist protters cebrated t removalf the coederate atue andhouted

"naz go home sen peopleere arreed. th is univsity of rth caroli doctorastudent ya little saking onemocracy w! last ek. she heed sparkhe movemt to topplehe conferate state when s poured d ink anher owblood onhe monent duri an earlier protest in april. >> what is actually unlawful and disrespectful is forcing black students to study on aampus with buildings named after sleowners come tstudy on caus in wch theorefront was a memoriato the pple who enslav their ancesrs,ho ntinue tdisenfranchise, murder, and coit vionce ward tm in e 1920's and duringim crow. amy: tsee the ole inteiew with ma littlego to democracow.org. and the are so of the headline this idemocracnow!, democracow.org, e war an peacreport. i'amy goodn. weegin tod's ow looki back athe life and legacy of

joccain, t six term senator and two-time presidential candidate who died saturday at the age of 81 of breast cancer at his home in arizona. -- of brain cancer. john became began his decades long political career after he was a naval pilot in the vietnam than fivee spent more years as a prisoner of war after his plane was shot down in hanoi in 1967. he spent two years in solitary confinement and twice attempted suicide. he eventually signed a statement he would regret, that was a so-called confession admitting to "crimes against the vietnamese country and people." this experience made him a life-long opponent of torture. as recently as may, mccain opposed the trump administration's nomination of gina haspel as director of the central intelligence agency. haspel is a 33-year cia veteran who was responsible for running a secret cia black site in

thailand in 2002, where at least one prisoner was waterboarded and tortured in other ways during her tenure. yet in 1973, upon mccain's release from being a prisoner of war and is returned to the united states, he wrote an article expressing support for president nixon and u.s. bombing of cambodia. after his election to the u.s. senate in 1987, he consistently promoted war and u.s. military intervention abroad, including in the first gulf war, afghanistan, and iraq as well as iran. here is senator mccain joking about bombing iran at a 2007 campaign event during his presidential bid against barack obama. >> bomb iran. bomb bom bomb amy: in 2008, john mccain ran

for president vowing to surge troops to iraq. he faced criticism for his choice of alaska governor sarah palin as his running mate. some say paved the way for the election of donald trump. senator mccain was also known for reaching across the aisle and working with democrats on key issues. in 1995, he worked with john kerry, a fellow vietnam war veteran but had oppose the war, to provide political cover for president clinton to normalize relations with vietnam. last year mccain made headlines when he came back to the senate and voted thumbs down against the republican led repeal of the affordable care act. after mccain's death, "the washington post" reports president trump rejected issuing a white house statement praising mccain. instead, he tweeted -- "my deepest sympathies and respect go out to the family of senator john mccain. our hearts and prayers are with you!"

former presidents barack obama and george w. bush will deliver eulogies at mccain's funeral at the national cathedral. mccain's family has asked that trump not attend the service. for more, we are joined by three guests. and washington, d.c. mehdi , hasan, columnist for the intercept and host of their deconstructed podcast. he's also host of "upfront" at al jazeera english. he's been tweeting in response to mccain's death and wrote a piece last year headlined, "despite what the press says, 'maverick' mccain has a long and distinguished record of horribleness." also in washington is medea benjamin, co-founder of codepink. and here in new york we are joined by norman solomon national coordinator of roots , action. he's also executive director of the institute for public accuracy, and author of "war made easy: how presidents and pundits keep spinning us to death," among other books." we welcome you all to ♪

norman, let's begin with you. your response to the death of senator mccain, his life and his legacy. >> it is natural to have empathy for some who suffer through brain cancer, admiration for people who withstood their great hardships with pride and determination. however, what we have seen is what could be called the phenomenon of obit omit. obituaries that are flagrantly in conflict with the real historical record. and when you stop and think about it, journalism is supposed to be the first draft of history. when history is falsified in the way we are getting the last couple of days, several days, really, in the lead up to senator mccain's death, it is really a kind of fraudulent on the part of the u.s. mass media. if john mccain was a maverick, it is only a high jump over very low standards.

, fromthere were certainly a progressive standpoint, admirable characteristics that he had, he also was a huge enthusiast for war, which included after his return from being a prisoner in vietnam. amy: mehdi hasan, your reflection on the career of john mccain, who died this weekend at his home in arizona of brain cancer? >> i think norman is right to point to the obit moment phenomenon. i think that is one thing i've taken away from the past couple of days from watching the media coverage, which is less journalism. we know what mccain was good at and what he was praised for, but we're not hearing about some of the darker sides of his political record. there's nothing wrong with bringing some light to the darker dish public figures record. this is not some dancing on his grave. this is talking about what he

did. look at his career. he was a man involved in a massive potential scandal in the late 1980's. he was part of the savings-and-loan scandal. he agitated, as you mention in your introduction, for the illegal and catastrophic invasion and occupation of iraq. never showed any regret for that. nasty,, he ran a desperate, and bigoted campaign for the presidency of the united states alongside sarah palin, which as you pointed out, did pave the way for the election of inald trump and for trumpism 2016. you also mentioned his famous and welcome vote, last minute i should add, against obamacare last year -- sorry, in defense of obamacare last year. but we don't talk about his vote for the big tax cuts, which also involved the killing of the obamacare individual mandate. he was not -- he was a maverick in name only. had medea benjamin, you

direct experience with senator mccain, your organization, codepink. >> yes. we had constantly been lobbying john mccain to not support all of these wars. amy, i think it is so horrible to be calling some of your war hero because he participated in the bombing of vietnam. i just been the last weekend with veterans for peace, people who are atoning for their sins in vietnam by trying to stop new wars. john mccain has not done that. with his life, what he did was support wars from not only iraq, but also libya. he called john kerry delusional for trying to make a nuclear iran and the ran -- through his lot in with the mek, the extremist group in iran. ofalso was a good friend mohammad bin salman and the

saudis. shere was a gala for the saudi in may when the crown prince was visiting. they had a special award for john mccain. he supported the saudi bombing in yemen that has been so catastrophic. i think we have to think that those who have participated in war are really heroes if they spend the rest of their lives trying to stop war, not like john mccain who spent the rest of his life supporting war. amy: norman solomon? >> we really have to fall to mass media of the united states, not just the last few days, but the last decade pretending that somehow by implication almost that john mccain was doing the people of north vietnam a favor as he flew over them and dropped bombs. you would think in the figure feet living getting about his role and a squadron flight over north vietnam that he was dropping flowers or marshmallows

or something. he was shot down during his 23rd mission dropping bombs on massive numbers of human beings in a totally illegal and immoral war. amy: i want to return to president trump as candidate in 2016 when he attacked john mccain. pres. trump: somebody should run against john mccain who has been, in my opinion, not so hot. i supported him. i supported him for president. i raised $1 million for him. he lost. he let us down. he lost. so i never liked him as much is that because i don't like to lose. >> he is a war hero. folks he is not a war hero. he was war hero because captured. i like people who were not captured. amy: mehdi hasan, "i like people who were not capture" says now president trump. >> it was a disgraceful remark

from a draft dodging them presidential candidate donald trump. the trump-mccain rivalry, which the media have an focusing on a lot, specially this morning with the back-and-forth flag at half staff and this "washington post" report. that is donald trump being the petty manchild that we know he is. john mccain benefited from the fact that donald trump hated him because it made him even more popular with the media who could play -- the media loves personalities and disagreements. so the idea of mccain being this antitrust figure was great for them. mccain obliged by giving them great rhetoric attacking trump. when you look at the record, if you look at the voting record, mccain voted with trump 80% of the time since 2016. he was not some great rubble in action. john mccain was great at rhetoric.

the actions did not always match the rhetoric. norman is right, the media has a lot to answer for when it comes to mccain. the chemical to the media. a lot of reporters on twitter have been saying he was their friend. you can himself called the media "my base." that is how he got his review tatian as a maverick. that is how he is getting all of the coverage right now from right and left alike. amy: i want to go back to 2015 when then senate armed services committee chair senator john mccain lashed out at codepink protesters who were calling for former national security advisor and secretary of state henry kissinger to be arrested for war crimes. our guest medea benjamin was one of the protesters whose voice is clearly audible. people -- ame of the

>> we don't want to hear from you anymore. >> in the name of the people of chile, and the name of the people of vietnam, in the name or,the people of east tim in the name of the people of laos -- >> i would like to say to my colleagues and to our distinguished witnesses this morning that i have been a member of this committee for many years, and i've never seen anything as disgraceful and outrageous and despicable as the last demonstration that just know,lace about -- you you're going to have to shut up or i'm going to have you arrested. >> [inaudible] >> if we can't get the capitol hill police in here immediately.

get out of here, you lowlife scum. in: that was senator mccain 2015. voice a heard your little time before that, talking about holding kissinger accountable for the people of laos and cambodia. close the question is, why would john mccain bring in henry kissinger as an expert to tell us how we should move forward with u.s. foreign-policy? for the time in the late 90's, john mccain threw his lot in with the project for the new american century and the neocons. john mccain has been looking towards people who see militarism and u.s. intervention and u.s. right to overthrow ever governments as his ticket. i would say for his personal ambitions. and i think really calling us lowlife scum instead of looking at the record of henry kissinger or, let's just look at the

record of john mccain himself, and say these are not the people that we should be lionizing. >> what is interesting about that exchange, amy, is not just the whole defense of kissinger and a militarized foreign policy, but the language used. as there were protesters in the senate using the democratic right to protest any goal some lowlife scum. yet we're being told for the last 48 hours that john mccain was the embodiment of stability in u.s. politics, a passion of decency. even bernie sanders use that phrase. yet even mccain himself probably would recognize -- he was a well-known, cranky and rude and abusive figure. he called antiwar protesters lowlife scum post of he mocked chelsea clinton as ugly. he made jokes about rape and spousal abuse. he famously called his enemies the"c" gooks and use word against his wife in public. yes along history of not

thing civilized in public. mccain shouted "terrorists" and "traitor" in reference to barack obama. today we condemn rallies were they say "lock her up. where were the condemnations that john mccain presided over? amy: in 2008, i want to turn to what you're describing, but this was in new hampshire at a town hall meeting when he defended his presidential opponent barack obama, his rival, in the face of constituents spouting racist conspiracy theories. this is a clip. >> own to ask a question. trust obama. i have read about him and he is -- he is an arab. >> no, ma'am. no, ma'am. he is a decent family man, citizen that i just happen have disagreements with on

fundamental issues them and that is all about. amy: there are some a-levels to address this on, mehdi hasan. if you could start. >> i have been thinking about this clip a lot. it is gone viral. it is being held up by a lot of people as mccain's moment of nobility in 2008 were he defended barack obama compared to donald trump, who spread birther conspiracies about obama being a secret muslim. some of us have criticized that. i have always found that clip unconscionable, to say the least. even if you give john mccain the benefit of the doubt and say it was an off-the-cuff response to the woman, he did not address her point that obama is an arab. there's a weird disjunction. it seems to say, arabs are not decent family man. mccain defenders would say, he was preempting her line about she was going to say he was a terrorist or noncitizen. the point is, there was that

prejudice already back then in 2008 global for donald trump in the republican base. his animosity toward muslims, arabs, toward foreigners. john mccain never took the opportunity to question the underlying bigoted premise in the way that colin powell did. he went on tv at the same time and said, look, is barack obama and arab or muslim? know, he is not. so what if he is? inn mccain ran a campaign 2008, or joel sagan, we keep forgetting and airbrushing in which obama was -- he was presented as a friend of terrorists. that is outrageous. amy: norman solomon? >> if you go to the broader one di was talking about, we have had a history of people support muslims. muslims are part of the american family." those same leaders are slaughtering muslims in

afghanistan, libya, iraq, and hoping to do it, in many cases, elsewhere in the middle east. so this whole notion that you say a few platitudes and that justifies your militaristic and ous for policy is a problem. when you get to that clip that has gone huge play in the last 48 hours, the reality is that even more disturbing than the off-the-cuff response from senator mccain is the approach from the mass media of the united states, which seems irony-free it is an zone. absolutely not addressing with the real message or a key part of that message was, which is if you are an arab, then you are not decent family man. but if you're a decent family man, that oh, no, you're not really an arab. what an ugly, corrosive, and truly racist message that is.

amy: and the significance of the major funeral memorial at the national cathedral this weekend that president bush will utilize -- eulogize, president obama will eulogize mccain, and people are now saying that mccain made clear he did not even want trump there? >> yes, well, trump is another brand of militaristic foreign policy that i think has to be opposed just as much as the particular brand that his buddy lindsey graham and mccain himself embodied. there has been a lot of coverage in "the washington post" and elsewhere the moaning that with mccain gone, the traditional militarism from the pentagon and the cia and so forth won't be as strong against trump. and it simply come in a way, a falling out between mcdonald's and burger king. these two factions are both

vicious and militaristic, embodying what dr. king called the madness of militarism. really ironic about the whole mccain-trump split on policy. when it comes to trump policy, the tropic administration is the most hawkish administration one becomes to you ran. we're seeing the ramping up efforts to target iran in terms of breaking out of the iran deal , appointing mr. office of the state department to keep an eye on iran. you have a ran hawks at every level. if donald trump in future years, god for bid, does go to war with iran -- well, if john had been left, he would have been aiding them on. we know he was singing jokingly about bombing iran. say thes spot on to actual differences when it comes to the mass murderers foreign-policy between a trump and mccain, not that much. amy: and the fact right now the white house is flying its flag at. where as in places like the

washington monument, they have them lowered. "the new york times goes with reports mccain voting with trump 83% of the time. >> that is right. i think we should really look at this in the larger context of the glorification of militarism, the way mccain was in favor of the expansion of nato, threatening towards both china and russia. this is all in the benefit of the weapons industry. we can see lockheed martin doing a eulogy, which they did for john mccain. so let's remember, we want to thank those who don't fight in wars, the country just objectors, the peacemakers, and recognize john mccain of a similar the glorification a military that we have to fight against. amy: i want to thank you all for being with us. medea benjamin, cofounder of codepink. mehdi hasan is with the .ntercept and norman solomon with resection institute for public accuracy.

norman, i would like you to stay with us to learn about this, well, epic vote in democratic party this weekend to strip superdelegates of some of their power. stay with us. ♪ [music break]

amy: this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. we turn now to the future of the democratic party. after a major debate, democrats have voted on a key progressive demand after the 2016 campaign -- to vastly reduce the power of superdelegates in choosing the party's presidential nominee. the vote passed to a huge ovation and cheers on saturday. >> aye. aye's overwhelmingly have it in the report in the chart in the call is adopted. amy: saturday's vote officially barred the superdelegates from voting on the first ballot to choose the party's presidential nominee unless a candidate has secured a majority of the convention using only pledged delegates, whose votes are earned during the primary

process. the vote to limit the influence comes superdelegates after the 2016 race for democratic nominee between senator bernie sanders and former secretary of state hillary clinton. it pitted a many dnc members who supported the change against two former party chairs and members of the congressional black caucus. for more, we are joined by someone who was there for what dnc chair tom perez is calling a historic vote -- norman solomon is national coordinator of roots action. he was a bernie sanders delegate from california to the 2016 democratic national convention, where he coordinated the independent bernie delegates network. he's also executive director of the institute for public accuracy. >> it was historic and exciting that only to be the room when the vote was taken, but in the days ahead of that vote out with people from my colleagues a picketing with that message that really is the gist.

democratic party, live up to your name. i think this was a tremendous victory that came not from the top out of the goodness of any hearts of those at the pinnacle of power of the democratic party, but from the base, the grassroots, people who have been angry, have been organizing, especially the last two years, to say that superdelegate power and leverage over the nomination process has to go. amy: i want to go to former dnc chair don fowler describing his opposition to restricting the power of superdelegates. he was speaking during an interview with the chicago sun times. 200e're going to prohibit african americans, 100 latinos, dozens of lgbtq people, and others from voting. we are taking the vote away from these people. amy: former interim dnc chair donna brazile describing her opposition to curbing the power of superdelegates in an

interview with the chicago sun times. >> the question is whether or not so-called superdelegates will be able to vote on the first ballot. the position of many of the party is that we deserve, those of us who are unpledged delegates, we deserve to have a voice in the process. and whether that is at the table with a vote or behind the scenes , raising money for candidates or taking candidates around, we believe that automatic delegates should continue to play a role because we are part of the sauce for victory. amy: that was donna brazil speaking after the vote that she opposed. norman solomon, talk about this victory and how you organized for it and the fact that tom perez, the chairman of the dnc, voted with you. >> frankly, tom perez, the chair of the dnc, was dragged kicking

and screaming, but effectively, to advocate for this i think very profound change. it should be said that the organization our revolution did a tremendous job in the last two years working inside and outside the democratic party to help organize this tremendous change. a year ago, six months ago, it seemed virtually impossible to get such a clean sweep in terms of superdelegate power. what we heard from donna brazile and don fowler was the anger of the old guard, losing their grip on power, losing their ability to put their thumbs on the scale. it is a new day. we're getting socialists elected to congress through the democratic primaries. we have to keep organizing and fighting. let's be clear, this is a victory for the grassroots, for progressives, but it is only a beginning. we're a long mountain to climb and we have to keep pushing. amy: for people, especially outside this country, but inside

the country's welcome who just don't get with superdelegates whatexplain exactly happened. what power did you strip? what power did they have? >> the just is, superdelegates were 15% of the total democratic national convention to choose the presidential nominee. those superdelegates were not elected for the purpose of or in designation from voters as to who the nominees should be. they working makers. they had power apart from any democratic accountability. and they loved it. every democrat in congress, every democrat governor, democratic party official. they liked having candidates go to them had in hand, will you endorse me? will you pledge your vote? werehose advanced pledges huge boost to clinton, not just 15% of the vote, but from the starting line she was way ahead. amy: something that infuriated that only bernie sanders supporters, but others, even

think hillary clinton supporters , the very beginning, before the primaries, they were talking about they had wrapped up the superdelegate support so they have one. some people going to go out to vote at these primers and saying, then why are we going out to vote? >> before a single ballot was cast, hillary clinton had more than half of the superdelegate vote and that allowed the cable channels to run on the lower part of the screen "hillary clinton way ahead is the front runner." an analogy would be, let's say you have two contestants in the race. the gun goes off it at that moment, one of the racers is way ahead and that is because the superdelegates -- not only that, by being way ahead at the start, then the nutrients come to fight immense, the water in the form of funding and media momentum, is a ready given to the person wears in this case, bernie sanders was still at the starting line. amy: and i got president trump. >> now we have president trump who has to be defeated and

regresses have the dual necessity to fight the rights and the speaker, we can only be them through democratic party candidates to take back the house and hopefully even the senate. it also to fight like principles.gressive the democratic party is controlled by people who are part of the military-industrial complex and they won't give it up without a big fight ahead. amy: we are one of the but there but we will continue to cover this right to the midterm elections and beyond. norman solomon, national coordinator of roots action. when we come back from break, we go to dublin where pope francis marked the first papal visit to ireland in 39 years by analogy in failure of church authorities to address child abuse crimes by the clergy. stay with us. ♪ [music break]

amy: this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. we end today's show in ireland where pope francis marked the first papal visit to the country

in 39 years by acknowledging the failure by church authorities to address child abuse crimes by the clergy. >> the failure of ecclesiastical authorities of bishops, religious affairs, priest, and others, adequately to address these repugnant crimes has really given rise to outrage and remains a source of pain and of shame for the catholic community. amy: while in ireland, pope francis also asked for forgiveness for the scandal and betrayal felt by victims of sexual exploitation by catholic clergy. rancis: in my prayer, i presented all of the victims of abuse of whatever kind committed by members of the church in ireland. none of us can fail to be moved by the stories of young people , who wereed abuse

robbed of their innocence and left scarred by painful memories . amy: but sunday, pope francis faced a new bombshell accusation from a former top-ranking vatican official who called him to resign, called on the pope to resign, releasing a 7000-word letter claiming the pope knew about allegations of sex abuse by high-ranking cardinal theodore mccarrick, of d.c., years before they became public, and failed to punish him. mccarrick faces allegations that he coerced men training to become priests into sexual relationships and abused a teenage altar boy. pope francis has refused to comment on the accusations. for more, we go to dublin, ireland, where we are joined by two guests. peter isely is a survivor of childhood sexual assault by a wisconsin priest and a founding member of snap survivors network , of those abused by priests. he traveled from wisconsin to ireland for the pope's visit. and thomas doyle is a former priest and long-time supporter of justice and compassion for

clergy sex abuse victims. in 1985, he wrote the policy for the ships to handle sexual abuse. they ignored it. he was expert witness in the grand jury proceedings in last week's pennsylvania grand jury report on sexual abuse of children by catholic clergy members. they're both part of the organization ending clerical abuse. welcome both of you to democracy now! while you are both from the united states, your boat and dublin. peter, with the significance of this weekend and the pope's first visit in 39 years to ireland and what he said to sex abuse survivors. well, the importance of him coming here was the opportunity he had, which was an incredible opportunity, to come here and tell the world not just that he

feels bad about sexual abuse of because i think we all know he feels pretty bad about it -- but what he's going to do about it. and that he did not tell us. so we are leaving ireland and once again, we have absolutely no idea what he is going to do. in the record on what he has done is not good at all. survivors, and for everybody, we are way past a time where feeling bad about it -- which is fine, feeling bad about it is ok. now we have to move on to what are you going to do about it? you can see from the chaos that is going on with the former dish there's so much chaos and confusion right now. you can see the culture that needs to be changed, the vatican culture. i don't know what confidence anyone can have in this management unit is covered up

child sex crimes and continues to covered up around the world that somehow they're going to fix it. somebody else days to fix it. that is why we need grantors like pennsylvania all over the united states. governmental commissions like australia and elsewhere to intervene on behalf of children around the world and do what they're supposed to do, which is to investigate child sex crimes. with eightrancis met irish survivors of clerical, religious, and and institutional abuse, including paul redmond, who said francis spoke spanish during the meeting and condemned corruption and cover up within the church as "caca," a spanish word for human excrement. apologize to all of us for what had happened to us. the thing that really shocked us all was that when he was talking to survivors about cover-up and corruption in rome itself, he literally refer to these people as caca.

his translator was kind of shocked and asked the pope to clarify. the pope literally did hand gestures and said caca. he literally call these people -- we were stunned. that was a really important thing for him to do in the face of not just what happened in ireland, but around the world in the grand jury in pennsylvania last week. that was a huge move forward for the church. i hope it is the start of something new within the church. there has been a lot of empty promises and a lot of talk. amy: so one of the people who was in the meeting with the pope, thomas doyle, you founded ending clergy abuse. you are a priest. you have been recommending for decades what the church should do. what is your response to what the pope said and what you think needs to happen?

>> welcome a first off, i was not in the meeting with the pope . secondly, i did not found ending clergy abuse. not a member of that i did found it. but i can give you my response to what he said. it is just more talk. i don't care what he says. i've been involved in this now for over 30 years and heard every which way from sunday they apologized and make excuses and everything else. well, it is time for that -- way past time for that to end and something concrete to be done because the problem still exists. a number have said, in reflecting on these 30 years, they just don't get it and they're not going to get it. so whether proper test where the progress is when happen is that by the church or the hierarchy, it is going to happen in the courts in the united states and other countries where they are facing a power they cannot control. and that power, such as in the state of pennsylvania, is speaking loudly and they will

make moves and things will happen that will force the church to act appropriately. that is the only way it is going to happen. it has to be forced. , thomas you talk about doyle, what is happening now with the attack on the peter former-- the pope, the vatican ambassador to washington, d.c., who is now openly turned against the pope and said he should resign? letter and iad the have known for some time that there are some fairly vocal and reformspponents to the that francis was to bring about in a number of areas. i see the letter is primarily political. in the sexual abuse issue them into use that to float that vote -- i am really not all that

concerned about that. that is political. that is probably going to burn itself out before too long -- although, there will be a lot of rhetoric about it. i find it a bit offensive it was a distraction from the real issue, which is the worldwide sexual abuse that is still going thand needs much more apologies and nonsense of that nature. amy: peter isely, i'm sorry, i ending -- thomas survivorsa founder of network and that was you. children in of pennsylvania -- also, you have the priesthood is the only occupation and civil society where you can rape and sexual assault children and remain within your occupation.

explain. tell us, what are the steps you need things need to happen now? >> sure. first of all, survivors are finally, places like missouri. i can tell you there's been an immense amount of harm to children over the decades in missouri by predator priests, and there has been a lot of cover-up, as her has been everywhere around the world. every dioceses and religious order and states are cut up into different dioceses. religious orders are geographical. they each have a mountain of documents detailing the sexual abuse of children them as we saw in pennsylvania, and the cover-up of those crimes. havingo good for them those documents. we need to see those documents. i am telling you, in every dioceses around the world, that

is criminal evidence, direct terminal evidence of child sex crimes in the cover-up of the crimes. what i was referring to about that comment, and there is some change in the united states with church law, but for the rest of the world, under your own law -- and this is a problem. we continually have been saying this to pope francis and the vatican, but they already know it. under their law, you can sexual abuse and assault a child and you can remain a priest and you can remain, if your bishop one to two, working which iran and families. do you know any other occupation on earth you can do that? that is why let pope francis has to do, what he needed to do when he was here in ireland, and needed to do this a long time ago, was two things. one, he has two right into church law zero tolerance. there is not zero tolerance for child sex abuse by clergy that

have been known to abuse children. ino tolerance does not exist church law. so it does not exist. so that is number one. any priest, and declared, any religious order person that has been found to have sexually assaulted or abused a child at any time has to be removed from the ministry and probably from the priesthood. that is number one. number 2, 0 tolerance for any bishop that has been proven -- and the proof is in those documents, that has been proven to have been covered up for a child sex crime. here's a simple axiom of justice. it is not ok to cover up for child sex crimes. let's start with that. and you should be removed from your position of authority as a bishop. the pope was here and the cardinal and washington, guess what? he is a cardinal. he covered up child sex crimes in pittsburgh. he went on national television two days before the grand jury report came out and he knew full well what was in the report, as

the vatican did, and how could pope francis not know it? he went on national television and was asked, did you transfer one of these abuser priests? he said, that was not my -- and otherwise, no, i did not do it. and there it all is. all of the proof. one of the worst predators in pittsburgh. what does he do? there is his signature directly on a letter to the predator, "i'm going to transfer you out of my diocese the guys i know you raped and sexual assault of children for years and i'm one of put you into reno, nevada." that man is still the cardinal of washington, d.c. what else you need to know with what is profoundly wrong with this system? he has got to make that into church law, period. you can't have tolerance for bishops that cover up child sex comes. why would they remove those predator priests they had been covering up for?

amy: 20 seconds, father thomas doyle, what is happening in chile? very quickly. there is an awareness on the part of the laypeople about the corruption come on the part of the church hierarchy. they are making their anger no z]