09/17/18 09/17/18 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] amy: from pacifica, this is democracy now! >> here is a woman who decided she did not want to come forward. she was explicit about that. and that promise was cap and somehow because reporters in the alld hounded her, she had of the negatives of coming forwrward and none of the positives. she had no good choices. now she has been forced to be a spectacle. christine blasey ford

has comported with allegations that brett kavanaugh sexually assaulted her when they were both in high school. she says she will testify about the attempted rape. she expected her story to be kept confidential. changed her mind after it shechanged her mind after it leaked. we'll speak with dahlia lithwick, who argues "our system is too broken to assess the sexual assault claim against kavanaugh." we'll also speak with think progress reporter ian millhiser who tweeted -- "to summarize, confessed serial sexual predator nominated a man who credibly accused of attempted rape to be key vote to strip women of reproductive freedom." last week, his piece headlined, "brett kavanaugh has a mysterious #metoo problem," was declared fake news by a facebook fact-checker with the conservative outlet the weekly standard. then to dallas where protests continue in the wake of the shooting and killing of a 26-year-old black man in his own apartment by a white dallas

police officer who mistakenly thought his apartmt t was hers. >> what's his name? >> botham jean. >> what do we want? >> justice! amy: police officer amber guyger has been entrusted with manslaughter after she entered botham jean's apartment less than two weeks ago and opened fire, killing him. police claim she believed it to be her apartment. we will go to d dallas to speak with his family's lawywyer lee merritt.t. all ofof that and more, coming . welcome to democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. in an explosive interview with "the washington post," california professor dr. christine blasey ford has accused supreme court nonominee brett kavanaugh of attempted rape while the two were in high school. she told "the post" kavanaugh and his friend pushed her into a

bedroom during a party, and that kavanaugh then forcibly pinned her down on a bed and tried to pull off her clothes. she says she tried to scream, but that kavanaugh put his hand over her mouth to silence her. she told "the washington post" -- "i thought he might inadvertently kill me." dr. christine ford is a professor at palo alto university in california. she teaches at stanford university. she began speaking anonymously about the alleged assault in july after kavanaugh was shortlisted to replace retiring supreme court justice anthony kennedy. she contacted her congressmember and "the washington post" through a tip line. she took, and passed, a polygraph. after her story began to leak, she changed her mind and decided to go public. her lawyer says dr. cream blasey ford is willing to publicly testify before congress. the attempted rape accusation

comes only days at before the senate judiciary committee was slated to vote on kavanaugh's confirmation to the supreme court on thursday. in the wake of the explosive accusation, three senate republicans, senators jeff lisa, bob corker, and murkowski, and a slew of democrats, have said the senate judiciary committee should delay the vote. it was senator dianne feinstein of california who had the letter that dr. blasey wrote, but asked her to keep confidential. 17 people in north and south carolina have been reported killed a tropical which has florence, broken all of north carolina's rainfall records. officials are when the worst of ththe storm may still be yet to come as catastrophic flooding inundatete the carolinas coast. up to 20,000 people are in emergency shelters in north cacarolina alone. this is north carolina governor roy cooper.

>> floodwaters are still raging across parts of our state. in the risk to life is rising. as this storm continues to churn through north carolina, it has dumped nearly two feet or more of rain in many places. arestrongest storm bands jumping two to three inches of rain per hour. that is enough to cause flooding in areas that have never flooded before until now. amy: expertsts have wawarned florencece could also cause widespread environmental damage on toxic spills from coal ash dumps,s, hog mentor lagoons, chicken farms, nuclear facilities in north and south carolina. torrentialal rains have already caused a collapse at a coal ashh landfill at an interacactive due energy power plalants. duke e energy says 20,000 cubic

tons of ash were releaseded and could run n off into t the neary cape fear river. in asia typhoon mangkhut , continued to wreak destruction in its path,h,eaching mainland china after ripppping though the philippines and hong kong. authorities say the storm has killed at least 69 people so far, with the death toll expected to rise. over the weekend, authorities found 43 bodies buried in a landslide near a gold mine in the philippines. officials say as many as 100 people may have died in this landslide alone. meanwhile in china, more than 3 million people have been evacuated fm the pathth of the storm. so far at least four people have reportedly died in china from the storm, which has now been downgraded to a tropical depression. the head of fema, the federal emergency management agency, is trying to defend president trump, who sparked outrage last week by falsely claiming that thousands of people did not die

in puerto rico last year in the aftermath of hurricane maria. this is fema administrator brock on "face the nation." studied a different period of time versus the george washinington study. there's of the discrepancy whether it is direct deaths or indirect deaths. amy: he also spoke on nbc's "meet the press." he claims some of the post m maa deaths may be attributed to spousal abuse, saying "you c c't blame spousal abuse after disaster on anybody." >> the other thing thahat goes n ---- there arere studies thahatd okok at. spouousal abuse goes through the roof. you can't blame spousal abuse after a on anybody. amy: the official death h toll from hurricane mararia stands at 2975. one harvard study has esestimatd that the death toll mighght be s high as 4645 people. in gaza, hundreds of people

gathered for the funeral of 12-year-old shadi abdel-al, a palestinian boy who died during friday's weekly nonviolent protests at the separatition fee between gaza and israel. gagaza's health ministry says te boy was killed by a blunt object that cracked open his skull, though it's unclear whether he was killed by israeli soldiers firing live ammunition, grenades, or another object. israeli soldiers shot and killed two other palestinians during friday's protest. palestinian health officials say israeli soldiers have killed at least 186 palestinians and wounded tens of thousands more since the palestinians' nonvnviolent great m march of rn began on march 30. meanwhile, in the israeli-occupied west bank, authorities say a palestinian teenager fatally stabbed an israeli at a shopping mall on sunday. the victim, 40-year-old ari fuld, was a father of four and lived in the israeli-only west bank settlement of efrat. the alleged attacker was shot

after the stabbing and is currently hospitalized. pope francis has expelled a chilean priest over allegations of child sexual abuse. reverend cristian precht had previously been under investigation and was suspended for five years in 2012. the announcement of precht's expulsion comes as the chilean church has been rocked by allegations of widespread sexual abuse and cover up. in may, every bishop in chile offered their resignation in response to the growing scandal. in washington, d.c., a blackwater contractor will stand trial for the third time on charges of first-degree murder for the third time for his role in the 2007 nisoor square massacre in central baghdad, where blackwater contractors killed 17 civilians after opening fire with machine guns and grenades on a crowded public space. the attack has been n called the "my lai massacre of iraq." in 2014, nick slatten was convicted on murder charges over

the massacre and sentenced to life in prison, but an appeals court later voided that conviction. in addition to throwing out the murder conviviction, the p panel also overtrturn t the 30 terms n to thehe other defendants saying the sentences violated the constitution's prohibition on cruel and d unusual punishment. slatten's second trial ended in a hung jury two weeks ago. president trump has threatened to impose a new round of tariffs on $200 0 billion on chinesese products, ranging from refrigigerators to apple watche. the threat of the 10% tariffs have alarmed wall street executives, including the heads of goldman sachs, morgan stanley, the blackstone group and others, who flew to beijing for hastily arranged meetings, including one with china's vice president today to discuss strengththening business ties between n the u.s. and c china. trump's s latest tariff threat y also jeopardize the planned trade talks between treasury secretary steven mnuchin and top chinese officicials later this month.

in texas, a supervisory border patrol agent has been arrested for murder after authorities say he confessed to killing four women. agent juan david ortiz was arrested after a fifth would-be -- fifth woman narrowly escaped and alerted authorities. officials say agent ortiz was targeting women sex workers. he has worked as a border control agent for 10 years and is a u.s. navy veteran. this is webb county district attorney isidro alaniz. close to law enforcement ,nvestigators in the case probable cause to believe this individual was responsible for this series of murdersrs, whichi would qualify as a serial murderer, that we have, so we will be looking at what charges to put on him, potentially four charges of murder andnd aggravad

kidnapping. amy: guatemala's highest court has ordered president jimmy morales to allow the united nations-backed anti-corruption commission to return to guatemala and carry out its investigation into graft and illegal campaign financing. this is the second time in two years that guatemala's constitutional court has ruled in favor of the commission over the president. mass protests erupted after president morales tried to shut down the investigation, which is investigating the president for over $1 million in illicit campaign financing. similar investigations by the commission have brought down other high ranking leaders, including the previous guatemalan president otto perez molina. in germany, thousands protested on sununday agaiainst the plplad expansion of a a coal mine in hambach forest by german company rwe. the expansion would require clearing the forest that has been occupied by environmental activists since 2012 an effort to prevent the project from moving forward.

forced evictions of activists' tree houses started last week after german authorities ordered the immediate clearing of the area. the mindnd is the largest open coululd coalal mine in europe, producing a a highly pollutiting fossssil fuel cacalled ligninit. for more on the resistance in hambach forest, you can go to our webebsite at democracynow.og we visited hambach last year and went into the trees where the tree sitters continued to havee the tree houses. and over the weekend, activists in europe protested oututside banks in france and germany over the weekend to mark the 10-year anniversary of the collapse of lehman brothers, whose bankruptcy on september 15, 2008, is seen as the start of the global financial crisis. millions of peoplele in the unit states a and around the e worldt their jobs, , homes, and l life savings, even as the u.s. government bailed out t some of wall strtreet's biggesest failig banks. the financial crisis also sparked massive global

antiti-capitalist t movements,s, including the occupy movement and the m-15 movement in spain, and the massive anti-austerity movements in greece. this is activist aurelie trouve speaking at the protest in france this weekend. >> the government should make it so we can take the money from the wealthiest, for financial, for the ecological and social transition. i assure you with efficient tax on f financial transactions s wa real fight against fiscal evasion, we will have the means and needed money for this ecological and social transformation. amy: and those are some of the headlines. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. we beginin today's show with explosive allegations against president trump's supreme court nominee brett kavanaugh that stem from an interview published sunday by "the washington post" with a woman who has come forward to accccuse kavanaugh of attempting to rape her in high

school. she now says she is willing to testify about herr experience. dr. christine blasey ford is a professor at palo alto university in california. she also teaches at stanford. she said she first expected her story to be kept confidential. but changed her mind after it leaked. "the washington post" reports -- "now, ford has decided that if her story is going to be told, she wants to be the one to tell it." speaking on the record to a reporter for the first time, dr. blasey ford said in the early kavanaugh and a friend 1980's, were "stumbling drunk" when they pushed her into a bedroom at a party. "the post" reports -- "while his friend watched, she said, kavanaugh pinned her to a bed on her back and groped her over her clothes, grinding his body against hers and clumsily attempting to pull off her one-piece bathing suit and the clothing she wore over it. when she tried to scream, she said, he put his hand over her mouth. 'i thought he might

inadvertently kill me,' said ford. 'he was trying to attack me and remove my clothing.'" blasey ford said she was able to escape when kavanaugh's friend jumped on top of them. they all went tumbling to the ground. she said she never spoke about the attack until 2012 during couples therapy with her husband, who said his s wife usd kavanaugh's last name. then in eaearly july after kavanaugh was shortlisted to replace retiring supreme court justice anthony kennedy, dr. blasey ford contacted her congressmember, democrat anna eshoo, and then sent a letter via eshoo's office to senator dianne feinstein, ranking democrat on the judiciary committee. later in july, she contacted "the washington post" through a tip line.

she also took a polygraph test regarding the incident, which the paper reviewed, and she passed. but for weeks she declined to go public, citing concerns about her and her family and privacy even as judge kavanaugh could still be confirmed. blasey fordd -- told "the post" -- "why suffer through the annihilation if it's not going to matter?" but last wednesday, the intercept broke the news that senator feinstein had a letter describing an incident involving kavanaugh and a woman in high school, and that feinstein was refusing to share it with her democratic colleagues. feinstein then issued a statement that the author had "strongly requested confidentiality, declined to come forward or press the matter further, and i have honored that decision. i have, however, referred the matter to federal investigative authorities." the fbi reportedly sent the letter to the white house to be included in kavanaugh's

background file after redacting blase ford's name, which then sent it to all of the senators on the senate judiciary committee. on friday, "the new yorker" reported the letter's contents but did not reveal ford's identity. as reporters began to visit ford's home to ask for comment, she ultimately decided to speak to "the washington post" and identify herself for the story that it published on sunday. judge kavanaugh has since repeated his previous denial that such an incident ever took place. all 11 republicans on the senate judiciary committee are men. senate judiciary committee chairman, republican charles grassley responded by released a , letter from 65 women who say they knew kavanaugh in high school and that "he has behaved honorably and treated women with respect" and has "stood out for his friendship, character, and

integrity." men well, senators jeff flake, bob corker, and lisa murkowski, and a slew agenda democrats said they should delay the vote. this is murkowski speaking to cnn sunday about the new allegations. >> i'm going to be talking with my colleagues but i really don't have anything to add at this point. letter last week and asked the judge in a telephone conversation on friday about it and he was very emphatic in his denial. >> do you believe the accuser? >> i don't know enough to make a judgment at this point. amy: that was senator susan collins. this morning shortly before we went to broadcast, dr. blasey ford's attorney told cnn her

client is willing to testify before congress. >> will your client be willing to testify in public to the judiciary committee? >> the answer is yes. >> hasas she been asked by any f the lawmakers to do that? >> that is interesting. the answer is no. >> she has not been asked but she is willing to do so. is she in conversations with people? have lawmakers reached out and try to talk with her via phone? >> we have heard from no one. we have seen various statements made on television, but -- statements that are being bandied about for political reason, but no one has asked her. no. amy: that was cnn host allison cammarata speaking to dr. blasey ford's attorney. well, for more, we're joined in our new york studio by dahlia lithwick, senior editor at slate.com. she is their senior legal correspondent and supreme court

reporter hosts the podcast , amicus. her latest story is headlined "our system is too broken to assess the sexual assault claim against kavanaugh." do you still feel that way as dr. blasey ford has come forward? she is been clear in his letter, though this letter was not made clear to democrats or republicans on the committee until he was leakeked by the intercept in a series of developments then unfolded. >> i still feel that way. i feel pretty strongly that neither journalism nor high, high, high intensity senate confirmation hearings are the appropriate fact-finding reason based in our prices to come to the bottom of this. i think i probably still feel, as i felt whwhen i wrote the these, that the cost of forcing somebody into this system, to have this conversation under the lights of the senate were no one is persuaded because the battle lines have been drawn, is the very, very worst way, if what

you really want to do is have a truth-seeking enterprise. this is not the weighted. amy: the question is, though, should judge kavanaugh be confirmed as supreme court justice? the day that is set for the senate judiciary committee vote is thursday. dr. blasey ford has said she will testify about what happened. judge kavanaugh has denied that it happened.d. but clearly, more candy found out. this is just happening right now at the last minute will s stop wednesday is juncker poor, so that will be a day off, so they only h have two days off. interestingly, dr. blasey ford's lawyer said they have e not tald them senator has contacted since yesterday, since her name came forward will step grassley has not. >> it seems to be this is materially changing the game. what you will hear from the republican senators in terms of pushback isn't "i don't believe

her," it isn't that she doesn't have a name and a phase, because now she has a name and a face. all we're hearing is "it is too late." ofrefuse to disclose tens thousands of pages of documents. amy: explain that further. >> i think this entire thing was entirely corroded by the fact that for the first time in history, 90% of kavanaugh's documents were repelled from the public -- were withheld from the public. they were being vetted not by the national archives as document section additional he then vetted, they were being done by rubra bogen lawyers who had worked with judge kavanaugh in an earlier life. the whole system was designed to rocket this thing through with minimal scrutiny and that is almost every time that kavanaugh was tripped up last week in the hearings. it was because something came out that should have been disclosed earlier. so this is another matter where

you can certainly say, oh, it is too late, but this time clock was created by the same republblicans who held a seat vacant for over a year when it was merrick garland's turn to be vetted. amy: i want to bring ian discussion,to this senior fellow at the center for american progress action fund and the editor of thinkprogress justice. this latest news and your response? >> let me say the most important thing i will probably say which is that i believe christine blasey ford. this is a very credible accusation. in journalism, one thing we look at when a person to is in the news is accused of something is whether the accusers made the wassation before the person in the news. in this case, she told her therapist about this in 2012. "the washington post" obtain the notes, which is a truly asked ordinary thing for a newspaper to obtain.

this is an extraordinarily credible allegation. i think in any sense of all world, desks sensible world, they would hit cause on this process and dig in deep to this allegation and they would not vote to confirm this man unless they were absolutely sure this allegation was false. amy: what do you think should happen at this point? >> like i said, they should hit cause on the nomination. said she isrd has willing to testify, so they can reopen the hearing. they can bring her into testify. at this stage when you have this credible of an allegation, the burden of proof should be on the people who want kavanaugh to be confirmed. this is not a criminal trial where you have a beyond reasonable doubt standard. this is a case where brett kavanaugh who was nominated to be the fifth -- fifth vote to kill roe v. wade is going to be given immense power over tensnsf millions of people, specifically

tens of millions of women, and you don't give someone that kind of power if you are unsure as to whether or not they committed attempted rape. amy: we're going to go to break and come back to this discussion. our guest are ian millhiser and editor of thing progress justice, senior fellow at center for american progress action fund, and we're joined by dahlia lithwick, senior editor at slate.com. she is their senior legal correspondent and supreme court reporter. this is democracy now! back in a minute. ♪ [music break]

amy: this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman.

last week think progress published report a senior fellow ian millhiser that was headlined "brett kavanaugh said he would kill roe v. wade last week and all must know a noticed." the story was declared fake news by facebook fact checker with a conservative outlet the weekly standard, which attacked ian millhiseser in an editorial. no hazard wrote that supreme court nominee brett kavanaugh may have committed a very serious crime, possibly even a sex crime or maybe he didn't. that is what we just learned from an short nearly they press statement by senator dianne feinstein. the editors at the weekly standard responded --

for more, we continue our conversation with ian millhiser, the senior fellow at the center for american progrgress action fundnd and the editor of thing progress justice, as well as dahlia lithwick from senior editor at slate.com. this is complicated, ian. can you please explain what happened? >> suffice it to say the weekly standard folks do not like me very much will stop i think their assertion that brett kavanaugh such a good man is not wearing well this week. but what happened, there are two different pieces. i think the first piece is the more important one. i wrote this piece and it made a legal argument. it said that in brett kavanaugh's confirmation hearing, he said that he would apply something called it ruled that would determine whether or not a right is protected by the constitution.

i took that statement and then i ed it againstgh another statement he made in 2017 for he said roe v. wade is inconsistent. he said he would apply glue expect and a 2017 he said roe v. wade is inconsistent with it. it is not that hard to figure out what he thinks about roe v. wade. the weekly standard is one of five outlets, the only ideological outlet -- there's no liberal outlet that has the power to do this -- that facebook is given the power to censor other content that is shared on facebook. if that content is deemed to have a factual error. -- weekly standard decided mi headline i said he said it and no one noticed. does the word "said" mean yes to say the exact words or not the exact words? i've have heard more opinions on that question this past two weeks than i ever thought possible. but in any event, they used this power to censor pieces, to

censor my peace, to label it fake news to impose the exact same sanction on me and this piece that would be imposed upon a piece that claimed the pope and worst donald trump or some other completely fabricated -- endorsed donald trump or some other completely fabricated life. outletkly standard -- an that personally attack me in an editorial last week, should not have the power to censor my work or any other liberal outlets of interestnflict and facebook should strip them of that authority. amy: let's talk about what happened next. which is the one of broke the story about the secret letter that dianne , republished your piece saying the story was effectively nuked from facebook with other outlets faced with

traffic and monetary consequences if they shared it. this is extremely significant. explain. this is in just the weekly standard weighing and. explain what happened with facebook. >> sure. the way that facebook works -- if i can get into a little bit of the business of journalism. i don't think the big secret that digital journalism is run by. -- run by clicks. facebook has a system, and they send about 10% to 50% of thing progress' total traffic to us. is what are nonpartisan outlets and the weekly standard that has this power. if they deem something to be fake news, then it loses 80% of the traffic it would have gotten from facebook. that is the first thing that happens. the second thing is a push application is sent to everyone who shared it informing them it

is "false news." the third thing that happens is everyone who shared it, even the people who shared a before the weekly standard ways and, gets punished. all of their content gets downgraded and is less likely to show up in people's newsfeeds from that point forward. so the weekly standard has an extraordinary power, not just to censor the rival outlets him a but to effectively try to nuke the bottom line of outlet that they disagree with. and our position is, look, if i were -- if i were a defense attorney and i walked into court and the prosecutor was sitting there wearing a black robe and wielding a gavel, i would say that is not appropriate because you're not allowed to be the judge of your own case. when you are one of the adversaries in a debate, you should not also get to judge who is telling the truth. amy: do you want to weigh in? >> i could not agree more with ian.

for one thing, mark stern and i had written a similar fees --piece. our's did not get attack. his got tagged entirely for a semantic internal fight about literally -- amy: and the significance of this. facebook determines what so many people read. thef you're talking on telephone, that is what it has basically become. the phone company is beeping outwards it does not agree with. when facebook has this kind of monopoly on information, when they deem something is not true -- i want to take this a step further. ian, if you can s say who the ft checker was thatat deemed your piece fake news. >> the name of the fact checker inhe graduated from college 2016. he doesn't have a law degree. based on when he graduated from

college, he is probably 25 years old. what facebook has done is they have given a single 25-year-old staffer at the weekly standard the power to decide which news which does not. amy: i want to take this a step further because we have been talking about this astounding whort of drdr. blasey ford said she is now willing to testify before the committee about what she alleges brett kavanaugh did to her in high school, the attempted rape. she has made available all sorts of information in "the washington post" fees, the nose of her therapist in 2012 when she was in couples there be with her husband describing what happened to her, and again in 2013 when she described his attempted rape. the third man in the room while she alleges brett kavanaugh held her down, groped her, tried to rip her clothing off and put

his and over her mouth and she was terrified she could die, the third man in the room was mark judge them a brett kavanaugh's friend from the elitite prep school. the weeklywrites for standard, among other publications. >> there's a lot of things about mr. judge that i think are sketchy. he apparently wrote a memoir -- it is sort of thinly fictionalized. instead of calling the school georgetown country day, sexual name, he calls it loyola country day. there is even a character in the book briefly named bart o'kavanaugh. but mr. judge's book is pretty tremendous. he talks about lots of drinking. who's your book quote at the

prep school he and kavanaugh went to is some women need to be beaten like a gong or something to that effect. so this is the character witness that brett kavanaugh is bringing and to say, yeah, i didn't do it. he saw what happened and i wasn't there. amy: and the bookmark judge wrote describes his blackout e of thinkingcultur at his elite high school. >> it is this extraordinary book that, like, if you were to write something to destroy your credibility and to destroy your credibility particularly in this instance where the accusation is that you and a classmate got in thend participated sexual abuse of a woman, this book would completely blow your credibility. , go back toa lithwick

anita hill, go back to the hearings. of course, the echoes of this are so strong right now. >> i think it is such an amazing -- the arc of this is extraordinary because if you remember after anita hill testified in front of an all-male senate judiciary committee, senator democrats declined to bring forward witnesses who would hahave corroborated her story on both sides. amy: she is among those democrats at the time -- >> joe biden. amy: senator joe biden. >> it was a dumpster fire. but it led to what we now nostalgically think about as the europe the woman. women like dianne feinstein, a lot of women in the senate say that was the watershed most of women were furious at the treatment of anita hill and pushed women into the senate and record numbers. here we are at thehe end of thte seems very little has changed. if you look at -- if you map the

points of vestry on to what we're seeing now, here's a woman who comes forward reluctantly. she does now want to be outed. she is outed. there is -- this all happens after the hearing is formally over. at each turn, it looks exactly the same. amy: anita hill has issued a statement on the sexual allegations against brett kavanaugh -- "given the seriousness of these allegations, the government needs to find a fair and neutral way for complaints to be investigated. i have seen firsthand what happens when such a process is weaponized."." so now i want to go back to a clip from the 1991 confirmation hearings for supreme court nominee at the time, clarence thomas, when anita hill testified during the hearing alleging sexual harassment against thomas. this is from anita hill's opening statement. threeer approximately

months of working there, he asked me to go out socially with him. , and telling next the world about it, or the two most d difficult expenses of my life. it is only after a great deal of agonizing consideration and sleepless number -- great number of sleepless nights that i am able to talk of these unpleasant matters to anyone but my close friends. amy: so dahlia lithwick him a talk about this, the enormous pressure that anita hill is under. i think something echoes clearly to the credibility of dr. christine blasey is that she felt she needed to tell someone, but did not want to come forward , did not want this to be made public, but when reporters started crawling around her workplace and her home -- you know, were there and asking her

if this, she felt story's going to be told, she wanted to be told by her. this is going to be a great, great personal experience -- expense, she feels. toremember what happened anita hill. she was derided for being promiscuous. she was derided for being a liar. they said, why did you not come forth at the time? i mean come all of the questions about her integrity coming what you mean you did not report? she was her boss and did not report? at every turn, given opportunity to listen to what she was saying or two malign her personally, the decision was made to malign her personally. she is spent the rest of her life -- she said after the hearing, i'm going to take a year and try to sort out the sexual harassment in the workplace than. all of these years later, she is still doing that. i think if you look at the ways in which -- and she is amazing,

by the way. having gone through the wood chipper, she is extraordinarily ofeful that the sort of arc the moral universe is trending toward fairness. but the ways in which this maps so perfectly onto her experience and immediately when dr. ford came forward, we started hearing murmurs about maybe she was drunk, why didn't she come forward, you know, they were just kids and who among us hasn't assaulted a 15-yearar-old drunkenly at a party? very profound way. whatat is depressing about thiss how little has changed, even though so much should hahave changed right after her hearing. amy: ian millhiser, what do you first see for this week -- foresee this week? there were discussions that maybe staffers would speak to both brett kavanaugh and dr. blasey, but lily dr. blas has said the stakesey much higher

bus and she is willing to testify. she did not want to take this risk but at this point she feels it is her only choice. >> i think all eyes are going to be on hand for republican senators. certainly, collins and workouts he, who people are been looking at for a while -- like the only real realistic votes against kavanaugh. jeff flake, who is a flake. has a tendency to say big things and then not follow through on them. but maybe this time he will. and you will stop positive vote from havin happening. maybe bob corker. there are handful of republicans. the thing to keep in mind as this, two republican senators have the power to stop this. if two republican senators come forward and say we will vote no on brett kavanaugh until we get to the bottom of this, that puts a stop to this. it stops the thursday vote in the committee. it stops mitch mcconnell from

ramming this vote through. all it takes is two republican senators to come forward and say, we need to know what happened here before this person is given a lifetime appointed to the supreme court of the united states. amy: so you already have a number of senators speaking. you have corker. you have flake. and then there is murkowski and collins. quite areare already republicans who are wavering here. >> they are wavering. what we need more is wavering. what we need is definitive statements. if jeff flake wants to stop this, if you was to show integrity -- jeff flake is retiring, so he is nothing to lose. the magic words that jeff flake needs to use is "i will vote no on brett kavanaugh if the thursday vote is not canceled." until we hear those magic words from jeff flake -- he has not said very much. amy: corker is also retiring. >> corker is also retiring. susan collins is the senator from a blue state. she is from maine.

she can run -- even before this happened, she could run for reelection in 2020 as a senator who saved roe v. wade or the senator who killed roe v. wade. now she can be the senator who put someone who has a credible allegation of attempted rape on the supreme court, or she can be the person who said stop. on thisjust lost ian issue. dahlia lithwick, you're covering this very same beat about what susan collllins can do. justo i important thingsan said that are worth reiterating. these folks do not have to vote no on kavanaugh. all they have to do is vote no on kavanaugh until we find out what happened. that is an awfully low risk proposition given, as ian said, pretty credible allegations that something very violet happened to this woman. that is the first thing. the second thing, and this is important, this really does give

cover to people like collins and murkowski who have been playing this game of saying, ok, i get it, he was put on the court to overturn roe but i don't think he's going to do it. and the claims that they believe is good he says roe precedent. this gives them cover. they don't have to guess what he's going to do the future. all they need to do is scrutinized what is alleged to have happened in the papast. that is a much easier proposition for them. amy: and what ian millhiser tweeted "to summarize, confessed serial sexual predator nominated a man who is credibly accused of attempted rape to be the key vote to strip women of reproductive freedom" which brings us back to the issue that both you andian wrote about in this issue of roe v. wade. and what brett kavanaugh is saying right until now. oftalked about the story facebook and censorship anand ft checking and what is called fake

news and what isisn't, but the substance ofof the point that yu wrote about on roe v. wade and what we understand the kavanaugh has said, right until now in 2018. >> it is so important, amy. this is a person who there was no doubt. donald trump was unequivocal when he ran for office he said "i will put someone on the court who will overturn roe." what aboutp also punishing women who had abortion. then he put someone on the court who has quite an extensive -- ofy of writing justin the dissent in roe. amy: and that was still gorsuch. >> and now kavanaugh. he is picked someone who is spoken, who is written in the gores a case about abortion on demand -- all of the codewords are there. amy: the immigrant woman who wanted to have an abortion who was being held in texas and ultimately did succeed in getting one, but kavanaugh

actually wrote that she shouldn't. >> he would have put up new sheinary roadblocks -- had done everything share to do undeder the law, and he constructed new test that would have made it virtually impossible for her to procure an abortion. all of this happened. the pro-life groups, by the way, pushing them out and celebrating him. this is the beginning of the end. roe ends. then he gets on the standard says, i'm not going to do anything to roe. we have had to accept that. if you think about the visuals of those confirmation hearings, of women dressed up as the handmaid's tale, women being dragged -- 200 woman being dragged screaming from the senate. you can say, oh, this is not polite, but this is life and death for women. and to say, oh, i have an open mind with a history that he has, that is the central issue that we're losing a little bit now in conversations about whether he told the truth or even this

conversation. there is no doubt what will happen to women's reproductive health care. you can call it what you want to call it, you can call it reversing roe, but we know where he stands. and the notion this is going to be a hard question for collins and murkowski who claim to be for reproductive rights, this just got a lot easier for them. now they just have to say "we should hear this woman out." amy: and we will see what happens, whether dr. christine blasey ford is able to testify before the senate judiciary committee to talk about what she alleges is brett kavanaugh's attempted rape of her. dahlia lithwick is senior editor at slate.com. ian millhiser, senior fellow at the center for american progress action fund. only come back, we go south to texas to the story of a man who was in his apartment, a police officer enters his apartme thinking it is her own, and to send dead. we will talk about what happened next.

♪ [music break] amy: this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. we go now to dallas, where protests continued in the wake of the shooting and killing of a 26-year-old black man in his own apartment by a white dallas police officer.

the officer amber guyger, has , been charged with manslaughter after she entered botham shem jean's apartment and opened fire, killing him. police claim the officer believed that his apartment was hers. outrage is growing as the community demands answers about the circumstances of botham jean's death. on sunday, nearly 100 protesters marched d through h dallas witho coffins to at&t stadium ahead of the dallas cowboys game. the coffins symbolized the deaths of jean and oshae terry, whwho also was fatally shot this month by a north texas police officer. questions have been raised over why there was a three-day delay in charging officer guyger and how she failed to know she was not in her own apartment. jean's family also is criticizing police for issuing and making public information from a search warrant on jean's apartment. a police affidavit shows that officers seized, among other items, about 10 grams of

marijuana and a marijuana grinder from jean's apartment. this is allison jean, botham jean'momotherspeaeaki at a news conference on friy.y. >> t the iormamati receieid yestery is to meorse tha the ll that gotn the rnrning of idayay, ptembebe 7. to have s smemear in n su a tt treihinknk s shows arpersons o are reayy nanast who a a really dirty, and are going toololorpp dis coveup for t devil aer yger. i d't ow my y n to be involved in sh.h. wantnt tfind o out w wheth thehe toxicocogy repornn aer has been release becse she w th murrer. amy: amb guyger out on a $300,0 bond. investigors haveaken a bod sample fm the ofcer to tt for drugand alcol, but tre

is no inrmation resultsf that tesor any iormationn a arch warnt of he apartmt. well, r more, are jned by civil rits attory lee meitt, whos represting the fami of both jean. lcome toemocracyow! can you plain wh is ppening this ca? ifople he to be l or th hear thstory of police officewho getsff duty, wks to -- we, the pice cims she ought itas her apartmen but it s the apartmenof bothajeanthen shoo him dea plea, explai >> wknow thaif thi were in the rerse, forxample, a blk man waed io a whit poli offic's home an sho themo deafeng claimehe thght he was his apament, this wou be goingery, ver diffently. so rig now we ow that wh ambeguygeras offer as her planatiois not te. is demonsttively fse. her ory hashanged gnificany since ptember

whenhe oered sheas tryin bothaopened t door, surpriseher, andhen she ot hi thtory thashe offer to ngers a few ds lateras th she actlly ented the apartmenwhere thdoor was alread opened,aw a solet, ought ito be mder, gav instctions a then fid at . neher of t storiesake nse bause neitheromport with comn sense or the reality of the layout of that apartment. number one, outside of her apartment looks completely different than the apartment of botham jean. example, his apartment has a bright red rug there to greet people so they will know it is his apartment. her apartment did not have that rug. those doors were sure shut doors. i have been in mr. jean's apartment.

i let the door go slowly and they slam shut every time. so the idea it was somehow mysteriously opened doesn't compmport with the mechahanics f the apartment. amy: botham jean a native of solutia, graduated from harding university in arkansas, extremely applicable of, worked for pricewaterhousecoopers, multinational consulting firm in downtown dallas. 'se merritt, was amber guyger apartment raraided and searchedy police? you have botham jean's mother saying they are now leading a smear campaign, the police, against. him. >> as you pointed out, botham jean lived 26 years. only not bes to not accused of a c crime, but to completely avoid police encounters. his mom will describe to you that he was deathly afraid of american police and the idea of a police encounter, so he kept his registration up to date,

kept his car mechanics of the day because he feared some sort of traffic stop would lead him into it and unwanted encounter with what has an international reputation of a very deadly police force. he went 26 here's without being accused of any crime whatsoever, avoiding contact with law enforcement whatsoever. it took him being killed by dallas police officer rim to become a criminal. does for him to become a criminal. the police sought a warrant to enter his home. to specifically look for evidence of a crime, to look for drug paraphernalalia. that is what the war all four. following his murder, and t thee was no raid of her home, there were no warrants issued for any of her property, no warrant issued for her car or for her locker at the police department that she allegedly just left. there was no word issued for her apartment just below. so the focus of this investigation since it happened has been on ways to find exculpatory evidence or lookingg

for ways to justify her actions that are clearly unjustifiable. there could be no place that is supposed to offer more refuge than one's own home. amy: so what is the family demanding right now? did note ofofficer guyger have to speak to police -- she's a police officer, but for three days? >> that's right. in fairness, no one accused of a crime has to speak to police officers ever, of course, under amendment. citizens are protected from having to testify against themselves. however, law enforcement officers arere given three days under their internal affairs policies to prepare a statement. she volunteered her story the night of. unfortunately, it changed since then.

to back up with the families to manning in this case, the charges that have gone forward three days later, which was manslaughter be increased to murder. --can't find a sophistic sufficient justification for entering the home. we know what she's saying now is not true. that applies the element of malice that we think the chargre of m murder as opposed too mamanslaughthter would be more apprpropriate. is simple request the family made of the city of dallas and the dadallas police department s this officer be fired stop whether she commmmitted murder r manslaughter, as we believe, she committed a crime, a serious crime. there is no reason she should remain employed with the dallas police department. we also call for the dallas police department to end the smear campaign a against botothm jean and focus their energies on gathering evidence, collectingg or disiscovering when mrs. who might make clear what action happened that night. amy: i want to thank you for being with us and hope we can

speak you soon about of elements in this case. lee merritt is a civil rights attorney and is representing the family of botham jean, who was shot and killed by dallas police officer amber guyger in his own apartment. she said she mistook his apartment for hers. happy birthday to sam alcoff!