09/19/18 09/19/18 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] amamy: from pacifica, ththis is democracy now! >> to any woman who hears the an unusual or not uncommon story that when they were younger, some young boy, some yououng man, decided they d the right to throw them down to try to take their clothes off. hope inink that -- i

etoo, we're come far enough now to take us very, very seriously. amy: today, oscar-winning film maker michael moore on such christine blasey ford's accusation that brett kavanaugh attended to rape her as a teenager. she once the fbi to investigate her claims before she testifies on the senate. moore's new film about president trump and much more is out this week. we will also discuss kavanaugh's nomination, now up in thair, with reveverend dr. william barr of the poor people's campaign. >> we know when the courts have been wrong in this countntry, ad there have been many times, that it has turned us backwards rather than forward. in light of this, there must be kavanaughght to keep

off the supreme court. amy: reverend barber will join us from north carolina, where president trump heads today to survey massive flood damage from hurricane florence. barber says, "in the hurricane wind and waves, the poor suffer most." then the trump administration slashes the refugee admissions cap a historic low of 30,000 refugees per year. >> the improved refugee policy of thiss adminisistration serves the national interest of the united states and expands our ability doubt those in need all around the world. we will continue to assist the world's most vulnerable while never losing sight of our first duty, serving the american people. amy: amnesty international says the new refugee cap means people fleeing violence, religious persecution, and armed conflict could die. all that and more, coming up. welcome to democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. the leaders of north and south

korea have wrapped up their third summit this year with a vow to denuclearize the korean peninsula. earlier today, south korean president moon jae-in and north korean leader kim jong-un held a joint news conference in pyongyang. kim vowed to move towards denuclclearization if the united states takes steps of its own. >> we adopted a military pact to end a history of brutal and tragic confrontation and hostility, and agreed to make efefforts to turn the korean peninsula into a land of peace without nuclear weapons and nuclear threats. amy: south korean president moon jae-in praised thehe north k kon offer. he said, "the erera of no war hs started." >> south and north korea agreed on a denuclearization program for the first time. it is a very meaningful outcome. the north has decided to permanently abolish the test site and missile launchers with the attendance of experts fromom

relevant countries. amy: the two leaders also agreed to purursue a bid to co-host the 2032 olympic games and moon said he expects kim jong-un to soon become the first north korean leader to ever visit seoul. the woman who has accused supreme court justicice nominee brett kavanaugh of attempting to rape her as a teenagager has asd for the fbi to investigate her claims before she testifies to the senate. senate judiciary committee chair chuck grassley had invited the woman, dr. christine blasey ford, and kavanaugh to both testify on monday. in a letter to grassley, blasey ford's attorneys wrote -- "while dr. ford's life was being turned upside down, you and your staff scheduled a public hearing for her to testify at the same table as judge kavanaugh in front of two dozen u.s. senators on national television to relive this traumatic and harrowing incident." the letter went on to reveal

christine blasey ford has received multiple death threats in the past few days and has been forced to move her family out of her home. on tuesday night, one of her attorneys, lisa banks, appeared on cnn. >> any talk of a hearing on monday is premature because she just came forward with these allegations 48 hours ago. and since that time, she has been dealing with hate mail, harassment, death threats. so she has been spending her time trying to figure out how to put her life together, how to protect herself and her family. there has not been an investigation. these are serious allegations. amy: on tuesday night, senator grassley says there's no reason for any further delay in the hearing, even if dr. christine blasey ford does not testify. meanwhile, president trump dismissed the need for a fbi probe into her allegations. >> what would be the problem with the fbi reopening their

background investigation into judge kavanaugh? would you support suchch a thin? pres. trump: it would not bother me, other than the fbi, john said, they really don''t do tha. that is not whwhat they do. amy: democratic senator dianne feinstein of california responded on twitter by writing -- "fact check: the fbi can investigate dr. blasey ford's allegations as part of its background investigation -- that is their job. to say otherwise is false. it investigated anita hill's allegations of sexual harassment against clarence thomas. it should investigate this too." president trump also d defended brett t kavanaugh, descrcribingm as a great gentlemanan. pres. trumump: i feel so badly r him that he is going through this, to be honest with you. i feel so babadly for him. this is not a maman that deservs thisis. but i isee what happens, just think he is at a levevel tt

we rarelyy see, not only in .overnment, anywhere in l life anand, honestly, i feel terrrriy who is anfor his wife incredible, lovely woman, and for his beautiful young daughters. i feel terribly for them. amy: president trump did not refer to kavanaugh's accuser by name, just calling her "the woman." the death toll from hurricane florence has risen to 35 while the flooding is worsening in some parts of north carolina. president trump is heading to north carolina today where some 10,000 people are still living in shelters and nearly 350,000 are without power. meanwhile, in south carolina two women detainees died tuesday when they were being transported in a sheriff's van which was overcome by floodwaters. the women were both mental health patients being detained for medical transport. two sheriff deputies in the vehicle were able to be rescued from the rising waters.

we will have more on hurricane florence later in the program. president trump has confirmed the united states is considering building a permanent u.s. military base in poland. pres. trump: we are looking at it very seriously. i know poland likes the idea very much. it is something we're considering. amy: trump made the comment during a white house meeting with polish president duda, who suggested naming the base "fort trump." poland has been pushing for an increased u.s. presence as a counter to what it has described as russian aggression in the region. in other military news, stars and stripes is reporting the u.s.-led international coalition in afghanistan is building new hardened permanent structures in kabul in the latest sign that the 17-year-war won't be ending anytime soon. nato is seeking bids to build a massive concrete command-and-control center at

its compound. in news from yemen, u.s.-backed saudi forces have launched a new series of attacks on the port of hodeida, sparking fears of a humanitarian crisis. the charity save the children warned disruption to supplies coming through hodeida could "cause starvation on an unprecedented scale." the group warns five million chilildren are at ririsk of faf. meanwhile, cnn is repororting nw evidenence has emerged confirmig u.s.-made bombs have been usused in a serieies of attacks killing yemeni civilians since the saudi assault began in 2015. the cnn n probe was based d on shrapnel found at the scene of multiple bombings. several of the bombs were manufactured by raytheon. in gaza, israeli forces killed two palestinians on tuesday, and wounded 46, when shots were fired at a crowd of thousands protesting near the erez checkpoint border fence with

israel. the protest was in part calling out the recent halt in funding by the u.s. to the u.n. agency unrwa. meanwhile, israeli forces shot and killed a palestinian man in the occupied east jerusalem. a new u.n. report is slamming burma's leadership for the mass atrocities committed against the rohingya minority. the report details violence in the western state of rakhine and finds that the burmese military committed "the gravest crimes under r international law" w whn rorohingya villages were clearea year ago. ththe report builds on an earlir u.n. report from august which called for top burmese military leaders to be prosecuted for crimes against humanity and genocide. a top u.n. human rights investigator also called out burma's civilian leader, nobel peace prize laureate aung san suu kyi, for being a "fig leaf for military atrocities." this is marzuki darusman, chair

of the u.n. independent international fact finding mission on myanmar. >> with verified instances of reprisals against individuals for sharing information with the uniteded nations. blocked,protests are sometimes violently, as occurred in one village. while voices are needed --muted, hate speech is thriving. it will only help those that for to derail it as it has over 70 years. amy: china hit back at president trump's recently announced tariffs on the country by confirming its planned tariffs on $60 billion worth of u.s. products. ththe tariff rates w were lowerd frfrom previous proposals s and cocontinues the ongoing trade wr between the two nations.

in response, president trump warned that he may imposee additional tariffs on all remaining chinese goods. a member of the russian activist group pussy riot remains hospitalized in berlin after losing the ability to speak or walk. on tuesday, german doctors said the activist, pyotr verzilov, was likely poisoned. he was hospitalized last week after falling gravely ill. in july, he was arrested and jailed after rushing t f field during a world cup mat t to protest russian police brutality and human rights abuses. he reportedly started having severe symptoms after attending a court hearing in moscow. in 2012, pyotr appeared on democracy now! to talking about russia's jailing of his wife nadia tolokonnikova, also of pussy riot. >> a week later, i went to see does officers jumping out

of nowhere and began apprehending as. guns stuck to our head. that is the same thing that happened with the other two girls. they make up your remains hospitalized in berlin, that interview from 2012. you can go to the whole interview at democracynow.org. mother jones reports that commerce secretary wilbur ross lied under oath in testimony about the controversial citizenship question in the 2020 census. ross claimed that the justice department requested the addition of the question in order to better enforce the voting rights act, but new emails confirm that he was the one who approached the justice department about including the controversial question after consulting with senior white house officials. kansas secretary of state kris kobach, then head of the widely discredited and now-defunct election integrity commission, was one of the officials who lobbied ross to add the question

"at the direction of steve bannon." multiplele lawsuits are challenging the inclusion n of e citizenship question in the census. the roman catholic diocese of brooklyn, new york, has agreed to pay out $27.5 million to four men who were sexually abused by a reliligious teacher between 23 and 2009. it is one ofof the largest sesettlements ever awarded to victims withine the catholic church. and mcdonald's workers around the country went on strike against the fast food giant on tuesday to protest sexual harassment. at rallies in various cities, workers decried sexual abuse and harassment in the workplace and said that the company has not addressed their complaints in many cases. and those are some of the headlines. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. dr. chchristine blasey ford, has

accused supreme court justice nominee brett kavanaugh, of attempting to rape her when she was 15, has asked for the the fbi to investigate her claims before she testifies to the senate. senate judiciary committee chair chuck grassley had invited the -- had invited blasey ford and kavanaugh to both testify on monday. in a letter to grassley come her attorneys wrote -- "while dr. ford's life was being turned upside down, you and your staff scheduled a public hearing for her to testify at the same table as judge kavanaugh in front of two dozen u.s. senators on national television to relive this traumatic and harrowing incident." the letter went on to reveal christine blasey ford has received multiple death threats in the past few days and has been forced to move out of her home. on tuesday night, one of her attorneys, lisa, here it on cnn. >> it is premature because she

just came forward with these allegations 48 hours ago. since that time, she has been dealing with hate mail, harassment, death threats. so she has been spending her time trying to figure out how to put her life back together, how to protect herself and her family. there hasn't been an investigation post of these are sears investigations. go on tuesday night, senator grassley said there is no reason for further delay, even if christine blasey ford does not testify. meanwhile, president trump dismissed the need for an fbi probe into her allegations. pres. trump: >> what would be the problem with the fbi reopening t the backgroundnd investigation intno judge kavananaugh? woululd you support t such a th? tomko it would not bother me, except for john said they do not do that. amy: democratic senator dianne feinstein of california responded on twitter by writing -- "fact check: the fbi can

investigate dr. blasey ford's allegations as part of its back on investigation -- that is their job. to say otherwise is false. it investigated anita hill's allegations of sexual harassment against clarence thomas. it should investigate this too." president trump also defended kavanaugh, describing him as a great gentleman. pres. trtrp: i feel so badly for hihim that he is going thrhrough this, to be honest with you. i feel so badly fofor him. this isis not a man thahat deses this. we wilill see e what happepens. but t just think he is at a level l that we rarerely see, nt only in government t anywhere in life.. honestly, , i feel tererribly fr is anor his wife who incredible, lovely woman, and for his beautiful young daughterers. i feel terribly for them. amy: presidentnt trump himimsels been accused of sexual assault

and harassment by multiple women . in that news conference, he would not refer to dr. blasey ford by nicole only as "the woman." well, on tuesday, i sat down with academy award-winning filmmaker michael moore, whose new film about trump and more is out this week, called "fahrenheit 11/9: tyrant. liar. racist. a hole in one." he was here in our new york studio, and i asked him to respond to trump's comments about kavanaugh and his accuser, -- kavanaugh's accuser christine , blasey ford. >> i watched the news this morning and to hear her say, as the is described in " washington post" article, she described the incident, that when he had thrown her on the bed -- and at that point he is a 17-year-old junior or senior in high school -- she is a 15-year-old freshman or sophomore. and she said -- i think i'm

quoting accurately here, that the thought ran through her head that she could possibly die because he was suffocating her with his hand over her mououth d nose. i guess as you have to say legally here, as it is alleged. amy: because she was attempting to scream. >> because she was trying to scream. amy: allegedly. >> yes. -- i was never a teenage girl, but i have hadad to live my 64 women, bothing to friends, family, and the general public, tell me these stories. i think to any woman who hears this story this is not an unusual or uncommon story that

when they were younger, some young boy, some young man, decided they had the right to throw them down, to try to take her clothes off. and i think -- i hope in this year of #metoo that we have come far enough now to take this very, very seriously. i don't like at all the way they are trying to rush this through. i think this is a real watershed moment, frankly. we all still believe -- i hope we believe that everyone is innocent until any womanlty, that who comes forward with an elevation like this has to be listened to. and you could not say, oh, it was just high school. he was 17 years old. how many 17-year-olds do we have in prison now? usually people of

color. but they try them as adults. to not have a real investigation. this thing has to be postponed. presidentom that, a who is under criminal investigation, possibly for treason, has no rights to appoint anyone or nominate anyone to the supreme court. can we all agree on that? but now that dr. ford has come herard with this, to ignore , to not listen to her, that will be its own crime. i sincerely hope, as we sit here today and in the coming days and weeks, that somehow this has to be tabled. there is no way they can go forward with this now. -- n't know, i guess

i don't know. i feel for everybody that has told me a story like this, that i have listened to for the last 40 years. guyt to tell you, too, as a who was a teenager, was a tween, just so you know, guys like me have to put up with these guys since we were in high school. i don't know what words i can use on this show, but basically, ep] that we've had to tolerate and who have made life miserable for us and who were the bullies when we were in school. and there believe that they have a right to use theheir strength for violence to get their way. this is nothing new to us as men and the men we have had to deal with since we were that age.

so none of this is surprising. everyone has felt it or been affected by it, but especially the women who have had to tolerate this their entire lives. i have just -- i know when i walk out of here, if we were doing this at night and it was 10:00 and we were downtown here in new york city, 10:00 at night and it is dark out, i would walk out ofof your building and walkd to the subway and go home and never have another thought about it because i belong to this gender. but if you belong to the other gender, you can't just walk out of your 10:00 at night. you have no visible radar like those tv news fans, where anything goes up where you have to watch and you have to be careful because you know what could possibly happen. i don't know if most and actually realize that we have

got to live our entire dull toes really never having worry about who is coming at us down the street or whatever because we belong to this gender. if you see a woman on a dark street walking toward you at night, never once do you think, "oh, i could be in some danger here." that is not the gender that does that. when you first heard that there was someone -- i remember i was watching cnn and they broke in and theyey said ththere was a mn top of that hotel in las vegas firing on a crowd of 20,000 people. they said the word "man" but they said they did not know who it was or how many. they gendered because everyone knows there's no woman of their with machine guns firing on a crowd of people. you don't have to worry about 51% of the population is not

going to jump out of the bushes and mug you or commit acts of violence on you. that is just the truth. everybody knows it is the truth. we never talk about the gender aspect of this. the cdc has wanted to study it, but the nra has kept them in congress from studying the gender aspect of violence in our society. to me, it -- if you're watching the 11:00 news and you hear a woman has actually shot a guy, what is your first thought? wow, what didid he do? what kind of abusive guy is that? for a woman to do that, that is the society we live in. ,o brett kavanaugh and dr. ford now bring one of the big, central issues and way of living in our society down to the table again. and we are going to have to confront it and deal with it. and i hope we do.

but either way, the crimin presidenent does not have a rigt to be making appointments to the supreme court. amy: that his oscar-winning film maker michael moore, commenting on dr. christinene blasey ford's allegation that brett kavanaugh tried to rape her when she was 15 years old and he was 17. michael moore stiff from about trump and much more is out this 11/9."lled "fahrenheit we will air more of his interview later this week. this is democracy now! when we come back, we had to north carolina to speak with dr. reverend barber about the hurricane and the effects on the poor. stay with us. ♪ [music break]

amy: this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. now to the to turn reveverend william b barber. we are speaking to him in north carolina. on toriginally had him talklk about the hurricane. but before we go to that, dr. william barber, i want to ask you about -- i wanted ask you about judge kavanaugh. you held a news conference opposing judge kavanaugh's confirmation to the supreme court well before dr. blasey ford spoke out and said that he had attempted to rape her when they were both teenagers. i was wondering if you would share your thoughts at this point, both on this latest controversy and why you're s so vehemently opposed to judge kavanaugh taking a seat on the supreme court.

>> thank you so much, amy, for this opportunity. before all of the latest news, judge kavanaugh the first of all, was being put forward after mcconnell in the senate held open a seat for over 420 days in a way that we had not seen since the civil war. they literally denied a president his right to nominate someone and for them to have a hearing. this was the same judiciary committee that denied two african-american women a hearing to be appointed to the federal court first district in north carolina. so the process was bad from the beginning. secondly, what we're seeing now, as we look at george bush and now donald trump, we are posed to have two presidents that did not win the popular vote now will appoint -- will have

appointed four members to the supreme court for extreme -- four extreme numbers to the supreme court. we are to have a supreme court that will back the voting rights act. kavanaugh, we believe would be dangerous to voting rights, to labor rights, to health care, and to women's rights. and that was exposed in the hearing of what he would not answer and what he would not say. for instance, senator kamala sayss asked him section 2 basically the protection it says no state can engage in discriminatory practices as it relates to voting and voting rights. he did not answer her question. she could not even say yes on something as fundamental as voting rights. so he was a dangerous, if you will, nominee already.

-- that this has come out and i have been thinking about it in a number of ways. number one, this lady did not intend to come out. dr. ford -- it was leaked. she has asked for an fbi investigation. that is strange for someone, for those who say she is lying. the as it may, it is all alleged. i heard michael moore mention minute ago about the feminist side, the woman's side of this agenda. let me flip this over. imagine obama nominating a black or latino man for the supreme court, and an accusation comes up that that black or latino man had attempted to rape a teenage girl. imagine that for a minute. imagine what these republicans

would be doing if in fact that was the scene that we're dealing with now. here they are having a white man for the supreme court nominee accused of raping -- attempting to rape a white woman, and they are already forming an opinion and wanting to refuse to even give her an fbi investigation. this is nothing but the politicsization is our and our political systems, and people in america must stand up against this entire process contrary to our fundamental values. amy: i want to turn right now the reverend barber, to what you're dealing with in north carolina, to look at how thousands continue to evacuate north carolina in the wake of hurricane florence, which has

caused record flooding since it made landfall five days ago. president trump is expected to visit your state, going to north and south carolina today. the death toll from the storm has risen to at least 35, including three young children. carolina, twoth women detainees drowned in a sheriffs van. more than 10,000 have already fled to shelters and nearly 400,000 are without power in north carolina. on tuesday, governor roy cooper said 16 rivers were at major flood stage and three more rivers could peak in coming days. massive industrial coal ash landfills and pig and chicken farms have also been engulfed by the floodwaters, and millions of chickens and pigs have drowned. the associated press reports at least 45 active farms are located in the floodplain. crystal coasast waterkeeper lary

baldwin flew over eastern north carolina and described the damage to hog and chicken farms. >> we did see a a couple of fafacilities today that were already in serious trouble. they were surrounded by water. there lagoons were surrounded by water. there spray fields were completely covered up. good, bution is not it is not good today, but likely to get much worse throughout the rest of the week as the waters start to get to their flood levels. amy: more than 1.4 million people in north carolina are now without functioning water systems, and even more have been ordered to boil their water. the areas devastated by hurricane florence include some of the poorest areas on the eastern seaboard. in some counties, nearly 1 in 3 people live below the poverty line. for more, we continue to speak -- dr.. reverend harper

reverend we and barber co-chair , of the poor people's campaign and president of repairers of the breach. he is a distinguished visiting professor of public theology at union theological seminary, the former president of the north carolina naacp, and moral mondays leader. recently wrote a piece for cnn headlined "in hurricane wind and waves, the poor suffer most." so describe what is happening on the ground, dr. barber, in your state. >> i am in raleigh and headed back to goldsboro, where my we are planning to feed children, and many of them are missing meals because the schools are closed because the rivers, even in my city, have not crested yet. -- it is 15 at 20 feet higher than when hurricane mitchell came. that gave us the 500 year flood across the state. amy, here is what we havave to

help people to understand. trump is comining to visit toda, but his policies, the negative impact policies visited -- were visited on the poor long before hehe came. we are in a state that before the hurricane, or people had a storm, there were over 4.7 million residents in north carolina that are poor and low wealth. there are over one million people in north carolina before the storm that did not have health care. the counties that are being hit tier onest, amy, are and tier two. .hey are being hit the hardest in north carolina, 2 million workers make under $15 an hour. it would take a person making seven dollars an hour, they would have to work some 80 something hours just to afford a prude bedroom -- 242 bedroom

apartment. that is what existed before the hurricane. 40% of america are poor, low income. that is what existed before the hurricane. and we have extra must republican-led legislature that refuses to expand medicaid, which meant 500,000 people in our state could have health care right now and they don't have it. is republican conesess talkg g abou cutting snap. peop need us food stamps now more thaever aft the spl. we ruse -any peop who are flooded,heyork hourljobs. they areot getti paid now. they don't have t r resoues.. en the gerernorsad to ecuate, ty could t bause ey don't havehe moneythey n't ve thears.s. they did not have the ability. and when you think about it, the is now bringing federal money. the president will say he is giving federal money. this state has refused that money would have helped the poor prior to the storm so that they

would have buffers against the storm. hurricanes.wo the hurricane of poverty and lack of health care and lack of living wages that existed prior to the storm, and then we have the storm and now everything that was already tough for people has been exacerbated. that is the story we must keep our eyes on. some people are looking at what happened on the coast. we dodged able at on the coast. but if you come inland now and see these rivers were mostly the poor live come along these rivers in these rural communities, they are being devastated. when you add the environmental devastation, the coal ash, the hog farms, the bacteria, the poison that is being put in the rivers, , this is a tremendous catastrophe. but some of it could have been buffered, could have been made

better if our state, particularly peoplple in congre, to help the poor in advance of the storm, would make sure evererybody has health carare ad living wages, and we had cleaned up these coal ash ponds and we stop using fossil fuels -- is those kinds of thingngs would happen in advance of a storm, there would be not so much damage to the poor. amy: speaking of poverty, i want to read a letter from a resident who wrote -- that is one letter. then i want to turn to the small town of princeville in e eastern

north carolina, the first town chartered by freed slaves in the united states in 1885, originally known as freedom hill, sits on an unwanted floodplain along the fault tar river that has flooded many times. the town's website notes that -- "flooding, like the threat of white supremacy, has plagued princeville since its settlement. major floods occurred two years after the community's founding and again in 1919, 1924, 1928, 1940 and 1958." the army corps of engineers eventually built a dike that helped reduce the flooding, but in 1999 heavy rains from hurricane floyd submerged parts of princeville under 23 feet of water for more than a week. this is princeville resident linda worsley y speaking to "the new york times" about how she was displaced from her home by flooding after hurricane matthew caused widespread damage in the town in 16. dike built up,a but the water actually went around the dike and it came up behind my house and destroyed

everything. then a lot of the water also came up through the sewer system. >> are you worried about whether or not you will be allowed to rebuild? >> yes, i am. trying to do everything i can to make sure i will still be able to stay in the same land that my forefathers bought so that we could have somewhere to live. amy: so that clip from princeville in 2016, talking about the black community, the first community founded by freed slaves. can you talk momore about this, reverend barber? >> i did a rededication of that city this past year. i know people there. i live not far from princeville. seeing my home that i am constantly hit. we know about what happened in matthew and floyd. i think something like a 15 foot

wall of water can through that area. had thepews standing up inside the churches. people lost their lives. but since the flood, it was after that that north carolina extremist politicians that, we don't need health care. we don't need a living wage. we don't need to deal with these environment issues. if anything, they deregulated. and here we e are again. 56% ofin a state where the children, amy, 1.3 millllio, are poor and the well. 62% people of color, 2.3 million, are poor and the wealth. the majority of people in north carolina are white. and even in eastern north carolina, while those counties are the counties with the highest percentages of african americans, the majority of the people in those counties are white and the majority of the people who are poor are white.

race question and a class question, and a denial question. there's a question that after the storms normally happen, people go back to business as usual. or we get something like we see the extremism up trump where -- of trump region either things people need, then when a storm -- the new comment and visit and act as if you're concerned, but your policies prior to the storm created problems for the people in a way that they would not have -- some of these problems they have now come if you had not been so vicious and mean and so regressive in your policies when the days were sunny. we're going to have to learn how to do this betetter. people are suffering. people are afraid all over eastern north carolina. think about this. this is the only glimmer of sunshine in the midst of this. this is what a category 1 and a tropical storm has done.

they thought it would be a 4tegory for being -- category bank or 3. if it had been, it is unimaginable what the pain and the travesty would be, what the poisoning to the environment would be, what the need for health care would be. imagine now, people that are getting sick that could have health care don't have it. how are they going to be treated? about aaid, you talked lady living in a mobile home. there are so many mobile homes. we could do so much better w wih affordable housing in these areas, but that is not the case. some peoplple may be off work to and three weeks. they already were in a position before the storm where if they mimissed one day but it they mit not be able e to pay their r rer afford t their medicine or f fed their families. we have to talk about the

political and socicial stotorm t exacerbates the natural storm when they do happen. amy: j just last monthth, former vice president al gore visited you in north carolina and you went on a tour of the coal impacted community's. al gore speaking here of front of the smokestacks of duke energy's steam station, which ruruns on coal. >> i want to draw connectio the coallues lake and ash pollution and the gaseous pollion that is threateni to the of our entire plalanet, kind of mess they have made here. we had to stop on the way over herere -- actualally, we did not stop, but we saw g going besidie us, all of these train cars full of coal. on a peak day, this plant over railcars full of

coal. and what is left over when they burn it is this toxic coal ash. now, if f you had all o of these millions of tons of a toxic bstance anand you just dug a raw gash in the ground a and dumpedt inin there, you would be behavig recklessly. that is what they are doing. this is a crime scene. amy: that is vice president how gore speaking outside the duke energy plant with you, reverend barber. that was before the storm. duke energy now says at least 2000 cubic yards of coal ash were released amidst tropical depression florence's massive flooding in north carolina, enough ash to fill something like 180 dump trucks. as we wrap up, what this means? >> one of those areas is in

goldsboro, one of the sites that was already leaking that t peope have been fighting. and they tell us all the time, the coal ash is not wisdom. we say, then white is an in the rich committed is, the cocommunitities of the politici? it is poisonous.s. it was alrlready leaking. it was are ready broken. it was are ready must up. the storm has exacerbated this, and it did not have to be this way. duke, the very company that is helping the sick people out to turn on power, is the same company that has negatively impacted poor communities by placing all of these coal ash sites in and around pork amenities, in and around sources of water. form of hypocrisy. on one hand, they say we want to help you after the storm, but before the storm, we engage in policies that continually hurt and harm the poor, the low wealth.

amy: we want to thank you, reverend dr. william barber, and with president trump coming to the carolinas today, hee proudly denieses climate change, calls t a chinesese hoax. in the last 10 seconds, what would you say to him about this? >> i would say what my son who is an environmental lawyer and also an environmentalist physicist, because of the warming air is messing up the jet streams, therefore, what you have is this erratic hurricanes. they twist and turn and stop and move. that means they don't more water. that means they hold more water. that means they are more powerful. anybody who denies climate change is a full --fool. it is foolish to do it because your denials of climate change, your denial of health care, your denial of living wages from your denial of environment protection devastates the poor before storms ever come.

and then there is an additional devastation on top of it. amy: w we want to thank you, dr. reverend william barber co-chair , of the poor people's campaign joining us from raleigh, north carolina. we will link to your piece for cnn "in hurricane wind and , waves, the poor suffer most." alal gore brought his daughter, also a well-known environment list. when we come back, the trump administration placing the most severe cap on refugees in history. stay with us. ♪ [music break]

this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman with juan gonzalez. juan: the trump administration has once again slashed the number of refugees allowed to resettle in the united states. on monday, secretary of state mike pompeo announced the new cap on refugees would be a historic low of just 30,000 next year, down from the current level of 45,000. >> the improved if you do policy of this administration serves the national interest of the united states and expands our

ability doubt out those in need all around the world. we will continue to assist the world's most vulnerable while never losing sight of our first duties -- serving the american people. we are and continue to be the most generous nation in the world. juan: the actual number of refugees allowed in to the country is expected to be even lower than the 30,000 cap. monday's announcement represents the lowest ceiling any president has imposed on the u.s. refugee program since its creation in 1980. under president obama, the refugee cap reached 110,000. amy: for more on the trump administration's refugee policy, we go to washington, d.c., to speak with ryan mace, refugee specialist for amnesty international usa. thank you for joining us. talk about the significance of this number and what it means for refugees around the world. >> thank you so much for having us on. it is an honor. significantis quite

, the announcement that the secretary made on monday. it really is. we are calling it an abandonment of our commitment to this final protection. the u.s. refugee admissions program is a program that was started in the 1980 refugee act. it is a bipartisan program. it is a program we should all the very proud of. over 3 million refugees have been resettled through this program since 1980. fromu said, presidents ronald reagan, george bush, president obama, have set the goal at the start of every fiscal year. it is a goal that both shows our commitment to this vital protection, shows our commitment as the united states, and it really does show the world that we are committed to this program. as you said, in the last full year of the obama administration in fiscal year 2015, they set the goal it 85,000. at the time, that was quite a

high goal to set. it previously had been around 70,000. as you might recall, this was during the time -- we are still in the time, but where syrian refugees were really on the front page of the news. there was a lot of political pressure for the united states and other countries to do more. president obama and the administration realized that. they set a goal that was definitely a higher goal than there had been, but the political will was there to say, we're going to do this. that meant they had to do the ,ork to achieve that goal sending people to do interviewss on the ground, security interviews that are so important. and we achieved that goal. it was 85,000. it was a little under that, but they did me that goal. that is the difference between previous administration's and the current one we're in. previous a administration's set

that goal at the start of the fiscal year in consultation with congress and the american people . they set that goal and then they worked to achieve it throughout the year. the difference is that at the start of this fiscal year, the one we're in, the trump administration set a goal of 45,000. at the time, that was the worst goal, the lowest goal that any administration had ever set. beentunately, there has really no effort to try and reach even half of that goal. we are a few short weeks away from the end of this fiscal year. i just looked it up and we are about 21,000 -- at 21,000 refugees through the course of this last year who have been able to be resettled here in the u.s. again, that is half of the goal we set. that is so unfortunate. that leaves behind families who are seeking to be reunited with

relatives here in the u.s. it leaves behind people who urgently need medical attention. it leaves behind people who are at real risk -- their life or the well-being -- in a country in which they are in. juan: if i could ask you, in terms of the admissions and resettlement. could you talk about what countries the large fault of the refugees are coming from now and say during the trump administration? hazard been any change from under the obama administration in terms of the countries from which people are coming out go >> of course. if you look at the difference in the past two years, you really can see every country has gone down, a virtually, sibley because the goal has lowered so significantly in the past two years of this trump administration. -- again,so saying there are only a few countries where you are seeing over a

couple thousand refugees even coming. most countries in this fiscal year are in the hundreds. again, we're talking about such a low number compared to previous fiscal years. i think one of the most stark numbers is through searing refugees -- the syrian refugee crisis, of course, everyone knows it is one of the worst refugee crises that we face. there are millions of refugees who have been forced to flee to syria -- forced to flee syria. it will be shocking but the united states is here has only accepted 60 syrian refugees this year. a shocking number. last year, there was around 6000 that were resettled. thearily, probably, in first humans of the fiscal year when obama was still the president. the last full year of obama's a administration, there were

almost 12,000 syrians who were resettled here in the u.s.. clarify theyou difference between refugees and asylum-seekers? >> refugees, especially when you view it in the u.s. context, but refugees are people who come through the refugee a minister doe -- admissions. and go through the refugee admissions program. they have gone to the united nations own vetting process and then once the u.n. refers them to the u.s. for resettlement because the u.n. believe they would be well-placed in the u.s. because of either a family connection, a u.s. type, or because we have the ability to accept them, the u.s. is the

stork we received the largest amount, they go through the refugee admissions program. context, asylums are people who come to our border or aybe they came on -- through student be so or other means, and realize that while they are here, they fear going back. maybe there is a war that breaks out in the country or maybe they get threats against their life. amy: we have to wrap up that we want to ask, do you believe people will die if this cap is enforceded? > yes. unfortunately, this is very much a matter of life and death. alle are people who are over the world. there are people who urgently need access -- amy: the trumpet administration received so much back last that the state department said they're just turning this proposal to congress and hasn't been fully decided yet.

we will continue to follow this issue. ryan mace car refugee specialist for amnesty international usa. thank you for joining us. that does it for our broadcast. democracy now! is looking for feedback from people who appreciate the closed captioning. e-mail your comments to outreach@democracynow.org or mail them to democracy now! p.o. box 693