09/25/18 09/25/18 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] amy: from pacifica, this is democracy now! >> kavanaugh has got to go! >> i am a good person. i have led a good life. i try to do a lot of good for a lot of people. amy: at least 128 people are arrested protesting supreme court nominee brett kavanaugh monday, who has been accused of sexual assault by two women as kavanaugh and his wife sat down

for an unprecedented interview on fox and denied the allegation. we will get response from tarana burke, founder of the #metoo movement, who helped call for the national walkout. we will also big with independent journalist marcy wheeler about accusations against kavanaugh and the drama that unfolded monday when it appeared deputy attorney general rod rosenstein had resigned. for about two hours we did not know if we had an active attorney general over signal mueller probe, and that freaked everyone out because we assumed the probe was dead. tune in thursday to see whether rosenstein gets fired and whether brett kavanaugh talks about using cigars. amy: into puerto rico, as president trump denies hurrrrice maria and its aftermath killed thousands,s, hee also says he 't susupport statehood f for the id as long as the san juan mayor is in office. pres. trump: with the mayor of san juan, as bad as she is and

is incompetent as she is, puerto rico should not be talking about statehood until they get some people that really know what they're doing. with people like that involved in puerto rico, i would be -- absolute no. if you had people like that mayor san juan, whatever her name baby, she is a horror show. amy: we will get response from naomi klein, who says there's nothing natural about for the rigorous disasaster. she is now a professor at rutgers university. all of that a more, coming up. welcome to democracy now, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. at least 128 people were arrested on capitol hill monday protesting supreme court nomomie brett kavanaugh, who has been publicly accused of sexual assault by two women. bob bland, co-president of the women's march helped organized

the mass civil disobedience. >> women from all over the country have come to washington to put their bodies on the line to say we will not go back, we sayeve survivors, and to look at all of the thousands of women and allies who are here today. women are to be believed, to be trusted, and we will always come out for each other because we have each other's back. amy: on monday night, brett kavanaugh and his wife sat down for an interview with fox news. it was his first public comment since dr. christine blasey ford accused the judge of attempting to rape her when she was 15 years old. he was kavanaugh denied the 17. allegation. >> now, i've never sexually assaulted anyone. .ot in high school, not ever i have always treated women with dignity and respect.

amy: he would not answer the question whether the fbi should investigate. both kavanaugh and dr. christine blasey ford are scheduled to testify before the senate judiciary commitittee on thursd. a second woman, deborah ramirez, has accused kavanaugh of exposing himself and thrusting his genitals in her face during a college party in a dorm room at yale. in addition, attorney michael avenatti says a third woman will come for before thursday with new evidence against kavanaugh. we will have more on this story after headlines. deputy u.s. attorney general rod rosenstein was as the center of attention monday as rumors swirled that he was about to resign or be fired by president trump. but for now rosenstein still has his job. he is scheduled to meet with the presesident on thursdaday. december the kavanaugh-ford hearing will take place. this comes days after "the new york times" reported rosenstein

had suggested secretly recording president trump in the white house and recruiting cabinet members to invoke the 25th amendment to remove trump from office for being unfit. rosenstein, who oversees special counsel robert mueller's investigation, called "the new york times" report inaccurate and factually incorrect. some have said his remark abouot wiring the president was sarcastic. the dallas police department has fired the white police officer who shot and killed a 26-year-old black man in his own apartment. the officer, amber guyger, entered botham jean's apartment and opened fire, killing him. police claim the officer believed it was her apartment. while guyger has been charged with manslaughter after the shooting, she remained on the police force until monday. the announcement of her firing came on the same day botham jean's family buried his body in

his home country of st. lucia. in news on hurricane florence, a new study says rising sea levels in the carolinas fueled a stronger storm surge, leading to far more destruction in the region than would have otherwise been possible. researchers are estitimating tht sea level rise over the past five decades led to 11,000 homes being damaged that would not have suffered damage previously. steven mcalpine of the first street foundation said -- "even though the impact of hurricane florence continues to be felt, we already know that sea level rise has made the damage significantly worse, as observed with other recent storms." data from the national oceanic and atmospheric administration on tides for the carolinas show an average rise in sea level of about six inches since 1970. climate change is expected to result in even greater sea level rise in the coming years and decades.

the carolinas are still suffering from flooding. at the united nations general assembly, president trump met with south korean president moon jae-in monday. the meeting came just days after moon wrapped up a three-day summit with north korean leader kim jong-un. president trump said he expects to meet again with kim soon as well. pres. trump: we will be having a secocond summit with chairman km inin the not-toooo-distant futu. secretary of state will be dealing with that subject. mike pompeo has been in touch with them and i think within a fairly short. ---ime, it will be announced the lotionon to d determined. very much looking forward to having it. amy: meanwhile, president trump announced on twitter this morning he would not be meeting with the president of iran during the u.n. gathering. trump wrote --

"despite requests, i have no plans to meet iranian president hassan rouhani. maybe someday in the future. i am sure he is an absolutely lovely man!" over the w weekend, iranan blamd the united states for being behind an attack that t killed 9 people d during a mililitary pae in the citof ahvaz. trump is addreing g thu.n. neral asmbly tod. in news from syria, russia has announced plans to provide syria with an advanced s-300 missile defense system. the moves comes just days after syrian missiles accidentally shot down a russian military aircraft, k killing 15 crew members. the downing occurred as israeli jets attacked targets in latakia province. israel and the united states decried russia's move describing it as a significant escalation to the war. meanwhile, top trump administration officials are saying u.s. forces will remain in syria for the indefinite future.

nationonal security adadvisor jn bolton told the associated press on monday -- "we're not going to leave as long as iranian troops are outside iranian borders and that includes iranian proxies and militias." secretary of defense james mattis also confirmed u.s. troops would be staying but said their focus remains on fighting militants tied to isis. in news from mexico, a newspaper journalist in the southern state of chiapas has been assassinated after reporting on corruption involving a local member of congress. mario gomez sanchez becomes at least the ninth journalist killed in mexico this year. he was killed on friday when two attackers on motorbikes approached him and opened fifir. meanwhile, in guatememala, anotr indigenous rights activist has been killed. juana ramirez santiago, who worked as a midwife and helped found the network of ixil women, was shot dead on friday. she is at least the 21st human righghts activist to b be slains year in guatemala.

the trump administration is moving toward overturning an obama-era safety rule that required trains carrying oil and other flammable material to have a modern electronically controlled braking system. ththe pipeline and hazazardous materials safety administration is arguing such a braking system would be too expensive. such trains s are sometimes referred to as bomb trains because of the danger they pose to local communities. in 2013, 47 people died in quebec when a runaway train carrying volatile crude oil from north dakota's bakken shale exploded.. since 2010, there have been at least 20 derailments in the united states and canada involving traiains carrying oil and ethahanol. in news from florida, a democratic congressional candidate has died of a suspected heart attack. april freeman was 54 years old. she was running to fill the seat

of retiring republican congressss member tom rooney. and the winners of this year's right livelihood award have been announced. the prize is widely known as the alternative nobel prize. this year's winners are anti-corruption champions thelma aldana of guatemala and ivan velasquez of colombia, three imprisoned civil and human rights defenders from saudi arabia -- abdullah al-hamid, mohammad fahad al-qahtani, and waleed abu al-khair -- a farmer from burkina faso named yacouba sawadogoand, the australian agronomist tony rinaudo. and those are some of the headlines. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. juan: and i'm juan gonzalez. welcome to all of our listeners and viewers from around the country and around the world. we turn now to new accusations of sexual assault against president trump's supreme court nominee brett kavanaugh and the growing resistance to against his confirmation.

at least 128 people were arrested on capitol hill monday protesting kavanaugh, who had been publicly accused of sexual misconduct by two women. dr. christine blasey ford and deborah ramirez. this is tarana burke #metoo movement, who called for the national walkout monday in solidarity with survivors of sexual violence. dr. blasey ford, like anita hill before you, we applaud you and your courage. we stand with you and we will not let you labor -- your labor be in vain. juan: in a minute, we will be joined by tarana burke in d.c. not on monday night brett , kavanaugh and his wife sat down for an unprecedented interview with fox news. it was his first public comment since dr. christine blasey ford accused the judge of attempting to rape her when she was 15 years old. kavanaugh denied the allegation. >> we're looking for a fair process where i can be heard and defend my integrity, my lifelong

record -- my lifelong record of promoting dignity and equality for women, starting with the women who knew me when i was 14 years old. i'm not going anywhere. i'm not going to let false accusations drive me out of this process. i have faith in god and i have faith in the fairness of the american people. the truth is, i've never sexually assssaulted anyone -- n high school or otherwise. i am not questioning and have not questioned that perhaps dr. ford at some point in her life was sexually assaulted by someone in some place. but what i know is i have never sexual resulted anyone. both kavanaugh and dr. juan: christine blasey ford are scheduled to testify before the senate judiciary committee on thursday. mitch mcconnell has dismissed the alalletions agaiainst kavanaugh and said t the full nate will vote in his confirmation respective of what this week's hearing reveals.

president,ear, mr. judge kavanaugh will be voted on here on the senate floor. up or down. on the senate floor. will receive a vote in the senate in the near future. juan: even as kavanaugh defended his integrity, "the new york times" published an report on how he and his high school football teammates boasted in their yearbooks about sexual exploits at a nearby catholic girls' school, and described themselves as the "renate alumni" in a reference to renate schroeder, then a student at a nearby catholic girls' school. schroeder responded to the report saying -- "i learned about these yearbook pages only a few days ago. i don't know what 'renate alumnus' actually means. i can't begin to comprehend what goes through the minds of 17-year-old boys who write such things, but the insinuation is horrible, hurtful, and simply untrue. i pray their daughters are never treated this way."

amy: even before this report was published, "the new yorker" magazine published an account from a second woman accusing sunday kavanaugh of sexual assault. deborah ramirez was a student at yale university with brett kavanaugh and said he exposed himself to her during a drunken dormitory party and thrust his genitals and her face. "the new yorker" later updated the story with comments from two former classmates of kavanaugh's, louisa garry and dino ewing, who initially signed a statement of support for kavanaugh that was provided by his attorneys. they approached "the new yorker" after the story was published and asked that their names be removed from the statement, saying they did not wish to dispute ramirez's claims. "new yorker" reporter jane mayer later tweeted -- "fyi, this means only 4 classmates are keeping their names on a statement disputing ramirez, and two are implicated in the incident, according to her, and a third one is married to thehe guy who she recalls

sayiying, 'kikiss it' at the e " meanwhile, monday night, lawyer michael avavenatti said hehe has multiple clients and at least one is prepared to come forward publicly within the next 48 hours with additional allegations against kavanaugh. for more, we're joined in washington, d.c., by tarana burke, the founder of the #metoo movement. she called over the weekend for national walkout monday in solidarity with survivors of sexual violence in the wakake of the allegations against supreme court nominee brett kavanaugh. tarana established the #metoo organization in 2006 to focus on young women of color who have endured sexual abuse, assault or exploitation. she is now a senior director at girls for gender equity. here in new york, marcy wheeler is with us independent , journalist who covers national security and civil liberties. she runs the website emptywheel.net. we welcome you both back to democracy now! tarana, 128 people arrested

protesting judge kavanaugh and his nomination to the supreme court outside many different senators offices for including senator collins of maine. can you talk about what happened this weekend, what you call for this walkout in protest on monday? >> yes. thank you for having me back again. we thought it was really important to have a show of support for initially when there was the arbitrary deadline set for dr. blasey ford to come forward and make a decision about whether or not she was going to testify -- myself and many of the other organizations that signed on to do this action on monday thought it was really important that we came out in a show of force and support for her. and not just for her, but this has been a hard week are survivors of sexual violence around the country.

we needed to do something to show survivors in general that we stand up and we support each other. because most of us are survivors who called for the march, that -- supportach other each other, that we will stand up in the face of this treatment and will see the same thing that happened to anita hill happen again. , or yourana burke surprised by the turnout yet that not just in d.c., but around the country, to your call? and could you respond to this questions that have been raised about why the senate these women that are raising these allegations took so long to come out and raise them? >> absolutely. first, i'm always pleasantly surprised when people show up the way they did. yesterday in d.c. was a gloomy, rainy day, and we have probably close to 1000 people joined us in the senate and march to the supreme court and stand in the rain, listening to people talk

about why this moment is so important and why us standing up and standing together is so important. yes, i was so pleasantly surprised at the turnout. so many people showed up via social media. there were actions in new york and california and other places around the country. i think it shows just how important this issue is to so many of us. this is a time for us not just hashtag,p via viral but in person with our fee to the street to say we won't be treated this way. we want stand for another survivor to be treated this way. amy: i'd like to go back to the specific trump comments that led to the hashtag #whyididntreport. trump tweeted early friday -- "i have no doubt that, if the attack on dr. ford was as bad as she says, charges would have been immediately filed with local law enforcement authorities by either her or her loving parents. i ask that she bring those filings forward so that we can learn date, time, and place!"

republican senator susan collins from maine, who is a key vote in kavanaugh's supreme court nomination, was later asked to respond toto trump's tweet. >> i wasas appalled by the president's tweet. first of all, we k know that --egations of sexual assault i am not s saying that is what hahappened in this casee -- bute know t that allegationons of sel assault arare one ofof the most underreported crimes that exists. so i thought that the president's tweet wasas complety inappropriate and wrong. amy: that is susan collins of maine. would you like to respond? >> absolutely. i thought the tweet was so insensitive. the reason why you saw such a fears and quick backlash to it on the internet is because it touched a nerve with some of the survivors of sexual violence and allies and supporters.

as the senator said, we know sexual violence is severely underreported. it is also condescending. it is like, he is putting out this tweet with this false sense of, well, her loving parents would have reported this incident. we're talking about a 15-year-old girl at a party with older boys 36 years ago who probably left that party feeling shameful, feeling confused about what she experienced. and any number of emotions that would cause or not to report the incident. that is why so many people came forward to talk about their own reasons for not reporting, including myself. here are so many things that the tribute to survivor. it shows deep insensitivity. it also shows what is a widely held believe about sexual violence in this country. it at all,d he set but it did give us an opportunity to push back and sort of educated of public about

the realities of what it is to be a survivor of sexual violence. onn: what we will be seeing thursday in the senate judiciary committee harkens back to the anita hill hearings against clarence thomas when he was named -- when he was nominated to the supreme court. do you think much has changed, or what in your view, has changed in the country since then? >> it is really shameful. i was a freshman in college during the anita hill hearings. i remember it very, very well. it left a mark on me as a yououg woman, a young black woman. it is really shameful for america -- it is not our shame, i think it is shameful for the united states government that we are back here 27 years later with little evidence that anything has changed. i mean, you have some of the same people -- orrin hatch who was on anita hill's senate

judiciary committee saying some summer things, talking about blasey ford dr. blasey ford must be confused. it is really sad that we have not learned enough in this country. this is why #metoo took off because there really is a gap in understanding of the life cycle of survivors of sexual violence. widely across the pop culture in general, the country general, but suddenly in our government. amy: i want to go to media matters senior fellow matthew gertz who tweeted on monday, talking about william schein. he said -- "white house communications director accused of covering up sexual misconduct at fox chooses fox host who defended network's leading perpetrator of sexual misconduct to interview scotus nominee accused of sexual misconduct who was picked by president accused of sexual misconduct." that is the tweet william

schein, the current white house deputy chief of staff or communications the former copresident of fox news. let me bring marcy wheeler into this discussion to respond to this and this unprecedented moment where the supreme court nominee it's down with his wife, ashley, for a fox interview. interestingly enough, when the interviewer asked him, would you call for an fbi investigation, of course he skirted this. >> interviewer asked his wife first and he interrupted and did not let her answer and started the answer. it is another example where it is not sexual assault, but it is a clear sign that he doesn't respect women. he doesnsn't want women to have their own baton a me to answer the basic questions. amy: and going to the issue of investigation. as he said, throughout this never happened, why not say, sure, let the fbi investigate it

will just prove my point? >> he kept repeating over and over again, "i've never committed sexual assault." iteel like we are headed to, depends on what the definition of sexual assault is, as clinton try to g get away with it depens on what the definition is. i can imagine him saying, well, sticking my penis in a woman's face is not sexual assault because no vaginal contact happen. is that what he is thinking? is that where we're going? , following uprke on that, there's this unbelievable momenent in this interview were the interviewer asks him about how long he was a virgin will sto. people are laughing about this, saying this is what this has all come to. what does that have to do, tarana burke, with whether or not he sexually assaulted somebody? >> nothing. it has nothing to do with it. whether he was a virgin or not, what dr. blasey ford accused him

of is absolutely what she described, it sexual assault. it is nothingng to do with whetr he had actual intercourse with somebody else or not the step as a matter of fact, and i don't want to dig into, you know, ecological things and his personal life, but your it high school with highly privileged other people. there are lots of accounts from his best friend of drug and is and parties and things like that. i can see a 17-year-old virgin trying to prove themselves to be like his voice and doing something like dr. blasey ford described. the whole question about him being a virgin during his time means he did not commit sexual notult is incredibly -- is relevant t to this moment. i agrgree with your other guests -- amy: marcy wheeler. >> marcy wheeler. i'm sorry. i agree with you, we're going down a dangerous path of what is sexual assault in the way he answered last night.

juan: marcy, in terms of the movement of the senate judiciary committee have this hearing on thursday, what is the rush? given the fact is many people have said, the senate waited a full year and did not even give a hearing to merrick portland when president -- merrick garland when president obama nominated him, what is the rush in getting this vote done, as mitch mcconnell hopes, this week? is, we of the rushes know the republicans are learning of additional allegations as they are rushing things forward. they are trying to get a hearing and a vote done before another allegation and another allegation and another allegation comes forward because we are close to four at this point. if those become solidified, becomes a very different issue, both for whether kavanaugh becomes the supreme court justice, but also what his future is on the d.c. circuit. amy: marcy wheeler, you have

been following all of the cap and very closely. closely andaugh what this means at this point. this new hearing is set for thursday. mitch mcconnell says they want a vote in the committee on friday. you heard him say he is going to take this to the floor of the senate. you have orrin hatch, who served on his committee and anita hill's committee, saying he will support kavanaugh the matter what. it doesn't matter what doctor blasey ford says. yoyour thoughts on where thihiss ,eaded and this thing just what, five or six weeks before the midterm elections? >> i think it is a game of chicken between mitch mcconnell and senator collins and senator murkowski. because both of those women appear to be taking these allegations very seriously, as well as the rest of kavanaugh's record. there are other parts of his record that are troublesome. what he won't they

defines as abortion, whether he defines birth control as abortion for example. i think that goes to the issue -- he refused to look in his emails to see whether he had received sexually explosive imo's from judge kosinski. amy: the judge was forced to retire last december. >> because of sexual harassment. repeatedly, were you party to the sexually explicit emails? he just oesterle refused. amy: but he came up with a calendar from 1982 when he was in high school to prove he was not at a party on a certain data dr. blasey ford never set a date. >> and will look it emails from buster. i think these things are all becoming an issue and if mcconnell moves it to the floor of the senate immediately, then the focus becomes those two women and whether they're going to vote against kavanaugh and

defeat their party to his nomination. again, it is a rush will stop i think airtran to rush out ahead of other allegations. i think they are trying to rush out before we t take a step back and put the entire picture together. again, the sexual assault allegations are very much a party with other pieces of evidence that judge kavanaugh both does not respect women and doesn't tell the truth. amy: if kavanaugh doesn't t get the nod to be supreme court justice, he remains on the federal bench. should he be impeached? >> i think we're going to hear those questions going forward, particularly depending on what happens in the elelection, whetr democrats take the house and senate. amy: we want to thank yoyou both for being with us. tarana burke, founder of the #metoo movement, in washington, participated in the mass protest against brett kavanaugh in washington.

but they were not only there. they were all over the country. marcy wheeler, we would like you to talk about rod rosenstein, another major controversy that is brewing. marcy wheeler with emptywheel.net. we will be joined by naomi klein gonzalezwith juan about what is happening in puerto rico right now. and president trump's latest comment that he won't support statehood until the san juan mayor is out. stay with us. ♪ [music break]

amy: this isis democracy now!, demomocracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman with juan gonzalez. juan: we turn now to the drama that unfolded monday when news outlet axios reported that deputy attorney y general rod rosenstein had verbally resigned amid mounting tension over the ininvestigation by special counl robert mueller into russia's role in the 2016 presidential election.

some of the confusion began last week, whenen rosenstein and whie house chief of staff john kelly met at the white house hours after "the new york times" reported that rosenstein had suggested secretly recording trump in the white house and discussed recruiting cabinet members to invoke the 25th amendment to remove trump from office for being unfit. but for now, rosenstein still has his job. white house spokeswoman sarah sanders tweeted monday that trump and rosenstein "had an extended conversation to discuss the recent news stories." trump, who is in new york for the u.n. general assembly, told reporters he would meet with rosenstein on thursday when he returns to washington. pres. trump: i'm meeting with rod rosenstein on thursdayay whn i geget back frorom all of these meetetings. we will be meeting at the white house. we will be determining what is going on.

we want to have tranansparency. we want cap openness. i look forward to meeting with rod at that time. amy: rosenstein has denied that he ever planned to record trump or weighed invoking the 25th amendment. he called "the times" and accurately and factually correct. some have said his remark about wiring the president was sarcastic. to talk more about this and what it could mean, we continue with marcy wheeler. what does this mean for special counsel robert mueller's russia investigation, which trump has called it which hunt? marcy wheeler is an independent journalist with emptywheel.net. explain what unfolded. storye new york times" comes out and makes these claims, leaves out key details, such as this discussion, whether it happened or not, happened after, for example, he is committed to firing -- admitted to firing comey, gave the russians israeli intelligence, had a chummy meeting with the russians with no u.s.s. press

there. furor comess whole out of whether or not rosenstein is going to be fired or not. some discussion of the friday between john kelly and him. monday morning, something we've seen in the past from john kelly, which is a report coming out that somebody has resigned. it was in an attempt to stave off a firing. that is critically important in the case of rosenstein. and the press picks it up, as if he has are ready resigned and then reports from doj saying, no him he will be forced to be fired. what happens is, rosenstein is overseeing mueller's investigation. he gets to sign off on indictments and the scope of the investigation. if he is fired, then it is not entirely clear who becomes mueller's boss. amy: because sessions has recused himself. >> because sessions has recused himself. or then trump could fire

sessions and revealed his entire doj around getting out of this investigation. we don't know what is going to happen, but the key point is, if rosenstein is -- resigns, trump has more flexibility about who oversees mueller. if he is fired -- don amy: if you resigns, he can put in someone for eight months without them being approved by congress. but if he is fired? >> been you go to the line of succession. then you have the very conservative general, who is not a big fan of special counsel investigations, , but who does believe that under certain circumstances, the president, criminally -- juan: but there are questions as to whether the solicitor general would have to recuse himself why? >> because he worked for the trump campaign jones day. there's a conflict with trump's one-time defense attorney and with the solicitor general. then it would go to the loc head .

juan: you tweeted, robert mueller, who appears to be one step ahead of everyone, may have already factored this in to what might happen and may already for developed a plan rolling out future indictments. >> three things. one, they have known they are under threat of this happening for a year. therefore, it is clear there thinking about secession patterns. we're seen mueller kind of handing off parts of the investigation, whether indictments that have already been taken are sent off to other prosecutors. michael cohen is now cooperating with mueller, but also with the federal prosecutors here in manhattan, and also with new york state. and all of those are investigations that would target trump, and only the mueller investigation would be affected directly by rosenstein firing. in the question you have to ask

is, if you could decide who would make better use of a three-day warning that rosenstein was going to get fired, would your money go on trump or would it go on robert mueller? he has got three days to put into place plans of what is gwen happen if rosenstein is fired on thursday. i think once mueller got paul manafort's testimony locked in, which happened about 10 days ago, i think to some degree, it was too late for trump to really completely undermine this investigation. amy: do you think you did that because he was afraid something like this could happen? >> the timing was largely dictated by manafort's second trial coming up and by whatever else the prosecutor showed him about what was coming in that hype on the conspiracy case. but regardless, back in january, trump was telling people, i am safe because paul manafort is not going to flip on me. paul manafort has flipped on him. ,t may be too late for trump

short of shutting down the entire doj, it may be too late for trump to completely avoid, if not him, then people like donjr. and roger stone being in serious trouble. amy: if rod rosenstein leaves the doj, the person who would likely supervise special counsel robert mueller is the solicitor general francisco, republican lawyer who once worked with ted cruz on the legal team supporting president george w. bush during the 2000 florida recount. francisco's old law firm, jones day, now represents trump. he has been described as a trump loyalist, a skeptic of the fbi. in 2 2016, he co-authored an opd inin the "wall street journal" shortly before the election that accused the fbi of using a double standard for dealing with democrats and republicans, saying it was conducting "ambush interviews," "immunizing only witnesses who o can help deliver convictions," and "investigate and charge all potential crimes." >> yeah, i mean, i think that --

again, mueller is probably far enough along such that francisco can't decide the scope of where you going. upller is already spinning parts of the investigation. importantly, spinal both greg craig, a senior democratic lawyer, and tony podesta, for investigations- here in new york. it is not like mueller is spend a very prominent democrats that come in his path either. behink it certainly will questions going for if rosenstein is fired. but don't forget, rosenstein himself is a very conservative person. he knows brett kavanaugh from back when they worked on the starr investigation together, the whitewater investigation. so it is not like we're dealing with any screaming liberals here. these are all conservative people. things tol will do

prevent a runaway investigation, but i am not clear that they're well to overturn a very substantiated prosecution. and that seems to be what mueller is running. juan: what about the person who was supposedly the top law-enforcement person, jeff sessions, in terms of what he would do in the eventuality of rosenstein leaving or being fired? because he is that in the past he would guess he could not stay on if that happened with rosenstein. >> i think everybody on all sides are sort of -- i have actually heard this from us pretty senior republican. everyone is just trying to get to the midterms. i think everyone expected rosenstein would be fired shortly after the midterms. trump did not want to do before the midterms because it would directly affect the elections. he may not fire him on thursday for that reason. it will make trump look more guilty as we go to the polls in november.

mueller has always been four or five steps ahead of certainly were trump is. i do think that he -- his investigation is at a point where, yes, the president had a tremendous amount of power. yes, he could find a way to shut that investigation down. the steps you have to take at this point to do so are going to be such that particularly if he takes them before the election, there's going to be some significant political repercussions aside from everything else that is going on. amy: when you started by saying the report in "the new york times," which you were referring to friday night, about rod rosenstein, that led to all of this, you just said that report in "the times," i thought you're talking but the report not in but "theyork times" o new yorker." yet the second person accusing kavanaugh sexual assault. and on this day, you have this chaos. you don't know if rosenstein is resigning, if he is fired, he is

called the white house. and then trump, they say, that rosenstein, this will all culminate on thursday. that is the day of the kavanaugh -40 hearing that trouble come back from being here in new york, giving his u.n. generalissimo's speech today, and he will come back thursday and have this meeting with rosenstein. and it has succeeded in at least dividing the news on all of the networks. it would've been 24 hours a day on kavanaugh, which you could saystand a for nowvenatti another woman is coming for, now you have this rosenstein that may not lead to something on thursday. >> that is trump's only way of managing things that he can't control, is creating this press a us. there is an entire day between here and thursday. michael avenatti says the next victim is going to come forward on wednesday. but it is also not clear -- ultimately, if the kavanaugh thing comes down to senator

collins and senator murkowski. collins has come close to saying, i'm close to making a decision. and if it even jeff flake, and he is on the committee. >> and i've heard of at least one other republican who is that necessarily a solid vote for entirely different reasons. amy: was that? >> i'm not what is that because the republicans will go after him. it is a male senator who no one is talking about. we will see whether thursday really matters anymore. if more victims come forward, if more republicans come out and say, we have heard too much ababout this candidate and we nd some who can be trusted by the american people. who knows? it is a holding away. given the news cycles these days, that seems like an eternity. amy: we will leave it there. thank you for being with us, marcy. marcy wheeler is an independent journalist who covers national security and civil liberties. she runs the website emptywheel.net. this is democracy now! when we come back, we will talk about puerto rico on this first

anniversary of hurricane maria. president trump still denies the number of people who died and now has added a new comment in this world around puerto rico. stay with us. ♪ [music break]

amy: raising funds for hurricane maria victims in puerto rico. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman with juan gonzalez. juan: we end the show with puerto rico, one year after hurricane maria killed thousands and caused the longest blackout in u.s. history. last week, president trump generated widespread criticism when he falsely claimed on twitter -- "3000 people did not die in the two hurricanes that hit puerto rico. when i left the island after the storm had hit, they had anywhere from 6 to 18 deaths. as time went by, it did not go up by much. then, a long time later, they started to report really large numbers, like 3000." he went on to tweet -- "this was done by the democrats in order to make me look as bad as possible when i was successfully raising billions of dollars to help rebuild puerto

rico. if a person died for any reason, like old age, just add them onto the list. bad politics. i love puerto rico!" trump's comments came after puerto rico's governor formally updated the death toll from hurricane maria to 2975 people, citing multiple news outlets and universities that showed thousands of people died during the days and weeks after the storm. a harvard study estimates the death toll may have topped 4600. amy: president trump note to stay put as long as san juan mayor is in office. she is been a major critic of president trump's response to maria. trump spoke in an interview with geraldo rivera in cleveland. pres. trump: with the mayor of san juan, as bad as she is an incompetent as she is, puerto rico should not be talking about statehood until they get some people that really know what they are doing. with people like that involved in puerto rico, i would be an

absolute no. if you had people like the mayor of san juan, whatever her name may be, she is a horror show -- she was so bad and so disrespectful to our military, to our first responders, and to our great fema people, who did a phenomenal job. amy: well, for more, we're joined by naomi klein, senior of "there's nothing natural ababout puerto ricico's disaster." she is also the new gloria steinem chair of media culture and feminist studies at rutgers university in new brunswick. congratulations on your new post, naomi, professor klein. welcome back to democracy now! she is joining us from rutgers university new brunswick where juan also teaches. juan: yes, and we're delighted to have naomi with us at rutgers now and also she is in my department as well in journalism and media studieies. amy: speaking of journalism,

media studies, and puerto rico, naomi, why don't we begin with these two different controversies that president trump has created by questioning the numbers of people who died in the aftermath of hurricane he would then saying never support statehehood as log as mayor cruz is the san juan mayor. .> absolutely it is wonderful to be with you. i don't think we should be terribly surprised by the fact that donald trump is denying hard reality. he did this beginning on his first day in o office, denying e accounts of the size of the crowd. and he denies the reality of climate change, so he denies inconvenient facts both small and large. and now he is denying the reality that hurricane maria was the catalyst for thousands of people losing their lives. you mentioned the 3000 figure.

many puerto ricans are convinced that is very low. that at the end of the day, we're going to find out the number could well be more than twice that. the accounting -- he talks about old age and so one.e. this is absolutely not true. what is very credible studies have shown from several universities and also know the government in puerto rico is saying this is legitimate, is that people lost their lives from multiple reasons. not just the wind and the storm itself, but the total failure of the infrastructure. maybe we can come back to that. but people lost their lives because they were not able to plug in life-saving medical equipment. they lost their lives because basic medicine was not available to them because of the health care system collapsing. the whole public infrastructure of puerto rico collapsed. that is not just about trump.

that is part of a bipartisan war that has been waged on the theic in puerto rico using debt as an excuse. when it comes to the attacks on the mayor of san juan, it is striking because many of the worst examples, the most lethal examples, of the failure of relief efforts in puerto rico were outside of san juan. nonot to say that things went wl in san juan, but the world was introduced to mayoyor cruz becae wading. trumpifferent than tossing paper towels. he always saw her as a threat. but the worst accounts we saw after the hurricane had to do with community's that were more isolated, places like -- where it was weeks before there was any visit from fema. then when they finally -- somebody came, they were offered

skittles and crackers. and it was months and monthshs befofore placeces got power at . this is really a distraction by focusing on mayor carmen yulin cruz. i think it is about him banking on the misogyny of his base. he has made a very crude the type of woman that he l likes. these are women who stay silent and loyal, for the most part. and he is tried to cast mayor cruz as a loudmouthth latina won who doesn't know her place. and he is hoping this will be sufficient distraction from his own failure. even thethat point, governor, who is obviously in a different political party from carmen yulin cruz, criticized the president's remarks for the mayor. interestingly, and this has not got much attention here in the united states, but there is apparently a federal grand jury

that has been convening in san juan looking into alleged corruption within the san juan been a civil government. they had been taking testimony now for several days. the press reports are starting to surface. not surprisingly, suddenly, the federal government is launching a corruption investigation into the san juan mayor's office. and also, when president trump talks about he is not supporting statehood because of people like the mayor of san juan, the mayor of san juan is not part of the of theent apparatus overall commonwealth of puerto rico. she is nothing to do with it. she is the mayor of a local city. so the idea you would penalize an entire population by not supportiting stateho, , not to y or even auerto ricans majority puerto ricans want statehood, but just to target this issue of statehood just because you have a disagreement

with the local mayoror is really astounding. what i think it goes along the line of what you're saying about him not wanting to have any kind of challenge from m a woman politicianan. >> yeah. and d incidentally, she is been clear that sheer self doesn't support statehood. that is not her political position. but i think, and i would be interested in hearing your perspective on this, i also think that if we look at what has happened after the storm and also what was happening before, there has been this huge influx of hedge fund managers and a crcrypto c currency dues, who ae flocking to puerto rico for part of the year but establishing residency there to take taxntage of this buffet of incentives that is being offered to them. no federalle to pay

income tax, but they are a also able to pay no tax on dividends, you know, no tax on interest, the capitalist gains taxes. so it seems to me that the profitability of puerto rico for the very wealthy in the united states really have to do with the exceptionality with colonial status. so i think that may actually be the reason why donald trump isn't interested in statehood, perhaps. amy: i want to turn to in event you what to i friday, juan. you gave a keynote address at rutgers new york. before that, rutgegers held a control the promesa board in the d debt crisis witha member of puerto rico's promesa control board, arthur gonzalez, from nyu law school. he was joinened by -- lycia.tasha

this was part of her exchange. >> the board is probably said on several occasions that their goal is to turn puerto rico into -- caribbean. members of the board -- >> if you're going to say the board said something, you really need, i think, to try to be accurate. no m member said it. >> have said that. they said that in public statements. as in their capacity as a member of the board, we want to make sure puerto rico becomes the hong kong of the caribbean, and what does it mean to be the singapore of hong kong or the caribbean? are we talking about an elitistt base, high will that income states for only those that can afford to live there, are able to live there and those being poor being pushed out? i think that is surely problematic, that signifies the signal with the vision of the

board are members of the board have and in their, you know, in being entrusted by congress to enact an economic vision is one that is not shared by 3.5 million individuals. amy: that is natasha lycia ora bannan. the significanance of this? arthur gonzales rarely speaks in public, especially as a representative of the promesa control board. the fafact he was there and participating, allowed for people to be able to challenge some of the perspectives of the board directly. i raised a point that a huge report that the control board produced on august 20 about the roots of the financial crisis, that the control board never used the subpoena power really that they had that congress gave them to call in these bankers these other folks on the record to talk -- to find out what the

possible corruption basis of a lot of the debt of puerto rican was. instead, they relied on testimony, they took no transcripts of interviews they did with over 120 people. they did not interview people underscore and testimony. so in reality, the report ends up in a whitewash. i would like to ask naomi, and the little time we have left, wordy thing puerto rico goes from here? know, thes you proceeds from the book amy mentioioned about for pararadis, all of it goes to an amazing political coalition. peoplele can looook it up onlin. is 60 organizations that have been fighting austerity, privatization, and also advancing a very different economic and political vision fofor the island. it is really grounded in deep sovereignty. so not only political

sovereignty, but food sovereignty, water sovereignty, energy sovereignty, a transition and response to maria that treats alike the wake-up call it should be. so that the way in which puerto rico recovers actually get at the root causes for its vulnerability fullçç??

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