11/01/18 11/01/18 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] amy: from pacifica, this is democracy now!w! pres. trump: if they had protection inside, the results would have been far better. this is a dispute that will always exist, suspecect. but if they had some kind of her temple,on inside the maybe it could've been a very much different situation. amy: p president trump calls for the arming of houses of worship atlowing saturday's massacre

a pittsburgh synagogue that left 11 jewish worshipers dead. we will speak with fred guttenberg, whose 14-year-old daughter jamie was killed in the marjory stoneman douglas high school shooting earlier this year. then as president trump ratchets up his attack on immigrants and the media ahead of the midterm elections, we speak to longtime journalist allan nairn. >> the midterms are the chance to stop fascism before it starts. there are many good democratic candidates who will represent a breakthrough for social justice, but there are also bad ones who have been complicit in war crimes. but in this emergency, yet to back them anyway. back the warmongers who will preserve democracy to block those who would abolish it. amy: all that and more, coming up. welcome to democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. funeral services are continuing

to be held for the victims of saturday's mass shooting at pittsburgh's tree of life synagogue, where 11 jewish worshipers were shot and killed in what has been desescribed as the deadliest anti-semitic attack in u.s. history. services were held for joyce fienberg, melvin wax, and irving younger on wednesday. more funerals are planned d in e coming days. the pennsylvania man accused of killing the worshipers was 11 indicted wednesday on 44 counts, including murder and hate crimes. robert bowers has a history of posting anti-semitic and xenophobic content. just before the shooting rampage, he wrote on a far-right social media site -- "hias likes to bring invaders in that kill our people. i can't sit by and watch my people get slaughtered. screw your optics, i'm going in." hias, formerly known as the hebrew immigrant aid society, is a non-profit providing assistance to refugees. meanwhile, president trump attacked the media again following major protests in pittsburgh during his visit to

the synagogue wednesday. trump tweeted -- "melania and i were treated very nicely yesterday in pittsburgh. the office of the president was shown great respect on a very sad & solemn day. we were treated so warmly. small protest was not seen by us, staged far away. the fake news stories were just the opposite-disgraceful!" reports estimate several thousand protesters turned out to protest trump's visit. many local leaders also publicly opposed the visit. on wednesday night, protesters gathered at the university of pittsburgh to rally against hate and gun violence. in kentucky, the white man accused of shooting and killing two african-american customers at a grocery store wednesday was indicted on murder charges. before the deadly shooting, gregory bush was captured on a surveillance camera trying to force open the doors of the predominantly black church, the first baptist church of jeffersontown, before turning hihis attention to a neaearby kr supermararket, where he e opened fire and killed maurice stallard and vickie lee jones.

bush has a history of making racist slurs and has a long rap sheet of misdemeanor charges, including domestic violence, menacing, and making terroristic threats. president trump said wednesday he may send as many as 15,000 troops to the u.s.-mexico border as he doubled down on threats to the central american migrant caravan, which has become a major flashpoint in the lead-up to the midterm elections. the number would exceed that of u.s. forces in afghaniststan and is almost triple the number of troops in iraq. on monday, white house press secretary sarah huckabee sanders was asked if troops at the border would adhere to posse comitatus, meaning armed forces cannot be used in a domestic police role, but sanders refused to give a definitive answer. this is trump speaking to reporters wednesday. pres. trump: as far as the caravan is concerned, our military i is out. , we will got 5000 up between 10,000 to 15,000 military personnel on top of

border patrol, ice, and everybody else at the border. nobody is comiming in. we are not allowing people to come in. if you look at what happened in mexico two days ago with the roughness of these people -- amy: trump said he could circumvent the 14th amendment and end birthright citizenship through executive order, a move legal experts say is blatantly unconstitutional. on wednesday, trump attacked outgoing house speaker paul ryan for saying trump could not end birthright citizenship, with the president tweeting -- "paul ryan should be focusing on holding the majority rather than giving his opinions on birthright citizenship, something he knows nothing about!" meanwhile, president trump tweeted and explicitly racist anti-immigrant ad wednesday less than a a week before t the midtm elections. it features a mexican man who was convicted of killing of two california deputies earlier this year.

amy: in the ad the man smiles and says "i'm going to k kill me cops soon." on screen reads, "democrats let him into our country. democrats let him stay." the e ad also showows apparent crowds of migrants pushing through a gated barrier. it has been descscribed as the most racist politicalal ad in three decades with many denouncing it as fear mongering. tom perez slam the ad saying it is a sign of trump's desperation. the man was depororted twice unr clininton and bush will stop all of this comes as at least three new central american caravans have formed and are making their way north toward the united states. one of the caravans has arrived in southern mexico after violent confrontations at the mexico-guatemala border over the weekend, where mexican police killed one honduran man. a second caravan left el salvador over the weekend, while a third has departed from honduras and is now traversing

guatemala. human rights advocates say the mass caravans help migrants stay safe along the perilous migration route and avoid paying traffickers thousands of dollars. this is mexico's interior minister alfonso navarrete. through anoing unprecedented situation in the country. this is not a caravavan of the media has reported. it is an exit is of migrants. that is how the government sees it. there have been a few such as what is happening now. there was a war. here we're talking about a humanitarian crisis. amy: in an interview with abc wednesday, trump was asked if he kept his campaign promise of never lying to the public, to which trump responded d "when i can, i tell the truth." pres. trump: i do try. i think you try, too. you say things about me that are not n necessarily correct. i do try. i always want to tell the truth.

when i can, i tell the truth. amy: trump also address the size of the central american caravan saying "you have caravans coming up that look a lot larger than it's reported actually. i'm pretty good at estimating crowd size." in fact, trump has proven not to be very good at estimating crowd size, at least not for his own inauguration, which he claimed 1.5 millllion people attended. in fact, c crowd experts say the crowd was significantly smaller. in north dakota, the native american spirit lake tribe is suing to stop the state's new voter id law before next tuesday's election. the law rerequires voters to shw identification demonstrating a residential street address, which many say disproportionately disenfranchihises native communities. in more election news, judges on a circuit court of appeals have ordered ohio to let voters who were purged for not voting over a six year period d to cast provisional ballots in next week's election. slain saudi journalist jamal khashoggi was strangled as soon

as he entered the saudi consulate in istanbul, before being dismembered and his body destroyed. that's according to the official statement from istanbul's chief prosecutor. turkish authorities are reportedly also investigating the possibility that khashoggi's body was destroyed with acid after it was dismembered.. "washington post" cocolumnist jamal khashoggggi entered the saudi consulate on october 2 to obtain documents for his upcoming marriage, but was never seen again. saudi arabia admitted d last wek that khashoggi was mururdered ia premeditated act, but t has dend involvemement of the saudi royal family. turkey maintains that saudi officials have information on those responsible for the murder and the whereabouts of khashoggi's remains. meanwhile, u.n. human rights chief michelle bachelet called tuesday for an international role in the investigation "free of any appearance of political coconsiderations." on wednesday, switzerland announced it was suspending arms export to saudi i over khashog's killing. this comes amid mounting calls

for a ceasefire in the u.s.-backed, saudi-led war in yemen, which is described as the world's worst humanitarian crisis. secretary of state mike pompeo called for a ceasefire tuesdsday night. british prime minister theresa may expressed support for de-escalation in yemen while speaking to the british parliame w wednesdayay, but stopped shorort of backingng a l ceasasefire. the e u.s. a the u.k. are ththe largest t military backers of saudi arabia. the united nations security council voted wednesday to extend the mandate of minurso, the u.n. peacekeeping mission in western sahara, a territory in northwestern africa that's been occupied by rocco sisie 1975. thousasands of westetern sahar's indigegenous people,e, the sahr, have since been tortured, imprisoneded, killed, a and disappeaeared while reresistinge moroccan occupation. wednesday's u.n. vote comes ahead of negotiations scheduled for december between morocco and the sahrawi liberation movement known as polisario front, along with algeria and mauritania. they'll be the first such talks

since 2012. democracy now! was able to break the moroccan media blockade and reportrt from western sahara. you can go to our website at democracynow.org to watch our special report "four days in western sahara, africa's last colony."." in brazil, the newly elected governor of rio de janeiro, wilson witzel, has proposed extending and escalating the military intervention in rio, including a proposal to authorize snipers to shoot anyone carrying a weapon in poor neighborhoods, known as favelas. witzel won rio's gubernatorial race by allying himself with the jair bolsonaro, the far-right former army captain who won brazil's presidential elections sunday. the military intervention in rio has caused a surge of homicides, with police and soldiers killing at least 900 people in the city over the last six months. north korea is preparing to open a key nuclear site to international inspectors, according to south korean intelligence. north korea had previously barred inspections, which became a sticking point in ongoing

discussions between pyongyang and washington over a north korean denuclearization agreement. this comes as the inter-korean military agreement goes into effect today, banning all hostile activities between the two koreas. south korean defense minister jeong kyeong-doo and defense secretary james mattis also said wednesday the u.s. and south korea are considering canceling joint military exercises after a meeting at the pentagon wednesday. in colombia, feminist activist maria caicedo muñoz was killed after being kidnapped last week by an unidentified armed group. muñoz was a member of several local peasant organizations in the southwest state of cowca. human rights groups say over 100 colombian activists have been murdered so far this year. google workers are taking part in a worldwide walkout today over the company's handling of sexual harassment cases. last week, "the new york times" published a report detailing

sexual misconduct case at google, including by android creator andy rubin who allegedly forced an employee to perform oral sex on him. a flyer created by workers for the walkout reads -- "i'm not at my desk right now because i'm walking out in solidarity with googlers and other contractors to protest sexual harassment, misconduct, lack of transparency and a workplace culture that's not working for everyone." in seattle, activists gathered wednesday outside amazon's headquarters to protest amazon's relationship with law enforcement agencies, including its facial recognition software which is being pitched to ice as a tool for targeting immigrants. demonstrators wore jeff bezos masks for the halloween-day protest, which was organized by northwest detention center resistance and mijente. to see our recent interview with mijente on the relationship between tech firms and ice, go to democracynow.org in new jersey, newark city officials have started warning some residents to avoid drinking unfiltered tap water after a new

study revealed lead may be leaching into the water supply. officials have also begun distributing water filters across newark. this comeses after newark officials spenent the e last yer and a half claiming the city's water was safe to drink, despite growing warnings and a lawsuit from environmental groups. many say the case is reminiscent of the lead poisoning in flint, michigan, where officials also ignored residents' concerns and tried to cover up the water contamination crisis. many have been indicted in that case. in new york, more news is sisters about two saudi found dead in the hudson river last week. 16-year-old tala farea and 22-year-old rotana farea were found on october 24, their waists and ankles duct-taped together though police say no obvious signs of trauma were found. the sisters were saudi nationals who moved to the united states with their mother in 2015 and were living in fairfax, virginia.

rotana, the older sister, was a student at george mason university but left in the spring. the sisters were reported missing in august. they reportedly went missing in 2017 as well, and d were temporarily placed in a shelter. the ap reports the sisters' mother informed police that she had received a call from the saudi embassy ordering the famimily to leave e the u.s. bee her daughters had applied for political asylum. they were found dead soon after. and in washington, d.c., the national archives has released a set of documents from the watergate scandal, including new information relating to ththe indictmentnt against presidedent richard ninixon. the documents were released after a lawsuit requested they be made public, citing their relevance for special counsel robert mueller if he d decides o issue a report to congress as partrtf the ongoing pre e into whether the umump caaigngn colleded witalleleged russiaian ddling ithe 2016lections d those e some othe

helines. th is demoacy now! mocracyn.org, thwar and peace port. i'm y goodma nermee and i'm nermn shaikh lcome toll of oulistener and ewers fr around e cotry and ound the wld. we begin today's showooking a gun olence ithe u.s.less than a wk after gunman entered ttsburg's tr of life synogue saturday, shooting and killing 11 jewish worshipers. the massacre has been described as the deadliest anti-semitic attack in american history. funeral services were held wednesday for three of the victims -- joyce fienberg, irving younger, and melvin wax. more funerals are planned in the coming days. the pennsylvania man accused of the mass killing was indicted wednesday on 44 counts, including murder and hate crimes. robert bowers has a history of posting anti-semitic and xenophobic content. he used an ar 15 assault rifle and three glocks to carry out

the attacks. he purchased all four weapons legally. amy: pittsburgh has seen massive protests in light of the massacre will stop -- massacre. thousands of demonstrators took to the streets to protest donald trump's visit to the city earlier this week. on wednesday night, protesters gathered at the university of pittsburgh to rally against hate and gun violence. shortly after the pittsburgh massacre saturday, president trump called for the arming of houses of worship. pres. trump: if they had protection inside, the results would have been far better. this is a didispute that will alwaways exixist, i suspect. but if they had some kind of her protection inside the temple, maybe it cocould've been a much differenent situation. they d didn't. amy: the pittsburgh mayor bill peduto challenged president trump's remarks. >> i think the approach we needd to be looking at is how we take the guns, which is the common

denominator of every mass shootings in america, out of the hands of those that are looking to express hatred d through murder. nermeeeen: t the pittstsburgh ak came three days after another act of gun violence when a white diamond fatally shot two african-americans at a kentucky grocery store shortly after trying and failing to a tray black church. gregory bush opened fire and killed maurice stallard and vickie lee jones at a kroger supermarket near louisville in what many are calling a hate crime. amy: for more we go to davie, florida, where we're joined by fred guttenberg. his 14-year-old daughter jamie died earlier this year and the mass school shooting at stoneman douglas high school in parkland, florida, on valentine's day. with the midterms just around the corner, he is calling on voters to elect candidates who support gun safety. frfred guttenberg, welcome to democracy now!

again, our condolences on your daughter jamie. you watched what unfolded in pittsburgh on saturday. can you describe your reaction? the gunman had an ar 15 and apparently three glock pistols. sadness, anger, outrage. i actually was traveling back from ohio, campaigning for candidates who support gun safety. i was in the atlanta airport when i started seeing these reports. i just -- i almost broke down. i would not bet the dad that would have t t wath these events continue to unfolo, that we would havave a chance after thisis election to start making change. but it happened again.

-- they are dead because somebody, again, who should never have had access to the weapon that he used, managed to buy it and go into a temple with it. when i hear the elected leaders talking the same nonsense that they did after parkland, it it says to me they still don't get the underlying problem and what it takes to fix it. so, no, the answer isn't that we start putting armed guards in every temple and church, arming every teacher, putting armed guardsn every y street corner, in every mall and movie theater and every shopping center. that is not the answer. thatat is what the nra wants. it just leads toto more aliens - millions more and gun sales. we must deal with the issue, which there are people who have hate in their heart. there are people who do want to kill.

and there are people who we must identify and stop from being able to acquire these weapons or remove the weapons that they have. nermeen: fred, we are days from the midtermm elections a and you are calling for an orange wave in november. could you talk about what that means? this election is not red or blue. it just isn't. it is orange. orange is the color of the gun safety movement. it was also my daughter's favorite color. candidate insue this election. o onlycandidates who not as atalk about gun safety political issue or a voting issue, but will make it their mandate issue if they are elected to serve. so i am supporting candidates who are the strongest possible candidates through this cycle on

the issues of gun safety. because to me, what must happen for us to truly get change is this must become a mandate issue in this election. when the new congress sits, i will returning members to the house and senate to know that they are sitting next to somebody new because the other person got fired for their stand on this issue and the new one got hired. i want everyone to know going forward that if you don't deal with this issue, you will be fired. those who -- i will beholding them accountable when they sit and when they serve. and if they don't do the job to act on this issue, i will keep going at it. people we love are dying every day. amy: you were just in california campaigning for mike levin. his opponent for republican house candidate diane harkey, touting support from a group that promoted a coconspiraracy people died inw

parkland, including your daughter. what did she say? promoting what is called a false flag theory. basically, the idea that parkland never happened. i guess we are all a bunch of actors according to her. sometimes you have to call out crazy. and that is s crazy. i truly y want to visit my daughterer at a cemetery yeyesterday. i truly crieied as i was sittitg therere in the grassss tryiningt some kinind of connection toto . that is notot acting. that is s reality. when you call that acting, you are crazy. someone who calls that a false flag, who says parkland did not happen, is not only unfit to serve, they should not even have the ability to get close to running. in that district, mike levin deserves to win and deserves to win big. you cannot have people like that getting close to the halls of our congress.

so i did campaign with mike. stage. on a i had a chance to talk about life, but i also had a chance to show them that i am as real as can be. , whohat this lady continues, by the way, too caught up conspiracy theories, sent to be voted out and away. she should never be able to get close to another election again. nermeen: fred, from the time of parkland to now, we just had this horrific shooting at the synagogue in pittsburgh, do you see a difference in the way that elected officials are now responding to gun violence of this kind, mass killing of this kind as against what happened after parkland? >> a huge change. you now have elected officials who are running on their support of gun safety, who are proudly ratingg they have an f-

from the nra. the elected officials who used s are going a-rating quiet. we have the winning message here. and the nra, for the first time, is backing up. theseeir chosen people in races look like theyey're goingo lose. the nra message is a loser. and all they really care about is more killing and more chaos on our streets where they can pupush the idea of more gun sal. they're going to lose. we will get commonsense gun safety done and we will do it in a decent and civil way, but we're going to get something done with this new congress sits. amy: you became well known in this country after your daughter was murdered at parkland at that cnn town hall. you sparred with republican senator marco rubio.

here is a clip of your exchange. york, this week and those of our president have been pathetically weak. [applause] are now i'd i. look at me and tell me guns were the factor in the hunting of our kids in this school this week and look at me and tell me you accept it and you will work with us to do something about guns. >> i think what you're asking about is the assault weapons ban. >> yes, sir. >> let me be honest with you. if i believe that law would have prevented this from happening, i would support it.

but i want to explain to you why it would not. [boos] ,> senator rubio, my daughter running down the hallway at marjory stoneman douglas, was shot in the back with an assault weapon, the weapon of choice. it is too easy to get. it is a weapon of war. the fact you can't t stand with everybody in this building and say that? i'm sorry. amy: fred guttenberg, that was you challenging the florida senator. what changed after that? , i think the energy parents who stepped up and the kids who have stepped up and our continued push an hour continuely driving this message and are conontinually showing we are not goining away, americans

paid attention. in this s election became the story. in this election becamame the wy for us to shohow we are going to get someththing donone. i want to say sosomething about that exchange because i see history repeating itself with trump and some of the elected officials. where they want to t talk about anything but the gun. my anger in that exchange was directed at the fact that running up to that night, rubio and trump talked about a lot of things with regards to what happened on february 14, but they never once used the wordd "gunun." ththe same elected officials rit now want to talk about hatred and anti-semitism, which as a jewish person, i am horrified by and it is real, but they are using that to avoid talking about the gun. and what we need to do about the gun. and unfortunately, the people

who are using this anti-semitism are the same people who lit the flflame, who lit the fuse over e past two years. so i'm not going to let them get away with talking abouout that t the expense of talking about the gun because it is both things. and we do have a problem in this country where access to those weapons is simply too easy. and we are allowing people whwho literally are going online and telling as that they hate. they are telling us they want to do this, and we are not taking steps to prevent them from doing it. we passed red flag laws here in florida to keep -- to be able to remove weapons from those who intend harm's to themselves or someone else or domestic abusers. listen, i think we ought to be extending that to those who use online platforms to verbalize hate to others, to verbalize violence to others.

if they are telling us they're going to do it, we should take them seriously. nermeen: i want to go to what the nra has been saying. earlier this week, they tweeted -- "another billionaire is pumping unlimited money into electing anti-gun lawmakers." fred, could you respond to that? what does the nra mean? what are they trying to say when they say you elitist agenda? >> i will say two things. number one, any billionaire who wants to help with the safety of americans, bring it. but regarding what the nra is saying, it is horribly anti-semitic. i was not a politically involved person before february 14. and i remember -- you can go

back and look at my twitter over the month -- and how often people said to me, "i was a soros-funded fool." i did not know what to make of it. about soros, i seen stuff him before, but people kept making that accusation against me. even as recently as the brett kavanaugugh handshake, i was getting a lot of online venom saying i am a soros-funded tool. i've never met george soros. i dodon't know him. the only connection i have is he and i both h hpen to be jewish. that,n the nra does they're anti-semitism is showing. when the nra makes other kinds of connections or when you go to these gun shows and you see the ales of kkk merchandise am their racism is showing. the nra is a racis

organization. their problem is, we have officials whoican parrot that message. so when people say you are soros-funded or bloomberg-funded, the only connection i have to them is my judaism. never met them in my life. i did meet michael bloomberg three weeks ago. he was here in parkland. but it is anti-semitism. and they need to be called out for it. they need to lose because they use that language. amy: kevin mccarthy, the house majoririty ldeder tweetedd something along those lines in the midst of the letter bombs, the first one being sent to george soros. and he was forced to retract that tweet. it ended with #maga. >> kevin mccarthy with that tweet, and he thought deleting would get rid of it -- no, it is

on many people's twitter. kevin mccarthy should not only never be serving in leadership, kevin mccarthy should be voted out of office. when you go and you publicly say "i am anti-semitic and i am racist," you do not deserve to serve americans, period. verywe want to thank you much, fred guttenberg, for being with us, father of parkland shooting victim jamie. she was 14 years old when she was gunned down in parkland at her high school on february -- >> can i say one more thing about another leader? mcconnell, hech has been absolutely silent since last week with the bombings and with what happened in pittsburgh. he has been silent. and he is, right now, he is the elected leader of the senate. his silence should be ringing loloud and clear for everybody o

needs to votote in the senate race. he needs to be fired from senate leadership. in the only way to do that is to flip senate seats. so whether you're a texas, tennessee, arizona -- any of these places that have seats where you can flip, mitch mcconnell must be fired. his silence is part of why we are in the place we are in today in this country, and he needs to go away. amy: fred guttenberg, thank you for being with us. when we come back, award-winning journalist allan nairn talking about the state of the nation in these few days before the elections. as the threat from within is so strong with one white supremacist attack after another, the president looks outward and tries to talk about threatening thihis country on the southern border. we will talk about all of this and more. stay with us. ♪ [music break]

amy: this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman with nermeen shaikh. nermeen: the 2018 u.s. midterm elections mark a critical point in the era of president donald trump. the potential democratic takeover of the house of representatives has unleashed a torrent of white supremacist vitriol that is without precedent in recent years. in the past week alone, a militant trump supporter was accused of mailing three pipe bomb to cnn and 12 bombs to people trump frequently criticizes, including the obamas and the clintons. two african-americans were murdered by a white supremacist outside louisville, kentucky, after he unsuccessfully tried to enter a predominantly african-american church. and 11 jewish worshippers were massacred in a pittsburgh synagogue by a white supremacist who railed on social media against jews who help refugees, or "invaders," as he and trump call them. amy: this comes as president trump has sharply escalated his attacks on immigrants.

so far this week, trump has threatened to send as many as 15,000 u.s. troops to the u.s.-mexico border and to rewrite the constitution to revoke birthright citizenship. he and the right-wing media are also continuing to fixate on a caravan of central american migrants that is more than 1000 miles from the u.s. border. on wednesday, trump posted an explicitly racist ad on his twitter feed suggesting democrats are letting immigrant murderers into the country. and trump has also escalated his attacks on t the media despite e recent saudi murder of "washington post" columnist jamal l khashoggi and the recent bombs sent to cnn. to talk about what's at stake on tuesday, we are joined by longtime investigative journalist allan nairn. for decades, he has covered u.s. foreign policy across the globe including in indonesia, quad him allah, el salvador, haiti. he is a past winner of the

george polk award. allan, welcome back to democracy now! talk about the state of affairs in this country right now. >> this midterm election, this is it. the u.s. is facing incipient domestic fascism. the rightist revolution that trump dragged to power has a chance to consolidate itself. the way to stop it is to vote the democrats into control of at least one, preferablyy both, houses of congress. amy: you have been a fierce critic of democrats. >> yes. for years, i've been documenting how many of the senior democrats are complicit in war crimes, how they belong in prison. emergency now in an situation in which there is a huge fundamental difference between the democrats and the republicans at this moment.

the republicans would abolish democracy. because that is the only way they can perpetuate their power will step they have a minority of the votes. they have to rig the system so they can stay in power as the minority vote diminishes over time. the democrats, their interest is in maintaining, even expanding demomocracy, because that will help bring them to power. in a addition, trump -- amy: you're talking about voters suppression. of things.s voters suppression, gerrymandering, the tactics the republican rightist revolution is using to maintain its hold in power, even as they can't win the strata vote. secondly, there is the element that trump personally has brought to power. when he dragged the koch andhers and the paul ryans the america oligarchs to power,

he did it with a two-pronged platform. one was punching the elites in the nose, as the banker jamie dimon put it. the other was racism. without the element of time -- punching the elites in the nose, the republicans never could have won the election. romney tried running on the giving taxtform of breaks to the rich, getting rid of social security, medicare. he lost. himself asresented someone who, eight, will support social justice and,b, had the capacity to unleash the beast within white america. so he dragged the american rich in the power. they came with a preprogrammed plan to make an even more massive shift of government resources and taxpayers money to the richest people in the country. there are just three individuals now whose wealth is equal to

that of the bottom 50% of the american population. it is already insane, but the republican core value is to make it worse. byondly, he did it unleashing these fascistic forces in the american population and the american grassroots. there are many good democratic candidates in the selection, people who in one way or another will represent a breakthrough for social justice, who all have essentially pledged to support social security, medicare, obamacare, medicaid when the republicans would abolish it. but also, many of these or substantial number are arguably war criminals. republicanas on the side, vista were criminals. they belong in prison. but we are facing such a crisis in this country at this moment that you have to use your head. you have to be tactical. you have to, at this moment, vote in the warmongers who will

preserve democracy to block the warmongers who would abolish it. then the day after the election, go back to the deeper work of creating real, better, more constructive political alternatives and also helping the base of the democratic party take back the party from the consultants, from the rich donors. but that is for the day after the election is completed, and maybe the runoffs in georgia and mississippi if they happen, after those are completed. right now the task is to stop the incipient fascism the right represents a new can't really say you were working toward an anti-fascist goal if you're not mobilizing for the democrats right now. that is the urgent reality that we live in. amy: you have even suggested that depending on how things next week in the midterm, that there could be a far more progressive left government in power in just a few years in the u.s.. can you explain why you think that is? >> it is because of the collapse

of the american middle class. it was the collapse of that american middle class, heavily leaned to the neoliberal policies, that made sanders and trump, the two most dynamic election, in the 2016 they were the only two that recognize the reality, that the american middle class, the prosperous working-class has been gutted. everyone else s clinton, all the other republican candidates, were talking fantasy. those two are merged. their solutions were opposite. sanders was talking about constructive solutions. trump was posing as an enemy of the elites when he wasn't. he was actually the embodiment of the worst, most criminal aspects of the american oligarchs. and he was simultaneously saying, we will help solve this with racism. now, though, in his campaign, there is interesting change and

the trump-republican strategy. they have dropped the "punch the elites in the nose" and running on a straight up racism, the anti-immigrant hysteria. there's really nothing else there. it is important to know the immigration issue itself is phony. it is a complete fake. if you're looking at facts, there is no immigration issue. i cite as my source in this, sean hannity. after romney was defeated by , seanin thehe 2012 election hannity immediately went on his radio show saying he had reevaluated his position on immigration -- amy: sean hannity of fox. >> he said he now favored a practice citizenship, which is what the progressive immigration activists had been pushing. he said we have to drop the immigration issue. nermeen: when was this?? >> in the 2012 election.

that, a hims was, and immigration problem is not a national security threat to the united states. if sean hannity really believe the u.s. would be overrun by mexican and central american migrants, he would not be saying drop the issue, have a path to citizenship. he obviously believed it was a loser to the republicans, for the republicans. this was the same time the republicans, some of the republicans, issued what they called the autopsy report were they said we have to drop this anti-immigrants, move closer to the latino population if we want to have any chance of gaining a majority of the votes at some time in the e future. provedmp came in and sean hannity and the autopsy report to be incorrect. trump had a deeper understanding of the american population, the american white population, and the residents of racism and nativism in this country. trump said, no, screw that.

we going to go straight out nonwhites,nst against muslims, against mexicans, etc., etc. his party had already recognized the holding was fake, but trump saw something true about the way there were elements within people, the worst most vile, most bistro elements exist in every person. every major religion has noticed and talked in leslie about this fact since the beginning of human civilization. everybody has bad, evil within them. and trump has a profound understanding of how to dried -- how to dried out, weaponize it, how to use it for political purposes. that is a core element of the rightist revolution that has taken power in this country and threatens to evolve from just an incipient fascism into a new

unique american fascism. and by the way, on a mechanical level, you ain't seen nothing yet. if the republicans retain control of both houses, and also if they maintain many of the major governorships that are up across the country, which enable them to further rig house districts and to further, even more radical voter suppression, things will get much, much worse. trump's ability to insight at the grassroots level, racist violence, will go from just a few isolated incidents -- which is what we have now -- into the possibility of actual organized forces, paramilitaries. up to now, the supreme court has been in an ambiguous way, something of a check because of the ambiguous position of kennedy. kennedy is replaced by cavanaugh, who is part of the group of rightist republicans on the court who are radical right

and bolshevik in their decision. that the republican revolution wants to do, the supreme court will rubberstamp it and that is new. that is new as just an x number of weeks ago. we have a anything compared to what is coming if the republicans are able to win this election. amy: trump succeeded in doing something quite unbelievable. last week in the middle of the night, i think it was one of his 3:00 a.m. tweets, he said "republicans are doing so well in early voting and at the polls and now this "bomb" stuff." this was in the midst of the letter bombs being sent to the obamas, the clintons, george soros, maxine waters. it read like a trump's list. trump said "now this bomb stuff happens in the momentum greatly slows. news not talking politics. very unfortunate what is going on. republicans go out and vote."

he understood he could not bring up the caravan in the midst of this letter bomb attack. but then you have the killing of the african-americans in kentucky. yet the worst anti-semitic attack on u.s. support in history, 11 jews killed last saturday. trump those of everything he can, sending 15,000 troops to the border to get the terrorists outside coming in. he is going to overturn the constitution with an executive order, with birthright citizenship. this question of the enemies outside -- and he is succeeding because there is so much outrageous that he is put forwarard. and taking away this extreme threat here at home. >> right. trump is a sharp guy. ignoramus and a full, but he is also short. the human mind is very complex. is sos one reason why he

dangerous. he was essentially planning the american equivalent of a series of nuremberg rallies to close out the campaign. and the pittsburgh massacre, the louisville massacre -- pittsburgh up much more attention -- the pipe bombs threw him off stride. if these atrocities had happened outside of election season, far from an election, it actually would have been a plus for the trump forces and the rightist revolution. because these are the kinds of accent traditionally give energy ic movement.a they push the envelope. they create conditions of chaos that increase the demand for strong leadership. in this case, it was an inconvenience and really annoyed trump. in fact, he was even forced of public opinion and his aides to issue a statement where -- i'm going to look for the exact quote trump gave. he said "ask or threats of political violence of any kind

have no place in the united states of america." that was trump after the pipe bombs. as any honest officer at the pentagon will tell you, ask or threats of political violence are the core of the american-led world system. anybody who knows politics knows that. and one of the things that trump has done is he is starting to increase the role that those kinds of acts or threats of political violence play and potentially play an american domestic politics. we have a long history of domestic political violence against native americans, against african-american slaves, against the labor movement, etc., etc. and continuing today on an ad hoc basis, encouraged by the trump-like forces, in the case of shootings of police officers and border patrol, of unarmed

civilians -- especially african-americans and on the border, occasional killings of immigrants. there was a young woman from guatemala who was shot in the head by the border patrol near laredo, texas. it was this past spring. and by the way, the logical culmination of trump's current immigration push, as you noted earlier, which includes the idea of presidential fiat to amend the constitution -- which, by the way, could be accepted by the cavanaugh court. now that is on the table. and if they accept that, that opens the door to a president knocking out in the other part he doesn'ttitution like. a the logical conclusion of this israeli-typeng up steppers, like they have on the gaza border, or they pick off

civilians, even pick up people who are wearing press vests, pick up medical personnel, pick f and people just getting there protesting. if you look at fox news and their demand, the pressure for opening fire o on the border, tt is the logical next step if the republicans win. if the democrats are able to get at least one house, that will be some constraint on trump's political actions. amy: we were going to go to break and come back to this election. on the trump has been told not to come to arizona or nevada doubt the republicans. they're deeply concerned about what his message will mean, that it could think of them. allan nairn andnd award-winning investigative journalist. we will be back with him in 30 seconds. ♪ [music break]

amy: this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman with nermeen shaikh. we talked about these horrible attacks on u.s. soil and president trump continuing to attack the media, even as through letter bombs went to cnn. it also there is the attack by a close u.s. ally, deeply close, particularly to president trump and his senior adviser kushner, saudi arabia. the saudi murder of the saudi journalist, "washington post" columnist khashoggi.

every day we're getting new information. today, apparently the e turkish authorities say they may have liquefied hiss bodody or turned into ashes with acid after he was, they said, strangled right after he walked into the saudi consulate in turkey. your thoughts? >> well, as a result of the public outrage at the torture and murder of khashoggi, the u.s. is looking for ways to signal a pullback on its support for saudi regime led by mohammed bin salman. and just the other day, pompeo came out and called for a cease-fire in yemen. now, in and of itself, that call a good thing, but just in september, pompeo certified to congress to prevent the freezing of a small amount of the arms the u.s. is providing to attack the yemeni civilian population. he certified that adequate steps

were being taken by the saudis and by the u.s. to protect civilians. ththis as they were bombing scsl bubuses, bombing funerals, bombg wedding pararties, and doining t with u.s. refueling help, u.s. planes, and u.s. missions provided by lockheed martin, raytheon, and others. certified -- i'm rrrry, pompe certified this was ok. we will see what happens. right now, as he says this, saudi forces are massising outse .f yemen's main port some fear for another attack on cut off and try to start the place. this as they have brought millions to the brink of famine anand have already killed by the best recent estimates, perhaps 50,000, perhaps 60,000 or 70,000

yemenis, and created one of the most serious outbreaks of cholera in recent world history. is is all directly chargeable against the u.s.. there are some talk about cutting off u.s. arms sales to saudi a arabia. well, that is not a matter of policy, that is a criminal matter. these u.s. arms sales and the u.s. refueling and training for saudi arabia is a war crime because the u.s. is facilitating attacks on civilian targets in yemen. said if youjr aren't a terrorist, you are a terrorist. i agree with jr bush. in this case, the u.s. government is a terrorist. that is the way we should look get saudi arms sales. in terms of the murder of khashoggi is off, the thing that strikes me about it most is that the main reason this exploded into an issue was because there is a tape, apparently. there is a tape of the death room, the final seconds of the

victim's life. there are so many people around the world who have been imagining what happened in that death room when their own loved one was tortured to death by anyone of threree dozen u.s. clients over the years. i personally have wondered about two such death rooms. one in guatemala were a friend was she had her hands cut off and another in indonesia where my friend had his face sliced off by the authorities who had kidnapped him. and will we found him, his hands were bound behind his back. imagine if there were tapes of all of those events and they were on tv every day and we were all forced to watch them. this policy would not last a year. we have got to stop it. if you want that kind of change, if you want change on something that profound, you have got to stop the dismantling of what democracy we have in this country. you have to stop the rise of

incipient fascism. and to do that, you have to mobilize for the democrats. amy: we going to leave it there but continue this conversation and post it online at democracynow.org. democracy now! is looking for feedbaback f