12/21/18 12/21/18 >[captioning made possible by democracy now!] amy: from pacifica, this is democracy now! >> secretary mattis met with the president. they made the decision, and he won't leave for another couple of months but he wanted to make a decision today. amy: defense secretary james mattis resigns in protest as president trump orders the withdrawal of all u.s. troops from syria and 7000 troops, half the troops come out of afghanistan.

we will speak to retired colonel andrew bacevich, author of "america's war for the greater middle east." then to the first step act. president trump is poised to sign a bipartisan bill to roll back sentences for federal prisoners in a major overhaul of the criminal justice system. >> we are not finished. it iss the first step. what i is the second step? to learn from this experience and a find a way to reduce incarceration while still reducing c crime rate in americ. amy: we will speak to van jones and jessica jackson sloan n of cut50, w which helped win suppot the legislation. and then we speak to democratic congresswoman nanette barragan who is just back from the u.s.-mexico border or she escorted over the border the honduran mother and her children who were photographed last month fleeing tear gas fireded by u.s. border g guards. >> we need tonvestigate and w need to make sure weolold th

admiststrati aountablen thagency accountable. there iso o reas to trea pele thihiway. no reasototo tre immigrants is way. pele have aight to exercise the righto their ability to seek asylum. amy: all of that and more, coming up. welcome to democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. secretary of defense james mattis announced he will resign at the end of february while publicly rebuking president trump's foreign policy. his resignation cocos one dayy after president trump p ordered the withdrawal of all 2000 u.s. troops from syria, and have the troops, 7000 troroops from afghanistan. in h his resignation letter, the fourur-star general implicitly criticized president trump's foreign policy. mattis wrote -- "my views on treating allies with respect and also being clear-eyed about both malign actors and strategic competitors are strongly held and informed

by over four decades of immersion in these issues. we must do everything possible to advance an international order that is most conducive to our security, prosperity and values, and we are strengthened in this effort by the solidarity of our alliances." in the letter, mattis did not make a direct reference to syria, but he did call out russia and china. much of the e washington establishment expressed shock overer general mattis' resigngnation. this is senate minority leader chuck schumer. >> secretary mattis was one of the few symbols, the few items of strength and stability in this administration. that indicates stability, everything that indicates strength, everything that indicates knowledge is leaving ththis administrtration. ,eneral kelly, general mattis so many others. >> mcmaster. >> exactly. there is chaos now in this

administstration. amy: president trump first said mattis was retiring. but when the letter came out that mattis wrote, it was clear he was resigning over trump's foreign policy. we'll have more on this story with author and retired colonel andrew bacevich after headlines. with the clock ticking, it's still unclear whether congress and president trump will come to an agreement that would avert a partial government shutdown. on thursday, president trump said he would not sign the stopgap spending measure passed in the senate wednesday, as it did not include funding for his $5 billion u.s.-mexico border wall. which he always insisted mexico would pay for. late thursday, the house passed a new version of the spending bill which included the border wall funding, but it would still -- but it is expected to be rejected in the senate today. in a video address, trump compared his proposed wall to the separation wall in israel and the occupied palestinian territories. pres. trump: i am asking congress to defend the border of fraction, for a tiny

a tiny fraction of the cost. essential to border secururity s a powerful physical barrier. walls wowork, whetether we liker not. they work better than anything. and israel, 99.9% successful. i spoke to benjamin netanyahu,, ime minister r two days ago, talking about it and he set it is done in a .9% -- i did not ask, i said none important -- 99.0% susuccessfulul. amy: if no deal is reached, the government will go into partial shutdown at midnight tonight. some of the agencies that will be most affected by a possible shutdown include those dealing with homeland security, law enforcement, national parks, transportation, and housing. hundreds of thousands of government workers will not be paid if that shutdown happens. president trump now says if the

shutdown occurs, it is the democrats fault. last week, he said he was proud to own the government shutdown if the wall is not funded. reports emerged thursday that acting attorney general matt whitaker refused to heed the advance of a justice department ethics official who said he should recuse himself from overseeing special counsel robert mueller's russia probe. while whitaker was not legally required to recuse himself, he was advised to do so because of the possible appearance of a conflict of interest based on whitaker's past public remarks against the mueller inquiry. he once referred to the probe as a witch hunt. this follows the news that william barr, president trump's nominee to be the next attorney general, sent an unsolicited memo to the justice department in criticizing mueller's probe. june barr stated in the memo that trump did not obstruct justice when he asked former fbi director james comey to drop his investigation into former

national security adviser michael flynn. trump went on to fire james comey. the trump administration announced thursday it will start sending asylum seekers who enter the u.s. on the southern border back to mexico while thehey wait for the outcome of their claims. the new policy was apparently imposed on the mexicican government by the united states. mexico has agreed to allow them to work and travel within mexico while waiting on the process. under the current system, it can take months or even years to process asylum claims. homeland security secretary kirstjen nielsen announced the new policy at a heated congressional hearing where she was asked by democratic congressmember hank johnson, "do you view those you call 'illegal aliens' to be human or subhuman?" call you view those to you illegal aliens to be human or subhuman? >> illegal aliens are humans, sir.

amy: in more news from the trump administration, the treasury department announced wednesday it will lift sanctions on russian oligarch oleg deripaska's businesses. the companies were sanctioned in april after deripaska was accused of "threatening the lives of business rivals, illegally wiretapping a government official, and taking part in extortion and racketeering." deripaska himself will still be subject to sanctions. deripaska, who has close ties with russian president vladimir putin, has appeared in the special counsel robert mueller's investigation into russian election interference, in connection with his dealings with former trump campaign chair papaul manaforort. the justice department has charged two chinese nationals in a worldwide, 12-year hacking campaign that included the u.s. government and military as targets. the hackers are said to be part of a network connected to chinese e intelligence and susuccessfully penetrated multie government agencies -- - the u..

attorney''s office in new york, nasa, and the navy, among others. the personal information of more than 100,000 navy personnel was reportedly stolen in the cyber attack. in california, yemeni mother shaima swileh has reunited with her dying 2-year-old son, after being granted a state department waiver from president trump's travel ban earlier this week. the toddler, abdullah hassan, is in an oakland children's hospital with a rare brain disease. both abdullah and his father, ali, are u.s. citizens, but the mother, shaima swileh, is a yemeni citizen living in egypt. yemen is one of five majority-muslim countries whose citizens are barred from entering the u.s. under trump's executive order. this is attorney banan al-akhras speaking as swileh landed at the san francisco airport. >> let's be clear. issuance of her visa this week was not an act of kindness on their part. the embassy and department of state had a legal obligation to

adjudicate her request within a reasonable amount of time, and they failed on that obligation. result of that failure is that a dying two-year-old boy has suffered for the last two months without his mother by his side. an egyptian court has acquitted 40 ngo workers, including citizens from the us -- the u.s. and other countries after a retrial of a case dating back to 2013, when 43 people were arrested and convicted of illegally using foreign funds to stir up opposition to the former military government. many of the foreign defendants, including 15 americans, left egypt after posting bail in 2013 and were sentenced in absentia. at a christmas address at the vatican today, pope francis pledged that the catholic church will "never again" cover up sex abuse and said that clergy members who are guilty of sexually abusing childrereshould turn themselves in. he added they should "prepare

for divine justice." the catholic church has been rocked by the ongoing sexual abuse crisis over the past year, which reached all the way to pope francis' inner circle, with two cardinals last week being removed as his close advisers and a third stepping down. top members of the clergy were expelled or resigned in countries around the word. in may, every bishop in chile offered their resignation as the scandal exploded there. hehere in the u.s., a pennsylvaa grand jury invnvestigation revealed sysystematic widespread sexual abuse in n the church. the justice department has opened investigations into several dioceses around the country. in britain, gatwicick airport hs ststarted to resume flights aftr drone sightings on wednesday and thursday shut down service for over a day, causing passenger chaos as flights were canceled, postponed, or rerouted. authorities say they still do not know who is behind the unmanned aerial devices. in environmental news,

washington, d.c., city lawmakers voted unanimously on a clean energy bill mandating 100% renewable electricity by 2032. the legislation also requires public transportation and fleet vehicles achieve zero carbon emissions by 2045. the mandate would apply to government buildings in the capital, including the white house. the trump administration has been blasted by environmental groups for feverishly rolling back emissions and other -- emissions limits and other environmental regulations. and in france environmental , four groups are planning possible legal action against the government for failing to effectively respond to climate change. this is the director of greenpeaeace france. >> we're issuing a legal complaint against the french government because the french government does not do enough to tackle climate change. tos is why we are trying ensure they can ramp up their

remission in terms of fighting climate change, which is not the situation right now. amy: over 1.2 million people had signed an online petition as of friday morning in support of the legal action. the government of french president emmanuel macron has come under fire before for its response to the climate crisis. in august, french environment minister n nicolas hulot resignd live on a radio show due to the country's failure to adequately address climate change and other environmental threats, he said. and those are some of the headlines. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. we begin today's show looking at secretary of defense james mattis who has announced he will resign at the end of february while publicly rebuking president trump's foforeign policy. mattis resigned one day after president trump ordered the withdrawal of all 2000 u.s. troops from syria and on the same day reports emerged that

trump has ordered the withdrawal of about 7000 troops from afghanistan. that is ababout half the cururrt u.s.s. force there. in his resignation letter, general mattis, four-star general, pleasantly criticized president trump's foreign policy. mattis wrote -- "my views on treating allies with respect and also being clear-eyed about both malign actors and strategic competitors are strongly held and informed by over four decades of immersion in these issues. we must do everything possible to advance an international order that is most conducive to our security, prosperity and values, and we are strengthened in this effort by the solidarity of our alliances." mattis went on to say -- "because you have the right to have a secretary of defense whose views are better aligned with yours on these and other subjects, i believe it is right for me to step down from my position." in the letter, mattis did not make a direct reference to syria, but he did call out russia and china. "the new york times" reports mattis is the first prominent cabinet member to resign in

protest over a national security issue in almost 40 years. much of the washington establishment expressed shock over mattis' resignation. democratic senator mark warner of virginia said -- "this is scary. secretary mattis has been an island of stability amidst the chaos of the trump administration." republican senator marco rubio of florida responded to mattis' resignation letter saying -- "it makes it abundantly clear that we are headed towards a series of grave policy errors which will endanger our nation, damage our alliances, and empower our adversaries." prior to his time at the pentagon, mattis served as head of u.s. central command and as a supreme allied commander of nato. in 2004, he led the u.s. marine attack on the iraqi city of fallujah. in may of 2004, he ordered an attack on a wedding party near syria. 42 civilians were reportedly killed, including 13 children.

we turn now to andrew bacevich, a retired colonel and vietnam war veteran. he's the author of several books, including his latest "twilight of the american century." his other books include "america's war for the greater middle east: a military history" and "washington rules: america's path to permanent war." he is professor emeritus of international relations and history at boston university. he also lost his s son in iraq. professor andrew bacevich, welcome back to democracy now! >> thank you very much. amy: if you could first respond to the resignation of the secretary of defense and then if this were president obama and he was announcing the pullout of troops from syria and half the force from afghanistan, wouldn't the feast movement be celebrating? what is your response? is an interesting situation. i have to think that trump mustt

abruptpecected that this announcement of a withdraw from syria would lead to mattis' resignation, and it probably is something that trump welcomes. there is no question that mattis has been an obstacle to trump's efforts tahrir orient u.s. policy, particularly in the middle east. mattis' letteter of resigignatin thatat you quod whwhen he talkld about his four decades of engagement with these mavericks is very telling. hehe represents the establishment's perspective that has evolved over the course of those for decades. and for anyone who says, who looks at u.s. policy over the past four decades, particularly in the middle east, and says, yeah, it has really gone well, then i would think that they

would view mattis' resignation as a disappointment. now, when trump ran for the presidency, he denounced our wars in the middle east. he promised to withdraw militarily from the middle east. two years into his presidency, that hasn't happened, and in many respects, mattis has been among those who frustrated the president's efforts. he is the commander-in-chief, yet he seems not to be up to get things done. so here he is acting as the commander-in-chief. i am in the camp that we think we ought to o nd down ththese ws , that we have more important things to do. my only problem with trump's decision is that like so many of his decisions, it is done impetuously, overnight, not having been thought through, not having been coordinated. yes, let's get out of syria, but that doesn't mean we should not have a policy with respect to the war r in syria. i think the way trump is approaching this thing, we don't

have any policy. and that is going to be a problem. amy: d do you think there is a connection to the murder of jamal khashoggi -- let me explain. the cia saying they believe that the crown prince of saudi arabia was responsible for his death and dismemberment in istanbul in the saudi consulate. so you then have president trump dealing with. apparently this week they had a conversation. nhere is this threat of erdoga that he is going to go after the kurds, the kurdish soldiers, u.s. allies, in syria. ogan domp, perhaps erd something more about the murder, certainly has been releasing information that makes the trump administration look very better support of the crown prince them also jared kushner, son-in-law, so post to in advising to the

crown prince in dealing with his murder. says we're going to attack the kurds, you have to stop being there and rejecting them, and trump announces he is pullining out? >> my answered your question is, i really don't know. i think one of the things that is important here is the whetherty of knowing when trump makeseshese decisions, there really -- he doesn't have any larger purpose in mind at all. as i said, when he ran for the presidency, he ran as an antiwir candndidate. whether oror not he ran n as ann antiwar r candidate because of sosome principled o opposition o ththe war that he inhnherited or whether he didid it because he thought it was a way to get vovotes, it is impossible to sa. where we find ourselves at thee present momentnt -- and i do thk it is a huge problem -- his commitment to saudi arabia,

combined with the reaffirmation of thehe u.s. commitment t to il , to my mind, creates the likelihood that the united states i is going to continue to contribute to disorder and instabability in the regegion ae have done ever since the george w. bush administration invaded iraq in 2003.. that i is to say despite this withdrawal from syria -- if it actually happens. so many times he announces something and then reverses course. but even assuming that the withdrawal from syria happens, it doesn't necessarily follow that we have anything like a coherent policy in the region. so the people who get t cited aboutt mattis' resignationon and see the possibilitity there of chaos,s, confusion, disisorderi think their fears s are justifi.

that said, what they y seem to t focus on is that t the course tt mattis repepresented, that is to say the continuatition of u.s.s. wawars in the middle east that have produced nothing positive, that that t supposed wisdom m ws not going to and has not and would not do as anything positive no matter how long we persist. amy: let me play a clip to you a phyllis bennis. we spoke to her on thursday right after the announcement about syria, u.s. pulling out all 2000 troroops. this w w her response. the warplanes and the drones are going to continue to be bombing in syria. and it is ththose u.s. bombs and u.s. coalition-led bomombs that pressure,ng enormous wreaking havoc on the people of syria. again, this is something spoken

about eloquently. only look at raqqa in the other cities largely destroyed by u.s. bombing, after being under attack, both people and infrastructure of cities, by isis. this is not going to qualitatively change that on the ground. amy: "this is not going to qualitatively change things on the ground." andrew bacevich, for those who think the u.s.s. will not be involved in the bombing of syria, that it would make it more an air war along the lines of the u.s.-backed saudi bombing of yemen right now? >> i think she's makingng a gret point. you don't haveve to have troopsn the ground in order to engage in war. you don't have to hahave troopsn the ground to engage in wars that are stutupid and counterproductctive. we are far fewer troops in afghanistan today than we did in past yearsrs. trump wants to have even fewewer still.l. ifif i'm nott mistataken, u.s. airstrikikes in afghanistan over the cocourse of the trumump administration have increased

substantially. so the wars cocontinue. the fundamental question seems toto me, doeoes the cocontinuatf these wars contribute - -- are they politicalally purposeful? dodo they contribute to somee outcome that is neither advances u.s. intererest or c consistenth our senensible more by use -- moral values? the e answer is s no. it is s not as of secretary mattis, ththe supposed fontnt of wisdom, wawas offering anyny alternative, a any course of action that would bring a rationale to our policy in the middle e east, cause these warso make stratategic sense. basically, he, and so much of the national security establblishment, wants to contie these wars because the truth is, they cannot think of any , younative other than to

know, press on. amy: in my the interesting to listen to the republican and democrats who were saying this is a terrible idea, pulling the troops out, that we were just on the brink of victory in wiping out isis there when n others mit say, where was evidence of that? could you talk about mattis' history? for example, the intercept pointing out in 2004, it was mattis who plan the marine assault on fallujah, that reduce the iraqi city to rubble, forcing 200,000 residents from their homes. according to the red crossss, at least 800 civivilians were kill. well, he is undoubtededly a distinguished soldier, as that word distinguished gets defined a military circles.

he is a competent professional. he is a master of his trade. would not want to compare him but he has s a, certaiain skill i think in relating to the press and therefore, in creating an image that goes down well in washington circles as the thoughtful warrior. apparently, he is quite well reread. my problem is that he is a conventional soldier w with a coconventional mindsdset, a toty unimaginative. i hate to suggest that i sympathize with h the presidentr agree with the president, but whatever caused trump back in 2016 to say, "elect be president because i know our wars in the middle east are stupid and they need to end," he was onto something.

representativea of the national security establishment, is unable to acknowledge a central truth of trump's statement.. he is unable to acknowledge that since 2003, and particular, although arguably you could choose an earlier date, but since 2003 in particular, we have gone down n a path thahat s self-destructive, mindless, and the only way to get out of the mess we are in is to make a a raradical course change. it n needs to be thought t thro, ,oordinated in advance, debated groundwork laid, not simply as trump tends to do, get up in the morning and announce he is making -- he made a decisionon. but there will be no change of course as long as people like mattis are running national security policy. amy: in this last minute that we

have, it is not clear that trump will move forward with this as he hasn't with 70 other things, will move forward is something no one ever predicted. who knows, because they're such massive pressure on him right now and who he will nominate at the next defense secretary. lindsey graham is one of the fiercest critics of trump right now on this issue. but if it does move forward and he has the u.s. force in afghanistan and pulls out thousands of soldiers from syria, the whole force, what should happen next? what would coming you think, is a rational u u.s. foreign-policy in the middle east? >> i think the nexus of thee issue is this competition between saudi arabia and iran to dominate the persian gulf. in the trump administration has affirmed that we side withth sai

arababia. against iran. i thinink that strategically tht makes no sense whatsoevever. theinink it you think about long-term prospectsts of nations in that part of the world, iran will continue toto exist and wil continueue to be an important actor. ththerefore, in the long r run,e need to find a way to reconcile it or at least coexist with iran. way toeed to find a remove ourselves from the saudi to take a more balalanced position.n. i don't mean to suggesesthis could be done easilily or overninight, but we need t have balance, not total disengagement, but a lower military profile and therefore,

diplomatically, seeks to find ways to restore some semblance of order in that region when our military efforts passably created great disorder and damage to ourselves and to others. amy: andrew bacevich, thank you for being with us, retired colonel, vietnam vet, author of including "america's war for the greater middle east: a military history" and "washington rules: america's path to permanent war." he is professor emeritus of international relations and history at boston university. when we come back, a prison reform bill p poised to be somey president trump? stay with us. ♪ [music break]

amy: "lesson no. 1 for electric guitar" by glenn branca. branca passed in may at the age of 69. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war anand peace reportrt. i'm amy goodman. we turn now to l look at a major criminal justitice reform bill that may soon become law after the u.s. house of representatives overwhelmingly voted in its favor thursday.

it's called the first step act. the bipartisan measure, ich passeded in the senate earlier this week with an 87-12 vote, would roll back sentences for federal prisonerers, including mandatory life terms for third-time offenders, as well as mandatory minimum sentences for nonviolent drug users and those convicted of firearm crimes. the bill is now heading to the desk of president trump, who has pledged to sign it into law. the bill only affects federal prisoners, who make up less than 10% of the more than 2 million u.s. p prisoners.. the u.s. has the largest prison population i in the world. the first step act ends sentencing disparities for convictions of crack cocaine versus powder cocaine -- a distinction that's long led to deep racial disparities in prison terms. this is democratic senator dick durbin speaking shortly after the senate vote. >> let me preface my remarks by telling you about the worst vote

i ever cast as a membeber of congress. you don't hear many senatotors stand here and say, google let me tell you about my worst vote." it was 1986 and because we were scared to death of crack cocaine, which is now showing up all over america, we have created 101 disparity between crack cocaine and powder cocaine sentencing. we thought that would scare america straight in terms of the dangnger of this d drug, and itt backfirered. it turned out we had more drugs on the s street. we had a lore price e for the drugs that w were out there becaususe of the burgeoningg susupply, and we started filling up our j jails with people who were arrested for drug offenses. ail% increase in our j population. i voted for it. a lot of democrats did. we are not finished. it is entitled the first step. what is the second step? to learn from this experience and to find a way to reduce

incarceration waltzed in reducing the crime rate inin america. amy: the bill has been endorsed by a wide range of supporters acrossss the political spectrum, from the american civil liberties union to the conservative koch brothers. it is also a major priority of senior white house adviser and presidential son-in-law jared kushner, whose father spent time in a federal prison. for more, we go to washington, d.c., where we are joined by van jones, president and co-founder of #cut50, a national bipartisan initiative to reduce the u.s.'s incarcerated population by 50% over the next 10 years. van jones was president barack obama's green jobs adviser in 2009 and founded green for all. also a cnn political commentator. and also with us is jessica jackson sloan, a human rights attorney and co-founder and national director of #cut50. welcome to democracy now! van, how did this happen you can do you think it will beside today echo what is most

significant? what are you most proud of with his prison reform bill? >> i believe it will be signed today. here is what happened. formerly incarcerated people are directly impacted family members said, we are not going to let the trump administration go on, will justice reform the way they went on immigration and on guns and every other issue and poison the well. we're going to insist that the momentum that was developed under president obama carryforward. and those groups, mainly led by cut50, found in allied -- ally injured christian whose father with your prisoner wanted to make a difference.e. it was the most remarkable thing to see trump who came into office talking about law and order in a bracing the blue lives matter movement and talking about american carnage of putting jeff sessions a place, really moving in a negative direction over the past year against -- begin to turn. kim kardashian went in there and

got him to release ms. alice johnson. he began to add to his speeches some of the things he was here from formerly incarcerated people. we were ultimately able to build a believe the biggest bipartisan movement in the country, and got 87 senators to vote with us early this week. you cannot get 87 senators to vote together to change the name of the post office anymore. we finally had a breakthrough. amy: i want to go to the woman you referred to, alice marie johnson. earlier this year, president trump commuted her life sentence . alice marie johnson, a 63-year-old grandmother from memphis, was released wednesday from federal prison in aliceville, alabama, where she had been serving her sentence for nearly 22 years. this is johnson speaking shortly afafter her release. >> the criteria came offer clemency, i thought for sure that i wasas certain that i had

met and d exceeded all of the criteria. [indiscernible] no disciplinary infraction. i'm a true e first-time, nononviolent offender. even the p prison staff wrote letters about my accomplishments in prison. i had letters from congress. the ouide e puic.. again.enied amy: that was alice marie johnson speaking while she was still in jail. it she is free. earlier this year, kim kardashian west spoke to mic about her eteting with d donald trump on behehalf of ali marie johnson. >> i went and, me and s sean, to really talk to the president about alice johnson and really explained to him why she would

be such a good person to grant clemency to. i just feel really strongly that she is such a good support system, she has a job waiting for her. she has a homeme to go to. shshe has suchch a greatat suppa family that just even seeing the rk she has done while in prison, knowing that e e woul nevegett out, younow, sheas do her tim she is done almost 22 years. i ink in life,e, everyone makes mistakeses. she really deserves a second chanance. amy: yes, that is kim kardashian. she met with the president. alice marie johnson was freed a few months ago. , talka jackson sloan about the significance of this moment and then how you overcame the opposition of so many republicans like tom cotton, for example, from arkansas, and others. 87 to 12.

>> this is a historic moment. this is a moment where you not only have republicans and democrats coming together, you have got people from all across the country like van said, the formerly incarcerated leaders who said, enough is enough. we're not when a tell our people inside they have to wait another four years before they can get any kind of relief. we are going to keep fighting. they organized in their states and got media from all over the country, everything from the lexington courier to "the new york times" saying this is one of the most significant criminal justice reforms and that trot needed to get this done and congress neededed to get this done. yet the national association of manufacturers, verizon, , the u. chamber association. >> fox news. >> all coming together saying we have got to get this done. i think while this is an epic reform for all of the reasons you laid out in the beginning, i

also think this is a huge moment in the narrative around, will justice reform. for decades, we have been hillary -- hearing this will court narrative, don't let people out or they will end up reoffending and there will be vivictims. you'll never b be elected again. ce and this first step act are the antidote to the willie horton narrative. this is a turning point for the entire movement in the entire country. amy: if you could tell is, jessica come euro and story, how you got involved, your own husband in prison. old, i hads 22 years nothing but a ged and a two-month-old daughter. i found myself standing in a courtroom in georgia watching as sentenced to 15, served six. in my mind of the time, i thought it was a fluke. i knew he was a great dad. i knew he was a great husband. i knew he was a boss to 17 people and he showed up for work

every morning on time. i knew what a great guy he was. and to watch the system take all of that away and watch us go into financial ruin and my daughter grow up without her dad there just because he had ejected action, and then watch -- drug addiction, and then watch in the state system not getting any help. that motivated me to get involved. i think those personal experiences have motivated everybody from jared kushner to sean hopwood to many of these advocates who have been out there fighting for this bill and saying it is time to get some relief. you could talk about, well, i mean some might say perhaps this was passed by many republicans because so many republicans are facing prison right now around the administration and others. michelle goldberg has an interesting op-ed piece in "the new york times" and let "donald trump is doing something good?" she lays out the number of

conservative political actors, not meaning the hollywood actors, who did go to prison. people like chuck colson of watergate fame who goes to prison and get deeply involved with the prison reform movement, right through, right now to kevin ring, president of the criminal justice refeform organization family against mandatory minimums, former republican hill staff member who helped draft a law imposing mandatory minimums for meth dealers. happeningual thing is . the incarceration industry has gotten so big, messy incarceration has gotten so massive, that now republicans, democrats, white folks, black folks, poor folks, even some rich folks lined up getting pulled in. if you get pulled in or family member or a neighbor gets pulled in or a coworker, you realize we have unleashed a horror on this country.

you cannot get out of it. you have got to do something about it. you do have people who are directly impacted on both sides of the aisle now who f fought until the last dog barked, who backed mcconnell down, who beat the dog crap out of tom cotton and won this thing. amy: cotton remains opposed. >> he got destroyed because that old law and order scary crap, he tried to pull that and republicicans voted him down. you are in a situation now where a change has begun to happen. this idea that trump is -- look, trump could pardon all of his family members right now and just walk off. i think -- amy: not foror the new york investigations. >> i'm just saying for most of these -- i have to speak to this. the level of cynicism and pain and frustration that has now

built up on the left because of this nightmare in the white house should not rob us of a victory that we have fought for now for 25 years. long before any of these people were in office. people like me and people who listen to this radio station have been fighting at the local level. we have finally come to a point where even the repubublican pary agrees with us. i don't want any of your listeners to say, well, i'm not going to believe something good is happening. when we fight and we don't give up, good things can happen, even under the trump administration. let's not lexuses him take that away. amy: let me ask about tiered kushner. -- jared kushner. in this period of time, these months went he has been an advisor to the crown prince of saudi arabia, how to get out of these accusations that he was responsible for murdering the journalist jamal khashoggi, your thoughts on this? you got to interview him on this subject. >> i disagree with the trump

administration on many things. i've got 99 conference with the administration, but risen isn't one of them. what i can say about jared kushner go on this issue, he is been relentless. everything he said he would do he is done, which i can say about most of the democrats involved for most of the republicans. on this issue, i can say to you and to anybody else, i'm a founder of the olympic are center for human rights. we helped close five abuse presents in california, stop the super jail. i am not a newcomer to this issue. onan say that jeered kushner this issue has been a dogged and determined as s any other impaca family member in this movement. amy: let's talk about some of the progressive groups like the coalition of more than 150 black let organizations that has come the first step act. they wrote a statement -- "this bill is custom-made for

rich white men. they also point out the bill explicitly excludes immigrants from access to early release and rehab programs and will direct money from early releases to go back into law enforcement. they say the bill encourages profiteering and makes false promises about bringing black prisoners home. your thoughts? they should have told congressional black caucus that because the vast majority of black lawmakers voted for it. some of those things are not accurate. let me just say this. it is called the firirst step a,

not the last step. this bill does not do any harm to anyone. the goodness in the bill doesn't get to as many people. there are good programs that not everybody can participate in. but there is not one additional piece of harm, not one sentence gets any longer. nobody does and a good day. that by itself is something of a victory. >> i want to jam it and correct. i don't want viewers listening and thinking that is true. it is not. i've seen the numbers. u.s. sentencing commission actually did an analysis and the exclusions are pretty much across the board for white, black, and hispanic individuals. those exclusions are for smart part -- small part of the bill. the time credits people can earn by doing programming, there plenty of pieces of the bill that do apply to everybody who is inside the prison regardless of what crime they committed,

including the increased goodtime credit of people can earn off of their sentence for good behavior. i also want to point to the crack cocaine retroactivity. that disproportionally is going to impact african-americans who are inside. there will be a lot more african-americans coming home en this first batch of individuals who are coming home than any other race, and that is because people fought very hard -- dick durbin in particular -- to make sure that nothing went forward that did not include a massive six of retroactivity on the fair sentencing act, which have been passed almost a decade ago. i just want to correct some of .hat misinformation on the immigrants peace, i'm sorry we could not get away with getting rid of the current ban on people who are here and documented going to halfway houses. -- undocumented going to halfway houses. we pushed, but it is a continuation of the status quo. i just want to invite people to

look at firststep.org. amy: and how you expend is beyond federal pririners? this deals with 10%. being for the model all prisoners? what is your next step, jessica? >> we are already getting calls from state legislators across the country asking us, can we do this in my state? what can we do in my state? and not just democratic state legislators. both sides of the aisle feel comfortable. there was a clear mandate by congress. 87 to 12. 358 235. just a mandate. 35. three and 58 to they want to get going in their own states. this has made an impact on the narrative and i think we're

going to see a lot of trickle-down justice. >> i want to add one thing. this actually may take off the table criminal justice as a weapon against democrats in 2020 for the first time since 1988 with willie horton. because republicans are embracing, for whatever reason, trump embracing for whatever reason, now it is a lot harder to say progressives and democrats are going to make it less safe when literally you both parties on one accord. politically, this is very, very smart for democrats and progressives. we are more safe than ever to keep pushing forward for progress. amy: thank you both for being with us, jessica jackson sloan and van jones. by the way, tune in on monday to democracy now! in one of our holiday specials, an hour with angela davis. she talks about her life in

professor,side, philosopher come activist. that is monday on democracy now! back, congresswoman barragan will join us. she just came back from the u.s.-mexico border or superslim facilitated the crossing of maria, a honduran mother who was made famous by the video of u.s. border guards teargas saying as as took her desk teargasining she took her children across the border this week. stay with us. ♪ [music break]

amy: "goo goo wah wah" by wah wah watson. melvin "wah wah watson" ragin, master of the wah wah pedal, died in october at the age of 67. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. nearly a month after a photo of a honduran mother and her small tear gas fired by u.s. border patrol captivated the nation, 39-year-o-old mariaa meza was finally admitted into the united states this week with her five children and their asylum request is currently being processed. but this canan only after california congressman was jimmy gomez and nanette bararragan

intervened on her behalf, camping out with her family and other migrants on the u.s. side ofthe border into the port entry between tijuana and san diego, surrounded by metal barriers and border guards in reindeer. they were there to investigate claims the trump administration is rejecting a asylum seekers at official ports of entry, violating international and national law. californrnia congress member nanette barragan joins us now from washingngton, d.c. shshe is the member of -- a memr of the house comommittee on homeland security. thank you so much for being with us. describe what you did this past monday. otayll, i went down to mesa with one of my colleagues. we were asked to go down to to presentmaria

herself for asylum. amy: explain exactly what you did. onocracy now! was recently the border. we saw people for hours, for days, not being let into the u.s.. you did something incredible. somehow you got maria and her family over the line into the u.s., which is still before the border guards. >> well, it was an interesting thing to see at otay mesa. what happens is the u.s.-mexico line actually occurs before you , border agent. we were able to walk right up to the agent, which crossed over into u.s. territory, where her lawyers were ahead of her and said, we want to present our client for asylum. now while they were talking to the cbp officer, maria, her children, along with eight

unaccompanied minors and another male, were able to just walk onto u.s. soil. so it was an interesting thing officer,ou had a cbp i'm going to guess about seven feet into u.s. terrific -- territory. >> explain what you are demanding now. not only from maria. we just got the news that the u.s. is going to send immigrants who are -- asylum seekers, back to mexico while they wait, which could take weeks, months, years? >> it is a very dangerous policy to have people waiting in mexico. if you go down there and you take a look at the conditions, it is nott very sanitary. but natalie that, people are being searched out. in this case, maria has some of are tryingders who

to find her. they had to hide her and her family, move her. you can just imagine what it is like. we are also hearing reports of ththe two young teenagers that were killed there. is not a situation where you want to put people who are fleeing violence to stay in a place were there is violence and still puput themem in danger. investigations -- right now there is a five month old who is in the hospital who is being held by ice in the freezing cold, what they call and many of the horrible story of jackelin -- jakelin who died in border patrol custody. what are you demandiding on the homeland security committee in terms of investigations of all of this? >> we certainly want to investigate the circumstances of what happened. let me tell you, just being at the border with maria and her children and seeing how cbp

responded, i can ask you understand now why we're hearing more and more reports of children being ill, children dying. in our situation, you have customs and border protection officers sitting right there allowing three-year-old and four-year-old children, waiting hours on end. in maria's case, nine hours in the cold. on the cement. eat.could go no where to they could not even get up to go to the bathroom because if they left this little patch of u.s. oil, and mexican immigration officials andnd police on the mexico line just waiting for them. disregard that some of the officers that cbp had for migrants was just disturbing to see and hear. we even had a cbp officer who was talking out loud about how theyble migrants were, how

were coming to commit crime. so if they have this attitude, they really are not going to have any regard for human life and their dignity. let me tell you, there are good cbp agents. i represent -- - but there are d apples and that is a real issue. so we want to make sure that there is an investigation on what happens. we want to make sure that it doesn't happen again. in the case of jakelin, we want to also make sure that we put in standards and procedures so that there is a real medical screening. what i understand happen in jakelin's case, he can be something as simple as them asking, is everybody ok? that is not what you need to do so that you can make sure that children are ok. amy: i want you to stay with us over the do part two of this discussion. folks i believe they would have seen that she was not well and would have gotten medical

attention much sooner post up my colleague -- amy: we have to leave it there. we will do part two and posted at democracynow.org. [captioning made possible by democracy now!]