06/03/19 06/03/19 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] amy: from new york, this is democracy now! >> had nothing to do about enforcing voting rights. it was all about trying to targrget immigrants and preservd white political power for the next decade. amy: newly surfaced documents show how a now a dead strategist is specialized in gerrymandering was secretly behind the trump administration's efforts to add a citizenship question to the

2020 census. we will get an update from mother jones reporter ari berman. then, "clarence thomas knows nothing of my work." author adam cohen says the supreme court justice used his book to tie abortion to eugenics, but got it w wrong. >> i ifact, duriring the eugenis of the 20th century, the focus was on mething different. abortion was not a a factor. itit is not what the leaders wee talking about but it is convenient right now for enemies of abortion to say it was about abortionon b because they woulde to tar abortion with that eugenics brush today. amy: then, president trump is considering presidential pardons for american military members convicted of war crimes. pres. trump: we are looking at a lot ofof different people. are of these soldiers people that fought hahard, long. we teach them how to be great fighters and then when they

fight, sometimes they get treated unfairly. amy: we will get response from a combat veteran of iraq, waitman wade beorn, who is now a piece for "they washington post" is headlined "i led a platoon in iraq. trump is wrong to pardon war criminals." all that and more, coming up. welcome to democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. new details emerged over the we can in the mass shooting in virginia beach in which a gunman opened fire on a municipal building killing 12 people. four people remained in critical condition sunday. the gunman, 40-year-old dewayne craddock, had worked at the side of the massacre for 15 years as an engineer. he had emailed his resignation earlier that day come although authorities say he was in good standing at work. from 1996 to 2002, he was a member of the virginia national

guard. authorities say the gunman used two legally-bought 45 caliber pistols and that they found two more firearms at his home. no motive has yet been found for the mass shooting. on cbs's "face the nation" sunday, democratic virginia senator mark warner called for congressional action on gun control. >> this just doesn't hahappen in otheher civilizized nations at s level of violence. i have felt we ought to take steps against assault weapons. likeuppressors -- i would to hear what the legitimate reason is in terms of either self-defense or hunting. amy: friday's rampage was the deadliest mass shooting in the u.s. so far this year. homeland security's internal watchdog warned of dangerous overcrowding at migrant prisons on the u.s. southern border. in a report released thursday, inspectors said they saw 900 people jammed into facilities in el paso, texas, designed for a maximum of 125 people.

some of the imprisoned migrants were forced to stand for days due to lack of space, while some had to stand on toilets to get breathing space. the report advised customs and border protection to take immediate steps to remedy the situation. president trump has sought to place blame for the increase in migrants on the mexican government. on thursday, he threatened to impose a 5% tariff on mexican goods starting next week, until mexico cracks s down on central american migrants heading for the u.s. border. the tariff would increase 5% every month until it hits 25%. mexican officials are set to hold talks with the trump administration this week. in more news from the border, johana medina, a transgender asylum seeker from el salvador, died while in immigration and customs enforcement custody on saturday, according to several lgbt groups and advocates who knew her. medina had sought medical

treatment for over two months for complications related to hiv-aids before finally being transferred to an el paso hospital but did not survive. johana medina is believed to be the second transgender migrant to die in ice custody since trump became president. in missouri, a judge granted a temporary restraining order to planned parenthood, allowing the state's only abortion clinic to remain open after health department officials refused to renew its license. the fate of the clinic c is stil uncertain, however, and then another hearing is scheduled for tuesday. in the sudanese capital khartoum, at least nine people have been reported killed after military forces raided an ongoing sit-in in front of the defense ministry monday morning. soldiers reportedly launched tear gas, followed by sound grenades, to disperse protesters before opening live fire. demonstrators from a range of

civil society groups are demanding a civilian transitional government following the overthrow of president omar al-bashir in april after a months-long popular uprising and the military's subsequent government takeover. protesters moved to other parts of the city to continue their demonstration. last week, sudanese authorities shut down al jazeera's khartoum bureau and banned the outlet's reporters. in honduras, protesters set fire to the front of the u.s. embassy in the capital tegucigalpa friday. no injuries were reported. the fire came amid massive protests against plans by president juan orlando hernandez to privatize healthcare, pensions, and education. this is protester and activist wilfredo mendez.z. >> hopefully the u.s. congressman and senators can present this message with force to the trump administration who is supporting this dictator. this is a clear expression of

repudiation to u.s. administration that has supported the dictatorship and turn its back on the honduran people. amy: in jerusalem, hundreds of ultranationanalist, jewish settlers entered the mosque on sunday flanked by heavily armed israeli forces revoking protests by palestinians. police arrested seven people using tear gas, rubber bullets, and pepper spray to disperse the protesters. it was the first time in three decades israel allowed jews into the sites during the final days of the holy month. president trump is in the u.k. for a state visit amid both public and political opposition. london mayor sadiq khan blasted trump and britain's red carpet welcome ahead of his trip, comparing trump and other far-right heads of state to fascist leaders of the 20th century. in an op-e-ed for the guardian,, mayor khan took aim at trump's family separation policy, his

whitee of the 2 2017 supremacist rally in charlottesville, and the muslim travel ban. sadiq khan is the first muslim mayor of london. in an interview with "the sunday times" ahead of his visit, trump said briritain should refuse to papay the nearly $ $50 billion brbrexit bill and wawalk away if they do not get what they y want from t the eu in thehe contentis deal. trump also rececently said formr foreign ministster boris johnson would make an excellent replacement for prime minister theresa may, who is set to leave office at the end of the week after resigning over her failure to pass a brexit deal in parliament. president trump and melania trump were welcomedd by the royl family today. duchess of sussex megan markle was not present. president trump called her "nasty" during an interview with "the sun" after he learned she came out against his candidacy in 2016. trump denied making the comment, but his own reelection campaign put out a recording and

transcript of the interview showing he didid call heher nas. in canada, a national inquiry found that the disappearance and murder of thousands of indigenous women and girls over decades amounts to a canadian genocide. the report, which was obtained by cbc news, ahead of its official release today says that "we do know that thousands of indigenous women, girls and 2slgbtqqia have been lost to the canadian genocide to date" and are the result of "state actions and inactions rooted in colonialism and colonial ideologies." new state department rules that went into effect on friday will require all u.s. visa applicants to submit their social media information for the past five years. the information would give authorities access to applicants' photos, locations, among other personal data often shared on social media platforms.

when the trump administration first proposed the new rules last year, the aclu warned that "it will infringe on the rights of immigrants and u.s. citizens by chilling freedom of speech and association, particularly because people will now have to wonder if what they say online will be misconstrued or misunderstood by a government official." the federal aviation administration said sunday that over 300 of boeing's 737 aircrafts could have faulty parts on their wings. the issue would affect both max and ng -- or next generation -- jets, the max's predecessor and is due to a possible manufacturing flaw in their leading edge slat tracks, which guide the panels used on the wing during takeoffs and landings to providide additional lift. boeing 737 max airplplanes have been g grounded worldwide following the fatal crash of an ethiopian airlines jet in march,

less than five months after indonesia's lion air crash in october of last year. the two crashes killed all on board total of 346 people. , a california congressmember duncan hunter is coming under fire after saying he and his unit probably killed hundreds of civilians while serving in iraq in 2004. hunter made the comments during an episode of the barstool sports podcast "zero blog thirty" while defending navy seal officer edward gallagher, who was released from custody thursday as he awaits his trial for alleged war crimes. edward gallagher is facing charges of shooting unarmed civilians and killing a wounded captive teenager by stabbing him with a knife, then staging a re-enlistment ceremony over the teenager's dead body, which he then photographed and reportedly texted to a fellow navy seal. during the interview, hunter also acknowledged taking a photo with a dead combatant and saiaid

"a lot of us havave done the ext , same thing." this is congressmember hunter responding to a question about the killing of the captive teenager. >> i frankly don't care if he was killed. i don't care. that is my personal point of view. that is my prerogative doubt the guy out like that. even if everything the prosecutors say is true in this gallagher eddie shshould still be gigiven a brei think. amy: edward gallagher is due to stand trial on june 10 for his alleged war crimes. separately, duncan hunter is facing charges related to the misuse of campaign funds and is set to face trial later this year. and those are some of the headlines. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. newly surfaced documents have revealed that the now dead senior republican strategist who specialized in gerrymandering

was secretly behind the trump administration's efforts to add a citizenship question to the 2020 census. "the new york times" broke the story last week in a story that ofled thomas hofeller the gerrymandering. lastthomas hofeller died august, he left behind a computer hard drive full of his notes and records. his estranged daughter found among the documents a 2015 study that said adding the citizenship question to the census "would be advantageous to republicans and non-hispanic whites and would clearly be a disadvantage to the democrats." census officials estimate 6.5 million people will not respond to the census if the citizenship question is added. this undercount could affect everything from the redrawing of congressional maps to the allocation of federal funding. in a court filing thursday, plaintiffs challenging the

citizenship question accused two trump administration officials of falsely testifying under oath about the justice department's motivations for altering the census. the supreme court is also set to rule within weeks on whether commerce secretary wilbur ross had the authority to add the citizenship quesestion to the census. for more, we are joined by ari berman, a senior writer at mother jones, a reporting fellow at the nation institute, and author of "give us the ballot: the modern struggle for voting rights in america." his new piece is titled "architect of gop gerrymandering was behind trump's census citizenship question." ari berman, welcome back to democracy now! it is great to have you with us. so lay out this expose. >> this is a startling smoking gun evidence in the census case that undercuts why the trump administration added this question. they added the citizenship question and they claimed it was needed to better enforce the voting rights act. thomasew documents from

hofeller show it was not needed to enforce the voting righghts t and d in fact,t, the people that would be most harmed by the additional question, latinos and other racial minorities, are the groups design to be protected. it clearly shows this question was added to benefitit the republican partyty, particularly what republicans. thomas hofeller says in this and published study this key evidence in this case, this would be clearly a disisadvantae to democrats and in advantage to republicans. there you have it. this is black and white. you cannot get any more explicit. we know for certain this is why the question was addeded to the census. amy: talk about hofeller's estranged daughter. >> there's a separate case in north carorolina challenging the gerrymandering of state legislative districts. tom hofeller has beeeen the go o expert in the republican party for decadedes. he has drawn somome of the most extreme gerrymandered maps and

places like north carolina. there's a case challenging this map in north carolina. away, hisller passed daughter found hard drives of his work and she gave it over to the plaintiffs. amymy: common cause. this evidence has become public, there is more -- there is more here. we will learn more about the role that tom hofeller played in gerrymandering efforts in other cases but this pertains directly to the census case. amy: the new york times calls in the michelangelo of gerrymandering. talk about his history and how this could have legal bearing and even going to the issue of the supreme court, making a decision about wilbur ross, adding t the question,n, the citizenship queuestion. been an extremely influential person. basically, the republican party is go do guy when it comes to --

go to guy when it comes to redistricting. yes run-up to boost republican representation. many of these maps have been struck down in court. he threw them in places like north carolina and ohio anand he been challenged. the method he drew was invalidated by the supreme court in an opinion written by clarence thomas. even clarence thomas thought that maps that hofeller were drawing work too extreme. the fact you had the architect of gop gerrymandering drawing up the census citizenship question is so startling because the census forms the basis for redistricting. a fair andhave accurate census data to be able to draw fair districts. data,have skewed census that will lead to skewed districts. they are essentially gerrymandering the census to give them an advantage.

amy: in the 1990's, he led the effort to oppose using statistical sampling to gain a more accurate count of non-white populations that the census bureau tended to miss. at the time, hofeller wrote -- "a census that uses sampling and statistical adjustment will be the biggest victory for big government liberalism since the enactment of the great society." i want to go to hofeller speaking in 2001 at the national conference of state lelegislatures. roth wrote a book on death and dying. her five steps, i believeve, can be applied to redistricicting. and you can pick the people to whom they apply in the order in which they apply to those people . and those steps are first to deny. it could not happen to me. the next step is bargaining. make a deal. the next step is anger.

have ever experienced that in the redistricting process. next is oppression. finally, acceptance. so you might look at that my maybe she will write a new book on redistricting grieving. amy: that is thomas hofeller comparing redistricting to death. ari berman? >> redistricting has led to political debt if you think about what they're doing in places like north carolina, trying to maximize e republicann advantage and basically hofeller saying his goal with the census is to draw districts basically only counting citizens. for now and for decades, the way districts have been drawn is you count everybody. everyone is entitled to representation. he is saying we only want to draw districts counting citizens. that means what republicans will get a massive over advantage. they will get a huge boost in representation.

in minority areas, t they will receive less representation. if this citizenship questions is on the census, itit will lead to more whiter in republican areas. that is why the citizenship question was added census to the census. amy: you write members of trususting may not have been fuy forthcoming. >> the aclu and other plaintiffs challengnging the census citizenship question are trying to sanction these former trump officials for lying under oath to conceal tom hofeller's involvement in the case. there will be a hearing in federal court this week. the big question is, will this make its way to the supreme court and will it matter? this case is going to be ruled

on in a matter of weeks. the justices have likely already written their opinions. this is all very last minute. this evidence really undercuts the trump administration's claimsms of why they added thths question. however, is to remains unclear whether this is going have any impact on the suprpreme court. amy: let's talk about gerrymandering and abobortion. > these issues are all connected. bans,e saw these abortionon one thing i realizized is many f the states passing these abortion bans recently also are very heavily gerrymandered. so you have in ohio, which was one that has the abortion ban, republican candidate in ohio got 50% of votes in the last election, control 63% of legislative seats. missouri, republican candidate in the house got 57% of the votes and control 71% of the seats. theses happening is republican-controlled states

like ohio and missouri, they are more extreme because of gerrymandering and more red because of gerrymandering, and that leads to more extreme policies like these abortion why and helps explain republican politicians are passing laws that even in their own states people don't want. people don't want lincoln bans butlanket bans on abortion rerepublicans are insulating themselves through gerrymandering. amy: t this is an impmportant p. most americans are pro-choice and yet more than half the states have passed abortion restrictions. the state legislatures are anti-choice. explain further how gegerrymandering leads to this.. >> politicians get elected and they draw districts to maximize their impact and to try to give as safe of seats as possible. they feel like they're insulated on the will of the voters. they are in very safe districts.

they'regoing on here is not really concerned about the views of the public at large because they feel like they only care about the voters in their districts. there chiefly worried about a primary challenge. politics are gettiting pushed further to the right. public opinion is not impacting the discussion of abortion in a lot of these cases. in many of these states coming up overwhelmingly white, male legislators that are not affected by abortion in the same ways. many of the constituencies hard by gerrymandering like women, younger people, people of color, they're going to be most affected by these abortion bans. in: talk about george particular, the state e that stacey abrams lost, that brian kemp won. he was secretary of state so he was in charge of his own election when he ran against abrams, and how that t plays at overall in politics, in particular around abortion. >> the voter suppression also

explains why we have these extreme abortion bans because you look at georgia where brian kemp was both secretary of state and running for governor the same time, essentially overseeing his own election. in that election, georgia purged 2 million people from the voting rolls. they close 214 polling places. this helped brian kemp and hurt stacey abrams and allow brian kemp to eke out a very narrow victory. then he signed this abortion ban the stacey abrams was strongly opposed to, which was passed by legislature in georgia that was heavily gerrymandered in favor of r republicans. you're a governor who is elected in part of voter suppression signing one of the most extreme abortion laws in the country. had it not been for gerrymandering and voter suppression, you might've had a very different legislator and a different governor in georgia and this would not have been passed in the first place.

amy: so hofeller's hard drives that his estranged daughters have now released -- talk about other affects that you can see coming out of this. >> it is really i important because the next election is going to determine redistricting for the next decade. it is going -- it will form the basis of the next redistricting for the next decade. there are laws in north carolina challenging these state maps. will the courts strike down these maps before 2020? a new north carolinaa legislature, t there will be a a didifferent election in 2020. that will lead to different outcomes. we could be seeing republican gerrymandering efforts unraveling in north carololina, one of the most important swing states in the country. this focuses attention on other issues. there is been so much focus on trump, but when it comes to state-level races, the

gerrymandering at the local level and the census that forms the basis for redistricting, this has a huge outcome on politics for the next decades. if republicans are able to rig the census for the next dedecad, they can rig some aspects of american politicics as well. amy: what is happening in florida? the whole issue of rear franchising what is called returning citizens,s, people who have served time in prison. >> florida passed a really start ballot initiative in 201018 to restore voting rights to o those with previous felony convictions. the florida legislature has passed the launcher o-mamatic lease scaling that back by saying you have to pay all fines,s, fees, and resestitution before your eligible to vote. this is basically akin to a poll tax. in some cases people own millions of dollars. this one woman owns $59 million for insurance flawed -- fraud. if this bill is signed, it means

ppeople whoho thought they weren line to be able to vote, voters who thought they had passed the ballot initiative to read franchchise people, now and said you're saying people have to jump through serious financial hoops even after they paid their debt to society to be of the vote. this could affect huhundreds of thousands of people in florida before the 2020 election. amy: i want to thank you for joining us, ari berman, senior writer at mother jones, a reporting fellow at the type media center and author of "give us the ballot: the modern struggle for voting rights in america." we will link to "architect of gop gerrymandering was behind trump's census citizenship question." when we come back, clarence thomas knows nothing of my work. other adam cohen says the supreme court justice used his book to tie abortion to eugenics and got it wrong. stay witith us. ♪ [music break]

amy: this is democracy now!, democracacynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. as we turn now to the ongoing assault on abortion rights across the c country. last week in missouri, a judge granted a temporary restraining order to planned parenthood friday allowing the state's only abortion clinic to remain open despite health department officials refusing to renew its license. the ruling came down just hours before the clinic's license was scheduled to expire. it is just one step in the fight to save missouri's planned parenthood. the next hearing is scheduled for tomorrow. missouri legislators recently passed an eight-week abortion dozens --e state is is one of dozens where abortion rights are under threat. last week, louisiana became the

fifth state to ban abortions after six weeks without exceptions for rape or incest. the ban will only go into effect if mississippi's six-week abortion ban is upheld. a federal judge temporarily blocked the law last week. kentucky, ohio, and georgia have also recently moved to outlaw abortions after six weeks. alabama has passed a near total ban on abortions. as these states tighten antitrust legislation, others are fighting to strengthen access to reproductive rights. the vermont legislature has approved a new bill that would prohibit thehe governmenent from interfering with the right to get abortions. a dozen other states have their own legislation in the works to guarantee the right to abortion. both sides are preparing for a challenge to roe v. wade, the landmark 1973 supreme court ruling that recognizes the constitutional right to an abortion. all of this comes as the supreme court declined last week to take up a provision of an indiana law that bars abortions based on the

sex, race, or disability of the fetus. the decision keeps in place a lower court injunction on the measure. but justice clarence thomas indicated in a a 20-page opinion that he supports the law, writing -- "enshrining a constitutional right to an abortion based solely on the race, sex, or disability of an unborn child, as planned parenthood advocates, would constitutionalize the views of the 20th-century eugenics movement." to make his case, justice thomas cited a book by adam cohen titled "imbeciles: the supreme court, american eugenics, and the sterilization of carrie buck." justice thomas's opinion has been widely discredited, including by thehe authohor of e vevery book he cited in his opinion. in an article for the atlantic headlined "clarence thomas knows nothing of my work," adam cohen writes -- "thomas is absolutely right that we need to remember our eugenics

past and make sure that we do not make the same mistakes again. he is absolutely wrong that individual women making independent decisions about their pregnancies are the eugenicists of our time." adam cohen joins us here in our new york studio. welcome to democracy now! >> great to be here. amy: talking about reading justice thomas' decision and realizing he is quoting you. >> on one level you have to be flattered. the highest court in the land site your book a dozen more times, that is nice. it when you read the substance of what thomas was saying, very disturbing because his history is not right and there's a real ideological agenda behind how he is using the history. amy: explain. >> in the supreme court we generally have not talkeked abot abortion and eugenics terms. boldnce thomas is making a foray and saying, let's start

using this eugenics land and that's go back in history to the eugenics movement of the 20th century, which was a very big deal. not so well-known, but in the 1910's and 1920's, more than half of american states adopted eugenics sterilization laws that allow the state to choose certain kinds of people that they viewed as feebleminded or otherwise unfit to reproduce and to forcibly sterilize them. that was a very big deal. clarence thomas is trying to connect that movement to abortion and say abortion is bad for the same reasons the eugenics movement was wrong. the eugenics movement of the 20th-century century was never about abortion. abortion was always illegal. the leaders of the eugenics movement said they did not didort abortion, but support forced sterilization. i think is using it to come up with another argument against abortion. the antiabortion forces have failed to convince a majority of americans that abortion is killing a person, so i think -- you might even say a more pc

argument. they're saying, let's think of it is being kind of like racism, kind of like eugenics. the problem is, that is not what abortion is about. amy: explain work clarence thomas is -- we're clarence thomas is coming from. your writing a book on the supreme court. did what he say surprise you? >> it did. it is not the way the debate is been framed. it is somewhat fresh and radical d it is also wrong because history,strip her wa with abortion is not an active eugenics. it is the government saying we are not going to let certain people who we deem to be unfit reproduce because we want to lift up the gene pool and make the gene pool a future generation more fit and better. that is not what abortion is about. when a woman in indiana decides she is pregnant, takes a test, finds out there's something about the fetus that is going to produce a very sick baby, maybe

a baby that will die in the first year after terrible pain and a bad life -- if she decides not to bring a baby to term and give birth, that is not the eugenics decision. that is a woman making a personal decision about what she was to do with her life. everything.ng amy: do you think he understands the distinction? >> i think he does. you can see why from a propaganda purpose, this is good branding. if you can say abortion does not just stop the beating heart, it is also a way of trying to change our gene pool in a way that ordinary people might say, that is not the right thing to do. it is good branding, but i think it is just not true. amy: the supreme court to the loudest in the fetal remains portion of the bill, the fetal remains burial portion of the bill. >> correct. this ruling was widely held as a compromise. isn't that nice one part of the

indiana law that is not going to stand and nadler that is. -- and another that is. we've gotten to the point where this is a compromise. the lottery is every fetus have a burial, kind of like a baby would of a burial, which many women may not want that to be done to the fetal remains. and they may be charged for a by the abortion provider. it might be $1000 or more for this thing. it is hard to see that as a compromise. we''re seeing abortion rights eroding and this is another example. amy: have you written to the justice to say he is misquoted you? >> no, i haven't. i hope he reads it in the atlantic. amy: you also focus on precedence setting cases. where do you t think the supreme court is headed when it comes to abortion? blaster judge brett kavanauaugh appeared before the judiciary committee and asked about roe v. wade in his confirmation hearing. >> one of the important things to keep in mind about roe v. wade is that it has been

reaffirmed many times over the past 45 years, as you know. and most prominently, most importantly, reaffirmed in planned parenthood versus caseyy in 1990 two. amy: so that was brett kavanaugh before he became supreme court justice. he was approved. it is officially the roberts court, some call it now the kavanaugh court. what does it mean what he saidd andnd where o you see the supreme court going right now? >> i don't think we can give a lot of credence to what people say confirmation hearings. they tend to say what they think the senate wants to be heard. see thismously said, i as an oak park, calling balls and strikes. think we can say from that cap and i would not vote overturn roe v wade. for a long time we have had one justice in the middle thomas

went justice, o'connor, then kennedy, who although conservatitive, have not been lg to pull the trigger to overturn roe v.v. wade. do w we have onene of thohose sg justices or do we now have five justices who would all overturn it? we don't knowow the answer. amy: what about roberts come and chief justice roberts, where you think you would stand? many were surprised when obamacare, when the affordable care act came before the supreme court, that he actually voted for it, even though he had expressed criticism of it. >> that made people think maybe he is a potential swing. that is a different kind of issue, and one where maybe he was trying to act a little more like an umprire. he is very religious. he went to mass every sunday vard.he was at har he may feel if this is a hard

issue for him, we just don't know if he is been waiting all these years to overturn roe v. wade. amy: i wanted to ask you about angela merkel. at german chancellor was harvard university this past week. she was giving a major graduation address. shshe took an n apparent s swipt president trump and his policies during her keynote commencement address. merkel, who received an honorary degree from harvard, took aim at trump's protectionism,m, trade warsrs, and his efforts to expad the wall alolong the u.s.-mexico border. >> thahat is w why i want toto e this wish with you -- tear down walls of ignorance and narrowmindedness for nothing has to stay at his is -- - at it is. amy: merkel did not mention trump by name, but compared his wall-building effoforts to the berlin wall that restricted her movements as she grew up in east germany.

you were at your harvard commencement, your harvard graduation reunion. you were there? >> yes. and she was well received. it was a beautiful speech. she did begin but his personal story of a young woman growing up on the other side of the berlin wall, how every day which into the workforce, she would go to the laboratory where she was working and she could just see the wall and she knew on the other side of it was freedom. every day she saw this personal barrier in her own life, so she use that, as you say, and launch this other idea that walls in general, the walls we have now, the walls we're thinking about buildingng, are dangerous. ism anda plea for global mutual understanding across borders. she was quite the star of the day. amy: she did not mention trump by name? >> no, but there were moments of build references of people she seemed to be talking about trump also know, she did not. amy: adam cohen, thank you for

being with us journalist and , lawyer. co-editor of thenationalbookreview.com. author of several books, most recently, "imbeciles: the supreme court, american eugenics, and the sterilization of carrie buck." we will link to your recent piece for the atlantic is titled "clarence thomas knows nothing of my work." adam cohen is writing a book about the last 50 years of the supreme court. when we come back, president trump is considering prpresidential pardons for american military members convicted of war crimes. stay with us. ♪ [music brbreak]

amy: this is democracy now!, democracynowow.org, the wawar ad peace report. i'm amy goodman. we end today's show looking at

president trump's consideration of presidential pardons for american military members convicted of war crimes. one of the requests for a pardon is reportedly for navy seals special operations chief edward gallagher, who is facing charges of shooting unarmed civilians and killing a wounded captive teenager by stabbing him with a knife then staging a re-enlistment ceremony over the dead teenager's body. on thursday, a military judge in san diego ordered gallagher freed from custody, citing prosecutorial misconduct in his murder trial for alleged war crimes. the judge ruled prosecutors exceeded their authority when they tried to plant computer code in emails in order to find the source of leaks about the case. on fridaday, the judge said prosecutors violated gallagher's right to a fair trial. the court has yet to rule on whether to remove prosecutors or to throw out the case entirely.

one of the attorneys for gallagher also represents the trump organization. one of gallagher's most vocal supporters in congress has been republican congressman duncan hunter of california. this is hunter speaking on the podcast "zero blog thirty" in audio released lasast week, in whwhich he admits to killiling hundrereds of innocentnt people while serving in the u.s. military during the iraq war, during his deployment to fallujah in 2004. >> how do you judge me? of rounds intods fallujah, killed probably hundreds of civilians if not scores if not hundreds of civilians, probably killed women and children if there were any left in the city when we invaded. do i g get judged, to? amy: t that's republican congressman duncncan hunteter of california. this c comes as trtrump may alse considering a pardon request for blackwater contractor nicholas slatten, who was twice found guilty of first degree murder in

the deadly 2007 nisoor square massacre in baghdad, which killed 14 unarmed iraqi civilians. he was sentenced to life in prison last december. well, for more, we're joined bin charlottesville, virgininia, by waitman n wade beorn, a cocombat veteteran of iraq and a holocaut anand genocidede studieses hist. he is s a lecturer at the university of virginia, author of "marching into darkness: the wehrmacht and the holocaust in belarus." he is a graduate of the united states military academy at west point. he has just written an op-ed piece for "the washington post" headlined "i led a platoon in iraq. trump is wrong to pardon war criminals." in it he writes -- "when trump champions war criminals as brave patriots who are simply victims of political correctness, he seems to push for a climate that condones unethical and criminal behavior.

he appears to write off war crimes as the cost of doing business. if this is the example our military is given, we should not be surprised to see more gallaghers." waitman wade beorn, welcome to democracy now! >> thank you for having me. amy: so talk about the people who president trump is talking about pardoning. let's begin with edward gallagher and your concerns about the president of the united statetes pardoning him. >> i think therere's a lot ofof issueses with gallagher.r. i first want to start by mentioning one thing about what you mention at the beginning of the show regarding the j judgmet by the judge f for prosecutorial misconduct. what we're really talking about here is an amazing job by the readse team, but it is receipipts on emaiails. that is whatat his defense team

has spunun into planting code. it is still at the prosecution team know that summit has read and email. flimsy excusely for letting him out. but to get back to your original the president has chosen the worst possible options of anyone to pardon. gallagher probably being one of the most egregious. among the things that he is accused of our shooting a child -- are shooting a child, shooting an old man, murdering a 15 year old noncombatant who was combatant but then as a wounded prisoner of war, is now a noncombatant, with a knife, stabbing him did at, texting his friends about this stabbing,

holding a reenlistment ceremony over the body of this individual . any one of these things is an egregious breach of the law of armed conflict and the law of war and just a complete moral and ethical failure. i really don't see any reason why any pardon is justified. should conclude those initial ststatements that this is not en gone to trial get. in a sense, what we have is the president not only a carrying to condone such activities or oppose prorosecution based onn s concept of patrioiotism, etc. a, but to miss training a lack of confidenence in the military system, nonot even letting them have the opportunity to do their job, which is to investigate and prosecute people accucused of wr

crimes. it is disturbing on many, many levels, to me and a lot of other folks. let's go back to one of eddie gallagher's most vocal supporters in congress, duncan hunter of california, speaking on the podcast "zero blog 30." he was asked specifically about gallagher allegedly stabbing to -- to death,ager this teenager who was brought in for medical treatment. as you pointed out. let's go to duncan hunter's response. folks i frankly don't care if he was killed. i don't care. that is my personal point of view and my prerogative to help a guy out like that. even if everything the prosecutors say is true in this eddie gallagher should still be given a break i think. amy: in february, congressman hunter spoke about gallagher's prosecution during an intervieww on kususi in san diego.

>> your lawyer said don't know what the word combat means, prosecuting guys for killing the enemy. so even of everything the prosecution that is true, let's a that you gallagher killed a verified designated isis combatant, my answer is, so what? that is his job. close combat.ough won world warhave one i if we had to fight the way we fight now. amy: that is duncan hunter w who is headed for trial himself, not for what he says he did in iraq, killing hundreds of civivilians, but for corruption, he and his wife have been charged. waitman wade beorn, you are combat veteran of iraq. can you respond to what he said and he thinking that this is a defense for not only himself, but for edward gallagher?

>> it is incredibly shocking to hear him say something like that. it crosses a lot of boundaries for me. just the of which is complete lack of empathy that one shows when he says "i don't care whether this persrson was killeded." t the prosecution is correct, which means it was a cold-blooded murder by knife, he still doesn't care. to me that is galling, off ensive.. he is flat out wrong this shortly about how we fought world war i, world war ii. we do not conduct o ourselves in .he manner in which he claims he clearly doesnsn't know what e is talking about there. in's to this idea he's

be portraying, first when he admitted that he took selflfies wiwith a dead b body in this ida that we all dodo that in iraq, , we did not all do that. the majojority of us did notot o that a and recognize that t as criminal and wrong. just, youdea that know, once we enter into a war, our job is to go kill anything that moves to win the war is just blatantly f false. it demonstrates a disturbing lack of underststanding of how o deal withh civilians and noncombatants on the battlefield from someone whoho was in a positionon of aututhority leadig our soldiers -- in this case, marines -- overseas. it is deplorable. amy: what is very interesting is that it was his fellow seals that turned him in. can you talk about this and who took them seriously and who ignored them? >> yes.

and ththe case of f gallaghehert certainly was his own seaeals wo turnrned him in. to the extenent that accordrdino some of them, while they were in country, they manipulated his weapon so that it would not be as accurate because they wewere just concerned he conontinued to shoooot at noncombatatants. gallagagher's defense team argrs these e are disgruntledd individuals who did not like gallagher persosonally, did nott think you shou be e promoteded, did not t think you u should gen award. bestwe are some of our trained, most committed, most .edicated special operators they arere not thehe kind of pee who have their feathers ruffled easily. so if they are disturbed about what someone is doing toto the toent they are willing repeatedly risk their careers,

being told directly by gallagher and othehers to drop this and lt it go and they do not -- in my view, they are heroes for what they're doing. at the risk of their careers. i think we need to take that very seriously. and by the way, i should note that bringing up these charges because you think that gallagher is incomompetent, should not betraying seals, should not be promoted, shouould not getet an award, is not incompatible with the justification being that he has committed these war crimes that you have witnessed when you have been deployeded with him. you waitman wade beorn, wrote in "your washington post" piece --

explain that further and then talk about president trump talking about edward gallagher as a war hero. >> absolutely. as i pointed out in the articlce anand you read, obviously, i''mt comparing ourr military were claimingng our military are naz. there are many things s that are different. however,r, there a are certain truisms i think. individual dynamics within unit in how people interact and how leaders interact. the point i'm making is leaders set the standards foror behehav. subordinates, soldiers, sailors, marines, they know what the boss

cares about. they know what his or her pet peeves happened to be. they k know what his or r her vs happen to be. they will ususually adhere to those. is when, as hopefully mostly the case, those are positive values, positive roles, and then they will act t accordingly. however, when we have guidance from either the presidential level all the way down to the platoon leadader level that is counter to our morals or is dysfunctional, then they wilill often be encouraged to do the same thing. we said in the army that leaders make policy by everything that they do and everything that they allow to happen or fail to correct. so moving a little further to what the president appears to be minimizing,now, by

but underwriting the crimes of people like gallagher, people lilike hunter in this case as well, he is sending a message that these kinds of behaviors are acceptable, as you mentioned earlier in the show, that war is hell, some eggs are getting a broken, some civilians are going to get killed, not a big deal for r this is how we fight war. which is totally antithetical to how we do things. amy: and then n you have who was convicted twice of first-degree murder for the new source or massacre. president trump talking abobo pardoning him. he worked for r blackwater. >> i'm not as familiar with the details of that case except as they again, we have a systetem o prosecute individuals who commit war crimes. particularly in this case given that we have a more collocated

situation with the civilian working for the military but not under "military justice," the fact that conviction has gone through the process that we have s set up twice and has been upheld, you know, there doesn't seem to be any compelling reason for a pardon. usually a pardon, if done in the best of intentions come is to correct a wrong.. whether it is a racist conviction or something to that effect. in this case, there is not a wrong to be convicte corrective. amy: i want to ask about the ,irginia beach mass shooter doing credit, enlisted in the virginia national guard for years. other shooters with the military are lockers and background included david long, nikolas cruz, and a number of others. they were involved with mass

shootings. this relationship between serving in the military and mass killings, your thoughts? >> frankly it is disingenuous to really associate those. a lot of times