11/11/19 11/11/19 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] amy: from new york, this is dedemocracy now! >> to m my brothers and sisistef olivia, , the whole world, i wat to i inform you t that i'm heheh ththe vice presidedent andnd mir of health, , that i have decided afafter listing to my frienendsn the bolivivian worker center r d also l listening to the catholic church, to resigign my positions president. amy: bolivia's firsrst indigenos presesident eva momorales has resigned following what he described as a military coup.

bolivia has been the scene of weeks of protests since a disputed election last month. we will get the latest. then we spend the rest of the hour with senator elizabeth warren. on friday, i co-moderated the first presidential forum on environmental justice at south carolina state university. warren talked d about the climae crisis, shutting down pipelines, capitalism, and more. racial injustice, do you think the order ofof the primary state should change?e? you have iowa and new hampshire, two of the whitest states in the country and then we moved to south carolina with a very significant population of people of color. and it means candidates spend so much of their time catering to those first two states stop overall, do you think that should change? sen. warren: i'm just a player in the game on this one. and i am delighted to be in south carolina.

amy: all that and more, coming up. welcome to democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. bolivia is i in a state of political crisis after longtime president eva morales resigned sunday following what he described as a military coup. bolivia has been the scene of weeks of protests since a disputed election lastst month. morales announceced his resigngnation inin a televised address sunday. >> to my brotothers and sistersa bolivia, the whole worldld, i wt toto inform you that i i am here with the vice presidedent and minister off health,h, that ii decided after liststening to my friends in the bolivian worker centerer and also o listening te catholicic church to resigign my poposition as presesident. amy:y: morales spopoke shortly r the bolivian military took to the airwaves to call for his resignation. bolivia's vice preresident alsoo

resigned sununday as did the hed of thehe bolivian senanate and e lower house.e. opposition leader jejeanine anez -- who is ththe second vicice president of the bolivian senate -- is claiaiming she wilill asse the presidency today. we'll have more on the situation in bolivia after headlines. in brazil, former president luiz inacio lula da silva was greeted by crowds of his supporters as he walked free from jail on friday. >> you have no idea of the significance for me to be here with you. i, who my whole life have talked to the brazilian people, never thought that today i could be talking here with men and women who during the past 580 days were here saying "good morning, "good night, lula, no matter if it was 40 degrees, 30 degrees, or zero degrees. i want to tell you from herere'm going to sell apollo. tomorrow i for meeting. the doors will be open for me to go around the country. amy: lula's freedom came after

the supreme court ended mandatory imprisonment for people convicted of a crime who lost their first appeal. he had been imprisoned for a year and a half after he was convicted of accepting a beachside apartment from an engineering firm vying for contracts at the state oil company petrobras. many of lula's supporters say his conviction and jailing ahead of brazil's 2018 presidential election, in which lula was the frontrunner, was politically motivated. he did not the charges. his jailing cleared the way for the election of brazil's jairight president bolsonaro. to see all our interview with former president luiz inacio lula da silva before he was imprisoned, go to democracynow.org. in syria, at least eight people were killed in a bombing in the northeastern city of tal abyad. no one has claimed responsibility so far. turkish troops seized the city from syrian kurdish fighters last month, following president trump's decision to withdraw u.s. military support for the kurds, clearing the way for the turkish offensive. turkish president recep tayyip erdogan is planning to visit

president trump at the white house onon wednesday -- the same day televised impeachment hearings begin. they are investigating whether president trump withheld military aid from ukraine in order to pressure the ukrainian president to investigate trump's political rival joe biden and his son. the first two witnesses will be william taylor, the top american diplomat in ukraine, and george kent, the senior state department official. formrmer u.s. ambassador to the united nations nikki haley says house chief of staff john kelly and former secretary of state rex tillerson told her to work against president trump, reportedly saying they were "trying to save the country." that's according to haley's new book "with all due respect." haley also writes that tillerson told her people would die if trump were allowed to govern unchecked. in iraq, the death toll from ongoing anti-government protests has risen to at least 319 people, with another nearly

15,000 people injured. that's according to the iraqi parliamentary human rights committee, which has been tracking the government's bloody repression of protests in baghdad, basra, nasiriyah and other cities. the demonstrations erupted over a month ago over unemployment, corruption, and the lack of basic services such as water and electricity. in hong kong, two people are in critical condition as anti-government protests escalated today. police shot a student protester at clolose ran. the shooting was captured in a video that has since gone viral. a pro-beijing supporter was doused in flammable liquid and burned after an argument with protesters. pro-democrcracy protesesters hae calllled for a general strike fr today. at least 20 people have died in bangladesh and india, as cyclone bulbul ravaged parts of the coast on saturday with winds of up to 75 miles per hour. the cyclone forced over 2 million people to evacuate their

homes in bangladesh. meanwhile, in australia, the island's most populous state has declared a state of emergency as authorities warn of catastrophic fire risk. dozens of fires are burning across south new whales. three people have died so far. authorities are warning that this week "could be the most dangerous bush fire e week this nation has ever seen." hundreds of qualitative have also perished in the fires. germans gathered saturday to mark the 30th anniversary of t e fafall of the berlin wall. the wall separarated communist east germany from capitalist west germany. it was one of the most prominent symbols of the cold war. afteter its fall, germany reunid in 1990. meanwhile, thousands of miles away, hundrereds of people gathered saturday to protest the construction of a different wall -- trump's border wall, which is slated to cut through the organ pipe cactus national monument deep in the sonoran desert. the wall's construction is expected to destroy sites sacred to the tohono o'odham nation, a

native american nation whose territory is already separated by the u.s.-mexico border. in seattle, washington, socialist city council member kshama sawant has declared victory in a re-election race that pitted her against amazon, seattle's largest private employer and one of the largest companies in the world. amazon backed sawant's opponent, egan orion, with nearly half a million dollars. overall, amazon poured $1.5 million into seattle's city council election. but over the weekend, sawant declared victory as later vote counts showed her pulling ahead of orion. sawant is seattle's first socialist politician elected in nearly a century. she has successfully pushed a number of progressive policies, including making seattle the first major american city to adopt a $15-an-hour minimum wage. and in san francisco, public defender chesa boudin has been declared the winner of the district attorney's race. boudin is the child of weather underground activists kathy

boudin and david gilbert, and he learned the news that he'd won the race by a razor-thin margin while he was on the plane flying back from visiting his father in prison. boudin ran on a platform of ending cash bail and dismantling the war on drugs. some san francisco leaders had accused the police officers association of trying to buy the district attorney race, accusing the officers association o of spending up to $650,000 on ads attacking boudin. this is boudin speaking on democracy now ahead of the election. >> it is not jujust about ininrceration,n, reducing g racl disparities, and so on. itit is also abobout making suse arare using the treremendous por and discretion of the district attorney's office to enforce the laws equally. that m means prosecuting corpore landlords when they commit fraud, prosecuting policice when they commit mururder, or a perjury, psesecuting corporatioions when n they dumpd

toxic waste e into our commumu's as they did in the shshipyards. and it means having a broader vivision of using the e district attorney's office to actually keep our communities safe, not simply wage a racist war on drugs. amy: to see our full interview with chesa boudin, now the newly elected district attorney of san francisco, go to democracynow.org. and those are some of the headlines. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. bolivia is in a state of political crisis after longtime president evo morales resigned sunday following what he descriribed as a military y cou. bolivia has bebeen the scene off weeks of protests since a dispsputed election lastst mont. morales annonounced his resignatioion in a televised addresess sunday. >> t to my brbrothers and sistes are bolivia, the whole world, i want to ininform you t that i am here with the vice presidedent d mininister of health, that i've decided afteter listening g to y friends and the bolivian n workr

center and also listening to the catholic church to resign my position as president. amy: president morales spoke shortly after the bolivian military took to the airwaves to call for his resignation. interernalalyzing the conflilict situation, we a as te president t of the statete to renounce his presidential mandate, allowing for peace to be restored and maintenance of stability for the good of bolivia. amy: bolivia's s vice presisidet also resigned sunday, as did the head of the bolivian senate and the lower house. the top two officials have been detained. opposition leader jeanine anez -- who is the second vice president of the bolivian senate -- is claiming she will assume the presidency today. evo morales was the longest -- was credited with lifting nearly one fit of bolivia's population out of poverty since he took office in 2006. but he faced criticism from some of his former supporters for running for a third and then a fourth term.

evaa morales' whereabouts are unknowown. his home was ransacked sunday. mexico has offered him asylum hours before e resigning, morals had agreed to call for new elections after the organization of american states issued aa report claiming there was "clear manipulation and last month election results. accordining to the official results of last month selection, morales one 47% of the vote and just narrowly avoided runoff election. at the oas immediately question election process, sparking mass street protests. critics of the oas say the global body did not provide any evidence of actual vote rigging. we go natural to washington, d.c., where we are joined by mark weisbrot, co-director of the center for economic and policy research. his latest piece for the nation is headlined "the trump administration is undercutting democracy in bolivia." talk about the latest developments, the resignation of eva morales. >> this is a military coup.

there's no doubt about it now after the head of the military told the president and vice president to resign and then they did. i think is really terrible the way it has been presented because from the beginning, had the oas press release the day after the election, which hinted or implied, actually, very strongly, that there was something wrong with the vote count. they never presented any evidence at all. they did not presented in the release or in their next release or in the preliminary report. there is really nothing in thths latest so-called preliminary audit that shows that there was any fraud in this e election. but it was repeated over and over again in all the media. and so it became kind of true. if you look at the media, you don't see anybody -- you don't

-- you don't see any experts, for example, saying there was something wrong with the vote count. it is really just that oas observation mission, which was under a lot of pressure from senator rubio and the trump administration, to do this because they wanted for some time to get rid of t this government. amy: explain how the election went, this -- marella's stopping the election count, resuming it, and then what kind of majority he needed to avoid a runoff. >> this is very important because this has been very badly described i think in most of the media. you have a quick count, which is not even the official count of the election and it is not binding. resesult, it isis just something that is done while the votes are being counted to let people know what is going on at that time. and so the quick count was

interrupted. when it resumed -- it was interrupted with evo leading by ababout seven percentage points. when it came back, his margin increaeased. , itou read the press here is reported as though something terribibly suspicious happened. votes --t have enough he needed a 10 point margin in order -- a 10 point lead over the next runner-up in order to win in the first round. and he did not have that when the vote count, this quick count was interrupted or the reporting was interrupted, should say. and then he got it in the last 60% of the votes -- 16% of the votes counted. he reached 10%. if you look at -- this was reported as a very suspicious thing. this is what is reported over and over again to make it look like something was wrong. but if you look at it, actually

the whole vote count, you see there was a steady trend of evo's margin increasing almost from the beginning. it did not change in the last 16%, it just continued because -- and you can look at the areas that were coming in -- these whereural and poor areas abel morales had more support. that is all that happen. this happens in elections. you can see this if you watch election returns in the u.s.. there was never anything there. amy: several latin american leaders have criticized the ouster. is happening in bolivia is that there's a dominant class that will not resign themselves to losing power t to the hands f aa president who is first bolivian president that looks like bolivians. that is what is happening. amy: and jeremy corbyn tweeted

sunday -- so if you can talk, mark thebrot, about the role of bolivian military and what about the trump administration? >> i think the bolivian military clearly said, i mean, before they did that, they said they weren't going to intervene in terms of the protests. but they very clearly, the head vo the armed forces said e shshould resign right before he did that. so it was a military coup. evo morales is calling at that, of course. there isn't any doubt about it. the media hasn't really mentioned it as much as a militaryry coup, but it defefiny is. in terms of the trump administration, you can look at

the tweets and statements from marco rubio rigight beforore the votes were even counted saying there was going to be fraud and making it clear they did not want this government to be there. obvious that it is they supported this coup. it is very obvious that they where thethe oas united states supplied 60% of the budget. this is a problem. the media treatsts this oaoas as thoughgh it is really an independent arbiter here. and they do have electoral missions and most of the time they are clean, but they are not always. in haiti in 2011, for example, they reversed the results of a first round presidential election without any statistical recount for any reason. it was completely polilitical. in 2000, they reversed their position, the report on the election when the united states,

as you know and you haveve reported on this show, wanted to cut o off all internanational ao haiti and spend four yearars preparing for the coup of 2004. the oas played a major role in ont by changing the report the election in haiti. so i think this is a kind ofof classic military coup supported by the united states. amy: mark weisbrot, you have the cia involvement in the coups in bolivia 1952, 19 64, 1970, 1980. would you add 2019 to that list? >> i would add it to the list. we don't have the hard evidence of what they did stop it is not like 2009 in honduras were hillary clinton wrote in her memoirs that she worked in the oas, too, to prevent the elected presidident, who you had on this

show, from coming back to the country and to the presidency. but i think we will probably find out more later. it is very obvious that they susupported this coup. amy: earlier todayay, evo morals --tetweeted among those who condemn the coup are lula, yes, the brazilian former president, president lula da silva also big news. we just have 30 seconds. but if you, mark, can talk about the significance of his release from prison after a year and a half? he had been the front runner in the election before he ultimately was imprisoned.d. now he is out. what does this mean? >> this is definitely a victory,

but the e thing i worry about mt is they could arrest him at any time for any reason. you have the so-called justice ministers of the country who is the judge who put him in prison and a trial that really a most everyone now knows was lacking in evidence and was really a political trial. a very -- i don't know how else to say -- a fascistic government. he is definitely in danger. there is going to be a need to really defend him. amy: i want to thank you very much for being with us. we will continue to follow these developments. mark weisbrot is co-director of the center for economic and policy research. speaking to us from washington, d.c. the president of bolivia evo morales resigned yesterday saying he was ousted by a military coup. this is democracy now! when we come back, the

first-ever presidential forum on environmental justice. i co-moderated. today we play you are segment with elizabeth warren. ♪ [music break]

amy: this is democracy now!, i'm amy goodman. first-everight, the presidenti f forumn environmental justice wawas held at south carinina state university in orangeburg for some six democratic presidential candidates to work. senators elizabeth warren and cory booker, tom steyer, marianne williamson, john delaney, and joeoe sestak. i co-moderated the event with mustafa ali, former official with the environment protection agency, vice president of the national wildlife federation. we will be airing highlights of the forum in the coming weeks, but today we turn to senator elizabeth warren stop must off ali began the questioning. mustafa: mehdi did communities of color, indigenous populations, are lititerally dyg for a breath of fresh air. we have 100,000 people dying premataturely from air pollution in our country. communities like the manchester community in hououston, texasaso cancer alley running between baton rouge and louisiana and

even here in charleston, south carolinana stop what would you o to address the epidemic that is happening in our commumunity frm air pollution? sen. warren: so, part of this is we need to strengthen the epa. here is a radical notion. how about if we don't have a coal lobbyist head up the epa? you think that is a good starting point? [applause] sen. warren: but it is, as they have tried to roll back -- the trump administration and the epa under his administration have tried to roll back air quality standards. no, we need to go on the other direction. we need to roll forward. we need to be much stronger on this. can i add a second part to that? bring inis i want to the cdc. i want to treat this as the public health emergency that it is. [a[applause]e] sen. warren: y yeah. if people were dying of a mysterious virus, if it were

cutting lives short in well-to-do communities, you better believe that we would be coming in with t the research, e would be highlighting where the problems are, and we would be figuring out how to fix them and to fix them fast. instead, we just watchch over ad over and over how children who live in poor communitities or communitieies of color have higr rates of hospitalization for asthma. why? because what they burnrn in ohi, you breathe in massachusetts and it is hard o on our children. because our children are the most vulnerable and they live next to the places that are the dirtiest, that have the worst air. so i actually want to treat this -- i want to come in aggressively and treat this like the public health emergency that it is. i want the scientists on it and i want to put the real resources behind fixing it. amy: tom steyer said he would

declare a state of climate emergency the first day he was president. would you do the same? sen. warren: we could. here is how i think of this. i want to use the tools available as president. and the way i think of using the tools -- i want to think about -- i love saying this. i what are the things a want to think about president could do all by herself? the way i think of that is part of what i mentioned here. what i want to do is i want toto make a position in the white housuse that is a rmanent ongoing position to address the injustices t that we currently face. on this issue. so for me, what i have committed to do is both to create a position in the white house and in the first 100 days, not just

to do it by myself, but ask the groups on the front lines to be a part of this, come together and start puttining together an action plan. the reason i say that is when we are talking about the question of e environmentalal justice, ,s a highly localized problem. you need national muscle. you need national money. you need a national will to get in there and fix the problem. but you don't need someone at the national level saying, here --the right answer all stop here is the answer. because the answer is different. it is different on tribal land out west than it is in sinking cities near the coast. it is different to be near a dump that smolders and burns than it is to be near a factory that continues to put poisons into the water. and so for each of those, the

way i see this, you make a concrete commitment on finances, you make the concrete commitment in bringing people together, and then you ask the communities to identify what neneeds to be don. and if i can, the third part, we have to look at this holiststically. it is not just about cleaning up the dumps. it is not just about making that factories either filter what they're putting i into the air r water or shuhutting down.. it is also about lifting these duties up because these communities have been damaged generation after generation. it is about investments and housing economic investments, , investments in schools. it is making investments in these communities so we go from these communities that are literally killing people to communities that are actually thriving. that is what i want to see. amy: where do you stand not just

on the dakota access pipeline being built, it has been now and it is erating atat a great capacity -- but now the standing rock sioux are in court saying a proper environmental impact report was not done and the dakota access pipeline should be shut down. do you agree with this? what would you do as president, both on dakota access s pipelin, the keystone xl that president trump greenlighted, and pipelines overall across the country? sen. warren: letet me start by sayingng i think we ought to enforce our environmental laws. and when the appropriate impact statements have not been done, then, yes, we should shut down the operatations. that is what it means to have these laws is that we enforce them. but if i can, i want to add an extra piece e because i i thinks really brings in the question of tribal governance and tribes'

abilities to be the good stewards of theieir land. i have already made a very public commitment to the tribes, both to honor r the tribes themselves make the decision about t what hapappens on tribal land. this is a nation to nationon relationship. this is about our trust and treaty obligations. but i go a step further. thahat abfederal lands ut tribal lands, that as president, i will not approve any drilling, mining, pipelines that abut those lands in the federal lands unless the tribes that are affected give their own informed consent in advance. i believe that they will be the good stewards of the land and i believe they will protect ththe region. amy: are you for the shutting down of the dakota access pipeline? sen. warren: yeah.

mustafa: how wouldld you better protect -- you know, we have this shrinking of our federal lands. they have opened it up t to ming and drilling and all these other types of things. what would you do as president to better protect our federal lands? sen. warren: like i said, this is one the president can do all by h herself. on day one, i will say, no new drilling, no new mining on our federal lands and no offshore drilling. [applause] sen. warren: you just shut it down. that is actually a big impact. because as you know, about a quarter of our lands are federally protected lands. and right now -- this one a middle question, who government works for. so right now the mining companies, the drilling companies that want to make big by basically getting drilling dollars rights and mining rights for pennies onon the dollar and

leaving behind waste not only for local communities to have to deal with, for t the tribes to have to deal with, but destroying pristine land for generations to come. i believe that we have a strong economic -- i will start there -- obligation, but also a strong moral obligation to protect our public lands and makake sure thy remain safe. i have thought the trump administration's efforts to try to undo protection of our federal lands, and i will be a careful protector of those lands. you know, i'll just add on this. i know we talked about the huge ramifications, but for me it is also personal. my husband and i are also hikers. we have hiked many of these

federal lands for decades now. when we were hiking not long ago, we were talking about what it would mean if our grandchildren could not come and see what w we see. ifif our grandchilildren will be denied the opportunity to come out and see some of the greatest beauties on this earth. we have an obligation to future generations. it is not about what they will inherit, it is about what we are borrowing from them. we must meet that obligation. we must meet it because it is right for our country, because it is right for this world, but also because it is morally right. we need to live ouour values. amy: do you think tom perez, the chairman of the democratic nationalal committee, is wrong o say no to a debate specifically on the climate crisisis? sen. warren: yes. [applause] amy: how can you prevail upon

him and the dnc to change thther mind? sen. warren: i have alalready weighed in on this one quite publblicly.. i have asked for a climate debate. obviously, i have not prevailed on that. but i did this many months ago because i think ththis is the urgent issue of our time. i don't have to say it to yoyou, but it is worth repeating every chance we get that climate change threatens every living thing on this planet. and that everything else we talk about depends on our having an earth that we can live in for generations to come. so, i think, as democrats, we should be happy to get together to lift this issue. i'm happy to be here now in this forum to lifted d this issue for

people all around the country and all l around the worldld. the united states is a leader in climate. we are. right now we are just leading in the wrong direction. we need to show that that is not all of america, that is not who we are as americans. that we treasure this land and we treasure e this planet and we are willing to put real reresources behind prorotecting. mustafa: senator warren, we know that front-line communities of color are hit first and worst from climate change, from where -- puerto rico where we lost over 3 3000 lives to princevill, north carolina, founded by freed slaves and have had to deal with these devastating floods. we used to talk about 50-year floods. we are now talking about 100 year floods and 500-year floods, all the way to new

new orleans from what happened with katrina. we asked the previous candidate sitting in this chair, whahat would be your boldest move on climate change? sen. warren: $1 trtrillion. thatat sounds pretty bold. [applause] sen. warren: this is important. this is why i set i think it is important to have specifics. it is really easy for a candidate to say, here is a big climate plan and, oh, yeah, we will think about environmental justice somewhere along the way, get it and say the right things. bubut somehow in the decision-making, it just never happens. i don't want to be that president. i want to be a president who commits in advance. i have a plan to put about $3 trillion into climate room mediation, direct dollars of the

direct federal govovernment. what i w would do is say i commt to take a third of that and say we are going to spend it on environmental justice. we are going to spend it on going to the communities that are hit first, hit hardest, that have been hit the longest generation after generation. as i said, i don't want to dictate from washington what it takes. it may be a seawall in one place, it may be a sandbar in a different one. it may be relocation in some, you hate to say it, but it may be. there are all kinds of differences in how it should happen. that is the respect for the communities and the community groups that have been fighting this for so long. but the role of the federal government is to protect, the role of the federal government is to provide the resources, the role of the federal government is to make sure that as a country, we leave no communities behind. mustafa: let me just follow up real quickly on that.

i appreciate what you are sharing with us, but the reality is that there are some statetes that have not had the best relationship with our most vulnerable communities. so if we have e $1 trillion, $3 trillion on the federal level, how will we ensure at the state level that they do the right things to address the impacts happening in our communities? [applause] sen. w warren: good question. so let me do this both ways. in the federal dollars, they don't have to go to the state. you can make the federal dollars go straight to the communities, so the communities have the ability to say, here is our problem, we qualify for federal funding, so o you don't have a governor or state legislature in between sucking up that money. that comes in buckets and ends up being distributed to communities with an eyedropper. that is part one. but the second part i think is, you are right. we need states to have their own environmental laws.

we should do this at the fededel level, but we need environmental enforcement at the state level and environmental rules that are appropriate to those states. i think the best way we make that happen is when we strengthen the groups on the ground. so think of it as an actioion le this. when you have a federal government, when you have a president who is really committed on environmental issues and you have a lolot of local groups that both have the ability to get to funding, have the ability to make a difference in their communities, that strengthens those groups. that strengthens those communities. and that gives them a lot more muscle to deal with state governments that may otherwise have overlooked them. amy: we will be back with presidential c candidate senator elizabeth warren in 30 s second. ♪ [ [music break]

amy: this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. we continue our coverage of the first-ever presidential forum on environmental justice. it was held on friday night in south carolina. former epa official mustafa alai and i questioned democratic senator elizabeth warren. amy: senator warren, you have said a crurucial distincon between you and bernie sanders that you are capitalist and he is a socialist. many activists say that an economic system based on perpetual growth is fundamentally at odds with a stable, clean, and sustainable environment. how do you reconcile those? sen. warren: the way i see it is

i believe in markets. i think markets bring us a lot of innovation, a lot of creation, and lot of change. that is good. i want to see markets for clean, not just clean energy, but how we are going to clean the carbon out of the air, how we are going to clean the filth out of the water. but understand this. markets without rules are theft. they are theft. it allows -- whenever you get a chance, when you have a market that corporations s get to cheat people, that is theft. that is not a market. that is not how markets are supposed to operate. my efforts for many years now have been about how we get those markets to function so we get the best out of the markets,s,ut that people do not g get cheate. maybe the best example of that

in the in the early 2000's -- i will just give ian example. toasters -- i'm sorry, i i'm not going to startrt with mymy toasr story. mortgages were so dangererous ad so complex that someone who got a mortgage had a one in five chance of losing their home over that mortgage. not through a fire, but for through foreclosure. communities of color were targeted for the worst of the worst mortgage. the government, they were not on the side of the people. they were deep in the pockets of the big banks. in fact, so deep that they let the big banks sell enough of those mortgages to crash the entire economy. so after that crash, i had an idea. and the idea was for a consumer agency that would come in just a like a consumer agency that protects you from buying toasters that would burst into flames, a consumer agency that would protect people who are

buying mortgages and credit cards and student loans and to be on the side of the consumer. people told d me, don't even try to do it. you will never get it passed. the big banks will stop you, the money, the repepublicans -- frankly, a whole b bunch of the democrats. but it was the right thing to do. i got in that fight. a bunch of consumer groups helped out in that fight and we took on wall street, we took on the big money, and president obama signed that agency into law in 2010. it has now -- [applause] sen. warren: yes! here is the thing. it has now forced those financial institutions to return more than $12 billion directly to people who were cheated. now, we know how to make government work for the people. and that means you've got to have rules. i don't want to get rid of those devices. i don't want to get rid of credit cards.

i kind of like my credit card. i just don't want them to be able to cheat me or anyone else. for me, that is what i it's all about. amy: can i follow-up? i want to ask you to respond to two different men. bernie sanders says there should be no billionaires. do you agree with that? sen. warren: no. amy: why not? sen. warren: somebody has a great idea and they follow it through and they work hard and they build something. good for them. but here's my pitch. you build a great fortune in this country, good for you. but you built it at least in using workers -- all of us help pay to educate. you built it at least in part getting your goods to market on roads and bridges all of us help pay to build. you built it at least in part protected by police and firefighters all of us helped pay their salaries for. so here is my view. you make it to the top, to the

tiptop, then the answer is pay a wealth tax so that we can invest and create opportunities for everyone else. that is what my tax x is all about. amy: the second man i want you to respond to his mark zuckerberg, ceo of facebook, who said that a warren presidency would suck for his company. leak that cameidio out. sen. warren: boo hoo. [laughter] amy: which brirings me t to the climate accountability institute, which said the world's wealthiest corporations are most responsible for the climate crisis, which of course impacts s most people of color d poorest communities. more than 70% of global emissions come f from just 100 companies. what do you think should be done to challenge this, change this, what would you do as president? what are you doing a senator? sen. warren: part one is we can regulate it.

three industries -- three industries. we put serious regulations in place as in there can't be any new buildings, any new homes built after 2028 unless a zero carbon emission. 2030, carbon emissions in all zero automobiles and light trucks. by 2035, zero carbon emission in all electric production.n. three industries. we can cut carbon emission inn the united states of america by 70%. three industries. so there is one of your tools. it is regulation. right there. you've got to be willing to come in on the regulation. but let me make another point about this. understand, ththose giant companies you are talking about, they do a lot of terrible things, but they also have a lot of power and they exercise that power. they exercise that power over

their workers. they exercise it over their customers, ovever the communitis where they are located, and over the government in washington. that is corruption, pure and simple. and we need to call it out a and fight back. what i want to do in the first day as president, , the legislation i want to push through his anticorruption legislation. i want to get in there and fight the oil companies, the big polluters, bececause here is the deal. anybody who comes up here and tells you about their climate plans who does not have an anticorruption plan, who does not have a plan to beat back the inflfluence of m money in washin is not serious. oh, we will end up with a plan that has some great name like clean up the entire world and it is now full of unicorns and butterflies, but what it will really do is continue to carve out enough exceptions that the

profits keep flowing to the same people who are getting those profits right now. so i out there to fight this am corruption. that h has to be step number on, is to go after them. amy: should corporate executives who pollute go to jail? sen. warren: if they do harm to people, they need to be held responsible. and i actually have a bill already on this. you should not be able to walk away from the injuries you create. no one should be able to do that in the united states. we have got a problem right now inin this country,y, and the prm we've got is too much power is concentrated in the hands of the wealthy and the well-connected. and they are using it every single day. to keep washington exactly where they want it. you know, it is not only what donald trump has done and the environmental protection agency, it it is decades of this. people talk about a washington

that doesn't work. washington works great if you are rich! [laughter] washington works great if you run a giant corporation. understand, when t this administration wanted to get something done, tax cuts for their big donors, you know how long it took them? five weeks. they went behind closed doors with their big donors and lobbyists, scribbled out the bill, and passed it and $1.5 trillion went out the door, mostly to giant corporations and rich people. they know how to get something done. when nothing is getting done on climate, when nothing is getting done on gun safety, when nothing is getting done on the cost of prescription drugs, ask yourself who benefits from that. right? it is the gun industry, it is the polluters, it is the drilling industry, it isis the pharmaceutical industry.

they are getting the washington they want. what 2020 is all about is it is time for us to get the washington that works for the people, not the one that works for the big corporations.. [applause] mustafa: we are going to go to a question from one of our students. if vladimir could come forward and pose your question to senator warren. >> how are you? sen. warren: i am good. >> my question for you is how can you ensure that no community will be left behind and it comes to the fight of environmental injustice? i am a junior agribusiness major as well as a member of the sdsu football team. sen. warren: what position do you play? >> fullback and titan. sen. warren: that is a good question. i think the way you do that is we make specific commitments.

we cannot make and bar metal just as an afterthought. it has to be a part of our climate plan design from the beginning. so partly, this is why i talk about a commitment, a financial commitment, that goes to thehe front line and fence line communities. partly it is why i talk about the commitment to our native american tribes and their dominion over not just their tribal lands, but the lands that are adjacent to them. because that is what it takes to protect our earth. partly it is about attacking the health aspects, coming at this from a different perspective so that we start to look at this as a public health problem and we lift that up. i think in each case, the more attention we can bring in the more directions, that is how we make sure that the communities that have been hardest hit are not left behind.

this is why as president i want to make this part of what i do in the white house. i don't want it to be something people just come -- and i should add to that, i want to make it a part of what every agency does. i want our agencies, i want our banking regulators, to be thinking about clilimate risk. think about that. i want them to be thinking about that. i want our department of labor to be thinking about what it means. the trump administration has rolled back protections for people who work in dangerous areas, what they breathe, what kind of chemicals they are exposed to. i want each and every one of our departments to have someone at the top, near the top, who is thinking about the environmental impact of what happens, what that agency approves of, what that agency is responsible for, and what it means in the

communities that are most affected. we need a lot of change, big change, but i believe we can do this together. this is one of these that is about leadership at the top and it is about powerful communities at the grassroots all across ththis countryry. that is hohow we make chanange. >> many of our most vulnerable communities are being gentrified. they are being gentrified from the impact of climate change, gentrified by the guise of revitalization. what would you do about this displacement that is continuing to happen? sen. warren: i will start on housing because this is the biggest area. we have got a housing crisis in this country. gentrification is certainly a part of it, but think ababout it in the larger context. two generations ago, where was the source of new housing for working families, for the working poor, for the poor poor? where wawas it? you had two places.

one was private developers. they are not there anymore. they're not building housing anymore, thehey are building mcmansions. i'm not mad, that is where the profits are, but they left the area.. i grew up in a two bedroom, one bathroom little house on the last street in norman, oklahoma. the garage was converted into a bedroom for r my three brothers. nobody is building t that house anymore. they are are not private developers. the second part is the federal government that used to pump money intoto housing and has really largely backed out of that. so i have a plan for that. and thatat is to build about 3.2 millllion new housusing units as america. we need more housing in america. and this is housing for working families and housing for the working poor, housing for the poor poor, it is housing for the homeless, it is housing for seniors who want to be able to age in place, it is housing for people with disabilities who

need specially outfitted housing. it is housing for people who are returning from prison and who need a place to be able to live. we need to build more housing in this country. and independent analysis shows that my plan would reduce rents across the nation by about 10%. what they do i is they let peope -- we have to get these down into the communities. they let people stay in the communities. they let people have new housing in those communities, housing that they can afford and be part of. and then one other little part. when you are talking about housing, it is the role housing plays in wealth. the number-one savings plan in house for by middle-class families. the number-one r retirement pla, live in your house and try to pay it off and then live off your social security when you retire. it is the number-one-way wealth is transmitted from one generation to the next.

if grandma and grandpa can hold onto the house until they pass, there is something there for the kids and grandkids and great grandkids. so it should be no surprise to you that for generations, the federal government subsidized the purchase of housing for white people and discriminated against the purchase of housing for black people. it is called redlining. and it created the black-white wealth gap that continues to this day because of the generational effects as well as what is happening in these communities. so my housing plan is not only about 3.2 million new housing units across this country, in little communities and big cities across america, but it also says we have to stop and recognize the racial dimenension of what happened here. i have first-time homebuyer assistance for people who live in formerly redlined communities and people who were targeted during the financial crash and lost their homes, so

wewe give people a chance to get back on level foing. we can't t keep passing these ls that are racially neutral on their face -- we say, same housing for everybody. we have got to acknowledge the past wrongs that are still felt today, the past official discrimination of the united states government that is still felt today, and we have got to take steps towards making that right. that is what my housing plan is for. 30 secondsr warren, left. speaking about racial injustice, do you think the order of the primary states should change? you have iowa and new hampshire -- sen. warren: before you finish, are you asking me to criticize iowa and new hampshire? amy: no, i'm asking about the order. are two of the whitest states in the country. then we moved to south carolina,

where a very significant population of people of color. and it means the candidates spend so much of their time catering to those first two states. overall, do you think that you change? sen. warren: i am just a player in the game on this one, and i am delighted to be in south carolina. thank you. thank you, so much. amy: thank you so much. 2020 presidential candidate senator elizabeth warren speaking at the first-ever presidential forumum on environmental justice f friday ninight. i co-moderated the forum withh former epa official mustafa ali. it was hosted by the nbc fl, the national black caucus of state legislators. it took plplace at south caroloa state ununiversity in orangebur, site of the 1960 eight orangeburg massacre. senator cory booker, tom speier, john delaney, joseph sestak

altered visit democracynow.org to see the full event. share it with your friends on facebook, twitter, instagram. special thanks to -- democracy now! is looking for feedback from people who appreciate the closed captioning. e-mail your comments to outreach@democracynow.org or

hello, a v very warm welcom to nhk "newsline." we begin in hong kong where people are bracing after what may come next after an escalation of violence on monday. one protester was shot by police and one man was set on fire. the territory's leader say protesters' actio