11/12/19 11/12/19 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] amy: from new york, this is democracy now! >> built this country with the same happiness that we built it when we govern this country. my dream isn't to solve my problems. today i'm a guy that doesn't have a job, president without a pension, even a television in my apartment. my life is totally blocked. the only thihing i am certain of is that i have more courage to fight then ever before.

amy: after 19 months behind bars, former brazilian president luiz inacio lula da silva is released from prison and is vowing to challenge brazil's far-right leader jair bolsonaro. we will speak to petra costa, director of the new documentary "the edge of democracy." then we go to california to speak with san francisco's newly elected district attorney chesa boudin. he won despite the police officers association spending $650,000 on ads attacking him. >> being a progressive prosecutor is s not just aut decarcereration, reducing racial disparities, a and so on. it iss also abouout making suree arare using the e tremendous por and discrcretion of the district attorney's office to enfororce e laws equally. that means prosecuting corporate landlords when they commit fraud, prosecuting police when they commit murder or perjury prosecuting operations when they dump toxic waste into our communities.

amy: and then to seattle where socialist city council members were able to be back to flip the city council. we will speak to seattle socialist city councilmember kshama sawant. has won!vement and defended our socialist city council seat for working people against the ririchest man in the world. amy: all that and more, coming up. welcome to democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. longtime bolivian president abel afters has departed stepping down and what he calls a military coup. late monday, morales departed

laplace on the mexican government plane. he has been granted asylum in mexico. he announced his resignation shortly after the bolivian military took to the airwaves to call for his departure. last month h he was reelected fr fourth term in a race his opponents claimed was marred by fraud. morales' departure has sparked outrage and protest across latin america with many saying he was the victim of a military coup. iss is in argentina -- this daniel in argentina. >> all social indicators and bolivia. it bothered the privilege sectors that hydrocarbons have been nationalized, basic income has been increased for the entire population. despite all of this, together with the armed forces, are carrying out this outrage. this barbarity. it has to do with the coup. and policies we thought have been eradicated from the region. and that is wider so important that popular movements throughout latin america come out.

amy: evo morales was thehe first indigenous president of bolivia. burning indigenous flags. marlis's departure can a week after they canceled a massive multinational lithium mining project slated for bolivia's southern highlands. to see our coverage of the political rights is in bolivia, go to democracynow.org. in immigration news, the supreme court will begin to hear oral arguments today on three lawsuits demanding the trump administration preserve deferred action for childhood arrivals, daca, the obama-era program that grants protection from deportation and a work permit to at least 700,000 undocumented people brought to the united states as children. this is 31-year-old daca recipient t maricruz abarca. >> if the supreme court does not basically,,of daca,

it is going toto be for me personally, it is just going to be an end. i'm just going t to go back in e mydows and n not continue ededucation, pursuing my dreamso become a criminal lawyer. the future of thousands of dreamers -- not only dreamers,s, areamerican u.s. citizens, basically in their hands. we are just right there in limbo, not knowing what is going to happen with our lives. amy: on capitol hill, televised impeachment hearings are slated to begin wednesday in the inquiry into whether president trump withheld military aid from ukraine to pressure the ukrainian president to investigate trump's political rival joe biden and his son. it is only the third time in u.s. history there have been televised impeachment hearings. on wednesday, the first two

witnesses to testify will be george kent, a deputy assistant secretary of state, and bill taylor, a former ambassador and the top u.s. diplomat in ukraine. former massachusetts governor deval patrick may jump into the 2020 presidential race. "the new york times" reports the two-term governor has spoken to democratic presidential candidate joe biden and democratic officials and is considering announcing his plans to run later this week. he is managing director the private equity firm bain capital, which was cofounded by republican utah senator mitt romney. here in new york, longtime repupublican congressman peter king has announced his retirement. king is the e 14-term represenentative from long isla. progressive lawmakers celebrated his announcement that he would not seek election in 2020. among them, minnesota congresswoman ilhan omar, who tweeted -- "peter king is an islamophobe who held mccarthyite hearings targeting american muslims, said

'there are too many mosques in this country' and blamed eric garner for his own death at the hands of police. good riddance," congresswoman ilhan omar tweeted. in los angeles, donald trump, jr. was heckckled offstage durig a book talk by his own supporters who erupted in protest after he announced he would not be taking questions. president trump's son was atat e university of california's los angeles campus on sunday to promote his book "triggered: how the left thrives on hate and wants to silence us." but it turned out to be his own right-wing fans who ended up silencing and driving the author offstage with hostile chants of q&a" after trump jr. said there would not be enough time for audience questions. the environmental protection agency plans to restrict the scientific research that the federal government uses to write

new public health regulations according to "the new york times." "the times" obtained a draft of the new epa proposals where the agency stipulates that scientists would have to disclose their raw data, including confidential medical records, in order for the epa to even consider an academic study's conclusions. scientists say t these measurers would makeke it more dififficulo issue new clean air and water rules. the israeli military b bombed te home of a senior member of the palestinian group islamic jihad before dawn in gaza today, killing the commander bahaa abu el-atta and his wife asmaa, and injuring their children. followininthe targeteted assassination, over 50 rockets were fired f from gaza intnto israel, injuring at least one civilian. the european union has condemned the rocket attacks, saying "the firing of rockets on civilian populationons is totally unacceptable and must immediately stop." the afghan government and the

taliban have agreed on a prisoner exchange, which afghan president ashraf ghani says aims to facilitate direct peace negotiations. the swap will free american professor kevin king and australian professor timothy weeks. both had been professors at the american university of afghanistan before being kidnapped in kabul in 2016. in exchange, the afghan government will free three senior taliban members -- anas haqqani, hafiz rashid, and hajji mali khan. the chilean government has agreed to rewrite its constitution in order to replace the one that was written during chilean dictator augusto pinochet's brutal military regime. the rewriting of the constitution has been one of the key demands of the massive demonstrations that have rocked chile in recent weeks. the chilean authorities have killed at least 19 people and wounded thousands more since the

protests erupted on october 19 in response to a subway fare hike and quickly grew into a revolt against austerity and economic inequality. over 260 people were arrested in hong kong amid escalating monday clashes between pro-democracy student protesters and police. some schools and universities across hong kong are closed today as demonstrations continue across the territory. over 3000 people have been arrested since the protests broke out in june. in arizona, activist scott warren of the group no more deathshs is heading back to cout for a second trial today for providing water, food, clean clothes and beds to two undocumented migrants crossing the sonoran desert in southern arizona. warren has been indicted on felony conspiring to harbor. if convicted, he could spend up to 10 years in prison. a jury deadlocked after his first trial five months ago.

in august, democracy now! accompanied scott warren into the sonoran desert of arizona as he accompanied other activists dropping food and water for migrants attempting the deadly crossing. this is scott warren. >> there's the direct impact on people who have died, people who have suffered out here, people who have been disappeared. and then the ripple effects of their families. the trauma that creates. thisraumatic experience of is another way that it can feel like a conflict or like a war zone. i don't like the words on rhetoric that you typically hear -- were zone roderick that politicians typically here because it is used to increase militarization, building walls, but it is appropriate when we think about the trauma that people have faced as they cross to these areas and the trauma their families experience and the pain. amy: former president jimmy carter is scheduled to undergo an operation today to really

pressure on his brain. the 95-year-old was hospitalized monday evevening at emory university hospital in atlanta, georgia. the carter center said the procedure is needed to -- due to bleeding due to his recent falls. he suffered a minor pellet fracture from a fall last month broke his hip in a separate fall,, got stitches in his head as well. until just a few weeks ago, he was continuing to build homes for his project habitat for humanity. and in texas, the father of atatiana jefferson has died, less than one month after a police officer killed his 28-year-old daughter by shooting through the bedroom window of her own home in a case that sparked national protests over the treatment of african american women at the hands of police. on saturday, atatiana's father marquis jefferson died after suffering a heart attack.

the family spokesperson said, "i can only sum it up as a broken heart." atatiana was his only child. she was killed exactly one month ago on october 12 by white police officer aaron dean, who was responding to a non-emergency wellness check called for by a neighbor who noticed atatiana had left her front door open. dean has been charged with murder. and those are some of the headlines. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. juan: and i'm juan gonzalez. welcome to all of our listeners and viewers from around the country and around the world. we begin today's show in brazil, where former president luiz ignacio lula da silva was freed from prison friday after 580 days behind bars. lula's surprise release came after the brazilian supreme court ruled to end the mandatory imprisonment of people convicted of crimes who are appealing their cases. lula has vowed to challenge brazil's right-wing president jair bolsonaro in the 2022 elections.

during a rally on friday soon after his release, lula warned about bolsonaro's ties to violent militias. >> with democratically elected.. we accept the results of the election. this guy has a mandate for four years. he was elected to govern the brazilian people and not to govern the militia of rio de janeiro. i want to build this country with the same happiness that we built it when we governed this country. my dream isn't to solve my problems. today i am a guy that doesn't have a job, a president without a pension, not even a television in my apartment. my life is totally blocked. the only thing i'm certain of is that i have more courage to fight than ever before. amy: lula was serving a 12-year sentence over a disputed corruption and money laundering conviction handed down by conservative judge sergio moro, an ally of current far-right brazilian president jair bolsonaro.

after that, he b became the justice minister. lula has long maintained his innocence. earlier this year, the intercept revealed moro aided prosecutors in their sweeping corruption investigation, known as operation car wash, in an attempt to prevent lula from running in the 2018 election. this cleared the path for bolsonaro's victory. at the time of his imprisonment in april 2018, lula was leading the presidential polls. well, for more, we are joined by the brazilian filmmaker petra costa. her new documentary "the edge of democracy" chronicles the imprisonment of lula and the impeachment of former president demo rousseff, and the story of the dictatorship and the democracy about the same age as our guest, the brazilian filmmaker petra costa. welcome back to democracy now! before saw you right lula was releleased. it was a total shock.

can you respond? was very moved but also worried because the abuse has been so consistent over the last five years that it is hard to know how long this decision will last. it is a very necessary decision that goes back to our constitution in 1988 which says anyone has the right to exhaust their appeals before they are imprisoned. that was revised in 2016 due to large pressures of operation car wash, the corruption .nvestigation led by judge moro and now the supreme court, i believe influenced by the revelations of the leak that happened earlier this year which showed how politicized the operation possibly was, decided to come back to the constitution and grant lula his constitutional right as well as other brazilians. juan: i was going to ask precisely that. given the revelations that have come out about the tainted nature of his actual conviction, that this possibly could have

been the easier way for the supreme court to go than to actually overturn his original conviction and call the entire current government into question because sergio moro is now the justice minister, right? >> yes. we are waiting for another ruling that the supreme court should do soon, which will decide whether the trial and the judge were actually impartial or not. that he wasecided not impartial, then all the process goes -- falls, which means lula could even run for president in 2022. basically, what the leak showed was that there's a possibility the judge was coordinating every action of the prosecutors influencing -- influencing jujut before the election whether lula could be a candidate or not. lula was not allowed to be a candidate. if it was done differently, it

was possibly he would be president at this moment. amy: explain who moro was in the trial and who he is today. overseeing t the judge the car wash. today he is justice minister of bolsonaro. it is called super justice minister. amy: was that seen as a reward by bolsonaro to moro for imprisoning his opponent?t? it lulula, course, the polls showed he was far ahead in the race for president in 2018. >> many see it as a reward. juan: are there any other people in jail who would also be released as result of this ruling? >> yes. juan: some of them, who are -- >> about 200 -- from carwash and also people have committed petty crimes and brazil has the third largest incarcerated population in the world.

it is a huge crisis similar to the united states. urgent judiciary reform and prison reform that will make the judiciary system more efficient. i think the mistake that many people fall into is thinking that constitutional rights can be abused? more efficient system. -- to have a more efficient system. the danger with that, today lula's constitutional rights can be a abused totomorrow, mine tomorrowow, yours. where do we stand as a democracy? amy: i want to go to a clip of your film "the edge of democracy." this is the former president da silva giving his farewell speech to the people on his wayay to prison in 2018. >>hey ordered my aesest. it is no use trying s stop fr traveveng arounthis

country because there ar dilmama of lulas, rousseffs to do it for me. there's no usen n tryi to o st mymy ideas. they are already in the r r and yoyou c't prisononhem. there is no poin in trying to opop my dreams.

y: that is lula rht befor he went to jl. petra sta, what is azing abt your film is that you ar righthere with him. before he the moments turned himself in. you did not know what he wanted -- maybe more significantly, he did not know what he was going to do. >> exactly. his prison was declared and he immediately said he was going to go to the syndicate, the started his he political career in the 1980's. i went with my camera not knowing i would be able to get in. slowly, i managed to get access. we were there for three days kind of hostage inside that workers union. he had no idea. until the last moment, he did not know until he decided to give himself in. and when he declared that decision, the crowd surrounded

the union and started to try to prevent him from giving himself in, holding the doors and the gates, not allowing for the police to enter or for lula to leave. it was one of the most dramatic things i've ever seen. amy: why did he decide to turn himself in? >> he believed it was necessary thehim to abide by constitution, abide by the rule -- to, to expose -- expose whether he was having a fair trial or not. amy: let's go to the clip that conveys this moment. we're going to try to go to that clip that conveys that incredibly powerful moment where -- where was he, by the way? >> the workers union where he started his career in the interior of sao pauolo.

we're going to see we had that clip. >> for the climax of carwash, momore tauththore the e lice to detain lula and force him to testify, even of t f forme president had nevereresist quesoning. suspecting lula s s invoed i in the e rruption scheme, inveigigatorlookok f evidence an apartme a allegly given to him by aononstruionn company created t the carwash -- implicated i the car wash scdadal. alththou thereres no formal activation, he is taken byororce fromom t police, creeds dd presessi off gltlt. amy: that wasn't the moment that he was deciding whether to go to jail. but explain what it was, petra costa. >> this is really 2016 when judge moro declared that lula should be taken in in forced coercion, which is basically

meant taking him to enforce interrogation, which many said at the time was unconstitutional because lula had volunteered to speak. many did not know at the time if he would be imprison or not immediately after this interrogation. it was dull take two years for him to be imprison. juan: tell us a little bit about how you got started with this film, why you decided to make it. you're relatively young for the leaders of this movement, covering this movement. how did you get involved? >> i grew up believing d democry was my birthright, guaranteed from a lifetime of my parents struggle. my parents bought against the military dictatorship and dedicated their lives to establish democracy in brazil. when i was born, more or less the same time as brazilian democracy. as i was going out, i kind of took it for granted. i thought it was a given until in 2016 it started to become clear to me that that was not

the case. for many reasons. one of them was the first time i took the camera was to film a protest asking for dilma's impeachment. i failed the streets of rio with thousands of people asking for dilma's impeachment, but some asking for the return of the military. the military that had killed hundrereds and tortured thousans in brazil. i never thought i would see people asking for the return of that regime. -- i was clear to me wanted to understand where it was coming from and where it was heading. that is when i embarked on this journey that took 1001 days. amy: let's turn to the trailer of your film "the edge of decrcracy. >> resilient democra a and ire almost the same age. wouldght in our 30's, we bothe e stanng o on lid ound..

i was 19 9 when la got elected. i rememb the excement. huge step in rr democric path. layer.brazil rises as major pictures of dilma rousff w who bebecos our r rst female president. it ft like a change. but something in ourococial fafabr started to change the country divivided intowowo

parts. apart.ed us thpartieiecaught in a corrupti s scandal, ththe grtest investigation in history. one president impeached, , anotr impron.. our dedecracy has crumbled. i fear our democracy was nothing but a short-lived dream. juan: i wanted to ask you in

situationhe current wewe are seeining in bolivia, sg the continued conflicts in venezuela -- i guess one of the hallmarks of lula's approach to socialal leadership is he served his terms and left office and passed it on to a successor, where is in bolivia, morales has attended to stay for a fourth term and in venezuela with chavez as well seeking to overturn term limits. this whole issue of succession in a movement and passing the baton on to other leaders. i'm wondering your sense of lula's impact by making a decision? >> i think it was a sense of -- he deserves a lot of respect for his decision. were veryilma as well republican in the sense of the word that they respected the

institutions in brazil and the equilibrium of the three powers. it should be seen as an example for other countries. in the moment where that is becoming less and less. i think we're seeing an abuse of the institutions and an abuse of the constitution where some are, like, putting it on the ground to stay in power for longer and to destroy their enemies. that is happening in the united states as well as many places around the world. amy: and since we last saw you as you presented your film that is now on netflix in new york, now yet another in fact several environmental activisists, indigenousus leaders in the aman have been murdered. talk about the connection between that, the far-rightht president jair bolsonaro, and lula's imprisonment and what it can mean now that he is free. >> that is very serious.

the indigenous leader was assassinated and many killings have been happening in brazil by the police and by militias and in the amazon by loggers and miners. it is part of i believe in advanced of the savage unreregulated capitalism that is seeking profit for all costs. what we need international attention is essential in this case in brazil. it helped a few months ago with a question of the amazon, which had a 90% increase in deforestation compared to the previous year. and who is paying the check for the impeachment -- who is actually gaining from the impeachment that happened in brazil and lula's imprisonment? there are big corporations that are taking huge profit out of this. juan: could you talk a little bit about the change between the

dilma -- between lula and dilma eras and bolsonaro in terms of the day-to-day lives of working people, o of the racicial minorities, and of women in brazil? >> did economic crisis started with dilma rousseff. there was a huge stagnation and crisis and augmentation of an but itent then, continues to rise. there are now 13 million brazilians under the poverty line. in the question ofof women, it s far worse. since the election, there has been a huge spike in violence and from a side and killings of people by the police. that is the most absurd. there has been a 20% increase in killingsgs in rio. rio de janeiro has more people killed by the police and the entire united states. five people are killed per day

and that has been incentivized a the government, which says police that is only a real police if they kill. that is kind of a stately genocide that is happening -- state letter genocide that is happening in brazil at the moment. amy: let me ask about the brazilian president jair bolsonaro lashing out at brazil's largest media company globo after he broadcast a report allegining a link b betwn bolsonaro and the two men accused of murdering the rio de janeiro councilmember franco in march of l last year. globo quoted a doorman that said one of the murder suspects, the arrivedgetaway driver, at bolsanaro's gated community on the night of the murder and was granted access after callllg bobolsonaro's residence. he then drove to the home o of e second suspect in the murder, the alleged trigger man, who has a residence in the same area.

against globo, he did when he was in saudi arabia in this meeting they had with salman,o, mohammed bin jared kushner, and others, what desert.ed davos in the he just t railed for many many minutes on television. talk about what this means about the murder, the significance of marielle franco. marielle was assassinated last year. there are still investigations into who killed her. yes, globo did that report and bolsonaro railed at them, but there have been consistent attacks to the media that have happeneded in the last months. it is very serious and puts real questions into what will happen to brazilian democracy. been indications

that there i is a desire to reinstate the institutional act number five, which is the act that detetermined the closing of the congress in brazil and repression of any assembly. brazilians -- i am extremely fearful of what will happen in brazil. we have to be very attentive. there is a recent remark by bannon saying lula is the biggest threat to the populist right movement and that he is the biggest leader of the movement. amy: steve bannon. >> yes, a steve bannon. that lula is the biggest leader of the leftist globalist movement. i think the world has to pay attention to what will happen to lula in the next month's because his constitutional rights and are ofht to a fair trial international interest at this moment. amy: petra costa, congratulations on this deeply moving personal and political film. the film "the edge of democracy"

out on netflix. petra costa a filmmaker and actor. when we come back, we go to california to speak with san francisco's district attorney-e-elect chesa boudin, o won despite the police officers association -- worse, say because of them -- spending over $650,000 on ads against him. stay with us. ♪ [music break]

amy: caetano veloso performing "brazil" at columbia university last month. he was o on a panel talking abot the edge of democracy, the new netflix film. this is democracy now!, i'm amy goodman with juan gonzalez. juan: in a stunning victory, public defender chesa boudin has been declared the winner of a hotly contested district attorney's race in san francisco. boudin is the child of weather underground activists kathy boudin and david gilbert, who were both incarcerated when he was still a toddler. he learned the news that he'd won the race by a razor-thin

margin while he was on a plane flying back from visiting his father, who remains in prison in upstate new york. as of the latest numbers, boudin had 36% of the vote. his opponent suzy loftus had 31. boudin ran on a platform to end cash bail and dismantle the war on drugs. he was endorsed by democratic presidential candidate senator bernie sanders. his win sends a pointed message to the democratic establishment, which had mobilized in full force against his campaign. san francisco mayor london breed, california governor gavin newsom, and senators dianne feinstein and kamala harris all endorsed boudin's opponent suzy loftus. the mayor even named loftus interim district attorney just weeks before the election in a move condemned by the aclu as an unfair tilting of the scales. the police officers association had also spent up to $650,000 on ads attacking boudin. despite this, after four days of

valid counting, he was declared the winner. amy: chesa boudin is the newest addition to a growing number of public defendeders around the country who have vowed to use the district attorney seat to end "tough on crime" tactics and restore civil rights, including district attorneys rachael rollins of boston and larry krasner of philadelphia. krasner tweeted -- "americans are more humane and compassionate than institutions created and controlled by the powerful few. our movement for a truly just system that supports the well-being of all communities has a new technician in chesa boudin." well, chesa boudin joins us now from san francisco, california. welcome back to democracy now! so how does it feel to have won, and a a about when you learned u had actually wonon? >> thank you. it i is great to bee back. of course, i am humbled by the support we received, by the outcome of the election, and by the confidence that the voters of san francisco have put in me

and my vision for making the city a safer, more humane plplae for all of its resididents. i was on the middle seat of a coach class ticket on n my way back from ththe east coast aftea couple of days of visiting my father at the maximum-security prison where he has lived for the last 38 years. we had internet on the plane. we checked the department of elections website. we saw t the news. we saw it was a margin of victory that was insurmountable given the outstanding balance left too count. i wawas with my fiance. we did our best to celebrate on the plane in the crampmped quarters that we found ourselves in. then we began preparing for what comes next. in m many ways, the real work ls ahead of us. we have been given a tremendous amount of responsibility. with t that, comes hard work and focus of proving voteters right and fulfilling the promises that we made throughout the campaign. amy: so you're celebrating by getting married on friday?

> i am getting married this week. i will be out t of the country r a couple of weeks. i will put in place a transition team.. we will do a lot o o listenining and d planning. it is imperative when i take office we have really detatailed plans and a a team in place to execute those plans, to make sure the structures and thee staff at t the district attorn's office are ready to implement the policy vision that t the votersrs elected me to put in place. that will take time. we don't want to make mistakes. we want to move carefully and judiciouously. we a are going to be working had over t the next couple of months to putut in place the transition plan, , to listen to lawaw enenforcement leaders, community leadaders, merchants, to go arod the city and sit down with every stakeholder we can and make sure their voice is being heard as we go about transforming san francisco's approach to criminal justice. juan: could you talk a little bit about that county process in ofr election and the impact

the campaign against you by the police officers association? san francisco has ranked choice voting, doesn't it? there was an issue there of how the votes went through each cycle of the county? >> there were four candidates in the race and every voter had the choice or the option to put as many as fourur choices in orderr posed that many voters only put their fifirst c choice and somet all four and some put less. i was a candidate who had the most firstst choice votes. i was also the candidate who ended up with more than 50% of the votes a after the ring choie analysis -- which basically works as follows. the candidate who gets the least nuerer first chohoice votes is eliminated and all of their balance of which are put a sesecond choice e get redistrib. no one -- if no one has a percent, the next leasast vote getting candidate is s eliminat. the ballots that hahave a third choice or in some cases a second

choice, are redistributed to the remaining two candidates. that happen in this racace and t totook several d days of countio get through enough ballots before i passed the 50% threshold. part of that is because in san francisco, a significant journey of voters vote by mail. ballllots can be postmarked as late as elelection day. so many of the votes that wewere necessary y to be c counted didt even arrive at thehe departmentf elections until a cocouple of ds after the election itself. that process tooook a few days. we were watctching the returns every day eagerlyly. we saw the trends and relies a couple of days a ahead of the final o outcome that wewe were y likelyly to win. we understood d the dynanamics d the race and the neighborhoods we needed to have a s strong performance e in. i hahave to sasay, it was s a tremendous testament to people power to her of positive campaign. we madade the choice not to do negative attacks even in the face of the onslaught of didishonest attacacks from the

police officers associciation. i i think that strategegy in combination with the real grassroots organizing led by local groups like san f fncisco rising,, like the hard-working members of seiu 10 to one and the united educators of san francisco and the national union of health h care wororkers -- af the groups, community groroups d unionsns that stepped up to support this people powered campaign, that really made the difference in terms of the outcome. juan: it is safe to say that as ranked choice voting moves into major cities, as it is increasingly doing across the country, that we should all expect our elections to take several days, if not weeks, to declare the winners. no more election night declaration of winners with ranked choice voting, right? >> it does dedepend on the dynamics.. thisis was a pararticularly cloe race for first time political candidates running for the same scene. and also remember that a big part of it is san francisco's use of vote by mail.

i think if we were aa jurisdsdiction where most voters voted on election day, it would prprably be a a bit faster to process the vovotes. but certainly, we e have a c cle race and ranked choice analysis has to be conducted, it can take a few days for sure. abouthesa boudin, talk this almost unprecedented police , 650,000tack on you dollars in attack ads, yet you still win. it might not have been despite that, it might be that infuriated many people and it might have turned them in a close race to support you. how do you now deal with the police and also the many communities of san francisco? >> that's right,,. ththe onslauaught of attacks all came in about a 10 day period. the police union spent in that 10 days of attacks pretty much

the same amount as my campaign spent over the entire year. impactful tremendously last-minute onslaught. if you a are right itt is hard o say what the impact was. certainly, there were many, many voters who rejected the a attac. i think it speaks to the ways in whicicthe leaderership of f the police uninion is rereally discsconnected on the values of san francisco voters. the attacks backfired both because ththey were dishonest ad racist, , but also because votes simply did not want ththat kindf interference orr tone in local politics. it is hard to sayy specifically whether i one more or less votes because of the attacks, but what is clear is rejected -- vovoters rejected the attacks and salt through them. going forward, , get to b be mil of the fact that the policice union leadership has s been on e wrwrong side o of so m many issd soso many races for years and sn francisco politics. there isis a real disconnect, ai

said. but my job isnsn't to hold gruds , isn't to attack back, but rather to roll u up my sleeves, sit down at the table with everyone wasas willing to talk, andd be willing to listen n to m so we can rebuild the trust between our communitieses and te law enforcement ththat is suppod to serve and protect t those communities.s. if you look at the protests, look in the eyes of the parents of those who h have been killedy police violence in s san frfrancisco, it is clear that we have a tremendous amount of work to do to rebuild that trust. i am committed to doing it with everybody at the table. juan: i am wondering, did you get the congratulatory phone calls from the political leaders of the state? gavin newsom, the two u.s. senators come e all of whom originally are from the san francisco area, aren't they? >> they are. i did get a number of phone calls. i was on an airplanane when the newsws broke, so i landed and hd a very warm voicemail from both the maryland and breed as well

as arrival candidate and interem district attorney suzy loftus. i have then since heard from a large number of local leaderss come thehihief of polilice, the city attorney, and many others, including people who arere on te others of this campaign. i have not heard from the u.s. senators or the governor yet. amy: if you could lay out for us ?hat your plans are right now what you think are the most serious issues that you want to take out that you ran o on that this s newes you with breed of district attorney's around the country. electioion is aisis bellwether for what is to come in 2020. i am tremendously hopeful that in plalaces like new orlrleans d honolulu and arizona and ohio and d even right here in l los angeles and southern california, we are going to see more p peope running on progressive reform platforms win.

i think it i is a testament to e broad recocognition that the toh on crime policies of the 1990's andd 2000's are notot working ad voters are rejecting them across the board. some of the specific p policieso your question include ending money y belt. thatat i is a fight i have beenn involved in in the court going on five years now throuough litigation. i am excited on day one to be able to put in place a policy thatat prohibits my staff f from ever putting a price tag on freedom. and the e problemm with -- the proboblem w with moneney bail it whenen someone gets arrested unr the manyny bell system, they can buy their way out immediately if they have resources. that is withouout regarard to tr ririsk or to their c community . someone who is really dangerous but has access to wealth h can e out of jail and back on n the streets within a matter of hours, while another person charged with the less seriouss crime with weaker evidence

against t them and strononger ts to the community would languish behind bars simply because of their poverty. it is a syststem that actually undermines the integegrity of te entire criminal justice system. when i''m didistrict attorney, we're going to use risk rather than wealth to determimine who s incarcerated pretrial. that is one of the policics i think on day one will make a tremendous difference in restoring trust and integrity to the criminal justice system. amy: very quickly, the influence of your four parents, two sets of parents, all were whether other ground. you have your parents raised you bernadadine dorn and bill ayers, and your parents were behind , your mom outes now but your father and for life. the influence of growing up yourself in a sense behind bars or at least going back and forth to visitit your mothther and fa? >> i spent thousands of dayays f my life e in prison visititing s and inside prisons. the weather underground and that

history was always before i was born. i remember the way that many people of my generation do, through the history books, primarily. what i do remember is going through steel gates and being searched by prison guards and waiting in line at metal detectors just to see my parents, just to give them a hug. one of the things i learned as i began studying thehese issues is that i am not alone. there are millilions of america, millllions of children, who have grown up in this c country who d to visit theheir parents behinid bars. it turnsns out the majority of americicans haveve an immediate family member who is eieither cucurrently y or formerly incarcerated. while it iss t true in my circls atat yell and oxford as a rhodes scholar, my experirience of havg parents incarcerated may be an outlier, i a afirmly in n the majority off americans in sharig that experience. i think it is a critical perspective to bring to the difficult job of deciding who to send a prison and for how long.. i intend to lead the office of district attorneys with compassion for everyone'e's life

is touched by the terminal justice system whether they are children of incarcerated parents, whether theyy are victims or family members of crime victims or whether they're the people who themselves have committed crimes. we neeeed to lead with compapas, intelligence, with data a driven and empirical informed p policis and and this approach that relies on jails and prisons as the answer to all of our social problems. amy: chesa boudin, thank you for being with us district attorney-elect of san francisco. happy wedding. when we come back, we will look win inher big election seattle, beating back the campaign by amazon to flip to seattle city council. stay with us. ♪ [music break]

amy: this is democracy now!, i'm amy goodman with juan gonzalez. juan: we end today's show in seattle where a group of progressive city councils were able to be back a fight with amazon. asction was wiwidely seen a referendum on amazon. five candidates backed by amazon and other business interest lost their bids for counsel seeds, prep stood the most visible phase in the fight against amazon, socialist city councilmember kshama sawant, who has been reelected in a race that pitted her against amazon backed candidate egan orion. amazon poured nearly half $1 million into that race alone. elected.ma sawant was

she successfully pushed a number of progressive policies, including making seattle the first major american city to adopt a $15-an-hour minimum wage. she joins us now from seattle. welcome back to democracy now! talked aboutut the campaign agaiainst you and your progresse slates victory. havingank you so much for this very important and ababsolutely historic event that isis happened and seatattle. major s said, it is been a repudiation not only of amazon and jeff bezos himself as the richest man in the world, but also it has been a refererendumn division f for seattle stop i think seattle is a microcosm for metropopolitan areas i in gener. what should our urban spacaces look like? s should our cities e plplaygrounds for the wewealthyr should they be places whwhere

ordinary people can live and thrive? i think it is beyond any doubt the voters in seattle have spoken that seattle is not up for r sale, our democratic prors ---- our elections are not up fr sale. itit happened in a dramatic fashion were not only amazon -- amazon is the most visible player in the attempted sort of hostile corporate takeover this year's elections, but it wasn't just amazon. theas the entire might of corporate elite come of the capitalist c class thahat we wep against. it is amazon, but also corporate real estate, all of the large businesses that fofought viciouy against $15 an hour four years ago, and also the businesses that were completely against the tax on bigig business t that we attempted d and then w was reped shamefully by the e majority of the city council last year. so i think this shows what a

tremendous opening there is nott only for t the left to seizize opportunities, but as you have seen, as a socialist movement, we have grassroots socialist movement went up against the richest man in the world and we were able to prevail. juan: and also, you neglected to mention their the r role of the memedia, the seattle times, if u want to talk about their role in terms of this election. and also the fact that the city council had suffered a defeat a year earlier when amazon effectively attacksks f forend affordable housing. >> yes. the role of the media is intetegral to thehe politicalal process under capititalism. it is opposite to what you do on democracy nonow! a and that t iy it is really i important that yu are covering this analysis here. just to g give yoyou an examplee seattle times editorial, which

has been a longtime conservative establishment, pro-big business and pro-right-wing ideas, spilled so much ink not only this year against my campaign specifically, against my socialist council office, agagainst our movement building approach, but as you said, last year when ouour movement attemed to bring what wewe call the aman tax, the tax on the largest business, in order to change what we have is the status quo, which is a corporate tax haven in a a city with the nation's mt regressive tax system, and the seattle times editorial spilled so m much ink spreading lies, distortion, and misinformation about that tax and then carry that on this year. while on the one hand love this corporate money into over $4 millllion in the corporate pacs that were dumped by all of these pork rations, the billionaires, have backfired and shown voters are rejecting this kind of

attempted takeover, but on the other hand, it also bought them incredible numbers of attack mailers that were sent to people's mailboxes come in less attack ads on every type of social media and other media and then of course the corporate media doing the bidding of t the billionaire class. we were up against all of that. and the fact that we have won despite ththat, not only t the progressive slate which is incredibly importantnt and was important we build toward this progressive unity is a really important demonstration of h how progressivive movements can have hohonest debates and discussions among ourselves, but also important t r us to take a princicipled, unifified to stand against the billionaire class -- which h is what we h have been e to accomplish. i am really proud off rank-and-f-file democratsts ande grassroots democratic party leaders and organizers takingnga stand in s solidarity with the socialist movementnt and working

together. our movement wasn't just about come ok, m making an abstract treatment against corporations. this whole battle has unfolded from the wake of the $15 an hour victory. but we kept building our movement. we won indigenous peoples day. the we won most of a all is beginning of t the empowerment, the emboldening of ordinary people, , and the beginnings ofa movement, and a creredible movement that i started here including with the l leadershipf my office, for renent control without loopholes, for a green new deal, for extendining publiy ownened social daschle and amy: kshama sawant, we're going to talk about that program and to our discussion, which we will post online at democracynow.org and also ask about the news that jeff bezos called michael bloomberg and asked him to jump into the presidential race. we will ask all about that,t, te man who took t the progressive councilmembers on, richest man in the world ahead of eminent --

the head of amazon, poured one point finally dollars into defeat your slate will stop kshama sawant, socialist city council member in seattle, just reelected for a third term. [captioning made possible by democracy now!]