11/15/19 11/15/19 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] amy: from new york, this is democracy now! >> i can't see them taking my brothers life for something he did not do any did not give us that avenue to save his life. you are executing an innocent man. and at the end of the day, i don't see how anybody could sleep with that on their conscience, their mind, their heart. amy: is texas about to execute an innocent man? we will get the latest on the case of rodney reed, an african-american man who is

scheduled to be executed on november 20 despite growing evidence that he is innocent. plus, we will hear democratic presidential candidate cory booker at the first ever presididential forum on environmental justice. >> we live in a country where there are savage racial didisparities in every single corner of our lives. there racial disparities in education, and suspensions come in the criminal justice system. i can go through everything. versust first, mcaleenan but all. that is one of the supreme court cases this week to decide if president trump can and daca that is protected 700,000 undocumented people who were brought to the u.s. as children. we will speak with martin batalla vidal who is suing the trump administration. all that and more, coming up. welcome to democracy now!,

democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. in california, a high school student opened fire on the campus of saugus high school in the los angeles suburb of santa clarita thursday, killing two students and wounding three others. authorities have not identified the teen, but say the rampage came on his 16th birthday. police say surveillance video clearly shows him pulling a .45 caliber semiautomatic handgun from his backpack, opening fire on fellow classmates in an outdoor area of the school, before turning the gun on himself. he survived a gunshot to the head and was hospitalized in grave condition. the mass shooting prompted a panicked evacuation, massive police response. this is saugus high school senior ellie pearlman. >> it is so scary now. it is like every day there is a report. anytime there's allowed noise or any sort of threat, we locked down. for second, it was just another lockdown. amy: the gun control group everytown reports it was the

85th incident of gunfire on school grounds so far this year. it came as u.s. senators were debating a bill to require universal background checks for all gun purchases. the bill passed the democratic-led house earlier this year, but stalled in the u.s. senate thursday when mississippi republican cindy hyde-smith demanded more time to debate the legislation. in el paso, texas, the walmart store where a white nationalist gunman killed 22 people three months ago reopened thursday. the alleged killer published an online manifesto moments before the august 3 attack, echoing presesent trump'p's rhetoric abt an invasion of immigrants. house speaker nancy pelosi on thursday ratcheted up pressure on lawmakers to impeach donald trump, accusing the president of attempting to bribe ukraine's leaders to investigate trump's political rival joe biden and his son. >> the bribe is to grant or withhold military assistance in

return for a public statement of a fake investigation into the elections. that is bribery. amy: briberyry is specificically mentioned as an impeachable offense in the u.s. constitution. today, lawmakers are holding the second day of public impeachment hearings, with former ambassador to ukraine marie yovanovitch set to testify she was abruptly recalled from her post in may as part of a smear campaign to discredit her led by trump's attorney rudy giuliani. yovanovitch previously told lawmakers he called her bad news. trump also said of yovanovitch "she's going to go through some things." in chile, lawmakers have agreed to a plan to rewrite the country's constitution, meeting a key demand of protesters. under the deal agreed to early friday, voters will decide in an april referendum whether to replace the current constitution, which dates to augusto pinochet's military

dictatorship and whether current lawmakers should serve on a constitutional commission. a second vote in october would determine the makeup of the commission, and a final vote on a draft constitution would be mandatory for all voting-age chileans. meanwhile, protests continue to rock chile after a government hike in public transport fares last month sparked a revolt against austerity and economic inequality. on thursday, police fired tear gas and water cannons to clear the streets of the capital santiago as protests marked the one-year anniversary of the death of camilo catrillanca, a mapuche indigenousus activist wo was shot in the head last november. four officers are set to go on trial for his homicide later this month. at least 20 people have been killed and over 1000 others injured since protests erupted last month. at the latin grammys in las vegas thursday night, chilean

artist mon laferte uncovered her breasts asas she walked onto t e red carprpet revealing the words "in chile, they totorture, rape and kill" written across her chest. as she accepted the award for best alternative album, she also read a poem by a chilean writer saying, "chile, your pain hurtrs me." in bolivia, indigenous-led protests continued to rage in la paz thursday after bolivia's self-proclaimed interim president jeanine anez swore in a new cabinet with no indigenous members. anez is a right-wing christian who's previously blasted indigenous communities as "satanic" in tweets that she later deleted. she said thursday that exiled socialist president evo morales -- who fled to mexico after he was deposed by the military sunday -- would not be allowed to competete in a new round of elections. >> i would suggest to the movement for socialism party that from now on, they have

every right to participate in the general elections but they need to start looking for a candidate. evo morales is not qualified for a fourth term. that is why all of this convulsion has taken place. that is why there have been 70 protests by bolivians on the streets. amy: anez said her government is issuing a formal complaint to mexico, asking them to silence evo morales, who's repeatedly spoken publicly against last weekend's coup. since his departure, violence against indigenous people has skyrocketed in bolivia. this is one of morales' supporters. >> evo morales has been a good man. he worked for the people. he did not rob from us like these thieves who want to shake up the state and kill us like dogs. as if we are not humans. amy: a short-lived cease-fire between israel and palestinian militants in the gaza strip has broken down.n. israeli warplanes resumed bombing parts of the besieged palestinian territory thursday, while members of the islamicic jihad grououp fired a fresh salo ofof rocketsts at southern i isl frfrom gaza.

at least 34 palestinians have been killed and over 100 injured since israel assassinated the islamic jihad leader baha abu al-ata on tuesday, killing him and his wife and injuring their children. in iraq, soldiers opopened firen protesters in baghdad thursday with live fire, rubber bullets and tear gas, killing four people and wounding scores of others. this brings the death toll from antigovernment protest to at least 320 since october 1. iraqis are opposed to widespread corruption and demanding job opportunities and basic services, including clean water and reliable electricity. new research finds the so-called "war on terror" launched by the bush administration after the 9/11 a attacks has left over 800,0,000 people dead at a costf $6.4 trillion. in a pair of reports publilished this week by the costs of war project at brown university, researchers rnrn the trurue deah toll i is much higigher, once indirect deas s are factororedn. writing in the hill, professssor

david vine argues -- "this means that total deaths during the post-2001 u.s. wars in afghanistan, iraq, syria, pakistan, and yemen is likely to reach 3.1 million or more -- around 200 times the number of u.s. dead." in kentucky, republican incumbent matt bevin conceded the governor's race thursday to democrat andy beshear after a re-canvass of votes showed he lost by more than 5000 votes.. bevin was a deeply unpopularar -- bevin sparked a statewide teacher strike after he threatened to cut pensions. governor-elect beshear has promised to expand medicaid and boost teacher salaries and pensions. he's also pledged to restore voting rights to 140,000 citizens who were banned for life from voting after they were convicted on nonviolent felony charges. in luxembourg, the european investment bank said thursday it will begin divesting from fossil fuels, ending its financing of most oil and coal projects after 2021. campaigners hailed the move by the world's largest public bank

as a major victory for the climate, but warned of loopholes that leave the door open for investments in natural gas projects. 16-year-old swedish climate activist greta thunberg has set sail for europe, ending an 11-week visit to north america that saw her lead student strikes for the climate while calling out world leaders over their inaction on the climate crisis. thunberg hopes to reach madrid, spain, in time for the u.n. climate summit in early she and december. her father svante are sailing aboard the 48-foot catamaran la vagabonde, refusing to fly because of the high carbon footprint of air travel. democracy now! will cover the u.n. climate summit in madrid. on capitol hill, new york commerce member alexandria ocasio-cortez and vermont senator bernie sanders unveiled a green new deal plan thursday that seeks to end carbon emissions from public housing projects. the 10 year $180 billion deal , aims to retrofit public housing developments to make them highly energy-efficient, while producing on-site renewable energy.

senator sanders said the deal would also add nearly decent-paying union jobs to the 250,000 economy. >> the planet earth is in severe danger and we're facing a global crisis. in this country and around the world to the scientists and agree new deal that the congress woman and i are fighting for is the only program out there that does that. amy: the plan was co-sponsored in the senate by jeff merkley and another 2020 presidential candidate, elizabeth warren. it's been endorsed by more than 50 climate and affordable housing groups. and those are some of the headlines. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. on tueueay, the susupreme court heard d oral arguments from thre lawsuits demanding the trump administration preserve deferred action for childhood arrivals, or daca.

the obama-era program has granted protection from -- to at least 700,000 undocumented people who were brought to the united states as children. the court's conservative majority appeared poised to side with president trump in ending the program, while some of the court's liberal justices seemed skeptical. justice sonia sotomayor said during the hearing saying this "is not about the law. this is about our choice to destroy lives." in september 2017, the trump administration announced it planned to terminate daca arguing the program was illegal and unconstitutional. but three lower courts disagreed and have kept the program alive, thanks to lawsuits filed in california, new york, and d.c. immigrant rights activists have been pushing the supreme court to save daca. dozens of immigrants with daca recently took part in a 16-day 230-mile march from new york to the steps of the supreme court. the campaign's slogan was "home is here." the activists also used the march to highlight the immediate need for permanent immigration relief for the 11 million people

living in the u.s. undocumented. for more, we are joined by two guests. martin batalla vidal, the lead plaintiff in the new york federal lawsuit challenging the trump administration's attempt to terminate daca. trudy rebert, a staff attorney at the national immigration law center, which also filed suit to block the trump administration's cancellation of daca. we thank you both for being with us. martin, were you in the supreme court tuesday and how did it feel? >> thank you for inviting me and trudy here. it means a lot to us. honestly, for all of us, all of the plaintiffs in the daca case, it was surreal. we could not believe it until the day we actually got to the supreme court. andould not believe document were suing the government providing for something we think is right. said fromis fight, we the beginning, it is a fight we are going to keep writing.

honestly, we are part of history and i'm ready to keep fighting or more victories. amy: tell us your story. >> my name is martin batalla vidal. i'm a dreamer and a mexican. opportunitiesd that as and document it i never thought i would have. daca has given me the possibility to go to school, get a job in the medical field, which i never thought i would be working in the medical field. unfortunately, i was undocumented. i graduated in 2000 eight. amy: where were you born? >> from mexico. amy: wouldn't did you come here? >> at the age of seven. i was raised like every american kid basically. i went to school and learned the language. know no since then -- i other place than new york city. i was raised here in this is where i live. i feel like a piece of paper should not define who we are.

amy: trudy rebert, explain these lawsuits. >> martin has a lawsuit in new york. he had been a leader in this area for a while. there has been a series of lawsuits filed out of california, new york, d.c., and maryland challenging the termination of daca. the lower courts along the way have agreed with us. how the system was and reason. procedure act. amy: explain what you are most struck by on tuesday. why is the general assessment that the conservative majority will side with trump? >> that is trying to read the tea leaves. i think the supreme court is hard to read.

we will have to wait and see what the decision is when it comes out. i was struck that i think the justices across the court really understood the human interest that are at stake here. at one point, justice breyer listed out hundreds and thousands of people that had cemented amicus support, just highlighted the human interest at stake here. amy: can you talk about sonia sotomayor's comments? >> she had a powerful line of questioning to the government, really questioning what they had thought about and considered before deciding to terminate daca and disrupt kamaishi put it, to destroy the lives of close to 800,000 people with daca. she highlighted the lack of reasoning and the lack of consideration for what this would mean. there?s justice ginsburg

>> yes. amy: was she active in the questioning? >> i think she had the first question. amy: explain the origins of dhaka and on what grounds the trump administration is attempting to end this program that protects people like martin? the government in 2017 came out with a memo terminating daca and provided really no reasoning. they do provide there was this other lawsuit -- sorry, court decision about a completely different program and on that basis, our hands are tied and we must into the program. what is at stake is accountability. will the government be able to hide behind this legal reasoning and to say their hands are tight were are they going to be forced to take accountability for what was a political decision to end

this program. amy: on tutuesday, the dayay the supreme court heard the oral arguments around daca, president trump tweeted -- join "many of the people on daca, no longer very young, are far from 'angels.' some are very tough, hardened criminals. president obama said he had no legal right to sign order, but would anyway. if supreme court remedies with overturn, a deal will be made with dems for them to stay!" >> i think this goes to show how president trump has been using dreamers and daca recipients as -- to try to force through racist immigration policy. will he be allowed to do that? will the supreme court permit this to go forward or will they be held to acaccount? amy: i want to turn to a clip of eliana fernandez, a 31-year-old daca recipient from ecuador.r.

democracy now! spoke to her at a daca rally last month as she and others planned a 16-day march to washington, d.c., in anticipation of the oral arguments this past tuesday. >> for me as a parent, the main reason i'm here marching and part of the movement is because of my kids. my children are everything. they are my biggest inspiration. i will do anything for them, including marching hundreds of miles. lookt for them to one day at this day and remembeber or fl proud and be like, that was my mommy helping the immigrant community and helping herself. to me that is critical. a lot of us come from mixed status families. i want to highlight that. , howmartin batalla vidal does it f feel to h have this ce me, itfter you? >> for is an honor. it is not only myself. it is five other plaintiffs that are in the case, which everybody

is different. as we join together, we are all fighting for the same thing. at the end of the day, we are getting their credit, we are the dreamers, but from the beginning of this lawsuit, we would not be her fighting for what we think is right if it wasn't for our parents. we would not have an education if it wasn't for our parents. we owe everything to our parents. they are the original dreamers. i am doing this for my mom. my mom was a single parent who raised four kids by herself. this is a way for me to be, thank you for your hard work, thank you for supporting me, and taking for being there. -- thank you for being there. and theighting for daca 11 million undocumented. amy: you risk so much to not only try to ensure you got to keep daca, as all of these

students and workers are called who have it -- we are talking about over 700,000 people, the daca-mented. but you went public and that puts a target on you. to pick yourecide head up and i just keep it down? scared todaca, i was say i was undocumented, was scared to say i was gay. coming from the hispanic culture talk aboutt taboo to your sexuality andnd talk about being undocumented. i feel l like when daca ended, somebody had to be the face, somebody had to be brave enough to do this lawsuit. my mom is my biggest inspiration. she had two jobs. us anised four kids, gave education, pay bills by herself. with that being on my mind, my mom is a strong woman, if she did it not knowing the language, being u undocumented, why can'ti now that i have e daca?

she is the one who gave me, you know, get to do this for your community and this is your time. amy: we will continue to follow this case. leadn batalla vidal is the plaintiff and the federal lawsuit challenging the trump administration's decision to rescind daca. trudy rebert, a staff attorney at the national immigration law center. thank you both so much. when we come back, we will hear democratic presidential candidate cory booker at the first presidential forum on environmental justice. stay with us. ♪ [music break]

amy: "paisaje japones" by mon laferte. at t the latin grammys thursday ninight, s she uncovered herer s as she walkeked under the red carpet revealing the words "in chile they torture, rape, and kill" written across her chest. this is democracy now!, i'm amy goodman. the first ever presidential forum on environmental justice was held last friday at south carolina state university in orangeburg.

i co-moderated the event with former e epa official mustafa santiago ali. earlier in the week, we aired our interview with senator elizabeth warren. today we turn to senator cory booker of new jersey. mustafa ali began the questioning. mustafa: so we know that currently come our federal agencies have withdrawn themselves from addressing environmental injustices that are going on. can you talk about what your administration will do to fix that problem? >> i'm smiling because he asked me questions we know we talked about. first and foremost, what he means by the federal agencies pulling back is the epa, they are at half the level they were in 2010 on inspections right now. the money they're collecting from corporate polluters is at like a 15 year low. we have a federal government that right now is saying we are going to let corporate polluters do what they want to do. and we are in a time of grover norquist.

this era where republican legislators sign this pledge new taxes. this has been going on for a long time, which means a lot of the mechanisms we had before to clean upup these environmental sites, the federal government is no longer pulling in the resources, the taxes necessary to clean it up. one great example is to clean up a superfund site in america. we had a bipartisan accord -- reagan reauthorized the small tax on corporate polluters, chemical companies like those in cancer ally, to give us a fund to clean up superfund sites. even though mitch mcconnell voted on it when reagan was president, he refused to reauthorize it now. whatat we see now is because the is no money in the superfund -- you see the number of superfunds growing in america. i have a strong belief, i just don't trust the government right

now on thihis issue. and that means one of the best ways to do with this issue is to push the power back to people. wrote thaton that i will become law if i become president of the united states, is to make sure local communities have the power, have standiding to sue their governments, which right now they can't. we know there's a lot of commmmunities, if they could sue their governments and had standing, we wouould see a lot more action. and we want to change our legislation changes the ability to not just sue them, but to collect damages as well. i believe as an african-american, i know the legal system all the way from brown versus board of education to incredible work done by great legal activists like charles hamilton houston and others that given the legal power back to community to defend themselves

is utterly important. that is just one tool of the multiple tools that i want to do to make sure that we begin to have a country where people can trust the air they are breathing or the water they are drinking or the soil which they want to plant crops in. to: senator booker, i wanted ask you about nuclear energy. you are a proud proponent of nuclear energy, have argued it is necessary to wean us off the fossil fuel economy. have a lot of environmental activists who are scratching their heads that you are -- at your support for nuclear energy, particularly around the issue of nuclear waste. , there south carolina are 35 million gallons of nuclear waste being held at a nuclear reserve south of a can. and by middle activist have been fighting it for years. you have savannah river. of coursrse, we talking about communities primarily lowow ince communitities of color, who are dealing with nuclear waste in

their own backyards from new mexico to yucca mountain to write here. what is your answer to the fact there is no solution in dealing with nuclear waste? you are a bitl, mischaracterizing my views. i am a realist that tells you right now the biggest existential threat to humanity is climate change. 50% of our noncarbon producing power right now is nuclear. some of my other opponents want to get rid of it and it will push us back to being more reliant on fossil fuels. and make this our ability to reach our climate goals impossible. happened in vermont when they cut down the yankee plant. expandedarbon footprint pretty significantly. i look forward to phasing out nuclear waste and nuclear energy, but to do it right now when we are in a race and have a 12 year race to meet our climate

goals? the damage done to poor and vulnererable communities is significantly worse coming from climate change than it is the crisis of nuclear energy. if you want to weigh your poisons right now, the one coming towards us like a barreling freight truck of climate change, the one that my community in newark is feeling right now because temperature rises at rates that are off the charts -- let me tell you something about asthma. as a guy that knows what it is like in an emergency room with black children dying at 10 times the rate than white children of asthma complications. for me, nuclear energy, it is common sense to me right now. amy: to build new power plants? >> let's be clear. the nuclear energy of the plants we have right now from the 1960's and 1970's and 1980's is very different than the new module and nuclear energy plants that are being proposed. those actually have a much -- they can take spent fuel rods and reengage them for usage.

the frontiers of nuclear science is not something we should just shut down. we should continue to investigate. is there officially y ing to bee a safely to do this? future.mind exploit the i consider myself a futurist. why? because you have two choices in life. you can let the future happen to you or shape the future and make sure it happenes in a way that is just. to me, this is a very, very simple equation. i have got a 12 your problem to solvee, and if anybody wants to get rid of nuclelear energy, tel me how you're going to replace 50% of the noncarbon producing power that we would have right now. because what you're going to do is send us back to coal and oil. refused refuse to go backward in the cause of environmental justice. for what is your plan renewables, for pushing forward solar and wind and other forms of sustainable energy? >> this gets me frustrated sometimes because you have a

bunch of people running for presesident who have been in public life or 20 years. maybe it is, what the heck have you been doing on these issues for the entire time? you should know i have a record on these issues. number one, i do not believe oil companies s and coal companieses should get tax breaks. it is ridiculous that we are extending tax breaks to companies like chevron who paid net 0 -- they pay a n n n n n nf the stuff we are foisting upon them. that is number one. rolling back those tax breaks. nunumber two is extending them o renewables. i fought not just - -- when i ws in the senate, we were a able to give when a seven year tax credit for renewable -- renewable tax credit for wind and solar which is important because you need some predictability if you're going to be investing in those areas. we want to see it for everything from geothermal to battery life, we want t to extend for every te of renewable there is. if i am president, we're going to make sure we create a better incentive model for people t toe doubling down in investments. in addition to that, we will

create moon shocks all around this country for science and research in the renewable space, which is critical because right now other countries are beating us in the race to solve these problems through innovation. therefore, they are going to beat us in the race to create the new jobs that are being created. right now there are more jobs in solar ththan coal, but wee have many things that we could be doing. for me, this is all about making sure we're doing everything we investmentstivize or research, develop meant, and to get to the point where i want to be, we just have electrification of our transportation sector by 2030 and the be carbon neutral as a nation by 2025. build oni want to what you're talking about. in our clean economy we are currently developing, and we know it is going to grow over the years, when we look at those who are currently working in that space, we have some

evolution to m make surure there more folks of color in that space. when we look at the ownership of the business is there, i ththink it is leless thann 2% of thosese businesses that are currently in the clean economy that are owned by folks of color. so how do we -- what would your administration do to make sure those numbers increase? when you are in a car with mustafa,a, you end up talking about a lot of things. lelet's just clear right now. we live in a country where there is savage racial dispaparities d it is in every single corner of our lives. there are racialal disparities n health care, racial disparities in education, in suspensions come in the criminal justice system. i can go through everything. to me, this is an issue of trust. because these issues are not right or left. they are right or wrong stop the

democratic party's hands are e t clean. you set for soe many presidential elections, living in the inner-city, looking at people who we are electing were often part of the problelem. to me, this is an issue of trust. dealing with racial disparities, we need to make sure the next president -- this isn't goingg o be a secondary issue. at that we understand this is a real issue of trust. again, what have you been doing? i got to the united states senate as the fourth african america elected. when i got there, i saw -- don't applaud me, plug my ancestors. [applause] people who fought. my mom said, you got there by the blooood, sweat, and tears of those who came before you. the key is not to be number 1, 2, 3, or four, the key is to not be the last. this is why south carolina, please, please, please elect jamie harrison as the next

senator. [applause] but let me tell you, it is not just enough to have a black senator. i got there and i looked at the staff and it was the least diverse place i had ever worked before in my life. i looked at the judiciary staff because i wanted to get on that committee. i did not see one african-american staffer. you talk about "hamilton" being in the room when it happened, this was a committee making decisions about african-american lives and african-american bodies, and there wasn't even an african-american in the room. what did i do? i went to chuck schumer and got a great young senator from hawaii and said, this is outrageous. what we did is we said, i only know one way to do things. accountability. which is having standards, measures, and consequences when things don't happen. we asked chuck schumer and he gladly did it could have every

democratic senator publisher diversity statistics. how many women and minorities do you have in positions of power? guess what happened since we have done that? the number of african-americans hired in the senate have gone up. when you ask me about this, this is why i get angry. before i even get to that, let me go with marijuana. this has been killing black communities -- there are more marijuana arrests in 2017 that all the violent crime arrests in the country combined. they are not arresting everybody. people on college campuses -- stanford, i used to see people smoking pot all the time. no worries. it is disproportionally people of color. now everyone is moving to legalize marijuana. this is a big business. hundreds of billions of dollars will be made in the business, at people when they talk about legalization, they don't go the next two or threree steps. the first should be, go talk to me about legalizing

marijuana. you have to also talk about expunging the records of all of those people. let's not stop there. sure thatnt to make in t the communinities that have been devastated by the marijuana enforcement, that people from those communities actually get a chance to have the licenses to sell marijuana legally. and that is not happening right now. we are about to shift into legalization of marijuana in state after state after state, and the people selling it are disproportionately lacking the diversity that our nation does. to your point about the jobs of the future, i want to be clear. i had to have some very stern conversations with unions when i was mayor of my town and we were building the first new hotel in 40 years. i had to go to my unions and eight, i know you have people -- systems of who gets on jobs when, but i'm sorry, this is being built in an african-american community and

there needs to be african-americans, more diversity in this union. there needs to be oppressive programs - -- apprenticeship programs for my kids. there is going to be a new energy job boom in this country, and we have got to make sure that those opportunities -- because a lot of people want to talk about the wealth gap, wealth gap and a wealth gap. there are a lot of people in my community that want to be entrepreneurs, want to be millionaires. i always talk about the wealth gap, yeah, but we really need to be talking about the opportunity gap and to make sure that everybody has equal opportunity to start a business, to be innovators, to participate in the new job booms of the future and the new businesses of the future. and this comes back to how i started, which is trust. person your president, a who has spent my career working on these issues, i'm going to be sure -- make sure these issues of racial equity are not on the side -- that you will have a

president in me, someone who understands these issues intimately, and makes sure i am working every single day so this nation is who it says it is a nation of liberty, justice, and opportunity y for all. amy: senator booker, flint, michigan, brought environmentatl justice to the national stage with a water crisis. now five years into that, people in flint still don't have clean water. and this year, people in your own community, your neighbors in newark, new jerersey, where you once served as mayor and represent them now a senatoror, arare also facing contaminanated drinking water. thousandndof water s systems, facingvillages, contamamination. >> right here in south carolina. amy: what spspecificically are u doing to address this national crisis and what are you doing in the work, her own community, with people in the throes of this water crisis?

>> leaders take responsibility and get things done. when this crisis broke out on my city, i went across the aisle in the senate where i worked to build relationships and passed a major piece of legislation. these are things people don't want to talklk about, getting things done in washington, that allows states to shift resources -- literally, hundreds of millions i think in total -- into funds that can get these lead pipes out of the water. to me, as you said it, this is my family, this is my community. and my community is not alone. there are thousands of jurisdictions right now her children have more than twice the blood levels and let michigan -- in flint, michigan. if i am president of the united states, enough. lead to service lines should not be in the ground in a 21st century america, period. i will make sure that we have a fund to get every single lead service line out of the ground in cities all across america. but we can't stop there.

this is a true story. inaccuraciesg my -- inadequacies. one thing that let me on my and bar middle justice tour. i was also on the africa subcommittee as a foreign relations person so i had dr. peter who came into see me because i wanted to talk about neglected tropical diseases in african countries. i am flipping through his book as we are talking about things i can do as a united states senator from the continent. i am flipping through books and sing these maps of where the neglected tropical diseases are, and i almost fell out of my seat when i saw them in some states in the united states of america. instead, i did not know we had things like hookworm and the like. he goes, absolutely, and communities that 100% to 200% of the poverty line, doctors don't even think they exist in north america. i literally said, i have to see this with my own eyes. i found myself in places in

where i stood t there and saw communities that they can't have septic because the soil won't allow it, and they just have straight pipes coming out of the people's homes of the back of people's homes. i sat with families who talk to me about when it rains come having all of that stuff back up into their homes. when you start seeing what i have seen in this country, this isis reflective of an impotencyf empathy that we could live in a nation where we don't see what communities are suffering who do not have access to clean water, who do not have access to proper who -- in america, it should be a right of every citizen to have clean air, clean water, and clean soil. in my environmental -- in my climate plan, one of the few people who has major pillars on environmental justice, one of the things we're going to do is make sure we have a community

where everyone has access to clean air and clean water, but it also means taking on sacred cows. when i say sacred cows, i am almost literally talking about it because the corporate industrial animal agricultural industry, we must begin to about what it is doing to o our country. about talked earlier duplin county, north carolina, one of the reasons why groundwater is being contaminated is because you don't have the heritage of our country, which is the way we used to raise pigs and forms. now we have multinational corporations like smithfield who have these contract farmers who live like sharecroppers -- we should have empathy for them, too because they find themselves in these contracts where they're constantly living in massive debt. you see these massive things called concentrated animal feeding operations, that are all covered in pix produce 10 times the pcs that human beings do. i satat and watched it goining o these massive lagoons.

duplin county, strictly black communities, and i stood there with activists as i watch the springfield spray the literal[bleep] out onto the field and i watched it waft into when you spray lawns, some of it mists off the property and into black communities. as that impact rooms with african-americanss who told me about respiratory diseases, cancers, what it feels like not to be able to opop your windows in your home, run your air conditioning, you can't put your clothing on the lines. this is happening from iowa to north carolina and we are not conscious of this crisis in ourr country. i met withth a republican farmer in the midwest, western illinois who tell me when it came around his farm come he can no longer fish in his creek, can no longer drink is well water. i am that up. it is very hard for me to s sit comfortably in newark even with

our lead water crisis, and know that there are americans who are facing diseases, cancers, who are -- who have lost the valuee of their land they have been on since slavery. and we are doing nothing as a society about it. that is so against our couountr. as president of the united states, in my plan i have funds to do something about it and i'm going to make sure as your president i fight and become the president that champions environment of justice in a way champions environment of justice in a way like you have never seen before. amy: senator booker, i if you cocould tatalk about your persol decision to be a vegan -- whwhih really bringngs together the ise of the environment and personal health. >> my personal decision is to try every day to be a better living the values than which i hold. my veganism is a much better way to accord myself with my values. but i want to be clear with you because i i don't want this to e a holier than now moment, i don't know where the suit i'm

wearing was made. injustice. is it is injustice. these are vegan shoes, so i'm trying to be consistent with things. for me, all of us have to do a better job and living in accordance with where our values are. i don't want to preach to people, but i know what corporate animal agricultural -- not the form heritage that i met around this country, b but masse corporate animal agriculture is destroying the environment. what is happening to animals -- they're a passing these things agigag laws. ca are why those coveredfos. for me, everything for my help come the leading cause of death for black men is preventable diseases. as ron finley, a ted talk, black man in south-central los angeles, has this great ted talk you showed watch where he says

in south-central we have drive-bys and drive-through's. the drive-through's are killing more people than the drive-bys. to do my best to live my values. i fail every day but i want to get better and better to be more conscious about the decisions i'm making. in a capitalist society, you vote every day with your dollars. my veganism is something i'm happy to talk about, about the reasons why, but i want to tell you this -- martin luther king said it more eloquently than i can say, that i can't pass laws to make you love me, but i can pass laws to make you stop from lynching me. i can't pass laws to change your heart, but i can pass laws to change the heartless. president, i'm going to stop us subsidizing through our ag will slow corporate animal agriculture that ultimately is hurting our country.

i've not heard another presidential candidate that wants to talk about these issues. agriculture -- animal agriculture right now is driving so much of the problems with climate change. the number one reason for deforestation, rain forest deforestation, is grazing lands for the larger and larger consumption of meat. scientists and we would need four planet earths's of the rest of the planet ate the standard american diet. by the way, china is moving toward the standard american diet. more people are eating like we are eating. we have to start talking about a free market, not to subsidization of corporations whether it is oil companies or folks that are doing it. now, if i have more sway over od, we're going to be in's advising cover crops and no till farming, things that pull carbon out of the air. we will incentivize

reforestation. of a plan to plant 100 million trees in urban areas, which will cool them down, pull more carbon out of the air. we need to start usising our incentives, are tax dollars to incentivize the right behavior and stop the human suffering that is going on as a result of a lot of the things we are doing with subsidized -- subsidizing with our taxpayer dollars. amy: senator cory booker speaking last friday the first presidential forum on environmental justice. we held it at south carolina state university in orangeburg. i co-moderated the form with former e epa official must off ali. visit democracynow.org to watch the full form, including senator elizabeth warren talking about environmental justice shutting down pipelines, capitalism, billionaires, as well as her response to weather the presidential primary season should begin in two of the widest states, iowa and new hampshire. other candidates at the forum, tom steyer, marianne williamson, john delaney, and joe sestak. coming outcome is texas about to

execute -- coming outcome is texas about to execute an innocent man? stay with us. ♪ [music break]

amy: "contra todo" by the puerto rican musician ile performing at our democracy now! studio. to see our full interview with her and her performance, go to democracynow.org. this is democracy now!, i'm amy goodman. is texas about to kill an innocent man? we turn now to the case of rodney reed, an african-american death row prisoner who is scheduled to be executed in less than a week for a murder he says he did not commit. on thursday, reed's family braved the cold to host a vigil outside the supreme ururt asng thjuststic to hehe halt the execution. llions around the countrhahave joininedhe famamies because in recent weeks amid mounting eveviden that another man may be responblble fo the 1996 murder s stace stites, a 19-year-o whit woman. in998, and all-whi jy seenced read eie for stacey's murd. after hidna was und insi her dy. the o were hing an aair at the timef her deh.

but w and priously iored tails inhe casindicate that scey stit' th-fianceea white lice jimmyinnell, y inact haveeen respsible. fennellas later jled in kidnappi and rap crges in anothecase. last month ian sign affivit sayg fennel adtted in pson to kling his anca©e becausshe was having aaffair wh a blac man. despite is, ree's exution istill schuled for wednesy, novemr 20. texas vernor gg abbottas not reonded torowing clsls halt thkilling,ncluding fr republin and decratic ste lawmaks and cebrities such aoprah ankim rdashianand rihaa. well, fomore, weo now to auin, texa where 're joined by maurice chammah, a staff writer at the marshall project. his most recent article is headlined "how do you prove you're innocent if you're on death row?" his forthcoming book about the death penalty won the 2019 j. anthony lukas work-in-progress

book award. welcome to democracy now! lay out this casase. tellll us the storyy o of what s taken place beginningng with the murder. >> so in the mid-1990's, rodney reed w was arrested for the murr of stacey stites come as you said, this 19 euros white woman in bastrop, texas. --had taken police about yearars to find a s suspect and arrest someone. there were a lot of leadsds that they went down and they had a lot of trouble figuring it out. se,em ofy, they found rodney reed at the crime scene in the b body of his victim and they deduced he had raped her and killed her they totook him o trial and sentenced him to death and he has been on death row ever sinince. even in the early 2000's, just a few years after he was on death row, there started to be questions about the case. there was reporting on jordan

smith started looking into the case, reporter. the state's case solely came undone. ash slowly came undone. there was a forensic piece of it that initially when they had looked at the body of the victim, it seemed as though she had been killed in one -- whate, that is where rodney reed was into death row over. it turns out that forensics behind the death investigation were flawed and that actually she had died many hours earlier and thehere were hours with whih she was with her fiance at the time, , jimmy fennell,l, police offificer in bastrop. then over the course of the years, new bitits of evidence trickle out. people say they knew the victim stacey stites and that she talked about how she was afraid of her fiance, that she was having an affair with a black and in this town that was still she didservativive, that not know what would happen if this came out if her fiance found out.

jimmy finnell made more and more incriminating statements. the case sort of plowed on through appealsls, like many deh penalty cases do. now we are at the point where he has -- rodney reed has lost in court multipiple t times and hes gone to federal and state courts , supreme court, and now we have a few remaining appeals in these different cords that we will see how they get rolled on, but these laugh -- last digit efforts is to get the govovernor of texas to save him. that is where the political pressure from celebrities come as you mentioned, and lawmakers come even ted cruz has weighed in to s say the courts in the state should be careful before executing ththis man, shouldld really look at the evidence to make sure he is the one who did it. you are seeing a unique amount of awareness and pressure coming into this case to push the governor to stop the execution. amy: talk more about jimmy

fennell. he was a white police officer, her fiance at the time. this man ends up going to jail for years after stacey stites is murdered -- remember, at the time, it is hihis fellow offices who are investigating this case. he ends up going t to jail f for years for rape and violence. >> that's right. we should not assume because you commit one crime you have committed another. jimmy fennell is still prison innocent unless he is found guguilty. he has denied her a that he murdered his fiancee in the 1990's. many people maintain rodney reed did it. that said, a number of incriminating statements, the fact he told a fellow prisoner that he had killed her, the fact she was afraid of him, it all paints a fairly cocompelling picture. it is certainly compelling enough picture that it has caused many, many people to say,

well, we don't really know and if anything, executing someone on this evidence is a potential terrible travesty. amy: pretty he actually be put to deathth with all of this evidence?? >> absolutely. in fact, rodney reed is not the first person to be put to death in texas or in other states despite fairly compelling evidence. that is where i think this case is a teachable moment for all of us when it comes to the death penaltlty and the legal system that surrounds it. one wowould think that t the vey compelling evidence of f innocee would stop in executution, but over time, congress and various state legislatures and the courts have restricted the abilility of prisoners, not just on death row, but to present evidence that they did not commit the crime. there is thihis assumption t tht the trial should be the end of it and there should be a finality in these cases.s. and so courts are e very, very

loathe overall to reverse these death sentences. amy: among others, police officers have stepped forward to say rodney reed should not be executed. so you have the governor, but also the parole board of texas, riright, could weigh in? >> that's right. in order for rodney reed to really be free from deathh row, there needs to be a recommendation from the texas board of pardons and paroles, the board appointed by governor greg abbott. we don't know exactly how they make their decisisions, but a decade or two ago the board members were fairly open they would nonot do things thee gover was displeased with. theyey felt the hole did to the governor. this is s the case under governr george bush in the 1990's, his board members admitted t that. amy: we have to leave it there but we will continue to cover this issue, the death date is set for november 20. maurice chammah, we will ensure peace at the marshall project and folks should go to

democracynow.org to see our interview with rodney's brother and sister-in-law, as well as his lawyer. democracy now! is currently accepting applications for paid six-month internships here in our new york city studio. learn more and apply at democracynow.org. >> this is al jazeera.

♪ >> hello. this is the news hour from al jazeera. speak andthe right to freedom of speech, just as others do. >> donald trump is accused of attending to ended -- intimate eight the former u.s. ambassador to the ukraine as she testified at the impeachment inquiry. >> how is it that foreign corrupt interests can manipulate our government? >> and that testimony, , marie yovanovitch talked about the smear