02/06/20 02/06/20 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] amy: from new york this is democracy now! andt is, therefore, ordered adjudged that donald john trump will be and is hereby acquitted of the charges in said articles. amy: the senate has acquitted president trump in just the third impeachment trial in u.s. history. republican senator mitt romney joined democrats in voting for one of the articles of impeachment, making hihim the

firsrst senator toto ever vote against his own party's president and an impeachment trial. >> the great question the constitution tasks the senators to answer is whether the president committed an act so extreme and egregious that it rises to the level of a high crime and misdemeanor. did.he amy: we will look at the impeachment vote and then go back to iowa as results continue to be released from monday's caucus. senator bernie sanders is still winning the popular vote by thousands, but is in a virtual tie with pete buttigieg for state delegates. then " "why you may nevever lean the trtruth about ice." we look at how the national archivives is letting millioionf documents, including many related to immigrants' r rights, be destroyed or deleted. >> fortunately come all of that is been destroyed. even future historians will not

be able to reconstruct the record. amy: all that and more, coming up. welcome to democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. the u.s. senate has acquitted president trump of two impeachment charges in just the third presidential impeachment trial in u.s. histy.y. trump was acaccud of abusi power and structing ngress to aid his reelection campaign by pressuring ukraine to investigate his political rival joe biden. every democratic senator voted to remove president trump from office, but they were joined by just one republican -- senator mitt romney of utah, who supported impeaching trump on one of count, abuse of power. romney became the first senator to ever vote against his own party's president in an impeachment trial. senator romney spoke on the senate floor prior to his vote. >> the president asked a foreign government to investigate his

political rival. the president withheld vital military funds from that government to press him to do so. the president delayed funds for an american ally at war with russian invaders. the president's purpose was personal and political. accordingly, the president is guilty of an appalling abuse of public trust. amy: president trump responded on twitter bike hailing the boat as "the country's victory." he also described the impeachment effort as a hoax and tweeted a video claiming mitt romney was a secret democratic asset. we will have more of president trtrump's acquittal after headlines. in election is, democratic officials in iowa are continuing to release official results from monday's caucus. senator bernie sanders and former south bend, indiana mayor , pete buttigieg are now in a virtual tie with 97% of precincts reporting. sanders maintains a lead in the popular vote, but buttigieg has

a slight advantage in what's known as the "state delegate equivalent" race. buttigieg has 26.2% of state delegate equivalents. sanders is at 26.1%. democratic officials have attributed the chaos in iowa to a newly created app, built by a little-known f firm called s sh, which has ties to the democratic establishment as well as the buttigieg campaign. democratic leaders in iowa are facing widespread criticism over they have handled the crisis. the bernie sanders campaign has just announced he raised $25 million in january. the death toll from the coronavirus has topped 560 in china, witmore than 28,000 cases diagnosed worldwide. the rapid spread of the virus comes ashe unprerecedented lockdown of chininese cities - - homeme to 50 million people ---- enters its third week. in china, a newborn baby becamae the youngest person with the

virus this week, diagnosed only one day after birth. memeanwhile, a cruise shipip wih thousands of people e on board s been quarantinined off the shore of japan. people on thcrcruise tesesting 20 positive for coronavirus soso far. the cruise ship is now anchored off yokohama port and none of the papassengers are allowed to leave theieir rooms. human rights watch says at least 200 salvadoran asylum-seekers were either killed raped, or , tortured after being deported from the united states back to el salvador. human rights watch found 138 people deported to el salvador were murdered by gang members, police, soldiers, u.s.-trained death squads, or ask partners between 2013 and 2019. the report says most of them were killed within two years after being deported by the same

perpetrators the asylum seekers had fled. in more immigration news, the family of a five-year-old boy from guatemala who is being held at a family detention center in dilley, texas, says the boy is not receiving proper medical care for what could possibly be a traumatic brain injury. the boys on says he fractured his skull in an accident and suffered bleeding around his brain. the boy and his mother were arrerested by immigration and customs enforcement during what the family thought was a routine check in last month here in the united states. the trump administrationon says new york state residents can no longer participate in certain trusted traveler programs, including global entry and retaliation for new york's new pro-immigrant law, the greenlight law. this law allows undocumented people to apply for a driver's license while protecting their personal information from immigration agencies. global entry allows for faster clearance in customs for those enrolled in the program when they enter the united states. trump administration's move is

part of its effort to retaliate against cities and states with pro-immigrant policies, such as so-called sanctuary laws. in brazil, far-right president jair bolsonaro has introduced a bill that would clear the way for mining, agriculture, and oil and gas extraction on indigenous lands, including many in the brazilian amazon. the bill has not been yet approved by congress. brazilian indigenous leaders have slammed the legislation as a genocide bill. in venezuela, president nicolas maduro on wednesday lashed out at president trump for meeting with venezuelan opposition leader juan guaido. guaido also attended trump's state of the union address tuesday night, were trump introduced him as the president of venezuela. during a press conference after their meeting at the white house wednesday, trump officials told reporters -- "any harm that may be caused on juan guaido on his return to venezuela will have very significant consequences."

in response, maduro,o, in a nationally televised address, warned trump is "taking the united states towards a high-level conflict with venezuela." this is venezuelan fororeign minister jorge arreaza. >> the american ruler and a delirious and arrogant speech in which he seemed to resurrect the already obsolete destiny, reiterated his contempt for peace for internatational law, r life, and in particular his contempt for the sovereignty of venezuela. amy: in algeria, thousands of protesters took to the streets of the capital algiers tuesday demanding the resignation of president abdelmadjid tebboune. mass anti-government protests have been demanding the ouster of the country's political elite for nearly a year, forcing the resignation of algeria's longtime former ruler abdelaziz bouteflika in april. this is one of the protesters. toause we are protesting completely change the regime, not to change cap of that being

stays the president who is humiliating us in front of all of the nations. amy: in the israeli-occupied west bank, israeli troops shot dead a 17-year-old palestinian teenager wednesday during a protest in the city of hebron against president trump's middle east plan. mohammed al-hadad is the first palestinian killed in demonstrations that erupted after trump unveiled his plan last week standing next to the israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu. under the plan drafted by trump's son-in-law jared kushner without any input from palestinians, israel would gain sovereignty over large areas of the occupied west bank, jerusalem would be under total israeli control, and all jewish settlers in the occupied territory would be allowed to remain in their homes. in britain, climate activists forced oil and gas giant bp to temporarily shut down its headquarters in london wednesday . more than 100 activists with the environmental group greenpeace

attempted to install some 500 solar panels in front of the bp building and chained themselves to oil barrels they installed to block the building's entrances. at least nine people were arrested in the demonstration protesting bp's role in fueling ththe climate crisis. the city of tulsa, oklahoma, is slated to excavate part of a cemetery to search for a possible mass grave of african americans murdered by mobs of -- white mobs during the 1921 tulsa massacre of the worst , one events of racist violence in u.s. history. on june 1, 1921, a mob of more than 1000 white people looted and burned the prosperous african-american neighborhood of greenwood, often referred to as black wall street. 35 city blocks were completely destroyed and as many as 300 people were killed. eyewitnesses say truckloads of corpses were dumped into unmarked mass graves.

in california, governor gavin newsom posthumously pardoned gay civil rights leader bayard rustin tuesday, who in 1953 was jailed and forced to register as a sex offender after being convicted under laws commonly used to target lgbt people. rustin fought against segregation and homophobia and was a pacifist who protested war. he was a key adviser to dr. martin luther king and introduced him to gandhi's teachings on nonviolence. he helped dr. king start the southern christian leadership conference in 1957. along with a philip randolph, rustin was also the chief organizer of the historic 1963 march on washington. this is rustin speaking on august 28, 1963, at the march on washington. >> be ended in every school

district in ththe year 1963! demand thahat we h have affectd civivil rightsts l legislationoo compromise, no f filibuster, and thatat it inclcludes public accommodatations, decent houous, inintegratededucatio, anand the righght to vote. what do you sasay? [applause] demand that withholdiding of federal funds from all programs inin which discriminatation exi. what do you say? amy: that was fired rustin -- bayard rustin speaking on august historic archhe on washington. and those are some of the headlines. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. nermeen: and i'm nermeen shaikh.

welcome to all of our listeners and viewers from around the country and around the world. the senate has acquitted president trump of two impeachment charges in just the third presidential impeachment trial in u.s. history. trump was accused of abusing power and obstructing congress to aid his reelection campaign by pressuring ukraine to invevestigate his s political rl joe bibiden. supreme cocourt chief justice jn roberts presided over wednesday's vote. >> the presiding officer directs judgment to be entered in accordance with the judgment of the senate as follows. donaldate having tried john trump, president of the united states, upon two articles of impeachment exhibited against him by the house of representatives and two thirds of the senators present not having found him guilty of the charges contained therein, it is, therefore, ordered and adjudged that the said donald john trump be and he is hereby acquitted of the charges in said

articles. amy: every democratic senator voted to remove president trump from office, but t they were joined by one republican, senator mitt romney of utah, who supported impeaching trump on one count -- abuse of power. senator romney became the first senator to ever vote against his own party's president in an impeachment trial. he spoke on the senate floor prior to his vote. >> the allegations made in the articles of impeachment are very serious. as a senator juror, i swore an oath before god to exercise impartial justice. i am profoundly religious. my faith is at the heart of who i am. amy: romney chokes up. i take an oath before god as enormously consequential.

i knew from the outset that being tasked with judging the president come the leader of my own party, would be the most difficult dececision i have ever faced. i was not wrong. amy: senator mitt romney went on to describe how he came to his decision. >> so the verdict is ours to render under our constitution. the people will judge us for how well and faiththfully we fulfill our duty. the great question the constitution tasks senators to answer is whether the president committed an act so extreme and egregious that it rises to the level of a high crime and misdemeanor. yes, he did. the president asked for an government to investigate his political rival. the president withheld vital military funds from that government to press him to do so. the president delayed funds for an american ally at war with russian invaders.

the president's purpose was personal and political. accordingly, the president is guilty of an appalling abuse of public trust. what he did was not perfect. no, it was a flagrant assault on electoral rights, our national security, and our fundamental values. election to keep oneself in office is perhaps the most abusive and destructive violation of one's oath of office that i can imagine. nermeen: president trump responded on twitter by hailing the acquittal vote as "the country's victory" and described the impeachment effort as a hoax. he also tweeted a video claiming mitt romney was a secret democratic asset. donald trump, jr. called for romney to be expelled from the republican party. while the impeachment trial is over, the probe of president trump's actions could continue. on wednesday, house judiciary

chair jerry nadler said the house will likely subpoena former national security advisor john bolton. amy: to talk more about president trump's acquittal, we are joined by manisha sinha, professor of american history at the university of connecticut. fellow at the radcliffe institute at harvard university, author of "the slave's cause: a history of abolition." professor, welcome back to democracy now! first, respond to the acquittal. this was a historic day. only the third time in u.s. history a senate impeachment trial was held. >> yes, indeed, it was. as, youy think of this know, having escaped, being acquitted, even though he remains impeached by the house. i do think, though, despite the acquittal, the width of legitimacy that has always been

around this president ever since his election, the largest popular vote lost, accusations of russian meddling, squeaking into the office through the electoral, demeaning the office by his behavior, flouting the rule of law. what i think is come despite the acquitittal, the impmpeachment reinfoforces the air of legitimy around trump no matter how much he has been grandstanding in the state of the union and the ways in which an overwhelming majority of the senate gop has basically given him a blank check to do anything he wants. nermeen: professor, if you could talk about the significance of mitt romney voting against his party. he was the first senator to do so in an impeachment trial. romney think that mitt

is a true profile in courage. mike pence and the republicans have been hailing a corrupt republican senator from the 19th century who was bribed into putting johnson as her r profile encourage. bubut really, it was mitt romne. i do notot agree with senator romney's politics as a resident of massachusetts, regularly voted against him, even though he was very popular. i certainly voted against him when he was running against barack obama in 2012. but his speech yesterday struck me as historic. both in the ways in which he evoked his oath of office to the constitution, but also the ways in which he evoked his mormon , ash, his religiousosity moving him to do the right thing. as a historian of abolition, i also appreciated that.

i do think that mitt romney will be looked on very kindly by history. and i think it is mind-boggling that trump called him a democratic asset. i mean, this man was the republican presidential candidate in 2012. it just goes to show how much of his political and moral mooring the current gop and its leader, trump, in the white house has lost. amy: i would like to turn to a contrast to senator romney and that is republican senator lisa murkowski of alaska speaking on the senate floor earlier this week. she called trump's behavior shameful but said she would vote to acqcquit him. washe president's behavior shameful and wrong. interests do not take precedence over those of this great nation.

the president has the responsibility to uphold the integrity and the honor of the office. not just for himself, but for all future presidents. actionsg the office by or even name-calling weakens it for future presidents and it weakens our country. the response to the presesiden's behaviors is not to disenfranchise nearly 63 million americans and remove him from the ballot. the house could have pursued censure and not medially jumped to the remedy of last resort. i i cannot vote to c convict. amy: that is alaska republican senator murkowski. in the midst of this trial, the questions were, what would murkowski, senator collins of maine, lamar alexander of tennessee, romney was pretty

clear from the beginning how he felt. manisha sinha, professor of america history, respond to what she says and how the republicans made this decision to acquit. >> i thohought professor mccaskey's decision to vote against witnesses and evidence and also to eventually acquit trump was deeply disappointing.. she had been very courageous in voting against the confirmation of brett kavanaugh, one of the few republicans whwho had the gumption to do that. so one was expected better things from her. her r statement afterwards sayig that congress had failed was actually somewhat laughable and the in fact, she senate gop had failed in this

entire process. so i was deeply disappointed by senator murkowski. i do know that mitch mcconnell is senate majority leader wields a lot of power. he also has a lot of money that go into the reelection campaigns of the senators. hear from an op-ed by senator sherrod brown of ohio, extremely fearful of trump. that really is a step toward authoritarianism. when you start fearing the great leader, when you do not act on your principles, when you do not act as a senator of the united states following the rules and procedures of democratic governance, i think that is a very scary time for american democracy. you are professor, right about that because you think of what president trump's response was to senator romney. i mean, within hours he posted a

video on twitter calling him a secret dememocratic asset. >> exactly. trump is known to go after his enemies, even his fririends who disagrgree with him. and what is scary is that people start getting death threats. representative schiff has been the target of credible death threats. this should not be happening and a country that is governed by ththe rule of lalaw and by democratic norms. we are not going to slip into 1930's germany where people are bebeing intimidated by words and then by violence. i think we are not there yet, but we are certainly witnessing the kinds of authoritarian behavior and words that was unthinkable in the united states and its recent past that you see dictators all of the

world. amy: murkowski's path to the senate was quite astounding. alaskaa --y won in lost the republican primary and she won is a right and running against republican and democrat. i want to turn now to the senate majoririty leader mitctch mccon, speaking to fox news wednesday. >> the most aggressive thing you can dodo to any president is to try to impeach them. and they did it on a partyline vote. as can n best describe e it trump derangement syndrome. in othther w words, whatever hes fofor, they are just have a pavlovian n negative response to it almost imimmediately. this was a thoroughly political maneuver. if it was, it was stupid. it backfired. the president has the best numbers he has had since he has been in office. i members who were in tough races arare all looking at bettr numbers s than before impeachmet

started.d. so if this was all about thehe novemberer election, it seems to meme we can conclude, at least n the short-term here, this was a colossal political mistake. amy: let's talk about the role of mitch mcconnell, who proudly said he would not be an impartial juror, that he would coordinate everything with the white house. any were saying maybe republicans will break ranks and alternately call for witnesses. many other set, no, mcconnell's neck would lose control of his republican majority. if you could comment, professor, on both the power and the role of the senate majority leader mitch mcconnell and also of cheap roberts, the chief justice of the united states who presided over the impeachment trial. starting with mcconnell, i think here is the senate majority leader who has completely b broken the senate. he began with blocking the

nomination of merrick garland an now he behaves in such unprinciplpled partisan manner. in fact, it is somewhat laughable they keep calling this partisisan impeachment. there is more partisan in the way in which mitch mcconnell has presided over the senate. he and his fellow senator from kentucky are doing great damage to that great state. i can say they follow in the footsteps of gary davis, the representative and senator from kentucky who was a johnson accolade and a complete racist. i do hope they don't continue on this path, but it is quite likely that mitch mcconnell will be pretty shameless in putting forward the agenda of the republican party no matter the damage that it does to the senate, to our democratic institution, to the rule of law. it is quite clear that they want

trump to be vindicated as their party candidate under any circumstances. mcconnell would be the first one to defend donald trump if indeed he shot someone on fifth avenue. going on to mcconnell would be e first one to chief justice, he simply presided ovever this tri. the best thing he did was not to read senator rand paul's question that out of the whistleblower.r. that did not deter senator paul who calls t them self a, but really has b behaved like an authororitarian.. he read ouout the whistleblblo's name in his speech. now there is some talk the democrats come to house mananags would indeed go to chief justice roberts and ask him to intervene and allow w r witnesses and evidence to come into the impeachment trial..

that did not happen. and i suspect it did not happen because theyey sounded him out d he made it quite clear that he would not intervene. and instead of embarrassing him publicly by making that notion, they decided to just let it go. here are democrats upholding the integrity and the independence of the federal judiciary of the supreme court of chief justice roberts a and not going on that route as was suggested by senator elizabeth warren's question. and there are the repepublicans willing to tear down anything standing in their way as long as they can get trump reelected. nermeen: professor, very quickly before we conclude, if you could talk about what you believe the longer-term effects of this drawnout impeachment trial will be on the american public, in particular, on trump's

supporters. just prior to the senate vote on wednesday, a gallup poll found that trump's job approval rating was at 49%, which is the highest it has been since hehe took office. >> well, you know polls come and go and will be interesting to see who conducted the poll and how it was conducted. as a historian, i tend to take these things with a pinch of salt. it is just literally a snapshot in time. all of the polls productive from would be -- trump would be defeated and impact in supporting the electoral college. i disagree with senator mcconnell. i think trump will be damaged goods, that this impeachment, the ongoing investigation, the bolton revelations, as they come out, will eventually swing the pendulum against trump. i don't think this is good for trump at all. i think the entire impeachment

just theevealed not corruption that everyone knows about, not the kind of behavior that demeans's office that everyone knows about, but it revealed a person who was willing to sacrifice national interest and security -- something republicans actually used to value -- for personal gain. this is not even for his private enrichment. he has been flouting the emoluments clause, he and his family have beeeen flouting t te emoluments clause of the constitution by personally enriching themselves after his election to the presidency. but this is actually even worse than that kind of crude corruption. this is lititerally playing a ge with the country security, with the country's democracy. and that i thihink is extreremey troubling.

i think that will eveventually you know, the republicans today remind me a lot of the democrats in the 185050's. remember, up to simply flip parties ideological roles when you talk about the 19th century because the republican party was a a liberal, progressive party f anti-slavery and big government and the democratic party had become the party of slavery, white supremacy, and states rights. along partisan lines.s. they voted agree just protecting slavery because they had a full proof majority in congress and many times they had -- in fact, most of the times they had the presidency. and then they went down to a dedeep defeatt and there were ae to eventually reinvent themselves in the progressive era, the new deall era, and finally was civil rights. will the current gop be able to do that?

i doubt it. i think they have adopted a strategy of thinking and swimming with trump. let us see how far that gets them. amy: we want to thank you so much for being with us manisha , sinha, professor of american history at the university of connecticut. fellow at the radcliffe institute at harvard university. author of "the slave's cause: a history of abolition." she goes into the impeachment of president andrew johnson. she wrote an opinion piece for "the new york times" in november headlined "donald trump, meet your precursor." we will link to that at democracynow.org. iowawe come back, we go to . stay with us. ♪ [music break]

amy: this is democracy now!, i'm amy goodman with nermeen shaikh. nermeen: democratic officials in iowa are continuing to release official results from monday's caucus. senator bernie sanders and former south bend mayor pete buttigieg are now in a virtual tie with 97% of precincts reporting.

sanders maintains a lead in the popular vote, but buttigieg has a slight advantage in what's known as the "state delegate equivalent" race. buttigieg has 26.2% of state delegate equivalents. sanders has 26.1%. "the new york times" is now predicting sanders has a greater chance of winning overall in part of the vermont senator's overwhelming strength in satellite caucuses in iowa andd around the country. amy: and world. democratic officials have attributed the chaos in iowa to a newly created app, built by a little-known firm called shadow, which has ties to the democratic establishment as well as the pete buttigieg campaign. democratic leaders in iowa are also facing widespread criticism over its slow release of results and is some cases, for issuing incorrect results. in one case, delegates bernie sanders were mistakenly given to

deval patrick. we go now to cedar rapids, iowa, where we are joined by chris schwartz. he is chair of the black hawk county board of supervisors, the state co-chair for bernie 2020, as well as state director of americans for democratic action. storys such a confusing abouout what is s taking place n iowa,, still so unclear, so much to chrissy -- maybe the word shadow is appropriate here. take us through what has taken place so far in iowa. >> it is an honor to be here with democracy now! today. caucus nights, things seem to be going relatively smoothly anand very d diverse precinct in waterloo, the most diverse city in the statate of iowa. we were in and out of our caucus site within an hour and felt things ran smoothly, we will know results tonight. and the hours just went on and

on and did not have a sense of what was going on and finding wasn't working for reporting and they did not have the backup phone lines operating within a people and we were finding out the precinct chairs were all volunteers who did a pretty gooood job of running thr sites, just wawaiting on hold fr hours and hours and hours. amy: did you practice the day before? had you ever seen this app? have people try to put some information into see if it would register? >> no, i had never seen the app. only thehe precinct chairs runng it had access, and it is my understatanding most of them jut saw it just the we can before. some of them were trying to download the app at the actual caucus site that night. there had not been enough of a practice runun. nermeen: it seems extraordinary given the stakes in the selection that democrats would take a risk of this sort by trying an app that had not been

tested and you said on the precinct chairs sought and only just the weekend before. >> no, it was a pretty remarkable thing. your recruiting precinct chairs up to the last minute to run these caucus sites, so to think they can be trained on this technology, there really should have been some other kind of dry run to see if that was a route worthy of going for the iowa caucuses. amy: so keep going. the hours dragged out. the app does not work. how to get the black hawk county caucus information to central commanand or whoever it is thats counting? >> it was about 2:00 on tuesday. i got any mail from our county youy secretary just letting know that sanders won in a big sizable margin and he knew i

would want that information. about an hour later i went down to volunteer and help stuff the envelopes, those that get sent on to i would democratic party into one at which point i was what the breakdown of first breakdown of round of voting and with the final delegate count would be for our county convention at which point it showed almost 1000 vote lead in that first round for senator sanders, something that increased in the second round of viability. this was about 2:00 that day i knew what was going on, that we had one black hawk county really begged. it was still not included in that first initial reporting of precincts released and i was getting concerned nobody in our county party understood why those numbers were not included. amy: because you had reported them. close i reached out to troy price and asked, what is the process this needs to go through to get released?

tried to give them the benefit of the doubt, try to understand what the process was they were going through. i heard crickets. i heard nothing back when he has usually been very responsive to me on things. the next day i reached out again and said, hey, i'm still waiting on this stuff. then i was feeling guilty that i knew the results for our county but the constituents i represent didn't, the volunteers of these different campaigns, the volunteers that ran these caucus sites and worked reaeally hard o do it, all of the people that came in from across the country to get out the vote -- we had 40 people staying at our house doing get out the vote efforts. these people had a right to know the results of their work. we tweeted it out. i was driving so my fiance logan was handling my phone. i just told and what you tweet and put the results on twitter and facebook. apparently, at the same time the iowa democratic party was releasing another round of results, to find out they had given all of these bernie

sanders delegates in black hawk county to deval patrick. deval patrick should not even come as a surprise to him, did not have any support and block out candy that evening. we are just finding out as we were putting up these results, they're putting out results totally contrary. i think it force them to immediately walk back what they have put out. amy: to be clear, chris -- >> get these results outcome yet they released them and they still get it wrong. what is going on. nobody is being told this. i'm a member of the democratic party, and elected official. i still can't get my answers answered. amy: to be clear, chris, we got this information because you posted. black hawk county caucus results, sanders 2149 votes. 155 county delegates. buttigieg, 1578 votes.

100 11 county delegates. that is like a 44 county delegate lead for sanders. you had given it to them early. it is not that you were not able to get through. when he finally got through, utensil results after results posted by the iowa democratic party, but black hawk county was not included and then you saw it was counted d as the formemer governor of massachusetts deval patrick's votes? >> at first things were not being included and then when they were finally included, they had all of these precincts going to deval p patrick, , which was- just did not make any sense. my caucus was done in under a a hour. it took almlmost 48 hours for te iowa democratic partrty to finay report those results correctly. amy: in our lead, we talked about a number of places now predicting bernie sanders -- it is a virtual tie between him and

buttigieg now -- could pull ahead because of the satellite caucuses. this is such an obscure process that i don't think k people understand. maybe even in iowa. satellite caucuses take place in iowa in the united s states and around the world for the iowa caucus? >> yes. they were a new thing this year. one of the reforms to try to make the caucuses more accessible. as most people looking at this, the caucus -- there is a hurdle to accessibility whether you are disabled were a working person who can't get off work to come out and participate for one hour, to our, three hour long process. they first propose doing a virtual caucus. that was shut down. so they decideded to do satellie caucuses that were geared, held in unit halls, some geared for persons with disabilities, satellite caucuses spanish-language. it is my understanding we are

waiting on a lot of them that were located in the first congressional district in eastern iowa and bernie sanders was strong in all of those. i am hearing pete buttigieg was not viable at a number of the satellite caucus sites, so i think it will be very interesting to see if that tips the scales when we get those results. but what is clear to me is that more iowans came out and supported bernie sanders on caucus night. if there such difficulty figuring out the accuracy of the delegates and what the state delegate equivalents are and what that proper equation is, then let's just go with the popular vote and that legally shows bernie sanders had the most amount of support in iowa on caucus night. nermeen: could you explain before we conclude why it is a new app was introduced in the first place? were there difficulties or problems with the app used during the iowa caucus and 2016?

what was the justification given for a new app that was not tested? >> good question. there was no app used in 2016. in 2016 andcuss site we just phoned inin our results. there were enough people answering the phone that nighth. i got through riright away and really had no issues. very close that n night and i believe it went ininto the nit because it was coming down so close between senator sanders and secretary clinton, but we still knew it within hours of the end of the caucus site because we were using the old standard system of phoning in your results and then dropping off your packet at moore county party headquarters. that is then all sent to do once of record is there. i jujust don't undersndnd why if the app wasn't working, what we did not have enough people

operating those phone systems. amy: i'm looking at a piece in intercept, person withth knowlee of thehe company's culture, talking about shadow, who asked to remain anonymous for fear of reprisal, shared communication showing top officials at the come regularly expressed hostilititto senator bernie supporters. my gallon is married to michael halley. my gallon is the head of acronym, which owns shshadow, ad tara my gagallon is married to michael halle, senior strategist with the buttigieg campaign. as we wrap up, chris, if you can talk about the significance of all of this and this is certainly opening the discussion again whether i was should be firsrst. you talked about lockup county and waterloo being the most diverse area of waterloo but the act is to the widest

-- whitetest states are determining who can be president in 2021. >> there's a lot of information developing about the app that is still uncleaear. one ththing that is clear toto s the decision wasn't made by the entire state central committee of the democratic party and those e are ththe folks s the py elects to represent us and decide the direction of the state party. i guess it was a decision of an operation subcommittee and even folks on the state central committee that were asked app,ne the use of this whether we had the proper backups in place. i am beingng told by those committee m members thosese vois werere quelled. i do certainly think -- there are pluses and minuses of the iowa caucus. a plus being in a small state like iowa is the community orgaganizing still matters in ts verse isis it just beingng a big medium market game.. magic o one, i a

would probobably just have us da primary all in the same day as iowa,, you hamsher, south carolina, nevada. then you have a really great cross sectionn of amamerica, rul states, urban areas, much more diversity that reflects the melting pot that is america. all in ststates where community organizing immobilization would still matter. that it would be what i would tell the dnc, let's move to primary that is held in those four states all in the same day when this is up next. amy: and the people would also not be aware in the country that bernie sanders -- i mean, now in a virtual tie with buttigieg, .1% apart on the delegate equivalents as you talk about it in iowa -- but thousands of popular votes ahead. at this point, 2500? >> absolutely. it is clear bernie sandersrs had the most suppoport of iowans on

caucus night, and so i i think that is what people should be looking at around the country is that this movement came outut in iowa,, in my own precinct, he ws very diverse supportrt of young black and brown and queer and straight p people coming togeter to supupport sanders,, and thats what our coalition looks like all across this country and i believe there is a movement ready y to electct sanders prest that is going to have really great momentum going on for these early victories in iowa and i predict we will do well in new hampshire on tuesday. amy: chris schwartz, thank you for being with us, chair of the black hawk county board of supervisors, the state co-chair for bernie 2020 as well as state director of americans for democratic action. speaking to us from cedar rapids, iowa. this is democracy now! when we come back, what has happened to hundreds of salvadoreans who were deported from the united states? a new report is out.

we will be talking about that tomorrow. but today, we're going to talk about the national archives. you heard about the changing of ththe photographs of the 2017 march, women's march.h. well, now ththere is a new stot. what else is being erased? for examplple, i ice records. stay with us. ♪ [music break]

amy: yesterday would have beeeen trayvon martin's 25th birthday. this is democracy now!, i'm amy goodman with nermeen shaikh. nermeen: last month, the national archives and records administration apologized for doctoring a photo of the 2017 women's march to remove criticisms of president trump. "the washington post" first revealed the agency, which calls itself the country's record keeper, had altered the image. as part of an exhibit called "rightfully hers: american women

and the vovote," the national archives displayed a large image of the first women's march. but signs referencing trump had been blurred to remove his name, including a poster reading "god hates trump." the national archives originally stood behind his decision, saying the changes were made "so as not to engage in current political controversy." but last month, the national andives reversed course apologized. amy: we turn now to a historian who says this was only the latest example of "a great and growing threat to our nation's capacity to protect and learn from history." matthew connelly is professor of history at columbia university and principal investigator at history lab. his recent piece for "the new york times" is headlined "why you may never learn the truth about ice." it details how the national archives is reportedly allowing millions of documents, including many related to immigrant rights, to be expunged.

professor, welcome to democracy now! lay out what you found. >> what i found is the national archives, which as a matter of business in the normal practice of archiving our nation's record, they have to decide what records are going to be temporary and which ones they need to preserve e permanently. normally, , these kinds of documents come they call them retention schedules, are ones that nobody would read except maybe an archivist or historian. in this case, it was fascinating because what i found and others have found i is records relating to the death, sexual assault of and document it immigrants had been designated as temporary. in other words, these were records i decided had to be deleted after sometimes three years, five years, 10, or at most 25 years in this case. so there was a big outcry and a lot of people tens of thousands of people spoke out in protest, dozens of members of congress and the senate also voiced objections about this. but in december, the archivist of the united states announced

they were going to go ahead anyway. they made some changes but in fact, huge numbers of records relating to shoddy medical care, all of these records were going to start to be destroyed later this year. nermeen: is there any precedent to this? who has been in charge? who has made the decisions here? do you know of any incident prior to the trump administration where the national archives were altered in this way? >> in fairness, the national archives has a tough job. in effect, they have to predict the future. they have to try to figure out is future citizens are going to want to know about the past. and in the past, it was typically agencies and departments like the cia, the pentagon, that would destroy what i think everyone could recognize were vitally important records here and now. for example, the cia has a long history of destroying records of covert operarations, mind contrl experiments, and most recently

the torture videos. similarly, the pentagon destroyed all of the recorords f the deliberations of the joint chiefs of staff. nermeen: those types of documents would normally be in the national archives? >> one would hope. under the federal records act, these are significant documents that should have been preserved. it was a violation of federal law these records were destroyed. normally we trust the national archives to be the watchdog to prevent otheher parts s of the government from destroying the historical record. unfortunately, that is not happening. amy: you write a book with the department of international archives have decided to delete files on endangered species, offshore drilling inspections come the safety of drinking water. ." specifically about with ice,e, last month they anannounced ththat ice could g o aheaead and start destroying records from trump's first year including the detainees complaints about civil rights violations and shoddy medical care. is this different from previous administration's? >> it is.

i would say under this administration, things have gone much further much faster. i think perhaps the best example of that is how donald trump tears of his own papers in tiny little pieces. the national a archives try to o the righght thing in this case. they sent staff to the white house to scotch tape those papers back together again. i'm not even kidding. amy: say that again. >> they went to the white house to scotch tape thosese pieces bk together again.. these are federal employees having to fish out of the trash pieces of paper that donald trump had left there rather than leaving a record for the rest of us. they taped it back together. what happened to those people? they were fired. they were terminated. amy: who do ththey work fofor? >> the u.s. national archives. they work for all of us. this is what happened to them when they tried to stop this thing. this administration has gone further than any administration before. you have to go back to the nixon white house to see anything like

it. that is the whole reason we have the presidential records act. i think more of us need to pay attention. in effect, this white house is being allowed to destroy evidence about things we may never know about. amy: you also talk about the whole issue of the trumpet administration around declassification. .ou tweeted yesterday >> the state department under federal law, and i took congress requires the state department to produce the records. they have been doing this is the civil war. for more than 150 years, state department string to professionally train highly competent and cocompletely reresponsible have been trying o get the rest of us a record of what the government does in our name. sometimes these volumes come out 30, 40, sometimes even 50 years after the fact because it takes that long to get ththe cia and e pentagon and the others to allow these documents to be released. what has happened in most rerect

years is the pentagon has blocked the state department from allowing the release of pentagon documents. hundreds of these documents. these documents date back to the 1970's and 1980's and they're claiming even now it is dangerous to release them to the public. amy: give us your final thoughts. we have 20 seconds. around what people can do, what historians can do. >> a lot of what is happening at the national archives is because they are being starved of resources. they have a smaller budget now that act in 2 2008. that budget has been cut every year for the last three years. if you care about having a port of history that can render some judgment abobout what is happeng in our time, you can let your congressman and senators note you care about the past and want to reserve it. amy: do you think they will keep information about president trump being impeached? >> i think the people want to do the right thing, they just need our help. amy: thank you, matthew connelly, professor of history at columbia university and

principal investigator at history lab. we will link to your piece "why you may never learn the truth about ice." that does it for our show. democracy now! is looking for feedback from people who appreciate the closed captioning. e-mail your comments to outreach@democracynow.org or mail them to democracy now! p.o. box 693 ne