05/28/20 05/28/20 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] amamy: frorom new york city, t e epicicenter of the pandemic, t s is democracy now! >> calling on him to charge the arresting ofofficer in thiss ca. we cannot turn a blind eye. it i is on us as leaders to see this for what it is and call it what it is. george floyd deserves justice. amy: minneapolis is on fire as people again take to the streets

to protest the murder ofof geore floyd, a b bla man killed byby white police offer derek chauvin on mdaday. video owows hikneeeeli on flo's ne as he repeatedly sa, "i ca't brthe." e minnealisayor is lling on prosetors to le crimil chges. we'll go minneapis to spk with cil rightattorney founder of cial jusce network,ekima le-armstro then, lay kramerthe legendary writer and trailblblazing activist in the fight against aids, has died at ththe age of 84. >> i am apapproaching my end. but i still have a few years of fight in me. >> we lolove youou. >> to screen out the fact that almost everyone gay i have known plaguen affected by this

of aids. amy: larry kramer helped start gave its health crisis and act drugs.ement life-saving he faced off with dr. anthony fauci before the two became friends. many credit kramer for saving thousands of lives. withll host a roundtable ann northrop gregg gonsalves and and speak with tony winning playwright tony kushner who wrote "angels in america." all that and morore, coming up. welcome to democracy now!, democracacynow.org, the quarante report. i'm amy goodn.n. the death tollll from covid-19 n the united s states hahas passed 100,000, just t three months afr the u.s. recorded its first deaths from the novel coronavirus that emerged in china late last year. with just over 4% of the world's population, the united states has recorded roughly one-third of all coronavirus cases,

averaging over 1100 deaths per day since march. and as bad as that figure is, a "new york times" review off excess deaths suggests the true u.s. death toll from covid-19 is likely over 125,000. throughout the month of february, as the coronavirus spread largely undetected in the united states, president trump repeatedly downplayed the threat of the virus and claimed it was going to go away. pres. trump: we have done an inincredible job. we're going to continue -- it is going to disappear. one day it is likeke a miracle. amy:y:n wednesdaday, president trtrump flew to florida to watch nasa's planned d unch of a new spacex spacecrcraft. the launch was aboborted due to bad weather. throughout the dayay, trump made no mention o of the grim mileste of 100,000 deaths s -- no writtn statement honoring those w who have died, no condndolences offered to families, and not even a tweet acknowledging the six-figure death toll.

in m minnesota, partrts of minneaeapolis erupupted into fls wednesday night as residents took to the streets for a second night to protest the death of george floyd, a black man killed by police on monday. a videcicirculed widelon social media earlier ts s week showing george fydyd gasng foror air and teining thoffifice "i cannot breathe,"hihile ahite officer med derek chauvi pinn h him tthe e pament w wh a kn on n hineck. three her offirs stood nearby. all four oicicers ve s sin been fired. the officers confrted d fld after ceceivina cocompint that he tried using c countfeit bill to buy ococerie on wednesday, protesters held a day-long demonstration outside the city's third precinct police headadquarters. police fired tear gas, flash bang grenades, and projectiles in an attempt to disperse the crowd. demonstrators also rallied outside the home of former officer derek chauvin. on wednesday night, the city requested help from the national guard as a number of buildings

were set ablaze.e. meanwhile, minneneapolis mayor jacob frey has called on prosecutors to file criminal charges against chauvin. killedis that man who george floyd not in jail? george floyd deserves justice. his family deserves justice. the black community deserves justice. our city deserves justice. amy: "the star tribune" reports derek chauvin was involved in multiple police shootings in his 19 years on the minneapolis police force and was the subject of a dozen police conduct complaints. protests over the killing on george floyd have also erupted in other cities, including los angeles, where demonstrators tetemporarilily blocked d traffn highway y 101. we will go to miminneapolis aftr headlines. china's parliament has approvevd a new law that criminalilizes ay

conduct in hong g kong that hars national sececurity and allows chinese intelligigence agencieso set up in the former british cololo for the f first time. hundreds of hong kong protesters have been arrested in recent days opposing the law as well as a separate bill making disrespect of the chinese national anthem a crime. earlier today group of hong kong , a protesters gathered at a shopping mall. passedtually, after they whatational security law, will happen to the protesters? does our next generation [indiscernible] amy: the trump administration strongly criticized the new chinese law. secretary of state mike pompeo has told congress the u.s. no longer views hong kong as fully autonomous from china -- a move that may lead to hong kong losing its special e economic status with the e united states. in washington, d.c., the house of representatives held its

first-ever remote vote on wednesday with over 70 democratic lawmakers casting floor votes by proxy. as they stayed away from capitol hill in to stop community spread of the coronavirus. house republicans on tuesday filed a federal lawsuit seeking to block r remote voting ass unconstitutional, describibing t as a partisan power grab by majority democrats. meanwhile, civil liberties groups are calling on congreressmembers to v vote dowa patriot act reauthorization bill ththat would allow the justice department and fbibi to spy on e internet browser histories of u.s. residents.. a similar bill passed the senate last week by a single vote.. in new york,k, scores of activis held a c car-caravavan protest outside the notorious sing sing prison on wednesday, demanding that governor andrew cuomo immediately release prisoners at risk of covid-19. at least four sing sing

prisoners have died of the disease and dozens more have tested positive. elsewhere, protesters deposited effigies of body bags outside new york city hall wednesday to mourn the deaths of 78 unhoused new yorkers during the pandemic. the protesters held signs reading, "mayor de blasio: there is blood on your hands." they're demanding the city open thousasands of vacant hotel roos to unhoused people to isolate and for an end to punitive sweeps against the homeless. a new study finds even milild cases of covid-19 9 trigger people's immune systems to produce antibodies against the novel coronavivirus. the findingsy y resecherers thpasteur institutinin frae raishopes s at most people w contractororonavus w wilhave some forofof immity agait aa cond infecection meanwhile, reaearche at t th universityf f calirniaia-sta barbarsay six et of soal distan might n be enou to stop the sprd d of conavirus,

espealally icold and hid ather. the searcherfound th under certn conditns, dropts rrying thehe virus can travel up to 20 fefeet after thehey're exd by infected peopople. the finding was published on a pre-print server and has not yet been peer reviewed. in southwestern floridida, the's been an explosion of coronavirus cacases in immokalee, with over 420 people testing positive. the rural community is home to some of the florida's largest populations of immigrant farmworkers who've been deemed essential during the pandemic, but who often lack access to hehealthcare, , paid sick leaved other on-the-job prorotections. the aid group doctors without borders is calling on florida officials to aggressively ramp up testing and contact tracing for farmworkers. in brazil, police raided dozens of locations wednesday linked to extremist right-wing activists propagating fake news online in support of far-right president jair bolsonaro. the raids came as part of an

ongoing investigation into a fake news s network that authorities believe is linked to the president's son, carlos bolsonaro. the raid came as brazil's covid-19 cases topped 410,000 with over 25,000 deaths. brazil is now second to the united states for the most coronavirus infections in the world.d. in argenentina, security f forcs have sealed ofoff one of the poorest neighborhoods in the outskikirts of the capital buens aires, preventing people from entering or leaving after more than half of the slum's 300 residents tested positive for covid-19 earlier in the week. local activists and some members of argentinana's leftist government condemned the move saying it felt like the country was building ghettos for poor people. argentina's slums are often overcrowded and lack proper sewerage or running water, making it nearly impossible for residents to isolatete or maintn proper hygiene. in peru, hospitals across the country are on the brink of collapse as coronavirus cases continue to surge, forcing some health care facilities to place

patients in improvised tents outside. >> right now we find ourselves in a collapsed reality. we do not have beds in the icu. we do not have beds in thehe hospital. patientsts are dying e every dad ththe are n no results from authorities. we are urgently asasking for hep our r personal protectctive equipmenent to arrive. the in brussels, belgium, european commission has unveiled a coronavirus aid package worth over $820 billion. the plan, which needs the unanimous support of all 27 european member nations, would speed investments in green industries like renewable energy as part of e europe's green deal initiative. spain has begun 10 days of national mourning for victims of the coronavirurus pandemic. so far, more than 27,000 people have died of covid-19 in spain. an interernational coalition of anti-war and human rights groups are calling on the u.s. congress to b block two pendingng weapons sales to the philippines, worth $2$2 billion, saying presidedent

rodrigo duterte has a legacy of human rights violations and that the weapons could be used to unleash violence on innocent filipinos. in a letter to u.s. lawmakers, the coalition writes -- "what could help the filipinos right now is aid for their under-resourced healthcare system and for programs to assist poor people to survive during the current lockdown, not an arms sale." this comes a as duterte hahas pt e militaryry in charge of the country's covid-19 r response. in early aprpril, duterte e ordd trtroops to shootot did anyone - dead anyone violatining quarantine. and the legendary aids activist and playwright larry kramer has died at the age of 84. in 1983, he helped found the gay men's health crisis, the country's first aids organization. four years later, he helped form act up -- the aids coalition to unleash power. the direct action group invaded the offices of drug companies and scientific labs, stormed st. patrick's cathedral in new york, covered the home of senator jesse helms in a giant condom, and conduct many die-ins at the fda all in an attempt to force

the country to address the aids epidemic. larrrry kramer ao o wrote manyny plays, including "the normal heart." last year, he addressed the queer liberation march in new york city. >> everyone gay i have known has been affected by this plague of it has since its beginning, this has continued to be my motivivation for everythig i hahave donone. it has been a fight i have been proud of fighting. amy: we will look at larry kramer's agassi later in the with playwright tony kushner andnd journalist an northrop and gregg gonsalves. and those arare some of the headadlines. ththis is democrcracy now!, democracynow.org, the quarantine report. i'amamy goodmaman. we b begin today's shshow in minneapolis, where parts o of te

city erupted into flames wednesday night as the residents again took to the streets to protest the death of george floyd, a black man killed by white police officer derek chauvin on monday. a viral videdeo shows chauvin kneeli on geor f floy's ck for nunumberf miminus as flo repeedlyly ss "i"i cnot breath" the other officerstood by geor floyd sfocated. ey have en identied as t thao, thas lane,nd j alexandekueng. all ur offics were fed on tuesda on wednesday night, the city requested help from the national guard as a number of buildings were set ablaze. the protests followed a day-long demonstration outside the city's third precinct police headquarters, where police fired tear gas and projectiles at the protesters. demonstrators also rallied outside the e home of former officer derek chauvin. minneapolis mayor jacob frey called on prosecutors to file crimiminal charges agagainst dek

chauvin on wednesdayay. >> anything else over the last 36 hours, one on the mental question -- fundamental question. why is the man who killed george floyd not in jail? had done it or i had done it, we would be behind bars right now. and i cannot come up with a a gd answer to that question. and so i am calling on hennepin county attorney mike freeman to act on the evidence before him, calling on him to charge the arresting officer inin this cas. we cannot turn a blind eye. itit is on us as leaders to see this for what it is and call it what it is. george floyd deserves justice. his family deserveves justice. the black community deserves

justice. and our c city deserves justiti. amy: "the star tribune" reports derek chauvin has been involved in multiple police shootings in his 19 years on the minneapolis police force and was the subject of a dozen police conduct complaints. in 2008, he shot and injured a man while making a domestic assault call. in 2006, he was one of six officers who killed a man after responding to a stabbing. nbc news reports that it is unclear from the police report which officers fired their weweapons. the other police officer identified in the video of george floyd's murder is tou thao. he was sued for use of excessive force in 2017. according to the lawsuit lamar , ferguson was walking home with a woman who was eight months pregnant when thao and another officer stopped them and searched them without cause. the officers handcuffed ferguson and thao threw him to

the grouound and punched him repeatedly according to the lawsuit. the case settled for $25,000. this is minnesotota attorney general keith ellison, the former congressmanan, speakining wednesdaday. hehe announced b both state and federal officials have opened investigations into the killing of geoeorge floyoyd. >> this investigation must proceed with a degree of obobjectivity.y. we're not goingng to prerejudgee fact, though the e video is so clear before our e eyes. why? because atat the end of this process, we want nobody to be able to question the process. so what we''re dealing with is in dealingated case with a systemic problem. in the investigation and the prosecution, if that happens in , theytimate consequences are being handled. i'm confident as they are being handled competently. but thatat does not end it.

the dischaharge of the officers do n not e i it. the criminalal procecess that hs begun -- the c civil-rights process does not end it. we've got to have permanent deep systemic change. amy: minnesota's african-american attorney general was also the first m muslim elected to congress. we go now w to minneneapis w whe wewe are joioined by n nekima levy-armstrong, civil l rights attorneyey, activist, foundederf ththe racial justice network and former president of the minneapolis chapter of the nanaacp. welcome back to democracy now! your city is in flames. can yoyou talk about what happed this week and what you're demanding? >> yes. so we knknow george floyd was unjustly killed by minneapolis police officers. ththe video has gone viral. people are outrageged. this is s yet another remininder that the minneapolis police department has a c culture of

violencece, specificlyly when it comes to their interactions with the african-american community. and so as a result of what happened to george floyd, we took to the streets in a 2.5 mile m march from the site of where he was killed to the third precinct police station where thousands of people stood in solidarity, standing up for .ustice for george floyd and in the last couple of days, there have been skirmishes between law enforcement officials and protesters. i just actually left the site a little while ago and some of the buildings were burning that were in close proximity to the third precinct police station. and although some people are surprised by this, i am not surprised because we have been warning city o officials for may was going minneapolis

to become the n next ferguson if they did not clean up the minneapolipolice departmtment and d address the otother racial inequities that t the as africacan-americans. y you respond to ththe family calling for the police to be brought up on murder charges, not just chauvin, the one who kneeled on the neck of georgege, as he pleaded for his life ," the "i cannot breathe mayor calling for criminal charges, the attorney general about what he is calling for in minnesota,a, and also president trump saying he is looking at the case? >> well, the reality is it wasn't just chauvin who was responsible for the death of george floyd. there were actually three officers that were pressing g un his bobody, that were e holdingm down s so he could not move.

there was a fourth offfficer who was stananding guard, preventing community members from intervrvening in n that situati. the community members did the best that they could to ask the officers to please allow mr. george floyd to be able to get up. and ththeir cries and geororge floyd's cries f fell on deaf ea. just the flagrant attitude of the officers anand the nonchalat way they responded to a man just simply asking to be able to breathe is absolutely unconscicionable. and i a agr with thee family, i agree with the commmmunity that those officersrs should immediately be charged f for the murder of george floyd. they should have already been arrested by now. it is a no-brainer. any of us who had engaged in that level of conduct wouldld already be in jail. just because they are officers

does not mean that they should get away with this type of behavior. firing them is the first step, but it is not enough on the road toward justice for peoplple to feel satisfied by that outcome. amy: let's go to the e minneapos police chief speaking wednesday. >> i certainly have said publicly as well that what i observed, those acactions from in noformer four officers way reflect ththe values and the vision and the culture thahat i want to change here within the minneapolis police department. so many of our men and women work eacach and everery day to y to build t those relationshipspf trust. we e did not see t the police officersrs who were involved wih the killing ofeoeorge floyoyd mask. what are you demanding of police chief are donene to? >> we are demananding that ththe body c camera footage be releas.

as i mentioned earlier, course we what the officers charged immediately, although, that decision is not inin the hands f the chief. we had requested that those officers be fired and he agreed that they needed to be fired. and that was an unprecedented move to have officers whwho are fore officers bebe fired killing a black person. that has not happened. normally, officers are allowed to remain on the force after they have killed someone. chargesdition to the and the body camera footage, we want to see systemic changes within the minneapolis police department. we want to see a cultural shift. we're also asking for the appointment of a special prosecutor. we simply do not trust the hennepin county attorney to make a fair and objective decision. typically, he sides with law enforcement officers. he has not held a single officer

accountable for shooting a civilian, for killing a civilian, except in the case of justine damon, a white, fluent woman who was shot and killed by a black muslim somali man. timew after a period of where mike freeman actually did bring charges and ultimately mohammed noor was convicted and is spending time in prison. are white men and not one has been charged for killing a black person in the state of minnesota. and we believe that that needs to change and needs to change now. they need to be heldd accccounte for george floyd's murder. amy: i want to turn to the eyewitness, one of the eyewitnesses. we see people from the cell phone footage who are filming. he was right therere. he went on n cnn's chriris cuom. the part that makes the least

sense ththat any of the cops -- didid you hear them talking to each other a about why they coud not just move him and get him out of the situationon? well, they wawanted to killll that man, bro. they did not speak. they didid not say nothing.. that man h had his knee on his chest, bro. he knew what he wawas doing. am shihimmy, and shimimmy, shimmy. hehe knew it t was a blood show. he l looked at me when n i s sa. he put his head down. he did not cite any other things. and the two otherr cowardsds one didid not of the carar, i know nothing abobout. i did nonot know abobout it unui got a video on my y socialal mea and thingsgs like that. there was into to smomother my n and comeme, and i i seen it. i seen it in h his eyes and d hs demeanor and their movemement.

offificer taoao did not partaket he had controlol of what was g g on on the other side of that car for me did not see whahat was going on. personanay,own meme hehe would k know howw i am. i'm m a contrtrolled athlete. ve a contrtrolled aththlete. i have diffeferent levels do i . i i showed my cocontrol in fronf the worlrld. i got letters from m people w wo know me that s say i was the mot contntrolled t they've ever seee in my life. mesee a man that looks like lolose his life. to a a man who had n no remorse. he had no feeling.g. i don't think even had a heart at that momenen he is going to f feel that foroe rest of hihis life e just like'm good h here, and say "i can't breathe, i want my m mama." i am a mama'a's boy, broro. that hurts me deep. .omeththing needs to be done

something needs to be done. amy: that was eyewitneness donad williams describing the kilillig of george floyd. nekima levy-armstrong, as you hear this and the family is demanding murder charges be brouought againsnst all four officers, right now parts of minneapolis, southern minneapolis, are in flames. your final thoughts on whatt needs to hapappen at this point? >> what needs to happen is chargeges need t to be brougught immediatelely against the e four officers who killed george floyd. there is simply no justitificatn for what they did or why y they did it. and people have to wake up and understand that as black people, we do not feel safe in the city of minneapolis. we do not f feel safe in the ste of minnesota. we do not feel safe around this country when it comes to our

interactioions with law enforcrcement. and like he said, that needs to change and it needs to change now.w. footage the otherer video that we have seen and that we have not seen, one frorom the storore footage frorom across te street. the police officers claimed he was resisting arrest, but we see him coming out of the car. we see the police officers holding him -- they handcuffed him, they walk him across the street, and that is when they take him down. can you explain this? >> there is s no explanation. and i think that people need to shift their focus from whether he w was a resisting arrest or not. that has nothing to do with the compressed that man's body, put the full weight of a human body on his neck, and

snuffed the life out of him. amy: for something like eight minutes. >> absolutely. who could justify that? that was a modern-day lynching. no other words for that. that wasas a moderern-day lyncn. so peoplple have too realizeze t they witnessed, bebe honest abot it, and push for accountability, and not allow them to use technicalities as a way to juststify what happened to geore floyd. it doeoesn't matter about t his past. it doesn't matter whethther he s resisisting or he didn't. it doesn't t matter what happenn the store. whatat matters is thosose offics had aa chance to ensure that gegeorge floyd could live e andt die. that he could breathe and not susuffocate. or have whatever kind of response to his body that happened. he shoululd be alive tododay t l hihis story. they took that away from him. they should be held accountable. amy: this is floyd's brothther

speaking on cnn tuesday. >> i loved my brother. everybody loved my brother. knowing my brother is to love my brother. they could have tased him. they could have maced him. instead, they put they need in his neck and just sat on him. i did not care at all. he screamed, mama, mama, i can't breathe, i can't breatathe. they killed him. i just don't understand what more we have to go through in life,, man? they did not have to do that to him. amamy: george floyd'd's brother speakingng on cnnn on tuesday. pigeon bankrupt, now the family attorney, has already filed -- benjamin crump coming out the family attorneney, has already filed a lawsuit againsnst minneaeapolis. we w will continue to fofollow e story. we want to thank nekekima levy-armstrong, civil rights attorney, activist, founder of the racial justice networkrk and former president of the minneapolis chapteter of the

naacacp. when we come back, we look at the life and legacy of larry kramer come the legendary writer, trailblazing activivists in thehe fight against aids.s. he died on thursday. stay with us. ♪ [music break]

amy: "the seven n last words of the unarmed" by composer joel thompson, performed d by the sphihinx, led by conduductor eue rogers. thisis is democracy now!, democracacynow.org, the quarante report. i'm amy goodman. we spend the rest of the hour looking at the life and legacy of larry kramer, the legendary writer, the trailblazing

activist in the fight against aids, who died from pneumonia thursday in new york at the age of 84. many credit larry kramer for saving thousands of lives affected by the disease. at least 32 million people have now died from hiv/aids. larry kramer was an oscar-nominated screenwriter for the 1969 film "women in love," --iauto graphical play semi-autobiographical play "the normal heart," which described the rise of aids crisis. in 1982, he co-founded the gay men's health crisis, which became a leading provider of hiv/aids prevention and activism. four years later, he founded act up which focused on direct action protest. cover the home of senator jesse holmes and and giant codom and

conducted many di-ins and attempt to force the country to address the aids epidemic. kramer famously fought with dr. anthony fauci, now a key member of president trump's coronavirus tatask force, who is the directr of the national institute of allergy and infectious diseases at the national institutes of health. in an open letter to "the san francisco examiner," kramer accused fauci of failing to respond quickly to the aids epidemic, and called fauci a murderer. the two later became friends and fauci credited kramer and act up for speeding up the drug testing process. in a "new yorker magazine" profile of kramer this month, michael specter interviewed fauci who told him -- "in american medicine, there are two eras before larry and after larry." specter wrote -- "there is no question in my mind that larry helped change medicine in this country." in a moment, we will host a

roundtdtable on larry kramer''s legacy. but first, this is larry is his own words, just last year, when 4 million people took to the streets of new york city in the largest lgbtq pride celebration in history to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the stonewall uprising. there were two marches that day. revelers marched down fifth avenue cheered on by millions for the world pride parade. and in sheridan square, at the site where gay and trans people clashed with police in 1969, tens of thousands of activists gathered for the anti-corporate queer liberation march. democracy now! was there to -- when we went up to central podium,ople went on the they kramer sat in his addressed the crowd.d.

>> what does pride mean to you? i will tell you what it means to me. i love being gay. i love my people. i think, in many ways, we are better than other people. i think we are smarter and moroe talented and more aware of each other, and i do, i do, i totally do, i am very proud to be g g. [cheers] end, but iching my still h have a few years of figt left in me to scream out -- [cheers] two scream out the fact ththat almost everyone gay i have known

has beenn affected by this plage has since its beginning, this has continued to be my motivation for everytythig i have done. it has been n a fight i havave n proud of fightining. [cheheers] i almost died three times. i started a couple of organizations to fight with me agagainst the p plague. in the end, we failed. faileled.nly fe that i >> n no! cure for t this plague.

too manyny of us are still gettg infected. we have become too complacent with prep. research for the cure is still in the stone age. the few treatments we have are woefully expensive and come with .roublesome side effects and their manufacturer is holding us up to ransom. [applause] yes, we have lost the fight against aids. hard to stand up to the huge portion of ththe population of a american people that hates us. i don't memean dislike, i mean hate. toldwe statarted dying, , we

the american people e what was happening toto us, but the american peoeople did not dodo anything. i hope it is finally donning on you that maybe those american people did not and don't want to do anything about this. nototiced.migight have i can't tell. sortand regulations that of protected us are now being repealed or rewritten. the media, the newspapers, their networks of the rich and religious, their very precedent -- they're very president and vice president will see to it that we are useless. their wildest dreams are coming true. are disappearing and

they are doing it to themselves. required toything world except the will to do it. it should have been simple. fight for our rights, take care of ourselves and each other, be proud of ourselves, be proud we are gay. this should be whatever he gay peperson i is fighting for seven days each and every w week. amy: larry kramer spspeaking jut under a a year a agot the queer liberation march in new york city in central p park. when we cocome back, we hosost a roundtable discussssion on his life and l legacy with two act p members,s, gregg gonsalves and n nonorthrop, as well as pullets e prize-winningg p playwriright ty kushnener.

stay with us. ♪ [music break]

amy: gershwin's "the man i love" perforormed by the san francisco gay men's chorus. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the quarantine report. i'm amy goodman. as we spend the rest of the hour looking at the life and legacy of larry kramer, the legendary writer, trouble using -- trouble is an activist you died in new york of pneumonia -- wednesday at the age of 84. many credit rate kramer for saving thousands of lives affected by the disease. at least 32 million people have died from hiv/aids in the world. warning u us from their various , veterann northrop

journalist, cohost of gay usa. she worked with kramer as a member of act up, was arrested some two dozen times for civil disobedience. assistant gonsalves, professor in epidemiology of microbial diseases at yale school of public health, and co-director of the global health justice partnership. he worked with larry k kramer in act up. in a minute, we will be joined by tony kushner. , your response to larry's death and the significance of his life? i want to talk about the "new was times" obit t that changed yesterday. the subtitle was changed. "larryiginally wrote kramer, author and outspoken

aids activist, dies at 84. he worked hard to shock the company -- country to dealing with aids as a public of emergency but is often abusive approach could overshadow his achievements. they change the word "abusive" to "aggressisive." your t thoughts? >> well, larry is a complicated subject. you could use many words to describe him. i love larry and i love hearing that excerpt from his beach last year. thank you for that. it sort of encapsulated everything about larry, hihis loviving of gay people and all people, his anger at people in power and thehe government thatt was allowing people to die. bag.s a verery mixed i loved him, certainly, and loved him for his anger. but there also a lot of people who thought he went too far or was too negative as he ended up

at the end of that speech. it is hard to encapsulate it all in a couple of sentences. amy: but talk about the creative approach -- i mean, he started gagamen'ss health crisis but was not satitisfied with it, sayingt was not political enough, it was a service organization, so that helped to start act up. ifif you can talk about the various approaches and protests, talk about creativity, from invading the cbs evening news studios when dan rather was introducing the evening news and saying, "kill aides, not gays," arounding a condom senator jesse helmss house. >> well, provocative is certainly aware that describe act up and stitill does. that was to getet attention, ass larry saidid. peopople in power wewere perfecy

happy to lelet other people die. that is the theme we have seen throughout hisistory. we havave seen it in the e vietm war. we havave seen it in the civil rirights m movement, we haveve t in minneapolis with h george floyd. itselelf,s to replicate not actually take care of other people. one heaty's attitutude and transfer to all of us was that u have to get in their faces. you haveve to scream and yell. you have to get their attention, people in power, and you have to create as much of a mass protest to attack that attitude from power to have any affectct. you have to force p people into paying attention. you have to shame them publicly. uci was quoted as saying they wouldld have dinner o one t and thehen larry would go out te

next m morning speaking about ty being a murderer and tony understood that because he understood the process. but i think many of us were frustratated at his calmlm atti, fauci's attitude, because we wanted that anger, , we wanted urgency. people were dying. that is what larry perersonified in his anger. amy: from one plague to another, gregg gonsalves, you are an keep it, i'll just come you are an act up activist. i i want you too respond to what anthony fauci said about larry kramer. "in american medicine, there are two eras... before larry and after larry." >> i know we are memorializing larry this morning, but act up

was a large movement with many, many people working on aids research and drug development in their other groupsps like projet foreman in san francisco led by other student work across the country in san francisco. i think there is biomedical pre-aids and post-eights. on ank after the -- i was call yesterday with breast cancer survivors at their annual meeting will step you realized it wasn't just for aids that act up in our movement was important, it was for people fighting for their own health and their own lives, breast hepatitis c. to the movement is so much more robust and broad now than we ever thought it could be back in the 1980's and 1990's. larry was one of the parks that lit the fire but there were so many peoplple whose memories we

can't lose, even as we memorialize him today. amy: and those deaths, lyric kramamer repeatedly drummmmed ah larry kramer repeatedly drummed in the number of people who had died. on wednesdayay, peter staley tweeted an imamage of an article in the new york times writing -- "on january 25, 1991, this is how "the new york times reported that 100,000 americans had died from aids. they didn't bother writing their own story. they ran an associated press story instead. on page 18. below the fold. no pictures. no names." gregg gonsalves, you are an epidemiologist now. you are dealing with this plague, coronavirus, which larry was writing about at the end of his life. the comparison of the plague of aids and the plague of covid19? >> well, we have two presidents

who botched response to two different epidemics. larry said, i think on the cbs piece in the 1980's, "we died from aids because we were disposable people. we did not matter." a newthere's a new era in set of disposable people, whether they are dying in nursing homes, dying in communities of color, meatpacking plants, and prisons, for those of us who are in act up, we recognize what is going on now and it has been beyond neglect. it is malevolence, pretended dated -- premeditated murder. larry knew what was happening then and now in the epidemic that we are facing todayay. amy: i w want to bring tony kushner into this discussion, the renowneded playwriright and screenwriter, 181 surprise and tony award for h his play "ange" which was later made ininto an award-wiwinning miniseries. his otother plays include

"homebody/kabul," "caroline or change," and "a bright room called day." his most recent play was "the intelligent homosexual's guguide toto capitalism m and socialisih a key to the scriptures." tony kushner was a friend of larry kramer's. tony, was wondering if you could start out by talking about larry kramer's trip to the white house under reagan whwho did not mentn the word aids for something like 6.5 years of his two terms as the plague raged through the community in this country, not to mention around the worlrld. he went there with ththis taelo. talk about w what happened. close someththing that was repoported at the time e and thn was memorialized -- immortalized in a book "the band played on." larry asked to be brought to the white house to a dinner -- i don't remember what the purpose was for the dinner.

but it w was at a momentnt when thean was sort t of riding crest of his popularity, being reelected. when he got up to speak, the prpresident of the united state, larry stood upup and started to boo him loudly. which was an astonishingng mome. it was appropriate because reagan notoriously never menentn the epidemicic until 1987. he sat as president making no public utterance while thousands and thousands and thousands of americans got sick and died. up, as ann was saying earlier, politics that lalarry helped to inventt of a d

toi in your face refusal behave accorording tanany c cods that were, you know, ostensibly about being civilized a and pole of orderlyly in the name getting people to hear the truth. that was one of the signal moments. it certainly h had an enormous impact on me when i read about before i k knew larry. amy: if you can talk about how you got to know him and the significance of who he was from being a playwright like yourself to being this uncompromising activist. >> i think for people, for a gay man ofof my generation, the firt awawareness that most of u us hf larry was reallll extraraordinay " "faggots"s" was published. it w was a shock to the

heterosexual populatioion and a shock to the lgbt community. uswas a word that many of felt we were fighting to permanently retirire. he embraced it. you heard that astonishing speech you played earlier that he was s still using it. ofwas an early manifestation sexual and artrterial people calling themselves clear. hearten the normal happened after that i believeven 1985, 1986, at the public hitter in new york. it was a play like none othther before. i think it is s one of the rear works of art that actuaually i s bothth a great work of art and galvanize people to immediate action. it is a rare work of art that was writteten about in

overwhelmingly terrible momement in the moment ---- [indiscernib] in people were interested theater, people interested i in politics, "normal heart" gate i think permission f for gay thear toto become overtly polititical. it was sort of part of larry's whole project, which -- i agree is an imposossible person t to sum up briefly but anyways he was and it impossible person but he was a very great man and great writer andnd one f the e things he kept screaming t his community was we had to take .urselves really seriously that argumenent with us, with himself, started in the earliest ennedyly g gay w writings he p

and continued until the end of his life. person. veryy tough he and i were very close friends for a while and then we had a .alling out and then a reconciliation of sort. i revere his memory. wrote in thesly earlrly 1980's, one of the first articles warning about the aids epidemic. it was called "1112 and counting." at the time, there were just over cases of aids. 1000 he wrote -- "unless we fight for our lives, we shall die. every gay man who is unable to come forward now and fight to save his own life is truly helping to kill the rest of us." , tony kushner, these

two viruses, comparing aids to what we are confronting today, something larry was alalso dealg with in these last days. gregg saidthink what is pretty much the definition of it. it is s a pandemic that inin may different fromm what the aids epidemic was. itit is far less ignorable by te general population then in his early days aids appeared too be. the populatioion of people immedidiately -- amy: we just have 10 seconds. we want to into the with the words of l larry. epidemics, alll crises reveal certain fundamenental truths about our society. it is degree of coherence and his degree of incoherence and how the vulnerable suffer more from that kind of incoherence, think that is what t larry wawas about. amy: l let's go to the words

of larry kramer from lastst yea. >> do you thihink our enemimiese about the rise of hiv infections? they are grateteful for them. they thanked us for our cooperation and our silence and our r invisibility. happened,e all this what do we do? duty ofk from our opposition. yes, our duty of opposition. in other words, fight back! [cheers] need to fight back altogether as one. i would love to hear you and see

you express the importance of this. if you love being gay as much as i do, fight back. amy: larry kramer, dead at the

. ♪ welcome to nhk "newsline." i'm gene otani in tokyo. we begin in beijing where china's congress has approved a resolution to press ahead with national security legislation for hong kong. the step has unleashed a fresh wave of protests in the territory and sparked a rebuke from other major countries. >> translator: the legislation is aimed at maintaining thon