07/14/20 07/14/20 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] amy:y: from new w york, this is democracy y now! as the united states leads the woworld in cocoronavirus infect, today y we go behind the walalls wheremmigrant jails infection rates are also soaring and look at how thousands more jails my grandparents might be separated from their children started friday. we will speak with reporter jacob soboroff he would inside these ice jails first witnessed

kids in cages in 2018. his new book is called "separated: inside an american tragedy." >> this is the first time since -- the first time ever children have been separated on a systematic racist. look at those photos. that is because of the trump administration. people are locked up in cages, essentially what look like ananimal kennels. i don't know any other way to describe it. amy: than the washington nfl team, whose name is a slur against native americans, says it is changing its ract t name. we w will speak wiwith amanda blblackhorse, onone of the indigenonous activisists who lee decade-long push to remove the r-word from the team's name. the lead writer for president trump's favorite fox news tv show tucker carlsen tonight, the most popular cable show in history, has resigned for posting disturbing racist misogynist messages to an online

form under a pseudonym. short of that and has paid the price for it, but we should point to the ghouls beating their chests, self-righteousness also has its cause. amy: now tucker carlsen says he is going on vacation. we will look at ththe relationsp between fox news and the trump administration with matt gertz media matters. all that and more, coming g up. welclcome to democracy now!, democracacynow.orgrg, the quarae report. i'm amy goodman. califofornia's largely shuhuttig down againin as the state has announced a sweeping plan to hold the recent surgrge in coronavirus cases. on monday, california governor gavin newsom ordered all indoor restaurants, wineries, movie theaters, and museums to be closed again. bars have been ordered to cease all operations. indoor businesses have been shuttered in many areas. newsom said the new shutdowns are needed to address the publbc

health crisis. >> we're continuing to see hospitalizations rise in the state and continuing to see a a modest increase in icu's and byber of beds represented icu patients throughout the state of california, and we continue to experience an increase in the rate of positivity here in the state of california. amy: the los angeles and san diego school districts have announced that all classes will be conducted online at the start of the school year due to the pandemic. the city of atlanta announced a similar plan. this comes as president trump and education secretary betsy devos threaten to pull federal funding from schools that do not reopen. meanwhile, in new york, governor andrew cuomo said schools will be allowed to reopen but only in regions with low daily infection rates. clubs we're not going to use our children as a litmus test and we're not going to put our

where theira place health is in danger. it is that simple.e. we are notot going to use our children as guinea pigs. amy: in other education news, 17 states have sued the trump administration in an effort to blblock a new rule revevoking te vis of foreign students o attend schools where all classes are taught entirelely online due to the coronavirus pandemic. nationwide, more than 60,00000 w cocovid-19 cases were reported n monday. several states, including tennessee, kansas, and washington, all set new single day records. florida remains the hardest hit state. on monday, the state reported 12,600 additional covid-19 cases, i its second-hihighest tl recorded f a single e day. on monday,y, arotesterisisrupt florida vevernoron d destis atat a jason memoal hospil in i am a news conference, now consider the epicenter of the pandemic. >> at that point, i don't even

know if miami-dade had a case, a positive test, maybe a couple, but it was honestly much different than what we are findnding here. so i think -- >> every day, and you're doing nothing. died and people have you are blaming the protesters. you guys have no plans and you are doing nothing. shame on you. amy: the governor has refused to impose a mask requirement were shut down the state. -- four shut down the state. in other news from florida, a 51-year-old mexican man who was held in ice custody in florida has died after testing positive for covid-19. onoval perez-montufa was detained by ice on june 15. more than 3000 immigrants detained by ice have tested positive for covid-19 as has over 900 contractors working at privately-owned immigration prisons. in other immigration news, a federal judge said he woululd wt

until next week to rule on whether migrant parents detained by ice in family detention centers should be released in order to mitigate their exposure to covid-19. the decision means ice could begin to separate more than 300 children and parents starting friday, the deadline set by a federal judge in california for ice to release children from its three family detention centers, but not necessarily their parents. we'll have morere on this story after headlines. an eststimated 5 5.4 million pee lost their health insurance between february and may after losing their job due to the coronavirus pandemic. unemployed workers living in states that have not expanded medicaid have been particularly hard hit. this includes workers in texas, florida, and north carolina. as the number of new global coronavirus cases reaches record

highs, t the world health organizatition is warning the coronavirus outbreak willl continue to worsen if governments don't take basicic public health measures. > if the basics are not followed, there e is only one wy this pandemic is going to go -- it is going to get worse and worse and worse. i want to be straight with you. there will be no return to the old normal for the first seeable future -- foreseeable futurur amy: in n other international news, the number of coronavirus deaths in latin america has now exceeded the death toll in the united states and canadada. accordrding to reuters nearly 145,000 people have died in latin america. in other coronavirus news, amnesty international is estimating 3,000 health workers have died from the pandemic. more than 500 health workers have died in three countries -- the united states, britain, and russia. meanwhile, in france, health workers have been given a historic raise after seven weeks

of negotiations and protests demanding better pay and increased funding for hospitals. in china, over 2 million peoplee hahave been didisplaced and at t 141 are dead or missing as weeks ofof torrential rains hahave cad some of f the worst floodingng e country has seen in over two decades. hundreds of rivers have flooded nationwide has risen above warning levels as many as 33 rivers have risen to their highest levels in history. some of the worst affected areas by the massive flooding includee regions that werere hardest hity the cocoronavirus pandemic the u.s. suprereme court has cleared the way for the federal government to carry out its first execution in 17 years. early this morning, the court issued a 5-4 opinion overturning a lower court ruling blocking the execution of daniel lewis lee, who had beeeen scheduled to be killed on monday. reproductive rights advocates celebrated monday after federal judges blocked laws in tennessee and georgia that essentially

banned abortion at six weeks of pregnancy. both states had passed legislation barring abortions once a fetal heartbeat can be detected -- something that typically happens just six weeks into a pregnancy and before many people realize they're pregnant. the tennessee law was blocked within an hour of republican governor bill lee signing it into law. a warning toto our audience, the followining two headlines s conn disturbing footage o of state violence. in p portland, oregon, a federel agent t deployed to prprotect a. cocourthouse shot and seriouousy injurered a 26-year-olold proter saturday. donavan la belella was holding a stereo speaker aboveis head when he was hihit in the head wh a so-called less lethal round. la bella remains hospitalized in serious condition wiwith a fractured skskull and okoken bos in his face. city and state a authorities hae criticizeded the trump adadministrationon for deployiyg fedederal office in portlandnd. democratic senator ron w wyden

of oregon said on twitter -- "trump & homeland security must now answer why officers are acting like an occupying army." oregon governor kate brown said she e wants the federaral ageneo leave portland.. protests are conontinuing g in allentown, pennsylvania, after a policece officer was filmed kneeling on a man's head and neneck outside the emergrgency m entrtrance to a hospitital. the video o was filmed by two bystandeders who droveve by the incident. >> on his neck. on his neck. get off his neck. amy: on monday, hundreds of protesteters marched to the allentown police headquarters demanding the firing of the officer and the defunding of the policece. inin washington statate, seattte mayor jenny durkan has proposed cutting $7$76 million from t the police department's budget in 2021. durkan's roughly 20% proposed

budget cut would mostly come from transferring the city's 911 call and dispatch center, parking enforcement officers, and other functions outside the police department, as well as halting the expansion of seattle's police force next year. "the seattle times" reports the cuts would likely not result in any savings that could be redirected to other needs as demanded by protesters, who for weeks, have urged police funds be transferred to community services. mayor durkan and the seattle police chief have also reportedly slammed deeper cuts to t the police budgdget, which seatattle's city cououncil has d to push for. inin arkansas, a police officer who had threatened to shoot protesters through his front door if they ever came to o his house has been charged w with manslaughter after fatalally shshooting a fellow police o ofr who knocked on his front door in early june. calvin salyers has claimed the shooting was accidental. authorities accused him of shooting his glock multiple

times through his door come hitting scott hutton, u.s. army veteran who served on the islands in arkansas police force with him. hutton had come to t the house o pick up a patrtrol car. fox news host tucker carlson has announced he is taking what he described as a "long-planned vacation." this comes just days after carlson's chief writer blake neff resigned following revelations that he had attacked asian americans and african americans and women for years in highly o offensive r racislalana in anonymous online messages. on monday night, carlson claimed neff's online activity had nothing to do with this show, even though neff was his chief writer. carlson also attacked his critics describing them as "ghouls." we'll havave mo later r in the broadcast. in news fr o oklahoma, archaeologists and forensisic anthropologists have begun digging up part of a tulsa cemetery looking for mass graves nearly a century after one of

the worst massacres of african americans in u.s. history. in june, 1921, a white mob burned to the ground tulsa's affluent african american neighborhood of greenwood, known as black wall street, killing at least 300 resisidents. a new york judge has ruled that president t trump'niecece, the psychologist mary trump, can publish and promote her new book titled "too much and never enough: how my family created the world's most dangerous man." the book is officially being rereleased today. it's primary day in alabama, maine, and texas. democrats will be picking candidates to challenge republican senators susan collins, and john cornyn of texas in november. meanwhile, in alabama, former attorney general jeff sessions is running against former auburn football coach tommy tuberville, who has been backed by trump in the republican senate primary. the prominenent egyptian journalist mohamed monir has

died of covid-19 after being jailed on charges that he spread fake news. monir was arrested in june after appearing on al jazeera, which is banned in egypt. he was then held in pretrial detention at cairo's notoriously crowded tora prison complex where he contracted the virus. and in sououth africa, the diplomat and poet zindzi mandela has died at the age of 59. she was the youngest daughter of nelson and winnie mandela. >> the story about the human spirit [indiscernible] can turn any negative into a be aive and you can contributor to society. amy: and those are some of the headlines. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the quarantine report. i am amy g goodman in new york gonzalez broadcasting

from his home in new jersey. juan: welcome to all of our listeners and viewers fromom arndnd theountryry and around the e world. amy: we're going to o begin tody with a coronavirus in the united states, particularly in ice jails. as the u u.s. leads the world in covid-19 infections, today we go behind the walls of immigrant jails were infection rates are also soaring. nearly 1000 employees of the private companies that run the jails for ice, immigrations and customs enforcement, have now tested positive. that's according to congressional testimony given by monday by the rarely seen heads of the four leading for-profit jail companies -- corecivic, the geo group, management & training corp or mtc, and lasalle corrections. this comes as ice reports more than 3000 immigrants in ice custody have tested positive, and at least three have died, including a 51-y-year-old mexicn

man who died sunday named onoval perez-montufa. one third of the prisoners who tested positive remain detained, while others have been deported, some while still infected. also monday, federal judge said he will wait until next week t o rurule on whether my grandparens detained by ice and family detention centers should be released in order to indicate their exposure to covid-19. the decision means ice could begin to separate more than 300 children and parents starting friday -- the deadline set by a federal judge in california for ice to release children from its three family detention centers, but not necessarily their parents. meanwhile, experts are set too testify today -- wednesday, before the house on children in customs and border patrol custody. for more, we are joined by reporter jacob soboroff, who has gone inside these ice jails and witnessed kids in cages at the border when the trump

administration began carrying out its child-separation policy in 2018. more than 5400 children were separated as the direct result of t the trump p policy. jacob soboroff writes about it in his new book "separated: inside an american tragedy." this is jacob soboroff reporting from an ice detention facility in mcallen, texas, in 2018 as trump administration officials denied children were being held in cages. everis is the first time that children have been separated on a systematic basis. look at those photos right there. from their parents. that is because of the trump administration. people are locked up in cages, essentially what look like animal kennelas. strangely, in the washington post" gave senator merkley three pinocchios for locking kids up.

the systematic separation of chilled from their parents under the zero-tolerance policy. amy: thahat's jacob sobororoff n 2018, and he joins us now for more. he's a correspondent fofor nbc received the 2019 walter cronkite award and the 2019 hillman prize for his reporting on child-separation. jacob, welcome to democracy now! congratulations on your book. if you can start off by telling us exactly how many children and parents you believe are still separated? and then comment on this latest nenews of a a federal judge andt he's doing about separations. >> first, i want to s say to you both, it is an honor truly to be on w wit you. the honest answer is, i don't know. the u.s. government doesn't know.. who wonon the

reunification ofof children separated by president trump and trump administration under zero policy, , doesn't know either. dealing thihing we owow is 5400 children were systematically taken n away, tortured and the words of physicians for human rights and nobel peace pririze winning organization, by the trump administstration foror no otother reason than to deter families from coming to this country. while there were e 2800 kids in the first initiall group separated under zero-tolerance, there were about 1000 plus separated before record-keeping began officially and 1000 sepaparated sense. so there are still attempt to locate and reunify families that were both reported to thehe home country withthout their parents and families that were separated and maybe an of the interior of the united states but the government just simply cannot track them because of shoddy record-keeping. that i is one ofof the things i write ababout in the book. there were attempts by those who had the besest interest of the

children at hard to keep track of them, but the trump administration at multiple key inflectition points stymied thoe efforts, including scott lloyd, the former director of the office of refugee resettlement, who considered destroying a list of separated children and parents when it leaked to "the new york times." 335 parents and ildren whoho are atat ris of separation today, talked abobout it earlier in thr broadcast, the simple version of that story is the trump administration could release parents and children together rigig now.tention they s simply refused too do th. despite the fact there lawyers are literally pleading for t thr lives because of coronavirus, which is spreading rapidly through not just adult detention centers, but now family detention centers as well. while coronavirus threatens their lives, the government has chosen to let thihis july 17 friday deadline approach where the judge in california has told

the administration to release the children, but the administration will not commit to releasing t them with their parents. specificalllly on the coronavirus situation, how has that throne the current immigration detention center to further chaos? president trump, has he been using it as a justification -- further justification for his wall and keeping out asylum-seekers as well as undodocumented immigrants?s? you would think the o officers f ice themselelves would beginn to lobby for release b because of e threatats to their own health. >> i spoke to onone currrrent employee at t the eloi detention center inn arizona, one of those with the worst instances o of coronavirus,ndnd the wayay he described it t to me and died ws a war zone. what he meant by that was hee alleged they were s sharing ppe,

persononal protectivive equipme. he allegeges corecivic, the private prison company that owns the facility, isis not giving tm adeqequate personal prprotective equipment. houseddees are beieing together, infected and uninfeed, he a allegeses. the bottom line is release is the only y way to save the peope in custody absent very stringent ququarantine andeaealth measure. when y you talk to this employee and we t talked to multiplee imimplies that that particular center, when you talk to lawyers who represent children in ice jails, basically, some families who have b been there nearly aa year when the settlement agreement s stipulates they cann only be there for r 20 day t thy saththe only way to saveve lives is to let t people out at this point. again, that is what i want -- frankly, i did not understand at the time. that is the simple truth.

when i was in the middle of covering family seseparations, w bad this was. how w we g got to this point, bt how much worse he can get. people said to me at the time, it will get worse than this. even though i june 20, 2018, trump signed t the executive order, i was warned hehe would t worse. yet t here we are where you have children a at r risk of dying ad center simimply because the government continues to dangle fafamily separatations over thee parents. juan: what about these private companies like geo, corecivic, mtc that testitified mononday be the homeland security committee? how bibig of a portion of the detention business do th h have? could you talk about the amount -- what kind of oversight there is over them and what ththeir profit levels s are like ithisis situtuation? >> t the majority is t the answ. yesterday before the h house homeland secururity committee, they w were asked s some of thee key pieces ofof information that

have been emerging not just inin our reporting, butut from other journalists over the last weeks and montnths during ththe virus, including chemical a agency use- thinings that have beeeen documd in the preress. we heard f from several of these leaders, statements that directly contrtradicted reportig that was o out there. frankly, i i was not s surprise. the sitetes have b been descscrs black sites. an icee been inside detention in the high desert here in sosouthern california where e the inspector r generalf e depapartment of homeland security observed nooooses in cells of detainees. i personally observed detainees clearly i in until distress put into solitary confinement andnd isolatation. this was on a tour provided to me by y immigration n and custos enfoforcement after i i went too visit with h a separated parent. thatat was two yea a ago. imagine those conditions now cocombined with the cororonavir. one of the keyey things that i continue to be astonished d by s

the guards s in side these facilitities are e eected d to t themselves for the coronavirus. ice has not made it a policy that thehese private prisoson companies are to test t the employeeees. it is basically y an honor syst. if an infectcted employee doeset test, is asymptomatic, or symptomamatic and comes toto wo, the probm isis very obobvious. i appeals arere to have more stringent -- ththe big appeal is to release everyone e now. or limimited appeals, to hahavee stringent t testing requirememe. to h have more supervivision of medical care. things you would think our common sense but across the boarard, or hearing are notot happening in these facilities. amy: jacob soboroff, can you tell us about your dininner with katiee waldman, now katie mille, vice president mike pence's press secretary? recently married to trump p senr advisor stephen miller, known

for his fears anti-immigrant sentiment. but before that, katie miller was kirstjen nielsen's spokesperson at homeland security, vehemently defending the administration's family separation policy. talklk about that day. withinnt out t to dinner katie waldmaman, now katie m mi, and the msnbc anchor, and we were having whatat is knowown aa source dinner. not off the record, just discussing the topics ofof the y and what k katie miller wass cucurrentlworkrking on. katie tuturned a i were askiking katitie miller about the experience, this was after the family separation policy hadd enended, about d defending the policy. i am paraphrasing, the exact languages s in the book, butut e miller saidd that dhs, colleagus had sasaid to he to the border because they believed she lalacd cocompassion durining the crisid

wanted to make her more compassionate, which i asked, did it worork? she said, - -- i said, did it wowork? ii wilill never r forget wt t i. anand she said, no, i it did not workrk. it does s not makeke me morere cocompassionate. i said, rereo white nationalist? t set up and or joan as thatat, katie millerer said, not i belilieve if you come e to amererica, should assimilalate. why should we have haveve? inin that moment, i was takenen ababack. i did not know what to say.y. what do save to someone at that point. the reason i included ththat in the book is it s show ththe underlying thohought processss,e intention of the people involved t the s separation policycy, despite the fact they were warned on multitiple occasasion. mcecenany was asked abouout this last week, she said thatat katie milleler denenied e said this as written.

if that isis the case, as katie tour, ask the other sourcrces wo come f forward to befefore this bobook camee outut, , sharing we that s she said similar versions of that t exact story to them. me,n, i if you don't believe your believing someone who stood up for kiersten nielsen, denying family separation policy ever existed would not only i saw it with my own eyeses that we as a nation s saw it with our o own . i find it preposterous that katie miller would deny that she said that. when i it is all out there for everyone to see. amy: jacob, interwoven throughout your book is the story of juan and jose, father and son from guatemala who said they were fleeing narco terrororists. tellll us theieir story y and wt happened to that in the united states. >> the r reason i wanted t include juan and jose, and they pick those names to protetect their privacacy and the lives of their family whom they leftt

bebehind in guatemala, i is b be their story is n n perfect.. jujuan came to the u.s.s. severl returned stopand he told me that t openly.. but he did return to the united states with his son oncnce they faced threatats from narco's in the nonorth of guatemala he decided to flee. when thehey did flee and made it to the uniteted statetes afteres eveveryone knowsws, one of the t dangerous journeys anynyone can choose to make -- - and you u't make the decisioion to take the journey y lightly - -- when t tt to the border, they saw thee border patrol, who they intended to turn t themselves ininto in r toto seek asylum,m, they wewere brbrought to a bordeder patrol station where presidident trump visited d for a press conference just a couple of ago,o, incidentally, and were almost timidly separated. juan and jose led to differentcells did not see each other frfrom us five m months. juan being broughtht to the high

desert of california detention center and jose being brought to a shelter in south t texas. jose juan and juan promised never reunited, to be honest. juan was coerced incititing away his rights to be reunified with his son, almost joins a group of 40400 parents deported without their c cldren by t the trump adadministrationon. or it t not for r immigrationn r here in n los angegeles, theheyy never have been reunited. that is one of the things from their story i wanted to include in the book as well, the work the immigration atattorneys to s so extraorordinary.. to me, and i learned about this during this processss, it is important any first responder and 80 frontline. the courage and determination of this one father and s son, the willingness to s share their stories so this doesn't happen agaiain and ththis is why they e their s story, is why i w wanteo put them in the book stuff --

book.. when i was on the board w with prpresident trump a a couple of weeks ago, juan said to me, if you see president trump, ask him a question. why did he separate us? why did he traumatize as psychohologically? the fact he is articulatating tt to me, that is a story that times, each onene its own indidividual story. juan: jake, one of the amazing revelations in your book is a memo that top homeland security secretaryaid too krisistjen nieielsen at the tim, the head of homeland security, specifically saying the family separation policy could breakk numerorous laws and violate constitutional rights of familieses, yet she wentt aheadd sign thehe policy into exixiste. could you elaborate? >> john mitnickk w was the c co.

he had worked at raytheon and was brought in by thehe trump administratition to come back to dhs where he had worked during the bushsh administration. in this legal memo, attached to sesecretarial dedecision memo ty are cacalled, said to kristjenen , johnn byby her deputies mitnick'k's legal analysis was attacheded. it has not beenn previously disclosed, at t least in the language in the memo itself. she was it,t, juan,, warnrned that family separations -- violate ofiple a multiplele u.s. laws, bu potentialllly violate the constitution and the due process rights of migrants coming to this country, their human rights. yet kristjen nielsen decided after period of time where she sat on the memo and deliberated to sign what was call option three, the decision memo to separate families from their children, and to me, it makes

the denial this policy ever existed by her -- she sent out the famous tweet "we don't have family separation policy, period" and stood up at that disastrous press briefing, it just makes it almost unbelievable. because it was her, secretary nielsen, who after receiving legal advice that the policy may violate the constitutional rights of migrants coming to the united states, she signed it herself and then proceceeded to denyny the policy even exixiste. that iss w why i wanted to incle the language from the memo specifically, soso everyone e cn see whatat she had in front of her, she considered herself -- she decided to put it into place, nevertheless. amy: can youou describe, jacob soboroff, your first visit inside one of these detention jails, the children that you saw and how this changed your life?

>> i will never forget it, amy, for the restf f my life.e. brownsville,, texas. i i walked into o a former walm, now called because upon drake, essentially a s shelter, and it was 25250,000 square feet. ththere were approroximately 1 0 migrant boys d detained inside r approximately 22 h hours a daya. hundreds o of them, maybe as may asas 400, have been there only because they w were stematicalay separated from their parents by ththe trump admiministratition. thee facilility was literally yn the verge of overflong at a variance from the state of texas, five beds per room instead of four bids per room. i walklked around thihis facilin a tour w with other journalists. as well as officials from the governrnment and the shelter system itself. we saw children wawatching films in the loading d dock of the

formrmer walmart in line for ch. i have been inside a prison, have been insiside several couny jails. i sit at the time and maintain totoday, the place wasas calleda shelter but effectively, they were incncarcerateted. one of the things thahat was startlining to me as one of the offificials, and i write aboutut me,is in ththe book, said to you knknow, smile at the chchil. they feel like they are animalas in cages beieing looked atat. ironically, that wasn't the facility were us all the cages. it was just days later on father's day 2018 the mcallen border patrol processing station , ursula, it is knonown as, thai saw what katie waldman, katie mimiller at the time, till was e epicenter. children in cageges sittinonon concrete floors under r mylar blankets supervised by security cocontractors in a watchtower. every y time i recall this, it

makes me sick whatat i saw.. border patrol agents who adadmitted t me they were stressed and strained and struggling. they were not licensed social workers. they could not touch the children. there were only four social workers in the facility y for al of the children separated by the trumump administration. it was a disaster. it is still true today. it was a man-made disastster by the trump adadministration. thatat was according to one official from the government come thehe greatest human righgs catastrorophe of my lifetime whe ththe wordsds that governrnment official u used. they called scott lloyd the most prolific child abubuser in american historyry for allowing this to happen to o the thousans of children in his s custody.y. he was the custodian of all off ththese children, the unaccompanied children within the federalal government. again, despipite a warning -- about: i want to ask you another starartling revelation i knew youour book. you write that after preresident

trump p had ended the famimily separation by executive order, there was a federal health official who was pressssured too lie under out about the e effect of that policy on children. he was being preressured -- asae was being p prepped for congressional hearing. could you talk about that andd who was s involved? >> youou're talking abobout jononathan whyte, one off ththe fificials who o had warned politicals withihin the governmt of the horriblee effect the separation policy would have on children. commander white was a career official frorom the public healh seservice commisission cororps, whwhich incidentallyly is now bg dispatatched to o deal with the coronanavirus, had warned the government that family sepaparations would havave horrc effefects on children. soso when they were in what was knownn as a practice session, commander white and s several

other ofofficials, including sct lloyd, if i'm not mistaken, for the first cocongressional hearig intoto t separationn policy. there e was a huge argument over whether or not those who would testify woululd sayayamily separatitions for harmful. to children. scientificallyly harmful. yet again, katie e waldman/katie miller was in n that room m and cocommander whyte gotot into a g argumement with katitie miller. she sasaid to him, you are a blbleeding heart liberal.. essentially y pressurered h himy family separations were not harmful to the interest of children, despite the fact he knewew they were anand ultimatey when commander whyte appear before this committee, he said exacactly what he e believed coe despite ththe best effororts of officials in the trump administration including miller and anotherr spokesperson for homemeland security who were in that room who were pressuring

him not to do so. we wrap up, jacob moreoroff, ice reporting than 3000 immigrants in ice dentntion have tested positive, at l lst three have died. talk about what has to happen righght now. isone thing i should say chadad wolf, a an architect of e family separation policy, whichh wiwill read in the book, and toy the acting secretary of holand security, saidid he does not wat to do "jailbreak" of thehe 25,00 people in ice custody. i think every activist and lawyer for migrants will tell you, that t is not what is being asked of the administration currently. they're being asksked to release medically vulnerable, medicallly sensitive people who are at risk in the facilities with the greatest instances and occurrrrences of c coronavirus, which has alreadyy killed ememployees of these facitities, includuding a sergeaeant at elo.

inin the absence off this orordr yesterday y by a jge i in the d. distririct court, this sets up these huge moment on friday where you could have e 335 pares and childrdren separated by the trump adminisistration becauause childrenen have been orderered released but the governmenent, e trump administraration,, refefuo release the parents. soso in the midst of a g global pandemic, , a pandemic which ras through h our immigration detention system, the trump admiministration is nonot focusn releasing famililies who are but fococused on dangling this family separation -- t two years after this horric policy -- ovever families y again, a and i'm sorry to say, that is where we are today. amy: jacob soboroff, thank you for being with us, correspondent for nbc news and msnbc. his new book "separated: inside , an american tragedy."

this b breaking news, the u.s.ss just carried out its first federal execution i in 17 years. daniel lewis lee was executed ththis morning was not at next " washington nfl team whose name is a slur against native americicans, says they will drop in i imposed navajoo activivistt led d the charge to remove the r-word from the teaeam's namame. stay witith us. ♪ [music c break]

amamy: singing and p playing ate together alone. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the ququarante report. i am amy goodmanan witith juan gonzalez. the washington nfl team that has used a slur against native americans as its name and mascot for nearly 90 years announced monday it will change its racist name, facing mounting pressure from corporate sponsors.

the decision is a hard-fought victory for indigenous activists who for yeyears have dememandedh team rememove the r-woword froms name. it also o comes as the black lis matter m movement has forced a reckoning about monuments d tribututes to racismsm around te country. earlier this month, fedex threatened to remove its branding from the team's stadium if it didn't change its name -- a demand team owner daniel snyder has resisted for decades. the momove comes after wasashin, d.c., removed d statues of racit formrmer nfl owner george prestn marshall -- whwho named the washinington team and wawas thet owner r in thehe league to signa black plpler. he did so only under federal presessure. the team hasn't yet decided on a new mascot but says it will include the military in its new name. indigenous campaigners are now calling for the kansas city nfl franchise to follow suit. in a letter to nfl commissioner roger goodell, native american leaders and organizations have

asked that the league -- "ban all use of native imagery, names, slur names, redface, appropriation of native culture and spiritually as well as violence toward native peoples from the league." navajoe, we're joined by activist amanda blackhorse, who led the fight to change the name and logo of the washington nfl team. welcome back to democracy y now! we had you on years ago, amanda, speaking to us from arizona. we had you on years ago talking about this battle to take the r-word out of the nfl. can you respond to what has happened now? >> yes, and good morning and thank you for having me. so recently, what has happened, to the, is a response groundswell, espececially y wite push witith the blacack lis s mr countrynt, yoyou know, this

seems to finally understand what racism is. as we watched the unrest in this country completetely supporting black lives matter and what happened in minneapolis in the murder of george floyd, you know, this issssue -- there wasa resurgenence of this i issue ag. it seemed d to just happened agn nikole -- organically as people begin to topple statues of colonialism. and looking toward symbols and racial epithets and the washington teaeam was o one of e . in 2014, we wonon o our case a t the e shington team and the trademark inin trademark lawaw. since ththen, we lost our case n 2017 ian indirt rulg in

e supreme court. since 20, , our se has kd of enen dmant. itas just en there nothg has rely happed a far as this movement goes.. of course, we always put pressure on ththe team but what has been happening in this country really brought this up and brought up this new resurgence of it. i would say it is unfortunate that it had to happen because of the murder of george floyd, but asas we aree having a larger discussion of racism and systemic racism in this country, this sort of happened. it is wonderful to see because i just never thoughtht this moment woululd ever happen.n. indigenous people, we have always been ignored. we have always been pushed aside. the more that we have five, the more that we have protested, it

seems like dan snyder of washington team who dug his heels in even further and got more aggressive with us, sued us in court, made that statement that he will never change e and name. is can put that in all caps, what he said. that is how we have always been treated. we have been fighting this for decades and decades. juan: amanda a -- owner fell toto the pressure of his ininvestors. amanda, in terms of the influence of these companies like fedex threatening to remove its name from the stadium -- these brdiding deaeals by corporations oftenen comee w wih huhuge annual multimillionon dor payouts. so snyder was actually facing not only the wrath of ththe

public, but potentiall huge financial d distress. could yoyou talk k about this it of these c corporations finally deciding that becaususe of the black lives matter move and that they had to m make a puic stance? > yes. pushihing danan snyder i i think is what really sosortf pushed them over the edge, really. but what a lot of people don't know is that that invevestor puh had been going on for many, many years. indigenous people, native people have been fighting and demanding that theynvestors -- divest from racism. fedex has been one that has been pushed for a v very long time. bank of america as well. it came from an initiative from investors indigenous working

group. this is not just something that fedex decided all of a sududden, they had a change of heart and wanted to push ken snyder to do this. indigenous people have been pushing them for many, many years. susan hargrove can attest to that as well. is what push that them eventually to make that change.. i i think that youour shows youw shows you how- that much money, how powerful m money is in this industry. it is all about money. havave done we everything, we protested,d, we haveone to courtrt, we have dode alof t thesehings. w was end of the day, it the movementnt in this country a moy that eventually made him do his thorough review. -- hehe is nottut done.. we are notot done wiwith this. dan snyder has talked ababout hw

he wants to rebrand, , and the coach of the team as well, has talked about rebranding to something g that honors native americans in thehe military. so that is very problematic to me. in the statement y yesterday, ty did nonot makake it clear they'e going to rebrand without a any native imagery. all they stated was they were going to retire their name e and logo. amy: i want to ask you quickly, amanda, ababout the kansas cityy chiefs, cleveland indians. you're also asking them to change their names and the use of the word, what you call the r-word, how the media uses it. you don't want even people t to say it. like the n-wor. >> yes, that is correct. we don't want people to say it. we donon't want pplple to spellt out on sociall media. whatat we're seeing now is the media a went wild with the name. it iss all over.

people are saying it over andd over and over again. and for us to hear it, it is just throwing salt on the wououd over and over to indigenous peopople. but t i do want to - -- whehen o talk about t the kansas cicity , we're talking about the atlanta teamam, the chicago team, and te cleveland team,m, you know, ther namemes, while the braves -- its a slur. the chihiefs, it is a slur r as well. indians? we say amemerican indians.. but it is the way that it is used. the term -- the indian word may not necessarily be a racialal slur, but it depepends on the context of it. and so that is why as i was saying earlier with dan snydere, we're hoping that they would rebrand without any sort of native imagery. if he e calls s his team "the

warriors," they will still attached native american imagery under that. it will still bebe harmful to nanative people.e. it will not be a win at all. it is just perpetuating the cultural appropriation and stereotypes of the people. amy: amanda blackhorse, thank you so much for being with us, navajo activist who has led the fight to change the name and .ogo of the washington n r-word and all the best on the b birthf your child. we wish you the very, very y be. >> thank you. aamy: whenen we cocome back, wek at preresident trump's favorite fox news tv show, how the l lead wrwriter has just resigigned pososng racist t and misogynist messages online. stay with us. ♪ [music break]

amy: 80 gail. he died last week at the age of 78. this is dedemocracy now!, i'm amy goodman. we turn now to a scandal at prpresident trump's favorite tv channel fox news, where the lead writer for tucker carlson tonight -- the most popular cable news show in history -- has resigned for posting disturbing racist and misogynist messages to an online forum under a pseudonym. blake neff stepped down friday after cnn first broke the story that he had posted multiple racist messages on the website autoadmit, mocking and degrading

african-americans, asian americans, and women, contributing to threads that used the n-word. on a show monday night, tucker carlson announced he, too, well, he is going onon vacation for te rest of the week after he addressed the controversy. >> blake fell short of that standard and he is paid a very heavy price for it. but we should also point out to the ghouls now beating their chests and a tribe of the destruction of a young man, that self-righteousness a also has is costs. we are all human. amy: for more, we go to matt gertz, senior fellow at media matters where he focuses on the relationship between fox news and the trump administration. welcome to democracy now! talk about the significance of the chief writer for tucker carlson, again, the most popular cable show in u.s. history, him being forced to resign. executiveset fox's dodo a little of the talkingng r

me. over the weekend in a memo to their staff, they condemned him for horrendous and deeply offensive racist, sexist, and homophobic comments. isoo racist, sexist, and homophobic for fox news, which is a lot. it is not surprising a scandal like this has broken on tucker carlson's show. blake neff was being crudely bigoted in his free time on this message board, but his day job has been providing copy for tucker carlson's more sophisticated bigoted show. i think it was really only a matter of time until something like this happen. --ker ralston's daily caller tucker carlson's daily caller website has as a series of these. blake neff came to tucker carlson show from there. he was hired in period weree

crossing was managing the website. i think this is a big problem for fox news. it is incredibly damaging to its advertisers, certainly, to be associated with a program like karlsson's. amy: we can hear you ,juan. juan: yes, i wantnted to ask in terms of the impact on fox news, has beenen one scandal after anotheher on fox news, whether t is bill o'reilly before him, in terms of the following of fox news, does not seem to have much impact in terms of people who watch the s so-called news shsh. >> fox news has a businesess mol problem. there are two ways fox makes money. one is off its viewers. they get a big audience and then

theyey can sell advertisining against that a audience. the e way they attract the audience is with bigoted commentary. it is with red meat republican talking points. it is by creating a space for the hard r right movement in ths country.y. but advertisers don't really like that because inevitably, it leads to blowups like this. it gets them in trouble and then they start fleeing. tucker carlson show at this point, its advertiser blocks our wasteland. promos for other fox content and then advertisements for mypillow, a product run by a republican businessman. leaving a lot of money on the table because of this. i think in the long run, it is going to be quite d damaging to them. they don't really have a wayay t of this. they keep getting caught in the cycle of one scandal after

another. amy: matt gertz, can you talk about the relationship between tucker carlson and overall fox and president trump? so often you hear tucker carlson's words who blake neff had boasted he was always the first draft of anything tucker carlson would say, and d up in a tweet of president trump. >> tucker carlson is now one of the most powerful media figures in america, , and that is becaue president trump is part of his audience. trump watches a ton of fox news. he frequently y live-tweets thte segmentsts he takes a shine to. he also gets advice from fox hosts directly. more often than not, recently, that is been tucker carlson. from strtrikes against iran tote coronavirus s to more recently s attacks s on black lives matter and protesests. , terryr carlson's

shaving the presidents events happening around us. amy: i want to thank you for being with us, macros, now tucker carlson says he is gone trout fishing. matt gertz is senior fellow at media matters. we will link to your latest piece. i'

- [tamar] i was completely blown away by the power of hihis physicali. it was energetic and cool, special in the way that no one walks like that. - [narrator] gregg mozgala walks like that because he has cerebral palsy. - [gregg] it's a lot of work to being in this body. - [narrator] choreographer tamar rogoff still wants to cast him in her r next dance performance. but first, she must teach him to dance. "enter the faun" on america a reframed.. ♪ ♪