08/19/20 08/19/20 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] amy: from new york, this is dedemocracy now! breaking with convention. >> delaware is proud to cast its 32 but for our favorite son and our next preresident, our frien, joe biden. amy: the democratic party has formally picked joe biden to be its 2020 presidential nominee to challenge prpresident trump in november. we will air highlights from night two of the virtual

democratic convention, including jill biden, former georgia gubernatorial candidate stacey abrams, medicare for all activist ady barkan, and congresswoman alexandria ocasasio-cortez. >> infidelity y d gratitude, working to establish 21st cecentury social economic, and human rights incncluding guararanteed health care, higher education, l livingg wages, and labor rights for all people in the united states. amy: plus, we will speak to two former bernie sanders supporters who took part in the biden-sanders unity task force -- the economist darrick hamilton, and varshini prakash, co-founder of the sunrise movement. all that and more, coming up. welcome to democracy now!, democracynowow.org, the quarante report. i'm amy goodman.

the democratic party has formalally selecteted joe bidens its 2020 presidential nominee to challenge prpresident trump in november a after an ununpreceded virtuaual roll-call vote. tuesday evening's keynote address was given by 17 so-called rising stars in the democratic party including voting rights activist stacey abrams, who ran for governor in georgia in 2018. former presidents bill clinton and jimmy carter also spoke tuesday, as did failed 2004 democratic presidential candidate john kerry. for a second night in a row, the democratic national convention prominently featured the voices of republicans and former reblicans king thease for biden, including john mccain's ndow c cy mccn, former defenssecretarand repuican nator chk hagel,nd georg w. bh's secretary of state colin powell -- who infamously helped make the case for invading iraq by lying to thee united nations about iraq's non-existent weapons of mass destruction. during a primetime address,

powell praised biden and his late son beau biden, a member of the delaware army national guard who deplployed to iraq in n 200. >> it comes from the experience he shares with millions of military families, sending his beloved son off to war and praying to g god he would cocome home safe. amy: new york congresswoman alexandria o ocasio-cortrtez was given just one minute to address the e democratic natioional coconvention in a pre-e-taped statement. she took a little more time. she nominated biden's challenger senator bernie sanders, who had officially remained in the r rae despite suspending his campaign in april. after headlines, we will air aoaoc's speech and other highlights from the democratic national conventntion. postmamaster general louis dejey said tuesday he would suspend changes to the u u.s. postal service until after the election follolowing a massive public oututcry against cuts to a recordrvice, eveven as number of voters are expected to

cast ballots by mail. house speaker nancy pelosi rejected dejoy's move as insufficient, saying it failed to reverse damage already done to the postal service. pelosi has called the house back into session from summer recess for an urgent vote on the postal service, scheduled for saturday. last week, president trump admitted he's working to undermine the usps in order to make it harder to vote by mail in november. trump's comment came as the postal service sent letters to 46 states and washington, d.c., warning all mail-in ballots may not get delivered on time -- even as the usps removed mailboxes and mail sorting equipment across the country. in new york, democratic representative alexandria ocasio-cortez visited a postst office in queens tuesday where she blasted the trump administraration's moves. >> this issue is bigger than anyone of us. the postal service is not only how we send the ballot, it is how we get our medicine, how we

send rent checks, where people are getting their tax refunds. it is a core service of any civilized society. and an attack on our postal service and in it and attempt to dismantle our postal service out of a selfish desire to sabotage our democracy a and maintain a grip on power is an attack on all l of us. amy: t the u.s. reporteded anotr 4343,000 coronavirusus cases a d more than 130000 deaths from covid-d-19 on tuesday, bringing the officialal u.s. death toll o nearlyly 172,000 inin indiana, the university of notre dame canceled all in-person classes and said it would move to online-only instruction after it confirmed 80 new coronavirus cases linked to an off-campus party where students refused to wear masks or practctice social d distanci. meanwhile, the los angeleles unified school district on tuesday announced ambitious plans to test about 600,000 studenents and 75,000 employeess

ahead of their eventual return to in-person classes. the universities and colleges around the united states have moved to online classes after beginning in person because of outbreaks. "thehe new york times" reports e number of known n deaths f from covid 19 at u.s. prisons and jails has topped 1000. in arizona, a group of cuban asylum seekers at the for-profit la palma correctional facility sent a disturbing letter to immigration advocates, accusing guards of covering up a surge of covid-19 cases and failing to protect prisoners from the spread of the disease. the prisoners also describe at least nine suicide attempts by asylum seekers who grew desperate after 97% of asylum claims were rejected by an immigration judge. as global confirmed coronaviruss cases topped 22 million, the world health organization warned tuesday young adults and children are increasingly driving the spread of covid-19. who officials said recent ououtbreaks in australia and the phphilippines werere sparked moy

by people younger than 40, while who epidemiologist maria van kerkhove warned younger peoplele are not immune to the worsrst effectcts of theirus.. >> we aree seeing pepeople comoe even young people who are ending up with severe diseaease. we're seeing young people ending up in icu and seeing young people who are dying from this virus. amy: in mali, president ibrahim boubacar keita resigned tuesday after soldiers in the capitall bamako staged a coup d'etat t tt followeded weeks of anti-government protesests. mali's prime minister also deposed by coup leaders who called themselves the national committee for the salvation of the people. in a broroadcast on state television, ththe coup leaders promised to organize new elections. >> we are not keen on power, but we are keen on stability of the country which will allow us to organize within a reasonable time limit to allow molly to equip itself with strong institutions capable of handling our daily lives and restore the

confidence between governmnment- amy: the united nanations and african union condemned the coup and the arrest of mali's president. opposition leaders praised the coup as a "popular insurrection." before tuesday's coup, president keita faced weeks of protests against rampant corruption, police brutality, and mounting violence from separatiststroups in mali.i. back in the united states, the republican-controlled senate intelligence committee has published a nearly 1000-page report on how russia interfered in the 2016 election to help president trump get elected. the senate report alleges a close associate of trump's former campaign manager paul manafort was a russian intelligence officer, a finding not included in the mueller report. the senate report states manafort's dealings with konstantin kilimnik "represented a grave counterintelligence threat." the report also reveals more details about the russians who met with manafort, jared kushner and donald trump, jr. at trump tower in 2016. the senate report said the individuals had "significant connections to russian government, including the russian intelligence services."

in palm beach, florida, far-right activist laura loomer has won the republican primary for the u.s. house district that's home to president trump's mar-a-lago resort. loomer was banned from twitter and facebook in 2018 over her racist attacks on ilhan omar, one of three muslim members of congress. she was also banned from uber and lyft after making islamophobic comments about drivers. donald and melania trump cast absentee ballots in tuesday's primary, and after loomer's victory the president tweeted his congratulationons to her. the republicican party has invid a wealthy white saint louis couplele who brandished guns att black lives matter protesters to speak at the republican national convention next week. mark and patricia mccloskey fa felony charges over the june incident, which saw mark point a semiautomatic assault rifle at protesters, while patricia waived a silver pistol. also set to speak at the rnc, nick sandmann, a catholic high school student from kentucky who was filmed grinning and smirking

as he and other students surrounded a native american demonstrator in washington, d.c., last year after the students taunted and mococked particicipants i in the indidigs peoples march. president trump on tuesday pardoned suffragist susan b. anthony in commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the ratification of the 19th amendment, which gave women the right to vote. anthony was arrested in 1872 for voting when women were banned from the process. and a, new york's lieutenant governor tweeted -- "as highest-ranking woman elected official in new york and behalf of susan b anthony's legacy, we demand trump resend his pardon. she was proud of her arrest to draw attention to the cause for women's rights and never paid her fine. let her rest in peace, donald trump."" the 19th amendment passed over 14 y years after anthony's deat, and it wasas not implemented equally. black women would not enjoy

voting until 1965. susan b anthony herself has been accused of being a racist. in california, governor gavin newsom has declared a state ofof emergency as more than 30 wildfires s burn across the stae amidst one of the worst heat waves in years. climate scientists say the fires are driven by the unrelenting rise of atmospheric carbon dioxide levels, which are increasing the frequency, severity and duration of extreme heat waves. a federal judge on monday temporarily blocked part of a trump administration policy that would end anti-discrimination protections for transgender patients under the affordable care act. the rule was announced in june and was supposed to take effect on tuesday. in related news, a federal judge in idaho has temporarily blocked a state law that banned transgender women and girls from joining sports teams corresponding to their gender identity. idaho republican governor brad little signed the law in march, stating athletes should endure

invasive examinations of their "internal and external reproductive anatomy" "verify" their sex and gender identity. and a secretive ethics board nenewly created by the trump administration is urging the u.s. government to stop funding medical research that uses human fetal tissue donated after elective abortions. the national institutes of health board was convened less than three wks ago and at least two-thirds of its members are outspoken anti-abortion advocates or opponents of fetal tissue research. scientists have long considered fetal tissue research a valuable tool that could advance the understanding of several diseases and potentially used in developing c cures or vaccines,, including the cocoronavirus. and those are some of the headlines. ththis is democracy y now!, democracynow.org. we are breaking with convention. i am amy goodman joined by juan gonzalalez. juan: welcomome to allll of our listeners s and viewerers from around the country and around the world.

amy: we welcome everyone to our breaking with convention series as we continue to cover the democratic national convention underway virtually this week. the democratic party has formally picked joe biden to be its 2020 presidential nominee to challenge president trump. biden was nominated by security guard at "the new york times," who met the former vice president in an elevator last year. >> i see powerful people my elevator all t the time. whenen they get off, they go to their important meetings. me? i just go back to the lobby. but in the short time i spent with joe biden, i could tell he really saw me come that he actually cared, that my life meant something to him. and i knew, even when he went to his important meeting, he would take my story in there with h h. that is because joe biden has room in his heart for more than just himself. we have been through a lot and we have to have days ahead, but nominating someone like that to

be in the whitee house is a good plplace to start. ththat is why i nominate my frid joe biden as the next president of the united states. amy: while joe biden got jaclyn brittany's support, the security guard at "the new york times" at the times, "the times" did not endorse joe biden. this came just moments after new york congresswoman alexandria ocasio cortez nominated biden's challenger senator bernie sanders, who had officially remained in the race despipite suspendiding his campaign in april. > thank youou to everyone hee todaday and hovering towards better more just future for our country and our world. in fidelity and gratitude t to amass s people's movement, worog to establish 21st century social, economic, and human rights, including guaranteed health care, hair e education, living wages, labobor rights for

,ll people in the united states a movement striving to recognize and repair the wounde of racial injustice, colonization, misogyny, and homomophobia, ando propose and build reimaginedd systems of immmmigration and foreign policy, turn away frfrom the viviolence and xenophobia of our past. a movement that realizes the unsustainable brutality o of an economomy that rewards e explose inequalities of wealth for thee few at the expense of long-term stability for r the many, and wo organinized a hisistoric grassrs cacampaign to reclclaim our democracy.y. inin a time when millions of people in the united d states ae looking for deepp, systemic solution to our crises of mamass evictions, unemployment, and lack of health care, in el

espiritu del pueblo and out of love for all people, i hereby second the n nominatioion of ser bernard sasanders of vermont for president of the uninited states of america. amy: the democratic party then held a virtual roll-call vote. the process began in selma, alabama, in front of the edmund pettus bridge and continued across 56 other states and territories showcasing indigenous voices in new mexico and south dakota, a meatpacking worker in nebraska, a father in florida whose daughter was killed in the parkland school massacre, and the parents of matthew shepard, a gay man brutally murdered in wyoming in 1998. the roll call ended in biden's home state of delaware. itsproud to cast 32 votes for our favorite son and our next president kamal friend, joe biden. -- president, our friend, joe

biden. the k keynote address on tuesday night was given by 17 so-c-called rising stars i in te includingic party, malcolm kenyatta. >> when i wanted to mamarry the maman i loved, joe bidenn was te first national figure to support me and my family. >> appreciate you, man. amy: voting rights activist stacey abrams who ran for governor in georora in 2018.8. the spoke as part of keynotote address. >> america faces a triple threat , public health catastrophe, economic collapse, and r rkoning with racial justice and inequality. so our choice is clear -- a steady, experienced public servant who can lead us out of this crisis just like he has done before, or a man who only knows how to deny and distracac. a leader who cares about our families or a president who only

cares about himself. we know joe biden. .merica, we need joe biden faced withth the president of cowardice, joe biden is a mamanf proving courage. he will restorere our moral compass by confronting our challenges, not by hiding from them or undermining ourr elections to keep his job. in a time of voter supuppression at home and authoritaririans abroroad, joe bideden will b bea champion for free and fair electionons, for a public c heah system that keeps us safe, for an economy that we b build bettr than before, and for accountability and integrity in our syststem of justicice. amy: formemer presidents b bill clinton and jimmy carter alsoo spspoke on tueuesday night. clintoton slammed presiden trump's performamance in thehe e house. cook's donald trump says we are leadading the world. well, we're the only majo industrial country to have its unemployment rate triple. at a time like this, the oval

office should be a command center. instead, it is a storm center. with only chaos. just one thing never changes. his determination to deny responsibility and shift the blame. th buck never stops ther amy: foror a second night in a row, theemocratic national convention prominently featured the voices of republicans and former replicans backing biden. johnccccain's s wiw cindndmccain spokinin a veo a abo the c cse friendsh betweener husba and bide form defenseececreta and republicanenator cck hagel join a a gro of f otheformrmer top naonal secity offials praisingiden. a primtime speakinglot was also given to george w. bush's secretary of state colin powell -- who infamously helped make the case for invading iraq by lying to the united nations about iraq's non-existent weapons of ms s destctction. >> today we are a country divided, and we have a president doing everything in his power to make it that way and keep us that way. what a difference it will make to have a president who unites

us, who restores our strength and our soul. amy: general powell would later call that speech a blot on his career. the second night of the democratic national convention ended with dr. jill biden speaking in an empty classroom at brandywine high school in wilmington, delaware, where she used to teach english. >> the rooms are dark as the bright young faces that should fill them are now confined to boxes onto a computer screen. , hear it from so many of you the frustration of parents juggling work while they support their children's learning or afraid their kids might get sick from school, the concern of every person working without enough protection, the despair in the lines that stretch out before food banks come in the indescribable sorrow that follows every lonely last breath

when the ventilators turn off. as a mother and grandmother come as an american, i am heartbroken by the magnitude of this loss, by the failure to protect our communities, by every precious and irreplaceable life on. amy: dr. jill biden speaking at the democratic n national convention last night. when we come back, we will hear remarks s by medicare for all activist ady barkan and we will speak to economist darrick hamilton who t took part in thee -- biden-senators unity task force. stay with us. ♪ [music break]

amy: this is democracy now!, democracynow.org. we are breakining with conventi. i'm amy goodman with juan gonzalez.

we cover r the democratic natitional convention n underway virtually this week ass the demomocratic p party formally announced joe biden as its nominee for president t tuesday night, one of those who o joined in the call to elect him was medicareor allll activist ady barkan, who is ralyzed d able -- unable to spk k due teinal a a. >> by the time you're watining isis, wi have thwn u up be strongnd courageous. i n'n'know howong it -- much loer i will be arod for yo a deadly debititatin disease. afr i was diagnosed, the president had a bill thatututs h healtcarere a risisk. so i i went to washington,.c..

puts my next guest made headlis s whene coconfnted natorr on an airplane. cooks i wanted to help eaeate a bebett country for you to live in. all ththat matters to me is to make you proud becau i am already proud o you. hello, arica. in and is ady rkannd 'm speakingo you thugh thi comper voiceecause iave en paraled byysteriou illns called als like smany ofou, i've exrienced the ways r health careystem isunundameally , denied claims, dehumanizing treatment warare mostst ineed.. since i shockingiagnosisi have traved the country memeetincoununtls patitits like me, demandg me of our

represtatives d our demoacy. today, we e witnessing the trag conseenceces our failing health carare system. in the midst of a pdemic, near 1 100 mliononmericans do not t ve s sufcient t alth suraranc. and ev good inrance do not cover sential eds like long-tm car ouloved on are dyi i unsa nursingomes. our nurses are overwhelmed and deder precteted d are essential workers are eaeateds didiensable. we live inhe riche country in hisry and y we not arantee is most sic huma right. everyone ling in arica ould gethe healtcare the need regardls of eir ploymenttatus orbility t pay. even ding thiserrible crisisdonald tmp and republican politicians are trng to ta away miions of withe's heal insurce the exisntial that of anothefour yea of this president, w all have a ofofoundbligigatn to act.

not only to vot but to ke susu our fends, faly, and neighbors vo a as well. we must elect joe biden each ous must a hero r ou commuties, foour untry, a tn with coassionatand inteigent presiden we must act togher and put on his desk a bill that guarantees us l the health care we dererve amy:hat is lding medare r all acvist adyarkan endorsing joe bid for president in a powererful addres to the democratic national convention tuesday night. medicare-for-all and the green new deal were key parts of the platform of senator bernie sanders, who received nominating speeches from former president of the united auto workers bob king and new york congressmember alexandria ocasio-cortez on tuesday. even though sanders rerescinded his candidacy, he nenetted enonh delegates during thehe primary o qualify y for the convention. in a roll call votote, sanders received@a 1151 delegates whilie biden secured the presidentialal nomination with 3558.

for more, we are joined by darrick hamilton, a a former bernie sanders supporter who took part in the biden-sanders unity task force.. he is the incoming founding director of the newly created institute for the study of race, stratification and political economy at the new school. professor hamilton, welcome to democracy now! so this was very powerful, ady barkan speaking electronically, talking about his support -- although he did not use the word "medicare for all,"," he is well known as a medicare for all activist. and joe biden has promised he would veto any medicare for all if hehat came to his desk was president. can you talk about that difference and whether you think actually it is still possible there's a chance for change on if there was a president biden? theell, i guess counterfactual was donald trump.

that helped to explain why ady barkan gave an ununequivocal endorsement for biden. donald trump d does -- represena threat to the nation. he strove wrot narcissism, for loopholes. i think the strategy is elect joe biden and on november 3, come with the full force to ensure that medicare for all into law during his administration because health should be a humuman righ. juan: professor hamilton, coulud you talk somewhat about your participation in the efforts of the bernie and biden ececonomic task fororce to reach agreementn economic proposasal? what were some ofwithhat and what were some of what you believe to be the successes? lot withh them a

regards to at least expressing the values of a progressive movement. i went to give a real big shut out to representative karen bass. i am happy with the choice of harris as the vp, but a big knot and hats off to karen bass i am proud she's going to be part of ththe future of te dnc party. that said, t the document, if yu look at it, there's a lot in there.e. there is a wreck nation that the u.s. departmtment of culture defrauded black farmers a billions of dollars. that is pretetty big. ththat is progogress. i say the biggest constraint and albatross not only on that docucument with the dndnc partyt orgee is this notion of pagel austerity, this notion that the in itst i is constrained budget like a household. that is a farce. that is a myth. we have monetary power that enables us to invnvest in our mt

treasured resoururce, which is s people. of course i gets say a lot more about that. and one last thing i will say about this is only one side of the popolitical aisle actually it --ttentition t to pagel as republicans could care less about pagel or his theory when they're talking about tax cutut. we go to the wealthiest of our nation, but somehow that becomes a conversation stopppper when te dedemocratic party is thinking about and economic rights platform. jujuan: talking ababout the issf austerity versus the unlimited power of government when n it comes to military policy, -- monetary policy, we're lookingng reached records highs in the midst of this enormous e economic crisis of te country,y, and a lot o of alysts are sayiying basically it is because companies and banksre receivining essentially free moy

from the f federal reserve bana. could you talk aboutut how netatary policy can affect achievement of some of f the, goals of the progressive movevement? >> two points. one is i would not say we have unlimited power a monetary policy, but the constraints on monetary policy have not been realized in a very long time. that would be inflation or the cost at which the federal government has to pay y to borrw in relation to our ability to grow the economy. but that s said, why i it is sun emphasasis on measures like the stock market? it relates to guess the values of the country in terms of how the govovernment invests in our economic well-being.g. ththere is too m much of an emps on corporate well-bebeing with e notion that they will create some dyna schism that is supposed to trickle down to all of us as oppososed to investinin people, ouour most treasured reresource, anand that w will ca

dyna schism m that creates an infrastructure that makes us more resilient to a pandemic, ,o a climamate catastrophe, or any other economic downtururn. to make this more concretete, after 45de economics or 50 years of failure, ii lovee the movements are starting to bubble to push back on that. we are realizing t that that is only related to our productivity gains going to the elite and not being widely dispersed. in contrast, we have proceeded with the new deal era where we invested in people not only did we grow the economy, we also grew real wages. of course there were some problems with the new deal. we did not do it in a racially inclusive way and a lot of ways. amy: that is a very interesting point. fdr was not necessarily a very progressive president when he came in, but with enormous pressure from the e people aroud him, of course, he is known for the new deal, but can you talk

about the gap? can you talk about, for example, the racial wealth gap? and do you think joe biden, if you were president, could go through that kind of transformation? bernie sanders said we are going to support him now and then on november 4, we are going to fight to ensure the platform that we originally put forward, green new deal, medicare for all. do you see that in joe biden, an open door rather than a wall? and can you talk about the racial wealth gap and how it needs to be addressed? >> in a lot of ways, irrespective of the president, i love the line that fdr had when progressive, "make me do it." novemberer 4, i love that bernie sandnders said, we will be right back out there. we will make biden do it.

first anand foremost, donald trp needs to get removoved to the office. at has to be a priority. after that, i agree we should mama them do i it. as it relates to the racial wealth gap, i am glad you brought that up, the new deal and it opposed world policies are largely responsible for the racial wealth gap that exists today. in a book -- for example, if you have social security and the web direct excluding domestic and agricultural workers whom at the time 70% of black women working were in those fields -- i'm sorry, 90%, and for black men it was over half, that was by design racist. you have a j jim crow infrastructure implementing the policies without federal oversight, that is by implementation, racist. so today with aoc talking about in her eloquent, beautiful,

inspiring one minute -- although she took a l little longer than one minute -- was an economics rights frame grounded in justice that is actively antiracist, actively anti-sexist. that is the evolution. economic rights platform that is andpassive but by design implementation ensuring that all groups, regardless of identity are included. juan: you h have favored the enactment of a federal jobs guarantee,e, which many critics sasay is pie-in-the-sky. you point there has been historical precedent to that in the humphrerey-hawkins i.i. if yououould talk about t that d also your support of baby bonds and what exactly that would be. >> the federal job guarantee i itself. the new deal a lot of our infrastructure and

our country today, whether it is art,big monuments of highways, bridges, etc., universities -- i am from brooklyn. go to brooklyn college and look at all of the buildings that were erected as part of the wpa that are still relevanantoday. there is a project called the living new deal that goes beyond physical infrastructure and gives personal narrative about the ways in which people's lives were transformed as a result of the new deal. and in speaking with senator anders, i was pitching federal job guarantee and in our conversation, had a great response. he's like, , yeah, that is grea, with new deal did in the past, but i like the framing of reimagining the future that we want and deserve stop -- deserve. we can invest in the infrastructure that is not only carecal but a

infrastructure. as you cited earlier, i don't uan or amy,was you j but a green new deal where we can ensure our economy is resilient to the climate catatastrophes and calamities coming up inin the future. in essence, we could offer a guaranteed job to anyone who desires to work toward building our physical, human, infrastructure and eliminate the threat of unemploloyment for exting workekers. i know that if you are -- give this examplple, if you u aa waitress putting up with sexual harassment on a daily basis, you have less agency if the e emplor can threaten y you with taking that job away and then you're not able to feed your children. that should be eliminated. we should have better bargaining power so that workers aren't completely at the whim of their employer, so they have a viable alternative with a living wage, good working conditions, and we

can do this. we can do this and there is a need becauause we can just lookt this pandemic and see our public health infrastructuree wasn't ready. there is lots of workk t that cn be created, , and people on n ll levels will know better what the community needs. so that is the case for the federal job guarantee. what baby bonds is -- let me start and say the source of inequality in america, especially under the domain of wealth, is that some people have access to a capitatal foundation that affords them the ability to invest in an asset that will passively appreciate over their lifetime. it big shout out to cory booker and ayana pressley who are promoting baby bump legislation. -- baby bond legislation. as a birthright, everyone gets capital l the capital is seated basesed on the position inn the financial l position they are bn in irrespective of their genendr or their race.

we know -- i don't want to talk too much on the show and make sure there is adeqequate timimer conversation, so p please interrupt t me if i am droning . but let me say that we know household,ven within make decisions on who they leave endowments to based on the sex of their child. so this is a counterintuitiveve policy that says we will and dow you at birth with an accccount that will be managed by the federal government -- just like social security. it is like building economic security over the life course. soso that when you become a youg adult, we won't just have subsistent policy for y you, but we will have some nest egg so that you can have the ability to purchase a h home, invest in business or finance a debt free education. between a renter

and a homeowner is one have a down payment and one didn't. amy: darrick hamilton, thank you for being with us, incoming founding director of the newly created d institutute for the sy of race, stratification and political economy at the new school. he will also be the henry cohen professor of ecoconomics and urn policy, and d a university professor r at the new school. hamilton was a surrogate and economomic adviser on bernie sanders 2020 presidential campaign. also one of the sanders' appointee members to the biden-sanders joinint task forc. after the break, we speaeak with varshini prakashsh,, cofounder f the sunrise movement. stay with us. ♪ [music break]

amy: this is democracy now!, democracynynow.org. we are breaking with convention. i'm amy gogoodman wiwith juan gonzalez. the democratic nationall commmmittee has dropped a pledge to eliminate tax breaks and subsidies for the fossssil fuel industry from its party platform.

the change was announced on tuesday saying a dnc spokesperson claimed the amendment was originally included in error, despite both presidential nominee joe b ben and hihis running matendamala harris supporting g it on the campaign trarail. it wasn't announced, but it was reported in the media. this comes as a historic heat wave and more than 30 wildfires roil the state of california and iowa struggles to recover from a hurricane-strength windstorm last week. for more on how the dnc is tackling the climate crisis, we go to boston where we're joined by varshini prakash. ahead of t the dnc, , she was oe biden-sanders unity tasksk force and she is the co-founder and executive director of the sunrise movement. she is also the co-editor of the forthcoming book "winning the green new deal." jenna campaign, the sunrise movement endorsed bernie sanders for president and gave joe biden's climate plan an "f"

rating. welcome to democracy now! can you assess the democratic national convention so far? and talk about where the green new deal fits in here. but first, this breaking news yesterday that they were dropping this issuee of the fossil fuel subsbsidies. explain what happened. >> it is certainly disappointing to see. the u.s. spends rououghy tensns of billions of dollars eh year, essentially propping up the fossssil fuel industry so we can contntinue it's dangerous earning of the coal, oil, and gas that is threatening our future.. entering this pandemic, donald trump court a lot ododollars into continue to support the fossil fuel industry at the expense of renewable enenergy companies. what is interesting is a provision to eliminate tax breaks and subsidies was includuded in the 2016 platform.

so i it would just be essentialy a cocontinuation of an agrgreemt that was reached about f four years ago when clinton was the nominee. so i'm not sure entirely what happened. perhaps there was internal pushback or something. i think, as you major before, the hopeful side of this is that frustrationbeen vocal and disappointment from m a numr of climate organizations a and also that the elimination of fossil fuel subsisidies is s hey susupported by biden and harrisi neither r climate plan, so i i k as l long as it continues to be our priority for movement, i it will be a priority for the e bin administraration should ththey n i know nonomber. in november.hthey win juan: after s several weeeeks nenegotiations in n the problematic efforts, ththat key sections of the green nenew deal will be implemented, how much do

you fear of biden's openening through the progressive movement is more a reflection of his attempt to assssure the supportf that movement for his reelection and how much of it do you sense is genuine? >> great question. during thehem a lot process of the task force. at a couple of specific goals. one, we had to inincrease the ambition t that joe biden was putting forward on hisis climate plaan. beginning to 100% renewab energy by 2050 is absolutely impermissible for island nations, for young people are growing up at a true crossroads between chaos and d destruction and a livable planet right now. so we pushed -- we won somome pretty significant victories. we were able to move up the timeline on decarbonizing the electricity sector by 15 years. so now the biden administration

is committing to 100% clean electricityy by 2035. we have a provision to move to 100% new zero missions buildings by 2030 and a commitment to sit down with laborr leaders a as sn asas -- within months of the inauguration to set standards for zero emissions vehicles. and also a big priorority was ensusuring climate and environmental justice was a central piece of everything relatedd to the climatplan. so this is not particularly -- specifically n named in the dnc plan, but joe biden's recovery ever plan for the pandemic, he does talk about he is movin from 1.7 between dollar green jobsbs and infrastructure plan over 10 years to a $2 trillion plan over four years, which is significant and has also committed that 40% o of the investment toward d green jobs d

infrastructure will l specificay go toward frontline and environment of justice communities -- which h is huge. so these arere some of the thins we want to f feel excited about. the planet is prolabor as well. none of this is a surety. as soon as the task force recommendations came out, we saw fossil fuel l industry spokespeople coming out and saying, well, he is catering to the left on the route because of the e election but a as soon hes the nomination were soon as he the seat, het, willll have to caterer to the fl fuel industry and you will water down many of the proposals he is talking about. it will move quickly from a question of policy to power, and i think that is why we've got to keep up the pressure both internally with people like alexandria ocasio-cortez, jamaal

bowman, cori bush, etc., but also we have to make -- maintain a really high level of external pressure as well and d ensure tt we are pushing this president -- not just doing what we did with obama, leaving it at the door, but actually upping the ante and increasing the level of pressure on the democratic president to actually push along these policy provisions he has agreed t to across the finish h line. juan: could you talk about their rereality we are comingg up agat an election in the midst of aa papandemic? also, continuing extreme weather situations. the e orms inn iowa and thihis, june -- amazing record heat in death vavalley, 130 degrees? >> scientists are saying this might be one of the hottest years on record, which i feel li i am hearing virtually every year.

we are seeing -- we have leaders in cedar rapids who are email yes -- emailing us requesting donations, asking us to match donations to them another black lives matter organizations they are working alongside. there are thousands of people who are stilill without power oe week out and there a lot of reports that s show the governor -- the government in iowa has in acted with enough urgency this disaster, which we have seen in ththe last for years. our government is not taking the response seriously enough and acting swiftly. so i think we are at a real -- many of the crises that we are facing in n this nation, we aret a fever pitch. fever pitch with the climate crisis. it is emerging into a full-blown emergency. we have an economic nosedive with tens of billions of people who are out of work. we are in the midst of an

uprising, ongoing uprising against white supremacy in the station. i think it is time for something like a green new deal in this country that is putting forward a vision for hohow we tackle the injusticices of the climate cris and economic inequality and racial injustice at the same time andnd not see these issuess separate. amy: tonightht kamala harris wil give her acceptance speech. she did endorse a green new deal. the e green new deal and medicae for all are not being talked about so far at the democratic convention. as a south asian american yourself, can you talk about the significance of kamala harris? yeah, no, it is fascinating. her mother is from the same town that my dad grew up in an india. so it is incredible to see someone like that on the

national stage. when it comes to the c climate crisis, kamala harris has been fairly responsive to activist and movement pressure to make climate top priority. she took t the no fofossil fuely pledged and sworn off as destinations as part of her campaign. she did run on the grereen new dealal as part of her platform. i think you mentioned almosost y other candidate durining the presidential debates. working with alexandria ocasio-cortez to ensure that investments made around green new deal prioritize front line communities. i think we have seen a lot of responsiveness from heher. i think we also wary and aware of senator harris' very comes aa gated history and record as a profiteer, would you all h have discussed d many times on this show. the ways in which a number of those decisions s have harmed communities of color. we have spokenen out about thatn the past and will cocontinue to and will continue to work

alongside racial justice organizations to hold her a and vice president biden accountable. but i think it will be a huge, huge deal to havave the first black, firirst indian, first won vice president of the ununited states off america should she ad vice president biden win in the next few months. amy: varshini prakash, thank you for being with us, co-founder and executive director of the sunrise movement. co-editor of the forthcoming book "winning the green new deal." this is democracy now!, democracynow.org. we are breaking with convention. i'm amy goodman with juan gonzalez. after massive public outcry against cuts to the u.s. postal servicice ahead of the election, postmaster general louis dejoy announced tuesday he will suspend changes to the u.s. postal service until after the election, when a record number of voters are expected to cast ballots by mail. house speaker nancy pelosi called dejoy's move insufficient -- saying it failed to reverse

damage already done to the u.s. post office, and has called the house back into session from summer recess for an urgent vote on the postal service, scheduled for saturday. president trump admitted last week he's working to undermine the usps in order to make it harder to vote by mail for the election. for more, we go to lisa graves in wisconsin, executive director of the policy research group true north and author of a new report for "in the public interest," that looks at "the billionaire behind efforts to kill the u.s. postal service." we only have five minutes, lisa graves. it can you lay out what is going on and the deep concern that, yes, louis dejoy, who has with his wife, something like $75 million to 100 million dollars invested in competitors and contractors of the u.s. postal service, thatt already major changes have taken place? they're just revoking the once leading up to the election that they sayay they will reintrorode themigight after.. >> that is right.. i think we're at a true crisis point in terms of our democracy

and with our postal service because wewe have the mostst partisan present in 100 years at least to had the postal service and louis dejoy who has deep finanancial conflicts and deep personal ties to president trump. also being pushed forward by mike duncan who was a major fundraiser for mitch mcconnell for the senate leadership fund and is a right-wing partisan who helps stand up p and working crossroads. and also at the instigation innocence of steve mnuchin, who has tried to push additionalal presessure on the postal service in essenence in my view to accomplish or really i is charls koch's long-term goal of privatizing the postal service. we have a deep crisis in our country. the announcement by the postmaster does not reverse the things that have already happened, that he is already imimplemented, including the r f full off manyy -- ththe removalf many mail sorting machines. we need to hold -- actually, i think louis dejoy needs to be removed.

the postal service belongs to us, even though charles koch, as m my reports, within that organization has been targeted by charles koch for privatization since the 1970's. and hoping the members of congress will respond to citizens who are clamoring to protect our postal service and make sure we get our balance on time, get our medicine on time, checks on time, and really reform the postal service and give it the money it needs to survive and thrive in thisis corona rises. juan: : lisa graves, could youou talk a little e more about this hihidden efft by chaharles kocho privatize the postal servivice ththat has gone o on almost unkn byby most americans for so long? >> i was really surprised he really began urging for the postal service to be privatized in the 1970's.

when he became the biggest funder for the libertarian party in 1976, its platform expressly called for the abolition of the postal service, then in 1981 his brother ran for vice president, the libertarian party also called for the abolition of the postal service. then he helped to stand up with the reagagan admininistration a commission with his right hand man on it, again, for abolition of the postal service. then they brought on board america'a's for prosperity, the leading advocate of privatizing the postal service who then george w. bush put on the board of governors the postal service inin 2003,3, and james miller hd push through the terrible law in 2006 that saddled the postal service with unprecedented debt to pay for decades of future retiree health benefits. and that is the debt that has really hamper the postal service in its ability to have better financial position and also limits publix -- the postal service from offering banking services as well as increasing

-- that throttle the postal service. that is a long-term cost to basically prepare it for privatization, which is chcharls koch's long-term goal. -- theready the effect department of veterans affairs has been forced to find other ways to ship mail order prescriptions to veterans all over this country. not ononly veteterans, so many people r rely on the postal service just to get addison. -- medicine. >> it is a true crisis. the american people are not going to tolerate the destruction of our postal service. millions of americans rely on it and small cities and towns for medicines and checks and we need it fully funded. we needed to have coronavirus relief just t like other businesses and entitities in america. amy: finally, who charles koch is. >> one of the richest m men in e world, and he leads koch

industries, one ofof the largest privivately held corporations in the world that has a long record of using itsts funds to advance his political causeses. amy: re-surprised the post will service turnaround -- we're talking about massive outcry most of even donald whose bidding dejoy was doing, tweeted out, save the post office. >> there clearly hearing the heat. the question is, will they reverse the things that have happened, not just stop doing it? stopping it -- the question is, true reversal before louis dejoy became postmasaster general this summer. amy: lisa graves, thank you forr being with us. we have to stop saying november's election because people who vote by maiail or voting in thehe next weeks andd that goes on for more than a month. lisa graves is the executive director of the policycy researh group true north. within a we will link to "the billionaire behind efforts to

kill the u.s. postal service." that does it for our broadcast. 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 new york, new york 10013. [captioning made possible by democracy now!]

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