08/24/20 08/24/20 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] amy: from new york, , this iss democracy now! we are breaking with convention. >> let it be clear this administration is waging an authoritarian campaign to sabotage this election by manipulating the postal service to suppress our vote. this is not a conspiracy theory. this i is fascism. we will not stand for this now or ever. amy: the house approves a $25 billion bill to help t the u.s.

postal service and stop the new postmaster general louis dejoy from issuing more cost-cutting measures as president trump continues to attack mail-in voting. we will speak to a former letter carrier who became a historian studying the postal service. then we look at the arrest of trump's former campaign manager steve and others on fraud charges connected to the "we build the wall" effort. and we will discuss president's -- president trump's embrace of the far-right qanon conspiracy theory ahead of the republican national convention. while the fbi sees qanon as a domestic terrorist threat, trump has a taken a different approach. pres. trump: i don't know much about the movement than i understand they like me very much, which i appreciate. i have heard these are people that love our country. amy: all that anand more, coming up. welclcome to democracycy now!, democracynow.org.

i'm amy y goodman. we arere breaking with conventi. calilifornia has i issued new rd flag warnings, with h high temperatures and gususty winds threatening to make an already-historic series of wildfires even worse. at least six people have died and nearly 120,000 have fled their homes, as 1.2 million acs s havelrlready burned -- an areaea larger than the state of rhode island. two of the wildfires rank as the second- and third-largest fires in california's history. the fires were triggered by an estimated 12,000 dry lightning strikes amidst a record chattering heat wave driven by the climate crisis. cal fire reports a severe shortage of firefighter labor, as prisoner firefighters have been idled or granted early release amid massive coronavirus outbreaks at state prisons.. the confirmed u.s. death toll from covid-19 has topped 176,000,0, with over 5.7 m milln recorded infectionons.

on sunday, t the food and drug administration issueued an emergency use authorization for blood plasma in the treatment of covid-19, saying -- "the known and potential benefits of the product outweigh the known and potential risks of the product." over 70,000 patients have already been treated with plasma from recovered patients. the news came just one day after president trump accused the fda of delaying approval of coronavirus treatments and vaccines and being part of the deep state, without any evidence. some top health officials including white house coronavirus adviser dr. anthony fatty, -- fauci have questioned whether the data on the blood plasma study was still too weak with no randomizized studies to grant an fda a approval. this comes amid rising concern over outbreaks in schools and around the country as at least three dozen states so far have reported casesn college campuses.

meanwhile, propublica reports that meatpacking companies -- another major source of coronavirus outbreaks -- were regularly warned a about the potential for a pandemic as early as 2006, but executives ignored, and in some cases, mocked recommendations for handling one. here in new york city, a protest under the banner "march for the dead" took place friday, to memorialize the over 175,000 lives lost so far. families of victims of covid-19 called out trump for his mishandling of the pandemic, as they marched a across the brookn bridge to the trumump building n lower r manhattan. globobally, the confirmedd coronavirus death toll has topped 807,000. the united states has recorded the most deaths with 25% of the deaths get under 5% of the population, followed by brazil, mexico, and india, which crossed

the 3 million mark for cases on sunday. meanwhile, countries including australia, spain, and south korea are grappling with a a second wave of the virus. this is the didirector of the south korean centers for disease control and prevention. >>e have been having more than 300 patients for three consecutive days. it is not just happening in the capital area but in 17 cities and provinces nationwide. we are in a very grave serious situation. amy: south korea has closed more than 2000 schools. in peru, which is the second most infected country in latin america after brazil, at least 13 people were either crushed to death or asphyxiated at a lima nightclub after it was raided by police for violating coronavirus restrictions. the house of representatives voted on a bill saturday to provide $25 billion to the u.s. postal service and halt any planned changes amid growing fears that trump is attempting to hinder the delivery of mail-in ballots ahead of november's election.

the vote came one e day after postmaster general louis dejejo, a trumump megadonor,r, testified before the senate about recent changes at the postal service. this is michigan senator gary petersrs questioning dejoy. anynyl you bebe bringing back mail sorting machines that have been removed s since you havave become postmaster general? >> there is no intenention to do that. they are n not needed, sir. >> so you will not bring back any processors. >> they are not needed, sir. amy: postal workers in washington state and dallas, texas, said they have ignored orders from above and reinstalled high-speed mail sorting machines. meanwhile, "the washington post" reports over 534,000 mail-in ballots were rejected across 23 states during this year's primaries -- nearly a quarter of those in battlegrounds states. dejoy is testifying before the house oversight committee today. in other news from the house, congressmembers unanimously passed a bill saturday to

provide emergency funding to u.s. citizenship and immigration services, which is planning to furlough around two-thirds of its employees at t the end of ts month.h. in belarus, tetens of thouousanf prototesters took to the streets of minsk sunday as demonstrations continue calling for alexander lukashenko to resign two weeks after the longtime authoritarian leader was declared the winner of a a controversial l presidential election that many believe was rigggged. in colombia, at least people were killing in three separate massacres within 24 hours, marking one of the most t violet days in colombia since the signing of the peace deal in 202016. the attacks took place friday and saturday in regions that have been heavily disputed by drugug traffickekers and other criminal g groups. in the p philippines, , at leas1 -- 14 people have been killed and dozens of others wounded after two bombings in the southwestern town of ho-lo. at least five military personnel

and four civilians were killed according to local reports. the attacks are the deadliest recorded in the philippines this yearar. no one h has claimed responsibili.. in iraq, u.s. forces have withdrawn from camp taji, handing control of the military base north of baghdad to the iraqi army for the first time since the u.s.-led invasion in 2003. the u.s. will still have about 5000 troops stationed in iraq, alongside 250000 allied troops d thousands of pririvate contractors. russian opposition leader alexei navalny was admitted to a hospital in germany on saturday, two days after he became violently ill aboard a flight from siberia to moscow. navalny's sudden illness came after he was seen drinking tea at an airport cafe just before boarding his flight. a german government spokesperson said it was fairly likely navalny was poisoned, contradicting denials by russian doctors who treated navalny. he remains in a coma. in the gulf of mexico, hurricane marco weakened to a tropical storm asas it approached louisia this morning, the first of two

major storms expected to wallop the gulf coast in just 48 hours. in the caribbean, tropical storm laurura flooded homes anand kild at least nine people in haiti and the dominican republic. it's expected t to strengthen ta hurricane ahead of its landfall between houston and new orleans late on wewednesday. a warning to our viewersrs, the next t two stories contain disturbing i images of police violence. in lafayettete, louisisiana, prototters took k to the streets this weekend in the wake of the police killing of a 31-year-old black man, trayford pellerin, on friday. police officers reportedly were called for a disturbance at a convenience store, where they encountered pellerin and used tasers on him before shooting him dead as he tried to enter another convenience store. civil rights attorney benjamin crump, who is representing pellerin's family, called for the officers involved to be fired. trayford pellerin's mother told media her son struggled with anxiety, while his aunt remembered him as quiet and

generous with a big heart. meanwhile, protests have also erupted in kenosha, wisconsin, following the sunday police shooting of another black man, identified as jacob blake. video appears to show two officers shooting at blake as he walks away from them and starts to get into a car. blake's loved one said he is out of surgery and in stable condition. in portland, oregogon, alt-right hate groups took to the streets again over the weekend, attacking anti-fascist protesters and others. as clashes erupted, some pointed out that portland officials did not designate the events a riot and that police largely did not intervene, in contrast to the brutal police response towards anti-racist t protesters in rect weweeks. tennessee's republican governor bill lee signed a new law whwhih could strip protesters of their right to vote. the new law says protesters who camp out on state property could

face felony charges, which would mean they automatically lose their right to vote. kristen clarke of the lawyers' committee for civil rights under law said -- "this is a racially motivated law intended to silence the black lives matter movement." in charlotte, north carolinana, delegates are gathering for the opening of the republican national convention. president trump is expected to make an appearance every night and will accept the nomination virtually from the white house on thursday. protests have been taking place in charlotte since friday, resulting in at least arrests five saturday night. in other white house news, acting directotor of the u.s. departmentnt kelly conwaway saie will be leaving her job at the end of this montnth, citing her family. her husband, frequent trump critic george conway, also announced he was stepping back from the anti-trump republican group the lincoln project. this comes as the couple's 15 year old daughter r claudia cony said on social media she is seeking emancipation from her parents, and that she is "devastated beyond compare" that her mother was planning to speak

at the republican national convention. in secretly recorded audio, president trump's older sister maryanne trump barry calls her brother "cruel" and says he has "no principles." the damning audio was recorded by their niece mary trump and released saturday by "the washington post." maryanne trump barry, a former federal judge, also appears to be the source for mary trump's allegation in her tell-all book about her family that donald trump paid a friend to take his sat's for him. mary trump recorded her aunt in 2018 and 2019. >> and the line. oh, my god. the lack of preparation, the lying. but he is appealing to the base. what they're doing with the kids at the border, i meaean -- amy: to see our interview wiwith mary trump, you can go to demomocracynow.org.

a u.s. district judge sentenced actress lori loughlin to two months in prison friday for paying bribes to get her two daughters into the university of southern california by lying about their athletic bone fides. judge nathaniel gorton told loughlin at her sentencing -- "you have participated in the corruption of the system of higher education in this country." over 50 people e have been chard as part of the college admissions scandal. loughlin's husband, fashion designer mossimo giannulli, received a sentence of five monthshs. and in california, the manan knn as the golden state killer was sentenced to life without the possibility of parole friday. 74-y-year-olold joseph deangngea former police officer, had confnfessed to 13 murders s andr 50 rapes. over the coursrse of his triala, survivors and their families took to the stand to share the impact of his crimes, which dated d back to the 1970's.s. and those are some o of the

headadlines. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org. i'm m amy goodman. this is breaking with convention. the battle over the future of the united states postal service is intensifying. for weeks, democrats have accused the trump administration, and the new postmaster general louis dejoy, of sabotaging the postal service in the lead up to the election when a record number of mail-in ballots are expected to be cast. on saturday, the democrat-led house approved a bill to give the postal service $25 billion and to stop dejoy from making more changes to the postal service, which have already led to long delays in processing and delivering mail. this is democratic congresswoman rashida tltlaib of michigan. >> let it be clear this administration is waging an authoritarian campaign to sabotage this election by manipulating the postal service to suppress our votes. they are threatening the livelihood of our postal workers, andnd our seniors, our veterans come in so many more in the process. this is not a conspiracy theory.

this is fascism. we will not stand for this now or ever. amy: senate majority leader mitch mcconnell is refusing to take up the house bill. dejoy, who was a major donor to trump, is testifying before the house oversight committee today. saturday's vote came on the same day protests were held a at over 800 post offices across the country to condemn the actions of dejoy, who became postmaster general in june and still holds investstments worth up to $75 million in assets inin competits to the u.s. post office for contractors with it. during a senate hearing on friday, dejoy claimed the cost-cutting measures he has implemented have nothing do with the election and said the postal service is "full capable" of delivering mail-in ballots on time. senator gary peters of michigan questioned dejoy abobout his refusal to restore recently disconnenected mail sorting machines. culturally be bringing back anyy mail sorting machines?

>> t there is s no intenention o that. they're not needed, s sir. >> so you will not bring back any processors. >> they are not needed, sir. amy: while postmaster dejoy is refusing to reconnect the sorting machines, postal workers in dallas, texas, and tacoma, washington, have defied orders and reconnected e machines. this all comes as more questions are being raised over the role of treasury secretary steven mnuchin in the post office shakeup. "the new york times" reports mnuchin met with two republican members of the postal service's board of governors in early february and pressed them to select a postmaster general to push trump's agenda. wewere joined now by phililip rubio. history professor at north carolina a&t state university, author of "undelivered: from the great postal strike of 1970 to the manufactured crisis of the u.s. postal service." prior to becoming a history professor, r rubio carried mail for the postal serervice for 20 years.

it is great to have you with us, professor rubio. if you can talk about the latest developments, the senate heaeang on friday, the bill thatat was passed and what is expected to happen today witith the house hearing. this isn't just democrats accusing the white house and the post office of making it difficult wewere delaying the ml so that mail ballots want to get in on time. that was clearly stated by the post office itself, saying they did not think they would be e ae to handle all of this mail -- althoughgh dejoy told a very different ststory enen he testified d before the senenate friday. >> that is cororrect. this postmaster r general really does have a credibility problem. he came into o office just twtwo months ago witith claims s he ws going to r run it likeke a busus and cocorrect any past inefficiencies and he was goingg to first of allll clean h house,

replacing 23 senior management ,ositions and cutting overtrtime late leaving from mail processing plants and also from stations. slslowing the mail down n in ef. adadded to t that, pululling up thousands of blue mail collection boxes and dedecommissisioning these mail sorting machines, then denying that and then admitttting that t saying i it had not had that muh ofof an effect. but the damage has been donene. i thinink he has demoralized postal workers. i think he has discouraged a lot of voters who were hoping to vote by maiail, to vote safelyld securely becauause of the pandec . and he has also mamade i thinknk people as postal consumers discouraged by promising that he will resume dedecommissisioning

these machines in these other policies of his after t the election. amamy: have e you seen anythinge this b before? in examplple, the post office tacoma, wasashington, a and dal, texas, receconnecting letter sortingg m machines that were disconnecteded under orders frfm the postmaster general? can't think of anything like that but we have to remember on the o one hand,d, these arare isololated incidents stop at on the other hand, there revealing g of what postalal wos have always done in the past,t, takeken measures into o their on hands, a and it is a a promise f what might happepen in thehe fu. popostal workersrs -- you have o remeer, post w worke arere at the art of what i would cl the service culturehat is still ivive inhe p posofficece ok?

as opposed to the business culture of just trying to cut costs. so to actually take a risk of being fired for insubordination, plugging machines back in, we might see that takes a a great effffort ae might t see someththing like pol on overtimeing bans to make sure that ballots get through.h. amy: i want toto go to david c williams, the former postal service inspector general and former vice chair of the postal board of governors. in his opening remarks to the house progressive caucus last week, williams criticized treaeasury secretary steven mnuchin. >> i recently resigned as the vice chairman of governors when it became clear to me that the administration was politicizing the popostal service. , -- byasury secretary

statute, the treasure was made responsible for providing the postal service with a line of credit. the treasury using that responsibility to make demands that i believe would turn the postal service into a a politicl tool. in his long history as an apolitical infrastruructure. amy: can youou resndnd to that,, professosor rubio? >> david c williams was t the watchdhdog and he wawas one of . the other being ronald storment, who resigned under pressure. they were lolooking out for the postal service. theyb both resigned d because saw it beieing politicicized. the postal serervice or r the pt office that we have had around for 245 years, most of that time was a political institution but we did not see that kind of partisan intervention -- with .he e exceptionn of andrew jackn

but as far as manipulating the postal service and driving it into the ground. so i'm glad to see him testifying. i'm glad to see ron stroman testifying. amy: are you surprpred withh the enormous response across the country, the outcry with the postal service having like a 91% positive rating -- which delivers drugs, pharmaceuticals to veterans to people who are not veterans, so relied on -- i mean, the v.a. now looking for alternatives to ththe usps becee they're concerned drugs won't get to veterans on time, are you concerned that the damage has already y been done but surprise that dejoy would say, ok, we will hold off on changes until after the election? now, that isis really something because it is saying to people

all across the country, if you stick k with this adminisistrat, we're goingng to got the post office then. >> i'm not surprisised by anythg ththat the postmaster general is saying because apparently, he is telling differenent people w whe ththks they wawant to hear and right now the outrage has forced him to back down bubut he is makiking promises that he will resume essentially dismantling waspostal service, which instituted in 1971 after the greaeat postal strikee of 1970. and the idea being, we are going to create a nonpolitical institution and it is going to be a hybrid government agency/business. he assumes what he was given was a mandate to take it further into the business direction. you know,w, unintentionally and ironically, both he and trump i how t the dramatized

peperils of postal privatization and partisan intervention and driving our post office into the ground that we don't have to accept this. that we should not have to accept this. we should not have to take it. i'm not surprised there has been popular protests and outrage because that is something that people learn from the springtime with the george floyd protests. so when you see people die getting their medications, when you see people not getting their mail on time, of course they're going to speak up and they have learned that protests can change things. congress that has forced -- i should say, it has encouraged democrats in congress to put this on the agenda. but it is still not enough. what democrats in the house and senate are doing is the best they can do to keep putting pressure with investigations and putting bills forward that the american people will hopefully respond to.

amy: presidentnt trump tweeted - i'm going to g go back and l lot whwhat he t tweeted. on sunday, so now the democrats are using mail drop boxes, which are voter security disaster, among other things to make it possible for someone to post ultimo times. they are not covid sanitized, big fraud. no twitter has flagged the tweet for violating twitter rules about pacific and election integrity. he is suggesting you will get covid if you drop your ballot into a ballot box. >> so this is just morere didistractioion that trump a ans as theystraration are doing have done arounds of any other issues but around the postal service a and what is gratitifyg is t to see that lots and lots f people, including politicians

are pushing back against it, not being satisfied with dejoy's respononses and rebuttining tr's claims. -- what all of thisis does is what it is intended to d do is o distract and discouragage. what we have to do as individuals, as wellll as thee cocollective bodies,s, is to we do have a right to vote. we have a right to vote safely. the postal service is mandated to provide universal service, whateverer that servicice is,s,n if more than half of u us vote y mail to make sure that enough overtime is an affect, and postal workers are deployed to get all of those ballots counted , for people to register to vote early, to vote in pererson if ty fefe safe enough doing that but to vote and to keep puttingng pressure on the postmaster general. amy: canan there legalally anyng

be done? not clear what will happen in the senate, though it doesn't look like mitch mcconnell would take it up though there is bipartisan attack on trump and it starts atourse the top, for going up to the postal service. so much so that trump likable he after attacking -- inexplicably sent outut a tweet saying "save the post office." > he and his wife anotother admininistration alslso votete l and they're also encouraraging republicicans to vote by m mail. people needou vote, to remember that t they do havaa right to vote and they do have the right to expect that the postmaster general, even though it is not a very strong political position, has a lot of reverse these

policy changes in can alalso wok better with the s states to make sure that t the ballotsts are counted. but in thehe end, it will l proy come down to postal workers who does get that the mail through, just as we always did. amy: philip rubio, thank you for joining us. key as you said "justst as we always did," because befofore yu were an histororian, you were a u.s. postman f f 20 years, no history professor at north carolina a&t state university, author of "undelivered: from the great postal strike of 1970 to the manufactured crisis of the u.s. postal service." next up, we will look k at the arrest of trump's former campaign manager steve bannon and d others on fraud charges connected t to the "we build t e wall" effort. we will find out what that is. stay with us. ♪ [music break]

amy: pink floyd's "anotherer brk in the wall.l." this is democracy now! i'm amamy goodman. as the republican national convenention begins this week, a sixth close associate of president trump now fafaces criminal charges by the department of juststice. trtrump's former campaign managr and chief strategist steve bannon is accused of defrauding donors to a private effort to build a wall along the mexican border. he was arrested thursday by u.s. postal police aboard a chinese billionaire's $28-million yacht off the coast of connecticut. an indndictmenent by the southen district of new york alleges bannon and three others at the nonprofit "we build the wall" sisiphoned hundreds of thousands of dollars of donations into their own pockets to support their lavish lifestyles. bannon had promoted the group as a volunteer organization. one of the biggest donors to the project was a seven-year-old boy who set up a hot chocolate stand and raised as much as $20,000 was the bannon pleaded not guilty thursday and was released

after posting $5 million bond. at the white house, reporters asked trump about the charges. >> what is youour reaction to te indictment of yoyour former campaign -- pres. trtrump: i have not been dealing with him at all. i know nothing about the project other than i did not like what i read about it. i said, this isis for governmen, nonot for private people. it sounded to me like showboatating. i think i let my opinion be very strongly stated at the time. i did not like it. maybe looking for funds but you will havave to see what happens. i think it is a very sad thing for mr. bannon. i think it is surprising. amy: meanwhile, on "cbs face the nation" " sunday, former fbi director james comey, whwho used to head d the southern districtf new york which f filed the charges, said bannon in n a "wod of trouble." >> it is a a very serious fraud case with the huge amount of money stolen from m innocent victims, amemericans who thohout they w were giving money to

susupport the presesidents whiln the mexican border. instead, it was stolen. that will drive up p potential punishshments for mr. bannon and his co-conspirators. you knknow he's in troububle bee the indictment lays it out in such detail, including excerptps from text. if you're still banging or his lawyers -- if you're steve bannon or his lawyers, going. amy: facing charges along with bannon is we build the wall founder brian kolfage, a iraq war veteran who was awarded a purple heart and lost his legs in iraq. the postal inspection service said the case "should serve as a warning to other fraudsters that no one is above the law, not even a disabled war veteran or a mimillionaire e politica ststrategist." not charged is fisher industries' ceo tommy fisher, who was contracted to build a three-mile stretch of wall for the group directly along the banks of the rio grande, near mission, texas, near the mexico border, as a showcase project. fisher went on to secure $1.7 billion in federal border wall

contracts and claimed he was building the "lamborghini" of walls. but an invesgagationy prubublicaast t moh showowthe private wa p proje is s alady eroding and could be inananger of fliling io ththe ver. their story prompted trump to tweet on july 12 -- "i disagreed with doing this very small tiny section of wall, in a tricky area, by a private group which raised money by ads. it was only done to make me look bad. " this was around the same time of a dramatic showdown, when the trump administration ousted geoffrey berman, the u.s. attorney at the southern district of new york, whose office went on to file these charges against bannon. for more, we are joined by two reporters with the propublica/texas tribunene investstigative unit who workedn this story. in one of their reports, we build the wall's founder brbrian kolfage actually bragged a about his ties to o trump. in houston, we're joined by perla trevizo. and in austin, we're joiend by lexi churchill. we welcome you both to democracy now!

what took place on thursday, the significance of these charges against bannon and three others. >> definitely. thank you for having me. as you said, youou southerern diststrict of new york is chargg these four men who have b been involv w with thee groups s vary degrees with conspspiracy to commit wirire fraud as well as moneney laundering and as s you stated, the indictment is vevery in depth aboutut the matatter in which they have used d an unnnnd nonprofit to wirire a portion of the money that ththis group raid last year your public funds and public dononors to use as theier own personal means, and that in part went to a a vote cocold war fifired her that is been shshard widely on ththe ceoeo brian k ke 'ss instagram.

b because w wengg started our repoporting with steeping question as to answer where has this money been goioi? it doesn't answer that as a whole but it does give us insight into where part of this has beenoing. the little that we know about it is t this grououp initially raid around $2525 million and they hd used around $6 million to $8 million on t the first p project that they did and only about 5 % of a $ $42 million projeject tht waheir seconond one that we have reported on, she stated earlier. theat just not ququite at to $25 million that thisis indictmt has given us some insight into were some of that money has gogone. have not been n able to find ou. amy: the t timing is unbelievab. william barr pushing out geoffrey berman.

he did not expect the pushback from berman, not than beining ae to put in the e guy he wanted to as the u.s. attororney, and then immediately you have trump saying something about this project that he does n not suppt it. this is at the time they could not shake the prosecutor's office in the way they wanted to, and clearly this prosecution was moving ahead. not clear if our was trying to stop this prosecution so that when bannon was arrested, trump said, can look at my comments weeks ago. i was against this project. but it was only when they were not a able to p put the people n theyey wantedd to inin the u.s.. attorneyey's offffice. >> yeaeah. as you mentioned the president had tweeted about a month ago after our initial reporting on the state of how this actual project is standing up, which is nott great, thahat he didid note this project, he did not support

it, any further those comments trying to distance himself on thursday when asked about it. ththere's a c clear connectionn betwtween the president anand ts group. of course, steve banannon, his foformer campaign advisor, and white house advisor f for some period off time, there is no severing that relationship. he has also been involved with former secretary of state kris kobach of kansas for several years and he served as the groups general counsel, actually, and other outspoken advocates. we have done some reporting that is also connected the president to members of the group itself, including the ceo brian kolfage, who last year in an interview had a direct connection to the president through kris kobach and others and he approved of what they were doing and supported it. amanda shea, the company c ceo - cfo, sorry, also posted a photo

with trump last year's egg she was able to meet wiwith him and speak extensivively about the project and that she had eveven told her they should bid for the whole wall. amy: yet this important point that kris kobach, thee former consisted secretary of state, prominent trump supporter, serving as the advisor as she said to we build the wall, who said i talked with the president anand the we effort came up, krs kobach told "the new york times." the president said "the projectt has my blessing and you can tell the media that." so trump is singing a very different tune right now. while the media covered -- this isis extremely significant, and being arrested, i want to turn to perla trevizo who's on the ground in texas. what the media did not cover as much as what this wall is. what did getet builtlt? whatat happened to it?

>> thank you for having us. very little has been built. they built roughly half a mile west of el paso and new mexico last year. that was on private land. by "wes fully fununded build the wall," which is up to $8 million according t to repor. -- east in west in texas, they built roughly three miles along the river, which is the portion of the private wall that we have been focusing on. and that project was mostly funded by fisher, which is the ceo you mentioned previously, with support from "we build the wall." initially, "we build the wall" touted their second project after our story and mr. trump tweeted that he disagreed with the project, he initially tried to distance himself from the project saying it was not there wall, it was fisher's project,

.hey just had donated to it ultimalyly, th wenent ck andnd did say that it was actually fakee e to rortsts a evevything was fine -- fake media reports never was fine d we back t to supuprting g e projt. amy: and fisher is? ofmmy fisr i ithe ceo fisher indtries and a lot of subsidiaries. he is a builder who for a while was trying to get border wall contracts and he was not getting anywhere and then he started appearing on conservative media trying tod kind of get to the president, they say. "we" tortnered with build a segment in new mexico and the one in texas and they say they wanted to show the government how the private industry could build the border wall. while the government -- while

the governor hadad not beeeen ae to build along the river, that would show how it could be donee mumuch cheaper and f faster. some crititics say he use those projects as kind of a showcase project of how to get the government contracts that you mentioned earlier. since our story, he has gotten a couple more. so now it is closer to $2 billion in federal contracts for border wall fencing, most of that in arizona. amy: how much? >> now it is about $2 billion. amy: $2 billion? > his company is also been awarded the largest contractct was for border wall, which $1.28 billion -- most $1.3 billion. and two of them, including that when i mentioned, were awarded while an audit was ongoing. so after he got the first border wall contract for $400 million,

congressman thompson called for a duty audit of that contract to ensure there had not been undue influence or improper influence from the trumpet administration. and that is still ongoing. amy: talk about the wall part that w was built in the enviroronmental regulatations tt werere gotten around and what ts means in the area. >> especially the one in south texas, it is a very tricky area, even as mr. trump said, it is very close to the river. the reason why there is not a lot of border wall building going on there must've usually the government builds further inland on a levy, which has caused its own problems because you end up dissecting properties, final -- farmlands, even sanitary's. so the segment of the three miles of the w wall is stitill y close to the river, which experts have told us you're alwa g goingo hahave problbl with erosion and soon after mr. finished,

stteted seng l lite gashsh in ars of t t fence. toe clear,r. fisheand his attorn have bo diissed thoseoncerns saying it i normal part of erosion after y have p proje likike at andnd that the will ntinue to fix it and bresponsie for it but wh we saw aer hannais the gushes bame huge cracks anand se instans iwas ist deep i dcribed uer the sto, li dean thgs goingnto the river. what engeers telis ithe oblem is it can bece destabized. it is t that it might fall tomorrowbubut ifhiss continues, becae e of t sanand d becacae -- you know, t the bank, that you could have segments of it tplple in thehe rer, which can cause a lot of probmsms.

i will just add as well, that ararea icontntroed by a bination comssion, bndary commission, beususe you want make se whatever you do o eith s side of the u.s. or mexi bororde is nonogoing to pact the other se.e. inhihis case, they have fou at asast on segment of the three mile fence caneflect t much water unr the mecan sid wh the is floong. that is also c currently being litigated. amy: i want to also talk about other people involved with this, whetheher or not thehey are indicted. plaster al jazeera e english hot mehdi is on interviewed erikk prince. he defended his invovolvement in ththe "we build the walll fundraraising projecect. your partrt of a high-profile trump support including steve bannon, david clark of others,s, planning a and raising pririvate money y to build a walall alonge s. mexicico border. even have a gofundme p page. what i i don't t get is i am prt sure i hrd donaldd trump sayay

that mexico o would be paying fr ththe wall. >> d don't just mexicoco actualy paying for t the wall. >> ethic most of us have. beeeenlast chapter is not written. close whyhy are you fundraiaisi? are frururated. they are s sick of -- mexicorusustrated t that won'n't pay for the wall? it 2019 live streaming fundraiser, steve bannon, who was indicted joke, brian kolfage was embezzling the wall money. >> stephen k bannon and brian kolfage. >> welcome back. this is stephen k bannon. you're off the coast of st. tropez on a million dollar yacht. brian kolfage took all that moneney from build the wall.

no, we're actually in a park, new mexicoco. amy: so there e you have brian kolfage and steve bannon both indicted. lives in with lexixi churchill, the significance of f what the'e saying a and before that, erik prince, foundeder of blackwater? it is startling to joke about something like that that ththey are now facing charges f. what i would like to end on is this has been an outstanding itstion and because of how was structured as a nonprofitit organization, , we have not hada lolot of thehese answewers aboue the money is going and what it has bebeen usesed for so far. willie reached out to brian kolfage about this, he said we would need to wait for those answers to comome in oncece the ,rgroup files ththeir annual ret 990 or a version of it. we are eagerly awaiting that to see what further information we

will be able to learn. amy: finally, what happens to this wall ththat was already but now that these men have been indicted eddie fisher industries, tommy fisher getting something like $2 billion to build a wall. two other brbrothers david and michael, one was put in prison for child pornographphy and the other went to jail for enviroronmental and workrkplace viololations, among otother thi, not t paying taxes, etc.? yeah. ththat is a gooood question. it is worth noting that fisher industries does have a history of violations like the ones you mentioned. ,pa, environmental regululation as well asas workplace safet regulations, and i think the biggest thing is that thisis investigation is still ongoing into the initial contract ththey receivived for $400 million from the federal government and we

are wawaiting to see what the results of ththat were as well. if there was any undue influences. amy: we will continue to follow this. we want to thank lexi churchill and perla trevizo reporters with the propublica/texas tribune investigative unit. we will link to your piece "nonprofit that financed a private border wall is now the focus of a corruption case." next we look at president trump's embrace of the far right qanon conspiracy theory ahead of today's republblican national convention. while e the fbi sees qanon as a domestic terrorist threat, trump has taken a different approach. stay with us. ♪ [music break]

amy: justin towownes earlrle. it was announced last night that justin t townes earle hahad pasd awayay at the age of 3 38. hehe is the son ofof the great folklksinger steve earle. this is democracy y now! i'm amy y goodman.n. we are breaking with convention.

as the republican national convention begegins tonight in charlotte, north carolina, questions are e mounting over president trump's decision to openly embrace the far-right conspiracy theory known as qanon. the theory claims, among other things, that trump is secretly at war with a deep state cabal of satan-worshiping elites who run a child sex trafficking operation. over the years, trump has repeatedly retweeted messages from supporters of the conspiracy t theory but last wek trump talked publicly about the movement for the first time. pres. trump: i i don't know much about t the momovement, , otheri understand they like me very much -- whici apprpreciate. these are peopople that don't le seeieing what is going on in places like portland and placecs chicago o and new york and other cities and statetes. i have heard these are people that love our country and they just don't like seeing it. so i don't know really anything about it other than they do supposedly like me.

>> the theory, this belief that you are secretly saving the world from this satanic cult, pedophiles, cannibals. does that sound like something your behind? pres. trump: i have not heard that, but is that supposed to be a bad ththing or a good thing? if i can help save the world from problems, i'm willing to do it. amy: that is president trump in ququestion by an nbc reporter rt the white house. trump's remarks came just a week after a supporter of qanon, marjorie taylor greene, won the republican primary in georgia's heavily republican 14th congressional district. last year the fbi warned qanon and other conspiracy theories posed a domestic terror threat.. we are joined now by angelo carusone, president of media matters, a watchdog group monitoring right-wing misinformation in the u.s. media. wow.

angelo, lay this out for us. because beyond what i said, this ea -- brining in the pizzeria, hunter clinton, etc. >> qanonon sort of like phase to of conspiracy ththeory that i think a lot t of peoplple woulde familiar witith, which started n the 201616 presidential campaign calleded pizzagagate. the theory was that hillary clinton, among others, were running a child sex trafficking ring o out of abasement up a pia parlor i in washington, d.c. one of the individuals who believed in this conspiracy theory actually went to investigigate it himself and brought a gun and fired some shots. the pizza parlor does not even have a basement. at person n was arrested. what happepened from then was people still believed in the theory. ththey still believed there wasa child sex traffickcking ring beg run by hillary clinton.n. itit is justhahat thehey had the wrong pipizza place. when t trump took o office, shoy after, one of the things that happeneded is this entity, this

individual named q, started dropping these secret clues onto these message boards that members, readers would consume and try to decipher and decode. a testedcally has sized into the domestic terror threat that you referenced earlieier, which is ththat now u have a fairly widespread belelif amongst largely conservatives that democrats, the media, and parts of the government are operating togetether to take don donald trump and the reason they want to take down donald trump is because he is the only person that is trying to stop their child sex trafficking ring. and the reason why they want ththis is because theyey are eir sadist, psychic vampires, or interdimensional demons. there's a lot of disagagreement within the m movement t as to wt is actctually driving this need

for child sex trafficicking buta big piece i is that they are eithther interdimensional demons or psychic vampires.s. atat the cenenter of this entity called q, which is supposedly somebody in the government working with donalald trump secretly licking all of these documents. to do this hesitated today because whether or not you're critiquing it, you become a super-spreader fears it keeps getting m misinformation because it keeps getting repeated. but now you have the recent georgia primary where the russian -- i'm sorry, where the primaryan winner of the actually openly embraces the qanonon theory. explain what happened there. clubs sure. marjorie taylor greene one her prprimary and then n a runoff. it was a v very conservativeve district. she is almost certainn to win in the general election.

essentially,y, she is somebody o bully believeves in q, b believt is a real entity. she is actively evangelized for it. she has repeatedly told people if they don't sububscribe to ths or they are uncertain about it, not to feel bad, to reach out to her privately and she will help walk them through the importance of q. she is repeatedly called q a patriot. when trurump says the thing h he said, nonot just ththat he did t condemn it, but when he reinforced the fact t that peope inin qanon love their country, their patriotsts, that is essential tenet of what qanon believers sort of tell themselves and also what these doubt bring others into the movement, that there actually the true patriots out there really t trying to save the coununtry and the world from ths sort of interdimemensionall psyc fight. i i would just poioint out that marjororie taylor greene is not the only qanon believer that is on the b ballot in november. adherence on0 qanon

ththe ballot in november. 75 were running in the primamars for cocongress and senate but 20 made their way to the ballot inn november. that is another thing at this point that it has reached full spread, that we really can't ignore it anymore. amy: anyny of the new slogan adopted by the t texas republiln party y we are the storm," which is a nod to qanon?? >> it is. that sort of transition period in the early days of q when n ty were going from pizzagate to full cue in on, there is a period where they kept believing that the storm was coming, is a reference to a massive crackdown from donald trump where he was going to expose the deep state and expose this ring ofof psychc vampires and demons and theyey kept refererring to this asas te sort of prophecy that was about

to u unfold. inin fact, therere was an incidt in 2019 workikingn armed man tok over the desesk where an armed n took over the hoover dam. one of the things he was screaming was released the oig, office of inspector general report. he wasas a full qanon believer. they flelee, nobody was hurt. the e reason he took it over was to help speed along the timeline because a lot of qanon believers were under the impression that the office of inspector general port wouldld expose the dedeep state of the time it was time -- part of this stotorm. release the storm is one of the things y you heaear about and te other is where we go one, we go all, is a code word ththat a lot of qanon users used to identify each other and help evevangeliz. amy: michaelel f flynn, righthtn july 4 w with his entire family. >> when he took the oath, which i think it's s part of the reasn why qanon so different -- a lot of people believe in consnspiray theories.

a lot a are -- most are harmless and ridiculous. but what is different about qanon is it is so inherently linked to v vlence, thahat you really believe in n order too become a a believer,r, up to sta and fight. thisis is the existential threat of our time. and that basically, the end justifies the means. when michael flynn tooook the oath, whwhich was he doeoes whae was doing, they're taking g the oath of -- to defend the constitution, put their lives on the line and at the end they signed it off with thatat slogan as sort of a way to o get others to do the same thing. it took holdld. amy: what are you looking for at the republican national convenention this week? clububs i thinink a lot is g goo be a wink and a nod ininto wtt we'rere saying in the right win. i would know that power right now is being organized on what we would have once considered ththe fringes and being ableleo draw thosesedots. amy: thank you for being with us. angelo carusone is president of

media matters, which monitors right-wing misinformation in the u.s. media. we will be with you all week covering the republican national convention from charlotte to the white house. tune into our breaking with convention series.

♪ thank you for joining us from our studio in tokyo. this is nhk "newsline." we begin in japan where experts advising the government are optimistic that the worst of the coronavirus has passed. tokyo reported 95 new cases monday the first time the daily figure dropped below 100 in nearly seven weeks. officials say younger adults are still at the center of the