08/25/20 08/25/20 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] amy: this is democracy now! we are breaking with convention. pres. trump: what they're doing is using covid distill an election. they're using covid to defraud the american people -- all of our people, of a fair and free election. amy: the republican national convention begins in charlotte, north carolina, with president trump claiming democrats can

only defeat him by stealing the election. and in prime time, republicans repeatedly use apocalyptic language to describe what a biden presidency would look like. >> they want to steal your liberty, your freedom. they want to control what you see and think. youhey can control how live. amy: we will hear excerpts from the republican natioional n speak to, the longtime republican strategist stuart stevens, who has worked on five republican presidential campaigns. his new book, "it was all a lie: how the republican party became donald trump." plus, we will look at an issue overlooked at the republican national convention -- climate. the climate-fueled wildfires engulfing california, where crews are currently battling 625 fires that have killed at least seven people. we will speak to a formerly incarcerated firefighter.

all that and more, coming up. welcome to democracy now!, democracynow.org. we are brereaking with conventi. i'm amy goodman.n. the republican natioional convention opened in charlotte, north carorolina, with dire warnings from prpresident trump and his s backers that a joeoe n presidency could destroy thehe coununtry. trump began ththe convention claimingng without any evidence democrats were trying to steal the election. pres. trump: the only way they can take this election away from us is if this is a rigged election. we're going to win this election. amy: little attention was paid on the opening day of the republican national convention to the over 177,000 americans who have died during the covid-19 pandemic or the tens of millions of workers who have lost their jobs. while trump was repeatedly

praised by the speakers during the convention, dissent is growing within the republican party. on monday, former senator jeff flake joined with over two dozen other former republican members of congress to launch a new group -- republicans for biden. we'll have more on the rnc after heheadlines. a warning to our v viewers, this next s story contains distururbg images of police violence. wisconsin governor tony evers called in the national guard monday as protests continued in kenosha for a second night following the police shooting on sunday of jacob blake, an unarmed 29-year-old black man. an officer shot blake seven times in the back as he was getting into his car. his three children -- aged three, five, and eight -- witnessed the shooting from the car. blake was reportedly trying to

break up a fight between two women before the shooting, but the police have not explained why they went after him or shot him. he remains hospitalized in serious but stable conditions. prprotesters defied a a curfew s police used tear gas on crowowd. protests also took plalace acros the e country, incncludingng hen new york city. governor tony evers and lieutetenant govovernor mandela barneses called state lawmakakes into a special sessision to take up legislation on police brutality that was introduced earlier this year. this is lieutenant governor mandela barnes. >> this was not an accident. thisis wasn't bad police work. this felt like some sort of vendetta being takaken out on a member of our communityty. the officers deadly actions attempted to take a person's life i in broad dadaylight. and lilike many of you, the vido is etched into my mind like so many other past videos that are just like it. it was a video i would rather

have not had to have watched. at the irony is not lost on me that as jacob blake was actually trying to de-escalate the situation in his community, what the responding officer did not feel the need to do the same. amy: food anand drug administration commissioner stephen hahn admitted d monday e overstated the positive results of using blood plasma from recovered patients as a treatment for covid-19. he denied politics played a role in the fda's emergency-use authorization of the treatment, which was touted by president trump sunday. earlier, trump said the fda's part o of the deeeep state. in educationon news, a flolorida judge blocked a state order requiring schools to offer in-person teaching, saying that it failed to take safety concerns intnto account. florida has appealed the ruling. ohio state uniniversity has suspended 228 students from campus for breaking rurules arod parties anand gatheringsgs.

meanwhile, the university of north carolina reported a 31% covid-19 positivity rate for last week, up from 13% on the first week of class. in environmental news related to the e coronavirus,s, the associd press found thousands of oil and gas projects and government facilities have e been permitted to stop monitoring f for hazards emissions and bypass other environmental and health rules during the outbreak. -- during g the pandemic. in international news, scientists in n hong kong say ty have identified their first case of reinfection after a recovered covivid-19 patientnt contractede virurus again 4.5 months aer his first infefection. memeanwhile in x xinjiang, chih, reports have emerged of people being handcuffed to buildings, being forced to take traditional chinese medicine, and ordereredo

stay inside for weeks on end as part of the repressive measures taken to contain the coronavirus, despite official numbers going down. china has been accused of demographic genocide in xinjiang for its mass imprisonment and repression of uighurs and other muslim minorities. gaza has gone into lockdown after it reported its first covid-19 cases outside a quarantined area. the four casases were from the same family in a refugee camp. doctors in eastern libya are warning that overburdened andd poorly equipped d spitals wiwill not be able to handle the rising number of coronavirus patients. protesters have taken to the streets of tripoli and misrata in recent days to demand an end to corruption and proper care for those affected by y the pandememic. in california, the death toll has risen to at least seven as climate change-fueled wildfires continue raging across the state. governor gavin newsom said monday close to 300 lightning strikes overnight had sparked 10

new fires, bringing the number of active fires to 625. over 1.4 million acres have burned across california. authorities say some progress has been made over the past day and the biggest group of fires around napa in northern californrnia is now w 25% conta. among the tens of thousands of firefighters who have been enlisted to fight the blazes are around 1300 incarcerated people. later in the broadcast, , we'll hearar from a formererly incarcerated firefighter inn california. postmastster general lououis dey was grilled by democrats monday as he testified before the house oversight committee about recent changes at the u.s. postal service. dejoy struggled to answer basic questions, including about mail-in voting during the 2016 elections and the cost of mail. he also refused to provide justification for recent changes

at thehe postal service, which s led to a slowing down of delivery times and has prompted fears trump is deliberately trying to sabotage the usps in the run-up the elections. in related tech news, twitterr flagagged a trump tweet that claiaimed mail boxes are a "vovr security disaster" and "not covid sanitized." twitter said the tweet made both "misleadading healalth claimim t could potentially dissuade people from partrticipation in voting." secretary of state mike pompeo reassured israel monday the u.s. will ensure it retains its military advantage in the middle east under any future arms deals with the united arab emirates. the remarks come as questions swirl over possible u.s. plans to sell f-35 jets to the uae following the normalization agreement it reached with israel earlier this month. on sunday, white house senior adviser and presidential son-in-law jared kushner said the deal should increase the

probability of such a sale. israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu has come under fire over reports last week that the sale of f-35's was part of the deal with the uae and that he gave trump the green light for the sale. netanyahu has denied the reports. the uae reportedly cancelled a planned meeting with the u.s. and israel over his denial. israel is the only country in the middle east that currently has the f-35. secretary of state pompeo will deliliver a speech tonight at te republican national conventntio, a move which critics say is a violation of the hatch a act sie he is a diplomat. the spspeech was recororded mony in israel, w which is continuing its bombing assault on gaza. in bangladesh, at least 160 people have been killed and millions forced to flee their homes as residents grapple with ongoing flooding after weeks of torrential rains.

at least one thihird of the country has been submerged i floods. this comes as begland -- -- covercases -- anglo 19 cases near 300,000 and local officials warn of the joint devaststating impact the pandemc and the floods. this is a reresident affected by the floods. >> we are suffering a a lot from the floods thahat have been gogg on for twowo months. we can't move. we can't gogo anywhere to buy food. there is no school for the children. amy: in britain, refugee rights activists are sounding the alarm over t the ongoing detenention f unacaccompanied children, who arrive on boats through the english channel. the children are reportedly being held at a facility that for months warnened the e britih government it did not have the resources to safely house the rising number of young asylum seekers. activivists say brbritish immigration officials are breaking the law, whichh prohibits the gogovernment from deining unacaccompanied children for longer than 24 hours. last week, the body of a young man from sudan washed up on a

beach after he drowned while attempting to cross from france to england through the english channel. activists say anti-refugee policies have denied asylum seekers safe and legal routes to britain. back in the united states, in north carolilina, a a federall appeals court has ruleled the rights of ronnie long, a black man who has been in prison for over 40 years, were violated during his trial. long was convicted for the rape of a white woman in 1976 by an all-white jury. but he has maintained for decades he was wrongfully convicted. three appeals court judges said monday they, too, believe long is innocent, citing the place misconduct in the case. they are a lower court to close urging the case. long was 20 yearars old at the time of his arrest. he's now 64. the e office of new york attorny general letitia james is investigating the trump organization and president trump over the possible inflating of

his assets in order to secure loans and other benefits. james is requesting trump's son eric be compelled to testify after he abruptly canceled a planned deposition last month. in 2019, trump's former fixer michael cohen told congress trump had inflated his assets in financial statements to obtain loans while deflatingng the vale of other assets to reduce real estatete taxes.. tiktktok is susuing presididentp over his executive order banning the popular video sharing app. titiktok, which is owned by the company bytedance, said trump's order was part of a "broader campaign of anti-china rhetoric." trump also banned the chinese social media app wechat earlier this month. tiktok has around 92 million monthly users in the u.s. and d jerry falwell, jr. h reportedly resigned as president of the evangelical christian liberty university in virginia, amid the growing fallout over

claims about his personal life. he was put on leave earlier this month after he posted a photo on instagram in which he is posing with his arm around a young drink, with his pants unzipped. on monday, giancarlo granda, a former hotel pool attendant who then became a business partner, said he had an affair with becki falwell, jerry falwell, jr.'s wife. granda says falwell junior would watch while they had sex. jerry falwell, jr. is a prominent supporter of president trump. surprising many in 2016 when he endorsrsed donald trump. and those are some of the headlines. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org. i'm amy goodman. we are breaking with convention. i am in new york city joined by my cohost juauan gonzalez froros home in new jersrsey. juan: welcome to allll of our liststeners and viewers frfrom around the country a and around the world.

amy: the r republicacan national convention opened in charlotte, north carolina president trump , monday. made a surprise speech during the day just minutes after he was formally nominated for a second term. he spoke in front of a group of delegates in charlotte. >> four more years. four more years. four more years. four more years. pres. trump: now if you want to really drive them crazy, you say 12 more years. >> 12 more years. 12 more years. pres. trump: because we caught them doing some really bad things in 2016. let's see what happens. speech,ing his daytime he continued his attack on mail-in voting. pres. trump: the only way they can take this election away from us is if this is a rigged election. we are going to win this election. what they're doing is using covid to steal an election. they're using covid to defraud

the american people -- all about people -- of a fair and free election. they can do that. amy: while trump spoke in charlotte, the new postmaster general louis dejoy -- who was a major trump donor -- was being grilled by democrats on the house oversight committee who accused him of trying to sabotage the postal service ahead of the election. in any unusual decision, the republican party has decided not to adopt a new platftform this year, a move that ensures there will be no public debate at the convention about the direction of the party under trump. during the prime time republican nationalde convention, speakers, including the president's son donald trump, jr., used apocalypc language to deribe the daerers of a biden pridency. the eving kicked off with charlie kirk, the founder of the right-wing student group turning point. cooks we may not have realized it at the time, but trump is the bodyguard of western

civilization. trump was elected to protect our families from the vengeful mob that seeks to destroy our way of life, our neighborhoods, schools , churches, and values. president trump was elected t to defend the american way of life. amy: throughout the first night of the republican convention, speakers repeatedly praised trump's handling of the covid-19 outbreak, even as the e u.s. deh toll tops 177,000. wororld.e highest in the the u.s. has less than 5% of the worlds population but more than 25% of the deaths. nono menon was made of trump's record of spreading misinformation. his urging of states to reopen too soon or his monthshs long refufusal to wear a mask during the pandemic. this is amy ford, a a nurse from west virginia. recognizedtnt t trump the threat this virus prevented just presented t to all americas early onon and made rarapid poly

changes. anand as a result, telehealth services are now accessible to more than n 71 million american, including 35 million children. amy: there continues to be lack totests and masks a available the overall population in the united states. while polls show 90% of black voters b back the biden-harrrris ticket, number of african-american figures were featurured, including vevernon jones, a democratic state representative from georgia. >> i am here to tell you that black voices are becoming more woke and louder than ever. the democratic party has become infected with a pandemic of sococialism,bigotry, anti-law enfororcement. amy: the wealthy white st. louis couple who brandished guns at

black lives matter protesters who marched near their mansion in june also spoke. mark and patricia mccloskey now face felony charges over the incident, which saw mark point a semiautomatic assault rifle at protestersrs, while patricia waived a silver pistol. her finger on the trigger. couldt happened to us just as easily happen to any of you who are watching from quiet neighborhoods around our country, and that is what we want to speak to youou about tonight. >> that is exactly right. whether it is the defunding of police, ending cash fails so criminals can be released back out on the streets the same day to write it again, or encouragg anarchand chaoon our stree, it see as ifhe mocrats no longeviview t gornmentn's job as proteing honest citizs from crimils but raer proteing crimals

om honescitizens not singleerson inhe ouof-contr mob y s at r house s s chard wiwith a crimime, but you know who was te echo we were. >> they're not satisfied with spreading the c cha intnto r communities, they want to abolish the suburbs altltogethe. amy: black lives matter protesters were passing thehe house to get to the mayor's house in protest when the couple brandished their weaponsns at te protesters. many speakers on the opening night of the republicacan natiol convenenon warned of chaos iff trump loloses the race. this is former fox news host kimberly guilfoylele. >> they want to destroy this country and everything that we have fought for and hold dear. they want to steal your liberty, your freedom. they want to control what you see and think and believe so they can control how you live.

they want to enslave you to the ideologyendent, victim to the point that you will not recognize this country or yourself. currently guilfoyle is the part of dodonald trump, jr., alo the ex-wife of the california governor gavin newsom. she also took aim at california. the donaldld trump, jr. also addressed the convention. >> people of faith are under attack. you're not allowed to go to church, that mass chaos in the streets gets a pass. it is almost like this election is shaping up to be church, work, and school versus rioting, looting, and vandalism or in the words of biden in the democrats, peaceful protesting. and our kids have been flooding our streets and democrat mayors are ordering the police to stand down.

small businesses across america, many of them minority owned, are being torched by mobs. the democrat mayorors pretend it is not happening. they call it a summer of love. amy: former u.n. ambassador nikki haley, whoho is widely viewed a as a potetential presidential candidate i in 202, also s spoke. >> in much of the democratic party, it is now fashionable to say that america is racist. that is a lie. america is not a racist country. this is personal for me. i am the proud daughter of indian immigrants. settlede to america and in a small southern town. my father were a turban. my mother wore a sari. i was a brown girl in black and white world. we faced discrimination and hardship, but my parents never gave in to grievanance and h ha. amy: the opening nigight of the republican natioional convention

ended d with senator timim scot, the onlyly black republican in e u.s. senate. he claimed joe biden wants a cultural r revolutioion in thehe united states.s. >> our side is working on policy while joe biden's radical democrats are trying to permanently transform what it means to be an american. make no mistake, joe biden and kamala harris want a cultural revolution, a fundamentally different america. if we let them, they will turn our country to socialist utopia. and history has taught us that path only leads to pain and misery, especially for hard-working people hoping to rise.. and because senator tim scotttt speaeaking at the opening other top the nationalal convention. when we e come back, we will spk to vetereran republican strategt stuart stevens, other of the new

book "it was all a lie: how the republican party became donald trump." stay with us. ♪ [music break]

y: this isis democracy now!, democracynow.org,. i'm amy goodman. breaking with convention. as the republican national convention kicked off monday, the republican party announced it would not adopt a new platform and instead pledged it support to president donald trump. at the same time, a group of veteran republican operatives who want to defeat trump launched a $4 million advertising blitz this week that targets voters in swing states. than 175,000 americans have died from the deadly virus tunnel trump ignored. praising china's response instead o of heedingg the warni. and blaming them to cover his

own faiailures. with the economy inn shahambles, more than n 30 million americans are out of work. ththe worst economy in decadede. this afternoon, millions of americans will apppply for unemploymement. and withth their savingsgs run , many are g giving up hope. millions worry that a loved one will not s survive covovid-19. in americica.ing undeder thehe leadership of dond trump, our country is weaker and sicker and poorer. and now americans are asking come if we have ananother four years like this, will there even be an america? amy:. a add calleled m mourningn america. the anti-trump ads will run on tv and online througughout this week's convention coverage anand

are paid for by the lincoln project, a super pac that can raise and spend an unlimited amount of money. on monday, former republican national committee chairman michael steele announced he was joining the group. this comes as longtime white house adviser kellyannnne conway said she plans to leave her job at the end of ththis month, citg her family. and her husband george conway, , who co-founded the lincoln project, is leaving the lincoln project. the couple's 15-year-old daughter claudia conway has said she is seeking emancipation from her parents and tweeted that she is devastated her mother is speaking at the republican national convention. conway replied, talking about stepping back from herer job asa top senior advisor and counsel ,o the president, "from now on less trauma, more mama." meanwhile, the pro-biden super

pac, american brididge, launched an ad campaign monday that featurures trump's former lawye, michael cohen. for more, we're joined by someone who is a senenior advisr to the lincoln project and much more. stuart stevens is a longtime republican political consultant who worked as a strategist for five republican presidential campaigns, including bob dole, george w. bush, and that t romn, as well as senators, congressssmen, and governors.. politico calls him "one of the most successful political operatives of his generation." stevens did not support donald trump as the republican candidate in his new book is out 2016. this month. it is titled "it was all a lie: how the republican party became donald trump." in it, he compares his lifelong political party to the mafia, the segregationist movement, and even to the nazis. stuart stevens, welcome to

democracy now! thank you for joining us from your home in vermont. you have said that race and racism is at the core of the republican project. feelou talk about why you it is not just donald trump -- i mean, many even in the lincoln project say their party left them, but you are saying that the origiginal sin of the republican party, racism, is at its core. it is not just donald trump. please explain. >> first, it is great to be here. it really goes back -- in this book, i wanted to trace this to the post reward history of the modern revival can party. 1956, dwight eisenhower got almost 40% of the african-amamerican vote. that fell off a cliff with your goldwater in 1964 who got 7%.

he opposed the civil rights act. you could have made a case at the time that african-americans would drift back to the republican partyty some substantial nunumbers. conservatatism, faith, entrepreneurship, patriotism. but that never happened. since 1964, the republican has failed to attract africacan-americans and any numbers over 10% in most races. what does that mean? it means that you get very good at one thing and not very good at the other. i was part of the party that worked for george bush, both george bushes, actually. i went down in april 1989 torque for governor bush. we saw the party needed to change, try to form a new formulation of conservatives the governor called compassionate conservatism. my feeling was, and i think others agreed with me, that we

were almost i inevitable that te side of the party we represented would emerge as dominant. i think looking at donald trump, i have to admit i was wrong. i think we were the recessive gene, nonot the dominant gene. in the party has become very comfortable with a white grievance. i saw that on f full display y t night. b book, you have a chapter i think it is chapter eight, the empire's last stand, and you say the trump obsession with immigrants from mexico and central america is motivated by his own racism but it also reflects the knowledge that every new nonwhite voter i in amamerica is a threat to the existence e of the repepublican party. could you elaborate on thahat? >> that is just a fact. if you look at the construction of the republican party now. reasonat danger and the

the republican party dozen changes going to go away as a major political party, those americans 15 years and under, the majority are nonwhite. odds are good they're going to turn 18 and still be nonwhite. in that reallyly isn't that sentence to the republican party as it is currently constructed. ,t is fascinating to l look here since 1964 we have not been able to get african-americans. a concerted attemempt, president bush did, to get more hispanics. it was very important to have. in up to about 43%, 42% 2004. then it has fallen back to 27% or so. andit is not just hispanics african-americans. if you look at asian americans, asian americans used to support republicans like 70% and now they oppose republicans at about

70%. why is that? it is not like republicans are attacking asians, or at least not until recently when donald trump started attacking the chinese like he had a list, "i forgot to attack the chinese." they got the joke come if you weren't white, you weren't really welcome in the republican party. that is really a death signal for a party. that is what happened to california. california was the beating heart of republicans. not that long ago. and now the republican party is in third party. not second-place, third-place. i think the history of things happening in california and then rolling across the countryry is pretty good. juan: i am wondering i if you could talk about t the for poliy implicatations, nikki haley spoe last nigight. she was supposed ---- as a formr u.s. ambassasador, be abable t t e picture of whatat the trump administration h has done for policy wise.

as the rest of the worldld watcs this convention andnd the langue and the rhetor of the apocalyptic vision that the republican party is espousing, what does itit do to the statang of the united states inin the world and among other political leaders? >> what i found extraordinary about last act with nikki haley, last week we had republican senate committee under marco rubio of florida, puts out a rereport that says the russians were definitely involved in our elections and definitely trying to help donald trump. and there was no mention of it. ththis is ththe most serious atk on our electoral system by hostile foreign power in the history of the united states, and we know they are doing i it again. and republicans aren't even talking about it. even when their own party says it is happening. i find that incredibly anti-american and anti-patriotic.

an ututter disgrace. the republican party that i signed up for, one of the great appeals was that it stood for freedom. when ronald reagan said "tear down this wall, mr. gorbachev," that was powerful. and the words had meaning. in the u.s. did help in the cold war and we did help bring more people into freedom. and now we're on the side of dictators. it is extraordinary. i never would have thought it possible. amy: stuart stevens, ronald reagan launched his campaign in mississippi and philadelphia which many felt was a clear signal. this is a place where the three civil righghts activists were murdered back in the early 1960's. so i went to go back even further than that to you getting activated and republican

strategic consulting work, to this very interesting story. you had been an intern for that cochran who was running -- he ran for senate. he has been congressmember. you have the period in 1963, or just a little kid at the time, but vendor evers was gunned down in his driveway in mississippi. you grew up in jackson, mississippi. working for a congressmember who you realized the congressmember, the republican congressmember who was trying to be a congressmember was white, the democrat was white, and there was a black independent. talk about what you did and what you understood well at the time anand how that linked into medgr evers' murder. >> is a fascinating story.

when i grew up in mississippi, there really weren't republicans and the democrarats were led by two segregegationist senators. moderate positive young lawyer who ran for congress as a republican, thad cochran. he represented an alternative to that segregationist view. he was the first republican elected to congress and three consecutive -- i was a page in his office in high school. an eight 1978 come he ran for the senate. i work for the guy who had been his chief of staff who iss running for his old congressional seat. say, my guy was white, the republican, t the demococrac candidate was white, but there was also an african-american independent. this was reaeally the first raci had done. i have been involved in volunteer lelevel before. but it became quickly apparent by looking at numbers that 90%

at l least of those african-americans were either going to vote for the democrat or for the african-american inindependent. it was in our best interest that they vote for the african-american independent so that the v votes would not go to ththe democratic candidate. it was simple math. so, a spot, thought it was very voter, which was likee information spot. here are the three candidates and named d them, saw them. you so one was african-american. did not say anything negative about t the african-american candidate. to the contrary, s said he c cod bebe the first african-american elected. but the intent was to inform african-american voters there was an african-american alternative. at the end of the day, my guy one e was 61% so maybe hehe woud hahave one without, but it was nice arc lesson to me that how much our politics is played in the key of race. that hasn't changed.

with kanyerepeated west meetingng secretly with jad kushner and colorado as the republicans try to get conway west test kanye west on the presidential balance across the country? >> same strategy. by the way, that is illegal for jared kushner to have done that. if we had a functional fcc, that would be all over jared kushner and that ought to be investigated. now until lastng night -- and saw last night as a comfortableness with the republican party a trump party, with white grievance. there were two people who spoke at the conventntion last nightht that the only reason they were at the convention is b because ththey w waived guns at black pepeople.. qualificacation. the idea that you're going to the black people are coming into the suburbs to get you white people is one of the oldest tropes of racist politics in the

last 50, 70 yearars. i think it is misplayed. i don't think that is how the suburbs are. i don't think that most women and it is suburbs like to be refeferred to as suburban housewives, as donald trump refers to them. take my home state of mississippi. i am a s seventhth generation mississippi. wewe finally took onon the state flag stop it was a powerful moment. thus i it would donald trumpmp s defending confederate flags. so much so he got on the wrong side of ththe cultural were with thear to bring down confedererate flags at events. i think it is wrong politically. you take your average teenager in mississippi, the cultural stars are more black rap

then robert e lee. they don't want to go back to this. i don't think any of these suburban voters like to think of themselves as being afraid of black people were afrfraid of those who are different from them. of queens 1978 kind divisive view of the world that donaldld trump has. juan: your booook lays out that this is the logical -- - ump iss a logical l extension of where e republican party i is going, n t that h he was thihis hostile takekeover with an outlier t tht somehow managed to gain control. what about those mainstrtream republicans? you mentioioned george bush, t e bush family, and those republicans that have largelyy been silent throughout this process is the trump presidency has unfolded? >> look, i think george bush anieved very passionately in idea of compassionate

conservatism. i know he did. i saw it. for him, this was education. if you go back and you look at his first major piece of legislation as president, it was signing no child left behind. today that would be presented like a real tribunal in republican party. the vision of what the party could have become ended on 9/11 when bush became a wartime president. there are different strains in the party. if you go back to when first president bush president, david duke became the republican nominee down -- for the senate down in louisiana. president bush actively wororked to be the republican who is david duke. ofy established a committee republicans to beat david duke. that was the right thing to do. and the partrties just lost that

sensee of f right and wrong been led by donald trump. one of the lessons i really take from this is how much leaders matter. i thinink the party could have been led in different direction. it reminds me of the 1930's. there was a huge fascist element in america. why didn't america become fascist? sameeld have been the country. the same with the civil rights movement. why was it nonviolent? probably because martin luther kiking was leading it. leaders have consequences. we are taught that in school. i think w we're getting a living lesson of it now. amy: i wanted to ask about the significance of jerry falwell, who reportedly has resigned, going back and forth, clearly trtrying to work this s out liby university as president of the evangelical christian school in virginia amid the growing fallout over claims about his

personal life. put on leave earlier this month after he posted a photo on instagram in which he is posing with his arm around a woman, holding a drink, and with his pants unzipped. and this week, young man giancarlo granda, a former hotel , pool attendant who then became a business partner, said he had an affair with falwell's life and that falwell would watch while they had sex. jerry falwell, jr. is a prominent supporter of president trump. shocked many in 2016 when he endorsed president trump over ri cruz, was the time ted expecting to get that endorsement. can you talk about the significance of falwell and his throwing his support to trump? think one of the -- one of the truths that has been revealed is the hollowness of the evangelicacal movement by is

leadership. there e is what,t, 37 million oo evangelicals in america, many of them african-american, hispanic. i don't think we can talk about all evangelicals. largely defeated roy moore in alabama. black evangelicals. but there's been this corruption of the top of the white evangelical movement that has gone on for a very long time. these conmen. i could care less about falwell's personal life. actually thick most people feel that way. it is just the hypocrisy. how do you sustain this when you support donald trump? a guy has been mararried three times, five kids by different sex with his daughter.

he said he is never asked god for forgiveness because he is never done anything to be forgiven for. amy: you say black women will determine this x-rays. who will be president of the united states. >> i think so. the numbers would indicate that. which i think is very hopeful. with 46.1%. won mitt romney lost with what he 7.2%. african-american turnout went down for the first time in 20 years and 2016. for a lot of reasons, putting very active voter suppression. it african-american -- if you can just g get back to the leves it was before, there's really no path for victory for donald trump. i think the biden campaign, which i think is running a very good campaign, i think they understand this. i think senator harris will help. race really, to me, this is always going to focus on one

-- if i was going to focus on one thing, focus on the percentage of the total turnout that would be nonwhite. i think if we knew that number today, we would know who is going to win this race. stuart stevens, thank you for being with us republican , political consultant. his latest book is just out "it was all a lie: how t the republican party becamame donald trtrump." when we e come back, we spspeakh the formerly i incarcerated firefighter about the wildfires engulfing california. stay with us. ♪ [music break]

amy: thihis is democracycy now!, demomocracynow.org,. i'm amy goodman with juann gonzalez. we are breaking g with conventi. wherern to california climate filled wildfires are engulfing the state. governor newsom said monday 300 lightning strikes overnight had sparked 10 new fires.. the biggest group of fires in northern california around n naa is now 25% contatained. so far this year, 7000 fires have destroyed 1.4 million acres compared to 56,000 acres burned at the same time last year. tens of thousands of firefighters have been deployed across the state to combat the blazes, which are raging as california also battles a record

heat wave and the deadly pandemic. this comes as the state's prison firefighter program, which annually deploys thousands of incarcerated firefighters to the frontlines for just $1 an hour, faces diminished numbers because of the coronavirus crisis. last month, governor newsomm ordered the release of some 8000 incarcerated peoeople, including some f from the prison fire e cs as covid swept the state's prisons. several fire camps faced covid outbreaks in july. now as advocates demand mass release for incarcerated people at risk due to the pandemic, more than incarcerated 1300 firefighters are currently fighting back the blazes ravaging california. one ofof the state's 44 p prison camps, delta conservation campmp in northern california, is battling the fireses with a crew of 55 incarcerated firefighterss compared to the camp''s 132-person capacitity.

over the weekend, democracy now! reached former incarcerated firefighter marty vinson by phone. he was stationed at delta camp in 2018, where democracy now! first met him. in an interview, marty vinson called the prison firefighting program california's "piggy bank" and spoke out about the condnditions firefighters at dea conservavation camp are currenty facing. >> i imagine the worst. i honestly do. imagine them can working much longer hours. we normally do 24 on, 24 all. i can imagine doing anywhere -- it is possible, could you 48 to 72 hours. there are so many things that go on out there regardless it is natural things that can kill you or a human being that is making a decision that can possibly kill you. but i believe this is probably the worst conditions in the firefighters are probably going

through their worst expense ever. amy: that was mamarty vinson, formrmer incarcerated firefight. to see our intnterview with himt delta conservation camp, go to democracynow.org. the prisoner firefighter shortage has laid bare california's reliance on prison labor to keep its ever-growing wildfire season at bay -- an exploitative system many have called slave labor. california saves up to $100 million a year by using prison labor to f fight its biggest environmental problem.m. and once released, it is nearly impossible for formerly incarcerated firefighters to get jobs with county or city fire departments. fofor more, we go to oakland, where we are joioined by rasheed lockheart, a formerly incarcerated firefighter a at sn quentin n state prprison. he was released in january. he is an organizer with the group planting justice in oakland. welcome to democracy now! it is great to have you w with this. can you talk about what is

happening right now? california is talking about a firefighter shortage because prisoner f firefighters, numberf them have been released due to covid or are sick with covid. explain what is goining on and affect them make one dollar an hour if they're healthy enough to find the fires. >> these conditions are horrible. i believe you have 600 less firefighters this year and we're facing some of the largest wildfires in the state. 2 24, 48 hourre outut that a time. thatat young man came fromom dea camp, ththat c camp, they are -i just talked to somebody there and they are tellili me they are leaving at 5:00 in the morning and not getting back until 8:00 at night and this is everyday. they are being overworked and for one dollar an hour. they're working alongside firefighters that are incarcerated people

that are making -- we don't know how much, and putting their lives on the line. it is a little bit of a human tragedy. there battling covid-19 and their battling wildfires at the same time. juan: i w wanted to a ask about kamala harris, the nominee of the democratic party for vice president. when she w was attorney generalf california, shshe advocatated against early release programs for inincarcerated peoeople bece it would r reduce the number off incarcerated firefighthters. could you talk a about her rolen this whole issue of the politics of how to deal with the incarcerated and the fighting fires in california? >> the fact is, it impacts our state economy. they are saving $100 million the year on having formerlyy incarcerated individuals fighting these fires. it is a little bit of a slap in the face to those of us who are incarcerated who are trying to

be the best that we can be and put our lives on the line to go out and fight these fires, but her dodoing that and b being a t of mass incarceration as the district attororney, she essentially is signing people up for slavery, right? you want these guys to go out and fight these fires and do it for only one dollar an hour and then turning around saying, oh, we don't want to release anybody because it is goining to cost te state thisis much? it is deplorable. amy: laterer when she became senator, she said that it was her prosecutors who argued this in court. she said she thought it was reprehensible -- none of thee titime, she said s she did not w about it. hersaid the book stops with so she took responsibility. it is unclear if she knew about it. but this whole issue of firefighters like you, you comee

out of prison, or extremely s yourenced, cal fire sing praises becaususe you're doing e most work but you find it difficult into become a firefighter. like right now for the many people who are released even perhaps early because of the covid pandemic, why don't they just immediately hire you since you have the experience, you , at calght these fires fire salaries, not to mention getting more money to the prisoner firefighters? >> that is the question, right? you take myself. i was the lead engineer on a type one fire and leave on an ambulance crew. i don't know what more qualification you would need. that should automatically entitle me to go right into a department upon my release, but that is not the case. for meeting morava municipal arefighter -- for me being municipal firefighter, they want us to have empty certification and right now state law blolocks

from getting that post amy: because you were formally in prison? >> yes. hearing cal are fire get on these interviews and say we just lack resources. what they're not s saying is we lack the incarcerated firefighters.. that is the issue. we make up the backbone of the firefighting department. if we are saving the state $100 million come how much more can we save the state by taking formerly incarcerated people coming out of these fire c camp, coming out of ththese firehouse, putting them right into employment? juanan: i am wondering when yoyu werere out there fighting esese fireres, to whatat degree dididu encounteter national guauard tr? i have been surprised time and again at how few national guard are mobilized when these fires spread in california. >> i myself am not qualified to answer that because i was at any

actual functioning firehouse, not a camp. i did not get to go out -- instead i was assigned to the city of san quentin where they had a full residency aroundd there. i was to basically in a civil firefighting. amy: can you talk about what you did when you were in prison or what you've heard people are doing, for example at san quentin, with the covid outbreaks? give one of the worst operates in this country in the prison system of this country, san quentin at its heart? >> what people arere doing right now and what i am hearing i i they are s sagely sheltering in fear. -- same quit is not designed to have an outbreak like covid-19. it is impossible to practice social distancing. it is overcrowded. herdeded in tents

and gymnasiums. about five or 1010 years a ago, theree was an n outcry about the way they werhohousing pepeople n the gygymnasiums. san quenentin is not set up for this typofof outbreaeak. areincarcerated people that still there are sheltering in place. my fire crew are getting more calls and they can handle. i spoke to when n of my incarcerated firefighters w w sasaid that morning there was -- it was only 11:00 a.m. and they have been all five calls but they do leave it on five calls that morning because they could not get to the other 11 that were happening. isis a human tragedydy what happening in san quentin. the incarcerated people are living in fear. amy: rasheed l lockheart, thank you for being with us. she'd worked as incarcerated firefighter at san quentin state prison. he w was released in january and now a name organizer with the organization planting justice in oakland. any update, the shooting of jacobb blake, in unarmed black

is --lake says his son blake's father says his that is paralyzed. blake's father will speak at the virtual march on washington, d.c. come this we can come along with other family members. i am amy

♪ natasha del toro: coming up on "america reframed"... in wyoming, 75-year-old charlie hardy is running for ththe u.s. s senate. hardy: i have not listened to corporations, i've not listened to lobbyists, i've n not listenedd to peoeople walall street.. i want to listen to you. del toro: his campaign is run out t of a 1970s school l bus. it's fueled by tiny donations from his supporters, most of whom he knows. thank you. del toro: charlie's trying to unseat a three-term incumbent, but he's raised only two percent of the funds his opponent has. can charlie win? man: these elections have gotten to the point now where it's all about how w much mononey you can rai. man 2: we need to get back whwhere the people in washininn represent me and you.