11/10/20 11/10/20 . [captioning made possible by democracy now!] amy: from new york, this is democracy now! >> 90% is a game changer. hoping to have a tool in your war against this pandemic that would be significantly affected. amy: pfizer has announced early data indicating its coronavirus vaccine is more th 90% effectivat preventing covid-19 infections.

but many queions remain. the news came on the same day thtotal number of u.s. infections tped 10 million. we will speak toulitzer ize winning journalist laurie gaett. we will look at the death of palestinian chief negotiator saeb erekat who has died from covid. then fears are growing that the trump administration is moving to overturn the election of joe biden. on monday, attorney general william barr authorized new probes into voter fraud as republican lawmakers are backing trump's decision not to concede to the president-elect. >> president trump is 100% within his rights to look into allegations of irregularities and wait his legal options. amy: we will speak to kristen clarke, president of the lawyers' committee for civil rights under law. all that and more, coming up. welcome to democracy now!,

democracynow.org, the quarantine report. i'm amy goodman. attorney general william barr upended longstanding justice department policy on monday by announcing federal prosecutors could investigate "specific allegations" of voter fraud. in a response the justice election crimes richard pilger, resigned in protest. former justice department official vanita gupta criticized barr saying -- "this is about disruption, disinformation, and sowing chaos." this comes as top republicans are backing president trump's refusal to concede the election, claiming, without providing any evidence, that the vote was marred by fraud. has secured 290 votes in the -- according to the associated press, biden has secured 290 votes in the electoral college and his lead in the popular vote

is approaching 5 million and counting. on monday, senate majority mcconnell defended trump's decision not to concede to biden. >> president trump is 100% within his rights to look into allegations of irregularities and weigh his legal options. amy: the trump campaign is also continuing to file numerous lawsuits in battleground states despite no evidence emerging of voter fraud. voting rights expert and author ari berman responded to the news by writing -- "there were no irregularities. this is an attempted coup & every major figure in america needs to denounce it. u.s. attorneys need to resign in protest. they are trying to overturn the election and subvert the will of the people." we'll have more on this story later in the broadcast. georgia's republican secretary of state brad raffensperger is rejecting calls to step down

after the state's two sitting republican senators kelly loeffler and david perdue called for his resignation, claiming he had "failed to deliver honest and transparent elections." senators loeffler and perdue made the stunning request after both of their races went to runoffs against democratic challengers and with president-elect joe biden on the verge of becoming the first democratic presidential candidate to win georgia since 1992. the republican sretary of state raffensperger dismissed part of loeffler and perdue's claims as "laughable." as the number of u.s. covid -19 cases tops 10 million, president-elect joe biden gave a nationally televised address warning of a dark winter ahead, pleading for the use of face masks. mr. biden: i implore you, wear a

mask. do it for yourself. do it for your neighbor. a mask is not a political statement, but it is a good way to start pulling the country together. i want to be very clear. the goal of mass wearing is not to make your life less comfortable, it is to take something -- or take something away from you. it is to give something back to all of us. a normal life. amy: this comes as two more close associates to president trump have tested positive for the virus -- housing secretary ben carson and the attorney david bossie, who is leading trump's post-election legal challenges. meanwhile, global stocks soared on monday following news from pfizer that early data from a large clinical trial shows its coronavirus vaccine cut symptomatic covid-19 cases by more than 90%. we will speak with pulitzer prize winning journalist laurie garrett after headlines. in news from the middle east,

saeb erekat, the secretary general of the palestine liberation organization, has died at 65 after he became infected with covid-19. erekat was a key palestinian negotiator involved in peace talks for over three decades. he famously showed up at the 1991 madrid conference proudly aring a keffiyeh, a symbol of palestinian nationalism. he stood in staunch opposition to trump's middle east plan, which he called the fraud of the century and condemned recent agreements normalizing relations between israel and gulf nations. this is saeb erekat speaking in 2018. have palestinians, we defined their interest as no one benefits from achieving more than as an nobody stands to lose more. amy: erekat is survived by his wife, four children, and eight grandchildren. back in washington, d.c., president trump has fired defense secretary mark esper. this comes months after esper

clashed with trump by opposing the deployment of active duty troops to respond to the nationwide protests sparked by the police killing of george floyd. on monday, trump announced christopher miller, the director of the national counterterrorism center, would serve as acting defense secretary. senator ron wyden responded on twitter by writing -- "donald trump fired someone who wouldn't order u.s. troops to attack peaceful protesters and is replacing him with someone he may think will carry out those orders." during an interview last week with "the military times," esper suggested that he would soon be fired because he stood up to trump. he said -- "who's going to come in behind me? it's going to be a real 'yes man.' and then god help us." the supreme court is hearing arguments today in a case seeking to overturn the affordable care act. the republican effort seeks to -- could strip away the healthcare of over 20 million people and deny protections for

pre-existing conditions, as well as preventive care, amid a devastating pandemic that has caused millions to lose their employer-based health insurance. the court now has a 6-3 conservative majority. during last month's senate confirmation hearing, justice amy coney barrett refused to recuse herself from cases on the affordable care act even though she has been critical of obama's signature legislation in the past. president-elect joe biden is delivering a speech today defending the aca, which he vowed to expand during his campaign, though progressive democrats and public opinion favors a universal healthcare system or medicare for all. in bolivia, former president evo morales has returned to his country after one year of exile following a right-wing military coup that overthrew morales last november. thousands of supporters celebrated morales's triumphant return as the longtime leader crossed into bolivia by foot through the border with argentina, where he'd been living since last year. this is moralespeaking to the throngs of supporters yesterday.

while fight connues imperialism and capitalism exists from the struggle of the people will continue. i'm convinced of that, brothers and sisters. amy: evo morales' return follows the swearing in of luis arce as the new president, and the return of morales' mas party to power. peru has been thrown into political uncertainty after lawmakers ousted president martin vizcarra monday in his impeachment trial. the vote to remove him, on charges of corruption, came two months after a failed impeachment in september on an unrelated accusation of obstruction of justice. some lawmakers and protesters decried the vote as a political ploy ahead of elections in 2021, and said the political chaos could further hamper the response to the coronavirus pandemic, which has devastated peru. in armenia, protesters stormed a government building in the capital yerevan monday night following the announcement of an

agreement to end the raging six-week conflict in nagorno-karabakh. protesters say the deal, which was signed by the president, does not represent the will of the armenian people and the armenian pme minister said military actions in the region are not over yet the dealame after azerbaan seized controlf the seco largest city in nagorno-karabakh and after the shooting down of russian helicopter which they claimed was an accident. russian president vladimir putin said tuesday russian peacekeepers will be deployed along the front line. it is estimated the conflict has killed at least 1000 people and displaced over 100,000, thgh some say theeath toll is much higher. in georgia, protests continued monday, one day after police fired water cannons on crowds in the capital tbilisi as they called for a re-run of recent parliament reelections they and

the country's main opposition parties say were rigged. the election saw the ruling georgian dream party, which was founded by georgia's wealthiest man, declaring victory. meanwhile, protests continue in belarus, where hundreds were again arrested over the weekend as people call for president alexander lukashenko to resign following august elections they say were rigged. at least nine journalists were believed to be among those arrested sunday. on friday, the eu imposed sanctions on lukashenko for his violencrackdown on protests. iranian foreign minister mohammad javad zarif called on regional powers to engage in peaceful talks following reports trump is planning to slap a series of new sanctions on iran in the coming weeks in coordination with israel and several gulf states. foreign minister zarif tweeted -- "a sincere message to our neighbors -- trump's gone in 70 days. but we'll remain here forever. betting on outsiders to provide security is never a good gamble. we extend our hand to our neighbors for dialog to resolve differences. only together can we build a

better future for all." axios, which reported the possible sanctions, said the trump administration hopes the move will make it harder for joe biden's administration to revive the 2015 nuclear deal, which trump unilaterally withdrew from. in cancún, mexico, at leastwo local reporters were wounded after police opened fire against a crowd of people protesting femicides and violence against women. protests erupted across the state of quintana roo monday after the body of 20-year-old bianca alejandrina lorenzana, known as alexis, was found earlier in the day. she had been missing all weekend after leaving her home to work. at least a dozen other femicides have been reported in the state of quintana roo this year. on average, 10 women are murdered in mexico every day according to mexican officials. in immigration news, the

guardian reports nearly 50 cameroonian asylum seekers are scheduled to be deported today. some of them are activists who face arrest warrants in cameroon and political persecution from government forces known for conducting extrajudicial killings. the guardian ice come immigration and customs enforcement, agents have tortured them into signing their deportation papers, and have forcibly taken their fingerprints. last month, dozens of cameroonian asylum seekers were deported. many of them are now missing. advocates say black asylum seekers are being disproportionately targeted with mass deportations. in other immigration news, lawyers working on reuniting children who were separated from their families at the southern border say they still cannot find the parents of 666 children -- over 100 more children than previously reported. the children were taken away from their families between

april and june 2018 at the height of trump's zero-tolerance family separation policy. and a federal court has temporarily blocked the construction of the mountain valley pipeline pending an ongoing appeal from environmental groups. the 300-mile pipeline would cross through wetlands and streams in virginia and west virginia. activists have long argued a permit allowing its construction violates environmental laws and could pose catastrophic threats to vital waterways. and those are some of the headlines. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the quarantine report. i'm amy goodman in new york joined by my co-host juan gonzález in new brunswick, new jersey. hi, juan. juan: hi, amy. welcome to all of our listeners and viewers from around the country and around the world. amy: as the number of coronavirus cases worldwide tops more than 51 million, the u.s. pharmaceutical company pfizer announced monday that a phase 3, late-stage study found their potential covid-19 vaccine

showed more than 90% effectiveness. this is pfizer ceo albert bourla on cnn. >> 90% is a game changer. to have aou're hoping tool in your war against this pandemic that could be significantly effective. how long this protection will last is something we don't know right now. in a good we are situation to have of to for the lien doses this year -- 50 million doses this year globally. i believe we are in a good situation have 1.3 billion doses globally. amy: the two-dose vaccine still faces several challenges, including how to store and transport it since it must be refrigerated at subzero temperatures. in response to the news, vice president mike pence tweeted -- "huge news: thanks to the public-private partnership

forged by president @realdonaldtrump, @pfizer announced its coronavirus vaccine trial is effective, preventing infection in 90% of its volunteers." pfizer immediately debunked the claim, which referenced operation warp speed, the federaeffort to rush vaccine to market. senior vice presidenand head of vaccine research, kathrin jansen, told "the new york times" -- "we were never part of the warp speed. we have never taken any money from the u.s. government, or from anyone." meanwhile, president-elect joe biden said monday the coronavirus vaccine approval process must be guided by science and warned a vaccine likely won't be available for months. he spoke after meeting with the 12-member coronavirus task force that he has just appointed to advise him during the transition before his january 20 inauguration. it includes rick bright, the whistleblower from the trump administration who said his early warnings about the pandemic were ignored.

mr. biden: this group will advise on detail plans, built on a bedrock of science. keep compassion, empathy, and care for every american at its core, making rapid testing widely available -- more widely available, much more widely available. building a core of contact tracers that will track and curb this disease while we prioritize getting vaccines first to the most at risk populations. amy: president-elect biden has also said he plans to repair the u.s. relationship with the world health organization. this comes as the u.s. passed 10 million total covid cases on monday, with the most recent 1 million infections happening faster than any previous million -- in just 10 days. well, for more, we are joined by laurie garrett, pulitzer prize winning science writer, former senior fellow for global health at the council on foreign relations. she is the author of number books, including "ebola: story

of an outbreak" and "the coming plague: newly emerging diseases in a world out of balance." thank you for joining us. if you can first respond to the pfizer announcement yesterday. front and come after say it is great ne. it is always encouraging to see positive results in vaccine trial, especially at this stage in an epidemic. very quickly. you know, it is hopeful. but it is only a press release. there has been no scientific release. there is no published dat we don't have anything to go with except with the lawyers at pfizer massaged carefully into a single page press release. so we have to take that with a big caviar. the other thing that has to be considered careful is that this precedent is in the process of carrying out retribution's commitment did for firings all

across his government, getting rid of people who have stood up i him in various agencies -- mean, the most astounding yesterday, firing the secretary of defense. in stephen hahn, the head of fda, has been consistently on trump's hit list. he stood up to the president regarding hydroxychloroquine, regarding plasma therapy, and other things that the president claims would treat work here or eliminate -- cure or eliminate covid, but they wouldn't. we could have a situation now where in the coming days stephen a platter and on the fda would not be able to take speedy steps to usher this vaccine through the next stage, it could allow it to potentially get an emergency approval before the new year. amy: very quickly, explain what you mean by esper, the significance of him in relation to the vaccine -- he is in charge of operation warp speed?

he's the secretary of defense. >> no, my reason for raising that is it is very clearhe president has off, by my count, 10 people in the government from usaid, the energy commission, from all sorts of different agencies and departments around the government. if he targets steve find as he is threatened to do many times, he has threatened stephen hahn, the fda commissioner, with firing on multle occasions. if he offed him,t would be very hard to imagine how the fda could proceed for a rapid approval of this vaccine. meanwhile, i mean, they're issues about the vaccine. because of the nature of how the operation warp speed trial designs were set up, it is possible to claim victory based on seven days of data. and that is what this study did. they had two arms of volunteers,

one work placebo recipients and one work vaccine recipients. the two arms are blinded so none of the people executing the study know what is getting wet. and that is how it should be. cases and theght other arm had 80 cases. and it looks like since the arm with the eight cases was the vaccine recipient arm, and that gives it what they call 90% effectiveness in protecting against infection. but the window of looking at these people to see did they get coronavirus infected was seven days. seven days after their booster shot. well, that is a pretty short term durability of immune response. it's eight people got infected in just seven days, i wonder what the infection rate and the protection rate of this vaccine would be if you are looking out

over two months? urie, what do we know about the trial participants? i think supposedly 44,000 of them. do we know anything about the breakdown in terms of vulnerable populations were not or different nationalities? what we know? >> we know a great deal and all of this was in the press release. for more detail about that and the outcome of the research. yes, it is very racially diverse, age diverse. there are health-care workers that are very directly exposed. on the face of it, looks like an excellent study panel. juan: in terms of the cacity of pfizer and biontech to produce 50 million doses of the vaccine this year and 1.3 2021,n as they claim in

s the u. already purchased some of these in advance? what is the situation in terms of the rollout if it is approved, especially to vulnerable populations? do we have any idea about that? >> one of the y features of operation warp speed on the u.s. side -- and its equivalent efforts all over the world in multi countries -- and in deadly

freezing. we don't have deep, deep, deep ultra freezers. our health departments are woefully underfunded. we don't have the capacity to do this. where will the money and equipment come from? who is in charge of all of this? how are we going to do this? the response from the white house so far was simply to say, hey, you should have been at this meeting. talked about this at the meeting. governor cuomo did not show up for the meeting. this what do you make of timing of this announcement coming just a couple of days after joe biden was declared the winner of the presidential debates?

rightfully, some questions asked biontechr pfizer and could have made this announcement one or two days earlier or a week earlier? what is your sense? >> the ceo of pfizer made it very clear in multiple public appearances and in writing more than three weeks ago that he was not going to see his vaccine be a political football, that he wasn't making guarantees to have it available by any deadline date that was set by the white house or by anybody else, but that the science would determine he said what date the information, the results would be released. and we just have to take his word for it. amy: i want to ask you about public citizen saying pfizer should not have released this by press release without being able to provide further data. this wasions, laurie,

tested on. michael carome released a statement saying -- "the release of preliminary and incomplete clinical trial data by press release to the public is bad science. until the trial results are independently reviewed and scrutinized by staff at the u.s. food and drug administration and the independent experts on the agency's vaccines and related biological products advisory committee, enthusiasm for the apparently promising interim results announced by pfizer and biontech must be tempered. crucial information absent from the companies' announcement is any evidence that the vaccine prevents serious covid-19 cases or reduces hospitalizations and deaths due to the disease. more importantly, critical safety data from the phase 3 trial of the vaccine is not yet available." who has been tested so far? on, concernstested

raised, communities of color, atinx, african-americans underrepresented in a lot of these vaccine trials, and oxfam reason the concern the vaccine would be committed -- oxfam has had the vaccine would be "0% effective to the people who cannot access or afford it." well, there's a lot of truth and untruth in that mix of comments you just put out. first of all, pfizer put out a very detailed list -- as i already said -- of the racial breakdown, age write-down, susceptibility to covid disease breakdown of the participants in the study. it is a very diverse group. i don't know who is making claims otherwise, but they should look at the breakdown. it has been published and known for quite some time.

the larger question, what does this vaccine for anything of its nature similar like the modernity vaccine, which is also based on mrna and will require decreasing, and some of the other vaccines in the pipeline that have difficult the production issues or logistic issues associated with the nature of the vaccine -- what does this mean for the rest of the world? that is a legitimate question and a very troubling one, but one the community has been confronting from the very beginning. all the way back in february. there has been discussion of this. kovacs was set up, which is a cooperative for vaccine, set up by who in conjunction with several lead countries. most every country in the world is a member, notably not the united states because trump refused to be involved in anything that who had his fingerprints on. but covax is a consortia of all

the nations, brokeroducersf vaccines and likely recipients, committing to lowering their patent threshold, making vaccines affordable and available for the whole world, and trying to rush them into some form of geric manufacturing so that we are not reliant a single patent-based manufacturing site. so we are learning from past experiences that we have to take innovative approaches to vaccine production because otherwise, it is not available for the whole world. nevertheless, if a vaccine is difficult to make an maintain in stable form as this one, the pfizer vaccine is, becomes something we try to execute worldwide, there will be very, very significant hurdles to overcome -- both in the distribution part and the manufacturing side on a mass

scale. i think a lot of us are hoping some of the more traditional types of vaccines, which are in the pipeline, which would be usable through systems already in existence for mass vaccination of children, will turn out to be successful and will eventually come forward for mass production. ofn: we are in the midst now the second surge, some places the third surge in the numbers noworonavirus cases, and president-elect biden has named his coronavirus task force. s the task force that bite has named and what do you see as what should be the first key steps the task force has to take? peace ine itoday's foreign policy that it is a fine task force. good games, smart people,

notably exceptional from differences compared to the current covid task for in the thee house, no relatives of president-elect on the task force, no financial interest associated with the president-elect and his family for close associates represented on the task force. it is a public health and scientific task force. and i am confident they will make decisions based on the seven principles of fighting covid, which the president-elect published on his website on monday morning. and those clearly lay out a strategic scheme that is in line with the kinds of things that tony thaci has been advocating and that most of the public health community has supported from the very beginning of this epidemic that were never fully implement it at any time in any state by any political leader in the united states of america -- certainly not the president.

but let's all be very clear. and this is the key point i really lead with in my foreign policy piece is we are in very dire times in the united states right now. this surge we are in right now is going to surpass what we went through in the spring. we are looking very likely because the administration will take no actions to speak up to control the spread of covid for the next 70 plus days th donald tru is in charge of the country. we are looking very likely at 400,000 deaths cumulatively by christmas. we will go to the naga ration -- inauguration with out-of-control epidemic in all 50 states. it is already out of control in 43 states. we will have surges that require actions by governors and mayors that exceed what most of them have ever done so far in

fighting covid. they will be very much like what we went through in new york in march, april, and made. yesterday on saw the stock markets around the world in response to the pfizer vaccine announcement will turn to a downturn as lockdowns are put in place. it will feel more economic pain. while i am optimistic that this covid task force put together our president-elect biden will take promising steps and certainly take this epidemic very, very, very seriously, both internationally and in role of the united states as a world leader and nationally, domestically -- but there are 71 days left for this current president to screw up this epidemic further. he is a vindictive individual. he seems to be out of control right now in the white house. what thingsed for

he will and will not do between now and january 20. amy: finally, 10 seconds. the supreme court takes up the affordable care act. tens of billions of people if they vote to eviscerate it, to take it down, could lose their health care in the midst of this pandemic. your comnt? >> obviously, that would be dreadful, horrible, awful. and none of those people would have the financial wherewithal to turn tonother source to get health care. this has implications not just for them, the individuals and their families, but for everybody they have contact with. in a way, we're committing mass suicide. this is an incredibly self-destructive thing for american people to do, to deny health care to millions of americans in the middle of a pandemic and leave tm on their own to potentially carry disease forward into the community, into their workplaces, and so on

without any treatment, any help, any assistance. that is just insane. amy: laurie garrett, thank you for being with us, pulitzer prize winning science writer and former senior fellow for global health at the council on foreign relations. we will link to her new piece in foreign policy. when we come back, we look at that at the palestinian chief negotiator saeb erekat. he died of the coronavirus. stay with us. ♪ [music break]

amy: "thousand finger man" by candido. thepercussionist died at age of 99. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the quarantine report. i'm amy goodman with juan gonzalez. the veteran palestinian peace negotiator saeb erekat, secretary general of the palestine liberation organization come has died at the age of 65 after he became infected with covid-19. a key palestinian negotiator involved in peace talks for over three decades.

he fam@ sly showed up at the 1991 madrid conference proudly wearing a similar palestinian nationalism. he stood in staunch opposition to trump's middle east plan which he called a fraud of the century and condemned recent agreements normalizing relations between israel and gulf nations. this is saeb erekat speaking in 2018. >> we have defined our interest as benefits more from achieving peace than us and nobody stands to lose more. amy: erekat is survived by his wife, four children, and eight grandchildren. the posted president mahmoud abbas called him a great fighter who had a great role in raising the banner of palestine high-end opening the rights of our people and all international forms." he declared three days of morning and palestian authority ruled areas of the is really occupied west bank. from where we're joined by yousef munair, the palestinian-american catalyst senior nonresident fellow at arab center washington, d.c.

welcome back to democracy now! can you talk about the significance of the death of saeb erekat five covid-19? he lived in the west bank. he had had a lung transplant in the united states in 2017, was extremely vulnerable, and a loss of what it means politically? >> good morning, amy and thank you for having me on. let me begin by extending my condolences to the entire erekat family who lost dr. saeb erekat today at the age of 65 after losing a very difficult battle with covid. previousted, he had lung transplant and was obviously in a very difficult condition to try to fight off this virus.

about the life and , itributions of saeb erekat note i and others certainly had differences with him in terms of political vision and strategy, admire must reflect and the tireless commitment he had to communicating the palestinian cause as he best saw fit. and really reflect on the and they of the career important voice that he brought at a timeversation when many people around the from had not really heard palestinians, particularly palestinians living in palestine

, effectively communicatin about the palestinian cause in the english language. i know it is important program he was on as early as 1988 with abc's ted koppel on "nightline" doing a special on the situation on the ground in palestine. at that time, during the intifada that was taken place really gripping the world as it turned its eyes to palestine for the first time in quite some time. and he'd come along with others ofresented this generation palestinian leaders, educators, intellectual society figures who were communicating the palestinian cause to the world at a very important time. his passing obviously, his speaking for

palestinians and about palestinians globally only continued on from there. i think this moment in his passing really represents something of a moment of transition from that generation and from that time. -- especially of tragic he passed from covid. could you talk about the situation in palestin and at the west bank d gaza, in terms of the covid pandemic? >> absolutely. this is a disease, your last guest was on talking about the theree and we all hope may be some ght at the end of the tunnel but this is a virus that has impacted the entire world significantly. on top of the challenges that

countries around the world are facing in trying to combat this virus, palestinians are doing that with the added layer of dealing with military occupation, discriminatory policies of israeli apartheid. and with a disease like covid, which makes acute cases particularly difficult to treat health the most advanced infrastructure settings as we see in the united states with now,230,000 deaths palestinians are at a particular disadvantage when cases, that advancedt to stage. in the gaza strip, for example, they have a very small number of ventilators, very underequipped and under resourced icu units. so the approach there and elsewhere throughout palestine try tolly been to

aggressively contain this through public health measures and through social distancing. and while i think there was some early success, we are seeing now a growing number of cases in gaza and in the west bank. and i have to emphasize, again, the difficulty of trying to combat this virus with that added layer of military occupation and discrimination. you know, palestinians often have to struggle to get the kind of access to health care that most people in israel and in the united states take for granted because of the military occupation, because of the denial of freedom of movement, and the restrictions, and so on. the unfortunate reality is most paleinians probably unlikely to be able to access the level of care that thankfully, dr.

erekat was able to access. at the reality of occupation means those prospects are very much limited for the average palestinian and military occupation, these policies of discrimination are an added comorbidity that most people reallythe world will not be able to fully understand. amy: yousef munair, thank you for being with us, palestinian american analyst and is the -- analyst at arab center washington, d.c. on the death of saeb erekat. he died of covid-19. when we come back, president trump refuses to concede. republicans are continuing to support him. now the justice department has gotten involved supporting president trump. stay with us. ♪ [music break]

amy: "promises from the storm." this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the quarantine report. i'm amy goodman with juan gonzalez. attorney general william barr upended longstanding justice department policy on monday by announcing federal prosecutors could investigation "specific allegations" of voter fraud. though do not suggest any. in response, the director of the justice department's election crimes prosecutor richard pilger resigned in protest. this comes as the trump campaign to letsal to concede joe. >> president is 100% within his rights to look in allegations of weigh legales and options. amy: the trump campaign has filed numerous suits in the states of pennsylvania, georgia, wisconsin, michigan, arizona, and nevada, but so far no evidence has emerged of voter

fraud but nothing has emerged. we are joined now by kristen clarke, president and executive director of the lawyers' committee for civil rights under law. welcome back to democracy now! can you talk about the significance of what is taking place right now? an unprecedented attack on democracy. the voters have spoken. what we're seeing is a president who refuses to recognize and embrace the will of the people. there are a number of lawsuits that have been filed in a handful of states across the country. many of these cases are dead on arrival, meaning they are dismissed as quickly as they are filed. .hey are quietly withdrawn none of these cases have borne out. many of these cases are filed without proof, without documentation to substantiate

these claims of fraud. in azona, we saw a case a few days ago that was filed alleging the use of a sharpie pen by voters should disqualify as ballot cast by an eligible voters. that case was quickly withdrawn, reckaged, filed in another cour we saw case filed in federal court yesterday in the middle district of pennsylvania. cherry picks a few counties and alleges thin like the curing of ballots where voters may have made minor errors on an absentee ballot envelope, for example, should disqualify the voices of eligible voters. again, in these cherry picked counties. nearing very close to the brink of a cstitutional crisis. the bush v gore situation was very different. there we were focused on one

state where there is a differential of just a few hundred pallets. but here we are talking about several states where the popular vote margin nationally is widening by the day. point, we are in the way of a smooth transfer of power. each day that these baseless and unsubstantiated claims of fraud are allowed to go forward, he stands in the way of president-elect biden being able to move forward with his transition, which we know is incredibly important given the current state of crises that we face in the country with respect to the pandemic, the economic crisis, and more. juan: i wanted to ask you in particular about pennsylvania, which was the state obviously that put joe biden over the top in terms of electoral college votes. the coalition of 10 republican attorneys general filed an

amicus brief monday asking the supreme court to hear the case regarding the dispute over the deadline of mail-in ballots. in the supreme court previously sort of kicked this down the road because it was tied 4-4 at the time in terms of whether they would actually hear merits of this case, but there are questions as to whether even in the mail-in ballots to actually affect the results. could you talk about the specifics of that case? >> yes. the justice alito and the supreme court seem to have left the door slightly cracked to entertain the claims in this case. my sense was the court, justice alito, justice kavanaugh, and others would only be inclined to do so if there was some sense that the interjection of their voice would change the outcomes. but what we're saying is that is not the case. what we're seeing is there no idence of fraud in the way that pennsylvania were in the

way in which any state carried out its elections. my organization runs a nationwide nonpartisan election protection program. we have been following and observing the way this election has been carried out from day one. and not a single instance, not one, not a single instance of fraud has come forward. it is remarkable because what we have seen our documented instances of voter suppression, voters who cannot access the one dropbox per county in pennsylvania. what we saw were voters who could not vote because of lines that stretch for hours, particularly during the primy season in philadelphia. and deafening silence from our federal government from the justice department. this is, again, theater. theater being used to delay the inevitable.

the voters have spoken. we know we have president election -- president-elect biden who has prevailed, anit ally is time for these lawsts to be put to rest. juan: and your reaction to the decision by attorneyeneral barr, do his memo authorizing federal prosecutors to begin to pursue substantial investigations of voting and vote tabulation irregularities prior to the certification of elections because of richar pilger, the career official in charge of voter fraud, to resign? investigating voter fraud? this is unprecedented, isn't it, for an attorney general to act even before votes are fully tabulated? >> is certainly is unprecedented. the justice department has long invited cardinal rules of not taking action that could be perceived to be an favor of a particular political party or particular candidate work on

here, particular former candidate. we have seen attorney general barr ignore these rules at every step of the way. several weeks ago he publicly announced an investigation into a handful of ballots in pennsylvania and it was clear that his intervention was designed to put his thumb on the scales in favor of president trump to breathe life in of ofse false, baseless claims widespread vote fraud. this directive issued to prosecutors across our country last night is breathtaking. it is unprecedented and deeply troubling because it is intended --incite prosecutors criminal prosecutors across our country to now go on a fishing expedition, leading nowhere. but what the impact will be is ew will cast out, s confusion and chaos.

we want a democracy that is good standing. they're good people across the globe that are watching this fiasco playing out in these united states. we are becoming the laughingstock for the world. so to have any attorney general who should be neutral and independent and fair weighing into this kind of chaotic strategy that is underway by president trump of using litigation to delay the inevitable, delay the inevitable to suggest the outcome is not right or fair is deeply, deeply troubling stop at the end of the day, we are weighing in on some of these cases where we deem appropriate. when we look at the pattern, the cherry picked pattern where these two serving filed, we are finding their being filed in places that are home to large numbers of voters of color. we are weighing in on these casewhen appropriate but we expect they will all fail at the

end of the day. amy: kristen clarke, we have to leave it there. thank you for being with us, president and executive director of the lawyers' committee for civil rights under law. that does it for our show. [captioning made possible by democracy now!] ♪

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