11/13/20 11/13/20 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] amy: from new york, this is democracy now! mr. biden: i am confident that the fact they're not willing to not as muchthis consequence in our planning and what we're able to do between now and january 20. amy: president-elect joe biden is moving ahead with transition plans as president trump falsely claims the election was stolen from him. even trump's own department of homeland security says the election was the most secure in

american history. we will speak to "the new "the newagazine's -- yorker" magazine's jane mayer about her new article "why trump can't afford to lose." that would to florida. that's the sound of supporters cheering on desmond meade as he came out of a polling place after voting for president for the first time in 30 years. two years ago, meade led an effort to restore voting rights for floridians who were disenfranchised due to their criminal records. >> at the heart of amendment 4 is the fact we abolished 150-year-old jim crow law. prior to amendment 4 has income anyone convicted of a felony offense faced lifetime barred from voting. so effectively removed that. amy: all that and more, coming up.

welcome to democracy now!, democracynow.org, the quarantine report. i'm amy goodman. the united states is once again shuttering its own world record for daily coronavirus infections, reporting a staggering 163,000 cases thursday. nearly 1200 people died of covid-19 in the last 24 hours. public health officials are warning of a humanitarian catastrophe as the virus continues to spread exponentially and hospitals are pushed the on capacity. california has become the second u.s. state with more than a million confirmed infections, joining texas. in chicago, mayor lori lightfoot has issued a 30-day stay-at-home advisory and will cap social gatherings at 10 people. in pennsylvania, prison officials are warning of a deadly full-blown resurgence of coronavirus. 17 incarcerated people have died

of covid 19 in pennsylvania during the pandemic, six of them since mid-october. meanwhile, when a president-elect biden stop hasnavirus advisors proposed congress pass a relief package to allow u.s. residents to remain at home for four to six week lockdown to flatten the curve of transmission. >> if we did that, then we could block -- we could like to have reported six weeks and drive the numbers down at the event in asia, new zealand, and australia. and then we could really watch vaccines cruising into avlabity in the first and second quarter of next year and bringing back the economy long before that. amy: president trump's senior campaign adviser corey lewandowski has tested positive for coronavirus, becoming the latest member of trump's inner circle to become infected after an election night superspreader event in the east room of the white house. republican national committee

chief of staff richard walters has also tested positive. he was not at the election night white house event. alaska republican don young, congress' oldest member at 87, announced on thursday he has covid-19. and 37-year-old iowa republican congresswoman-elect ashley hinson also reported a positive coronavirus test. president trump continues to insist he did not lose the november 3 election, even if election officials around the u.s. from both parties say there is no sign of widespread voter fraud or other irregularities. on thursday, trump proposed a wild conspiracy theory about election software company dominion voting systems that trump votes were switched to biden. there is no factual basis for trump claim. the department of homeland security wrote in a statement joined by election officials around u.s. -- "the november 3 election was the most secure in american history.

there is no evidence that any voting system deleted or lost votes, changed votes, or was in any way compromised." reuters reports christopher krebs, the top cybersecurity official at the department of homeland security, has told associates he expects to be fired for refusing to back trump's false conspiracy theories about the election. ahead of the election, he posted this youtube video to a rumor control website set up by the cybersecurity and infrastructure security agency. >> the election experience is designed to ensure that technology is not a single point of failure. there are measures in place to ensure you can vote and your vote is counted correctly. you should haveonfidence in the integrity of the process and don't overreact to claims that exaggerate the importance of insignificant events. amy: in georgia, republican secretary of state has ordered a

hand recount of more than 5 million ballots, the largest such recap in u.s. history, after georgia's two sitting republican senators, kelly loeffler and david perdue, called for his resignation claiming he had failed to deliver honest and transparent elections. in quarantine after his wife tested positive for covid 19 thursday. george's top election official gabriel sterling dismissed charges by president trump that tes for trumwork flipped to biden. bitsknow there have been of misinformation talking about flipping votes and changing bows. anybody is claiming things are being flipped by supersecret computer developed by the cia is just not speaking -- well, speaking nonsense. amy: on thursday, trump tweeted or retweeted over a dozen posts, blasting fox news and urging his supporters to switch to the far-right cable channel "one america news network" and the website newsmax. trump was reportedly furious

after fox news became the first u.s. news outlet to declare joe biden's win in arizona. this comes as axios reports trump plans to start a digital media company to rival fox news. under the plan, trump would tap into his huge database of email and cellphone contacts with appeals to sign up for a monthly subscription for his new online channel. cnn now projects joe biden has secured a win in arizona, joining other news agencies that have already called the state for biden. with georgia and north carolina's races not yet called, biden has secured 290 electoral college votes -- 20 more than needed to win the presidency. on thursday, 150 former national security officials warned in a letter to trump that delaying the transition to joe poses a serious risk to u.s. security. meanwhile, pope francis became the latest world leader to call joe biden to congratulate him on his victory. biden will become the second catholic u.s. president after

john f. kennedy. three paid msnbc contributors have left the cable news network to join president-elect joe biden's transition team. legal analyst barbara mcquade has joined biden's legal review team. health expert ezekiel emanuel has joined biden's coronavirus task force. he's the brother of former white house chief of staff rahm emanuel. and political analyst richard stengel will be on biden's u.s. agency for global media. in 2018, stengel told the council on foreign relations about his work as the top communications specialist at the u.s. state department. >> my old job at the state department is what people used to joke is that she propagandaist job. every country does it in they have to do to their own population and i don't necessarily think it is that awful. amy: a fourth paid msnbc analyst, historian jon meacham, was removed from his role after it was revealed he helped write biden's victory speech. joe biden has named president

obama's former top immigrati adviser cecilia muñoz to his transition team. during her time in the white house, muñoz often justified obama's harsh immigration enforcement policies, including the administration's deportation of thousands of central american children and its decision to kill an executive order that would have halted deportations. in 2011, muñoz was interviewed by pbs's maria hinojosa. >> at the end of the day when you have any immigration law that is brok and you have a community of 10 million, 11 million people working and living in the united states illegally, some of these things are going to happen even if the law is executed with perfection. there will be parents separated from their children. they don't have to like it, but it is a result of having a broken system. the answer to that problem is reforming the law. amy: a warning to our audience -- the following story contains disturbing footage. in the mediterranean sea, at least 74 refugees have died in a shipwreck off the coast of

libya. a six-month old baby was among those who lost their lives. the baby died just hours after being rescued. this is at least the eighth shipwreck in the mediterranean since early october. so far in 2020, about 575 refugees mostly from africa and the middle east have died in the mediterranean while attempting to reach european soil. however, the real number is thought to be considerably higher. in ethiopia, amnesty international has confirmed hundreds of people were likely stabbed or hacked to death in the region of tigray monday night. it hasn't been confirmed who committed the mass killing, but at least three survivors of the massacre told amnesty international they were attacked by members of tigray special police force and the tigray people's liberation front. this comes as african officials are calling for a cease-fire in tigray, where federal troops have been unleashed against the local government after seizing a military base last week. meanwhile, ethiopia's nobel

prim prize-winning prime minister is claiming the western tigray region has been liberated, while the united nations warns of a dire and worsening humanitarian crisis. the moroccan military broke into a no-go buffer zone early friday morning in the non-self-governing territory of western sahara and exchanged fire with the polisario front, the sahrawi liberation movement seeking independence. the violence broke a nearly three decade-old ceasefire brokered by the united nations in 1991. for the past three weeks, sahrawi civilian protesters had blocked a morocco-built road in the area that sahrawis consider to be illegal. the peaceful blockade backed up traffic for miles and cut off trade between morocco and african countries to the south. the moroccan military entered the buffer zone friday morning to disperse the civilians, who were evacuated to safety by the polisario front. the sahrawi refugee camps are under a maximum alert, and the polisario has declared the

return to armed struggle to liberate western sahara, which is pending decolonization since when morocco invaded the 1975 territory as spain, the former colonial power, withdrew. the cease-fire agreement included a u.n.-sponsored plan for a referendum on self-determination, which morocco has refused to hold. in armenia, protests erupted just minutes after armenian armenia's prime minister signed a peace deal to end the conflict over nagorno-karabakh. protesters say the deal, which was signed by the president, does not represent the will of the armenian people. this comes as the group genocide watch has issued a warning after identifying several early signs of a potential genocide they considered azerbaijan was engaging in despite a cease fire agreement with armenia. it is estimated the conflict has killed at least 1000 people and displaced over 100,000, though some say the death toll is much higher. in peru, protests continue following what opponents are

calling a legislative coup against former president martin vizcarra earlier this week amid accusations of corruption that he denies. meanwhile, advocacy groups are denouncing the police use of teargas and other violent tactics to suppress the protests. during his time as president, vizcarra had pushed forward several anti-corruption initiatives that affected members of congress, who themselves are under criminal investigation. peru's former head of congress manuel merino was sworn in to replace vizcarra tuesday. merino is a member of a center-right political party. a presidential election is scheduled for next april. in iran, human rights lawyer nasrin sotoudeh has tested positive for covid-19 after authorities temporarily released her from prison. sotoudeh ended a weeks-long hunger strike in september as she called for the release of political prisoners amid the pandemic. sotoudeh is a recipient of this year's right livelihood awards. she was arrested in 2018 and

sentenced to 38 years in prison and 148 lashes. she had been working on behalf of women protesting a law mandating the wearing of headscarves in public. two anti-nuclear activists were sentenced to over a year in prison thursday for breaking into the kings bay naval submarine base in georgia. they're both members of the kings bay plowshares seven, which broken at the base in 2018 armed with hammers, crime scene tape, baby bottles contending their own bottle, and an indictment charging the government with crimes against peace. and lucille bridges, mother of new orleans civil rights activist ruby bridges, has died at the age of 86. exactly 60 years ago, on november 14, 1960, lucille bridges dropped her daughter ruby off for first grade at william frantz public school in new orleans, which was under a

federal court order to admit its first african american students. u.s. marshalls had to escort six-year-old ruby past angry white mobs and hostile local police officers. this is her mother lucille bridges speaking in 2018 recalling that day six decades ago. just standing,le screaming and hollering, 2, 4, 6, 8, we don't want to integrate. 2, 4, 8, just -- [bleep] pitust got out and started ching eggs and tomatoes and everything, but they did not hit us because the marshals relate to care of us. .e walked to the steps they had city policeman. they said, you cannot come in and two of the marshall said, in the united states, the president said we can. amy: the incident was immortalized in a 1964 norman rockwell painting titled "the

problem we all live with." that image, in turn, was recently adopted by artist bria goeller, who painted kamala harris -- the first african american woman elected as vice president -- casting the shadow of six-year-old ruby bridges. on her instagram account, lucille's daughter ruby bridges, now 66 years old, said -- "today our country lost a hero. brave, progressive, a champion for change. she helped alter the course of so many lives by setting me out on my path as a six year old little girl. and those are some of the headlines. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the quarantine report. i'm amy goodman. when we come back, we will be joined by reporter jane mayer, who just wrote the piece "why trump can't afford to lose." stay with us. ♪ [music break]

amy: this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the quarantine report. i'm amy goodman. the number of americans hospitalized due to covid-19 has more than a doubled over the past week as infections so to record numbers across the country. on thursday, a staggering 163,000 new cases were reported -- a new world shattering record. the u.s. death toll has topped 242,000. despite the surge, president trump is largely ignoring the crisis, letting the virus rip through the country. since the election was called for joe biden last saturday, trump has only made one brief public appearance and his

twitter feed is filled with conspiracy theories. while trump has claimed the election was stolen, his campaign has provided no evidence of widespread voter fraud. on thursday, a wing of the department of homeland security released a statement saying -- "the november 3 election was the most secure in american history. there is no evidence that any voting system deleted or lost votes, changed votes, or was in any way compromised." well, as trump refuses to concede the race, we begin today's show with longtime investigative journalist jane mayer of "the new yorker." her most recent article is headlined "why trump can't afford to lose." it was published just before the election. jane mayer writes -- "trump has famously survived one impeachment, two divorces, six

bankruptcies, 26 accusations of sexual misconduct, and an estimated 4000 lawsuits. few people have evaded consequences more cunningly. that run of good luck may well end, perhaps brutally, if he loses to joe biden." jane mayer, welcome back to democracy now! it is great to have you with us. his president trump simply concerned of moving from the presidency to private life, or is he concerned about moving from the presidency to prison? see he, i think you can has many reasons to be concerned , at least, if he leaves the white house he is going to lose the immunity that goes along with being president for legal reasons. and i think from what i understand, he is quite concerned he may face prosecution in new york, where a

pardon from the white house would not be able to reach. amy: why don't you go through all of the lawsuits and criminal investigations that he is facing, and then we will talk about the possibility that as the coronavirus rips through the population, what he is doing right now is figuring out if he can pre-pardon himself. about two dozen different kinds of legal actions coming at him. by far, i think the most serious is the investigaon underway in new york city by the district attorney cyrus vice pres. pence:, jr., who has picked up the case that originated with the southern district of new againstderal case miael cohen, who h been trump's lawyer.

year -- served a thre is still serving a three-year prison sentence and when he was indicted, the indictment mentioned there was an unindicted co-conspirator who happened to have been -- he was t named name, but it was clear it was president trump. so unindicted co-conspirator charge has been picked up by the district attorney's office, which has any open criminal investigation and a president trump looking at, amo all kinds of fraud in his business before he became president -- bank fraud, insurance fraud, tax evasion, and other kinds of fraud. that is ongoing. there is an open investigation and it is said to be quite a serious one. y: you talked about cy vance

in nework. wh about letitia james, the attorney general of new york state? >> she, too, has any open investigation into trump's presidential business practices. it has to do with whether or not he took -- whether he fraudulentlyvaluated the value of one of his real estate holdings in order to take a big tax deduction. and that is under instigatn, too. in the course odoing rerting on this, people tell me that is a harder case to make because evaluations and assessments of real estate are more of an art than a science. so it may be difficult to argue that it was absolutely fraudulent, whereas the case that the district attorney is looking -- excuse me, yeah, the manhattan da is looking at is hardert is just a much

-- there are many more facts involved that are hder to fight. mccook bloomberg is -- amy: bloomberg news and propublica are also talking about his cfo and the information that is now coming out about the trump organization finances. think there is a bottomless pit from what i understand. i interviewed michael,, the former lawyer to donald trump, for the story that i did and he is also written a book. it is clear there are so many possible charges that they could bring. this is a serious situation. it is one we have not really faced in the country before where a president may be facing for criminalcution

behavior. amy: i want to turn to president trump' his former personal attorney michael cohen, talking to msnbc in september once he got out of jail. >> i think what is bothering him the most is that trump has over $420 million in outstanding loans that are coming due. in the event there is a potential tax liability for the time period that they are about, it could be hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars. if you add those together, we still -- realistically facing a potential bankruptcy. you will find some corrupt court entity to help them out of the situation. amy: that is michael:, president trump's former personal fixer and lawyer. talk about this issue of the debt and what is at stake, that he maillot something like $421 million and that could -- what

national security folks are saying across the political spectrum, their deep concern that if president trump as president has access to top-secret information, he could use this to somehow get countries to give him money to pay off that debt. >> true. that donald trump has at least er $300 million of loans coming due in the next four years that he has personally backed stop meaning he is on the hook himself or these loans. case that hen irs appears to be losing. it is an argument with the irs about what he owes in taxes. it appears if he loses it, you'll have to pay an additional $100 million. so he has tremendous liabilities hanging over his head. if he had stayed president, he probably would have had the cloud to renegotiate these loans

somehow. if he is out on the street, it is going to be a lot harder. he will be very hard of for where to find the cash to pay these things off. he could try to sell some of his assets, but because of the pandemic, some of those assets are worth a bit less than they were before because commercial real estate and resorts are in the tank right now. so he is in a hard, hard spy. as he is with facing these criminal investigations. so there are a lot of reasons he is fighting so hard day inside the whiteouse accding to people wnow what is ing on inside. whether he would turn to foreign backers, mean, that is certainly one thing that some of the people around him who i interviewed suggested, that he might turn to corrupt foreign oligarchs. flattered alearly

number of the world's richest and most corrupt leaders, duterte. putin and he may try to follow in some chips. i mean, the situation suggests it is possible some of his foreign-policy positions were very self-interested. there certainly has been that question raised about his relationship with turkey. these are all -- these would have been huge liabilities going forward also it he had gotten himself reelected. as it is, these are reasons also what he might be fighting so hard to try to convince people that he won an election that he lost. amy: talk about among the lawsuits, trump having to deal with eg carroll's defamation lawsuit, if you can discuss what

that is all abo, the woman who charged with rape back in the 1990's, he recently spoke out. >> she charged him with rape. she met him in a department store in new york and said he tried rape her in one of the changing rooms. she is a writer. relatively well-known figure. so when she made this charge and told what had happed to her, trump caed her a liar, as he has with most of the other people -- as you mentioned at the start of this, 26 claims against him of xual assault another kinds of sexual misbehavior. he called her a liar and she tued around and then sued him for defamation for that. -- so r theyr

are being upheld in the courts as they move forward with their case against trump for demation an come down to them trying to sample that she has still got i guess the outfit she wore and they're hoping to be able to test it against trump's dna. rakethat, though, is not a pace. it is a defamation case for him saying she lied about her. if you then, jane, can talk about these civil versus criminal cases and what would happen, for example, if when trump leaks, if he leaves the white house, he goes to florida instead of new york, what does that mean for these cases? and also you talking about possibly he is using this time to negotiate deals of protection? >> as we all know, there is very broad pardon power in the

constitution that the president has. he can issue pardons almost without any kind of guidelines to whomever he wishes. and one of t questions that legal experts have an historians watching all of this, this incredible spectacle, is whether trump might try to pardon himself. it has not been done before in our history. any earlier corrupt president richard nixon thought about it and thought he had the power to do it, the justice department the time looks into it and there's just a religiously flimsy quick opinion that suggests the justice department found at that time they did not think it could be done because it is illogical, as t paper ys, the inions h no man n stand judgmenof ion trl. but it is nev really been teed befe. a numr of eerts i tervieduggest they think is possle trump could try

to pardon himself and might even get away with it if you did. but what is interesting is that the pardon power he has to be able to pardon himself against federal charges. that might be able to wipe the slate clean of any possible criminal charges, but it would not reach the new york stat charges that he may be facing from the das office or the attorney general's office in new york because those are state charges. so he might still have to go ahead with some kind of process there, and he would not be able to get himself off the hook. what people are suggesting is it is possible maybe there would be some sort of global settlement offered him on the way out the door that in exchange for some kind of concession that he might say he was guilty or fine or something that there might be some kind of just general

settlement. ticklish difficult problem of what to do with the president. we don't want to look like a new president prosecutes the former president. kind of a tinpot dictatorship yield to it. the same time, there is the since you need to hold everybody accountable and nobody is above the law. and that includes presidents of the united states. this is really complicated, fraught subject. anyway, this is all what is going on in terms of why again trump may be fighting so hard not to leave that white house. amy: and there are some who speculate maybe he will hand over power to pence for a few minutes, either now or in the last hour of the presidency, so he could do the pardoning. >> that is actually a scenario that is laid out as a possibility in this justice department memo that datesack

to the watergate era, where the justice department suggested a president should not probably pardon himself. he suggested a president might be ae to temporarily step down under the 25th amendment, have the vice president become president temporarily, pardon e president, and then have the president stepped back up and take over the parts of the office again. it would be an outreach in many ways because it is such a charade but look at the charade we're looking at right now. amy: and what about pardoning other members of his family or his allies, the significance of a possible pre-pardon as their all sorts of discussions coming out like maybe the next senatorial race in new york will be aoc versus the ivanka trump? what about that possibility of pre-pardoning family members?

> the presidents pardon powers are very broad. he can probably pardon anybody in his circle, anybody he wants to. it is not even clear whether it is prohibited to sell pardons, practically. he has got very broad powers. the question is whether you can give perspective pardons. can you say -- can the president say, "i hereby pardon ivanka trump for anything she might do from here until the end of her life was quote? he can't do that, but he can from any prosecution that might come out front the years of his time in office. powers.ly within his amy: jane, before you go, i want to ask you about the previous piece you wrote, and for the secret history of, guilfoyle's

departure from fox. the reason i ask about this now is the latest information out of siena politics about donald trump, jr. and kimberly guilfoyle, his partner, the former wife of gavin newsom, the current california governor, about trump jr. and camilla guilfoyle making moves to expand their rnc influence, republican national committee, and possibly take it over. if you can talk about who kimberly guilfoyle is an what the charges were that you laid out around her departure from fox? she was a talk so -- talk show host at fox, former prosecutor himself. she left fox under kind of mysterious circumstances. she has claimed she did nothing wrong. her lawyers claim she did nothing wrong but in fact what i discovered was there was a

whopping legal settlement involving her -- a former assistant of hers accused her of sexual harassment. the details were just mind-boggling. $4 million tover the former assistant of kimberly guilfoyle to settle the claim, which suggests they felt it had a lot of merit. guilfoyle left, started dating don jr., and has become one of the top officials in trump reelection campaign. she is the co-finance chair of the campaign. anyway, there is quite a back story to her if anybody was to go back and take a look at this piece. amy: what most shocked you about the work conditions for the people who work for her, who were forced to be at her house?

talk about the conditions and what they alleged she forced them to do. >> persistent claimed guilfoyle required her to work at her apartment in new york city and that guilfoyle often was completely naked and that she paraded around with no clothes on and required the assistant to lo at photographs she had on her phone of the genitals of the various guys that she had sex with that she talked incessantly about sex. it was really weird, to tell you the truth. it was a completely bizarre and obssively sex oriented behavior that very much upset her assistant over the course of several years. amy: i want to go to the republican national convention. several speakers warned of chaos if trump loses the race. -- we wanted to play -- we

think we have a clip of the former fox news host kimberly guilfoyle addressed the republican convention. >> they want to destroy this country and everything that we have 54 and hold dear. then want to steal your liberty, or freedom. they want to control what you see and think and believe so that they can control how you live. they want to enslave you to the week, dependent liberal victim ideology to the point that you will not recognize this country or yourself. amy: jane mayer, your response but also as we wrap up, what has most surprise you this week? "whypiece that you wrote trump can't afford to lose" was just before the announcement that joe biden had won and i'm

wondering what has most surpse to in this last week? >> to tell you the truth, all of trump's behavior was not ly predictable, it literally was predted in this piece by all of the people who knew him best. everybody said he will not concede. they called it. but what has surprised me has be the behior of the leaders of the republican party. i guess they surprised me over and over again. the extent to which thehave enabled trump, the extent to which mih mcconnell has yet to say one word suggesting that the false claims that trump won the election are in fact false. he sang, come he is entitled to played out or whatever. and lindsey graham is saying he should never concede an instant fight, fight, fight. this behavior is what makes trump possible. the difference between trump being seen as pathetic by the country and being seen as a powerful by this country.

and so that is what surprises me over and over again. amy: jane mayer, thank you for being with us and we will into "er pieces in "the new yorker "why trump can't afford to lose." when we come back, desmond meade votes for the first time for president for the first time in 30 years. ♪ [music break]

amy: "them rats" by the drowns. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the quarantine report. i'm amy goodman. we and today's show in florida. applause]d amy: that is the sound of supporters cheering desmond meade as he came out of a polling place where he voted for president for the first time in 30 years.

desmond's visit to the polls came after a years-long battle to restore the right to vote for an estimated 1.4 million people in florida who were formerly disenfranchised due to their criminal records. in 2018, desmond meade led the ccessfulight for amendnt a meare trestore ting rightso peopleith nonvlent felonies w have lly compled their ntence the nstitutial amendnt overrn a jimrow-era w aimeat keengfric amicans fr voting d was haed as the biggeswin for ting rights in decades. busince itpassage,lorida publican ledy t govnor ron dentis, ha fought keepeople fr voting. the publicanenate ssed a ll requing forrly carcerat people th felon nvictis to rep all fin and fe to courts befortheir ting rigs are reored, arking arolongedegal bale. hundreds of ousandof peoe in floda remaid

dinfranchid during this electionue to this mern day poll t, as mandescribeit. spe is, tensf thousas of new eligiblvoters tned outo t polls. fomore oamendmt 4'impact the eleion, thengoing batt to -enfnchiseeople and his own ection sry, we go to orndo wherwe' joined by dmond mea himself the esident the floda right restoration coalition and chairman of the floridians for a fa democracy. is out with a new book called et my peop vote: my battle to restore the civil rights of returning citizens." welcome back to democracy now!, desmond meade. describe that moment when you walked into your polling place and cast your vote for president of the united states for the first time in 30 years stop >> first of all, good morning, amy,

always great to see you. i can tell you that moment was surreal. that was my first time voting for president. just the act of voting really gave me a deeper appreciation for what i was engaged in, you know, realizing the sacrifices that was made by my ancestors so i could have that opportunity, even taking with me the spirit of over 700,000 returning citizens in florida who could not get to vote because of the financial obstacles that are florida legislature has placed in front of them. amy, can tell you, man, when i was in the act of voting -- just like previously in the primary, i really had a deeper appreciation for the sacredness of the right to vote. and even though there is a lot of political things about voting, i realize that voting

actually transcended partisan politics, even racial and zaidi's because it toome to a place that said something simpler yet powerful. he said that i am. that i existed, that my voice mattered. and it has validated me and made me a complete american citizen. i think that was something that felt so great that i just can't help but want every american citizen to experience that feeling and understand the right to vote is sacred and we should honor it by actually voting. amy: i remember going down to melbourne, florida, to interview you on stage, desmond. i the time it was quite amazing the level of organizing that had gone on for amendment 4, which would affect 1.4 million as you call people returning citizens. this just flew through. it sailed through. it won by an overwhelming

majority. it was only after it was passed that the republicans moved in on --s that governor desantis explain what happened and the demand that was made on people before they could vote after they came out of prison. >> amy, i think what we have seen is an example of the arrogance of politicians. they sat idly by for 150 years while this policy was in place in florida and did not lift a finger to change it. but the people took matters into their own hands. once we passed overwhelmingly amendment 4 with a strong bipartisan support, people from all walks of life and all political persuasions- the people did that -- then you had the arrogance of politicians that insisted that they insert themselves into this beautiful thement and determine

qualifications for people to be able to register to vote. they laid out a series of financial obligations that a person must pay before they are ev able to register. our ensuing lawsuit by the aclu, southern poverty law center, successfully challenged that in the lower courts. but unfortunately, the state insisted on fighting back. they apparently want to force american citizens to choose between being able to put food on their table or voting. and that is totally contrary to what democracy is all about. so rather than sit back and wallow in the sorrow and complain about the state, we decided we're going to approach this the way we have always approached things. and that is when we see obstacles, we tournament opportunities. we organized the entire united states where over 90,000 individuals across the state and corporations and celebrities and

athletes and sports teams donated over $27 million to our fines and fees fund. we were able to pay off the fines and fees of over 40,000 returning citizens. we know since the passage of amendment 4, we were able to register -- in the face of this pandemic and all of the obstacles and uncertainty about registration, we were still able to register over 87,000 returning citizens since the passage of amendment 4. 1.4 million would have been eligible. president trump won in florida close to 400,000. to say the least, this is extremely significant. >> most definitely. one of the things i told my staff, even before the first vote was counted, i told him we won. able toecause we were

impact so many lives and in the state of florida. people who would be able to vote again, people in their 60's and 70's, even a lady 84 years old was able to vote for the first time in all of her life. then you had people -- we had a young lady in south florida who was given six months to live. her dying wish was not to visit an exotic location or media celebrity, her dying wish was to be able to cast a ballot, to be able to feel what it felt like to be a complete citizen and have their voices heard. desire wasn and that something that was indicative in thousands upon thousands of returning citizens throughout the state of florida. reinvigoratedis a hope in the communities and individuals who would have thought therwas no opportunity for them to have their voices

heard. and because we passed amendment inspire a able to movement across the country. in california, they passed prop 17 to allow people on parole to be able to vote. it is huge. we've seen what happened in iowa and kentucky so many places. we know we have touched hundreds of thousands of lives and increased voter engagement throughout this country. so we won. amy: the numbers are staggering. when we talked about this in 2018, one in five african-american in florida, more than 10% of florida's adult population, were ineligible to vote in the 2018 election in florida. then one in 16 black americans cannot vote do to the criminal record. this is a staggering figure. >> yes, it is. bookk about this in my new

. were the challenges me as an african-american man leading this effort and understanding the staggering impact of disenfranchisement on the african-american community. not just black and, but black women as well. to be able to thread the needle, understanding that some of this disenfranchisement grew from just impacting newly released slaves to really impacting all think it was i challenging to really bring in a much broader audience without ignoring the impact it has on the african-american community. but we were able to dish building this as an all-american issue, understanding that even if it is just african-americans that are hurting because of policies, that means all americans are hurting so we are all connected. amy: desmond meade, talk about the term "returning citizens." is a greatt

question, amy. i can tell you this, a lot -- one of the things that impacts policies -- no matter what policies you are dealing with, the narrative. how are you feeling people? we use the term "ex-con," wha you're doing is you are dehumanizing that individual while desensitizing the public for that individual for the issue they're dealing with. we see the united states use this tactic before the bond hiroshima and nagasaki by demonizing the japanese people. this is the same thing we see with the use of the term x felon. where else do you see someone going around calling someone,, that isan ex-liar or ex-adulterer for the rest of their lives? when you call someone an

ex-felon, that is someone's son, daughter, grandson, granddaughter and they are still deserving to be treated with dignity and respect in spite of what they have done. we have to be very careful on w we treat the least among us. the first step is to try to humanize the business who may have been caught up in the colonel justice system will stop and recognizing they are still a citizen of their community, their state, and this country and they should be treated accordingly. amy: you talk about other people story in your book and continually as tens of thousands were able as a result of your work, i want to turn to the former nfl quarterback michael vick, one of the 1.4 million returning citizens in florida became eligible to vote in the election. of course, to sanchez, the governor, whittled that down. but vick discussed his journey with the florida rights restoration coalition.

cooks toy i'oing to te. thiss the rst time i'm going to ve for varuseaso, mainly becausef my past. had to gthrough ole procs of ty abntee llot, throughome loops come hado getverythg sent califnia. definite is youright to vote. absent ballot nally arrived and i'm ready to vote. amy: so that is former nfl star michael vick. desmond meade, tell us more. and tell us more about your book , the book that just came out because you have written another as well. >> michael vick was great to work with. really speakstory to a couple of things. number one, the desire that people have to be a part of this country, to be a part of this process. the other thing it speaks to is the issue that we dealt with, even though florida legislature

has imposed a poll tax, and has impacted 774,000 returning citizens, there were still 5000 to 600,000 returning citizens who could have registered to vote without having any financial obligations to pay. however, they did not know. and i termed this as the juneteenth effect, where the slaves in galveston, texas, did not find out they were free until two years later. ,ere the passage of amendment 4 we came up on the second year anniversary, and there are so many people who did not know that they could register to vote in spite of their previous felony conviction. and we see that phenomenon even in states like georgia, louisiana, and 70 states across the country where people are walking around believing they cannot be a part of the democratic process because of a previous felony conviction. michael vick kind of exemplified

this. foras actually able to vote quite some time but did not realize the steps he needed to take, and we were so grateful to be able to work with him and really walk him through that process and make sure,nt y, he did qualify under the amendment and passing of amendment 4 he was successfully able to register and be able to vote. that is an amazing thing. i think that is an experience we want more returning citizens, not only in the state of florida, but across the country to experience. because i do believe people who have been impacted by the criminal justice system will make a significant impact in elections in the future as well as around criminal justice reform. i have got to remind you, amy, it is not just about the presidential race. there are so many down ballot races of state attorneys, da's,

sheriffs, judges, public defenders, supervisors of elections that are up for reelection throughout the year are coming years, and people who have been impacted the most have an opportunity to have their voices heard in a very significant way. in my book, i talked about how in spite of the fact we may have made mistakes in the past, despite the fact -- we have an opportunity to overcome and be a changemaker in our community and in this country. amy: desmond meade, thank you for being with us, president of the florida rights restoration coalition and chairman of the floridians for a fair democracy. spearheaded mimic 4, which re-enfranchised 1.4 million floridians. this new book called "let my people vote: my battle to restore the civil rights of returning citizens." very happy birthday to ishmael. democracy now! is looking for feedback from people who appreciate the closed captioning. e-mail your comments to outreach@democracynow.org or

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