01/08/21 01/08/21 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] amy: from new york, this is democracy now! >> i joined under calling on the vice president to remove this president. i immediately invoke the 25th amendment. if they don't act, the congress may be prepared to move forward with impeachment. amy: calls are growing for president trump to resign or be removed from office for inciting supporters to storm the capitol

in an act of insurrection that left five dead, including a capitol hill police officer. we will speak to a congressman who took cover and then look at president-elect joe biden's pick to head the justice department -- judge merrick garland, who republicans denied a seat on the supreme court five years ago. >> as everyone who watched yesterday's events in washington now understands, if they did not understand before, the rule of law is not just some lawyers turn of phrase. it is the very foundation of our democracy. amy: then, more than 4000 americans died from covid-19 thursday in the deadliest day of the pandemic anywhere in the world so far. we will speak to rebekah jones, a data scientist who was forced to resign as the lead software developer for florida's coronavirus data portal after she refused to censor

informion about florida's covid-19 outbreak. last month, armed police raided her home. >> police! come down now! just pointed a gun at my children. amy: all that and more, coming up. welcome to democracy now!, democracynow.org, the quarantine report. i'm amy goodman. the united states death toll from covid-19 topped 4000 for the first time on thursday, setting yet another daily world record as top public health official dr. anthony fauci warned the u.s. outbreak will get even worse in the weeks ahead. arizona is now one of the worst-affected parts of the world, with nearly 1% of state residents testing positive for coronavirus in just the past week. in california, the national

guard is assisting los angeles county's coroner's office after morgues and mortuaries ran out of storage space for covid-19 victims. the cdc reported thursday that asymptomatic carriers of coronavirus are responsible for more than half of new infections, a finding that bolsters the urgent need for masks and social distancing. meanwhile, new research published in the journal science immunology shows 90% of people have robust immunity to coronavirus eight months after an infection. it's not yet known if immunity wanes after a longer interval. president trump said thursday there would be an orderly transiti of governmt januy connues to deny his election loss to joe biden trump's concession came in a scripted video statement, one day after he incited a mob of thousands to march on congress to overturn the electi results.

pres. trump: like all americans, i am outraged by the violence, lawlessness, and mayhem. i immediately deployed the national guard and federal law enforcement to secure the building and expel the intruders. america is and must always be a nation of law and order. amy: in fact, maryland governor larry hogan says he repeatedly tried to get permission to deploy national guard troops to assist at the capitol building wednesday afternoon after receiving a panicked call from congressional leaders who'd fled to a secure location. he says he was thwarted for over an hour-and-a-half before pentagon leaders finally allowed him to send in troops. "the new york times" reports trump took no action to authorize the national guard deployment, with vice president mike pence finally intervening. after he was evacuated from the capitol. on thursday, president-elect joe biden drew comparisons between trump's crackdown on peaceful

protests for black lives and wednesday's assault on the capitol. mr. biden: no one can tell me if it had been a group of black lives matter protesting yesterday, they would not have been treated very, very differently than the mob of thugs that stormed the capitol. amy: house speaker nancy pelosi said she would consider thursday on whether she would consider to impeach president trump if members of his cabinet and vice president pence fail to immediately remove him from power under the 25th amendment. pelosi formally adjourned the house of representatives until after biden's inauguration on january 20, so any vote on impeachment would require that lawmakers return to washington. senate republican leader mitch mcconnell has adjourned the senate until january 19. the united states capitol police announced that officer brian sicknick, who was hospitalized after trump's mob attacked him, died of his injuries thursday

evening. the 42-year-old had been on life support. he was one of 50 police officers reportedly injured by marauders on wednesday. police arrested just 26 people on capitol hill during the insurrection. on thursday, capitol police chief steven sund said he would quit, effective january 16. also on thursday, congressional leaders ousted the sergeants-at-arms of both the house and senate. the top federal prosecutor for washington, d.c., on thursday refused to rule out criminal charges against donald trump for inciting wednesday's riot on capitol hill. acting u.s. attorney michael sherwin said trump and others could face charges ranging from seditious conspiracy to rioting to insurrection. sherwin also said prosecutors will charge any capitol police officers found to be complicit with the rioters. officers were filmed pulling barricades aside, holding hands with insurrectionists, and even posing for a selfie after they

smashed their way into the capitol. as the insurrectionists stormed the u.s. capitol wednesday, hundreds of fervent trump supporters gathered for local rallies around the country. in los angeles, police are investigating after images circulated of a trump mob attacking a black woman near los angeles city hall. the young woman, berlinda nibo, was walking home when she came upon the rally and started documenting it on her phone. dozens quickly surrounded her, demanding to know who she voted for and to take off her face mask. she was then brutally attacked by the group of white supremacists, who shoved her, pulled out her hair extensions, and pepper sprayed her in the eyes. the bearded man pictured holding her from behind was one of several witnesses who intervened to help nibo escape the out of control mob. public health officials fear wednesday's insurrection by

-- at that u.s. capitol was a likely coronavirus superspreader event. few of the marauders wore masks and many of them celebrated their refusal to follow public health guidelines. this is far-right podcast host clay clark speaking at a rally of trump supporters in washington on tuesday. >> turned to the person next to you and give them a hug. go hug someone. write it out. it is a mess spreader event. a mask spreader event. a mass spreader event. amy: in to national news, southern africa is seeing a regional surge in coronavirus cases following a second wave in south africa linked to a variant that many scientists believe is more infectious. zimbabwe and mozambique recorded their highest number of new daily cases this week, while south africa's total caseload has topped 1.1 million, wi over 31,000 deaths. this ia johannesburg nurse described the dire situation. cooks fu to capaty.

the longest were we have seen no dy bs on the floor. deaths,ults cover 19 the second-highest death toll and of u.s., health offials resist lockout adst intense search will japan has declared a one-month state of emergey in andround tokyas cases in the capital hit a record high of 2500 thursday. resints are ing asked stayome and ba and reaurantto closet 8:00 p.m. health expts say strter asures are need, with some suggesting a full national lockdown. an iraqi courtas issued an rest warra for president trump for killing militia chief abu mai al-muhandis in the same targeted drone strike that killed top iranian general qassem soleimani just over one year ago. the strike on baghdad aiort was ordered by trump, who later said it had taken out "two for the price of one." earlier this week, iran requested interpol arrest trump and other u.s. officials for soleimani's assassination.

joe biden has tapped boston mayor marty walsh for labor secretary. walsh was a top union leader, heading up the boston building trades before his career in politics and has the support of many prominent labor union figures. but others had hoped biden would select another cabinet member of color, as several were reportedly up for consideration, including california labor secretary julie su, who is asian american. if walsh is confirmed, boston city council president kim janey -- who is african-american -- will become acting mayor, making her the first woman and first person of color to serve as mayor of boston. in other cabinet news, biden has selected rhode island governor gina raimondo as commerce secretary. the revolving door project said the choice was profoundly troubling, tweeting -- "raimondo has a record of promoting fracking and cuts to public assistance programs, selling public pensions to wall street, and grossly mishandling rhode island's covid-19 outbreak." and isabel guzman has been

nominated to head the u.s. small business administration. she previously served in the same agency under obama and is currently the director of california's office of the small business advocate. guzman is the first latina named to a cabinet-level post by biden. she'll be involved in overseeing the implementation of the paycheck protection program, a key part of the pandemic stimulus plan. meanwhile, two members of trump's cabinet have resigned in protest of wednesday's failed coup attempt at the u.s. capitol. transportation secretary elaine chao said in a statement she was deeply troubled by the insurrection. education secretary betsy devos called the events unconscionable and said they were a "inflection point." chao and devos have been members of trump's cabinet since just after his inauguration in 2017. they are the 11th and 12th trump administration officials to quit after wednesday's attack on the

capitol. boeing has agreed to pay more than $2.5 billion to settle a nearly two-year federal criminal investigation into the company's role in two fatal crashes in ethiopia and indonesia that killed all 346 people on board 737 max airplanes. the justice department had accused boeing of having concealed information about the aircraft. michael summa, the father of a woman who died in the if you've been crash, told mpr "this is a boeing protection agreement. there is nobody being held accountable personally." and in guatemala, the former security head of a canadian-owned mine has been convicted for the 2009 assassination of adolfo eech, an indigenous maya q'eqchi' community leader and land protector. mynor padilla pleaded guilty on wednesday in what "the guardian" newspaper described was a rare

conviction over human rights violations linked to canadian mining corporations in central america. padilla worked in the region's largest nickel mine in eastern guatemala, which at the time of ich's killing was owned by hudbay minerals. ich was a leading voice of resistance against the mine and its destruction of indigenous territory. and those are some of the headlines. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the quarantine report. i'm amy goodman. calls are growing for president trump to resign or be removed from office for inciting supporters to storm the capitol in an act of insurrection on wednesday to disrupt the counting of electoral college votes. the unrest left five people dead, including a capitol police officer who was reportedly struck in the head by a fire extinguisher. on thursday, white house aides pressured trump to read a scripted video message prepared by his staff where he deunced

thmob thattormed theapitol and vowed there would be a ooth transition ofower. "t new york times" reports trump on agrd to recthe videafter reizing heould chargedor hisole inciting the ots and cing the prospe of beinremoved from office. just a day earlier, trump had a very different message for the insurrectionists saying, "we love you, you're very special." "the times" also reports trump has had discussions in recent weeks with staff about pardoning himself before leaving office -- a move no president has even taken. on thursday, house speaker nancy pelosi threatened to impeach the president again if vice president mike pence and the cabinet does not invoke the 25th amenent to remove him. >> i joined the senate democratic leader in calling on the ve redent to remove this president by immediately invoking the 25th amendment.

if the vice president and cabinet do not act, congress may be prepared to move forward with impeachment. amy: on thursday, education secretary betsy devos and transportation secretary elaine chao both resigned from office and joined at least 10 other trump administration officials to quit since wednesday. "the wall street journal" editorial pages urging trump to resign from the murdoch owned "wall street journal." lawmakers are also vowing to investigate the massive security breach at the capitol where rioters overwhelmed capitol police. congressional leaders ousted the sergeants-at-arms of both the house and senate. the chief of the capitol police is also expected to resign next week. multiple reports are emerging of police officers aiding the rioters by removing barricades

to giving out directions to offices of specific lawmakers , including senate majority leader chuck schumer. who will become the senate majority leader. to talk more about this, we are joined by ro khanna, democratic congressmember from california. member of the house committee on oversight and reform, was inside the capitol wednesday during the insurrection. welcomeman khanna, back. where were you? can you describe the scene personally from her vantage point? >> i was in my office in the cannon building and then we heard there was an evacuation because there was apparently a pipe bomb nearby. i left my office. i started to head toward the capitol. i got a frantic text from people saying, don't go into the capitol because it is being overrun. i turned back. we were told the cannon building was clear but we did not know but that was our best course so i went to my office and locked

the doors of the office and stayed in the office the rest of the day. amy: congressman khanna, you have nancy pelosi come to house speaker, calling for the removal of president trump. can you talk about the different options? can you talk about what the 25th amendment invocation would been? can you talk about what impeachment would look like? somethingh amendment vice president pence can do. he just needs the majority of the cabinet on board any can as the president be removed and vice president pence can then become president. if they refuse to do that, the house must impeach in the senate should convict. here's why republicans should be for impeachment. if you listen to the president's incitement of violence, rudy giuliani iitement of violence, a target was republican lawmakers. donald trump, jr. is saying show the republicans they

need to be on our side and we're ing to have a trial by combat. so this was not an attack just on democratic lawmakers. if anything, it was an incitement of violence against republican lawmakers. capitol as the in,uders smashed their way diedtimately five people -- a woman apparently trying to get in through window was shot, it looked like, by capitol police, now a capitol police officer has succumbed to his injuries, apparently slammed in the head by a fire extinguisher, and three others who died of medical emergencies on the capitol grounds. describe the feeling inside. did you ever expect this would happen? president trump's whole family was at the rally. he had evoke a trump, eric,

donald trump calling for people -- trump said he would go with them to the capitol. of course, he didn't. and what that means? do you see him as the leader of the insurrection and do you think you should be criminally charged? he is out of offic in two weeks if not oted before. incitement. classic it is illegal conduct to encourage people to go break the law. in this case, there was a direct connection. it is not like you made some generic call for protesting. he said go, march of the capitol. rudy giuliani saying it is a trial by combat. show strength. this is basically an incitement of a mob to go commit criminal attacks. it absolutely needs to be investigated from a justice department perspective. the first thing is, he needs to

be removed from office. i don't understand how you can ever resident of the united oftes -- have a president the united states remain in office any longer. amy: do you support impeachment or the invoking of the 20? >> i support both. i support whatever will get him out. but i don't understand is why you can have mcconnell call him and say, president trump, if you don't reside, will be impeached. that is necessary not just for the stability of our democracy until joe biden gets in office, that is necessary to send a message that in this country, you cannot incite riots and have no consequences. what does that say to people we have a president of the united states who has inciting violence against the institution of the capitol and we say we are fine with him still being president of this country? that is not a message that stands up for democratic values. amy: contrasted this with president trump's approach in

portland, oregon, when he called for people put in jail for up to 10 years if they in any way damaged federal property. here as we saw people smashing the windows of the capitol, climbing through those windows, a president trump safely at the white house saying "we love you." >> his speech was reminiscent of marc anthony speech a julius where he was basically manipulating people saying, ok, go home, but really the thrust of the speech was, "we love you, we support you, i support what you're doing." it was further inciting the silence. your right to point out the racial disparity. i don't think there's a person in this country who believes there were thousands of black lives matter protesters are black protesters there that the response would not have been dramatically diffent. that is something this country

really needs to grapple with, the disparity in which we looked at why protesters were trump and why would look at many african-american protesters during this summer who are protesting for racial justice. amy: forget thousands of black 12es matter activist, if announced they were going to storm the capitol, not to me to just protest in front of it, i daresay there would be a massive response. that goes to the question -- this was not a flash mob were suddenly these people emerged. president trump had been calling weeks.s for the mayor of washington, d.c. muriel bowser, already had written a letter to the pentagon asking for the national guard to come in. how's that possible the capitol police were not only so completely unprepared, but actually we see them

high-fiving, the selfies, removing barricades and ushering people in. night had the resignation of the chief of the capitol police and the ousting of the sergeants of arms about the senate and the house. >> there are a lot of questions that need to be answered. i agree the capitol police acted completely unprepared of these incidents of taking self he said letting people in our troubling. i think we need to acknowledge there were a lot of first-line responders have police officers who were doing the right thing, risking their lives to protect people in the capitol. the leadership was totally derelict. they did not have a plan. they did not take the proper precaution. of course, washington, d.c., was restricted. they could not invoke the national guard post the final point is the social media needs to be looked at. this whole attack was doing planned on parler.

people were talking about how they were going to get rifles, talking about specifics of what they were going to do. nothing came down on those sites. facebook and twitter were live streaming that call for the march on the capitol. of the most shameful days and he could turn it into what happened on the capitol. amy: yet the newly sworn in democratic congress member cori bush of missouri tweeted -- "my first resolution in congress will be to call for the expulsion of the republican members of congress who incited this domestic terror attack on the capitol." this is cori bush speaking on msnbc on wednesday. >> i am walking through from the therel to my office and was not a lot of police activity. no one came to the door to check and knock on the door to say, are you and your team ok? we are sending text messages letting ople know -- i'm

letting our committees know we are ok, letting other mbers know we are ok. something has to happen. i tell you what, the national guard when they are called -- when they were called a ferguson or another part of st. louis, we did not have to wait to find out that was happening. oftentimes that happened even when it was said we were having a protest. i don't understand how this happened like this. i don't understand how we were put in this position in our place of business, our lives were at risk today. amy: that is mers or congress member cori bush. i'm wondering, commerce member khanna, if you're demanding the resignation for ted cruz and josh hawley, blaming them for helping instigate the violent mob of trump supporters that stormed the capitol. cruz and hawley were at the forefront of efforts objecting the certification of electoral votes for president elect joe biden. congressmembers alexandria ocasio-cortez tweeted yesterday --

"senator cruz you must accept responsibility for how your craven, self-serving actions contributed to the deaths of four people yesterday. and how you fundraised off this riot. both you and senator hawley must resign. if you do not, the senate should move for your expulsion." meanwhile, publishing company simon & schuster said thursday it would cancel the publication of an upcoming book by senator hawley. and senator hawley's home newspaper has said he has blood on his hands. even after everything happened, holly insisted on continuing to object to the accounts in pennsylvania, for example. your response? was think whathawley did unconscionable. he was out with a fist bump supporting and encouraging

directly the protesters. the resignation in that sense makes complete sense. there should be an ethics investigation. i think there has to be a distinction between members of congress, as much as i disagreed with those who use the process to raise injection and they should be defeated at the ballot box -- but if there were senators like hawley inciting violence, that breaks all ethics laws and that is grounds for expulsion. base investigation should take place -- a fact-based investigation should take place. amy: you all of this, it must became a sideshow but wednesday, began and ended with history being made in georgia. the first african-american democrat elected to the senate from the south, rev. raphael warnock -- that was the beginning in the early hours. and then he had anything mist of all of this, announcement that the secondhad won

seat in georgia, flipping the u.s. senate to being democrat-lead, lease 50/50 and vice president, harris will be the deciding vote. what does that mean for you in the house and the kind of legislation you want to see put forward? >> it is historic. we can now get things done, like $15 minimum wage, the major infrastructure bill, $2000 cash for people who need it. this is they moment we have to deliver for the american people whose wages have stagnated, who have not had secure jobs. but more than that, step after all this country's gone through, new cell.ultiracial warnock, african-american senator who ran talking about criminal justice, talk about human rights in palestine, ran talking about issues of economic

dignity. it is a new voice for this country and i am hopeful that we are going to turn a page after donald trump insert the serious work of building that kind of democracy. amy: ro khanna, thank you for being with us, callaway and democratic commerce member from silicon valley, member of the house committee on oversight and reform. next up, president-elect joe biden specter had the justice department, merrick garland. yep, the judge republicans tonight seat on the supreme court five years ago. stay with us. ♪ [music break]

amy: the theme song to "the titanic." this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the quarantine report. i'm amy goodman. president-elect joe biden has formally nominated judge merrick garland for attorney general. garland is a centrist judge who was president obama's pick to

serve on the supreme court after the death of antonin scalia in 2016, but his nomination stalled after republican senators, led by mitch mcconnell, refused to put it up for a vote. garland has served on the d.c. circuit court of appeals for over two decades and previously worked at the justice department where he prosecuted the oklahoma city bombing case. on thursday, merrick garland cited the insurrection at the capitol as he talked the rule of law. >> is everyone who watched yesterday's events in washington now understands, if they did not understand before, the rule of law this not just some lawyers turn a phrase. it is the very foundation of our democracy. the essence of the rule of law cases are treated alike. that they're not be one rule for democrats and another for republicans.

one rule for friends, another for foes. one rule for the powerful, another for the powerless. one rule for the rich, and another for the poor. or different roles depending upon what is race or ethnicity. amy: biden's other picks for top posts at the justice department include vanita gupta to be associate attorney general. she is currently head of the leadership conference on civil and human rights. >> now is the time to ensure that our economic system works for everyone, that we can protect the health and safety of all the american people, and that we will harness all of the justice department's levers for civil rights, justice and police reform and climate justice and so much more. amy: and joe biden has nominated kristen clarke, the head of the lawyers' committee for civil rights under law, to be assistant attorney general for civil rights. >> i stand here today deeply inspired by the example of the

and otherood marshall public servants who dedicated their lives to advancing the cause of justice. are at a crossroads. if i am rtunate ough to be confirmed, we will turn the page on hate and close the door on discrimination by enforcing our federal civil rights laws. talk more about president joe biden's picks to run the justice department, we are joined by elie mystal, the nation's justice correspondent and author of the magazine's monthly column "objection!" i mean, what an unusual day. you have this aftermath of insurrection on wednesday, and ew toe death toll gr

five, have joe biden coming out and announcing who would be the attorney general and the other picks for the justice department. again, you were tweeting up a storm about both. can you respond to his choices and also what happened in the nation's capitol? for attorney general, was going to be as most consequential cabinet pick before the president of the united states appears to have launched a field coup against his own government. merrick garland's pi was huge for the eves of this week. i am a little underelmed by the garland pick. people need to remember that garland was picked for the supreme court because he was a compromise candidate. he was picked to entice republican votes to confirm him. people have forgotten why he was a centrist and why he was a compromised candidate because the republicans martyred him.

status.otten this cult this is a centrist jurist who has a history, troubling history to me, i've been differential to police and being unwilling to hold police accountable for acts of reality. -- accept brutality. i basic my information on written opinions from his long career, but that was before trump. that was before the events of this week. merrick garland is going to have an opportunity to prove me wrong and approve he has learned and involved because to link it up with what we've seen this week, by the time merrick garland takes control of the justice department, many of the domestic terrorists that we saw this week will have not been brought to justice, right? very few will have been arrested. very few will have been charged.

merrick garland will have a target-rich environment to show he is willing to put the rule of law and to take these people on head on and seriously, right? we will not have charged donald trump, jr. for incitement to a riot as he did in the speech when he stood there for two minutes and yelled "fight for trump!" right before they stormed the capitol. he will not have been charged for the time merrick garland takes control. rudy giuliani who instruct people to have a trial by combat, will not have en charged. so he wants to prove he is ready to apply the rule of law equally, you have multiple opportunities to do so as of january 20. amy: so talk about the other members of the team and how much power they have. now hadinterviewed the come if she is approved, the

head of the civil rights division who joe biden had nominated, not to mention -- that is kristen clarke, not to .ention vanita gupta their significance? will these departments be revived? talk about what is happening them. >> it is a great team. kristen clarke is e of the best. i think she will be great as the civil rights division. , she's on a, look personal shortlist for supreme court. i think she is that kind of serious and important person. so i'm very happy with that team. you talk about the power they have. that will have a lot to do with garland and cell. the fact they were all announced together, which does not always happen, suggests that department will work hand-in-hand, hand in glove is perhaps a better

analogy, so i have hopes it will have real power, real authority -- i think you put it right, to restore divisions of the justice department that have atrophied or in some cases willingly been dismantled by bill barr and jeff sessions. take the civil rights division for instance. one of the main ways the federal government has for imposing standards on local police is through the use of something called consent decree. the department investigates you to avoid federal charges, your jurisdiction, or police department enters a consent decree with the justice department to meet certain standards in terms of good policing ideals. jeff sessions famously ended the use of consent decrees within his first couple of weeks in office. i would assume kristen clarke will restore those decrees

within her first 100 hours in office. so the atrophying in the willful dismantling of some of the structures of the justice department i do have hope will team.tored under this again, the issue here is not -- restoration is great. it is important to bring the justice department to wash clean the stains of bill barr and jeff sessions from the justice department. that is all well and good. but this moment demands more restoration. this demeans the justice department who is willing to go after the people who threaten our democracy and who openly threatened the safety of black people in this country. and merrick garland have an opportunity to prove he is willing to do that. amy: then you have the speculation that if in fact he is approved by the senate, down democratic senate, you will have

his open seat on the federal that -- the possibility judge brown jackson will fill that seat and then possibly be nominated to the supreme court if there is an opening. >> here's the thing about the d.c. circuit company i don't want to get too far into the weeds. the d.c. circuit, which garland currently sits, is basically for the theater circuit supreme court. a lot of the supreme court justices got their start on the d.c. circuit currently on the supreme court, john roberts, clarence thomas, brett kavanaugh all came from the d.c. circuit marie bader ginsburg came from the d.c. circuit. it is alabama to the nfl. amy: theater court. >> yes. theing judge jackson on d.c. circuit is not only great for judge jackson and great for the d.c. circuit, it is a suggestion that you are being

groomed to fill a seat on the supreme court should an opening come up. that is great. that is important. i will point out that people making this big, oh, three-dimensional chat, judge carla was old enough you could have taken senior status and thus open up a seat on the d.c. circuit anyway, so this argument that the really good thing about making garland ag is he is open up- that doesn't hold up. it is great that biden will have the opportunity to put another justice on the d.c. circuit. that is awesome. it did not have to be this way. go, we justfore we have 30 seconds, from "the washington post come time will ll. "the nationce for is headlined "the confederacy

.inally stormed the capitol the significance of this week? >> what we saw this week was -- frederick douglass said, power never concedes anything without the demands. what we saw this week was power not conceding. neversupremacists have conceded defeat, not once, not ever in the history of this country. and we have to always be ready to fight them. because when we are not ready, when we are not prepared, this is what happens. amy: elie mystal, thank you for being with us the nation's , justice correspondent and author of the magazine's monthly column "objection!" this is democracy now! when we come back, speaking of storming, data scientist from florida rebekah jones, her home is raided by authorities in florida step we will find out why it was guns were put to the

family of this data scientist and she had to move as she talked about information about florida's covid 19 outbreak, now reaching a peak. stay with us. ♪ [music break]

amy: tina turner. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the quarantine report. i'm amy goodman. as the united states reported more than 4000 covid-19 deaths in one day for the first time on thursday, florida broke the record for the highest single-day increase in new cases with nearly 20,000 new cases reported in one day. in daytona beach, hundreds of senior citizens who were determined to get vaccinated against covid-19 have been camping out in their cars overnight in cold weather. they've had to scramble to get a place in line for the vaccine after florida governor ron desantis issued an executive givingdefying the cdc, priority to not those over 75, but 65 -- 10 years lower than

the cdc augmented age -- meaning older floridians have to compete with those who are younger. those who are 79 years and older are reportedly four times as likely to die from covid. coupleaught up with a who are 79 and 80, john and maria luisa schoch. dayswere in line for two -- the first-ever five hours. they got there at 1:00 in the morning and they were turned back. the second day, to 19 hours. they arrived at 7:00 and got there shot about 1:00 in the afternoon the next day. john described what happened the first night they tried to get vaccinated. >> the thing was, there were parking with the line about a mile and half long and we were toward the tail end of it, unfortunately. the only had 1000 vaccines each day.

once they filled the parking lot, then they shut the gate off. we were at the tail end on monday, so thais what happened to us. amy: john and maria luisa schoch came back a second night. at the time we spoke to them, they had been in line for 14 hours. we spoke to them just after 9:00 a.m. and they had been there since 7:00 the night before. they had rented a van this time so they could sustain the amount of time. again, there 79 and 80 years old. describe how they made a camp toilet to use during their wait. well, made it a little easier to use a five gallon bucket with a toilet seat purchased at the exporting goods to sit on top. so then you there could do whatever you want, i guess. but that worked out ok. and because they were helping to get the shot.

>> oh, yeah, we will -- we will be able to get the vaccination. comet is too bad we had to 14 hours ahead of time to do it. in theirthere people 80's like you? >> i have seen a number of them, yeah. yeah, i do. t import is the sho you and your wife? otect have to pri ourselves and others so to get back to normal. it is very important because we don't want to come down with this thing. if we did come it would be bad for us and bad for others. amy: that is john schoch. again, there waiting in this massive line, overall waited for

over 24 hours because the governor dropped the age from 75, the cdc recommended him is 65. it is a kind of survival of the fittest. this comes as desantis got into a heated exchange with cnn reporter rosa flores this week when she questioned him about the chaotic rollout of the vaccines in the state that forced the senior citizens into these unbelievably long lines. desantis had previously said he would put a prioritize them for vaccination. >> what went wrong with the rollout of the vaccine when we have seen phone line stand, websites -- >> so your repeating your question. >> governor, listing websites crash and senior citizens waiting overnight for the vaccine -- >> where was that? >> devall, broward, lee county. >> why did that happen?

digit best to get why? >> you're the governor of the state. >> you did not investigate why that happened in lee county, why was there big line? did you investigate why? >> could you tell us why? >> we distributed vaccines to hospitals and the hospitals have first serve, first serve. they did not use a registration system. there wasn't anything done and there was a lot of demands of people are going to want to go ahead -- >> so there was no plan to make re senior citizens did not wait outside overnight? .> the state is not dictating that would be a total disaster. these guys are much more competent to be able to deliver health care services than a state government could ever be. amy: he is not telling the whole story there, florida governor desantis, the one who dropped the age from 75 to 65, not giving the senior citizens like john and maria luisa priority so

they did not have to wait a after day. many are infirm and could not. you prompted outrage in december when armed police raided the home of ta scientist rebek jones who was forced to resign in may as the lead software develor for florida's coronavirus data portal after censorused to information about florida's covid-19 outbreak. computer,zed her pointed guns at her children. she posted video of the raid on twitter. >> police! come down now! a gun at myointed children. amy: rebekah jones accused florida's governor desantis of sending the gestapo after her. she wrote on twitter -- "this is what happens to scientists who do their job honestly. this is what happens to people who speak truth to power." florida authorities said the raid was part of a probe into a recent hack of the florida

health department's website but jones said she hasn't had access to the site in six months. rebekah jones joins us now from her new home out of state. welcome to democracy now! it is great to have you with us. i'm so sorry for what you went through. can you tell us more about how the police raided your ho? there's a 23 minute video that i recorded up until the moment the police shut it off where they go through a process that led to them coming in my gradewith military weapons pointed at my small chdren and essentially what happened was the department of health told the police, hey, somebody sent a text message to some of our employees telling th to tell the truth and speak out and here is the ip address where it came from. of course, department of health with no my ip address because i

worked remotely for them for more than two years. the department of law enforcement took the ip address and found out who it belonged to and came took my computers, thumb drive, internal hard drive device is not even capable of sending any kind of text or email because they are just storage devices -- of course, they had evidence of wrongdoing by the state. there were backups so i have the original. in my cell phone. just in disbelief when the police released their video of them coming with guns raised, one pointed about six inches from my face, i asked if there were looking for a person the way they came into the house. i had no idea what was happening. i had no idea what that message sent said until that day. it was disturbing to have that happen to you for literally

doing nothing other than reporting data. amy: rebekah jones, let's talk about that. let's talk about why you were forced to leave. we are speaking on the day after a record-breaking day come as you know, these lines of thousands trying to get vaccinations, the most vulnerable having to wait in line for days. toyeah, desantis has decided block the cdc recommendations in several diffent ways. he forced scols to return back face-to-face this week even with the new variant out there which is particularly effective at infecting children. dodgingstate has been releasing information at every opportunity. they had to be sued to release deaths from long-term care facilities, which they have not updated in weeks. it took a long time for me to

finally be able to force the state to report school cases at all. beginning, the situation we are saying with the vaccine rollout is almost a parallel to what happened in the early months at doh and i was working there. i actually notified my superiors on january 24 last year that we needed to be on top of this, needed to be setting up surveillance systems, needed to have a data repository of public information tool that was easy to digest for any range of technology, expertise. i was told we did not need it for weeks and it was just because panic for weeks. finally when the governor declared a state of emergency on march 12, i was given permission i had twohe system -- hours to do it -- and give people the information i thought was important and our site was

internationally celebrated, even dr. deboh birx went around telling everybody to go to it. was thennounced it public face of our response. it became the template and the model for other states to report. amy: what wasn't the governor allowing you to report? >> i'm not a software developer, i am a geographer. so we track as geographers all kinds of earth and human interactions. my specialty is in climate. i have been working for the department of health for seven years in the disease control departnt looki at mostly environmental hazards, but also inflnza. this was not my first epidemiology work. i thought there was a lot of important information we needed to release. it took a long time for us to release racial data. only after president trump said we should all do it or we allowed to release it. i nagged forever rest to be able to add the testing site

locations to our databases and alw people to easily find where they could get tested. i was told no. i begged for us to be able to add hospitalization data because that is one of the most crucial elements of surveillance we have and was told no. i wanted to add long-term care facilities data and was told no. repeatedly we had to release basically that bare minimum information that i initially designed until we were forced to at it. when may came around in the state decided to open without consulting any of the epidemiology teams, they asked us to come up with the metrics and a way to measure the metrics and to have it added to our dashboard into days and we did. it was miraculous, but we did. supposedly data-driven plan was actually being printednd

stabled in front of me. what i wt to present the findings of the analysis for the first time. they had never seen it before. of the plane was already done. i don't know if it was ignorance of what was going on or people desantisting to please are just desantis' orders himself, but the analysis did not tch what the already made plans that. the leadership that was in charge decided to change the way we measure things, changing the way we were parted as we repoed, exempting rural counties altogether -- amy: which by the numbers would be lower and have desantis, a close ally of trump, now make his home in florida at mar-a-lago. i wanted to get to this final point that you were forced to essentially move out of state after this police raid in

december. you just tweeted as you are arriving in washington, d.c., left at home and afforded to escape a tyrannical governor who said police to rate my home for publishing covid stats only to write in d.c. as armed terrorists storm congress trying to overturn the election by threatening to hold congress hostage." what has that been like for you? trouble follows me or i follow it matter where i go, which is the first line in my book. it see like we are in a world in disarray. everything is discombobulated. no one seems to want to take responsibility for how their actions have impacted our society and our culture and our politics. it is pervasive. it is everywhere. it is in d.c., florida, the highest levels of government -- literally -- in this country. i am in shock that everywhere in

this country is experiencing the kind of sickness of the soul. amy: rebekah jones, we have to leave it there. we will continue to talk to you in the future, founder of florida covid action, data scientist and whistleblower. cccccc            

anchor: a group of democrats draft articles of impeachment against president trump, accusing him of inciting insurrection. >> he is one of the most incompetent presidents in the history of the united states of america. anchor: joe biden calls the president unfit for the drop, -- for the job, but the president elect wants to focus on economic growth. ♪