02/15/21 02/15/21 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] amy: from new york, this is democracy now! >> the yeas are 57, the nays are 43. amy: the senate has acquitted donald trump for the inciting of the deadly january 6 insurrection at the capitol as just seven republicans joined democrats voting to convict. >> january 6 will live as a day of infamy in the history of the

united states of america for the failure to convict donald trump live as information the history of the united states senate. amy: we will air highlights from the impeachment proceedings and speak to former reagan administration attorney bruce fein who joined ralph nader calling for the senators to subpoena witnesses. then as the u.s. death toll from covid-19 approaches half a million, a new report says nearly 40% of those deaths were avoidable. we will speak to the reports co-author dr. mary bassett, the former health commissioner of new yorkity who is now at harvard university. >> public policy and of the trump era went beyond the idea th the covered entity was the result of failures in public health and health care access. all of these are big problems.

it looks also at the long-term trends that ve made the united states so horrible to the worst pandemic in a century. amy: all that and more, coming up. welcome to democracy now!, democracynow.org, the quarantine report. i'm amy goodman. the senate acquitted donald j. trump for inciting the deadly january 6 capital insurrection in his second pitchman trial. 50 senators fact convicting the former president of the vote fell short of the two thirds majority needed. it was the most bipartisan impeachment trial verdict ever was seven republicans voted with democrats to convict. chuck schumer blasted republicans for siding with a president who tried to overturn to an election and incited a mob to attack the capitol. >> this was about choosing country over donald trump and 43

republican members chose trump. they chose trump. amy: shortly after the bout, senate republican leader mitch mcconnell, who voted to acquit trump, took to the floor to criticize the former president. >> there is no question, none come that president trump is practically and morally responsible for provoking the events of the day. amy: but mcconnell went on to defend his vote to clear trump on constitutional grnds. >> but in this case, the question is moot because former trump is constitutionally not eligible for conviction. amy: president trump could have been tried while still in office but it was mitch mcconnell who refused to bring senators back from recess in january to hold a trial. calls are now growing for trump

to face criminal prosecution, as well as the formation of a government commission to investigate what happened. meanwhile, some republicans who voted to convict trump are already facing fallout. republican senators bill cassidy of louisiana and richard burr of north carolina were both censured by their state parties for voting to convict trump. we will have more on the senate trial after headlines. new information continues to emerge about the insurrection participants. "the new york times" reports at least six people who were part of the mob that entered the capitol worked as security for trump ally roger stone and were linked to the far-right oath keepers. huffpost is reporting at least 57 state and local republican officials were at the capitol insurrection and almost all have faced calls to resign. only two have stepped down -- both were arrested for taking part in the riot. in one case, a florida county commissioner, joe mullins, sponsored buses to transport people to washington, d.c.

in the lead up to january 6, he said on a local radio program "maybe there are some liberals, i'd like to see their heads cut off." new covid-19 cases in the u.s. continue to fall steadily as states around the country start to loosen restrictions. republican governors in iowa, montana, and north dakota have lifted state-wide mask mandates, despite warnings from the centers for disease control and prevention to leave mask requirements in place. public health experts warn daily case numbers remain dangerously high and that rapidly spreading virus variants could create new surges. researchers have found at least seven fast spreading coronavirus lineages in the u.s. with the same mutation, providing more evidence that variants are evolving to become more transmissible. the u.s. is now administering nearly 1.7 million covid-19 vaccinations per day, on

average, surpassing president biden's goal of 1.5 million a day. chief white house medical adviser dr. anthony fauci told nbc he believes the overwhelming majority of people in the u.s. could be vaccinated by the mile or end of smer. >> by the time we get to april, that will be what i would call, for better warning, open season -- virtually everybody and anybody in any category can start getting vaccinated. amy: fauci says vaccines for children as young as six or seven could be authorized by the start of the next school year in . the cdc issued new guidelines friday for schools to reopen safely. the agency says vaccinating teachers is not a prerequisite but schools must adhere to strict mitigation measures including mandatory face masks, physical distancing, and contract tracing. cnn notes 99% of u.s. children live in what the cdc considers a

red zone, an area with high levels of community transmission, for which the agency recommends virtual classrooms for middle and high schools and hybrid learning or -- for elementary schools. a national education association survey found only 18% of teachers who responded were vaccinated, although a large majority wanted to be. white teachers are vaccinated at twice the rate of black teachers around the united states. a new study in britain builds on report that a fast spreading variant found in the k leads to an increased risk of hospitalization and could be up to 75% more deadly. this comes as disability rights advocates in britain are condemning thes. discriminatory lease by the government and hospitals in treating covid-19 patients with mental disabilities. a recent investigation found do not resuscitate orders were given to people because they had mental disabilities causing

potentially avoidable deaths. cnn reports a world health organization team probing the origins of covid 19 in wuhan, china, believes the outbreak was much more widespread in december 2019 than officials have revealed. elsewhere, new zealand's largest city auckland is in a three day lockdown after three coronavirus infections were identified. it's new zealand's first lockdown in six months after prime minister jacinda ardern's government stamped out the virus. guinea has declared an ebola epidemic after an outbreak killed at least three people and sickened four others. they're the first cases in guinea since 2016 when health officials declared an end to the world's largest-ever ebola epidemic, which killed more than 11,000 people across west africa. meanwhile, the world health organization has identified three new cases of ebola in the democratic republic of congo. in burma, armored vehicles have

been unleashed on the streets of jor cities as mass protests opposing the military coup continued for the 10th consecutive day monday. in the northern state of kachin, security forces fired at a crowd of protesters that had gathered outside a power plant sunday. they also used water cannons to disperse the crowd. five journalists were arrested while covering the clash. on sunday, security forces raided the homes of several prominent critics of burma's military coup. activists around the world are calling on indian authorities to free disha ravi, a 22-year-old climate activist who was arrested over the weekend. she is accused of sharing an online document, which was tweeted by swedish climate activist greta thunberg, with information on how to support the ongoing farmworkers protest. ravi is one of the founders of the indian fridays for future youth climate strike.

in somalia, a blast from a car bomb near the parliament headquarters in the capital mogadishu killed at least three people and wounded at least eight others on saturday. the attack came amid a deepening political crisis, which led to the postponement of elections last week. the militant group al-shabab has threatened to attack the polls. massive protests continue in haiti as thousands are taking to the streets demanding the resignation of president jovenel moïse, accusing him of orchestrating a coup to remain in power beyond his term. >> he had the support of donald trump, who he was using. we're calling on americans to get rid of the terrorist moise. amy: this comes as immigrant justice advocates continue to denounce the biden administration's ongoing deportations of haitian asylum seekers.

a warning to our audience, the next story contains disturbing images of violence. advocates across the united states are condemning the rise of racist violence against the asian-american community. last month, an 84-year-old man from thailand was killed in san francisco after being attacked while on his morning walk. just days later, a 91-year-old asian man was shoved to the ground in oakland's chinatown. and in new york city last week, a 61-year-old filipino man was slashed in the face while on the subway. asian americans say hate crimes and discrimination against their communities have been on the rise since the beginning of the pandemic. some 2800 incidents have been reported since last march according to the group stop aapi hate. activists and allies in oakland held a rally over the weekend. this is connie wun, co-founder of asian and pacific islander women lead.

>> what about living in poverty under system that does not seem to care about our people? that is the violence we need to answer to most the vigilantes coming out here. i need you to answer to that violence. represent that. a community's are also suffering deportation. answer to that violence. our people are in detention centers for an indefinite met of time. i need you there for that, too. and then you're not even accounting for the gender violence that are women are experiencing. i need you to account for that. amy: allegiant airlines has come under fire after they kicked four black teenagers off a flight last week, leaving them stranded in arizona, far from their homes in sacramento, california. the teens were in arizona with

their basketball team and are part of a youth mentorship program called voice of the youth. allegiant airlines alleges they were not wearing their face masks properly, but the boys say they adjusted them when asked by airline staff. one teen says he was afraid for his life when police showed up to remove them from the plane. a coalition of international human rights and legal groups are preparing to submit a report to the u.n. high commiioner for human rights about racist police practices in the united states. the report will be based on the findings of the international commission of inquiry on systemic racist police violence against people of african descent in the unitestates. as part of three weeks of hearings, tamika palmer, the mother of breonna taylor, testified before the commission about how her 26-year-old daughter was shot to death in her own home in louisville by plainclothes officers serving a no-knock warrant. >> breonna was in one of the

safest buses in the world to be. she was at home with the person she thought would protect her from the world. and he tried to do just that. with the loss that are given to uso protect and serve r kingdom. when that law was broken, there is no accountability for the people who brought that law, for the people who perjured thselves to obtain a warrant that for tho people -- for daniel cameron who lied about the case he presented to the grand jury. i never gave them the opportunity to charge the other officers even when asked. amy: that was breonna taylor's mother tamika palmer. you can read and watch all the testimonies from the inquiry on systemic racist police violence at inquirycommission.org.

the new york police department has arrested an individual in connection with four stabbing attacks on unhoused people in the subway over the weekend, which left two of the victims dead. nypd announced it was adding 500 more police officers to patrol subways. organizer whitney hu responded on twitter -- "there's always mon for more cops in the subway system but never enough money to actually house the homeless and keep them safe and warm." in news from the white house, deputy press secretary t.j. ducklo has resigned following revelations last week he made threatening and misogynistic comments to politico reporter tara palmeri, telling her, "i will destroy you" after she asked him to comment on his romantic relationship with an axios reporter. ducklo had originally been suspended for a week. president biden told incoming staff during a swearing-in ceremony that if anyone spoke to a colleague with disrespect, "i will fire you on the spot."

and long-time investigative journalist jim ridgeway has died at the age of 84. ridgeway was the washington correspondent for "the village voice" for 30 years. he also wrote for "mother jones," "ramparts," "the new republic," "the nation," and other outlets in a career that spanned six decades. in 2010, jim ridgeway co-founded solitary watch, focused on the plight of prisoners in solitary confinement. some of their stories appeared in ridgeway's book "hell is a very small place: voices from solitary confinement." you can see our interviews with james ridgeway at democracynow.org. and those are some of the headlines. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the quarantine report. when we come back, the senate has acquitted donald trump for inciting the deadly january 6 insurrection. we will talk with a former reagan administration lawyer about what the acquittal means and what the house democratic

managers could have done to change that verdict. stay with us. ♪♪ [music break]

amy: "i'm so bored with the usa" by the clash. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the quarantine report. i'm amy goodman. seven republicans joined with all 50 democrats saturday voting to convict donald trump for inciting the deadly january 6 insurrection at the capitol, but the vote fell short of the two-thirds majority needed. senate president pro tem patrick leahy read the results of the vote. >> the yeas are 57. the nays r 43. two thirds of the senators present having voted not guilty. donald john trump a former president of the united states,

is not guilty as charged in the article of impeachment. amy: shortly after the vote, senate majority leader chuck schumer blasted republicans for siding with donald trump. >> january 6 will live as a day of infamy in the history of the united states of america. the failure to convict donald trump will live as a vote of infamy in the history of the united states senate. this was about choosing country over donald trump, and 43 republican members chose trump. they chose trump. even the republican senators prevented the senate from disqualifying donald trump for any office of honor, trust, or profit under these united states, there is no question donald trump has disqualified himself. i hope, i pray, and i believe

that the american people will make sure of that. amy: while the senate cleared trump, he could still face criminal charges for his actions on january 6. republican senate leader mitch mcconnell took to the floor after voting to acquit donald trump. >> from president trump's actions preceded the riot for disgraceful -- disgraceful during election of duty. there is no question. nine. president trump is practically and morally responsible for provoking the events of the day. no question about it. the people who stormed this building believed they were acting on the wishes and instructions of their president.

and having that belief was a perceivable consequence -- foreseeable consequence of the growing crescendo of false statements, conspiracy theories, and reckless probably which the defeated president kept shouting into the largest megaphone on planet earth. with police officers bleeding and broken glass covering capital floors, he kept repeatg election lies and praising the criminals. if president trump still in office, i would have carefully considered whether the house managers proved their specific charge. by the strict criminal standard, the president's speech probably

was not incitement. however, -- however, in the context of impeachment, the senate might have decided this was acceptable shorthand for the reckless actions that proceeded the riot. but in this case, the question is moot because former trump is constitutionally not eligible for conviction. amy: that is senate republican leader mitch mcconnell. soon after, house speaker nancy pelosi criticized mcconnell for preventing the senate from holding a trial while trump was still in office. >> suffer mitch mcconnell -- so for mitch mcconnell who created the situation where he could not

be heard before the 20th and at the senate to say, all the things he said, oh, my gosh, about donald trump and how horrible he was and is and then say, "but" the time that the house -- no, we did not choose. you chose not treceive it. amy: house speaker nancy pelosi called mcconnell pathetic. she made the surprise appearance at the house managers news conference after the senate acquitted donald trump. meanwhile, some republicans who voted to convict trump are already facing fallout. the louisiana republican party has censured senator bill cassidy. the north carolina republican party is voting today dissenter richard burr. the biggest surprise and of the closing two days of the trial entered on the question of calling witnesses.

on friday night, republican congresswoman herrera beutler released a statement revealing that republican house leader kevin mccarthy had told her about a call he had with president trump amid the january 6 insurrection where trump expressed support for the rioters. trump reportedly told mccarthy, "well, kevin, i guess these people are more upset about the election than you are." kevin mccarthy did reportedly responded something like, "who the f do you think you are talking to?" on saturday, the house impeachment managers called for witnesses -- a move that could have prolonged the trial by weeks or even months. the senate then voted to allow witnesses. but after republicans threatened to call over 100 witnesses, the impeachment managers agreed to forgo calling any if congresswoman beutler's

statement could be put in the record as evidence. it was. we're joined now by bruce fein. he was associate deputy attorney general and general counsel of federal communications commission under president reagan. he previously served as counsel to republicans on the joint congressional committee on covert arms sales to iran. he is a constitutional lawyer who has testified on countless occasions before congress. an author of the book "american empire before the fall." welcome to democracy now! it is great to have you with us. can you start off by responding to the acquittal of donald j. trump on saturday? >> first, i think i would recharacterize the nature of the charge. it was not insurrection against the capitol alone, it was a stab in the back of the united states constitution. and 230 years of unbroken, peaceful transition of

presidential power. because the purpose of the storming wasn't just to defile the capitol or even threaten lives, was to prevent mike pence, the vice president, from executing his constitutional duty under the 12th amendment in the electoral to count state certified electoral votes that would pronounce joe biden winner by having capture the majority. it was an effort basically to destroy the rule of law and the constitution itself. it would put us in the same situation that russians find with mr. pruden and his election for president xi in china. it wasn't about some kind of garden-variety riot. it was an effort to undo 230 years of her rug sacrifices of our founding fathers, those who fought in omaha beach and otherwise. that is what was at stake here. to characterize it as insurrection i think is vastly

downplaying the importance of the issue. the second thing that i want to underscore is that it is conceptually wrong to think of impeachment as an after-the-fact sanction for misconduct. impeachment was designed as a prophylactic, something that would prevent someone from remaining in office if they created a clear and present danger to our constitutional dispensation. and whatever else you can say about mr. trump's speeches and exhortations and incendiary words, whether or not they in fact caused the insurrection because there is certainly evidence of some planning by some in advance, clearly shows a huge danger to our constitutional system, especially when you think about the background of this president saying on july 23, 2019 in the manner of a monarch, "i have the right to do anything i want as president." he was as good as word.

he flouted the constitution virtually -- he flouted hundreds of congressional subpoenas for testimony and information. he issued executive orders in view of legislation. he continued unconstitutional wars. on and on and on. that is not a clear and present danger to our constitutional system, i don't know what is. and it really is quite frightening that now we have a precedent that says a president has the right to do anything he wants that he wishes to without sanction. that is no longer the rule of law. amy: i want to go to this issue of the witnesses. let's go to the lead house impeachment manager congressman jamie raskin of maryland speaking on "meet the press" on sunday, defending the decision not to call witnesses during the trial. >> we have no regrets at all.

we left it totally out there on the floor of the u.s. senate, and every senator new exactly what happened. go back and listen to mcconnell's speech. everybody was convinced of the case we put forward, but as the defense lawyer said, pick any one of these defenses and then you can justify it. it can be first amendment, it can be due process. all of them are nonsense. i thought i successfully demolished them at the trial, but there's no reason with people who basically are acting like members of a religious cult when they leave office should be selling flowers at dulles airport. amy: that is lead house impeachment manager jamie raskin. bruce fein, your response? >> i think jamie -- he is a professional and semi-personal friend. i think you misconceived the audience of the impeachment trial. it is not as the senators, and is all the american people, everyone who voted. the president is a nationwide

election. he needs to convince not only the senators, but at this is going to work and have lasting effect come he needed to have a case that convince the american people. they don't live inside the beltway. most of them don't and are not members of this every day like he is and perhaps the senators. that was a need for the witnesses. also come he overlooks the fact the defense raised the issue that congress woman butler exchange with kevin mccarthy made relevant. they argued that mr. trump was calling for peace during the storming, during the insurrection, that he wanted them to stop. it is obviously not true. amy: i want to go to jamie raskin on this issue of beutler. this was saturday before the impeachment trial concluded. the development came after a

republican congress member came for, jaime herrera butler, about comments trump made during his assault to kevin mccarthy. >> that last night congress when of washington issued a statement confirming in the middle of the insurrection when house minority leader kevin mccarthy called the president to beg for help my president trump responded "well, kevin, i guess these people are more upset about the election then you are." needless to say, this is an additional critical piece of corroborating evidence. for that reason and because this is in the proper time to do so under the resolution the senate adopted to set the rules for the trial, we would like the opportunity to subpoena congress woman herrera. amy: the request by the house impeachment manager to introduce new witnesses prompted this tense debate between the lead

house impeachment manager jamie raskin and top defense attorney michael vanderveen. >> the only thing i ask him if you vote for witnesses, do not handcuff me by limiting the number of witnesses that i can have. there's only one person the president's council really needs to interview, and that is their own client. bring him forward as we suggested last week because a lot of this matters in his head. why did he not act to defend the country after he learned of the attack? why was he continuing to press the political case? with this piece of evidence is relevant to that. >> for the house managers to say we need to have positions about things that happened after, it is just not true. but -- but if he does, there are a lot of depositions that need to happen and not by zoom.

none of these depositions should be done by zoom. we did not do this hearing by zoom. these depositions should be done in-person, in my office, in philadelphia. that is where they should be done. amy: michael vanderveen is a personal injury lawyer in philadelphia, who actually sued donald trump last year. he filed a lawsuit against trump, accusing him of making repeated claims that mail voting is ripe with fraud, despite having no evidence. that is just as i know. but if you could talk about this interaction and -- the house impeachment manager getting the right to have witnesses and then going back on it, not wanting to extend the trial? >> this is my deduction, having spent most of my life you're in

washington, d.c., approaching 50 years. it may sound cynical, but i think the democrats in some sense did not want a conviction which would relieve mr. mcconnell and his cohorts who are opposed to mr. trump of the headache for four years try to prevent desk confront splintered republican party because the conviction clearly would have been followed by a vote to disqualify mr. trump from the 2024 presidential election. that would mean he would be out of the republican party in politics probably. now the republicans are the ones that are facing the headache. those who voted in favor of facing censure beco. visions in the party. because otherwise, what happened, even though mr. raskin and the other house managers

wanted witnesses, i think the leadership, chuck schumer and nancy pelosi, made a different political calculation and said, why should we do that? we probably won't get a conviction anyway, let's just leave mitch mcconnell and liz cheney to fight their own battle and we will move forward and have better prospects for reelection in 2024. because otherwise, it makes no sense for jamie raskin on the one hand to ask for witnesses after he had earlier asked that mr. trump be a witness, and then turn around and accept something that is no witnesses at all after he'd only engaged with the defense counsel -- nothing more -- and his argument, i say, well, he already had the evidence. if that were true, why did he even ask for adding the statement of b congress womanuetler? i think this was a deal cut at the top level between the democratic leadership letting republicans be at each other's roads for the next four years.

amy: and a lot of talk, for example, chris coons, considered one of the biden whispers, senator from delaware, walking in on the house managers and saying the jury is ready to vote, which was sort of sending the message that biden wanted to move on, wanted to do with covid relief and other things, the concern that mitch mcconnell could somehow say that if the trial is going to continue, would not allow any other sin or to happen -- which would prevent essential bills from moving forward. i wanted to ask you what is next for trump? you have another possible criminal investigation. the men had da probof trump's finances, the atlanta da probe of trump election schemes like interfering with the secretary of state demanding to find more than 11,000 votes, the georgia secretary of state's probe of

trump's calls. then you have in d., both the attorney general and the d.c. u.s. attorney possible incitement of violence charge around that. january 6 insurrection. civilly, you have the attorney general vesta getting the trump organization. yet the two definition suits against trump for abusing andr caseaping -- in one case raping women. >> the most i believe important is the potential for federal prosecution. under the incitement of insurrection probation for those who are interested in title 18 u.s. code 23 -- 2843, it provides as a punishment for having incited an insurrection to prevent the execution of the laws of the united states, including properly counting electoral votes.

i disqualification from holding future office in the united states. that would be the equivalent of the same punishment that would have been if he was convicted of impeachable offense. the big issue is going to be the resolution of joe biden, new attorney general merrick garland, to pursue that. this issue of moving forward mr. trump is not good be made by low-level civil servants and the department of justice. it will be made at the highest level. i am worried because if i think back about president obama coming in on the heels of mr. bush and stating and his attorney general setting, "oh, yes, the enhanced interrogation was torture," which is an international law as well as a crime under u.s. law, and they did absolutely nothing to pursue those who openly and notoriously conceited there were doing waterboarding hundreds of times -- that was defined by mr. obama and attorney general eric holder as torture. the politics is going -- as a

princi interfere with the obligation to do justice, which i think would be a tragedy. after all, the law lives by precedence. if we don't have accountability for this terrible, terrible gentlemen mr. trump who basically wanted to turn the country back to a monarchy, then that precedent will fly around like a loaded weapon ready to be used by any other successor in the white house to destroy the country completely and say, "well, i'm doing what mr. trump did. he got away with it. no double standard for me." they have to look beyond the politics of the moment to our posterity so they can inherent freedom, liberty, government by the consent of the governed, as we did because our forefathers also made sacrifices for the long-term intermediate self-interest. amy: finally, bruce fein, the ap reports bipartisan support appears to be going for an independent september 11 stop commission into the deadly say seven people okto

died. not only the police officer come the capitol police officer sick nick, but two officers also took their own lives afterwards. that is the total seven. but what about this independent commission and what that would mean? >> there's nothing in concept that i would oppose about an independent commission. but i think it is too slow. moreover, the constitution creates independent -- it is called the congress of the united states for every member is sworn to uphold and defend the constitution. we did not need an independent commission to investigate watergate. it wasble to be done fairly. the american people saw it. we saw the witnesses. they have a subpoena power. they have more power than an independent commission because congress, known to most members and the a mac and people come has the authority to detain people if they don't appear in

response to a pianist. they can find people. they don't need to go to court and wait hour after year and day after day, year after year in litigation. watergate is the model. we need to have the congress -- they need to be accountable for the decisions, the witnesses. we have gone too long where congress flees from any decision that requires them to be accountable for their actions. st as witnessed on the impeachment vote where we had some members like senator thom tillis sang "well, he should be convicted because he committed a crime but i did not want to vote because i don't want to have to confront the voters." that is not acceptable. if you don't to comply with your own to defend the constitution, does serve in congress. amy: one more. is it possible that still congress could vote to prevent donald trump from running for federal office? it was always that after the senate trial, if you were

convicted but two thirds vote -- which he was not come he was short by 10 votes -- they were short by 10 votes come than of majority could vote to strip above the right to run. but is there still a chance i could invoke the 14th amendment and not do that? close your references section three of the 14th amendment. that clearly would be a bill of attainder. the precise issue you have described was raised right after the civil war. the cases were cover such a prevent anyone who had engaged in the confederate states against the union from practicing law. the supreme court said, are clearly trying to impose punishment. they can only be done with due process in a court of law. not by legislative decree. it would be prohibited from going on that path. amy: thank you for being with us, bruce fein, associate deputy attorney general and general counsel of the federal communications commission under president reagan. he previously served as counsel

to republicans on the joint congressional committee on covert arms sales to iran. on countless occasions before he testifiedon countless occasions before congress. author of book titled "american empire before the fall." as the death toll from covid-19 approaches have to nine, new report says nearly 40% of those who died, those deaths were avoidable. stay with us. ♪♪ [music break]

amy: chick korea died on february 9 at the age of 79. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the quarantine report. i'm amy goodman. as the u.s. death toll from covid-19 approaches half a million, a new report says nearly 40% of those deaths were

avoidable. the medical journal "the lancet" came to this conclusion by comparing the pandemic in the united states with other high-income g-7 nations, like britain, france, and canada. the findings are included in a report by the lancet commission on public policy and health in the trump era that faults trump's "inept and insufficient" response to covid-19, as well as decades of destructive public policy decisions. one of the report's recommendations is a single-payer reform like medicare for all that would "cover all residents under a single, federally financed plan providing comprehensive coverage." president biden has so far rejected medicare for all, saying instead he wants to bolster the affordable care act with more subsidies. house democrats proposed a bill last week that would boost subsidies for people who buy plans through the marketplace, and biden has already signed an executive order to reopen enrollment on healthcare.gov starting today, february 15, through may 15. for more, we are joined by one

of the lead authors of this new report on "public policy and health in the trump era." dr. mary bassett is the director of thefxb center for health and human rights at harvard university. she is also the former new york city health commissioner, where she served from 2014 to 2018. before that, she lived in zimbabwe for nearly two decades and was on the medical faculty of the university of zimbabwe. welcome to democracy now! can you start off by talking about the findings of your study? >> thank you for having me. we are really pleased to release this report, which began with work -- commission began in 2017. we looked at the four years of trump policies, which were destructive in many ways that affected health, that have been displayed by the u.s. response to covid-19. as you said, we went back further, 40 years of bad

policies and embraced the marketplace as the way to determine how we organize ourselves in a society. then we went back 400 years to the foundational impact of enslaved labor and the embracement of white supremacy we do recommend single-payer health insurance is the best way to ensure health care coverage is available for all. of course mr. trump tried to reverse the affordable care act and failed at doing that. the affordable care act still looked millions of people, 29 million people, without health care insurance coverage. single-payer would address that. there are interim steps that will be helpful not only reopening the marketplace as president biden has done, but try to encourage states that the client medicaid expansion the principal way in which health

care coverage was extended under the affordable care act. the state the decline medicaid expansion should accept it. no cost to them. it would greatly increase both the number of people who are covered and addressed racial disparities. it is mainly southern states that have declined medicaid expansion. amy: i went to ask you about the comparisons of the united states to other countries like britain. the u.k. has done very poorly overall with covid. they have the variant. it is ripping through the population. it when it comes to faxing, they have vaccinated at least the first shot, 15 million people, which is astounding. it is far more than many countries of europe combined. one of the things they attribute their success to in the vaccination program is our

national health service. they have soldiers, they have volunteers, various people -- firefighters who are injecting the vaccines. they're using the entire country. they are using stadiums and cathedrals, racetracks, mosques, fire stations because they have a national, coordinated approach -- which is possible because they have a national health care system. if you can talk about what has happened in the united states has exposed the catastrophic problems with having such a patchwork system that for so long in this country has clearly just benefited weahier americans? >> you are right. the ability to administer the vaccine is greatly enhanced by centralized system such as the u.k. has. the u.s. has a privatized, fragnted systemw we have had

until the biden administration. no national policy guidance so that you have different jurisdictions that are doing different things. and the result has been really chaotic. it is getting better, but it explains why the u.s. has been unable to deliver highly effective vaccine that it has developed. mostly with public funding, to the population. a fragmented system can identify those who need to be vaccinated, has to rely on people finding their way. all of this is something that and actually supported health care system doesn't have to deal with -- essentially supported health care system doesn't have to deal with. this is where the health care system comes out as a problem. but our vulnerability to this novel buyers really was related to broader societal failure, not only to our health system, but

also to the back to cash the fact to any people work low-wage jobs, can't get affordable housing, live in crowded circumstances. that allows the virus to spread. exponentially -- now we have an effective vaccine and our system is really challenged in delivering it because it is private, driven by profit, and totally fragmented. amy: when joe biden was running for president, he was asked by msnbc what he would do if elected president. pres. biden: i would veto anything that relates providing the security and certainty of health care being available now stop if they got that through by some miracle, and 50 that occurred and some miracle occurred this said, ok, it is

passed, then you have to look at the cost. i want to know how they found the $35 trillion. what is that doing? will it significantly raise taxes on the middle class? it will. my opposition is not to the principal of medicare -- everybody -- health care should be a right in america. my opposition relates to whether or not, a, it is doable, two, with the cost is coming with the consequences for the rest of the budget are. amy: to be fair, this is before the pandemic. it is in the middle of march, almost a year ago. kamala harris has endorsed medicare for all. this goes to the issue, dr. bassett, movement. you participated in panels, for example, with reverend william barbour where you talk about the importance of movements, that scientists are not outside of society. there is a reaction right now way trump was so anti-science

that we just need the facts. can you talk about what it would mean a year later with this massive catastrophe that is the pandemic for the movement for medicare for all? do you think this is the moment -- after all, biden did leave an opening. he said "is it doable and now much does it cost?" well, how much has the pandemic cost as? >> it is measured clearly in trillions of dollars in terms of economic cost and the many preventable lives lost. we estimated 160,000 people would not have died if we simply did as well as the median of the other wealthy nations in the group of seven. so this is something which i hope will help spur movements. we have seen a massive ououring of anger and rejection of the racial hierarchy in the united states. this is part of that movement,

to ensure health care for all. people of color, people of indigenous dissent are much more likely to have adequate access to health care. this movement for health care for all, which i can't imagine anyone would disagree with, is something that should be embraced by the broader social movement. i see it as a really promising time. we paid much too high a price not to try -- not to do what we used to do, but have a better society which guarantees more access to all the things that we need for healthy life. amy: can i ask you about your experience 20 years almost in zimbabwe? the going concern the global inequity in vaccine distribution. duke university health researcher andrea taylor told "the washington post" -- "it remains to a large degree a zero-sum game, which means that

every dose that goes to the u.s. or the u.k. or an e.u. country is a dose that's off the shelves. and the shelves aren't going to be restocked for a while." let's talk about who gets vaccines, who doesn't, and what it means -- what we have learned from the pandemic if one person is sick anywhere, we are all threatened. >> you sent it. that is exactly right, amy. we have a highly contagious virus that spreads through the air. it is affected every country in just one year with massive mortality impact. the fact the wealthy nations have not attended to the need for vaccination coverage in the developing world, particularly in africa, is a risk to all of us. as the head of the who said just a couple of weeks ago, only 24

vaccinations have been ministered by government sector in africa. 24. this is a risk to all of us most of thankfully, the biden administration has rejoined covax, the vaccination facility of the world health organization . at this is a chance for the united states to regain global leadership i making a commitment to vaccine access everywhere, not just for our citizens. because that won't protect us. have all of us are vaccinated and the virus mutates and spreads, we will have new strains. we will have challenges to our vaccine. we need a whole world to be vaccinated. amy: and the ebola outbreak, we are beginning to see it, for example, in guinea? it was believed it was eradicated in the world. what this means in congo and guinea? >> ebola has been coming back year after year for decades now. we had the terribly lethal

outbreak about five years ago because it reached the citie but ebola will keep coming. i hope we can go for vaccination for that as well. amy: i want to get your comment on this controversy in new york around the deaths in nursing homes. you are in new york city's commissioner health don't ask about these allegatns that your governor andrew cuomo covered up the true death toll of the pandemic on nursing home residents. underreporting the statewide number of covid deaths among long-term care residents for months, now stands at nearly 15,000, up from the 8500 they previously reported. the higher death tolls were only revealed after a report by the democratic state attorney general letitia james on the administration's failure to include nursing home residents in the reports of people who died at hospitals. can you respond to this?

>> i haven't kept up with the details of it but clearly, nursing homes were a place of initial spread. and it matters where people got infected. not only where they died. so the fact the data were not moavailable in a transparent shion is a problem. we need to know how important being a resident in a nursing home was to the risk of getting covid. and we know elders are at very high risk of dying of covid. so those data should be available. we need data transparency. that is something that should be embraced by every jurisdiction, something that the biden administration has talked about. and it doesn't seem to have been the case in new york. it matters not only were people died, but where they got infected. amy: dr. mary bassett, thank you for being with us, former u.s. commissioner of health, now the director of fxb center of health at harvard university. of the lead authors of the new one lancet report "public policy and health in the trump era."

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♪ hello. thank you for joining us on "nhk newsline." i'm yamamoto miki in tokyo. japan will begin coronavirus vaccinations on wednesday with medical workers first in line. the government says it will keep the public well informed about the program. about 10,000 to 20,000 medical workers will be inoculated. they will be followed by the elderly and other