06/17/21 06/17/21 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] amy: from new york, this is democracy now! pres. biden: i did what i came to do. number one, identify areas of practical work our two countries can do to advance our mutual interest and also benefit the world. two, communicate directly that united states will respond to actions of interest or those of our allies.

amy: president biden and russian president vladimir putin hold a three-hour summit in geneva and pledge to work together on cybersecurity and nuclear arm control while resuming diplomatic operations. >> as for the return of ambassador to the locations where they work, we've agreed this issue solved. they return to their postings. amy: we will talk about u.s.-russian relations with anatol lieven. then we look at the mayoral race in new york city and how rank choice voting will be used to decide the winner. the candidates how final debate last night. >> the worst idea i've ever heard is bringing back sp and frisk which is racist, unconstitutional. >> you don't have to worry about danger when you have private security on your block. i don't and never will allow

stop and frisk to abuse people. amy: all that and more, coming up. welcome to democracy now!, democracynow.org, the quarantine report. i'm amy goodman. president biden and russian president vladimir putin met in geneva wednesday for a three hour summit. the two leaders of the world's largest nuclear powers agreed to set up working groups to deal with nuclear arms control as well as cyberattacks. they also agreed to send ambassadors back to their posts. biden said after the brief summit that both parties had agreed not to renew the tensions of the cold war. pres. biden: this clearly is not in anyone's interest, your country or mine, for us to be in a situation where we are in a new cold war. i truly believe he thinks that.

amy: after headlines, we will have analysis of the biden-putin summit with anatol lieven, senior fellow for russia and europe at the quincy institute for responsible statecraft. german drugmaker says its cover 19 vaccine showed an efficacy of just 47% in a large critical trial. -- clinical trial. it is just below the 50% threshold set by the world health organization and far below the roughly 95% effectiveness shown by other mrna vaccines produced by pfizer and modernity. --modernity. governor ducey's order came just days after university of california system said covid-19 vaccines will be mandatory for students, faculty, and staff ending this fall -- beginning

this photo. any report wednesday earth is trapping about twice as much heat as it did just 16 years ago , largely due to the buildup of greenhouse gas in the atmosphere. the study by nasa and the national oceanic and atmospheric administration finds human activity is at least partly to blame for the increase in earth's energy imbalance. record heat continues to bake the western united states, with salt lake city this week tying its all-time record high of 107 degrees fahrenheit. the temperature in death valley, california reached 129 degrees , wednesday fahrenheit, or 54 degrees celsius, just a few degrees shy of the highest temperature ever recorded on earth. the house of representatives has passed a bill enshrining juneteenth as a federal holiday commemorating the end of slavery. the celebration marks june 19, the day in 1865 that enslaved

people in galveston, texas, learned of the emancipation proclamation, signed by abraham lincoln more than two years prior and that the civil war had ended. texas democratic congrswoman shei jackson lee, who is african american, called the roll. >> on this vote, the yeas atre 415 and the nays are 14. the bill is passed. amy: since the senate passed a bill this week, it now heads to president biden for his signature. several members of the congressional black caucus spoke in favor of the juneteenth holiday, including democrat bonnie watson coleman. >> it is a day of commemoration, not celebration. it reminds us of something that was delayed in happening. it also reminds me of what we

don't have today, and that is full access to justice, freedom, and equality. all of these are often in short supply as it relates to the black community, and it is still delayed. amy: the justice department has overturned trump-era rules that prevented survivors of domestic violence and families targeted by violent gangs from receiving asylum in the united states. immigration rights group al otro lado said -- "this is going to make the difference between life or death for so many people fleeing danger." the biden administration has restored protections for trans students against discrimination on the basis of gender identity and sexual orientation. the move reverses the trump administration's exclusion of trans students from protections under title nine, a 1972 federal law barring discrimination on the basis of sex. i federal court ruled wednesday north carolina class man on

abortion after 20 weeks is unconstitutional and creates a credible threat of prosecution for providers. a lawyer with the center for reproductive rights, who argued the case, celebrated the ruling, saying -- "forcing someone to continue a pregnancy against their will is a violation of their basic humanity, their rights, and their freedom." in related news, in missouri, a federal court last week blocked a ban on abortions after eight weeks of pregnancy. in mexico, authorities have identified remains belonging to one of the 43 disappeared and likely massacred students from a teachers' college in otzinapa, guerrero. the student has been named as jhosivani guerrero. he is just the third person in the group to have been found and identified. the 2014 disappearance led to intense public outrage and protests. families of the disappeared students have long maintained the military was involved in the mass abduction.

in peru, socialist presidential candidate pedro castillo has declared victory after a final count showed him with a 44,000-vote lead over right-wing politician keiko fujimori, the daughter of peru's imprisoned former dictator. fujimori has claimed voter fraud, without evidence, and has promised to challenge certification of castillo's win. on tuesday, castillo tweeted an image of himself with his arms raised in victory over the words "president" and his campaign slogan, "no more poor in a rich country." castillo has promised to raise taxes on peru's lucrative copper mining industry to fund healthcare and education initiatives and to reduce peru's vast income inequality. jim mcgovern is calling on biden to end deadly sanctions against venezuela, suggesting they i'm not to collective

punishment. he said sanctions aimed at forcing president nicolas maduro from power instead pushed millions of people into poverty and hunger, while denying them healthcare and other basic services during the pandemic. this is congressmember mcgovern speaking to peace activists in -- earlier this year. >> resulted in needless deaths, people not getting medical supplies that could keep them alive and resulted in food shortages and a lot of suffering. amy: china's military sent 28 war planes to airspace controlled by taiwan on tuesday -- a record number since it began flying sorties off the coast of taiwan on a near-daily basis last year. in response, taiwan scrambled jet fighters, activated missile defense systems, and issued warnings to the chinese pilots. the tensions came a day after president biden successfully pushed nato leaders to declare

china to be a security risk for the first time. china has repeatedly warned the u.s. against intervening in taiwan, which china claims as its sovereign territory. china has launched three astronauts on a three-month mission to its new space station in low-earth orbit. china built its own station after the u.s. banned chinese astronauts, known as taikonauts, from the international space station. it is china's first crewed mission since and follows two 2016 other recent successes -- a successful sample-return mission from the moon and the deployment of a rover on mars. china is just the second nation, after the united states, to operate a rover on the red planet. saudi arabia has beheaded a man accused of taking part in anti-government riots when he was a teenager. tuesday's execution of 26-year-old mustafa hashem al-darwish came despite international outcry.

he was imprisoned in 2015 for allegedly participating in a protest of minority shia muslim youth demanding jobs and an end to discrimination at the height of the arab spring in 2011 and 2012. al-darwish was just 17 or 18 years old at the time. human rights groups say saudi arabia has carried out at least 26 executions this year. a warning to our audience, this headline describes graphic violence. in hawaii, three honolulu police officers are facing murder charges after the fatal shooting of a teenage boy in april. officer geoffrey thom, who shot the boy initially, claimed 16-year-old iremamber sykap, who was driving at the time of the killing, rammed his car into him. but prosecutors say bodycam footage does not match the officer's account. in another case of police violence from honolulu, the family and lawyers of a black south african man are demanding answers and justice for lindani

myeni, who was shot dead by police in april. surveillance video from a doorbell shows myeni removed his shoes and entered a house immediately after a couple, but shortly thereafter, exited and apologized multiple times. the woman who entered the home before myeni called 911 to report a burglary. but when police arrived on the scene, they did not announce themselves before confronting and eventually shooting myeni dead. his lawyers say he confused the home with a neighboring house which acts as a place of worship and is open to the public. myeni's wife has filed a wrongful death lawsuit, accusing the police of racial discrimination. texas republican governor greg abbott has signed a bill allowing people to carry guns without a permit if they're not prohibited by state or federal law from possessing a firearm. abbott signed the bill privately wednesday and will hold a ceremonial signing this morning

at the alamo in san antonio. texas joins 20 other states with similar laws. meanwhile, in california, san jose's city council voted unanimously tuesday to require gun shops to record firearm purchases. the ordinance follows last month's mass shooting at a san jose rail yardhen a gunman with a history of sexual assau killed nine people before turning the gun on himself. back in new york, jack weinstein, a brooklyn federal judge who sat on the bench for over half a century and oversaw landmark class-action lawsuits, died here at the age of 99. in 1984, he approved a $180 million settlement for vietnam veterans who were exposed to agent orange. he also ruled on key cases against gun manufacturers and big tobao. in puerto rico, another power failure left hundreds of

thousands of homes in the dark across the island late wednesday. this is the second major outage following the recent takeover of the electric grid by u.s. and canadian company luma energy. labor unions and others have been protesting against the privatization of puerto rico's energy network. and in greece, the conservative-led parliament passed a bill that allows employees to work more hours in a day in exchange for time off. the bill was condemned by opposition lawmakers and labor unions, which organized strikes and demonstrations in response. this is a protester speaking from athens wednesday. >> workers are determined not to allow our rights to be destroyed, not to go back to previous centuries. we will protect the eight hour workday, which was won with blood and we will not allow anyone to profit on our backs. amy: and those are some of the headlines. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the quarantine

report. when we come back, the biden -putin summit. stay with us. ♪♪ [music break]

amy: this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the quarantine report and the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman in new york, with juan gonzalez. juan: welcome to all of our listeners and viewers from around the country and around the world. amy: president biden and russian president vladimir putin met in geneva, switzerland for a , wednesday three-hour summit. the two leaders of the world's largest nuclear powers agreed to set up working groups to deal with nuclear arms control as well as cyberattacks. biden and putin agrd to sd ambassadors back to their posts. in march, russia withdrew its

ambassador in washinon aft biden called putin killer during a television interview. the united states then pulled its ambassador in moscow in april. after their summit, the two leaders held solo news conferences. this is president biden. pres. biden: i did what i came to do. number one, identify areas of practical work are two countries can do to advance our mutual interest and also benefit the world. two, communicate directly that the united states will respond to actions that are vital interest. and three, clearly laid out our countries values. amy: president biden went on to warn that there would be "devastating consequences" if jill russian opposition leader alexei navalny died. biden also warned the u.s. would use its significant cyber

capability if russia waged a cyberattack on critical infrastructure in the united states. putin described his conversation with biden as constructive. >> i believe there is no hostility. our meeting took place in a principled manner. in my opinion, both sides demonstrated a desire to understand each other and look for ways to bring our positions closer. the conversation was very constructive. amy: after biden's news conference ended, cnn reporter kaitlan collins yelled a question to the president. >> why are you so -- his behavior? pres. biden: what you do all the time? when did i say i was confident? what i said was -- let's get it straight. i said, what will change their behavior is the rest of the world reacts to them and diminishes their standing in the world. i am not confident of anything.

i'm just stating a fact. >> given his past behavior has not changed and after sitting down with you for several hours, he denied any involvement in cyberattacks, downplayed human rights abuses, refused to say let's navalny's name. how does that count as conservative meeting? pres. biden: if you don't understand that, you're in the wrong business. amy: president biden later apologized for being "wise guy." to talk more about the biden-putin summit, we are joined by anatol lieven, senior fellow for russia and europe at the quincy institute for responsible statecraft. he's the author of numerous books on russia and the former soviet republics. his most recent book is titled "climate change and the nation state: the case for nationalism in a warming world." it will be released as an updated paperback in september. he is joining us from delhi. -- doha.

welcome back. if you can start out by laying out what you think was most critical about the summit that took place yesterday between putin and biden. >> first of all, it restore normal diplomatic relations on a kind exist between most countries on the face of the earth. ambassadors have gone back. ordinary personal exchanges will be restored. that is of considerable importance in itself. secondly, a more cooperative atmosphere has been established so that the usa and russia can work together as president biden stressed in areas where common interests to coincide. afghanistan was mentioned and mentioned by both leaders in the context of terrorism, but actually, u.s. military -- russian and upper neighbors will

be critical to the success of any peace proce. so that was very important. he saw the beginning -- only the beginning, of course, of talks which could in the future lead to agreement on further nuclear arms reduction. in principle, that should not -- both usa and russia have far more missiles than they actually need. china has demstrated you can have a perfectly credible nuclear threat with a fraction of those numbers. equally, begun the process are continue the process of negotiation of a treaty on space. that will take a long time and will be difficult. but you have to start somewhere. finally, and i think it is very important, both leaders set out

the red lines -- at least we know ben did because he said so, attacks on critical u.s. infrastructure, cyberattacks. and if navalny dies. but putin restated russia's strong opposition to nato involvement and russia has fought on couple of occasions over precisely that issue. and russia has made it cle in the event ukrainian military offensive against the russian protected separatist areof eastern europe -- ukraine, russia would also fight. i think those are the main positive results of this summit. juan: i want to ask you, in terms of how especially here in the u.s. the media portray the

relations with russia as russia being the aggressor and -- russian aggression having to be stamped, could you talk about how from the russian perspective the continued expansion of nato after the collapse of the soviet bloc is seen as itself are bridled aggression by the west? >> yes, i mean, russia sees russia as -- nato is a deeply anti-russian organization. russia, like any country, deeply dislikes the idea of a hostile military alliance approaching its borders and taking over its neighbors. in the case of ukraine, this is particularly sensitive because of course ukraine has a very large at the question minority.

crimea, which russia anned, has t been international recognized. in 2014, contains one of russia's most historic military bases. so the russians for many years make clear they would react if necessary with force against -- of this kind. there was no ground be surprised by russia's reaction in 2014 to the ukrainian revolution. the russians repeatedly used the phrase "monroe doctrine" to say, look, america has always been bitterly opposed, categorically opposed to countries in central america joining any anti-american lines and has used extremely ruthless measures to prevent that during the cold war. it is not necessarily that the

russians at least and a or claiming to represent a moral position, but are claiming a realist position. they say in a practice that is what america does as well when its vital interests are threatened. juan speaking up a realist tradition, president biden said after the summit, "how would it be if the united states were viewed by the rest of the world is interfering with the elections directly of other countries and everybody knew it? what would it be like? a diminishes the standing of a country." he was referring to russia's alleged interference in the u.s. elections. your reaction to president biden 's statement? >> it is not my reaction -- this kind of, can statement causes

hysterical laughter in latin america, in large parts of asia, by the way in russia itself. the suggestion that america has not interfered other people's elections, tried very hard to influence them at every measure popular -- and in many good instances, has supported coups to overturn elections, nigeria for example in 1992 or egypt, chile in the 1970's. this does indicate the kind of blissful lack of self-awareness on the part of president biden that of course really discredits

m and america in the eyes of ordinary russians, including many ordinary russians who really dislike putin and the putin administration. they are perfectly well aware of the corruption and oppressiveness of that administration. just totally hypocritical. amy: let's go to president biden in his own words on this issue. pres. biden: how would it be if the u.s. were viewed by the rest of the world is interfering with the elections directly of other countries and everybody knew it? what would it be like if we engaged in activities that he has engaged in? it diminishes the standing of a country host of amy: in fact, the u.s., as you pointed out, as his long history of interfering by one cap from carnegie mellon university professor, the u.s. interfered in 81 foreign presidential elections between

1946 and 2000 and that does not include u.s.-backed coups and regime change. i want to go to the issue of -- here is abc reporter rachel scott questioning russian president vladimir putin. >> political public for dead, imprisoned, or jailed. alexei navalny, call for free and fair elections and end to corruption, but russia has outlined -- outlawed that organization called streamers is. you prevented anyone who supports them to run for office. what are you so afraid of? >> the united states has a law that spells out the united states will support specific organizations in russia. at the same time, russian federation was labeled as an

adversary. they went on the record to publicly they will stymie the development of russia. we have labeled them as foreign agents but we have not banned them. they can operate. if you're labeled as a foreign agent, just not preclude you -- welcome if it is an extremist organization, that is a whole new story, different story. the organization in question publicly has called for rights and public disorder and has openly instructed people on how to make molotov cocktails. amy: so if you could address this issue of alexei navalny and what biden said and also, this was a summit between biden and putin, president of russia, where edward snowden's. he cannot come home to the u.s. for fear of being imprisoned for the rest of his life as a

whistleblower. this is also the 50th anniversary of the release of the pentagon papers and the celebration of whistleblower daniel ellsberg. and you have julian assange wasting away in high-security reddish present and the u.s. refuses -- the biden administration refuses to drop extradition requests to bring him to the u.s. where he faces over 170 years in jail. >> undoubtedly, russia under putin has become much more authoritarian and yes, opposition parties have an effect in band and leading opposition figures have been murdered -- although, we don't have definite proof of who was responsible. now, that is not something that happens in the united states, i am happy to say. but you are quite right.

u.s. record is not spotless. i was frankly astonished earlier this year when belarus forced down a plane, something which i deeply condemn and oppose, but if you're talking about edward snowden, of course the united states and nato allies did the same thing to the presidential plane of the president of bolivia, forced him down in order to search the plane for edward snowden. so in issues like this and issues of election interference in other countries, i mean, here this is a case of the american kettle calling the russian pot luck. on the other hand, i am glad that biden did issue this morning to putin about navalny because it is true. if novelli dies in russian --

navalny dies in russian custody, the impact will indeed be appalling. it is just as wl to tel esident tin that. am i wasust talkg about whistleblors you're deang wi the unid states tt niel hal also whiseblowerho relead clasfied infortion on drones at targed assasnations, facesentencgn ly, and reality nner hasust been releas from pson afte servg years there for h releasof informati. he fily callg for heto be pardoned she s noteleased to freem but in halfwayouse. juan? juan: i wanted to go back for a second to afghanistan come how little was dealt with in terms of afghanistan at this meeting

of putin and biden given the enormous impact that wars and afghanistan have had in both countries, obviously russia spit 10 years bogged down in a war -- occupation and war in afghanistan against jihadist guerrillas and ultimately was defeated and had to leave and the united states spent 20 years now in afghanistan. i wondering your sense of whether both leaders were in essence trying to avoid the issue? >> i am afraid it may be even worse than that. i think there is buying out a profound american lack of interest and afghanistan to a considerable extent the american establishment has given up on the place.

in its plan to get out and hope -- when it eventually collapses it will not blame the united states or see it as an american defeat. what it also illustrates i think is this tendency in washington to believe ameca must not just be involved but must lead every important pross in every part of the world. and if america is not going to be there, it loses intest in certain has very little interest in coordinating regional countries. of course, the point is america -- we always do america would go home sooner or later. we hope with better succe. america lives, what, 7000 miles from afghanistan? russia is very close to afghanistan. china, iran, pakistan are actually on afghanistan's

borders. they will always be concerned with what happens in afghanistan. they also have the same interest as the united states and in combating isis and international islamist terrorism as well as india. also consequences of an outright civil war in afghanistan. this was a real opportunity for america through russia to talk to the region about coordinating future approaches. because without a regional consensus on afghanistan, i am afraid there will be no possibility of peace in the future. juan: and in terms of ukraine -- this is a redline issue in terms of russia and the possibility of ukraine entering nato. what is your expectation of how this will develop, whether nato will keep trying to recruit

ukraine? >> well, it was very interesting yesterday or was it the day before now, the president of ukraine issued a tweet claiming biden had extended an immediate offer of nato membership. that of course was not true. it was sent to trap the biden administration into making this offer. apparently, that is the reason why biden's press conference in geneva was delayed by 2.5 hours while the u.s. adminisation or the biden team formulated a response, which once again, talked about the possibility and a future of nato membership of ukraine remaining open but made absolutely no actual commitment to that for the foreseeable

future. because there are two basic facts which must be acknowledged. the first is that nato will not take ukraine in as long as it has ongoing military conflict with russia. because that would point directly toward nato having to go to war with russia. the very thought of that is ridiculous come to risk nuclear war for separatist provinces of ukraine. in any case, any move in that direction would be vetoed by half-a-dozen european nato members. the second point to bring out is that the west will not fight ukraine. we do not fight georgia 2008 despite many semi promises. we did not fight ukraine in 2014, despite this loose and sloppy use of the word "alliance" ukraine is not an

ally. it will not be saved by the western and war with russia. this is a can that will be in leslie kicked down the road. continuing by the way to align and irritate russians but not actually leading to in thing in practical terms. amy: going talk about a subject that was not so much in the news yesterday, choice china? yep china's military setting 28 war planes into airspace controlled by taiwan tuesday, record numbers since it began flying these on a daily basis in response to -- i want activated defense systems, the tensions coming just a day before biden successfully pushed into leaders to declare china to physically risk for the first time. and behind the scenes, of europe pushing back on the united states that although biden said

he does not want to have a new cold war with russia, looks like he is pushing for cold war with russia and china. talk about the country that was not included in this. >> well, from a realist point of view, america for the past 20 years has violated fundamental principle realism 101 -- and by the way, henry kissinger, driven his two main adversaries together instead of separating them. instead of as it did kissinger and nixon in the 1970's, china, the weaker communist state and turned it against the soviet union, the stronger one. many opportuniti to take russia. it is not turning iagainst china, at least give it away from china.

obviously, that is not going to happen as long as the united states, west, extends nato up to russia's borders. russia is bound to see that as principal threat. russia has been driven closer and closer to china in a wayby the way, that makes a good many russians in private pretty anxious. this fear that the future russia will be a kind of dependency of china. as far as they can see, not much they can do about it given the u.s. policy toward russia. beyond these nato statements have china being an adversary, the european union is much more important because it is a question of economic pushback agait aspect of chinese policy, against china buying up infrastructure come against

china trying to dominate aspects -- iernational communications. there the european union actually does play a critical role alongside the united states. that is why the biden administration has devoted so much attention. but nato, frankly, given its miserable performance and afghanistan and given that -- aside, the actual nato offer of forces to sort of, if you like, side with america in the indo pacific, amount to date to one destroyer at a time. that is not going to worry the chinese. nato is a nato, the backstop against russian aggression into western --

but every attempt to extend nato out of areas has proved a failure. most of the european countries, the exception of britain and france, will not fight. they are there to defend western europe. in the unbelievable scenario that western europe was invaded, they would fight to defend their homeland. at your not one to get them to deploy seriously against china. it is a nonissue. amy: anatol lieven, senior fellow for russia and europe at the quincy institute for responsible statecraft. author of many books on russia and the former soviet republics. his forthcoming book "climate change and the nation state: the case for nationalism in a warming world." next up, the mayoral race here in new york city, early voting already underway. rank choice voting will be used

to decide the winner. the candidates held the final debate last night. stay with us. ♪♪ [music break]

amy: this is democracy now, i'm amy goodman with juan gonzalez. early voting is underway in a historic new york city democratic primary election for the mayor and many other key races. it is the first type in a citywide election voters will use rank choice voting to choose up to five candidates in order of preference. in the mayor's race, brooklyn borough president and former new york police captain eric adams has led recent polls, while businessman andrew yang seems to be falling behind. the race also includes civil rights attorney maya wiley, former sanitation commissioner kathryn garcia, former non-profit executive dianne

morales, shaun donovan, and businessman ray mcguire. the top candidates to to the debate. the top mayoral candates took the stage last night for a final debate. >> my godson who is 6'3", black and beautiful, i got to accompany him to court all ridingis skateboard black, sitting in a park whilelack, and the worst idea i have ever heard is bringing back stop and frisk in thenti-crime unit from eric adams, which is racist, unconstitutional, and did not stop any crime and will no happen der my administration. >> 10 seconds mr. adams? >> you don't have to worry about danger when you have private security on your block.

i don't and never will allow stop and frisk to be abusing people. i know real solution for people in new york. if you have private security, don't have to worry about any of that stuff. >> eric adams is filling the -- let me say, the important issue for new york is that everyone understands public safety is broad, complex, it means making sure we're spending our dollars wisely and iill have a moral budget that protects all of our people. >> speak there for black and brown communities, neither defund the police nor stop and frisk -- >> how dare you assume to speak for black and brown communities. you cannot do that. you cannot do that >> i just did. >> it was started by young black and brown people -- >> you cannot talk over each other. amy: the last voice is dianne morales taking on raymond

-- ray mcguire. that's part of last night's new york city mayoral debate, the last one before the june 22 democratic primary, where voters also choose candidates for city council seats from among hundreds of people running, as well as the city comptroller who is the city's chief fiscal officer and budget watchdog, and the manhattan district attorney. for more, w're joined by ross barkan, an award-winning investigative journalist who is closely following the race. he is a columnist for the guardian and jacobin and he also has a new book coming out next week titled "the prince: andrew cuomo, coronavirus, and the fall of new york." welcome to democracy now! for an audience and the rest of the country and around the world come in few can talk about the significance of the mayoral race, its ups and downs, and who really is vying to run the city. >> the new yk city i was lee

is by far the biggest city in america. while i would not necessarily call it a trendsetter, you're having far more people vote in this contest than any other municipal contest in any other city. it is more akin to a statewide race. there are millions of registered democrats, probably 800,000 democrats are going to vote next tuesday. the winner is really competing and trying to when many different factis that are somewhat representate of the democraticarty. new york, whe it has a reputation very much -- much more progressive than it used to be, there are still a wide array of different people who are coming to vote. it is an credibly diverse electorate. you have black voters, the tino voters, orthodox jews, young a fluid voters come educated voters, working-classoters. it really is this tremendous mix

of people. while i would not go as far to say the winner can say something about the future of the democratic party, you can say that within new york city, there is an incredible amount of diversity even in that democratic electorate. right now there are four candidates would say who have a shot. the famous one is andrew yang, eric adams who is a former police captain would be the second bla mayor, and two women who are competing to be the first female mayors of new york city ever and that is maya wiley who worked for bill de blasio as his counsel -- the outgoing mayor -- and kathryn garcia, also works for bill de blasio and is the sanitation commissioner. all been quite critical of de blasio, which is very interesting. they are definitely competing with the left versus the center and it is race where you have

candidates who are taking on more moderate postures on policing, on crime, even on economics and then candidates who are also skewing to the left on issues as well. you have a real competition of ideas. juan: i want to ask you, in terms of the other big thing happening this time around is rank choice voting. i am pretty worried about the counting of rank choice voti given the fact the new york city board of elections is notorious for botching election procedures. and doubt they're going to be dealing with this very complicated -- and now they are going to be dealing with this very complicated system of determining who the winner is. what is your sense up to what degree voters understand rank choice voting? >> voters i think for a long time did not have a great

understanding. i do see the awarene does your sink interviews of those are going in early voting an saying, yes, i understand. i really voted myself and the ballot is clearer than i thought it would be. i agree the board of elections in new york city, new york state is notoriously dysfunctional. we will not know the outcome of the vote on tuesday because new york state law mandates the absentee ballots get counted after the election. this is not true in a lot of states. this is a law that is yet to be changed. the absentee ballots must be counted first and then you enter into the calcution. the tabulation of these funds will not occur until july. that is without a malfeasce such as the schedulwe're o ght w, post ally fourth. they will tabulate all of the first, second, third, fourth, fifth placed votes and th you'll have a winner.

it is possible you may see a candidate far ahead and you can probablyue which cdidate will win. it is possible candidates could be bunched up where there is a lot of unpredictability and rhaps the first place finisher does not win. you s rare instances where the rst place finisher in fact loses out to another candidate. juan: i want to ask you, the battle over who is the progressive candidate here. clearly, maya wiley has been emerging in recent weeks as the standardbearer of many of the progressives in new york city. but i know several of these people and have known them for years. i have neric adams personally -- known eric adams personally for more than 30 years. while he has been traded as the more conservative candidate, people forget -- i knew him when he was a sergeant in the transit police of new york city,

fighting racism within the department. and also finding police abuse in the department. it is a lot harder to fight police abuse from within the department than from outside the department, but there's no doubt he increasingly has become more conservative as the years have gone on. i am wondering, among these candidates, who do you see as having theomentum in recent months to potentially win? >> eric adams has a good chance to win because he is putting together aery reliable coalition, which is working-class blacks and moderate white voters, orthodox juice, people who do show up to vote. if you're trying to win a mayoral race, having support in the black community is very important. bill de blasio has the same in his 2013. eric adams definitely has the inside track right now. you are right, he came up out of

the police reform movement. he still talks about police reform but also campaigning is a tough on crime mayor. aggressively against defund the police. close to the real estate industry and supportive of landlords and not particular lee friendly to tena issues. andrew yang, similarly positioned himself as a tough on crime candidate with the pressure and you ideas but also someone says he takes public safety very seriously. it is really maya wiley who is now the standardbearer by default, dianne morales imploded, wiley not necessarily the favorite of various socialists and progressive groups, but she is now the default so there's been a coalescing around her. alexandria ocasio-cortez endorsed her. it would be interesting to see where she ends up if she can come from behind and went and pull a de

blasio. at this point years ago, de blasio was the front runner. adams is that person but doesn't have the lead that de blasio had in 2013. i was at the races much more volatile and it was back then. and he of the front page piece in "the new york times" saying, i mean, yuri had maya wiley who's got the endorsement of alexandria ocasio-cortez, 1199 union, another progressives, but the front page piece was about de blasio, even though she was his lawyer, city lawyer, working behind the scenes for adams saying in that way hwould preserve his progressive legacy. >> yes, it is a strange thing because i would not agree with de blasio that eric adams best position to preserve his legacy. the thing a politics, a lot is

person. eric adams and bill de blasio go back a long time. eric adams i would say unlike a lot of other politicians was not known for attacking bill de blasio when you was mayor, not known for gratuitous criticisms of bill de blasio when he was mayor. the two seem to have an understanding. both maya wiley and kathryn garcia worked for de blasio and have been quite critical of him and also don't speak warmly about her time in city hall. i can igine fore blasio himself, he is aggrieved he gave both of them jobs and promotions and they are not grateful in anyway. that is politics. i say, unfortunately, it is not always about policy and ideology, it can be about the kinds of relationships. eric adams is the present bill de blasio feels most personally comfortable with. he is trying to organize labor. he is been pretty successful.

so far the race is going i was a de blasio's way and adams is the favorite and yang has lost strength but anything can happen on primary day. there are still a lot of variables. juan: you mention kathryn garcia who surprisingly has gotten the editorial endorsements in major papers, including "the new york tis" and are some analysts who believe do to rank choice voting , she may not come out of the front of the pack but through rank choice voting she may end up actually the winner of the primary. your sense of kathryn garcia or role? >> she has come on strong. "the new york times" endorseme was a surprise most originally i would have guessed scott stringer would have gotten it but then he was accused of sexual assault. so that fell by the wayside. personly imagined maya

ley would get it, position yourself in the mold of what "the new york times" usually endorses but they went out of left field a bit supported kathryn garcia, who is really running as a moderate, supporter of carter's schools, against taxing the rich, someone who is fairly supportive of the real estate industry and skeptical of rent stabilization. that being said, unlike eric adams, kathryn garcia is less alienating to some voters. adams and yang have the challenge of ending up on a lot ballots. both of them have the potential to be dropped from the ballot of a lot ohighly educated progressives andigh information voters. each of them have sustained negative cycles and caused voters to recoil. kathryn garcia does not. she does haveome potential because she is going to show up on a lot of ballots. andrew yang himself helped elevate her when he said she was

his number two. it is possible that will backfire on him in the end because she is going to be peoples number two. amy: we have to leave it there. i thank you so much for being with us, ross barkan. democracy now! is looking for feedback from pe

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