07/19/22 07/19/22 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] amy: from new york, this is democracy now! >> what are you guys going to do to make sure i don't have to watch my friends die? what are you going to do to make sure i do not have to wait 77 minutes, bleeding out on my classroom floor just like my little sister did? amy: residen of uvalde, texas, confront the school board over failures to protect the children

at robb elementary school where an 18-year-old gunman who was nicknamed "school shooter" shot dead 19 fourth graders and two teachers. why didn't governor abbott attend any of the 21 funerals? we will talk to texas state senator roland gutierrez about a new state report that found systemic failures by the nearly 400 officers -- that's right, almost 400 who responded to the massacre. then we will look at today's democratic congressional primary in maryland where aipac has spent nearly $6 million in an attempt to defeat former congressmember donna edwards. we will speak to peter beinart about his new article "israel lobby's new campaign playbook: israel advocacy groups have developed strategies to raise huge sums for their candidates by appealing to corporate interests." >> aipac and otherstablishment pro-israel orgizations have dumped unprecedented amount of

money and democratic congressional primaries this year. if their efforts succeed, they won't only stop the mocratic party from supporting in any meaningful way palestinian ghts, they will also prevent the democratic party from mounting any significant challenge to corporate power. amy: and we will speak to the pioneering legal scholar kimberlé crenshaw who has launched a counteroffensive against right-wing attacks targeting critical race theory. she is open to run a crt summer school this week inspired by the civil rights movement's freedom summer. all that and more, coming up. welcome to democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. the death toll from an unprecedented summer heat wave in europe has topped 1100 as temperature records across the continent are expected to fall again today. fire crews are battling huge wildfires in portugal, france,

and spain. meanwhile, britain remains under a national emergency alert with temperatures poised to hit 40 degrees celsius today for the first time in u.k. history. that's about 104 degrees fahrenheit. in london, doctors and nurses with extinction rebellion on placed stickers on the windows of jp morgan's offices reading, "in case of medical climate emergency break glass." the activists then carefully broke the glass panes in an act of nonviolent civil disobedience. in a statement, nurse maggie fay who took part in the action said -- "the world is heating because of our use of fossil fuels and jp morgan is funding this climate catastrophe. my code of conduct states that i must 'act without delay if i believe that there is a risk to patient safety or public protection.' that danger is here and it is now." in china, forecasters are predicting scorching

temperatures will return this week with hundreds of millions set to experience triple-digit heat. on monday, united nations secretary-general antonio guterres said the paris climate accord's goal of limiting global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees celsius above preindustrial levels was on life support. he was speaking at a climate conference in berlin. >> no nation is immune, yet we continue to feed our fossil fuel addiction. what troubles me most is in facing the global crisis, we are failing to work together as a multilateral community. nations continue to play the blame game instead of taking responsibility for our collective futures. amy: russian forces continued their relentless bombardment of ukraine monday with russian shells falng on the city of sumy in the north and cluster bombs falling on mykolaiv in the south, where at least two people were injured. in the black sea port city of odesa, at least six pele, including a child, were injured

by a russian missile attack that burned residences to the ground. in washington, d.c., the ukrainian first lady is meeting jill biden at the white house today and a set to deliver an a person address to congress wednesday. meanwhile, the russian independent channel known as rain tv held its first broadcast monday since russian authorities ordered it off the air in march over its coverage of the invasion of ukraine. rain tv broadcast on its youtube channel from exile in latvia, which borders russia. it's return to broadcasting came days after latvia's president said he will order mandatory military service for men between the ages of 18 and 27. russian president vladimir putin has arrived in tehran for talks with iranian supreme leader ayatollah ali khamenei and turkish leader recep tayyip erdogan. the talks are officially aimed at shoring up the government of syrian president bashar al-assad against anti-government rebels, but the trio are expected to

discusa deal that wod allow ukraine to resume grain exports through the black sea. russia's state-owned fossil fuel giant gazprom has warned customers in europe it won't guarantee gas supplies through the nord stream 1 pipeline. the russia to germany pipeline has been idled since july 11 for scheduled maintenance, and gazprom says a technical issue involving a turbine will delay any restart of the pipeline for at least another five days. the announcement brought fresh concerns over europe's gas supplies heading into the winter. on monday, european union officials signed a deal with azerbaijan to double gas imports over the next five years. meanwhile, french president emmanuel macron welcomed united arab emirates leader sheikh mohamed bin zayed to paris monday, where the two signed a strategic deal to partner on energy projects. in washington, d.c., the biden administration said the jailing monday of u.s. citizen and civil

rights attorney asim ghafoor by a court in the united arab emirates had nothing to do with his past work as a lawyer for jamal khashoggi, "the washington post" columnist whose murder in 2018 was ordered by saudi crown prince mohammed bin salman. ghafoor was arrested during a stopover in dubai and sentenced to three years in prison and an $800,000 fine on charges of money laundering and tax evasion. uae officials say the united states had requested his arrest, an allegation denied monday by state department spokesperson ned price. >> what i can say is we see no indication at this point that his detention has anything to do with his association with jamaal chicago be -- to market show be. we are gathering information. we are doing everything we can to ensure that mr. ghafoor is treated fairly humanely. amy: here in the united states, covid-19 hospitalizations and deaths are rising once again.

public health officials warn the official daily average is just a small fraction of the true number of tests going unreported. it is driven by the fast-spreading ba.5 omicron sub-variant. the search also comes as much of the u.s. has abandoned public health measures like physical distancing and masking and public. meanwhile, the u.s. top infectious disease expert dr. anthony fauci said monday will retire by thend of president biden's first term in office. dr. fauci is 81 and recently recovered from a bout of covid-19. u.s. public health officials are warning of a severe shortage of vaccines needed to combat a growing outbreak of monkeypox. the cdc has confirmed over 1800

cases of the viral disease since it was first detected in the u.s. in may, the severe shortage of test kits means the true number of cases is likely far higher. more than 1.5 million u.s. residents qualify for a vaccine is so far the biden administration has released just over 130,000 doses from a national stock pile. meanwhile, forbes reports adjustable bureaucratic and technical errors have slowed the distribution of nearly 7 million additional doses, which could take months to arrive. mucky pox is not fatal, but can cause fever, rashes, and extremely painful lesions. it is most often spread through close intimate contact. so far u.s. monkeypox cases have disproportionately affected men who have sex with men, though anyone can get the disease. in ghana, health officials have confirmed two people who died of a hemorrhagic fever in june were infected with the deadly marburg

virus. it's the first time the virus has been observed in ghana and just the second outbreak of marburg in west africa after a single case was detected in guinea last year. marburg is related to the ebola virus. it circulates among fruit bats and primarily spreads between humans through direct contact with the bodily fluids of infected people. there are no vaccines or therapeutics to treat marburg infections, which are often fatal. in reproductive rights news, congressmember cori bush of missouri and minnesota democratic senator tina smith have introduced a bill that would codify into federal law access to medical abortion. this comes as republican states across the country are attempting to restrict the distribution of abortion pills. in related news, the mississippi abortion clinic at the center of the supreme court case that gutted roe v wade has been sold and has no plans to reopen in the state. this comes after the jackson women's health organization announced it would move its

abortion clinic to las cruces, new mexico. it was mississippi's last abortion clinic. to see our interview with the head of the clinic, go to democrynow.org in west virginiaa judge s blockethe sta'150-yearld ortion b. lawyers r the won's alth cent of westirginia gued e statuewhich das back t the 00' was voibecause hadot bn enfoed in ov 50 years and the state has since enacted other laws that allow abortions. meanwhile in idaho, the state's republican party rejected adding language to their abortion platform that states the procedure should be allowed to save the pregnant person's life. in florida, prosecutor seeking the death penalty for the gunman who pleaded guilty to killing 17 people, including 14 students, in a 2018 mass shooting at marjory stoneman douglas high school in parkland. this is prosecutor michael satz speaking monday. >> i am going to speak to you about the unspeakable, about this defendant's goal-directed

plan of systematic murder, mass murder of 14 children, an athletic director, a teacher, and a coach. amy: in buffalo, the white 18-year-old gunman charged with killing 10 black people in a racist mass shooting at a buffalo supermarket has pleaded not guilty to 27 counts of federal hate crime charges. attorney general merrick garland has not ruled out seeking the death penalty in the case, even though president biden promised as a candidate he would work to end capital punishment. and in brazil, far-right president jair bolsonaro held a meeting monday with dozens of diplomats claiming, without evidence, brazil's electronic voting system is vulnerable to fraud in october's presidential election. bolsonaro spoke from brazil's capital brasilia. >> what i want the most with the election is transparency because

we want to the one who was really voted for. ours is not a trusted one because it cannot be audited. it is impossible to make an audit of elections in brazil. amy: bolsonaro is seeking a second term and is trailing behind brazil's former leftist president luiz inácio lula da silva, who's currently leading in the polls. bolsonaro opponents and electoral officials fear he's laying the groundwork to attempt to overturn october's election results. and those are some of the headlines. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace port. i'm amy goodman in new york, joined by democracy now! co-host juan gonzález in new brunswick, new jersey. hi, juan. juan: hi, amy. welcome to all of our listeners and viewers from around the country and around the world. amy: outraged residents of uvalde, texas, confronted members of the city's school board monday nearly two months after an 18-year-old gunman shot dead 19 fourth graders and two

teachers at robb elementary school. speakers at the meeting included 17-year-old jazmin cazares. her nine-year-old sister jackie died in the shooting. >> what are you guys going to do to make sure i don't have to watch my friends die? what are you going to do to make sure i don't have to wait 77 minutes, bleeding out on my classroom floor just like my little sister dead? i know there's nothing you can do to bring my sister back, but maybe -- maybe if you do something to change this, you can prevent the next family from losing their child. amy: the school board's meeting came a day after a texas house panel released a damning report on the response by local, state, and federal law enforcement to the school massacre. the report found officers had committed "systemic failures and egregiously poor decision making." they found that nearly 400

ofcers -- 400 -- rushed to the school but it took them more th an hour to confront the gunman. investigators found officers "failed to prioritize saving innocent lives over their own safety." the report also revealed the gunman had earned the name "school shooter" in the months before he attacked the elementary school. daniel mayers, a pastor in uvalde, also addressed the school board on monday. >> do you want to bring healing to this community, to these families? i would suggest that you, the chief of police, uvalde chief of police, the valley sheriff's office, and all the other law enforcement agencies who were in that hall all come up here and tell these people, these families, we failed you. we failed you. amy: other speakers during

monday's school board hearing included tina quintanilla and her eight-year-old daughter, who was friends with many of the victims of the massacre. >> my daughter has something to say. >> this was the last address on my friends saw me on. most of those kids were my friends. and that's not good. and i want to go to your guy schools -- i don't want to go to your guy schools if i don't have protection. >> she is encouraging for her friends to not go to school, too. amy: this comes as texas governor greg abbott is facing criticism for not attending one of the 21 victims funerals of the massacre. we are joined now by texas state senator roland gutierrez. his district includes uvalde. state senator gutierrez, welcome back to democracy now! there is so much to ask you about. first of all, the fact that

almost 400 police officers of every level -- federal, state, local, school officers -- turns out they were on the fight right after, minutes after the gunman entered that school. can you talk about what you found further, this report, and what you're calling for? >> thank you, amy, for having me on the show. what i'm calling for an have been calling for since the third day is for greg abbott to bring his back into the legislature. to bring as back to call a special session that is a specific requirement that only he can do, power that only he can do so that we can change the age limit to go out and access or by an ar-15. you have to be 21 to buy handgun that you can be 18 years old and walk into a gun shop like this

young man dead like it was a 7-eleven buyg a slure. in parkland, it took rick scott another republican governor, 21 days to do this. here we are 26 days away from school starting and greg abbott has refused to do even the most conservati of things, the one thing that could have avoided this from happening. juan: senator gutierrez, in terms of this report, we all recallow a lot of the initial blame was placed on the chief of the small school district of police on the scene -- of the uvalde school district. what has the report confirmed for you in terms of your suspicion of the failures of these other level of l enforcement? >> it confirms exactly that. all of my suspicions from the

beginning, everything i had said -- excuse me. from day one, there was systemic failure, human error. we did not have a working radio. the radio system -- every officer that was in that building could not hear the 911 dispatch calls, could not hear each other, talk to one another. it just wasn't even functioning. it was a chaotic scene from the beginning, which i had imagined. certainly, that rert confirms that. the one revealing quality of this report is that we don't have any me finger-pointing. we've had the department of public safety since day 3 -- really, since day one, began to point a finger at different law enforcement agencies. first, the local school cop. no doubt he erred. then the schoolteacher who did nothing wrong, but he was lambasted for a week for putting a rock on a door, which she did not do, propping it open.

then they went after the uvalde police department. clearly, they erred as well. but as i've said from the beginning, each and every law enforcement unit that was in that hallway -- there were 12 dps troopers in that hallway, in and out, milling around. each and every one of those is responsible for violating the active shooter protocols. and someone needs to be held accountable. now, also you have suggested that roots of the problems, the failures here go more to governor abbott's policies, especially in terms of will big districts. can you expound on that? >> we have a system failure again somewhere and i think it begins with neglect in texas. we have been asking in rural texas for improved wi-fi. wi-fi was mentioned as a key

component as to what communications were not happening in an effective way. basically, teachers being able to communicate well enough. we have a system i rural xas where this governor has been asked for the last several years to fix the police radio system, which dps uses the most. he spent $10 million on operation lone star. $10 billion on operation lone star. and we can't go out and spend $10 milli to fix the radio systemhat this community asked for for the last seven years? dps is the biggest user of that radio system. as much as this was system failure, it was a story of neglect. greg abbott likes to talk about mental health. well, fund it properly. i had a farmer mental health bill last session that the republican congress in the

senate killed. i was able to add it on to a bill as an amendment and we were able to get a little more funding for rural taxes, but it is a drop in the bucket compared to what we truly need to do. so if we are going to talk about these other ancillary things and not talk about the key component, fund those things properly, fund school hardening, mental health stuff and also talk about guns. the one thing that this governor never republican in that building refuses to talk about, even the people on that committee. you notice it wasn't a problem not once of an ar-15. there was not that much mentioned about guns themselves and the power and the devastation of this particular gun. all you need to do is look at the video. and there is still one missing. there is one key important video which shows construction material flying out of that room over officers heads.

amy: senator, i wanted to go back to governor abbott. you just mentioned operation lone star. i think this is absolutely key to address because some might think this is a remote city that just could not deal with what had taken place. in fact, millions and millions of dollars had been poured into the militarization of the police, of the border patrol to deal with the border. and when you have governors like abbott continually saying, bad guy with a gun, has to be confronted by a good guy with a gun. from his perspective, there were almost 400 of them there and none of that happened. can you talk about what this means, the level of weapons and military grade equipment that is there, not to mention the officers and yet this happens to a local community in the middle

of it? >> yes, amy. for those who don't know what operation lone star, this is greg abbott's task force to fight this invading hoarde along the border, the immigrants that he thinks are the bogeyman that he has created. now, let's be clear. that is the federal government's job. they're doing what they can. the increment tayshaun increase of law enforcement by the department of publicafety, which is about 1800 new cups into the region along the border per year -- every day along that region and probably in this area about 150 to 200, it has done very little to stem the flow of immigration. let's be clear about that. you have to spend billions and billions more, but let's talk about the $10 billion he spent extrmoney out of our budget. he has bought fancy guns, but planes all on no-bid contracts.

political start after political stunt in the year leading up to this with regard to operation lone sr. four national guardsmen dead, one drowned under the water because a parent greg abbott in all of his no-bid contracts did not have a deal with the guy that sold life preservers. now fast forward to uvalde. every one of those officers of the 91 that appeared were all from the operation lone star task force -- the majority according to the testimony of seema crop in my cross-examination. -- steven mccraw in my cross-examination. they show up with military grade equipment, supposedly in their flak jackets and helmets, see them on camera, you see one of them in that hallway, a texas ranger, they call him a special agent, on the back of his vested says "texas ranger," being followed by a game warden. that gentleman iwalking around on the phone 10, 15, 20 minutes

just walking around doing nothing. i want to know who that guy is talking to. i want to know who his supervisors are. at what point does steven mccraw, who is been the greatest critic of every other law enforcement entity, what does he know when and why does he not tell his forced to act? that is the biggest hypocrisy of all of this is that in all of this, the big bad operation lone star task force failed these children in uvalde. failed them. they have to come to terms with that. this governor has to come to terms with this. juan: senator gutierrez, speaking of the governor, his failure to attend any of the funerals of the victims of this massacre and to be able in one way or another have human contact with the victims?

could you talk about that as well? >> greg abbott came in on the second day, came back on the 29th -- which was friday -- and started telling these -- the mayor and the county judge, we have press conferences specifically on the resources the state of texas h to offer. and then he came back one more time, yesterday -- i said friday. came back when the president came. since then, he has not been back to the city of uvalde. yesterday he put out a statement he has been to the region. sure he went to the county to the south, maverick county. he had a press conference on, what else? operation lone star. on the invading hoard of immigrants, the bogeyman he has created for texas. while he has continued to neglect.

he has not only -- not only has he not been there, not been to a single funeral, they have botched up the resource allocation of benefits for families. families are struggling to pay bills. all of this money that has ported has not been disturbed yet. luckily, i think that is getting fixed by the nonprofits that have come into administer the larger funds that poured in his donations. at the $5 million that abbott put up has been very difficult in coming out. the mayor and i, this is an ultraconservative mayor on the other set of the aisle, he and i get together and we pen a letter to the governors that we need you to move the resource allocation to another entity because the district attorney you gave this to is not doing a good job. clearly conflicted. secondarily, they were not doing

a good job most the county gave it to a group out of san antonio, thank goodness. here we are. if you are the governor of the state of texas and 21 souls lost their lives in this horrible way and your police force did not do its job, what would you do? i would be down there with the only thing i could do, condolences and grieve and prayers and all that stuff, but i would also give as many resources as i possiblcould. that simply has not happened by this governor. amy: senator, we are talking to you in san antonio. i wanted to ask about the latest on the 53 people who died in that sweltering tractor-trailer truck. texas congressmember joaquin castro is seeking to protect from deportation the migrants who survived. apparently, more than 20 members of congress have joined him in

writing a letter to the homeland security secretary that 11 survivors are being treated or have been released from san antonio state hospitals. your final comment on what happened and whether you support this call? >> absolutely. first off, they should be eligible for visa status because they are victims of crime. listen, we're in a situation right now with this immigration crisis, and immigration crisis across the world. we don't need elected officials blowing this up out of proportion because it isn't the main problems in texas. the ma problems in texas are an energy grid that is independent of any other that killed 200 people under avid's -- habits watch in a winter storm that this summer is being stressed beyond belief. it is a communications grid in rural texas where we don't even have accessible wi-fi, were long enforcement agencies cannot

communicate together inn effective weight and a time of crisis. those are the real things that are happening in texas. a transportation problem that you cannot even imagine. the call this the texas miracle? the fact is, texas is in crisis of neglect, of infinite proportions. greg abbott is doing nothing about it except for the same old smoke and mirrors show that we have grown accustomed to from his side of the aisle. i am hoping that we can do better in time and i'm hoping that texas can get back on track. amy: texas state senator roland gutierrez represents uvalde, speaking to us. thank you. coming up, thing that why aipac has spent nearly $6 million in an attempt to defeat former democratic congressmember donna edwards and other races around the country. stay with us. ♪♪ [music break]

amy: "donde voy" by tish hinojosa. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman with juan gonzalez. today is primary day in maryland. in one closely watched race, former congressmember donna edwards is seeking to win back her old seat in maryland's 4th congressional district, outside washington, d.c. she is facing the corporate attorney glenn ivey, who has raised seven times as much money. "the new york times" reports a new super pac run by aipac, the american israel public affairs committee, has spent nearly $6 million on the primary race in an attempt to defeat edwards who served in congress for four terms ending in 2017. in 2008, donna edwards made history becoming the first black woman elected to congress from maryland. another group with ties to aipac, democratic majority for israel, has spent over $425,000 to help defeat edwards.

the two groups also poured money into efforts to defeat other progressive democrats, including nina turner in ohio and jessica cisneros in texas. we are joined now by peter beinart, editor-at-large, jewish currents. he recently wrote an article headlined "the israel lobby's new campaign playbook." peter beinart is a professor at the newmark graduate school of journalism at the city university of new york. thank you for joining us, peter. can you talk about what donna edwards is confronting right now in maryland? the level of money being poured in to defeat her? >> it is extraordinary for a house race to see one organization, one super pac spending almost $6 million. what we're seeing across the country is aipac's super pac is often spending as much as the campaigns themselves are spending. partly this is the result of

citizens united, 2010 that created super pacs, entities that can't accept unlimited amounts of money and spend unlimited money as long as they are theoretically not coordinated with the campaign. and it is also the result of the fact that aipac saw a threat starting in 2019 when people like rashida tlaib and ilhan omar and alexandria ocasio-cortez were elected to congress. and it decided to spend virtually unlimited amounts of money to ensure that their brand of politics, which is more pro-palestinian rights but which is also more progressive on economic issues, does not become the future of the democratic party. juan: peter, could you talk about what you discovered in terms of connections or ties between groups like mainstream

democrats and other pro-israel lobbyists like the democratic majority for israel? >> yes. one of the things i found is that. often when the establishment pro-isra organizions target progressive candidates, those candidates are alsoargeted by groups that are notocused on israel-palesti but simply want to defeat that person because that person may be to progressive find health care or may pport the green new deal. so there is a group called mainstream democrats -- if you look at their website, says nothing of israel-palestine, it as it does not want the democratic party to be taken over by far left groups. but this is run by democratic majority for israel. what you see is this very, very -- they work out of the same offices with the same staff, so essentially, this extremely

close relationship between groups that want to defeat progressives because they support palestinian rights and groups that just want to defeat progressives because basically what the democratic party to be dominated by people like joe manchin and kyrsten sinema who will do the bidding of the fossil fuel industry to help -- health care industry, financial services. juan: how successful have these efforts been in the past? any mention the races of nina turner in ohio and jessica cisneros in texas, both of whom were targeted by aipac and both of whom lost the races. what has been the track record? >> these efforts, sadly, have been successful. there been a couple of races, one in pennsylvania and one in illinois, where the progressive candidates were able to win. but in most cases, the candidates targeted.

even when they don't lose, it has a chilling effect. politicians see this and think, i do not want millions and millions of dollars dump it into a house race against me, so what it tends to do is candidates who may be more kind to take up issues to instead keep their heads down and not take those positions in order to try to avoid the kind of attack that other progressives have faced. amy: let me ask you back on donna edwards raise, peter, you have the speaker of the house, nancy pelosi, i actually comes from maryland, though represent san francisco, coming out in full support of donna edwards. while most of the big money spent in the race has come from aipac-aligned super pac, the ads funded by the so-called united democracy project do not mention the middle east.

i wanted then to talk about nancy pelosi who really came out and attacked the kind of money, the attack ads by the aipac- aligned groups prompting this response in june from house majority leader nancy pelosi. this is what she said. >> when donna edwards first represented maryland's congressional disictnd that was for nearly a decade, she was one of theost effective members in congress. donna fought hard for prince georges county, forobs and investments in her community, to lp constuents in neeand to deliver results. aspeaker and then as leader, i knew i could always count on donna edwards as a valued member of our leadership team. amy: so that is nancy pelosi endorsing donna edwards. the ads often and the candidates were supported by these massive -- the massive amount of money coming millions and it a case of

this campaign going to her opponent, they are not raising the issue of israel and palestine, right? and let's be clear, there other pro-israel groups that support donna edwards. >> yes, but they will have a small fraction of the amount of money that aipac and democratic majori for israel have on the other site. but you are right. in almost under these races to the attack ads have anything to do with the actual agenda of the organizations that are paying for them. and that is because aipac and the others know not many voters in these districts really care that much about israel- palestine. they care about local issues. aipac they -- whatever may gain traction. in ohio the nina turner race, because she was a bernie sanders supporter who have been critical of joe biden, they painted is not a loyal democrat.

in the case of donna edwards edwards, there claimed she did not provide constituent service when she was a congresswoman early on. as if aipac cou care less about the level of constient service that donna edwards provided to her constituents when she was a congresswoman. it is transparent nonsense, right? it is this is their vehicle for trying to defeat her because donna edwards in the past has shown some minimal -- hardly radical on the subject -- but modest concern for palestinian human rights. for that reason, they want to defeat her. amy: can you talk about the role of the cori sellers in these campaigns? >> yes. but kari sellers is a former south carolina politician with close ties to aipac who has -- now heads another super pac that is devoted primarily at this point to defeating rashida tlaib

in michigan. its claim is it is an organization that wants to elect black democrats and rashida tlaib has a black opponent but this is also transparent nonsense as if aipac and its donors are really concerned about increasing black representation. they're going after rashida tlaib for one reason only, because she is a palestinian member of congress who is a passionate and eloquent defender of the community -- community of palestinians. because that agenda is laid out nakedly, would not be popular, you have these transparent claims that it is really about something else, the claim somehow because she is not black she cannot represent a district in michigan, even though she has strong black supporters for the

tireless defender of the people in her district of all races. juan: peter, trustingly, there's also a govern's race in maryland. both competitive primaries and about the democratic and republican parties to elect a successor to the republican governor hogan. has aipac been involved in those races are only contracted desk concerned with congressional? >> democratic primaries in congressional races. aipac's assessment has been because of partisan polarization, there are fewer slim districts which means more often than in the past if a member of congress is chosen in the primary. they ao have noticed there is an unusually large number of house seats because of

redistricting and retirement. they like to do open house races because once in can come but has been elected and air system, they can be difficult to dislodge. what this play is about is trying to create a whole new generation of younger democrats who will toe the line on israel-palestine, also in many, many cases, take a kinda more pro-corporate position and therefore blunt the trend we are seeing towards the democratic party moving in a more progressive direction. amy: this is new, right, aipac having this kind of super pac? >> yes. aipac never had a political action committee but saw essentially it needed to rollout the big guns and a response to the trends we saw with the election of the squad members, and it has extraordinary financial resources at his disposal. several people have given one

million-dollar checks already and the money is still being tabulated. amy: peter beinart, editor-at-large of jewish currents. we will link to your new piece "israel lobby's new campaign playbook: israel advocacy groups have developed strategies to raise huge sums for their candidates by appealing to corporate interests." coming up, we turn to the pioneering legal scholar kimberlé crenshaw who has launched a counteroffensive against right-wing attacks targeting critical race theory. it is freedom summer this week around the country. that's right, a summer school for crt. stay with us. ♪♪ [music break]

amy: "la la means i love you " by the delfonics. the philadelphia soul group's lead singer and songwriter william hart has died at the age of 77. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman with juan gonzalez. we look now at a new effort to push back on conservative activists and politicians who claim democrats are "indoctrinating students" with critical race theory. comes as a new pbs frontline report intifieat least 14 puic schooemployeewho left their jo last ye after they

re accus of teaching so-caldrt. for more, we spend the rest of the hour with the leading scholar, activist kimberlé crenshaw, who has launched what she calls a counteroffensive against the organized mpaign against critical race theory with a crt summer school that is inspired by the freedom summer of the civil rights movement. she is profeor of law at both ucla and columbia universi and the founder of the african-american policy forum. professor, welcome back to democracy now! before we talk about the summer school, well, give us a little bit of teaching here. explain what critical race theory is and why you think it is so critical for people to understand. >> thank you for having me here. there is critical race theory which is the academic course which is the study of how race and racism have become embded in our american institutions, law in particular.

if you want to understand, the current pattern of housing segregation or wealth disparity, you need to understand how the federahousing act allowed for suburbs to be built without requiring them to be built and integrated way or you have to understand how banking practices discriminated against african-american people and how much of that discrimination was legal. that is what we talk about in law school but, amy, what beca clear to us in the middle of this firestorm of controversy against critical race theory is that it really wn't about the law school course. it did not make any sense to say we don't even teach critical race theory because what the assault was against what antiracism, we have to remember that this campaign began after the great reckoning that happened in the aftermath of george floyd. when millions of people across

the country took to the streets to demand racial justice and they were talking about it outside of the typical way of imaging are prejudiced police officer. they were talking about it in terms of structuresnd institution. there was a need, obviously, on the part othe righto have a way to clap back, so they rooted around and found critical race theory as the container into which they poured the entire apparatus of antiracism. so what we're fighting now and what some of those teachers are fiting is th effort to silence all recognition, all conversation, all tools, all histories come all of the current consequences of our past. so that is why we decided it is time to turn crt summer school into a freedom summer for all stakeholders, not only stakeholders for antiracism but stakeholders for our multiracial democracy.

juan: kimberlé crenshaw, it seems to me this is only the latest manifestation of an ongoing debate and battle that is been raging in america for decades. i think back to the 1990's when i think it was in 1991 that arthur's lessons are, the celebrated liberal historian, wrote the polemic diss uniting of america and claimed there were right-wing model culturalist and left-wing multiculturalist and both were interpreting american history and a one-dimensional or one-sided manner. but's lessons are kept singh those are the institutions of american society. is this phase -- do you see any

diffence between the battles that are occurring now and those that occurred in the 1990's over this issue? >> not really. one of my first articles was race, reform, and entrenchment. i argued that periods of reform, of mass mobization, of significant change toward democracy that we claim to want to be inevitably sparked backlash. they sparked grievances. they sparked a sense of loss. and often that sense of loss is what the energy is that drives some of the most aggressive assaults on our democracy. that is what we saw in january 6. if nothing else, last week's hearing on the capitol riots should reinforce the sense that this belief that something is being taken away from those who have exclusive right to own it, mainly this democracy, is in

fact part of the legacy of white supremacy that critical race theory tried to unpack. here's the challenging thing, though. the challenging thing is this both sidesism that you mentioned and has been part of the pushback consistently against knowledge and school practices that really takes seriously our claims to be a multiracial democracy. that has been, frankly, a liberal response to something that is not symmetrical. the attack on the capitol, which everyone should have been talking about last year, was marginalized by the attack on critical race theory. and when media talks about it, media did not talk about what is critical race theory help us understand about why our democracy is in crisis, what they asked about is, what is happening in the classroom?

what is critical race theory went to assault our children? if we had a critical race theory lens, we would know that is always been the response to antiracism and we would know children have always been framed as being harmed by integration. and that was a projection of their parents who don't want to have these conversions and don't want to open upheir sense entitlement about who this country is for. juan: you mentioned the crt summer school. how can someone participate? how does it tie into the midterm elections happening this fall? >> juan, one of the things that happen when the assault on critical race theory really went into overdri -- and i have to say, it happened immediately after the capitol riots --we found while the bombs of liberty and some of these other organizations were able to really galvanize, parents, even

people he did not have children in schools, to go running to the their boards, did not know really what critical race theory was, they were told a lot of misinformation. we realize we need to reintroduce critical race theory to people as a thing to practice every day. when they give their kids the talk, when they put their hands on the steering wheel at 10:00 and 2:00, they are practicing critical race theory. they are practicing the wisdom that our parents passed to us to navigate this world as people of color. so we cided we need to take it back to the community and create a summer school that brings together 160 instructors, 22 channels, five plenary's, and over 110 courses. in their parents can learn what is happening in schools. teachers like matthew hanh who

was fired for teaching an essay by todd hussey because will teach the class that got him fired so people can see what is at stake. we have nina turner, talking about how the mainstream media has sometimes enabled these moral panics. we have barbara talking about voter suppression. if you want to find out more about critical race theory and y it is important to realize there is no daylight between the protection of our democracy and the protection of antiracism, then you can find out about it w atww.aah pf.org/crtsummerschool. there are scholarships. amy: and that aapf. i'm struck by what you say talking about all this as the

investigation goes on what happened january 6 both the number of groups involved who were white supremacist is often lost in trying to overturn the election. and you couple that with the kind of gerrymandering that is going on around the country and the kind of voter suppression. if you can talk more about how it is happened to look at this insurrection the took place, the final public hearing for the next one will be thursday night. through a critical race theory lens. and you don't even have to look at it through lens, just the absolute -- one of the predominant aspects of this is that so many of the people in washington that violently entered the capitol and attacked it were white suprecists. >> absolutely. a maid, that is critical race theory. understanding the history that

led to this moment, so it includes the fact we have had political coups before. that is what the in every construction was. it was a violent takeover of southern government, fueled by this idea of grievance, fueled by this idea that people of color, black people, have no right to determine our political future, no contribution to where we are going. but here's the rub. it is not just the mobilization of the right wing but the silence about it, the inability to talk about it. we have seen for months the confederate flag in the gallows and the news, but mainstream media had a hard time actually saying we have a wet supremacist problem, partly because we have not talked critically about race for the last several decades. here you have a moment where the weakness, the lack of framing, the inability to call that racism and to analyze it has actually brought our democracy

to the brink. we cannot afford colorblindness in talking about the most significant threat to our democracy that we have seen in our lifetime. juan: could you talk about the money behind the attacks on critical race theory, these parents showing up at school board meetings? are these spontaneous developments in various neighborhoods or is this part of a well orchestrated and well oiled campaign? another moment where the mainstream media is not reporting the story. they're just doing the both sides thing. moms for liberty come these peer groups, are basically warmed over fronts of pre-existing right wing organizations. what people -- people don't know it. it allows them to be seen as grassroots when in fact they are not. what is not being talk -- joint amy: 10 seconds. >> parent to realize attack on

history is an attack on their children's future. that is what we're going to be talking about in crt summer school. amy: and people can still sign up even though it is this week? >> they can't and it will be on demand until labor day. america thank you so much, kimberlé crenshaw.

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