i do not know if the russian state hacked into john podesta emails and gave them to wiki leaks but i do know barack obama's director of national intelligence has not provided credible to support his claims of russia i also know he perjured himself in a senate hearing three months before the revelations provided by edward snowden he denied to be n.s.a. was carrying out wholesale surveillance of the us. the hyperventilating corporate media has once again proved to be an echo chamber for government claims that cannot be verified you would have thought they would have learned something after serving as george w. bush's useful idiots in the lead up to the invasion of iraq. it is vitally important that the press remains rooted in a fact based universe especially when we enter an era when truth and fiction are

becoming indistinguishable. called the few we know we don't need. everyone in the world should experience legal and you'll get it on the old the old. the old according to just. walk up the modern world come along for the raw. data.

well i'm tom hartman in washington d.c. and here's what's coming up tonight on the big picture who really benefits from dr trump's new cuba policy cuban people the president's reelection campaign last video benjamin in just a moment and as they begin slowing the senate down to a virtual halt to protest the secret g.o.p. health care bill or maybe it's just a tax cut for billionaires or democrats finally learning what it means to resist i'll ask nick genius and valerie irvin. donald trump struck another blow against president obama's legacy friday when he announced that he was bringing back restrictions on travel and trade with cuba speaking to a remote cuban exiles in miami florida trump described the move in stark cold war

era language we will not be silent in the face of communist oppression any longer you have seen the truth you have spoken the truth and the truth has now told us this group called us to action. talk like that will probably win the president some votes in the more right wing quarters of florida's cuban exile community as my next guest will explain trump's cuba policy is about as outdated as the rhetoric he's using to describe it joining me now is medea benjamin co-founder of code pink and global exchange as well as the author of the brilliant new book kingdom of the unjust behind the u.s. saudi connection and i cannot. it's impossible to recommend the book to eileen. so walk us through this cuba policy change one of the major changes the trump is making toward cuba balls the big changes around the people the people

travel category that existed where you could go on your own check off at the airport when you were getting on your jet blue flight and say i'm going to learn about cuba i check that off get on a plane you can stay at a private what they call. it now it's mostly through air b. and b. you can eat at private restaurants you can hire private taxis you can do all of that and basically never go through the cuban government you can't do that anymore now you can have to go in group travel with people who have a license here and it's actually a really crazy change because the cuban government likes it better when you go in a group because you stay at a hotel they get more money out of you the group shows you the things that the cuban government wants you to see you eat it government restaurants so it's really insane time to think that this change of policy is beneficial or is going to hurt. the cuban government be good for the cuban people it's actually very bad for the

cuban people so trump not only lied to us about what he was doing but he shot himself in the foot i mean it's not even accomplishing the goals that he's stated well the joke in cuba right now is the term has really acute secret cuban agent because what he did is favoring the cuban government why would you cut off the ability for individuals to go to cuba and share their experiences and world view with cuban people and force you to go through a group that has to be basically sanctioned by the cuban government that's amazing sixty four percent of republicans sixty five percent of democrats fully support president obama's reparation mall with cuba so who is trump doing this for its. malk you know it's marco rubio it's mario dia's billard it's the outgoing ross let and then and there are a of right wing old ideologues who i guess have some money and they do help to get

out the vote but it doesn't even represent as you say the majority of cuban american opinion the other thing we should mention is that it hurts businesses you know any business is the u.s. they do business that relate to the cuban military and the cuban military is involved in the hotels so there are u.s. companies that were doing deals with cuba that's going to be squashed there's going to be there's a lot of people the regulations haven't come out yet we won't know for another thirty sixty maybe even ninety days but there's a lot of business people who are very upset about this policy you know it's it's it's kind of weird i mean you know trump scott hotel in the philippines you supporting to charity who's going around shooting people he's got a number of these countries the he's in where he's embracing autocrats have trump properties there's no trump property in cuba and in fact what he's going to be doing is hurting hilton and sure. any other american trying trump property

competitor who was in the process of putting something to go well sure is going to be hurting u.s. businesses in general and that's why the chamber of commerce is against his regressive policy and there's a lot of cuban americans who've been helping their relatives in cuba start businesses and they're investing one hundred thousand two hundred thousand three hundred thousand dollars and they're very worried right now will they be able to even recover the money that they have lent to their relatives so it doesn't make sense from a whole lot of perspective the other thing tom is you know i'm ready to go to iran next week if the iranians finally give us our visas i went to north korea recently i go to iraq to yemen in. you name it i don't have to ask the u.s. government for permission to go to any of those places cuba is the only place now where you have to now ask your government's permission or fall into a specific category to be able to go to to the island that's ninety miles off i

sure is so if it is the excuse that it has to do with trying to get better human rights situations you know let's name off the places that have a hell of a lot worse human rights situations including saudi arabia where trump was just there dancing the sword dance which is a war dance with the saudi king has nothing to do with human rights or now trade with cuba has been suspended since the fifty's or sixty's. be by congressional action and trump couldn't. couldn't do that because the republicans control congress at that point trump obvious is not trying to undo that but what is the future of these trade sanctions well there were big categories that were exempted so there was. food in and medicines were being traded and now it's unclear what's going to happen with that because a lot of the food goes into the government ration system so that's unclear

but. there are still agreements that it seems like they didn't they're not going to close the embassy they're going to still have drug interdiction cooperation they're still having cooperation around a number of different things that came up during the obama time so in some ways this some people say this is more for show than real substance but we won't know that until the regulations are finally out how concerned are you that this may in some way. have some product create some problems for your lawn deal. is there a connection here of any sort of the connection is let. undoing everything that was a legacy of obama's whether it's health care or the cuba deal and in terms of foreign policy issues what were the two best legacies they were the cuba deal and it was iran and so people that work on this issue immediately saw

a connection between and are very worried that they are next on the chopping block now in the case of iran you can't just get out of the deal because it's not a bilateral deal like it's not just cuban the united states or iran in the united states it's a deal that has more parties to it but the u.s. can make it very difficult in iran and of course they keep passing. tighter and tighter sanctions against iran and that that just like in cuba these policies support the hardliners you know this this doubling down on cuba who does that benefit the people who said inside cuba you can never trust the united states don't try to deal with them what is the increase in sanctions and it taking an increasingly hard line on iran that supports the exact same hardliner group in iran that says we don't want to have dealings with the united states we should have never had that iranian nuclear deal because we can't trust them and besides some

people think of course we're going to need a nuclear weapon because that's the only thing that's going to keep us from being invaded why hasn't the u.s. done anything to north korea because they have nuclear weapons right right so so donald trump's i mean america first has has put cuba first the hard liners the hard hard line right wingers and put americans back in because what about our right to travel here i think you would have that within the first amendment in iran he's put the he's put you know he's pursuing policies that only benefit the hard right in iran well that's right and that's what we've seen and plus for cuba i mean how can you not say that a policy that for over fifty years didn't produce change in cuba and then go back to that policy again and act as if it's something fresh. b.-o. and say this day will mark the day that's the beginning of the end of the castro regime of the communist regime and you know if it were funny you would be laughable but it's really tragic because it's the same policy that was in place for decades

if anything is going to ease up the government in cuba and open up space for people its relations its exchanges this is this is meeting einstein's definition of insanity one is you've been focused on for a while now is this this brutal war against yemen that the saudis are pursuing with our weapons and you just wrote a piece for the guardian that i recommend people check out with trump cozying up to the saudis and some in the billions of dollars with the weapons how concerned should the united states be about blowback from war we should be very concerned yemen was the place where the u.s. said this is where al qaeda in the arabian peninsula is actually focused on attacks in the united states that's where the shoe bomber was coming from that's where anwar locky was coming from if indeed that is the case we should be very worried about it and also because there is just a growing general anti-u.s.

sentiment in yemen because this war that's been going on for over two years now is so devastating to the entire country of yemen they can't tass trophy is unbelievable proportions with now the outbreak of cholera that's a national emergency. the yemeni people are saying this is coming from saudi arabia and their ally the united states the bombs are made in u.s. factories the their weapons keep getting refueled in the air by the u.s. and now there is a cozying cozy relationship with trump who says we're going to give you more logistical support we're going to stop any rollback that obama started to do in the very end of his administration. so i think it's very very dangerous and i've been to yemen i've spoken to people who've lost their loved ones in a u.s. drone strike and they say we believe in revenge in our culture it goes on from generation to generation we will not give up we see the united states behind this

and we will take revenge that's a scary so we've destroyed our reputation in afghanistan in iraq and libya and egypt to now and yemen all to suck up to the saudis that well not all but you know and to the weapons manufacturers because the let's be clear somebody is on a box somebody is making not a buck they're making billions of bucks and you know we've got to look at who profits from all of this and i say bring it back to the lobbyists to the weapons ban effect chairs and to the pentagon contractors they're the one that they're really raking in the dough for all these multi-million dollar thirty two bedroom home made around the d.c. area that's for if you're great having you with the same you. coming up with health care for millions hanging in the balance center republicans are still refusing to hold hearings on their secret bill to repeal obamacare so any way to run a democracy that's all i ask nick give us and valerie urban in tonight's politics

panel right after the break. the mission of news was used to go to the people tell their side of the story or stories are well sourced we don't hide anything from the public and i don't think the mainstream media in this country can say that the rich you are. are to america has a different perspective. so that we're not hearing one echo chamber that in stream media is constantly spewing. we're not beholden to any corporate sponsor no one tells us what to cover how long the coverage or how to say it that's the beauty of

our t.v. america. we give both sides we hear from both sides and we question more that . not letting anything get in your way to bring it home to the american people. i think the average viewer just after watching a couple of segments understands that we're telling stories that our critics can't tell and you know why because their advertisers won't let them. in order to create change you have to be honest you have to tell the truth artie's able to do that every story is built on going after the back story to what's really happening out there to the american what's happening when a corporation makes a pharmaceutical chills people when

a company in the environmental business ends up polluting a river that causes cancer and other illnesses they put all the health risk all the dangers out to the american public those are stories that we tell every week and you know what they're working. imagine a legislative body were laws are written in secret with no public hearings and no input from the opposition i'm not describing some fictional totalitarian dystopia i'm describing the united states senate right now in two thousand and seventeen under the control of mitch mcconnell and his. looking cronies for more on how the g.o.p. is flouting democracy let's turn things over to some night's politics panel. with

me for tonight's panel our nick jonas media reporter for the daily caller and valerie urban senior adviser to the working families party thank you both for being here with me time to have you let's get started after all the talk about resistance democrats are finally putting their money where their mouth is tonight they will start using a parliamentary tactic known as withholding consent to bring a whole lot of senate business to a screeching halt or at least a grinding slowdown the goal is to embarrass senate republicans and also force them to explain to the american people why they're trying to repeal obamacare without so much as even one public hearing we republicans are trying to repeal obamacare and secret right now is an affront to democracy in my opinion it's also completely hypocritical here's what mitch mcconnell said back in twenty ten about the infinitely more transparent way democrats passed obamacare after twenty public hearings over nearly a one year long period. democrats on capitol hill are working behind the scenes on

a plan aimed at jamming this massive health care spending bill through congress again it's a clear wishers open unsuspecting public. what they have in mind as a last ditch legislative sleight of hand called reconciliation that would enable them to impose government run health care for all of the american people whether americans water or not or if republicans are serious about what they said about obamacare how is it that they're doing right now essentially the same thing except for bill i don't think it is tom i think that anything done on the cover of darkness especially something as big as health care is unacceptable they've had years to find a plan that was suitable to replace obamacare and they've been coming up with nothing i mean nothing to better secure nine yet since two thousand and ten two thousand and nine and to not have a plan in place to replace obamacare for making all these promises i think it's letting their voter base down they have to get it together are your thoughts i

agree with everything he just said and on top of that i'm really proud that democrats are finally stepping up and understanding how to use the process to stop this nonsense and to make it very public to the american people that this is being done under the cloak of darkness. and i think it's outrageous that mitch mcconnell in two thousand and ten and mitch mcconnell mitch mcconnell today same guy has he forgotten it's very interesting i think he's he's old enough he doesn't think everybody has you know video tape or digital but but but nick isn't one of the problems that the republicans have. i mean if you go back to nixon in one thousand nine hundred two nixon rolled out what is basically obamacare it was virtually identical in all regards teddy kennedy for demonic because he wanted single payer health care and kennedy later on deeply regretted that because you know it would have been a start. but it was defeated but that was you know nixon's program that program

then got revived in the eighty's when in i think was eighty six that the heritage foundation came out with what we call obamacare some slight differences but really functionally not so many mitt romney put that into place in two thousand in massachusetts with the idea that he would run for president based on its success this obamacare was the republican health care plan until a democratic president proposed it and. other than you know the fact that there's sixty six hundred billion dollars worth of taxes very very wealthy people right now if capital gains tax went from twenty percent to twenty three point nine percent tax it's almost exclusively paid by the very wealthy and incomes over three hundred thousand dollars so i think about a four percent increase in their taxes to fund the obamacare subsidies and the. and met in the medicaid expansion which again a lot of this was in the original heritage foundation program but isn't the problem

of the republicans have that that obama you know it was like a sleight of hand he took their program put it into law and now there's certain around on what about we're trying to erase the legacy of barack obama and by the way the billionaires are leaning on us because they don't like paying these extra taxes i mean i think it each party in power to try to address health care as you said for decades and i think they want to do it because they want to be the first people across the finish line to claim credit for a successful health care overhaul the tommy douglas syndrome i mean you know it's happening with both parties it's always funny to how the party in the minority seems to be the one obsessed with transparency republicans that in two thousand and ten now the democrats are doing it again and the bill let's remember this bill coming out has its skeletons but obamacare had its skeletons to the premium skyrocketed out of control jonathan gruber saying that we're relying on the stupidity of the american voter to get it passed not be able to keep your doctor if you like them and you want to keep them so i think they're both playing us for fools i don't think it's right left anymore i think it's the politicians versus the

people and they're going in circles because if they solve it they won't have anything to run anymore your thoughts well i think the republicans are moving the american people toward medicare for all and what happened in california a week ago is showing where the general public is and they want single payer and so with this nonsense becoming more and more public what the republicans are doing is actually really helping us get to where we want to get to and that single payer from your lips to god's ears for less than twenty four hour with less than twenty four hours to go in the close run of race for the sixth district of georgia an outside group calling itself the principled pac has started airing a wildly offensive new ad connecting democratic candidate john oss off to last week's shooting of house majority whip steve schoolies to. look. left is indorsing in applauding shooting republicans when will it stop. john

wins on tuesday because the same unhinged leftists cheering last week's shooting are all backing john and if he wins they win stop him stop him now stop john stop nancy pelosi katherine handle for congress for the record neither nancy pelosi and or kathy griffin have endorsed shooting steve school nobody and nobody and it's no i mean you know nobody i do know that this reminds me of the great movie christopher nolan batman begins and at the end of it gordon says through batman he goes what happens when we start buying some automatics and they buy automatics what happens when we were kept by armor piercing rounds i think this is escalation and it's plain and simple and i think if we keep on this trajectory that we're not going to get that pause a moment and that unity and they said she didn't need it she could've contrast herself on gun issues without going over the top without using this tragedy and i don't think it's going to help her in the polls however i think it's going to come

down to the wire i don't think this puts her out of it but it certainly wasn't the best taste. and also in karen handel's defense as much as it makes me choke to say those words this is not her this is an ad from an independent group and that raises the biggest issue valerie which is what we're looking at here is we're not even sure who put the money into the super pac it was one of the most opaque ones i was on a number of websites today open secret nobody's got data on this and so some billionaire threw through a couple million bucks and said here you know make burn scorched earth policy isn't this more proof that we need to get money out of politics in the united states no question about it this dark money is very frightening and when you have a very wealthy person who can just keep writing checks who knows what the amount is and. just run these sickening ads on television it's really making a mockery out of democracy but let me just say that donald trump excuse me started

more than eighteen months ago making it very ok for americans to. engage in the kind of rhetoric that it's heated up to the point where now people are blaming parties for crazy people shooting folks and responsible to oh sure they can go out there thing they have created from people you know back and then it kind of it's a symbiotic relationship i don't disagree with that at all british police have announced that they're investigating last month's vanity tag along with moscow's terrorism the attack killed one person and left dozens more injured the prime suspect in that is a white man named oz born and witnesses who restrained him after the attack say he was screaming about wanting to kill muslims where is this man radicalized and who should we hold responsible where is the twenty four seven t.v. coverage that we get every time there's an attack tied to isis you know it's you know it was covered pretty intensely for

a while until everybody figured out oh this isn't a muslim doing this. so i thought it's that interesting so a white man from apparently from around london from a really upscale area yeah decides he's going to take it upon himself to kill and you're not hearing very much about it at all i know that we talked in the green room and i know that your your out that covered it but it's really distressing how i think it's just it's saying something well to her credit i mean unlike the the there's been several killings in the united states during the trial presidency but by and large white right wingers of people of color and muslims and lots of threats and things that donald trump has said not one word about to her credit theresa may has. i condemn this and called it terrorism nic your thought i mean i think we're not you know mentioning the other things would happen with orlando with boston

there are plenty of attacks where you know americans died at the hands of muslims but i agree this is terrorism plain and simple the facts don't care about our feelings or our biases and if you kill someone you know to incite fear because you have an agenda that is terrorism doesn't matter if you're white if you're muslim of the victims muslim if they're female now it's an act of terror should be you know just shot across the border she was shot down immediately ok we have just a minute left and i didn't get back to you to ask you about the money and politics question because then i want to move on to the next one and before yes i think on all sides it's rampant i think you have third parties that are speaking for these candidates in the candidates may or may not know and they're able to have deniability in public and i think any time you ask yourself follow the money you're going to find some some dirty answers and i think that with politics it's it lands on money do you think we should do what most european countries and either require free public television time like we have the united states actually until the reagan administration or ban television advertising i think are the come out from

something with term limits so i think that them staying in there for thirty years is causing them to get these contacts to get these big pacs to support them and i think if we term limited them out and put some new blood in there that might help solve the problem ok i strongly disagree but will leave that for another time nick valerie thank you both for being with us and that's the way it is tonight and don't forget democracy is not a spectator sport get out there get active tag your. what you have for breakfast yesterday why would you put. your wife. to do. what's your biggest fear a little bit on the hayride the less time. for you say if you ever met the

best quarterback. let's point out that doesn't belong in the piece now. question more. our culture is awash in lives dominated by streams of never ending electronic hallucinations that. fiction until they are indistinguishable we have become the most elusive society on politics as a species of endless and needless political theater politicians and a celebrity are two ruling parties are in reality one party to corporate and those who attempt to puncture this. breathless universe of to make news just signed to push through the cruelty and exploitation of the field little or are pushed so far to the margins of society including by a public broadcasting system that has sold its soul for corporate money that we

might as well be mice squeaking against an avalanche but squeak we must. on the news tonight an american jet fighter shoots down a syrian army jag as russia responds by closing the deacon put on line with the united states. and the same for a new twenty two year old american college student otto warm beer died after being held for seventeen months in captivity by north korea and a terrorist attack outside a mosque in london leaves one dead while police stop yet another attack in paris. reporting tonight from the art to do's room you're watching american.