she was joined by pentagon papers whistleblower daniel ellsberg and actor john cusack. she co-authored a book with john cusack based on their conversations with snowden titled "things that can and cannot be said." well now, 20 years after the publication of "the god of small things," arundhati roy has returned to fiction and has just published her second novel, "the ministry of utmost happiness." "the washington post" has praised her novel writing -- "this is a remarkable creation, a story both intimate and international, swelling with comedy and outrage, a tale that cradles the world's most fragile people even while it assaults the subcontinent's most brutal villains. it will leave you awed by the heat of its anger and the depth of its compassion." indian literary critic nilanjana roy has hailed the novel as "an elegy for a bulldozed world." arundhati roy joins us in the studio for the hour. welcome back to democracy now! >> it is lovely to be here. amy: how does it feel to be back to fiction? you have been writing now for years, this book, "the ministry f utmost happi

april, ryan, john cusack. and douglas shields. you were raring to get in here. >> don, i think the question is donald trump's been president for six months and hasn't been a success. it's basically a zero with the exception of neal gorsuch. history's going to show he made mistake by not going after infrastructure first. this idea of repealing and replacing with no plan in place has left donald trump out to dry not once but about three different times now. now we're rushing into the fourth of july, he's doing an emergency meeting. mitch mcconnell's being hammered by just about everybody because he's pushing it without the votes. it's harder than you think and that's because obamacare is starting to become a birth right like medicare and medicaid and social security. what people didn't like was the obama on obama care but they liked the care and we're not going to be able to leave 22 million people without health care. you will have an eruption and donald trump's going to be responsible for people who are sick and ill. he promised n

john mall con from the heritage foundation in washington, d.c., formerly with the justice department during the george w. bush administration. thank you for being with us. >> good to be with you. >> bob t cusack, another attorn general, jeffns sessions came under fire by james comey. your take on that? >> it was interesting what comey said iney that he knew before sessions was going to recuse himself from - the russia that in tion, he said his opening remarks that were released yesterday, he was aware of the situation. he knew a lot of the stuff had not become public and he knew sessions was probably going to recuse himself from the russia investigation which he did which reportedly has upset president trumpp immensely because that ld to rod rosenstein, the assistant attorney general, appoint bob mueller. sessions was not told directly by comey of this -- threes encounters with the president. however, comey did tell sessions that he was does not want to be leftm alone in the same room wih trump after that valentine's meeting at m the white house. >> heree. is that unfolded with oregon senator, ron wyden. >> let me turn to the attorney general.ns in your statement, you said that you and the fb