lee fang is an investigative journalist at the intercept covering the intersection of money and politics is joining us from san francisco. still with us, john nichols and ellen chesler. lee, talk about how money played a part in the iowa caucus. >> well, amy, it played a big role. we have seen television, radio, direct mail -- absolutely flooding the state trying to convince voters to support certain candidates. the last two weeks, we saw establishment republican efforts don'tk donald trump we know the donors, but we know it is being led by number of consultants formally associated with mitt romney doing negative as against donald trump in look like it had great effect, bringing donald trump in the number one spot for months to losing to ted cruz. but i think one of the bigger stories of the election last night is that in spite of all the big money, the negative ads, you saw candidates who actually kind of flipped the table on the money and campaigned against it doing very well. bernie sanders was down by some 41% only four months ago, and as you mentioned earlier, fought this down to a

and lee fang of the intercept.hen we come back, we go across the pond to see what has happened with this u.n. committee that has said julian assange should be able to walk free. stay with us. ♪ [music break] amy: this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman with juan gonzalez. the united nations panel has officially concluded wikileaks founder julian assange has been arbitrarily detained and should be allowed to walk free. has been holed up in ecuadorian embassy in london for more than three years. he wants to avoid extradition to sweden over sex crimes allegations, which is repeatedly denied and for which he is never been charged. he fears sweden would extradite him to the united states where he could face trial for wikileaks revelations. attentionor turned should be brought to an end. his physical integrity and his freedom of movement should be respected. and finally, if necessary, he -- forbe entitled example, compensation. amy: the u.n. panel's judgment is not legally bind

lee fang, what you know about it? >> thank you for having me.he big take away from the debate last night, marco rubio and ted cruz came in swinging and for the very first time in a republican primary, we saw a lot of those hits land on trump and trump thing rattled. i thought what was interesting, the one you just played, marco rubio bringing up a lot of trump's hypocrisy when it comes to immigrant labor compared to his rhetoric on the campaign trail. and the topic of trump university, which i think is very telling. trump founded this for-profit school called trump university and promised the people who paid between $5,000 and i believe up to $50,000, they could enroll in this school, meet donald trump, learn the exclusive real estate investing tips and become rich from attending the school. it turns out for multiple investigations and lawsuits that people who paid the fee to enroll, they went to these schools, they were not taught by exrts. in fact, they were taught by amateurs, the tips they learned were mostly publicly available information t

lee fang , what about what has come fort in the last week or so, who is more progressive? do you think it matters? as bertha said, this is an attempt to pigeonhole people improperly? >> thank you so much again for having me. last night's debate was really heartand getting to the of what the democratic party means, i think it is a very healthy debate. it is a little bit silly to obsess over titles or names. the hillary clinton did call herself a moderate last year, now she cultures of a progressive. but on an issue by issue basis, having a big discussion on, what does the democratic party stand for? what are the issues? is it a party that just includes people who are not republicans? are there actual issues that make up the core of what a democrat stands for? that is an interesting debate. there's also a larger existential issue, are democrats -- should they be reliant on the same big-money system that has propped up the republican party? should democrats be going to the same big-money donors, relying on the same big-money super pacs , relying on the same network of lobbyis

amy: that is the congressional black caucus, but what lee fang is describing is the cbc pac. >> and theembers -- and their congressional black caucus members -- it is not -- it is a balance of members and others to raise money. there are a number of members that you heard from like senator richmond yesterday, like terri butterfield.gk i can go on and on about other members that are on that board. i am the chair. look at the cbc members that are on their and how we vote and how the candidates that we support the how they vote. they all vote in a very progressive way. so to say the money that we raise will cause us or cause the cbc or members of the cbc -- because 41 out of 46 cbc members have endorsed senator clinton. and to say that that money has caused us to vote other than what or how we represent our communities, is simply not true. look at how we vote. amy: they are talking about the congressional black caucus pac, the political action committee. professor sachs? >> with the money means we will vote differently they indicate, and it does not. reporting.t is great your clarifying so

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