Transcripts For KCSM Democracy Now 20170616

Closed. Pres. Trump nobody thought a politician would have the guts to prove that final leg. And i just close my eyes and said amy we will get response from Standing Rock sioux chair dave. Dave archambault then we speak with commerce and Keith Ellison, suing President Trump. President trump has received billions of dollars from foreign governments leasing space in his properties, placing diplomats in his hotels. He has received valuable trademarks from foreign governments. And this is just the tip of the iceberg. The benefits that we know he has received from foreign governments in violation of the constitution. We need to have a transparent process. Amy the lawsuit aims to make sure the president abide by the constitution. We will also talk to congressman ellison about how President Trump is now under investigation of possible obstruction of justice. Trumps plans to reverse the historic normalization of relations between the u. S. And cuba brokered under president obama when he goes to miami today, and the courts rejection of trumps muslim ban. All that and more, coming up. Welcome to democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman. Republican congressman Steve Scalise remains in Critical Condition two days after he and four other people were wounded when a gunman opened fire on wednesday at a baseball field in alexandria, virginia. Scalise was practicing for a Charity Congressional baseball game which took place last night. Doctors say they scalises dr. Say scalises condition has improved in the last 24 hours after undergoing three surgeries but he is expected to remain hospitalized for an extended period of time. Meanwhile, more information has come to light about the Capitol Hill Police officers who were credited with saving scalises life and preventing the shooting of other lawmakers. Capitol Police Special agent crystal griner is an africanamerican lesbian. She is a former College Basketball star who got married to her wife tiffany dyar in 2015. Special agent david bailey, who is also africanamerican, joined the Capitol Police about nine years ago. He hobbled out onto the baseball field last night to throw the first pitch in the congressional baseball game. Both Police Officer sustain injuries in a firefight with the gunman James Tommy Hodgkinson who was shot dead. Griner remains hospitalized after she was shot in the ankle. In the wake of the mass shooting, some republican lawmakers are openly discussing weakening gun regulations in washington, d. C. , to make it easier for lawmakers and other residents of the district carry guns. Others are calling for stronger gun control. On capitol hill, Vice President mike pence has hired a private lawyer amid the widening investigation into the Trump Administrations ties to russia and alleged russian interference in the 2016 election. Special Counsel Robert Mueller is now investigating whether President Trump for possible obstruction of justice. Hes also investigating trumps soninlaw and Senior Adviser Jared Kushner and other top trump aides for possible financial crimes. On thursday, President Trump again attacked the investigation tweeting you are witnessing the single greatest witch hunt in american political history led by some very bad and conflicted people meanwhile, richard burt, the former u. S. Ambassador to germany who has more recently represented russian interests in washington, has contradicted attorney general Jeff Sessions testimony under oath earlier this week. On tuesday, sessions told the Senate Intelligence committee he hadnt had any contacts with lobbyists working for russian interests during trumps campaign. But richard burt told the guardian that he attended two dinners where sessions was in attendance over the course of the campaign. The pentagon is reportedly planning to deploy nearly 4000 more u. S. Soldiers to afghanistan. This comes after President Trump gave the pentagon authority last week to set troop levels in afghanistan. There are currently 8400 u. S. Troops deployed to afghanistan, and the u. S. War in afghanistan is the longest war in us history. President trump is traveling to miami today where hell announce a reversal of the historic normalization of relations between the u. S. And cuba that was brokered under president obama. Trump is expected to significantly crack down on travel between the u. S. And cuba less than a year after direct commercial flights between the two countries resumed after being barred for more than 50 years. Trump is also expected to prohibit all business with companies that are linked to the cuban military, which is involved in much of the hotel and tourism industries. In london, outrage over the deadly fire at a 24story Public Housing building earlier this week is rising as the death toll continues to rise. The fire at the 24story Grenfell Tower Apartment Building in west london killed at least 30 residents, as many as 70 residents are still missing meaning the death toll could eventually top 100. The first of the fires victims to be named is mohammed alhajali, a 23yearold syrian refugee. Labor leader Jeremy Corbyn has proposed requisitioning vacant luxury Apartment Buildings in order to house those who have been made homeless by the massive fire. Residents are demanding answers about safetycerns were continuing ignored. This is pilgrim tucker of the grenfell action group. The standard work was really, really shoddy and poor. Work sticking inches outside of the walls. There were power surges. Like the building what dead and the fire, the emergency lighting did not come on. And these residents are again and again and again and they were threatened with legal action. They tried to get lawyers, but because of the legal aid cuts, they could not get lawyers. Amy the residents, who are mostly lowincome, say the renovation was largely aimed at making aesthetic improvements to the exterior of the building in order to make it blend in with the spate of new luxury highrises in the rapidly gentrifying west london neighborhood. New revelations suggest that the shiny exterior paneling installed during the renovation was highly flammable and is responsible for accelerating the fire. This is one of the buildings residents. 10 Million Pounds theyre talking about cu, and they put these shoddy amy british Prime Minister theresa may has ordered a full public investigation into the fire. The Russian Military says it may have killed isis leader Abu Bakr Albaghdadi during an airstrike last month in raqqa. A atemt by russiadefee Ministry Says the rstre may ha killed albaghdadi and other isis fighters in syria. Neither isis nor the Syrian Government has commented on his possible death. There have been a number of previous false reports of albaghdadis death in the last few years. In egypt, dozens of activists were arrested in a series of sweeping raids nationwide thursday ahead of planned demonstrations today protesting egypts agreement to hand over control of two islands to saudi arabia. Critics say the islands belong to egypt and that their transfer is linked to the billions of dollars the saudis have given to support egyptian president fatah elsisis government. The raids come amid a nationwide crackdown against human rights activists and journalists. Meanwhile, in more news on egypt, six young men are facing execution based on confessions that human rights activists say were extracted under torture. The men are recent College Graduates who were arrested in 2015, along with more than a dozen others. While their testimony was captured on camera, the men say they were beaten, shocked with electricity, and hung in painful positions, and then provided with written testimonies they were forced to read. They were sentenced to death last month on terrorism charges after a military trial. Human rights activists are now demanding a president ial pardon to save the men from execution. Back in the united has formally rescinded president obamas deferred action for parents of americans proam, or dapa, which would have shielded millions of immigrants with u. S. Citizen or permanent resident children from deportation. Dapa had been blocked by the courts and was never implemented. This comes as the Trump Administration has said explicitly for the first time that recipients of daca thats deferred action for childhood arrivals will not have their work permits canceled before their expiration dates. Daca permits last two to three years. However, the statement by the Homeland Security department did not say whether the Trump Administration will grant renewals of daca permits. In pennsylvania, jurors are meeting again today for a fourth remain deadlocked as they head into their fourth day of deliberation in the criminal Sexual Assault trial of comedian bill cosby. Cosby faces three counts of aggravated indecent assault. Andrea constand, the former director of operations for the Womens Basketball team at temple university, has accused cosby of drugging and sexually assaulting her at his home in 2004. Cosby was an alum of temple university. Constand is one of about 60 women who have accused cosby of Sexual Assaults dating back decades. Familys wedding planner to run the largest hud office in the United States. Lynne patton has planned events for the trump family since 2009, including the wedding of lara and eric trump. She has also helped run the eric trump foundation, which is now under investigation by new York State Attorney general Eric Schneiderman over whether the charity took money intended to go to children with cancer and instead funneled it into the forprofit trump organization. Lynne patton has no experience running Public Housing. On her linkedin page, she lied about having a degree from Yale University and quinnipiac law school. She has been to have to to oversee the Public Housing for new york and new jersey, which involves managing billions of dollars of federal money. In ithaca, new york, a 28yearold transgender woman named Kendra Marie Adams was killed on tuesday. Her body was found in a building under construction with burns on it. A 45yearold man named Michael Davis has been arrested in connection to adams death. He was charged with seconddegree murder and firstdegree arson. And the president of the National Action networks ferguson missouri chapter, reverend carlton lee, has died at the age of 34. Lee was the pastor of Flood Christian Church in ferguson. He was an outspoken activist for justice for michael brown, the unarmed African American teenager killed by police in to bakeh his body left the hot august sun for hours. It sparked an uprising in ferguson. Lee received dozens of Death Threats for his activism. His church was also set on fire amid the protests over browns death. Reverend carlton lee died Tuesday Morning from a heart attack. And those are some of the headlines. This is democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman. The Standing Rock sioux tribe has won a major legal victory in federal court which may have the power to force the shutdown of the 3. 8 billion Dakota Access pipeline. District judge James Boasberg ruled wednesday that the Trump Administration failed to conduct an adequate Environmental Review of the pipeline after President Trump ordered the army corps to fasttrack and greenlight its approval. The judge requested additional briefings next week on whether the pipeline should be shut off until the completion of a full review of a potential Oil Spills Impacts on fishing and hunting rights, as well as environmental justice. The pipeline faced months of massive resistance from the Standing Rock sioux tribe, members of hundreds of other indigenous tribes from across the americas, as well as nonnative allies. Speaking at a rally last week, President Trump said he signed the memo to greenlight the pipeline with his eyes closed. Pres. Trump i am pleased to announce that the Dakota Access pipeline, which i just mention, is now officially open for business, a 3. 8 billion investment in american infrastructure that was stalled, and nobody thought any politician would have the guts to approve that final leg. And i just closed my eyes and said, do it. Know when i proved it, it is up and running and it is beautiful, it is great. Everybody is happy. The sun is still shining, the water is clean. You know when i approved it, i thought i would take a lot of heat. I took none. None. People respected it. But i take so much heat for nonsense that it probably overrode it probably overrode the other. It is like a decoy. Well, last week just after trumps comments but before the judge ruled this week, i spoke Standing Rock sioux tribe Dave Archambault. He was joined by nick tilsen, executive director of the Thunder Valley Community Development corporation and a citizen of the Oglala Lakota nation. I asked him about the tribes lawsuit challenging the pipeline. Wefrom the very beginning, asked the corps of engineers, what impact will this pipeline have on our people . They never could answer that. Their responses, were doing an Environmental Assessment and were going to see what impact it will have on the environment. There is no impact. That is what they state. So when we say, well, we need to do a further look and see what really happens when Infrastructure Projects have an and we haver people experienced many Infrastructure Projects in the past such as a Railroad System. A rural system facilitated a Railroad System facilitated the near extension of buffalo herds when we were at 70 million buffalo in 1800. By 1880 nine, less than 100. It was the Railroad Tracks system that did that. ,here are interstates allcommunications, dams of these have a Significant Impact on us. That is the question we asked to get the answer the record a full indepth Environmental Impact statement. , with the past administration, to say, lets at least do an Environmental Impact statement. With this it administration, the ea, theres not going to be any impact to you or to your people if or when this pipeline breaks, we will be the first impacted. Amy there were leaks even before it went operational . Yes. Amy explain. It wasnt operational. The valves, they put oil through the pipelines. It leaked significant amount, even though it was a test. We understood and we knew there were going to be leaks. It was that even fully operational, and they were already experiencing leaks and given fines for 200,000 200,000 allens of oil being leaked. They said, we will clean it up and fix it. It is ok now. That just goes to show this pipeline is not clean, it is not pretty. It is not a beautiful thing. It is something that is going to come back and haunt maybe not as today, but the future. Amy can you respond to what President Trump said . He just closed his eyes and sign it. When President Trump comes out with statements like that, it is revealing his true character. It tells america what kind of known he is when we all his first agenda was to sign this he is calling it an executive order and then they switched it to a president ial memorandum. But it is because he has his own interest in this pipeline. He was sponsored, with his campaign, by kelcy warren. He had shares for Energy Transfer partners. He had political interests. All of the people who support him are saying this has to be done. For him to say i blindly did this, it is complete lie and it tells what kind of character this man really. Has amy nick tilsen, your response when you hear President Trump say he did this with his eyes closed, signing off on the final permit to allow the Dakota Access pipeline to be built under the Missouri River . And then that there was no response afterwards . I think the reality for signing with his eyes closed is probably the truth, it is probably what he did do. He has been a problem of energy energyes prop of companies. That is just the reality. We assume of the biggest outcries and protests in decades. Historical amounts of protest. It was metsay that with no response is a total lie. That is another alternative fact that he has stuck when the reality is, tens of thousands of our freedomsiced to protect this water, protected sacrificed everything we had. Women and children and families, Indigenous People who are allies from all over the country and all over the world. People around the world understand what happened at Standing Rock. It is a constant pr thing where he says, oh, nobody cares. The people do care. Amy i want to ask about an explosive new investigation that reveals how International Private Security Firm tigers one targeted Dakota Access water protectors with military style counterterrorism measures. Began as a contractor hired by Energy Transfer partners, the Company Behind the 3. 8 billion Dakota Access pipeline. The investigation based on leaked internal documents which show how tigerswan collaborated with Law Enforcement agencies to surveillance the movement. In the documents, tigerswan calls the water protectors insurgents. And the movement and ideologically grew driven insurgency, even uses words like jihadi. Chairman Dave Archambault . It just goes to show who Law Enforcement is going to listen to. Law enforcement listens to the political leaders. The political leaders are bought by corporations. In north dakota, we have a senator who has interest in the oil fields. We have amy who is that . Senator hogan. He is interest in wells. Cramer postressman received some of the largest amounts of contributions from the fossil fuel industry. We have a governor come at that time governor dalrymple, who had some intermixings with china oil. Leadershippolitical in north dakota will say we have to have this pipeline go in. And because they are saying this, theyre only going to listen to the corporations and the company. And theyre going to give direction the Law Enforcement. It is frustrating to me because we had countless meetings with Law Enforcement. We let them know there are infiltrators. This is not all the demonstrators who are creating this. We dont know who all of the people are. All along there listening to the Security Private firms. Theyre working handinhand with the companys private Security Firms. Theyre having daily briefings with the company Security Firms. Theyre ignoring completely tribal leadership. And all were doing is trying to make sure that safety was the number one priority. Where these guys, if reports from tigerswan are true, they were not looking out for safety, they were looking to insight and to harm. That is disturbing post of amy Standing Rock sioux chair dave ,rchambault and nick tilsen Thunder Valley Community Development corporation talking. I spoke with them over federal judge James Boasberg ruled on wednesday the Trump Administration failed to carry out an adequate Environmental Review of the pipeline. Judge boasberg has requested additional briefings next week on whether the pipeline should be shut off until the completion of a full review of the potential oil spills impact on fishing and hunting rights, as well as environmental justice. We will be back with the men in a moment. [music break] amy this is democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman. As we return to my conversation with Standing Rock sioux chair Dave Archambault and nick tilsen of the Thunder Valley Community Development corporation. When we were there labor day weekend, when i first met you out there at the camps, we could see the planes. Whenever i would point them out they would say, oh, theyre just surveilling us. You, i was wondering if could talk about this and when you have these private paramilitary firms, tiger formedswan by a former delta force member, where you have these companies as chairman dave was describing, working with local Law Enforcement and the effect it has. Then it would like to go into your own personal history and are remarkable family history, but what this means. And a basically prove, they prove this is the modern form of going toe pro. Cointelpro. A modern contracted version of it whose design in using basically all of the lessons theyve been building off of fighting terrorism, but using it on their own people. This is real. In the camp and all of the organizing, the stuff we did, we knew this was happening. We could not prove it was happening, but we knew to an element it was happening. We would show up at these protests, and it would be Security Officers and police who knew us by first name, who knew where we came from, who knew where in the camp we were staying. There was all kinds of stuff that happened during that time. I think the reality is, like the American Public needs to realize when we were organizing the camp, we were not allowed to fly our own planes or have her own observations. We thought about getting these to do this. Theres a nofly zone in place over the camp, meanwhile, counterintelligence comedies are allowed to come and survey yes. This is a misuse of the democracy. This is a fundamental issue of our time. Im glad these reports are coming out now and not 20 years from now because them coming out now lets the broader movements now that are converging together understand this is happening. This is something the public has have a public outcry over. To use counterintelligence tactics against peaceful water protectors who are expressing our Constitutional Rights for freedom of speech, this is an outrage. I think that moving forward, we have to be diligent. The movement has to be diligent in recognizing this is a reality. And those that support us have to recognize what were fighting against. We show up with our prayers. We show up with our bodies. We show up with our children and our families to these protests. Theyre showing up with all of the technologies and weaponry that is possible. This is a fight over the future of this country. Amy talk about your family, your familys history. You are from kind ridge. Yes. My mother is from kind ridge. My father is from the minneapolis twin cities area. My grandfather, a civil rights attorney and attorney for the American Indian movement, and my parents met around the time of wounded knee. I got to really grow up around activist type of family. Amy and for those who do not know what wounded knee was . Theounded knee was about siege, occupation of wounded knee and 1973 that was organizing from different Indigenous People from around the country. Amy in south dakota. On the pine ridge indian reservation, about three miles from where i live. Wasas the generation it Standing Rock. It was the time in which people spoke out about all of these grave injustices against all Indigenous People. It sparked a movement throughout the future of Indian Country about what it means. In a familyg up hearing all of the stories about when disney and the American Indian movement. I was asked, i wonder what our wounded knee is going to be . What our generation of wounded knee is going to be . And then Standing Rock happen. I think the most important point here, if you look after wounded knee, the trajectory of Indian Country began to change. Inferent policies changed and in country. That is one of the stories i guess that we have, one of the opportunities we have here is that where we go from here for the indigenous rights struggle in this country is huge. Theres a consciousness it has raised. There are people that are fired up. We have the possibility and the potential to shape the next 40, 50 years looks like for Indigenous People. Amy your greatgrandmother, can you tell us who she was . She was a poet. She was an activist. She was a writer. Believer in ale different world. Writer of poetry books, bush also fought for the womens right to vote. But she also fought for the womens right to vote. She was an organizer in the labor movement. The big sacrifice or for some of the rights we have today. She is a legend beyond our family and it a lotf things that helped shape this country. Generation, we still derive a lot of current from the courage she had. Amy so you were arrested in september. What were you doing . On september 14, there was a toup of us that locked down machinery. This was during the period of time where they moved the buffer zone. Wherewas a buffer zone there was no construction within 20 miles. The companies moved to a sevenday work wee outside o that. This whole time they knew there were going to get approval. So we said, instead of sitting back and waiting for them, lets take the fight to them. Lets use nonviolent direct action and our abilities to take the fight to them. We went to a construction site, camep on the macnery. When we got to the construction site, we had lockboxes to lock ourselves to the machinery. Immediately when they seen us, they tried to run us over with excavators. They swung the buckets at us and barely missed us. We used our bodies climbing up on the machinery and shutting the construction down. Amy what were you charged with . I was charged with four different charges. Three misdemeanors Disorderly Conduct, obstruction of a , and thet function felony charge was reckless endangerment. It was a felony charge. This is one of the first felonies that one of the first felony charges they did at Standing Rock was on the day i was arrested with the folks i was taking action with. It was a pretty important thing because there were trying to use it as a tactic. It was to overcharge people, essentially, to use the political system to discourage people. I think it was probably the 40th person arrested. The strategy to discourage people did not work. I think there were over 700 people after i was arrested that were arrested. But the Disorderly Conduct charge is a serious charge. I am still facing that charge. On said to go to trial august 17 i am set to go to trial on august 17 post up the difference between misdemeanor reckless and a german charge and a felony is they are basically saying i had extreme indifference for human life for locking myself to view the machinery to protect water. Amy how many people are still facing trials, facing charges . Hundreds. I was on the water protector legal collective email chain recently and i think there is still between four and 600 people facing charges. ,my chairman Dave Archambault you were arrested. When were you arrested and has your case gone to trial . I was arrested august 12. Last week i just got done with my trial. I was acquitted. Right after that, Dakota Access pipeline filed a temporary restraining order on me. That was granted. So the tribe filed to brew restraining order on the company and the judge said, we are not granting this. But as soon as they file when ami, the judge grants it. After that, they filed a civil to theinst me trying costs and expenses that the protestpin is creating on me. I was a maybe about three weeks ago that one was dismissed. 75,000 more or one person. Amy were you jailed . Yes, i went to jail. We bonded out the same day. Amy were you stripsearched . Yes list of amy we put in an orange jumpsuit . Yes. Amy the same . Yes, stripsearched, jailed. I had a broken foot at the time. We were not treated very well in there. We did not get our bedding. There were other native brothers in just for other things. They were the ones advocating for us to get our bedding and different stuff. There been enough for a while. Amy at this point, hundreds of members of the Standing Rock sioux tribe and other tribes and nonnative allies still face trial. To this expose about tigerswan and them calling the resistance, meaning you chairman Dave Archambault and you nick tilsen and so many others, the insurgency. What do you make of that . Even referring to your resistance as a kind of jihadi insurgency, nick. Insurgents. How is it possible that any Indigenous People are insurgents on their only and . Our land has been overrun by corporations. By the militarization of our lands and our communities and our people. It is impossible for us as Indigenous People on our only and to be insurgents. It isre is insurgents, the company, is the private military company. It is impossible for us to be insurgents on our own land. At Standing Rock what our ancestors did. We did at Standing Rock, which is stand in prayer. We did things founded in our culture, our spirituality. This is women, children, families, people that came there to sacrifice. We were not insurgents. We were fighting for what was right. Simply fighting for what we believed in and protecting water on behalf of 17 million americans. ,my chairman Dave Archambault talk about what it is you are doing now just a few miles from the Dakota Access pipeline where the oil is flowing, the fossil fuel industry has succeeded in building that. But what are you now doing a Standing Rock . We have over 12 communities on Standing Rock. What would be a train or goal is to have what would be a dream or goal is to have all 12 committees card off of renewables. But we have to start somewhere. The best place is cannonball because it is so close to were this fossil fuel gain exist. Level, then aty the national level, if tribes made tribal nations can say we are 100 powered and 100 we consume Renewable Energy, that builds awareness for other communities and may be nation. Amy how are you doing this, with wind and solar . With solar panels, were starting off with 300 kilowatts project. On the commercial wind side, we have a resource and that is the wind that can generate a lot of electricity in the great plains. So how do we develop it to where the tribe is actually the owner of the project and not the investors or the developers . So we need to take a more active role. We are exploring every ways to be actual owners once this is developed. It will be a commercial wind farm. Were talking like 100 megawatts producing on average maybe 40 megawatts to 50 megawatts. We will be able to take that power and sell it commercially, and then use the resources to or it evil our evolved our home so they can provide heat in a good way, rather than burning fossil feels. Does thistilsen, what mean to you in time rich to have this kind of project . It means a lot to us in time ridge. In pine it has been the place where pipelines go through, the place where they store nuclear waste. In thisve nations country have been the dumping grounds for the Energy Industry for a long time. It just so happens to be that native communities are also have the potential to be the saudi arabia of Renewable Energy. These communities also have eight of the 12 communities and all of america are in north dakota and south dakota and theyre all indian committees. Amy explain. Eight of the 12 poorest communities are in north dakota and south dakota and theyre all tribal communities. Keystone xl pipeline theyre not just going through the heart of Indian Country, theyre going through ground zero for in equity of america. Ground zero for poverty in america. What were basically saying is were not just against these pipelines, we are against these pipelines we believe these pipelines are pipelines to the past. We believe we should be building sustainable infrastructure for the future rock and hind ridge and Thunder Valley is building the communities of tomorrow. And beginning the process of Just Transition and what that looks like. Amy nick tilsen is with the Thunder Valley Community Development corporation. We were also speaking with chairman Dave Archambault, the 45th chairman of the Standing Rock sioux tribe. They were both in new york for the Standing Rock sioux to receive the and our role Henry Wallace award, that comes with a 1 Million Investment in wind and Solar Projects in Renewable Energy projects from the wallace global fund. James boasberg ruled the Trump Administration failed to carry out Environmental Review of the Dakota Access pipeline. The judge will decide next week on whether the pipeline should be shut off until the completion of the full review of the potential impacts of an oil spill. When we come back, congressman Keith Ellison, coach of the house progressive caucus, the first muslim member of congress. Stay with us. [music break] amy this is democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman. U. S. Lawmakers returned to capital hill in a somber mood thursday as their colleague, Republican House whip Steve Scalise, remained in Critical Condition after he was shot wednesday while practicing for a congressional baseball game for charity in a washington suburb. President donald trump said thursday scalise faces a much more difficult struggle to recover from his gunshot wound than first thought. Pres. Trump and steve, in his own way, may have brought some unity to our long divided country. We have had a very, very divided country for many years. And i have a feeling that steve has made a great sacrifice, but there could be some unity being brought to our country. Lets hope so. Amy investigators say the shooter James Hodgkinson obtained his rifle and handgun from licensed firearms dealers. Hodgkinson died after officers in scalises security detailed fired back at him. The shooting prompted some republicans to call for lawmakers to carry weapons, while others are calling for tighter firearms restrictions. Congress member Steve Scalise, a louisiana republican, describes himself on his website as a strong supporter of the second amendment, and has an a rating from the National Rifle association, which opposes guncontrol measures. Our next guest has been slammed by the nra as an antisecond amendment radical, but says he is been mischaracterized. Were joined from minneapolis by democratic representative Keith Ellison of minnesota. He is cochairman of the house progressive caucus. Hes the first muslim member of congress. Ellison is also the deputy chair of the Democratic National committee. We want to talk about much more, including trumps plans to reverse the normalization of relations with cuba, the courts rejection of the second muslim travel ban, and how congressman ellison joined with nearly 200 Democratic Congress members and suing President Trump, accusing emolumentsating the clause of the constitution by accepting millions of dollars in payments from foreign governments to his companies while serving as u. S. President. Welcome to democracy now , commerce men ellison. I want to begin with your response to the shooting of your colleague house leader Steve Scalise. Tragedy. It is a wearable we are pulling for steve, praying for his recovery, understanding the injuries he justred are serious and we know that his family and everybody in his district and the whole country is just really pulling for him to make a speedy recovery. That is essentially how i feel about this shooting. Of course, the larger issues remain, dont they . The issue of the availability of firearms anywhere. Not just firearms, but serious weapons like a high velocity assault rifle, like the one used in this case. And the ammunition. Theink we need to look at availability of this kind of ammunition really poses increased danger because these damage after they hit the individual, bouncing around inside a persons body and cause internal damage to internal organs. And that is how they are designed to work. I mean, this whole firearm debate, this whole in our country, it is gone to the radical extreme. The nra says if we have any common sense, reasonable restrictions on guns, firearms, then that is just the equivalent of complete abolition. I noted you mentioned my position is mischaracterized. It is mischaracterized because i have never come out to say that no american should be able to own a private firearm. What i have said is we need to have background checks. We need to make sure people who may hurt themselves or others do not get access to these weapons. We should not have any military style weapons. There should be limitary dish limited limitations on the size of clips. The center for the Disease Control should track and monitor gun deaths and violence committed with firearms. Not just people who go out and shoot others, but what about the suicides . What about accidental deaths . What about this information . If we had it, we could have a much better picture on how to move about on a policy position. Look, those know, guys are in it for the money. Simple as that. There is an important documentary out called making a killing. It talks about how the large financial interests fueled their stream positions because it paid them. Amy not only did what happened in alexandria happened with a number of people shot, including congressman scalise, but within hours, the killing of three people at the ups facility in san francisco, and then the gunman killing himself. These happen on such a regular basis. That is what i was going to say, amy. It almost seems like every day the sad thing is that these Mass Shootings have become the new normal. The extraordinary thing about scalisepened to steve is that he is a member of congress. At that is done even the first time that happened. Getty giffords was shot as she was doing congress on your corner in her district years ago. So even members of Congress Getting shot somehow has not prompted us to take a look at what were doing and what were not doing when it comes to making the country safer. Amy of course this week as the anniversary of the pulse nightclub shooting where scores of people were gunned down, 49 people dead. Absolutely. It is a horrific tragedy. I just want to say that our country has to here the cries and the pleas of the families who suffer this way. Explanation for our inaction other than powerful interests who make a lot of money selling guns and ammunition and Everything Else simply standing away and wont allow it. Im never going to stop fighting for common sense, good done safety laws. And if they say i am some sort of extremist, then that is just the ultimate form of projection because clearly, i mean, just so you know, amy, i owned a few shotguns. Im not against that. That is in my family history. I dont think theres anything wrong with that. The wildthink just west atmosphere that we have in terms of regulating firearms is ridiculous. Other countries dont do this. As a result, they are a lot safer when it comes to this danger. Amy i want to switch gears and ask you about what is happening with the health care bill. President trump, Top Republican lawmakers, continued their push to repeal and replace their formal health care act. Think progress says, no one seems to know what is going on. At a thursday hearing, dick , have asked tom price your anyone in your department seen with the Senate Republicans are working on in terms of their version of trumpcare . What is the senate doing right now . What we know is trump has this plan, a lunch with 13 republican senators. Anybody who believes that the United States government has responsibility help americans get Health Care Better ramp up their activity because i believe what is going to happen is the senate may will likely get a bill that is just as ugly as the house bill and what they will do is they will skip regular order. They wont have hearings. They wont give the country chance to mobilize and i just. They probably wont even wait for Congressional Budget Office score. They will just bring it straight to the floor and pass it as quickly as they can. Thinkhink that is i that is why the extreme secrecy thing is the path that Mitch Mcconnell is following. They are very deliberately on this because they want to catch us by surprise. I believe in the American People and i dont believe were going to let that happen. Call your senator. Get involved. This thing is probably going to go quick once it starts. Amy resurprised when you heard that President Trump called the house version mean and they had to fix it and what that can possibly mean . Nothing that trump does surprises me. Here is the reality of donald trump. He watches television. He serves them what he thinks they want. Would throw he his republican allies under the bus in a hot second if you thought it would serve him. No im not surprised about that. But the real thing is, he would sign that bill, right . He did not call it mean as it was going through. Just of people watching know, the republican bill is not actually a health care bill. It is essentially a tax cut wra pped in the veneer of a health care bill. It would redistribute millions of dollars by cutting medicaid to the wealthiest americans and leave about 23 Million People without health care coverage. Mean. Of course, we knew that from before. Those of us who are calling attention to the ugliness of this bill could have used the support of the president , but we did not get it when we needed it. Amy we only have a few minutes and i want to get to a number of topics. Nearly 200 Democratic Congress members are suing President Trump, accusing him of violating the emoluments clause of the constitution by accepting millions of dollars in payments from foreign governments to his companies while serving as president. Explain in what you hope to gain from this and whether you think in a republicans will join you in this lawsuit. Looking for our constitutional republican conservatives out there. They like to tout themselves as that. It would be nice to have one nowadays. The constitution of the u. S. Says the president , nor any federal officer, can receive payments from a foreign government. The root of this idea is that we want the American Government to work for the American People. It also has in a provision that you can do it if Congress Approves of it. But congress has not been presented within a request to approve the president receiving an emolument. What are we talking about . Well, lets start with the fact he owns a bunch of golf courses. For nationals can take out memberships to the tune of, i dont know, several hundred thousand dollars, pay annual about 25,000orm of dollars. And those things go straight into his personal accounts. That is money that goes straight to him. Then there other things. If anybody goes to stay a night at his hotel, i mean, he is essentially receiving payments from foreign sources which he is not entitled to do unless he gets permission from congress which he has not got. He is violating the constitution. And he was filing big on day 1 and he was violating it on day one. Miami today to announce the closing down of the opening of the relationship between cuba and the United States that president obama started after 50 years. Your response . More of trump dragging us back to the failed past that did not work. Obama was right. We tried the separation, the blockade for 50 years. It did not work. And so obama am a quite correctly, charted a new course. And here we go again, him trying to repeal everything obama stands for. Can i mention something im working on . Amy go ahead. One thing im working on is called resistance summer, and engagement of americans all over the country. It is an effort to try to get back in touch with americans around the core issues we are facing health care, accountability and government, increasing wages, protecting social security. I just want to say on june 3, we had 120 sites, all 50 states, and were moving in very aggressively to try to make sure we are converting the Democratic Party into a real party of the grassroots. I just wanted to say that. If anybody wants to hear more about it, they can 4 style3367 and text resit. Came amongeople those who addressed the crowd was Bernie Sanders. Is Bernie Sanders or you or other congressman going to introduce a major singlepayer bill around health care . We already did. We just introduced medicare for all. Were moving forward on it. We believe in that idea. John conyers introduced hr676 years ago. We believe in singlepayer. While we are going to fight and defend the Affordable Care act, our sights are set higher. Whereire to assist everyone is covered and everyone can go to the doctor. That is what i believe the United States should have. We should join the rest of the world and cover all of our people. Amy Compass Minerals and, thank you for joining us, cochairman of the house progressive caucus. That does it for our show. Democracynow. Org [captioning made possible by democracy now ] [announcer] P Allen Smiths garden to table is brought to you by the berry family of nurseries growers of edibles, hardy trees and shrubs, and fresh holiday greenery. And by the makers of jobes organic fertilizer now in spikes, granular and water soluble formulas easy gardener. Com. This is the perfect time to begin thinking about the sorts of foods that you eat, what youre spending at the Grocery Store and maybe some changes you might want to make with regard to your diet and your health. Theres so much awareness out there about nutrition and diet that its prompted people to think ou