Amy 11 republican president ial candidates battled it out at the Ronald Reagan president ial library last night in the second republication president ial of the campaign. President ial debate of the campaign. We will play highlights and speak to Pulitzer Prize winning journalist David Cay Johnston and john nichols. Then while wildfires rage in california, we will be joined by Climate Justice activist Tim Dechristopher. He spent 21 months in jail for disrupting an auction for oil drilling rights. Now he has joined a coalition calling on the white house to stop issuing new fossil fuel leases on public lands and oceans. But first to oklahoma, where three and a half hours before he was set to be executed, Richard Glossip was granted a stay of execution for two weeks. All that and more, coming up. Welcome to democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman. An Oklahoma Appeals Court granted deathrow prisoner Richard Glossip a lastminute stay of execution on wednesday only hours before he was slated to die. The decision was a response to an emergency request filled by filed by his lawyers amidst evidence he may be innocent. Robert patton, director of the Oklahoma Department of corrections, announced the stay. A few minutes ago i received a phone call from a general counsel that the Oklahoma Court of criminal appeals has issued a stay for Richard Glossip until september 30. I have not read the actual order itself. I do not know the reasons behind the stay. What thenow stipulations of the state are. I have met with mr. Glossips family and inform them of the state. Amy we will go to obama city and speak with Richard Glossip less attorney and sister Helen Prejean after headlines. 11 candidates faced off in the second republican president ial debate wednesday night, four candidates who are lagging behind in the polls debated earlier in the evening. We will discuss the primetime debate of the excerpts later in the broadcast. Green Party President ial candidate jill stein has launched a petition to allow thirdparty candidates in the president ial debate. In 2012, dr. Stein and her running mate were arrested and shackled to chairs for about seven hours for trying to enter a debate from which stein and other thirdparty candidates were blocked from participating. Stein and others plan to file a lawsuit against the commission on president ial debates. Federal prosecutors are reportedly set to settle a criminal probe into General Motors for concealing an ignitionswitch defect linked to at least 124 deaths. The deal includes a nearly 1 billion fine, but spares any individual employees from prosecution. General motors has agreed to sign a deferredprosecution agreement, meaning the case will eventually be dismissed if the gm complies with the deals terms. In news from europe, the hungarian military has begun sending humvees mounted with guns toward its border with serbia, as the Hungarian Police detained dozens of refugees and fired tear gas and Water Cannons at hundreds more. Thousands more have set out across croatia, where the government has dispatched a team of mine clearers out of concern refugees might be killed or maimed by mines left over from fighting the mid1990s. Meanwhile germanys top , migration official has stepped down, following criticism that his office was not processing asylum applications fast enough. Germany says it expects at least one Million People to seek asylum there this year. As turmoil in syria continues to force connected us of refugees the top u. S. Military commander , in the middle east has acknowledged u. S. Efforts to train forces to counter the selfproclaimed Islamic State in syria have netted only a handful of fighters. Speaking before a senate panel, general lloyd austin acknowledged the 500 Million Program has produced only four or five fighters currently battling isil. And the a small number, ones that are in the fight is were talking four or five. Amy in other news on syria, the Obama Administration is reportedly going to accept talks between the u. S. And russian militaries following reports russia is building up forces in syria to support president bashar alassad. U. S. Officials said they expect the military to military talks will be in the coming days. In news from africa, Burkina Fasos military has seized power in an apparent military coup, after the president ial guard detained interim president Michel Kafando and dissolved the Transitional Government on wednesday. The president ial guard is loyal to Burkina Fasos former longtime president blaise compaore, who was ousted in a Popular Uprising nearly one year ago. Elections had been slated for next month. Hundreds of people slated for next month. In chile, one Million People have been evacuated and five people have been killed after a powerful 8. 3magnitude earthquake which caused flooding in coastal areas. Fifteenfoot waves struck the hit coastal town of coquimbo. Hundreds of thousands are without electricity. The Mexican Government says experts have identified remains of a second of the 43 students who went missing in the state of guerrero almost a year ago. Mexican authorities have claimed the students were rounded up by local police and turned over to drug gang members, who killed them and burned their bodies at a garbage dump. A recent independent report rejected mexicos version of events, and pointed to a role by federal police and the military in the students disappearance. On wednesday, authorities said testing by experts in austria determined a bone fragment from a site near the dump belonged to student jhosivani , guerrero de la cruz. In japan, lawmakers have taken a step toward enacting legislation that would allow japanese troops to fight abroad for the First Time Since world war ii. The bill was approved by the upper house after opposition lawmakers tried to physically block the vote. This comes after thousands of people protested outside the Japanese Parliament for a third consecutive day wednesday calling for the legislation to be scrapped and for Prime Minister shinzo abe to resign. They dont want the pacifist constitution of japan changed. A new report by inside climate news reveals how Oil Giant Exxon mobils own research confirmed the role of fossil fuels in Global Warming decades ago. By 1977, exxons own senior experts had begun to warn the burning of fossil fuels could pose a threat to humanity. At first, exxon launched an Ambitious Research program, outfitting a supertanker with instruments to study Carbon Dioxide in the air and ocean. But toward the end of the 1980s, exxon changed course, and shifted to the forefront of Climate Change denial. Since the 1990s, it has spent millions of dollars funding efforts to reject the science its own experts knew of decades ago. Scientist Richard Werthamer worked at exxon from 1978 to 1983, where he supervised exxons Carbon Dioxide program. The implications of increasing Carbon Dioxide were not that significant for exxon perse, they were significant because they implied dramatic changes in climate and that could provoke very substantial legislative consequences that would impact exxons business. You know, if you think that burning fossil fuels is going to flood your cities, well, theres when recent National Discussion about what to do about it. And one possibility is, were going after burn less carbon. Amy and in texas, a Muslim High School student who was arrested after bringing a homemade clock to school has received support from across the country, and announced plans to transfer schools. 14yearold Ahmed Mohamed built a digital clock and brought it is high school, Macarthur High School in irving, texas on , monday. After teachers said the device looked like a bomb, police interrogated and arrested him, handcuffed him and took him to a juvenile detention center, where they took his fingerprints and a mugshot. After mohameds story went viral amidst protest over islamophobia, he received praise from democratic president ial candidate Hillary Clinton and facebook founder mark zuckerberg, where he invited him to go to facebook and an invitation to the white house from president obama. Mohamed spoke at a News Conference wednesday. I guess everyone knows im the person who built a clock and got in a lot of trouble for it. Clock to impress my teacher, but when i showed it to her, she thought it was a threat to her. Sad that shelly took a wrong impression of it, and i got arrested for later that day. But since the charges have already been dropped, i would like to say that i really want and camp and im thinking about transferring schools to a different school. Amy the mayor of Ahmed Mohameds city, irving, texas, has defended police and school officials. She is been accused of fueling islamophobia in the past for championing a bill to counter the purported threat of sharia law in texas. And those are some of the headlines. This is democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report, im amy goodman with nermeen shaikh. Nermeen welcome to all our listeners and viewers from around the country and around the world. An Oklahoma Appeals Court granted death row prisoner Richard Glossip a lastminute stay of his execution on wednesday only hours before he was slated to die. The decision was a response to an emergency request filled by filed by his lawyers tuesday afternoon. The decision came down at 11 30 a. M. Only three and a half hours before his scheduled execution by lethal injection. Glossips new execution date is september 30. Richard glossip was convicted in a murderforhire case in 1997 when he worked as a manager at the best budget inn in Oklahoma City. He was accused and convicted of paying a Maintenance Worker named justin sneed to kill his boss, Barry Van Treese. Amy there was never a question about who committed the murder. Justin sneed admitted entering the bosss room, striking him multiple times with a baseball bat. But glossip was soon arrested, as well, for allegedly hiring sneed to carry out the murder. The case rested almost solely on sneeds claims that glossip had offered him money and Job Opportunities for the killing. Glossips attorneys say sneed implicated their client in exchange for a deal to receive life in prison instead of the Death Penalty. No physical evidence tied glossip to the crime. Joining us now is don knight, one of the pro bono attorneys representing deathrow inmate Richard Glossip. Also with us on the phone is sister Helen Prejean, one of the worlds most wellknown antiDeath Penalty activists. As a catholic nun, she began her Prison Ministry over 30 years ago. Is author of the bestselling book, dead man walking an eyewitness account of the Death Penalty. We welcome you both to democracy now lets first go to the studio to don knight in Oklahoma City. Explain what happened. Three and a half hours before he was slated to die he got a state execution. What happened . Why Richard Glossip was his life spared yesterday, though the date has been set for two weeks from now . With found the petition the Oklahoman Court of criminal appeals asking that they consider our evidence of innocence that we had compiled, and that we had given to the Oklahoma Court of criminal appeals on tuesday afternoon. Obviously, they took a look at it. I think they found merit in it. I dont know the reasons why they did not grant an indefinite stay in the hearing, but i think they just want to go ahead and look over the evidence and make sure theyre doing the right thing. But we were just so thrilled to have the opportunity to get a two week stay because we know theyre going to take it seriously, and that is what we are asking for. We think the evidence is good. We think it is strong. It shows Richard Glossips innocence. Amy explain what the evidence is. Basically, the government constructed a narrative, and it is a real torture narrative of this murder for hire when justlly, the real story is a very common story of a drug addict doing what a drug addict often does, and that is steel. Going. Is have a and the course of stealing to keep his have it going, he ended up killing a man. Witness,evidence, a who was a drug dealer and who will testify if this case gets a hearing that justin sneed was buying methamphetamine three or four times a week from him for stuff you was injecting it intravenously. He was definitely an addict. And furthermore, there is clear evidence that he was stealing from the rooms at the hotel using his passkey as a maintenance man, and was also stealing from the cars in the area. And that is exactly what he told in the thirdmself story he told in this case to the police, that he was going into Barry Van Treeses room using his passkey to get the keys from the pants on the goch, take them out to then to Barry Van Treese was car were he knew the money was and was going to still that money and it was pretty clear now he was going to still does steal that for the purpose of by more methamphetamine. Nermeen i want to ask about comments made by the attorney general scott pruitt. He said hes certain this will not result in anything new, saying im confident the court of criminal appeals after reviewing the filings will conclude there is nothing worthy which would lead the court to overturn a verdict reached by two juries who both found glossip guilty and sentenced him to death for Barry Van Treeses murder. Don knight, your response . This narrative they continue to throw out there were two juries, they use that when they wanted it to seem like the Death Penalty is inevitable here. Was so poorlyl conducted by the defense that the Oklahoma Court of criminal appeals itself reversed it and gave it back to the court for retrial because of it ineffective assistance of counsel. The truth is from the second trial, mr. Glossip did not get awyering. Loring l is one of thet attorneys representing Richard Glossip. We are getting a little problem with the satellite hits. Continue ,don. Thank you. See in the last 90 days we have been out once again conducting the investigation that we have found has never been conducted by the lawyers for mr. Glossip. Witnesses that should have been talked to, never were talk to. There were some us know investigation done so that when the time came for trial, theres no preparation done, very poorly conducted cross examination of justin sneed took once again, and there was no facts presented to back up what we have now found to be true, which is that justin sneed was in fact a drug addict and was stealing from the rooms. Amy can you explain a deal that justin sneed was offered by Police Detectives questioning him . Talk about the audiotape of them saying to him that he would avoid the Death Penalty if he implicated glossip. These two Police Officers were really quite good at how they sort of shifted and continued to sort of watch justin, i think, and play him to get him to where they wanted him to be. Once they got him to say the story that they really wanted him to say, which was to payicate richard in this for murder scheme, they went ahead and sent the confirmed with him that they had given him they had given the Police Everything that they wanted and it would really help him and he is really done himself a favor. He was asking about the Death Penalty may said, well, we cant be sure, but you have done yourself a good service here today. And a few months later, he signed a plea deal. s ourgain, don knight guest, one of the pro bono attorneys representing deathrow prisoner Richard Glossip. He is speaking to us from Oklahoma City. Oklahoma is where Richard Glossip is being held and was slated to die yesterday, now execution date has been put off by two weeks. We are also joined by sister Helen Prejean, one of the worlds most wellknown antiDeath Penalty activists. Youre in Oklahoma City as well. Explain your reaction to this lastminute reprieve. Well, yes, amy, first of all, let me just explain being with richard the night before i want to say this man has more spiritual poise, i think, than anyone ive ever met. A totally transparent, innocent person. And he was sharing, because we have had such a Big Worldwide campaign some of the letters he has gotten. Yes taken such heart, like the letter of a man who is about to commit suicide and plop down on his couch and then saw the dr. Phil show in which Susan Sarandon read richards statement and he looked at it and he just said, i mean, look what that guy put up with, 18 years, hes innocent and hes been on death row, which is underground, as you know, in oklahoma. And he picked up his life and he got another letter from a little and who was fighting cancer said, mr. Glossip, you give me courage. So our conversation, and this couldve been the last time i talk talked to him because the execution was to happen the next day, and they kept him in isolation after that. Someone couldhat be ready to go to death or to live. He felt his life and made a difference because he said, that is what Everyone Wants to do. I knew don and the more struggling furiously to get it into the court. They got it into the court around 4 15 in the afternoon. And there was a quietness and my heart and hopefulness because i know they had done such good work and they actually made the argument i had never been in a case before, but they actually made the argument for actual innocence, which the Supreme Court made very hard to do in the pereira decision. But when i heard how they were advancing the argument in the way don have been able to present it at press conferences about the alternative scenario here is what really happened, showing that this guy was a really bad drug addict who was stealing all the time. You dont need to interject Richard Glossip into the story to give this guy a motive or to motivate him to go kill somebody. It was so furious with the prosecution was doing. So the alternative scenario and narrative had started to get out there. Justi knew don and then, two witnesses, major, one showing that justin sneed was such a drug addict and now hooked he was on meth, and then there was another one we ought to let don tell about this, because he said to me, look, when people do a murder like this, they always talk about it. We got to go find somebody in jail with sneed or he talked about what he did, and that he had set up Richard Glossip. Sure enough, they found that witness. And just those two witnesses in there, it was such a shoddy investigation, nonexistent, and yet you could see how oklahoma District Attorney and the up. Rnor propped this thing of course, justice was done in our court. Of course, there could not a been a mistake. And it was all a mistake. And we got the truth out, enough in the world around the world, literally, that there was public there was an atmosphere of, wait a minute, somethings really wrong with this case. How can you execute a man solely on the word of somebody who admitted he a done a murder and was now serving a life sentence in a medium security prison and without forensic evidence, bring amanda execution . As richard himself said, this just shows how broken this thing is. And he said, even if i die, enough people now have heard about this that if it helps bring down the Death Penalty in this country. Amy we want to thank you for joining us, sister Helen Prejean. Richard glossips light has been spent for two weeks. We will continue to follow this case. His death now slated for september 30. Sister Helen Prejean in obama city, dealing with Richard Glossip. And don knight from a studio in obama city, one of the new pro bono attorneys representing deathrow prisoner Richard Glossip. Thank you so much. When we come back, the republican primary president ial debate at the reagan president ial library in simi valley, california. Stay with us. [music break] amy crazy world by buddy guy. This is democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman with nermeen shaikh. The Ronald Reagan president ial library hosted the second republican president ial debate last night and 11 candidates took to the stage. Four candidates lacking behind debated earlier in the day. Wednesday marks the first primetime debate including former hewlettpackard ceo Carly Fiorina. Ring the debate, she laid out part of her foreignpolicy vision. Russia is a bad actor, but Vladimir Putin is someone we should not talk to because the only way he will stop is to since strength and resolve on the other side, and we have all of that within our control. We could rebuild the six fleet. We could rebuild the missile defense. We could also give the egyptians what they have asked for, which is intelligence. We could give the jordanians what have asked for, bombs and were not supplied it will stop i will. We could arm the kurds. All of this was in our control. Amy that is Carly Fiorina at wednesdays republican president ial debate. In another part of the debate, donald trump criticized the record of former president george w. Bush. Youll hear jeb bushs response as well as rand paul and Governor Scott walker. It begins with donald trump. Your brothers administration gave us barack obama because it was such a disaster those last three months, that Abraham Lincoln could not have been elected. You know what . As a relates to my brother, theres one thing i know for sure, he kept us safe. I dont know if you remember [applause] do you remember the rubble . Your member the firefighter with his arms around him . He sent a clear signal that the United States would be strong and he to keep us safe. Do you feel safe right now . I also so safe. That is because of barack obama. We had a president who called isis the jv squad, yemen a success story, iran we can do business with. It is not because of george w. Bush, it is because of barack obama. Weret point, whether talking about national security, Foreign Policy or domestic policy the collapse of the economy. Quite a key issue is leadership. There a lot of great ideas but i would as the american people, look at who is been tested. When there were 100,000 protesters in my capital, i did not back down. When the issue death threats, i did not back down. When they try to recall me, i did not back down. When they made me one of the number one target to come i did not back down. Was made or hasnt been anyone else on the podium opposed to the iraq war. I have made my career as being an opponent to the iraq war and opposed to the syrian war and arming people who are our enemies. Iran is now stronger because hussein is gone. Hussein was the great bulwark and counterbalance to the iranians. About themplain iranians, you need to remember the iraq war made it worse. Originally, governor bush was asked, was the iraq war a mistake and he said, no, we would do it again. We have to learn sometimes the interventions act fire. The iraq war backfired and did not help us. Were still paying the repercussions of a bad decision. Amy that was rand paul and before that, Governor Walker and before that, jeb bush and donald trump. To talk about the debate more, were with David Cay Johnston is a Pulitzer Prizewinning Investigative Reporter previously with the new york times. Hes currently a columnist for Al Jazeera America as well as a contributing writer at newsweek. His latest book is, divided. The perils of our growing inequality. He has been covering donald trump for various publications for decades. And john nichols joins us from madison, wisconsin political , writer for the nation and the author of, uprising how wisconsin renewed the politics of protest, from madison to wall street. His latest piece for the nation. Com is headlined, how assess the debate that took place at the reagan president ial library last night. Long and very, very there were some points at which it actually offered a little bit of insight, but the fact of the matter is, it was painfully over focused on donald trump to the point where even when trump wasnt saying much of consequence, the camera was on him. And because of that over focus on trump, you ended up with highlighting of his back and forths with Carly Fiorina. Now, if you only analyzed this debate from the standpoint of who was glib, who was quickwitted, who jumped in at critical points, i think fiorina get a lot of marks for this and trump gets some. But if you step back and analyze it from a standpoint of what was accurate, what was realistic, that clip you just showed was incredibly powerful one. There was jeb bush saying his brother kept america safe, seeming to forget september 11, the attacks on september 11 attacks when his brother was president. Serious andost of questions that ought to be asked. Instead of countering them, here you have scott walker come in would essentially a campaign commercial where he repeats his kind of fantasies about standing up to workers in wisconsin and somehow that making him a great leader, and then, finally i thought this was an important part of the debate finally, rand paul steps in. A, a measure of history pointing out he was in fact an opponent of the iraq war and a critic of it. Answer and a number of other answers, really posing for the first time, i think, a clear alternative on foreignpolicy and to some extent, on domestic policy. I know most of the pundits and analysts will not say that rand paul did great out there, that he won this debate because he wasnt some glib, quick answer player here, but the fact of the matter is, it was rand paul who pointed out that the iraq war was a bad idea, that Carly Fiorinas talk about not talking idea,in is a terrible that the casual talk of some of these candidates about intervening and putting troops on the ground in syria and iraq is an awful idea. The fact of the matter was, if you watch rand paul in this debate, although i disagree with him on many issues, i think he was the guy who brought some serious insight to it. Amy David Cay Johnston, your thoughts watching the threehour debate last night . I was struck i the appalling lack of knowledge by a number of the candidates and how many just flatly. Statements were made that werent pursued at all. This really isnt a debate, it is sort of an opportunity for candidates to show off various points, but what i found most troubling was any lack of specifics of any kind donald trump is yet to be tied down on just how and with what Legal Authority unless he is the dictator rather than the president , he would round up 11 Million People and throw them out of the country. A number of the candidates ben carson in particular, i mean, ben carson is a great personal story and a terrific neurosurgeon, pediatric neurosurgeon, but it is eminently clear he knows very, very little to nothing about the issues you need to know as president. I was also struck by how subdued donald trump was, both during the debate and afterwards. And those of us that have no donald for long time no sometimes he is very, very energetic and her other periods when he is much more like he was last night, quite subdued and different in his behavior. Amy we want to go to another moment, a couple of moments in the debate. This is around the issue of drug policy. A number of the candidates weighed in, the question of medical marijuana was also debated. This is the cnn moderator jake tapper. Senator paul, governor christie recently said if youre getting high and colorado today were marijuana has been legalized, enjoy it until january 2017 because i will enforce the federal laws against marijuana. Will you . I think one of the great problems and with the immigrant people dont like about politics is hypocrisy. People who have one standard for others and not for themselves. Theres at least one prominent example on the stage of someone who says they smoked pot in high school, yet the people going to joe for this are poor people, often africanamericans and hispanics and yet the rich kids who used drugs arent. I personally think this is a crime of which the only a victim is the individual and i think america has to take a different attitude. I would like to see more readability should unless inc. Restoration. Im a fan of the drug courts that try to direct you back toward work and less time in jail. The e bottom line is the statese say we like the 10th amendment until we Start Talking about this. I think the federal government has gone too far. I think the war on drugs has had a racial outcome and really something that has damaged our inner cities, not only do the drugs damage them, we damage them again by incarcerating them and and preventing them from getting employment over time. So i dont think the federal government should override the state. I believe in the 10th amendment and i really will say the states are left themselves. I wantnt to give that to give the person you called hypocrite and opportunity to respond. Do you want to identify the person . It open,k if we left we could see how many people smoked pot in high school. s are so many were specifically thinking of . He was talking about me. Yeah i want to make it easier for him. 40 years ago, i smoked marijuana and i admit it. Im sure other people may have done it and dont want to say it in front of 25 Million People. My mom is not happy that i just it. Thats true. [applause] but heres the deal. Heres the deal. We have a series of a demagogue drugs that goes way beyond marijuana. Whatim in colorado goes on in colorado, that should be a state decision. If you look at the problem of drugs in the society today, it is a serious problem. Rand, you know this because youre campaigning in New Hampshire like all of us and using the epidemic of heroin, the overdoses that are taking place, peoples families are being torn apart. It is appropriate for the government to play a consistent role to be able to provide more treatment, more prevention, we are the state that has the most drug courts across every circuit in florida im at our drug courts to give people a second chance. That is the best way to do this. Let me respond. The thing is, in florida, governor Bush Campaign against medical marijuana, that means a small child like morgan that has 500 seizures a day is failing on nontraditional medications is not allowed to use cannabis oil in i they attempt to do that in florida, they will take the child away and put the parents in jail. That is what that means. If youre are against letting people use medical marijuana, were left to put them in jail. Kids who had privilege like you do, dont go to jail, but the poor kids in our inner cities go to jail. I dont think that is fair. I think we need to acknowledge it and it is hypocritical to still want to put poor people in jail i dont want to put poor people in jail. You oppose medical marijuana. No, i did not. Ballot marijuana on the was there was a huge loophole, it was the first step toward getting to a colorado place. As a citizen of florida, i voted no. That means you will put people in jail. I very much hope that im the only person on the stage who can say this, but i know there are millions of americans out there who will say the same thing my husband frank and i bear it buried a child. We must invest more in the treatment of drugs. I agree with senator paul and i agree with states rights, but we are misleading young people when we tell them that marijuana is just like having beer. It is not. The marijuana kids are smoking today is not the same as the marijuana that jeb bush smoked 40 years ago. [laughter] sorry, barbara. We do need criminal justice reform. We have the highest incarceration rates in the world. Two thirds of the people in our prisons are there for nonviolent offenses. Mostly drugrelated. It is clearly not working. But we need to tell young people the truth. Drug addiction is an epidemic. And it is taking too many of our young people. I know this, sadly, from personal experience. A that his former hewlettpackard ceo Carly Fiorina. Before that, jeb bush and senator rand paul. John nichols, weighin. I thought that was a Striking Exchange and actually one of the more useful ones that ive seen in the president ial debate. Here you have a situation where rand paul was clearly standing aside from the other candidates. Now, it may be that his campaign has gone so poorly and he is so low in the polls that he finally feels he doesnt have a lot to lose so he is speaking more of what he believes, but he was incredibly useful, especially, the intervention with jeb bush where he talked about the difference between people who come from privileged families and people who come from low income families, from innercity families, and how we clearly have a criminal Justice System that is not equal and not functional. You will notice that paul came back to that again and again. There to emphasize here, are a ton of issues on which i disagree with rand paul. I dont think he has the answers, especially economic concerns, but if you are to have a debate of a major party, you need to have differences of opinion. And what paul did last night was offers some genuine alternatives. One of the challenges all so i was struck by in this debate was the it wasnt just these ones you saw there, you also saw Chris Christie come in. And even though you have people who are now talking a little bit about dialing down some of the worst abuses of our criminal Justice System and a little bit about acknowledging the racial and economic injustices of the drug war, they still default to extreme statements and a position that ultimately i dont think is going the right direction. I do think this debate started to open some stuff up on these issues, however. Finally, the last point i will make, i give credit to the goingtor jake tapper for to paul repeatedly. He was asked seven direct questions in this debate. I think it was in an effort to insert a little bit of debate. Because we saw the horrible moment i dont know if we will get it later between donald trump and Carly Fiorina arguing about who was the worst ceo or who was the worst business person, i mean, it was just tragic. Amy it was also interesting because donald trump basically started out the whole debate by saying theres one person who doesnt belong here, the 11th when on the end, rand paul. Nermeen during the and he is the one who actually contributed something. Whats that . Nermeen i want to play the clip you mention when donald trump attacked Carly Fiorinas Business Record and she accused him of going bankrupt four times. The head of the yell Business School wrote a paper recently, one of the worst 10 years of ceo that he has ever seen ranked one of the top 20 in the history of business, the company is a disaster and continues to be a disaster, they still havent recovered. Today on the front page of the wall street journal, they fired people 25,000 or 30,000 saying, we still havent recovered from the catastrophe when carly says the revenues went up, that is because she bought compaq, a terrible deal, and it really led to the destruction of the company. One other company before that was lucid. It was lucid before that. Catastropheut to be also. I say this, she cant run any of my companies. That i can tell you. Jeffrey sonnenfeld is a wellknown clintonite and headed out for me from the moment i read that hewlettpackard, but honestly, mr. Trump, i find it quite rich that you would talk about this you know, there are a lot of us americans who believe that were going to have troubles someday paying back the interest on our debt because politicians have run up mountains of debt using other peoples money. That is in fact precisely the way you ran your casinos. You ran up mountains of debt as well as losses, using other peoples money, and you were forced to file for bankruptcy. Ot once, not twice, four times a record four times. Why should we trust you to run this nation any differently than you managed the finances ive made over 10 million. I had a Casino Company caesars just filed for bankruptcy. Chris will take you almost everybody in Atlantic City is either in trouble or filed maybe i will blame chris. Is a disaster. Ty wait a minute, carly, i let you speak. Atlantic city is a disaster and i did great in Atlantic City. I knew when to get out. My timing was great. I got a lot of credit for it. Nermeen that was donald trump last night in exchange for Carly Fiorina. David cay johnston, could you respond to what trump had to say about his bankruptcy claims, that is, denying them . Donald personally has never filed bankruptcy. He did not have to do it in 1990 because the state of new Jersey Casino Control Commission took his side in negotiations with his bankers and said to his bankers, whom he could not pay donald claimed to be worth 3 billion but he could not make Interest Payments to his bankers the Casino Control Commission said in effect, foreclose if you would like on mr. Trump and you will have lovely hotels by the seashore, but no casino licenses. Of course, the bankers admittedly took hair cuts and trump did not have to pay back much of the money that he borrowed. Trumps, these were never well run companies. Never well runre companies. People who ied knew and often promoted the most amazingly incompetent people because they were people who work, yes, sir, absolutely, sir, that is the way we will do it while competent people were pushed aside. He is correct, Carly Fiorina plus record is very troubling, dustat lucent and compact hewlettpackard, if she wants to run on the basis of her Business Record, that is not a good record for her to run on. Personally has never filed bankruptcy, but have you ever heard donald separate himself from his Success Enterprise and talk about is if they are separate entities . The moderator asked jeb to respond to Donald Trumps claim that bushs holding to special Interest Groups because he is taking Campaign Contributions from wealthy backers. But people are supporting me because i havent proven record of conservative ship. We shrunk the state government. We created a climate that led in nation job growth. People know we need principle centered leadership, disruptor to go to washington, d. C. Had someuy that special interest that i know of, that try to get me to change my views on something that was generous and gave me money was donald trump. He wanted casino gambling a florida. I did not. Yes, you did. I would have gotten it during, and after. Im not going to be bought by anyone. I promise, if i wanted it, i would have gotten it. No way, man. I know my people. s or anything else you want to say . Onlywill tell you, im not referring to jump, a lot of money was raised by a lot of people standing up here and donors, special interests, lobbyists have very strong power over these people. Im spending all of my money. Im not spending im not i turn i turned down so much, i could have right now from special interests and donors, i could have double and triple what hes got. I turned it down. Ive turned down last week 5 million from somebody. Emika that is donald trump and jeb bush. David cay johnston, what is the fact here . Donald absolutely without question trying to get casino gambling in florida. He hired lobbyists. There are of news clips you can go back and read about. His denial is typical of a very important feature about donald. He is one of these people that whatever he says at the moment, that is the truth. To him. It is of the objective truth or the empirical reality, but to donald, it is the truth. What he said is completely false. On the other side of this, jeb bush, you know, should not get away with saying, i cut taxes 19 billion without a piece of context. State debt under his watch rose by more than i think 22 billion, and he was the beneficiary of the housing bubble that Alan Greenspan claims he could not see, but i wrote about was very obvious long before the bubble popped and so did a few other people. So neither of the two gentlemen here has a clean hands. Another lets go to Heated Exchange from wednesday night. This time it is regarding trump s suggestion bushs views on immigration were influenced by his mexican born wife. To subject my wife into the middle of a raucous little conversation was completely inappropriate, and i hope you apologize for that, donald. I hear phenomenal things. I hear your wife is a lovely woman. I dont know her. She is absolutely the love my life and she is right here. What are you apologize to her right now . I want do that, because i said nothing wrong. Nermeen john nichols, could you respond . This is a huge part of what donald trump does. The way he has played American Media, and you star really example of it just in that moment in the debate, the way yes played American Media is to say absolutely outrageous things, and then instead of apologizing, to stand by him to say, yeah, i did not say anything wrong, then to go on and Say Something more courageous, which draws the attention to him on the next day. I thought there was a point where the moderators should have stepped in. They should of said, look, you claim you did not say anything bush is clearly pointing out things you said, lets get to the bottom of this. Lets not let you get away with a statement. David just pointed out in a Previous Exchange where they did not follow up, they did not press. One of the key roles for moderator in a debate is to clarify, get this stuff straight. At pointnot happen after point after point. And on this issue in particular, where youre talking about immigration, it is an interesting exchange. You are saying jeb bush was influenced by his personal experience, well, i hope he was. I said leanne a lot of people i meet and things that happen in my life. Amy and donald trump i wish bush would have pushed back. Amy and donald trump talked more and more about spending the million deport over 11 undocumented immigrants in this country. We will and with planned parenthood, which was mentioned 23 times during the republican debate. This is Governor John Kasich followed by senator ted cruz and Carly Fiorina. I agree we should deFund Planned Parenthood. I dont know many people in america who think we should and in my state, were trying to figure out how to get it done because we are threatened with the federal government taking over medicaid money. Senator cruz . We should not be spending the money to fund an ongoing criminal enterprise. The fact that Republican Leadership in both houses has begun this discussion by primitively surrendering to barack obama and saying, we will give in because obama threatens a veto. I would like to link these two issues, both of which are incredibly important, iran and planned parenthood. One has to do with the defense and security the nation and the other has to do with the defense of the character of this nation. Regarding planned parenthood, anyone who has watched this videotape, id air Hillary Clinton, barack obama, to watch these tapes, watch a fully formed fetus on the table. s hearkening, legs kicking, while someone says we have to keep it alive to harvest its brain. This is about the character of our nation. If we will not stand up and forced president obama to veto this bill, shame on us. Amy 23 times planned parenthood was megyn. Look, theyre setting up the potential shutdown of the federal government over the healthf funding agencies. This was a huge deal. It was really dealt with in the toptier debate. Interesting a laugh interestingly enough, in the lower to debate, yet a better exchange. This was the place where the moderator should have stepped in and said, hey, hold it, youre seeing people are overwhelmingly against planned parenthood. Theres a lot of evidence to suggest people want to Fund Planned Parenthood and also a lot of controversy about that video. And that was the point where you really did not see enough of a challenging and in turn during emeritus encountering of narratives the rock face. Amy john nichols and David Cay Johnston, thank you for joining us. One of the issues that was hardly touched on last night, i mean, the fires were not mentioned in california, though the debate was in simi valley, california. Was the issue overall of Climate Change, a real debate on that taking place. We will talk about that in a moment. Stay with us. [music break] amy the polar bear song, irish singer songwriter enda reilly. This is democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman with nermeen shaikh. Nermeen a coalition of more than 400 organizations have called on the white house to stop issuing new fossil fuel leases on public lands and oceans. More than 67 million acres of public land and ocean are already leased to the fossil fuel industry. The Coalition Says that declaring unleased oil, gas and coal on public lands as unburnable would accomplish more in the global fight against Climate Change than any other single action taken by the Obama Administration. Amy joining us here in new york is Climate Justice activist Tim Dechristopher who spoke out at tuesdays rally. Dechristopher spent 21 months in federal custody after he was does he disrupted the bush administrations lastminute move to auction off oil and gas exploitation rights in utah by posing as a bidder at an auction in 2008. Tim dechristopher, welcome back to democracy now talk about this rally this week and what is happening. Theink it was a major launch of a Major Campaign to completely and if also feel leasing on federal lands which would keep about 450 gigatons of carbon in the ground. Obviously, theres a lot that has been released that is not been yet developed, about 40 gigatons already in the control of the fossil fuel industry so there is a lot there that we can continue to develop that we should stop issuing new leases with was the demand. And to put those numbers in context, obamas clean power plan, if it worked perfectly, would reduce emissions by about five gigatons by 2030. So theres another 450 gigatons that to be kept in the ground by ending fossil fuel leasing. It is a major demand and something that i think is kind of a new step for the climate movement, for a lot of the mainstream groups that were part of this collusion coalition and campaign that were saying were no longer operating from a paradigm of deviating from the status quo, but operating from the paradigm of looking at the challenge of Climate Change and what is actually necessary, and were going to find a way to make that happen. Nermeen how many of these new leases are there and when were they issued or put in place . Their issued all over the place. Like the auction i disrupted in 2008 is one of the ways these leases are distributed. The auction i disrupted was a quarterly auction in the utah bureau of land management. Amy you just get bidding on land with your paddle. They happen every quarter and that is just the you call utah. Bureau of land management. The department of interior, agencies issuing leases for offshore drilling, things like that. As you said, 67 million acres that are already under development and even as we were planning this Campaign Last friday, at the end of the day around 5 00 p. M. , the department of the interior quietly announced they intend to issue another 40 million acres of offshore drilling leases in the eastern gulf of mexico. Amy what is the common disobedience . Center . A new organization we just got off the ground last week. I am working with the folks who did the lobster boat lock eight couple of years ago where they blockaded coal being delivered. Amy in massachusetts. It ended up the attorney, the District Attorney joined with them . Right. Was a principled act of civil disobedience that had a big public impact. That is what were trying to encourage more of. We are putting ourselves out there as a resource and support center for other people that want to engage in serious civil disobedience around the climate issue. Were sort of an openended support team for whatever kind of backup people need when they stick their neck out. Amy i want to thank you for being with us, Tim Dechristopher , spent 21 months in prison for disrupting an auction of public land in to prevent oil and gas 2008 drilling on thousands of acres of public land in his home state of utah. Subject of the documentary, bidder 70, releasing today in new york. Democracy now is looking for feedback from people who appreciate the closed captioning. Email your comments to outreach democracynow. Org or mail them to democracy now p. O. Box 693 new york, new york 10013. [captioning made possible by democracy now ] patootlydo dam pooh i wanna be loved by you just you and nobody else but you it was straight, sevenyear contracts and you were owned, body and soul. I give you heart, soul, blood and guts, as much as i can do, the best that i can do it. And thats a lot. If they had the choice, would you be more famous