To save the country. Y. Mr. Trump crime andd violence that today afflicts our nation will soon, and i mean very soon, come to an end. [cheers] mr. T trump beginnnning on jany 20, 202017, safety will be restored. Amy we will speak to Pulitzer Prize winning journalist david written aon, who isis book about donald trump jamil , smith of mtv news, and vince warren of the center for constitutional rights. Plus, we will hostst a debate on donald trump between a member of the Republican Muslim Coalition and the council on americanislamic relations all that and more, coming up. Welcome to democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. We are breaking with convention, war, peace, and the presidency. Im amy goodman. Donaldld trump accteted the republblican partys nomination for president last night at the quicken loans arena here in cleveland. His hour and 15minute speech portrayed the u. S. As a nation humiliated abrbroad, and undnder threat at home. Mr. T trump our conventiooccurs at a a moment of crisis for our nanation. Ththe attacks onon our police ad the terrorism of our cities threreaten our verery way of li. Youve a message foror all of thatrime and violence that today afafflicts our nation will soon, and i mean very soon, come to an end. [cheers] mr. Trumpmp beginningg o on jay 20, 2017, safety will be restored. Amy during his speech, trump reiterated both his calls for banning immigration from countries that have had recent terrorist attacks and for building a wall on the u. S. Mexico border. Mr. Trump we Must Immediately suspend immigration from any nation that has been compromised by terrorism until such time as proven vetting mechanisms have been put in place. We are going to build a great border wall to stop illegal immigration. To stop the gangs and the violence, and to stop the drugs from pouring into our communities. Amy Donald Trumps speech included multiple factual inaccuracies. According to the Washington Post, the speech was a compendium of doomsday stats that fall apart upon close scrutiny. Numbers are taken out of con, context data is manipulated, and sometimes the facts are wrong. Many criticized trumps speech, saying it had undertones of fearmongering and demagoguery. In a piece entitled, donald trump the candidate of the apocalypse, the Washington PostEditorial Board said trumps speech embodied a wishful, demagogic brand, writing mr. Trump took real challenges and recast them in terms that were not only exaggerated but also apocalyptic. Cofounder of black lives matter alicia garza tweeted i dont know what im watching righght now but i imagine this s the kind of speech hitler would make freedomnow. But trumps speech did receive praise from former head of the ku klux klan david duke, who tweeted great trump speech, America First stop wars defeat the corrupt elites protect our borders , fair trade couldnt have said it better in february, trump refused to disavow david dukes support or the support of otherer whitete supremacists during an interview with cnns jake tapper. Hehe later did disavow dukes support. Code pinks Medea Benjamin disrupted trumps speech last night, holding a banner reading build bridges, not walls. Her protest diverted cameras away from trtrumps speech. MeMedea Benjamin was removed. She says she was later interviewed by the secret service. Democrcracy now spopoke to medn the street afterwards. Mr. Trump i have no patiencee for injusustice. How great are our police and how great is cleveland . [cheers] amy t texas senator ted cruz stood by his refusal to endorse donald trump while speaking at a public breakfast for texas delegates ththursday. When i addressed the convention, i addressed the conventionon bececause donalaldp asked t to. When he asked me to, he did not ask me to endorse. Three days ago, i talked on the phone with thehem and told him, im not going to endorse you. I am not in the h habit of supporting people who attacked my wife and attacked my father. Amy instead of endorsing trump in his speech wednesday night, ted cruz ininstead said vote yr conscience, which prompted boos from the crowd. Ohio Governor John Kasich has also spoken about why he has not set foot inside the quicken loans arena this week, even though hes been all over cleveland. Governor kasich said i can tell you when you stand on principles, sometimes you ststand alone. This comomes after the nenew yk times reported donald trump actually wanted kasich to be his running mate and that kasich declined. According to the new york times, Donald Trumps son, donald jr. , called kasichs adviser asking if the governor wanted to be the most powerful Vice President in history, promising kasich would be in charge of both domestic and foreign policy. Donald jr. Reportedly said that his fathers role as president would be simply making America Great again. Trumps campaign disputes this account and denies it wanted to pick kasich over indiana governor mike pence. Meanwhile, old video footage of mike pence resesurfaced d thursy of pence testifying on the floor of the house of representatives in 2004 that weapons of mass destruction had been found in iraq. Desespite the natioional mes best e efforts to miminimize the news, i am here to report t ae unitited States Military confird in iraq on monday, weapons of mass destrtruction have been fod in iraq. Where are the wmds . We have e an asset agagain and again. They h had been hiddenen in ira, within the reach of terrorists, a threat to iraqi people, the was soldiers, and the world. Amy those the words of then indiana congressman mike pence. He is now indiana governor and Donald Trumps running mate. The story was firsrst reported y salon on thursday. Fox news chairman roger ailes has resigned amid multiple accusations of sexual harassment. Ailes is one the most powerful people in conservative media and republican politics. Fox has announced Rupert Murdoch will take over as chairman. Many outlets are reporting ailes will receive a 40 million severance package. This comes after former fox news anchor Gretchen Carlson sued ailes for sexual harassment. Fox anchor megyn kelly and a half dozen other women have also accused him of harassment. He has also been a major force in the republican establishment for decades. New york times has compared him to j. Edgar hoover, writing he was unelected but mighty. Ruling by force and fear. On thursday, Gretchen Carlsons lawyer Nancy Erika Smith said in a statement that carlsons extraordinary courage has caused a Seismic Shift in the media world. Black lives matter groups held demonstrations in several cities thursday protesting police brutality. In oakakland, hundreds r rallien front of city y hall. In durham,m, nth carolina, demomonstrators chained emsesels to thehe railing osiside the durhamam police depapartme, demandnding a reversrsal of the citys planan tbuilild a new 70 Million Police heaeadquarters. In pittsburgh, demonstrators blockeked a busy strtreet atat h hour and demanded an endnd to te use of police e dogs in arrests. Pennsylvania s state representativeve ed gainey voicd support for the protests. In our communities, we have great people. We have great people that every day get up and go to work, come have thehad should ability to feel safe in their neighborhood. There should be that type of union. Amy meanwhile, the mayor of somerville, massachusetts, is refusing to remove a banner reading black lives matter from city hall, despite a demand to do so from the local police union. The union demanded the banner be replaced with one reading all lives matter. Somerville mayor Joseph Curtatone responded to the demand saying my unwavering support for our Police Officers does not and cannot preempt our commitment to addressing systemic racism in our nation. In francnce, police raided the refugee camp known as ththe june in the Northern City of calais this week, making arrests and destroying shops. Earlier this year, the camp houseded over 6000 refugees many , of whom were seeking entry into b britain through the neary channel l tunnel, known as the chunnel. Between march and may, policee destroyed buildings in the camp and evicted about half of the residents. The calais City Government says it will soon announce plans to evict the rest of the e camp. This comes as the International Organization fororigration is warning this year,r, 2016,6, may become t t deadliestst year yet for people fleeieing into europe from africa. The Organization Says that 2800 people have drowned attempting the crossing so far this year 1000 more than at this time last year. The National Basketball asassociation has announced it will not play its annual all star game in North Carolina next year. The city of charlotte was slated to host the event in february. But nba commissioner adadam silr saidid yesterdayay the game e we played elsewhere after North Carolina lawmakers failed to change the state law known as hb2. Nullifyspeople lgbtq people and mandates transgender people use Public Restrooms corresponding to the sex listed on their birth certificates. And Edward Snowden has helped design a mobile phone case he says will alert a user when their phone is potentially being surveilled. Speaking via video link to an event at the Massachusetts Institute of technology, snowden and his codesigner andrew bunnie huang showed how the external device could connects to a phones transmission hardware and automatically shut the phone down if electronic eavesdropping were detected. Snowden said that while most people assume it is impossible for phones to be listened to while in airplane mode, governments possess the technology to eavesdrop even when p people think they are sa. And those arare some of the headlines. This is democracy now , democracynow. Org, breaking with convention, war, peace, and the presidency. Im amy goodman. Donald trump has formally accepted the republican president ial nomination. In his hour and 15 minute warned the nation was fafacing an imminent crisist at home and d abroad. Trunk k of the attacacks on our police and the terrorism of our cities threaten our ry way of life. Any politician whoho does nonot grasp this dananger is not fit o lead our mike pence and Donald Trumps gospel of corporate welfare. Go through them quickly. Quick mike penence cutut off food stems to adults, evenn otheher are five times as bebeen people looking for jobs in indiana as Jobs Available yet he promotes his Christian Charity and he has given away more than 800 million to corporations taxing the average family more than 100 a year. That strikes me as corporate socialism and i think he is a true blue corporate socialist as is donald. The main hotel for the convention, the hilton, no, he would i invest there so the taxpayers were forced to build this hotel. It is gogoing to fail eventuall. Here we have the party of Free Enterprise meeting in hotel that any of them was elsewhere in the world would call state ownwned f their diplomatatic or call it commie hotel is they are trumpian republicans. Im sorry, what was the first one you asked me about . Amy donald trump and gets named in 250 million tax scam. Theyre not defended in this. At the moment they are material witnesses, but donald has been sued over a number of developments for civil fraud. He settled some of the cases. Some are still ongoing. This lawsuit is a private on behalf of the public lawsuit that alleges a 250 million tax scam by a guy donald work very closely with, traveled all over the country with, try to do real estate deals, and d who alleged evaded taxes. It has not been settled. It is a state level case in new york, but donald and evocative and donald junior are all clearly material witnesses in with the lawsuit asserts is a scam to e evade taxes. Ive written other columns about dodonald and his taxes, includig tax return filed on his behalf, photocopy, were his own tax i said, well, that is my signature but i did not prepare that tax return. Amy final comment, vince warren . I think looking at ththe trup speech that hes ease americas communities ofg color against each other to further the narrative. Hehe talked about the poor victimized Law Enforcement to strengthen that up. Essentially, looking to strengthen Law Enforcement to protect why the neck of from communities of color and to protect candidates of cololor fm victimizing themselves. This is going to be known as the gotham city speech. It is dark, dire, and were looking at the emergence of a new Security State in the u. S. Because although this has been happening under the obama and bush era, the ratchet here with donald trump is it is going to catch fire very quickly. That is really what this speech was about domestically, from my perspective. Amy jamil smith, are you headed to philadelphia . Yes. I will be there tomorrow. I am looking for hopefully, a hopeful version for america with some actual steps to achieve it. Amy we will leave it there. I want to thank jamil smith of mtv and vince warren of the center for constitutional rights, and the author of the new book, david cay johnston, whose book is coming outut next week on tthe makining of donad trtrump. As we turn right now to codepinks Medea Benjamin who disrupted d donald trus speeeeh lalast night. I way, thehe speech, t the longt in president ial Convention History atat an hour and 15 minutes. S. Media a benjamin stood up holdig a banner reading, build bridges, not walls. Her protest diverted cameras away from trumps speech. She was removed by security after the disruption. Medea benjamin says she would later be interviewed by the secret service. Democracy now caught up with her on the streets of cleveland afterwards. I got a pass inside. I went to a press area which i thought was as good as i was going to get. I had a sign that said build bridges, not walls. I had read the speech so i knew exactly when i wanted to interrupt when he said i am your voice. Say,ted to get up then andnd yououre not my y voice. Your voice is onone of hatred dd antiimmigrant sentiment and homophobia and misogyny and we need someone who will build bridges, not walls. There was a lot of tussling going on with the people next to me who are grabbing my sign and trying to pull me down. There were all kinds of people things. E doing various at one point, i know my legs were in the air. I just cant speaking out that donald trump is dangerous for this country and dangerous for the world. I think it is so important codepink has been in three out of the four nights in the Convention Center interrupting donald trump. I think we speak for millions of people in this country and people all over the world who are horrified with the idea of donald trump for president. Amy who were the people sitting next to you and what do they say and who ended up dragging you out . There were other journalists next me from conservative papers. I know that because i looked at some of their nametags. They were also clapping so much during the speech. If you are an objective journalist, youre not going to get up and clap when donald trump comes in and after every two s sentences. They were very enthusiastic press. They were really upset when i got up and immediately started trying to tackle me. [chanting usa] amy you got an early transcript of the speech. Did anything surprise you . I found it interesting that before donald came on, there were republican gay businessmen, people who talked about gay was reallyivanka focusing on womens rights and how great her husband her father was for women. I think donald trump in the beginning of the speech tried to who across as somebebody would unite this country. Of course, it is all about how he is a great builder, builder, builder. Then he got, one point, very negative. His talk about how we are besieged by immigrants who are coming across our border and then murdering people is such a horrible thing to be focusing on win95 percent of the immigrants when 99 of the immigrants are people who have worked so hard and contribute to society. I just got back from latin america and im in the middle east a lot, and people are terrified about donald trump as well as our friends here who are muslim and our friends who are latino. When he starts in his rhetoric and people start yelling build that wall, that is a very scary thing. I think it was very appropriate to b be there with the build bridges, not walls. Amy that is Medea Benjamin, the founderr of codepink, the womes peace group. She disrupted Donald Trumps speech last night, holding a banner reading bubuild bridges, not walls. This is democracy now , democracynow. Org, ththe war and peace report. Im amamy goodman. Convention,ing with war, peace, and the presidency. Every day, to o our expandnded broadcast from the Cleveland Republican Convention here in ohio. Next week, we will be in philadelphia at the Democratic National convention. We will be back in a minute. [music break] amy you cant always get what you want by the rolling stones. Donaldse end of speech, the longest in history. Over 100,000 balloons were dropped as the song played and the family was on the stage. This is democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman. We are breaking with convention, war, peace, the presidency. For months, republican president ial nominee donald trump has been calling for a ban on muslims entering the united states. On thursday night he offered up , a slightly different plan. Lastly, and very importantly, we Must Immediately suspend immigration from any nation that has been compromised by terrorism until such time as proven vetting mechanisms have been put in place. Anyone who endorses violence, hatred, or oppression is not welcome in our country and never, ever will be. Amy on donald trump appeared on sunday, 60 minutes with his running mate mike pence. Host lesley stahl questioned the pair on the proposed ban. Mr. Trump, you u have called fofor temporary ban on mumuslims entetering the united ststates. Do y you agree with that . I do. We suspended the surge refefugee progm. M. We have e no higher prioiority n the safetyty and security of the peopople of this country and donald trump in dedecemberer, you tweeted calls to been muslims from entering the u. S. Are offensive and uncnconstitutional. Mr. T tmp territories. Ok yeah cap were not goioing to lepepeopleome inin from syria that we d dont ofof who they arare. Are you chahanging mr. Trump we will college territitories, ok . So not muslimim. R. Trurump the conststitutin ththeres nothing like it. But itit ds nonot necessararilye us the r right to commit suicice as a countryry, ok . I will telell youu this, call it whatever youou one, c change territorieies, but there are territories a and tererror stats and teterror n nations tt wewee not gog toto allow the p peopleo come intnto our c country and we will h he a thing cacalled extre vetting. Peopople coming in, th w wille extreme vetting. We will have extreme v vetting. Amy donald trump and his running mate michael pence speaking to 60 miminutes o on sunday. Since trump has risen to prominence, civil Rights Groups have cited increasing attacks and threats against muslims in america, often against women wearing headscarves. Muslim groups are now campaigning to register a million new voters in a bid to keep trump out of the white house. This is Osama Abu Irshaid of the u. S. Council of muslim organinizations. We want the Muslim Community to understand is you give up your rights fallen terribly, no one will come and give it back to you. There are those forces of hate in this country who would love to rob muslims of their rights. So we should fight for our rights. The only way to fight for your right is from within the system. Amy but some american muslims will vote for trump. According to a survey conducted by the council on americanislamic relations, 11 of muslims in the u. S. Are trump supporters. Were joined now by two guests. Saba ahmed, president for the Republican Muslim Coalition and a donald trump supporter. She was a guest of the Republican National committee at the convention. She recently met with trump and his vicepresident ial pick, mike pence, here at the Republican National convention. And aisha samad is cairclevelands board secretary. She is a nurse and longtime activist in the Muslim Community here in cleveland. We welcome you both to democracy now . Ets begin with saba ahmed im interested in Donald Trumps economic policies. Yesterday i think we saw a substantive policy side of him. He has a business background and provided a vision for america that makes as prosperous and makes us a great nation again. I was concerned a little bit about his muslim ban, but it was so happy he did not mention it yesterday. Were all concerned about National Security. But at the same time, it has to be done in a way that secures our nation and m makes us all safe. Amy do o ink a ban on muslims coming into this country would do that . Know, i believe it would be unconstitutional. Religious discrimination is for bid by many federal laws. But i think a ban on immigration from certain state sponsors of terrrrorism countntries that arn a terror watch list, we should be mindful of who is coming i in to the country. Isis is infiltrating a lot of different European Countries and their looking to come to the united statates as well. I agree that we should not make our country should make our country safe and be mindful of who is coming into this country weekly. Amy aisha samad . I think as we all know, it is unconstitutional to ban any religious group. There is no religious test for this country. I found it very offensive for him to say that we should been muslims. The vast majority of the refugees that are fleeing wartorn countries are muslim people. Theres a lot of women and children and as a nation, we have always welcomed immigrants and so for him to want to ban muslims was very offensive to me. Saba ahmed, talking at your meeting with trump and mike pence. Did you raise your concern of the ban of all muslims coming into the u. S. . Inet with donald trump and mike pence yesterday and we got a chance to hear him speak at a lunch that was done for the rnc donors. It was fascinating because i think they all want to see america safe and we talked about how isis is running muslims more than anybody else. A lolot of muslimsms wanant to n peace anand we dont t want to e terrorism, and we want toto help solve the proboblem. I think mumuslims should be on e frontlines fighting terrorism. That is what i think needs to happen within the trump administration. I have been very disappointed by the Obama Administration watching 400,000 syrians get killed in the last few years while he brings in a few thousand of them here . He true redlined he never enforced and that caused the problem of isis. I think National Security should be a priority for the president our l leadership and the status that amamerica used to be known for r has been tarnished. I want to see a president who is strong and foreignpolicy and does what he says he is going to do. I think with isis, the instability when we invaded iraq caused isis. I dont think syria caused isis. I think the whole unstablee middle east caused isis. And i dont think that is an obama problem. I think we all want safety and security in our nation, but we dont do that by scapegoating one group of people which would be muslims or mexicans or black people. Wewe dont scapegoat one group f people in order to gain power in this country. And i think the rhetoric that mr. Trump uses is doing that. Amy i want to turn to comments made by ththe first muslimim mer of congress, democratic representative Keith Ellison off minnnnesota. Muslims who supportrt trump s likeke chickens for cocolonel sandnders. Yoknow whahat i mean . You think yoyoure goingng to be chicken who doesnnt get fried up . Well, i think you better guess again. Amy that is Keith Ellison, Congress Member from minnesota. I thought his comments were offensive to r republican musli. As a member of congress, he ought to know better. I think the meaning others does not serve the purpose of what were trying to do. I think it makes a difference in theslims are involved Republican Party. I got a chance to talk to o newt cotton, senator tom commerce and peter king. A lot of names, elected officials a stiff here and somehow ththink that t they alle muslims, when i talked to them in person, it was a whole different experience. Amy that is an interesting point. You said they sound like they hate muslims. , which would suggest their policieses hurt muslims, that wn you met them personally, they were nice people. But what does that say about the republicans that their policies hurt muslims but you find them as nice individuals . I think theyre all struggling with r radicalism m d extremism. Whwhen i spoke to Newt Gingrich, he was really struggling to find terminology which doesnt offend the vast majority of muslims. We had a very open discussion about sharia and how muslims need to be involved with the discussions and how they really dont know what the right solutions are. I think all of us are struggling with that. I think involving Muslim Americans and bringing them to the e licy tableles is the right solution. I would love to be involved with National Security discussions and help more muslims will step up and get involved with the campaign and policies. I think islamophobia, creating that fear of muslims, is gaining them votes from a certain segment of this populatition in america. It is scaremongering. That is why they say one thing, and then when they have a personal conversation with a muslim, they sound a different kind of way. Because as long as you raise this fear that these muslims are areg to do this, that there one billion muslims in the world, so this scapegoating and fear mongering in order to gain votes is what theyre doing. I dont have any problem with muslims being republican. I know a lot of republican muslims. But they dont appreciate being scapegoated. And i think i listened to donald trump talk about last night about the police and law and order, but he didnt talk about the black people being shot. Only the policemans lives mattered. So i am saying that to say all of us have to look at these words. We dont use them just to gain votes. All lives matter but all lives cant matter until black lives matter, police lives matter, gay lives matter, mexican lives matter. When that happens, then all lives matter. And because they dont, we have to draw attention to the lives that are being marginalized. And as a muslim, i am offended by Newt Gingrich saying we should give a religious test. I was offended by that. At the same time, i had a great conversation with Newt Gingrichch a few times because f the fact i felelt like a was t e only muslim who was engaging with him. I think republicans are really struggling to come to terms with if muslims are not there to educate them, how are they ever going to learn about our faith . I truly believe they have the right intentions and all lives do matter, not only black lives, white lights, asia lives every single human being matters. Amy i i want to turn to a brief exchange between donald trump and one of his supporters earlier this month to get town hall in new hampshire. This is a question Donald Trumps answer. Just to make quickly, Homeland Security and jobs. Why arent we putting our retiree, military retirees on that border or in tsa . Mr. Trump i understand we need to veterans. They thought for this country and they will still do it. Mr. Trump we are looking at that. We are looking at a lot of things. Amy so that is donald trump. He says, when she makes fun of, well, whatat you are wearing, wn you are wearing the hijab. He does not raise an objection full stop he says were looking into that. Obviously, workplace reliligious discrimination shoud not t be allowed tsa is equal opportunity employer. We have all worked hard to fight for our rights to work and live in peace. I think donald trump singh muslims within the republican singh muslims withinin ththe Republican Party. I thought the republblican party always t talks about islam, radical islam, radicalism, but theres really any muslims involved that are not radicals, that are not terrorists. I dont with the whole religion being defined by terrorism. For us, we need to instead of complaining, proactively engage within the Republican Party and make a difference. He wants to be our president , but he allowed that lady to make fun of muslims. He has made fun of a disabled man. This speaks to his character to me. For me, a leader would correct that person. And that is leadership. And if he is going to lead all of us, one america, he should have done that. That is my expectation of a leader. Amy do you feel that hate crimes have gone up in this community . Most definitely. People are braver to the inensive in what they say pushining past. Ive had two of my friends two within this week at the grocery store, summit he called in a complaint. Mother and dodder. Someone called in and said they were having a problem. The e other one was profiled at legacy village. A swarm of police cars came because she was taking a picture. Amy we will leave it there. This discussion continues. I want to thank aisha samad of cair. She is cleveland board secretarary. And sasaba ahmeded president foe , Republican Muslim Coalition and a donald trump s supporter. That does a for our shohow. And thank you to the studio crew here in cleveland. A special thanks to 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 ] [captioning made possible by democracy now ] amy from m the Republican National convention in clcleveland, ohihio, this is demomocracy now mr. Rump americanism, not globalalism, will be our credod. [applause] mr. Trump as s long as we are d by politicicians who will not pt amic