Transcripts For LINKTV Democracy Now 20170731

President trump is facing criticism from Police Chiefs heoss the country after openly endorsed Police Brutality during a speech to Police Officers in long island, new york. We will speak to the chair of the new york city civilian Complaint Review board as well police detective. And then to the Democratic Partys billiondollar mistake. As wen you lose elections did in 20144 and 2016, you dont flinch, you dont like. You link in the mirror and ask, what did we do wrong . Democrats prepare for the 2018 midterms, is the party making a mistake by prioritizing wavering white voters rather than inspiring africanamerican voters . We speak to Steve Phillips from democracy in color. Then to iran. The singleeal may be were still i have ever seen drawn by anybody. Conform tol doesnt what it is supposed to conform to, there is going to be big, big problems for them. That i can tell you. Amy we will look at how the white house appears to be preparing the amendment of the landmark iranian deal. Good w war with iran be on thehe horirizon . All that and more coming up. This is democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman. Tensions are escalating between the u. S. And north korea. On friday, north korea tested an internet 00 lessig missed all that experts say may be capable of reaching the west coast of the United States. Nortrth korea says the test t wa warning to the United States to stop imposing sanctions against north korea. The reason we conducted a simulation of an icbm test launch was to send a stern warning to the u. S. Who has apply sanctions to north korea at this time. Losing their minds. If the u. S. Fails to come to its senses and continues to resort to military ventures and tough sancnctions, north korea will respond with its resolute act of justice as already declared. To northesponse koreas test, the u. S. Flew to b1 bombers over the Korean Peninsula and again tested its alaskabased bad Missile Defense system. The u. S. Has employed a similar Missile Defense system to south korea despite objections from local residents as well as the south korean leader. Took to twitter to complain that china was not doing enough to counter north korea, tweeting tensions have been rising between the u. S. And north korea since presesident trump took office, exacerbated by trumps erratic method of conducting Foreign Policy on social media, without fifirst coconsulting the pentagon. When trump tweeted the announcement that he would be banning transgender people from serving in the u. S. Military in three separate tweets, many military officials first thought he was declaring war on north korea because the first tweet read only, after consultation with my generals and military experts, please be advised that the United States government will not accept or allow. The second tweet, ending the speculation, talking about that me forvan, did not co another nine minutes. In a major shakeup at the white house, President Trump has ousted his chief of staff rights preibus, only days after his new Communications Director Anthony Scaramucci railed against him in yorker correspondent. He also attacked trumps chief [no audio]steve speaking at the rally in washington, d. C. Caring for the women of baltimore, i i have seen time ad again how essential the Affordable Care act has been in improving the health of our community. The aca has saved countless lives, plain and simple. Before passage of the aca, i saw far too many women in the emergency room due to a simple lack of access to health care. I have cared for a 22yearold firsttime mother who discovered she was now rejected from Health Insurance since she was considered a preexisting condition for simply having had a csection. Law enforcement authorities and civil rights organizations are criticizing President Trump for advocating Police Brutality during a speech to Police Officers in brentwood, long island on friday. Into thebeing thrown back of the paddy wagon, you see them thrown in. I said please dont be too nice. Like when you guys put somebody in the car and you are protecting their head, the way you put their hand dont hit their head and they have just killed somebody . I said you can take the hand away, ok . Many of the nearly 100 officers from pololice departmes across the r region applauded ad cheered the remarks. Police leaders across the country quickly criticized his comments. The gainsville, Florida Police department tweeted the Suffolk County Police Department on long island tweeted the inteternational associationf chiefs of the lease and the Police Foundation have also criticized trumps remarks, as did police choose in boston, new orleans, los angeles, and new york. Some critics, hohowever, didnt buy y the geststure of cononcer. Ofuel sinyangwe from the use force project tweeted we will have more on the speech later in the broadcast. In the gaza strip, israeli strips shot and killed 16yearold hussein abu how seema on friday amid ongoing protests over israels imposition of security restrictions at a mosque. The 14th palestinian child to be killed by israeli troops this year. Thanilling comes as more gazas 2 million residents are trying to survive a sweltering heat wave with only a few hours of electricity a day. Weekendnd, temperatures in gaza sore to about 95 degrees fahrenheit. The u. N. Recently said gaza has become unlivable. Womenkey, hundreds of took to the streets saturday to protest rising physical and verbal attacks against women in public. At the march, women demanded the right to wear the clothing of ththeir choice without facing harassment or violence. As you see, my friend is not wearing a headscarf, but i do. Nobody can mess with their miniskirts or shorts, just like they cannot mess with their headscarves. If she can wear whatever she wants, so can n i. Nobody should criticize me because im wearing a headscarf. Vice president mike pence is in estonia today where he is meeting with the heads of estonia,a, nokia, and that the y yet. He warned of the threat ofof russia, calling it an unpredictable neighbor to the Baltic States. No threat looms larger in the Baltic States than the specter of aggression from your unpredictable neighbor to the east. At this very moment, russia continues to seek to redraw International Borders by force, under my democracies of sovereign nations, and divide the free nations of europe one against another. Amy this comes as vladimir 755 americanered staff be cut from the u. S. Diplomatic missions in moscow and elsewhere in russia to the move comes in retaliation for u. S. Sanctions imposed against russia over their alleged appearance with the u. S. Elections. In pakistan, Prime Minister know was been ousted by the Supreme Court amid a corruptions investigation sparked by the release of the panama papers. The documents leaked in 2016 showed that Prime Minister Nawaz Sharifs sons own several offshore companies. Sharif on saturday named his brother as his chosen replacement as president. The Pakistani Parliament is slated to elect a new Prime Minister on tuesday and his party holds the majority of parliamentary seats. He chose his brother as the new Prime Minister. In venezueuela, presidenent nics maduro has claimed victory after a controversial election sunday over whether to create a National Constituent assembly, which their righghtwing oppoposition says was a move by maduro too can further consolidate his power. At least 10 people, including a candidate, died during widespread violence and protests. The venezuelan government says despite an opposition boycott, at least 8 Million People cast ballots on sunday. The u. S. Is threatening to increase sanctions against venezuela over the election. Includingtries, canada, brazil, argentina, and mexico, say they will rerefuse o recognize the elelection result. In india, protests continue against the massive sarda sarovar hydroelectctric dam in central india a which is nearly operatioional after decades off struggles. The project threatenens to submbmerge more than 140 v vills whh could displace hundreds of thousandof r resents. Thindian sreme c crt has ordered so o of thaffected resisides be forbly resettled byoday. So have lached aunger strike whi hundredof others protested over the weekend. Prime minister Narendra Modi is slated to the not read of the dam on august 12. Back in the u. S. , newly released video shows u. S. Customs and Border Protection agents telling 16yearold mexican teenager Cruz Velazquez acevedo to drink from a bottle of liquid methamphetamine at a border checkpoint, causing him to die from an acute drug overdose. In 2013 come the teenager was crossing from tijuana to california with two bottles of what he claimed was apple juice. The newly released video shows the border agents, who suspected the liquid was liquid meth, then repeatedly encouraging him to drink from it, to prove he wasnt lying. Minutes after the teenager sipped on n the liquid, his body began convulsing, began screaming, my heart. He d died twtwo hours later. The Immigrations Customs Enforcement Agency hasas not disciplined d the officers. The u. S. Has paid his family 1 million in a wrongful death lawsuit. Sunday, july 30 was the ininternational day against humn trafficking. Millions are trafficked each year as part of a multibilliondollar industry. Sunday, mexican officials discovered more than 170 Central American refugees who had been abandoned by their traffickers in the state of veracruz as they were attempting to traverse mexico to reach the u. S. Border. Local residents offefer the refugeeses food and water. There were young people, older men, women, they had brought children, age perhaps 8, 9, 10 years. The children they brought were also running. They wanted to eat but the only thing we could do was provide coffee, milk, and cookies. That is what we gave them. Amy those are some of the headlilines. This is demomocracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman. Juan im juan gonzalez. President trump is facing mounting criticism from police choose around the country after openly endorsing Police Brutality during a speech to Police Officers in new york. Trump made the comment friday during a speech about Law Enforcement targeting the ms13 gang. When you see these towns and these dogs being thrown into the back of the paddy wagon, you seen them thrown in, rough. I said please dont be too nice. Like when you put somebody in the car and you are protecting their head, the way you put like, dont hit their head, and i have just killed somebody. I set you can take the hand away, ok . [applause] juan President Trumps remarks were meant by applause including by Police Officers who were standing just behind him. One criminal defense attorney in Suffolk County says he will consider using the video in future trials because it except applies the mindset of todays culture in Law Enforcement on long island. After the speech, the Suffolk County Police Department tweeted the International Association of chiefs of police and the Police Foundation have also criticized trumps remarks, as it police choose in boston, new orleans, houston, los angeles, and other cities. We are joined by two guests, maya wiley is the chair of the new york civilian Complaint Review board. Graham weatherspoon is with us, it tired detective with the new york city Police Department. He is also a board member of the amadou d. L. A foundation. Graham weatherspoon, lets begin with you. Your response to what President Trump said . I think that we assume we should be shockeded by s somf the things we hear coming out of this mans mouth, but we must say there is a level of consistency with regard to his deprivation of morals and ethics. Lets not forget that the chief of police in Suffolk County was sent to federal prison for , who wasng a prisoner alleged to have stolen some material some from his vehicle last year. Also, subsequent to that arrest, in allentown, he was found to have some narcotics in his cell. The fish stinketh from the head. Leadership is critical with policing. In new york, we know what we have been through in the last 20 years. I was saying to one of the fellas outside, it is good to be here, but every time on here, it jimmyut something oneill spoke against the statements of the president. I have no jimmy a long time. I knew him as a police officer. This is the kind of leadership we need in new york. When we went through with ray kelly, bratton, was detrimental to the public at large. We cannot have a president or any head of state in this , congressman,e making statements such as this. The Latino Community on long island, four years, has been untold abuse at the hands of Police Officers. Day laborers, why isnt that an immigrant is treated the way he is treated in the United States . Day laborers waiting to go to work looking for a job or being brutalized. No regard was being given with regard to what was happening. , we know fromp the central park five case, very racist. He is an old democrat, not a republican. He is an old democrat. For almost 200 years, it was the democrats who were preventing people from exercising their civil and Constitutional Rights. Im not surprised. It is a shame we are at the level that we are at, we have dropped below ground level in the last six months. You could wiley, if speak to not only the remarks the president made but he was speaking to the culture of policing, rather than the rules and regulations, and the laws. As you will note from when you deal with a new york, the issue of reforming the culture of oficing is at the heart changing how communities and their Police Department relate to each other. Right. Bsolutely i absolutely agree, the comments were shameful and dangerous because he is actually espousing a positition that is encouraging police to violate the u. S. Of he newon, the laws york state, and probably the patrol guide of the Suffolk County Police Department, certainly of the new york city Police Department. It does speak to culture because it is absolutely right to say leadership matters. We are talking about institutions of policing where we are looking for a change in how police are interacting with community, how police are enforcing the law. We want everyone to be safe, we want everyone to have that kind of security. That donald trump has made are absolutely consistent with everything he has said on the campaign trail. He has incited violence at his own rallies here and but he has also appointed an attorney general for the department of justice who h has taken the position that institutionanal reform at Police Departments is not going to be the fundamental agenda of the department of least aafter we had at department of justice that had 25 investigations into Police Departments across the country, 14 agreements about how the institution of policing needed to be transformrmed in Police Departments. That is now gone. Amy you are chair of the new civilian complaint board. For those not familiar with a body like this, explain what it is that the cc rp does . Oldeste are one of the civilian oversight bodies in the country, certainly the largest. Communitiesause fought for civilian oversight of police misconduct, so it is the result of a long history of organizing communities that produce the civilian Complaint Review board. We are civilians, we dont work for city government, we have 13 board members, five appointed by the mayor, five appointed by the city council, reappointed by the Police Commissioner. We received complaints of police misconduct. It is forced, abuse of authority, frankly, rudeness, obscenities, racial slurs, bad behavior, we can receive those complaints. We investigate them, we provide opportunity for mediation with but ificers, of course, we find misconduct, we recommend discipline in those cases. One e thing that is unique about us, in the event that we find this conduct in a serious case, like Excessive Force case, abusive authority case, we actually prosecute those cases in the administrative process inside the Police Department. You have civilian prosecutors prosecuting the case, not prosecutors who work for the Police Department. Juan the creation of the ccrb, for those that dont know, was not an easy one. Graham, im sure you remember the infamous day in 1 1992 after the cityty council h had passede civilian Complaint Review board a law, ththousands of Police Officers converged around city hall, a near riot in the early years of the mayor dinkins. And the soon to be mayor Rudy Giuliani was part of the riot group. Bowman thing the c crowd to basically engage in violence. These were offduty Police Officers. I have done investigations with Police Officers. My job as a detective was to get to the truth on behalf of the victim, not on behalf of the police officer. I told rookies, if your name comes across my desk and you did it, im sending you to prison. I dont lose in trial. I had no problem sending those officers and seeing the fact that they got state e time. We have to be held, Police Officers have to be held to a higher level. I cannot say i had a bad day so i shot you, i thought you had a gun. We dont get paid to think in a tertiary manner. We have to be very precise in our thinking. I know the union always says he only had a split second. I have had those moments where people did have guns, were armed, and i did not fire. Humanitya level of that has been lost in this country over the last two decades, and it is seriously dropping at this time with this administration. Less thantreat people because they come from another country. Ven the move on ms13 30,000 to 50,000 members in this gang which run from Central America to canada. I know some of the people in Nassau County and Suffolk County say with what has been said, this is going to stir the pot because they are going to take advantage of the comments the president made as they approached the community. He is going to get rid of you, trying tolike he is do us. Foreigners often do not interact with the police because of the situations in their homelands. We had this same problem with the Asian Community in the Lower East Side years ago. My partner and i were learning cantonese just to relate to the people so that the abuses they were suffering through robbbberies, assaults, we could deal with it, but they were not reported to the police. It will be the same situation in brentwood, where the Latino Community will not come to the police because their fear of ms13. Ms13 is saying, we are e on yor side because they are coming us all as immigrants. We want police to be safe, we want Community Members to be safe. One way we create safety is we have better relationships with police and community, that Community Trust police, can come to police. One thing we are seeing with immigration crackdowns, we have Police Commissioners, 61 signed a letter in march this year concerned about the role and relationship of the federal administration to policing, demanding sanctuary cities participate in ice raids. Needare saying, we undocumented immigrants to come to us as witnesses, victims of crime, in order to get the folks that are actually creating the safety problem off the streets. We have been hearing this from the Police Commissioner of hohouston who has said many this about how dangerous ms13 is, which by the way is only 1 of all Gang Activity in the u. S. Most of Doctors Without Borders say many of the folklkcrossing the border without documentation from Central America are fleeing the violence in their communities. Only. 02 of youth crossing the border are suspected of Gang Activity. Amy i want to turn to a quote from thursday, the acting director of immigrations and Customs Enforcement agency saying that ice is now detaining people and putting them into deportation proceedings if they have simply been arrested for a crime, not convicted. The administration prioritize criminals of National Guard threats. For those that criminally get booked into county jail, on a prior administration, they needed conviction before we can put a detainer on then coming into our custody. That is not necessary anymore. If you have been arrested for a serious crime, we are going to drop the detainer and take the person into custody. Amy this is an amazing news conference. This was the White House Press briefing, when the White House Press secretary Sarah Huckabee sanders speaks, but before she spoke, she brought out thomas homan, acting director of immigration and Customs Enforcement, within the department of homeland security, which was headed by general john kelly, who has now moved over, today, will be the chief of staff. There is some discussion that its possible President Trump will want jeff sessions, the attorney general to move over to be department of homeland security, to get rid of him as attorney general, not anger the republicans as much, by not dissing him as much, by moving him to homeland security. Graham weatherspoon, as you the difference between us, he says, and the , the obamaistration administration allowed ice to come in after someone was convicted. We will take someone after they are arrested. Graham when i was a rookie 42 years ago, there was a Standing Order that if you arrested an individual who was an immigrant for crimes of moral turpitude or violent crime, we were to notify immigrations and Naturalization Services at that time. They never came. They never showed up. So we stopped calling. Here, i had not seen this interview. It shocked me. Under the british law, our law system comes out of british law, you are assumed, you are innocent until proven guilty. Not with the Trump Administration. Especially if you are an immigrant. You are less than. The Constitutional Rights and safeguards, for some reason, dont fall upon you in the Trump Administration. This is something that the People Better respond to, and our congressmen, senators need to speak against. This is unconstitutional, it is illegal. Maya we are supposed to have due process of law. Wiley, with the Trump Administration declaring war on sanctuary cities, an article recently in the new yorker about how ice officials are targeting areas of the country where they promotinglks are sanctuary cities as a way of almost political payback to those elected officials. President trump was explicit about doing that. Juan this collision course happening them between cities and the state government. I was in texas, a big rally outside of the austin statehouse of elected officials around the country supporting sanctuary cities. How that will play out in the next few months. Fortunate to live in new york city where we have a statute on the books, thanks to the city council and mayor of new york, that is very explicit about protecting our residents without regard to document its status, in terms of cooperating with ice, unless they fall into a narrow category of vomit crime that they have been convicted of, where there is an actual finding that they committed a crime. So thats important. But also that the city is creating access to lawyers for folks who are getting caught up in this crackdown. I think that is incredibly important. When you are sitting in the position we are in terms of civilian oversight, we want to remember two things. One, there are a lot of good Police Officers in the new york city Police Department who are doing the right thing, want better relationships with the community. We want people to come forward whwhen they have e had a problem with an officer who is not one of those officers. The more we create cities are behaving differently. Detroit, saying we will not participate as a century city. Cities likee new york are doubling down, saying we will try to strike the right balance between protecting rights and protecting residents. Amy i want to go back to donald trump, speaking last week in brentwood, long island. The laws are so hard when this they stacked against us. For years they had been made to protect the criminal. Not the officers. You do something wrong, you are and more jeopardy than they are. These laws are stacked against you. We are changing the laws. In the meantime, we need judges for the simplest thing, things that you should be able to do without a judge. But we have to have those judges quickly. In the meantime, we are trying to change the laws. Weatherspoon, the president of the United States, the commander in chief speaking. Graham this is not a movie, this is reality. This is where we are. This man is sick. This man is a threat to the overall wellbeing of the country. His comments are treasonous. He is speaking against the constitution of the United States. He was sworn to uphold the constitution of the United States and to protect the people of this country. For him to say we want to pass laws, have courts run by individuals who think as he thinks, justice would be out the window, if this were to ever happen. I dont know when the Republican Party is going to stop politicking and start paula legislating and preserve the nation. This is s where we a are, not at the politics. They cannonot do politics anymo. The cocountry has to be saved. This m man is dangerous. Amy we are going to leave i it there, thank you for being with us. We have been speaking with graham weatherspoon, retired new york Police Department, serves on the on the new deal the foundation. Gunned down on february 4, 1999 in the bronx. Maya wiley, chair of the new york civilian Complaint Review board. Thank k you so much. When we come back, democracy in color. Stay with us. [music break] amy this is democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman. And we turn to the future ofof the democratic partrty. Last week in v virgininia Party Leaders unveiled their new slogan, a better deal, and rolled on their agendada to win back t the workingclass voteres they lost to donald trump in november. This is Senate Minority leader chuck schumer. As s wen you lose elections didid in 2014 and 2016,6, you t flinch, you donnt blink, you look i in the mirrrror and ask t did we do wrong . The number one thing we did wrong is not present a strong, bold economic agenda to working americans so that ththeir hope r the future might retururn again. Democrats have too often hesitated from directly and unflinchingly taking on the misguided policies that got us. Ere so much so that too Many Americans dont know what we stand for. Not afafter today. Presesident trump campaigned ona populist platform, talking t working peoplple. That is why he won. But as soon as he got into office, he abandoned them, making alliant powerful, special interest Koch Brothers dominated hard right wing of the Republican Party, which appeals to the very wealthy, not the working people. Leaving a vacuum on economic issues. We democrats are going to fill that vacuum. Democrats will show the country, we are the country on the side of working people. American families deserve a better deal. So t this country works fofor eveveryone again, not just the elites, not just the special interests. Today, democrats start presenting that better deal to the american people. Juan the Democratic Partys rebranding effort comes as the party has lost all four special Congressional Elections this year to or plugins, including recently in South Carolina and georgia. These defeats come despite President Trumps Approval Rating dipping to 36 as he passed the sixmonth mark of his presidency. Its the lowest Approval Rating of a u. S. President in 70 years. Amy our next guest says the Democratic Committee and its allilies are likely to spend moe than 750 million on the 2018 midterms without addressing the partys core problems connecting with disillusioned voters. For more, we go to san francisco, where were joined by Steve Phillips, founder of democracy in color. Also author of brown is the new white how the demographic revolution has created a new american majority. Fellow ats a Senior Center for american progress, a columnist with the nation and regular opinion contributor to the New York Times. Welcome. About what been made has happened in the past week with the Republican Party. The failure of their Health Care Bill to move forward, donald trump being criticized by the chief of the boy scouts for the speech he gave. Of course,e, everything happenig in the white house, the expletiveladen raid of his new Communications Director anthonyy scaramucci, and other issues just in the last week. You are saying, forget all this for a moment. Lets look at the state of the Democratic Party. Talk about what you think is this billiondollar blunder. The challenge democrats face is to focus on the math and not the myth of what happened in 2016. The myth is that all of these democratic voters, workingclass whwhite voters whoho had suppord obobama defected from the democrats, flocked to Donald Trumps campaign and backed him, and that is why democrats lost, why they have to pursue them to try to reassemble their power, get back into positions. But thats not exactly what happened, certainly not why they lost the election. We had unprecedented in 20 years black voter turnout drop off, more than a million fewer black voters came out. You had a splintering of the progressive white folks. You had a larger increase of voters for johnson and stein, then you did for trump. In wisconsin, trump got fewer voters t then romney did. It was notot like everybody flocked to him. The progressive voters splintered. The is the challenge democrats face, how do we inspire, bring back out africanamerican voters, bring up the latino vote, and bring back the whites who defected to third and fourth parties. That is the way to get back into power. All of this attempt to try to figure out how to woo voters who were drawn to one of the most racist, misogynistic, xenophobia campaigns in history, is a fools errand. This whole question of the Democratic Partys relationship to especially xenophobia voters, this is not the first time the party has grappled with it. The 1950s,ck to 1960s, the dixiecrats were a part of the Democratic Party. Clinton era came in, there was an emphasis on getting conservative white voters, even as the nation keeps shifting, as you mention in your book, demographically, and the Democratic Party itself. How do you get these leaders to understand, look at the future of america, and not the past . Steve the writing a book is not enough, as i have found out. There is such a powerful incentive and default position, that a thing to do is to chase that shrinking sector of population. I want to be clear, im not saying dont Pay Attention to what people. Im saying, democrats are going after the wrong white voters. There are progressive white voters, progressive white voters , who knew to be attracted and brought back. The percentage of the population that the white workingclass comprises has shrunk dramatically. In the mid1970s, the White Working Class was 74 of the electorate. 70 . Is last electorate, to continue to chase a shrinking sector at a time when the voters of color are expanding literally 7000 newur, every day, people of color added to the population versus 1000 whites, is fairly in conference of all, but it is so embedded in the dna that the most important voters are those white workingclass voters. The challenges that all of this money will be spent, tens of millions of dollars, hundreds of millions, on Television Ads mainly trying to pursue this sector of the population which is not receptive, and more importantly, is not necessary to win, at the same time we have a majority population waiting to be spoken to, engaged, organized, mobilized. Your new yorkrom times piece, you write, the country is under conservative assault because democrats mistakenly sought support from white workingclass voters susceptible to racially charged appeals. Replicating that strategy will be another catastrophic blunder. However, bernie had indoor miss appeal during the last campaign. Can you talk about who are the people that you think should be appealed to across the board . Taken right to occupy wall street and the philosophy there. Steve that is a good point as well. The coalition that elected, and more importantly, reelected obama obama got 5 million fewer white votes in 2012 consisted overwhelmingly of people of color. Close to 80 people of color. And a meaningful minority of whites, 39 . In a lot of ways, bernie did show how to appeal particularly to the progressive white sector. On apologetic campaign speaking to issues of economic inequality in this country. ,hings like 15 minimum wage free access to higher education. Those issues resonated with people. It does tie back to the occupy wall street these. I talk in my book about doing a wealth tax on the top 1 in the country. The top 1 , people with 13 collectively,ets, have 25 trillion. If we did a 2 wealth tax, that would generate enough money to end poverty within this country. A political matter, if you are trying to get to 50 plus one of the votes, saying you are. Ith 99 is not a bad start so i think there is a reluctance with the Democratic Party to actually go after wall street, the 1 , to have them pay a fair share of taxes to be able to make the country better and lift all the boats. Do you see anything home fully the new program that has been developed by the Party Leaders . There was, for instance, reference, unusual for the party, of the concentration of of corporateopment monopolies, an attack on that as well. Steve the Broad Strokes framing are fine. Schumers New York Times piece talks about higher wages, lower expenses, retraining for drugs for the future. Jobs for the future. Most encouraging in what they are putting forward is the 15 minimum wage, which was not majority democratic position, even in 2016. To see the party is moving more aggressively toward that kind of full throated populism is a positive piece. Yet, the underpinnings of the strategy i still think there is a reluctance to enthusiastically embrace the communities under attack. There is incredible attack right now on immigrants within this country. Trump has been deporting people as rapidly as possible, spreading fear among the immigrant community. The whole question around the dreamers, daca, will they be reinstated, preserved . There has been a great deal of silence on the part of democrats around this, who should be standing up and on apologetically saying, this is not the country we believe in. There is a fear about being too strong on those issues because they are afraid of alienating conservative white workingclass voters, and that plays directly into trumps hands. Amy you are listening to the segment that we were doing on trumps speech, encouraging Police Brutality, for which he has gotten enormous backlash from the heads of so many Police Organizations as well. How does that fit into what you are tatalking about here, how yu peel the democrats should respond. Steve over the past. Years, one of the most visible movements within the country has been the black lives matter ement around justice reforming the criminal Justice System. And yet, there is a fear of being too closely aligned with that movement on the part of to Many Democrats and progressives. I talk in my book about the tyranny of the white s swing vovoter. A fear of alienating those folks, when in fact, they should be standing up strongly for justice and accountability and transparency in our criminal Justice System and on the part of Law Enforcement, so it works with communities. Not an occupying force. What the democrats fail to appreciate is there are a lot of white people who believe in justice and equality, Racial Justice and equality, but the democrats dont believe therere are enough of them. But if you look at the numbers m obamas the actions elections, there are enough of them, and they are the ones that need to be mobilized to take back our in the country. Amy you spent a lot of time talking about democrats, what about third parties . Steve what third parties can do is articulate a vision and pulled a political debate to the left, instead of to the right, where it is going. That is bernie was not a third person, per se, but that is a lot of what he did, pulling the debate in that way. Issues of economic inequality became more pronounced. Phillips, thank you for being with us, author of the New York Times best selling book brown is the new white how the demographic revolution has created a new american majority. Will also link to your oped piece in the New York Times. Coming up, trita parsi, on his new piece the mask is off trump is seeking war with iran. [music break] amy this is democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman. With one gonzales. Is President Donald Trump trying to sabotage the obama brokered Nuclear Agreement with iran . Trump has instructed his National Security aides to find a rationale for declaring that iran is violating the terms of the accord. The order came despite the fact that the Trump Administration begrudgingly certified that iran has complied with its obligations under the agreement earlier this month. Last week, trump intensified his threats against iran during a speech in youngstown, ohio. Be the single worst deal i have ever seen drawn by anybody. Conform tol doesnt what it is supposed to conform big,here is going to be big problems for them. That i can tell you. Amy for more, we are joined by trita parsi, whose new piece is entitled the mask is off trump is seeking war with iran. We usually speak to him in washington. He is in sweden right now. As you listen to President Trump, the speech he gave just a few days after he recertified the deal he criticized. What are you hearing about what his plans are . Trita i think we have never before seen the desire to unravel and destroy and armscontrol deal, having been telegraphed as openly as President Trump is doing. Heessentially saying said in the interview with the wall street journal she never would have certified their compliance 180 days ago. So he is intent not to do it. In the opening piece, you said the New York Times is reporting that trump ordered his staff to to refrain from certifying, being able to claim the iranians are in violation. In reality, he has told them to fabricate away. The planet appears to be to request access to iranian nonnuclear sites, knowing well, as long as those are based on zero proper intelligence, the iranians will reject. Calculus,reject the they will be able to say the iranians are out of compliance with the deal, and that we start moving toward what will ultimately likely be some form of a military confrontation. This given the fact that was a deal reached not just between the u. S. And iran but several other countries as well, what would be the impact . Wouldnt the usb further isolating itself from the rest of the international community, if it did attempt to flout the will of the other signatories to the deal . Certainly. It will not be an easy thing, but here is something important. Had it been up to trump, he would have gone about it in the most reckless way possible. To completely deny that the iea has certified iran is in compliance, claim that they are not, and try to break the deal that way. Aroundcalled moderates trump are against this, but they did not argue against it on the basis of trying to save the deal. They only argueded against it in order to find a more clever way of doing it so the cost to the United States, isolation you mentioned, would be a bit less. So the spectrum we have in the Trump White House right now is not between those that are recognizing that this is a deal that has not only taken an iranian path to a nuclear bomb off the table, it is also taking more off the table. It is working fine right now. Rather, the spectrum is between those who want to recklessly destroy the deal right away, and those who want to come up with a plan that would essentially shift the blame onto the iranians. It is one thing to do certify, another to go to war. Amy talk about what you see he is trying to do. Of course, there are always warnings, when a president is particularly weak at home, the concern he will look for an enemy abroad to distract attention. Trita certainly, and its an important question. Do certifying it in itself does not put the u. S. At war with iran. But when you listen to what the administration is saying, they claim they want a deal that requires zero enrichment in iran, meaeaning they have to gie up their Nuclear Program altogether, regardless of whether it is peaceful or not. Or the fact that more and more hints are coming out that the Trump Administration is seeking regime change in iran. If you are seeking zero enrichment or regime change, the only way that you can have a chance of achieving it, is to have a full on military campaign. The Obama Administration gave up the zero enrichment objective early. But they held onto it until january 2013, when the president realized, despite the tremendously hardhitting sanctions imposed on irann, the United States was still not capable of compleletely cripplig the iranian economy. As a result, if he stuck to that line, he would end up in war with iran. So they went back to the negogotiating table, talklks inn in march. Or the first time, the u. S. Showed lex ability on the itichment issue, and hinted was willing to accept enrichment on the iranian soil. If the u. S. Have stuck to the objective of the Trump Administration wants, zero enrichment, we would have been in war with iran much sooner. Whether the intent is war not, the consequence most likely will be war. Amy