This is the way News I'm Tom Vitale. China's National Health Commission says the death toll from the Corona virus outbreak has risen by at least 143 to more than 1500 Meanwhile the World Health Organization express concern about the increasing number of health workers getting infected with the deadly virus Lisa Schneider reports for v away from Geneva data released by China finds more than 1700 health workers have been infected with the disease and 6 have died w h o director general tenderness I don't know. Calls this a critical piece of information because. That's a whole. Outbreak response to get that but we need to know more about this including the time period. In which the workers became sick the w.h.o. Says a joint mission with China on covert 19 is moving forward it says 12 international w.h.o. Experts will arrive in China in the next few days he says shine for v.o.a. News Geneva federal prosecutors have declined to charge former f.b.i. Deputy director Andrew McCain closing an investigation into whether he lied to federal officials about his involvement in the news media disclosure McCabe's lawyers said in a statement that they were told in a phone call and letter that the case is closed and no charges will be brought against him based on the facts McCabe are frequent target of attacks from President Donald Trump for his role in investigating Russian interference in the 2016 election has denied that he intentionally misled anyone the Justice Department's inspector general had accused McCabe of repeatedly lying about authorizing a subordinate to share information with a newspaper reporter for a 2016 article about an f.b.i. Investigation this is v.o.a. News. U.s. President Trump says that he has the legal right to intervene in criminal cases this is after his Attorney General William Barr criticized him for tweeting about Justice Department cases Mr Trump's Friday morning tweet came shortly after Barr said in an interview with a.b.c. News Thursday that Trump's tweets about the Justice Department its people and its cases make it impossible for me to do my job or also said Mr Trump has never asked me to do anything and a criminal case a senior administration official said on Friday the United States has reached an agreement with the Taliban on a weeklong reduction of violence that could lead to u.s. Troop withdrawals from Afghanistan Reuters Callet Luke the 7 day reduction of violence agreement would take effect very soon the official said and it would cover the entire country of Afghanistan including Afghan forces the u.s. Military would also monitor violence levels to verify whether or not the Taliban was honoring its commitments and if the weeklong truce is successful then talks would move into the next phase of negotiations involving all parties. The announcement comes after u.s. Secretary of state Mike Pompei o and defense secretary Marc Asper met with Afghan President Musharraf goddy during the Munich Security Forum in Germany on Friday. That is Reuters Collette Luke reporting. Turkey continued to send reinforcements to northwest Syria Friday as Ankara backed rebels shot down the government helicopter west of Aleppo and Syria's Northwestern adlib region the Syrian Observatory for war monitors says on Friday that Turkey had deployed about 6500 soldiers to reinforce existing units in northwest Syria as well as about 1500 military vehicles since early February Meanwhile Turkish forces and Syrian rebel groups clashed with Syrian government forces Friday a federal jury has convicted attorney Michael Evan Nonny who once represented adult star Stormy Daniels I'm not he glared at jurors as the verdict was announced and shook hands with his lawyers before being led back to his cell Prosecutors say the lawyer threatened to use his media access to hurt Nike's reputation and stock price unless the apparel company paid him up to $25000000.00 defense attorney Scott's redneck says an idea will appeal he's disappointed but he's a fighter even that he became famous representing porn star Stormy Daniels in lawsuits against President Trump and it's a piece Jennifer King reporting on Tommy MacNeill feeling to. Us. This is Encounter v.o.a. Here's Carol Castillo. Welcome to Encounter on The Voice of America on this edition of the program the state of play among Democrats running for their party's presidential nomination and the fallout from u.s. President Donald Trump's impeachment and subsequent acquittal by the Senate Hello again I'm Carol Castiel after the 1st 2 primary contests analysts say there is little clarity regarding a Democratic front runner other than the fact that Bernie Sanders narrowly won the New Hampshire primary Sanders a self described democratic socialist who is not even a registered Democrat was in a virtual tie with moderate Pete booted judge former mayor of South Bend Indiana after the 1st nominating contest in the midwestern state of Iowa the Iowa caucuses as they are known were marred by a technology breakdown that delayed results for days and threaten to undermine confidence in the primary process to judge a moderate also had a strong showing in New Hampshire coming in 2nd place Senator Amy Klobuchar Democrat from the Midwestern state of Minnesota finished in a surprise 3rd place in New Hampshire catapulting her campaign to the center of the Democratic race perhaps the most surprising in disappointing was the 5th place finish of former Vice President Joe Biden who also did not do well in Iowa coming in 4th he is hoping for a comeback in the upcoming contests in Nevada and South Carolina where African-Americans and Latinos make up a larger part of the demographic shortly after the New Hampshire results were announced 2 candidates dropped out of the race entrepreneur Andrew Yang and Senator Michael Bennet Democrat of Colorado former New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg is not competing in the 1st 4 contests but his shadow over the Democratic primary process looms large given his unlimited amount of spending on ads and his potential appeal to not only a wide swath of Democrats but also Independents and. Moderate Republicans should former Vice President Joe Biden not do well in South Carolina or Nevada some Democrats are looking to him to fill the gap meantime in the wake of his acquittal in the Senate impeachment trial u.s. President Donald Trump is testing the rule of law and exacting revenge against those he feels betrayed him he vis marched and ousted Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Vinland the National Security Council's top Ukraine expert and a decorated veteran for his testimony join the impeachment inquiry in addition 4 career federal prosecutors withdrew from a case against Roger Stone a personal friend of President Trump who was convicted for lying to Congress and witness tampering in connection with the Robert Mueller investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election President Trump tweeted that the recommended sentence of between 7 to 9 years behind bars was too harsh so the Justice Department proposed a more lenient sentence the president's interference in the Justice Department which is supposed to be independent of political pressure raised alarm bells among career Justice Department officials and some lawmakers Well joining us to discuss this and to read the tea leaves from the New Hampshire primary results are none other than our 2 veteran political analysts John 48 director of the Democracy Project at the Bipartisan Policy Center and Jim Kessler senior vice president for policy a 3rd way and both gentlemen join me here at the v.o.a. Broadcast Center in Washington welcome to the program thank you Carol great to be here so John for d.h. We were these microphones a few weeks ago why is President Joe Biden was up there in the national polls but he didn't do very well so I'd like to get your sense of where things stand now after New Hampshire and Iowa what are the implications what have we learned about where the Democratic race for the president is going well there are a lot of shifting sands I do think Bernie Sanders has risen to be something of a front runner but a little bit of a mixed front runner. Did very well in Iowa won by a certain measure at least by the popular vote and won in New Hampshire Joe Biden did poorly in both states and really could be in danger of leaving the race if he does not come back especially in South Carolina with African-American voters and then you have some new candidates who risen up you point to Pete beauty judge who did very well one Iowa by the delegate count and came very close in New Hampshire and Amy clubber Shar who did it especially well in New Hampshire surprising and then finally Mike Bloomberg who is a candidate who is not competing at this moment but will be competing on Super Tuesday and he has brought all of his money to the race that is created an enormous organization with ads across all of these states where others might have a hard time competing so you do have a Bernie Sanders doing well and leading by many measures but you have all these other candidates moving up and Joe Biden and Elizabeth Warren to some extent moving down to you Jim Kessler how do you read the tea leaves so far with Sanders coming in relatively on top and then Biden taking quite a hit it's modeled right now traditionally Iowa New Hampshire has winnow down the field in past Democratic primaries usually to just 2 or 3 candidates it did not do it this time there are 6 candidates left to feel that they have some legitimate shot of winning the nomination number 6 is Mike Bloomberg who will be getting in the race in earnest in a couple of weeks not great for the front runners Obviously Joe Biden had a disappointing performance Bernie Sanders did well enough but you know he got 49 percent and I won in 2016 he got 26 percent in 2020 he got 60 percent in New Hampshire in 2016 which was the largest vote total have any Democrat since John f. Kennedy in 1960 in the New Hampshire primary more than half of his support disappeared he ended up at just about 25 percent So one of the things that you're seeing is Democratic voters are saying we're not ready yet to choose a nominee we want to hear more from these. Hannity it's so John 48 I assume they want to hear more from people like Amy Klobuchar Shar and maybe Pete booted judge newcomers in a sense to the national scene but they are known for not having great appeal within these very large voting blocks African-American voters who are part of the base of the Democratic Party and then Hispanics So how do you see them navigating going forward I want to Hampshire are 2 of the whitest states in America and in the Democratic Party especially there's a disconnect between the electorate there and the electorate that they'll face nationwide we start to remedy that with Nevada with the largest Spanish vote in South Carolina with a very large African-American vote Joe Biden had done very well and has done very well in the polls with especially African-Americans but also Hispanics his strength literally came from moderate whites plus that coalition that made him the front runner in the polls there is doubt today whether he will retain that or not if he wants to stay in the race he's going to have to go to South Carolina especially do well there probably win or come in a close 2nd Otherwise I think that support will start to go other places it is true that many of the other candidates already Sanders privileges others have all had problems getting the black vote and it may be split among many many people but Joe Biden is the wildcard out there not having done well we'll have to see if he really can maintain that after this not very good showing in 2 states so back to you Jim Castro you certainly have your finger on the pulse of the Biden campaign he doesn't go into South Carolina with a lot of momentum even if he has a natural constituency there how do you think he's going to do and if he doesn't do well where is that support likely to go well at South Carolina or bust for Joe Biden if he doesn't win South Carolina he probably has to immediately drop out of the race Super Tuesday where $1400.00 delegates are going to be selected it's 3 days later so he's got to win South Carolina even before that. There's the Nevada caucuses and he needs to do well enough there are so that this support that he is losing right now in South Carolina that it stops where does it go look I think South Carolina support just realize that Mike Bloomberg is not competing in South Carolina he's not on the ballot or else I think some of that black support would go to Mike where it goes now is really anybody's question because none of the candidates that are remaining other than Mike Bloomberg really has any history of winning minority voters with people to judge it like he's really struggled there Amy Clovis are voters just don't know who she is so she is trying to build the plane and fly the plane at the same time and then you've got Bernie Sanders who just traditionally has not done well there and Elizabeth Warren who is scuffling along so it's very possible that South Carolina is another inconclusive primary him which for 5 candidates say well I did well enough to keep moving on but nobody really came out dominating winning a lot of delegates Well meantime John 48 all of this confusion and rather murky picture on the Democratic side in a sense helps President Trump and his reelection campaign how do you see his strategy going forward we know that the Republicans would love to paint all Democrats as somehow socialist they've been using that term label which is of course a misnomer but they are trying to scare voters once again your sense of the Republican strategy Well I think generally the president's team feels pretty good about where he has been in the last few weeks he's in a better position than he has been now anything like Donald Trump their ups and downs even within a week so the state of the Union I think many people thought was a speech that highlighted some of the his strengths that he was going to run on a good economy that he had some things he worked with Democrats on and then he had some issues that were very divisive between the 2 parties but he came out of that strong his numbers in the polls are really at a high for him and I emphasize for him because they're not as. High as they should be they're not that high but he's move them up from where they are and I mean because of me is very very strong so I think the president has a lot going for him I think it's likely he's at least going to be competitive in this race and I do think the president Steve is hoping for a weaker Democratic candidate Bernie Sanders I think is going to be the hardest candidate for Democrats to rally behind it'll be easy for the president to make that message stick about a candidate who has some history with socialism and it has a history outside the Democratic Party but broadly speaking I think the president's in a pretty good position compared to where he has been but still not any way ahead of the game because of his numbers are lower than they should be Jim Kasler as far as the state of the Union many people say there were a lot of false hoods he said the economy is strong certainly by the stock market indicator but not really in terms of middle and lower class pocketbooks there were lots of falsehoods even with respect to health care that he said in favor of including people with preexisting conditions this is really the opposite of what he has been saying nonetheless how do you see President Trump and the Republicans and certainly their strategy is trying to paint all Democrats particularly if Bernie Sanders becomes the nominee as socialists this is seems to be what they want to do so I think Trump has to be seen as the favorite going into 2020 the economy is good it's not great but it's good it's probably good enough for you know the typical president to win to relax and yes he'll call every democratic socialist but one Democrat is a socialist Bernie Sanders is a socialist and it is clear that that is the candidate that Donald Trump wants to run against and in some states anybody is allowed to vote in a primary not just Democrats South Carolina which is going to vote in a couple weeks anybody can vote there's already a concerted effort a well financed effort to get Republicans to go out and vote in the Democratic primary and to vote for Bernie Sanders so that he can get the momentum. Going into Super Tuesday and get the candidate that Donald Trump would really like and we know that Trump is not above meddling and elections I don't think you have to go as far as Russia to do it this time in just needs to go to South Carolina and it's perfectly legal if you can and carriage Republicans to come out and if you look at the chair men and chairwoman of the various counties in South Carolina they are trying to get people to come out and vote in these Democratic primaries and they feel that they can make a difference will they who knows but this is a plan they have so the Democrats nominate the most an electable person against Donald Trump and that person is Bernie Sanders you're listening to Encounter on The Voice of America our guests are John $48.00 director of the Democracy Project at the Bipartisan Policy Center and Jim Kessler from whom you just heard senior vice president for policy at 3rd Way and we're discussing results of the early Democratic primary contests and the fallout from President Donald Trump's impeachment trial this is a reminder that our encounter podcast is available on our website at v.o.a. News dot com slash encounter You may also follow us on Twitter or connect with us on Facebook at Carol Castiel v.o.a. Well here's a big shout out to our valued Facebook fan Mohammed Ali from Sri Lanka if you want to hear your name and home country on the air please send us an e-mail to encounter at v.o.a. News dot com or like us and leave a comment on our Facebook page well that to you John 41 more question about Bernie Sanders supporters from your perspective I understand they're very much backing Bernie Sanders they don't like to even consider another candidate even though Bernie Sanders himself has said whoever wins the nomination we all must get behind that person to defeat Donald Trump but some people are concerned I mean but we're really do they go if they don't vote for the eventual nominee or could they sit on their hands and become a problem for the Democrats look I think. Most of the time the people come home to their party and most Democratic voters who cast a ballot for Bernie Sanders if he's not the nominee are going to go vote for a Democrat it could hurt or on the edges some enthusiasm I guess the real disaster scenario for Democrats would be somehow a convention or something that is very divided where Bernie Sanders feels as if he's had the nomination taken away from or perhaps that a 3rd party candidate gets in the race when he's running short of that I think ultimately most Bernie Sanders supporters will probably come back to the Democratic Party so Jim Kessler Bernie Sanders says out loud look we're going to get behind any nominee to defeat Donald Trump but you don't get that sense maybe from the supporters of those that I know who have spoken to some of his supporters they seem so set on him and not willing necessarily how do you see that in how dangerous it is that for Democrats most will come along but you know they're the Bernie Bros out there as they're called and the true believers are the true believers and no matter what happens in this primary they will believe that Sanders was robbed of the nomination they said he was robbed of the nomination last time Hillary Clinton beat him by 3800000 votes and by a margin of 57 to 43 percent and they said he was robbed so there is a certain conspiracy theory element within the Democratic Party that most of them have gravitated towards Bernie Sanders a few of them are with some of the candidates like Andrew Yang who also just dropped out of the race but that's part of the mix there I just want to have one other thing the mainstream wing of the Democratic Party does not have a numerator problem it has a denominator problem if you look at the New Hampshire results the 3 moderates leading moderates got 53 percent of the vote and the 2 leading candidates on the further left Sanders and Elizabeth Warren they got 39 percent of the vote with. Who voted to convict him this is incurred the wrath of course of President Trump against Mitt Romney against many others as I said in my introduction Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Van man who was unceremoniously walked out of the White House for merely responding to a subpoena and testifying at the impeachment inquiry and saying the truth about what he heard on that excellent telephone call from July 25th the President Trump had with Ukrainian President Volo demands a Lansky we're looking at what some people are calling a retribution to or you know President Trump is crowing that he was acquitted and everybody now that spoke against him or act against him he is lashing out what are the long term effects do you think of the Senate acquittal on the democratic system of governance the integrity of which relies on these checks and balances between the legislative and executive branch Well look I think will be followed in a lot of different directions I think the big picture will be as the president has wanted he got the headline that the president was acquitted and I also think it's a message that impeachment is a political process in part and really depends on having a broad consensus including some of the other party to remove the president that doesn't mean will never do it again we're a divided country but I do think that Republicans will make the case that this was something primarily supported by Democrats yes there was one Republican the Senate but it was a Democratic effort that didn't rise the level of getting a supermajority of people saying let's take this person out of office and I think the argument was very effective for the president that there's an election coming up that ultimately let's not short circuit the election let the people decide that the people can remove Donald Trump they still can vote on this issue or on others in a few months and the president comes out of this I think broadly in a better place than he did before well the president might come out broadly in a better place but many are questioning Jim Kasler whether or not the Senate the Congress comes out in a better place many of the Republican lawmakers in particular didn't defend their. Branch of government that the behavior that they let's say condoned by President Trump they would never have done that if a Democratic president engaged in the same unlawful type of behavior what is your sense of you know where we go from here and what the impact will be is the Senate lowering the bar for permissible conduct for future presidents Well of course they are the outcome of this is not a surprise I thought this was a very very disappointing moment for the u.s. Congress and the Senate in particular it's not just that the president wasn't removed I understand not removing the president that is a big big decision to make if I was a senator I would have voted to remove him but I wish that more Republican senators stood up and said what he did was awful and witnesses and documents which they rejected which is normally part of any normal trial right so what we saw here was instead of really trying to find out what happened and try to ascertain the truth the strategy was how do we survive and win this thing and even if in the end the vote would have been the same I would have loved to see the Senate the August body that it is taken seriously and at least say there were a lot of things you know that were disturbing you know it didn't rise to the level of removing the president but I want to send a warning to the president to others like this behavior cannot happen again but they didn't do that and I think they basically just gave him a pass to act however he wants to act over the next 10 months and possibly the next 4 years and 10 months well and speaking of which he is certainly engaging in this type of behavior it seems that way John 48 he's acting as if he can do whatever he wants he has now been alleged to have interfered in the Justice Department in the recent sentencing of Roger Stone who was convicted of lying to Congress of witness tampering but he was convicted and he is interfering in the. Justice Department which is supposed to be independent and then you mentioned elections and certainly that makes sense well let's just all vote it's an upcoming election before removing him but as Jim said not even a word about the type of conduct that he that is the president engaged in strong arming a foreign ally to get dirt on his political opponent so going forward now people are concerned about interference in the election not just foreign interference which he feels he's able to without any kind of consequences to court internal political interference that is the Republican Party engaging in dissing from Asian campaigns on social media and so forth I see people's worries and people have concerns but I don't believe that our election is in any way going to be illegitimate in the fall we have issues to worry about we have protections we're trying to put in place but I think this election is going to be fundamentally about the American people and they're going to weigh in as to whether they like the president on a variety of things including this so the case was made publicly it's very hard to remove a president unless you persuade the other party were a divided country but the election is there for people to say do we want this person here another 4 years or not and they will speak in November well you get the last word Jim Kasler the election is certainly the way for people to express themselves but some Democrats and others who felt that the impeachment trial should have had a proper format with witnesses documents and so forth are concerned that now the president is in a sense unleashed and he is going beyond his normal norms of the presidency and lashing out and trying to interfere in a number of processes in which he should not and I would think that people are concerned because Mitch McConnell the Senate majority leader has not agreed to take up any election security bills almost one could say if one didn't know any better that maybe he doesn't want to do that because such security ill. Action bills would not favor the Republicans we are definitely going to have foreign interference in the election coming up we had foreign interference in the 2016 election the probably decided the outcome of the race I'm not saying that it was collusion between Trump and the Russians but when John Podesta is emails were released the day of the Access Hollywood tapes were you know released on Trump a trump scandal in the brewing that was foreign interference and I think we have unleashed the president he even further and the latest where he's recommending a light sentence on Roger Stone I mean the recommendation was a sentence between 7 and 9 years that was too soft Roger Stone should probably be in prison for 20 years so I do not think this is a great moment for lawfulness and our political system right now I'm afraid that's all the time we have on this edition of encounter I'd like to thank my guests John 48 director of the Democracy Project at the Bipartisan Policy Center and Jim Kasler senior vice president for policy a 3rd way thanks so much for coming in thank you thank you encounter it was produced in Washington our engineer was just in the way and thanks to Kim Lewis for Hello welcome to blood then I'm glad of ancestors recently world leaders gathered in Poland to mark a solemn anniversary it has been 75 years since the liberation of prisoners at the Nazi death camp at Auschwitz it is estimated that more than 6000000 Jews were murdered in the Holocaust and out of that 6000000 more than 2000000 of the murdered were executed at Auschwitz reporter Henry Ritchie traveled to Poland to speak with one man who survived that death came. Along with his photographs and letters extend his love Solecki keeps his memories locked away occasionally letting them out to share the horrors of the past that the facility was 18 when he was arrested for painting Polish resistance symbols on Wheels in Nazi occupied will so after a brutal interrogation he was imprisoned and spoke of you yeah about 37000 of these prisoners were killed about 60000 were taken from probably Ockers and the concentration camps I was among the 60000 I was taken to Auschwitz Birkenau on October 6th 1943 the procedure was followed registration and. What's one camp which involves taking personal information taking off all our civilian clothes cutting off air shaving tattooing putting on prison stripes uniforms we got only a cop a shirt a jacket underwear pants and wooden clogs that have ski was tattooed with the number 156569 referred to prison is only by number that many new arrivals were taken directly to the gas chambers strong men and women we used as fools labor thought of people Key him p. Thousands of years if one of the prisoners did not look fit enough for further work the s.s. Pointed him out with a stick to the camp writer who would write down the prisoners number afterwards these prisoners were called out and taken on foot to the crematorium one day lorries arrived at the barracks and women were let out ordered to strip naked and they were loaded as though they were some commodity yet these trucks were followed by a soldier on a motorbike as they moved toward the crematorium I still remember today the screams of these women the transportation lasted several hours until they empty the barracks their lives he was imprisoned for his political activities most prison is sent to Auschwitz to their deaths the Nazis said Gould final solution to wipe out the Jewish race to live ski recalls Jewish prison is arriving on trains wearing bands bearing the Star of David a fan knowing that sell it think the us had a good one s.s. Soldier all of them in one long line with him standing at the front of the line and leading them forward they followed this one soldier with those signs of worry or anxiety they were heading toward the crematorium but only we were aware of this not them into as Soviet soldiers began to approach from the east the Nazis transferred hundreds of thousands of prisoners to other camps 10. Of thousands died on the journey. Was taken to the Mauthausen Couzin camp in Austria in many $945.00 room a spread of the Allied advance and German guards fled. Up with if I would. Marry on May 5th American military vehicles around i welcome to American soldiers going to one of them do some polish and shouted You are free it took me 78 days to get Zuckerberg to Warsaw fire robbed in Warsaw on July 22nd 1045 wearing u.s. Army it's not just for celebs he is president of the Polish union of political prisoners of Nazi prisons and concentration camps 75 years on he still struggles to reconcile what happened yes. But that and those that oppose. Us When I say the Lord's Prayer there is a phrase give us our daily bread and forgive us our sins as we forgive those who have sinned against us as I face the dilemma at this point can I forgive those where an inscription that read God is with us on their belt buckles who kill people yet the whole matter of meditation. I put my memories of Auschwitz into a box tied it with a string and threw it into the water metaphorically speaking at my work to go I started a family I have a son and grandchildren what when I visit the camp or when we are talking like we are today I pull out as a box of my present its contents to you and afterwards I throw it back into the water there are moments however when these memories break into my psyche causing reflections and questions with no answers the world has not learned the lesson of what had happened that the world has come full circle so to speak this sister e. This circularity is powered by people who do not respect the dignity of another human being I don't south I mean I can feel their Zelinsky and 200 fellows survivors returned to the same cooled since for the 75th anniversary of the camps liberation last month still determined to teach the world the lessons of Auschwitz . Henry rejoice and joins us from London Henry Ed thank you for joining us tell me a fraction of what he spoke of when I met him in Warsaw he spoke for 2 hours about survived the death camps Gretchen Skidmore is the director of civic and defense initiatives at the Holocaust Museum here in Washington d.c. And she joins us here in the studio nice to see you nice to see you know it's just understand this history and history education the whole cause is always relevant but I think right now it is particularly relevant it's a study in human behavior and choices people make and how those choices matter today in their lives are I don't mean to minimize that anyway the Holocaust by asking this next question but are there any parallels to the anti-Semitism today. We see a rise in it you know even bigotry in other ways so the people have always there's been a long history of hatred not only respond once there have been group targeted violence but also to get people to understand that we can look for these indicators and prevent some of these things that's the mission of the museum but it's interesting how you know we everyone said never again we've had Rwanda and now we have this mean there is sort of a there's a little bit of a look in the other way but we can also recognize that there are structures that are possible to implement both in the United States government and chambers and the Holocaust and yet the neo nazi movement is alive one man once a member of a neo nazi punk rock band is trying to change that today Christian preacher Leni is the author of several books and the founder of the free radicals project which aims to free radicalized hued from the same racist views he once held mill are saying I spoke with him on Skype. Christian is an expert on hate. In 1907 I was recruited into America's 1st neo Nazi skinhead group actually needs testimony to Congress in 2019 was just the latest step in his transformation that began as a discontented teenager from a loving and hard working immigrant family and wrote so I went searching for a sense of identity community and purpose sort of on the fringes having been bullied for most of those 14 years and on those friends as I found a narrative a man walked up to me in an alley when I was 14 years old and I was smoking a joint and he pulled a joint from my mouth and he looked me in the eyes and he said that's what the Communists and the Jews want you to do to keep you docile and I have to be honest at 14 I didn't know what a communist was or even if I'd met a Jewish person or even what the word meant but it was the 1st time in my life that I felt that someone had actually seen me that had included me he stayed with the movement for 8 years I started a record store in 1905 to sell racist music that I was importing and making as well but at the record store I was also selling different kinds of music things like punk rock music and hip hop and heavy metal and and I started to meet people who were black and who were Jewish and who were gay for the 1st time really and having meaningful interaction with them so over you know the course of having their record store I started to really challenge the demonization that was happening in my head with Humanisation and it was those people that I'm so grateful for because they knew who I was and yet they still chose to challenge me with compassion and it was the compassionate I received from them at a time when I Really least deserve to that was the most powerful transformative moment for me Michel Leni has written several books about his journey and founded an organization called free radicals to give young people better options than the pull of extremism what I'm seeing with white nationalism today is very similar to what I saw in. The early days of let's say al-Qaeda or ISIS the propaganda tactics are the same recruitment is very similar the use of high quality marketing videos showing kind of this this of glory if you join the fight picture leader he says he's trying to be the person he wishes would have approached him when he was just 14 years old so many years ago Miller Sega v.o.a. News Washington. Question is one example of someone who turned his own hate around but violence hate xenophobia a growing in some places in some countries deadly shooting sprees now Paso Texas and Pittsburgh Pennsylvania have prompted the f.b.i. To declare domestic attacks as dangerous to u.s. National security as ISIS and Al Qaida. A majority of the. Domestic terrorism. Cases that we've investigated are motivated by some version of what you might call white supremacist violence but it includes other things as well we're particularly focused on domestic terrorism especially racially or ethically motivated violent extremists not only is the terror threat diverse it's unrelenting. Just as a number of hate crimes has risen in some parts of the world one thing remains a constant and that is the fight against it joining us from New York is Oren Siegel of the Anti-Defamation League nice to say Oh thanks for joining us. Mr Mr Siegel who is vice president the a.d.l. Center an extreme as an extremism combat anti-Semitism and he lead to training initiative for law enforcement public officials and companies in the private sector let's just say go 1st to follow what is the Anti-Defamation League. 100 year old organization didn't start up a bit from. 6 brawl. Is focused on that is going to take over right. Have there been an uptick in attacks by you know for anti-semitic attacks and extremist action like that. Is that the stuff. We have seen it at least gets that. It's. Followed 6 months the way it. Wants to work. With all the lights on. It and what is it going to how is social media been a contributing factor to the uptick. Study social media is the key most of us story about you know looking at our feeds whether it's established forms like Facebook and Twitter or even. On other. Issues and I'm might. Spend their. I can just. Hear it. Oh yeah. We're. On our own it's. The f.b.i. Director Christopher Ray's talking about how you know how important is the hole in the whole growing issue of anti-Semitism is 2 and a terror attacks is to the f.b.i. But there's a big difference in my mind between responding to a shooting or an s. Situation and catching it before it happens do you find that the f.b.i. Has been effective in sort of helping to stop some of the the some of the violence that's going on some of the anti-Semitism violence. But I think when we look at sort of extremist violence going to probably certainly the Jewish community is the cross it was but it's not only the Jewish community you know look at all possible in the Hispanic community or other incidents that we see across the country and I think the f.b.i. Is doing a pretty good job in the sense that you know even the last couple weeks we have seen several white supremacists in particular get arrested for various plots in this country to do damage now you know that is something that occurs even though domestic extremists are not designated that way you know ISIS and all kind are so long for something government is different tools to deal with foreign terrorist organizations but I think there are steps that can be taken to improve how we understand the domestic terror threat but I don't think that law enforcement is ignoring it I just think it's a bigger challenge because so much of what motivates domestic extremists is freedom of speech so what are the steps that could be taken. As we're being we've been advocating an a.t.l. For Terrorism Prevention Act which at its base for we're choir's government to at least collect data on extremist to Mystic terror incidents in this country you need to. At that date before you get resorts to the threat and that's why it a.t.l. We have a heat map where we provide information on terrorist plots and attacks white supremacist propaganda which is nearly doubled this past year 2001000 from the previous year as well as Semitic incidence and other. Types of activity it is to understanding where we put our resources to combat the threat and beyond that d.s.m. Other suggestions I mean obviously that deal getting data is important but are there other suggestions that can be used to combat this. I think I think this requires a holistic approach right it's not just long for Smith It's not just government but as you mentioned earlier so much of what is motivating people to violence is the means and the narratives and tropes that are online that can spread pretty much anywhere at any time and so the tech industry in and of itself has a responsibility not just to inforce their terms of services but the absence of corporate responsibility it's not unreasonable for users of these platforms to expect that they do more to protect their users and frankly all the communities how do you separate them then the 1st Amendment and speech from they hate speech extremism. Well you know hate speech it is very much protected in this country what we do is try to identify that it speech in order to find clues of where you know violence may be incubators and so you know it's a difficult line and we don't want government to you know be able to escape anybody at any time because of the beliefs that they out but there are certain clues certain glorification of violence certain sure hopes that really animate these extremist movements that long for spin needs to make sure that they're on top of and this is where he'll thank you or and say you know from a.d.l. Center on extremism. That's all the time we have for today stay plugged in my

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