A couple on you know we meet with global news makers and talk about the stories that matter which is a. Race has always caused a shadow over us politics even before donald trump emerged on the scene but it an era in which White Nationalists are both marching in the streets and working in the white house is this a unique moment in u. S. History in this up from special one of americas leading public intellectuals the renowned academic and activist dr cornell west. Cornell west thank you for joining me on up front since donald trump became president in 2016 races a racist attacks racist rhetoric has gotten worse in the United States but im just wondering from your perspective how unique a moment is this this trumpy and moment in terms of modern American History when it comes to racism. Well i think its certainly distinctive because it is the escalation of White Supremacy against blacks Indigenous Peoples mexicans tied to the rule of big money the rule of big military so what it does when
Committee no headcount in the house no headcount in the senate we had no idea was there be enough votes whether it be an impeachable case or what was going to happen and as it turned out the the matter never even got to the house of representatives and much less to the senate because the president resigned the case was so strong and so fairly may that the professional he resigned. But thats not good news so well never answer the question well we dont you know its going to happen here we still have 2 people whove been to henchmen of Rudy Giulianis one of whom is now whove been indicted for Campaign Finance violations who were active in ukraine one of them is now cooperating with the congress lets see we dont know whats going to happen we didnt know about the tapes on. Saturday at the smoking gun tape nobody knew at the end what we would find so i think the most important thing is for the democrats and republicans who care about our country and our constitution to present the evidence to
That because there were several witnesses who contradicted him. You know i guess thats part of what happens sometimes a memory can be refresh store sometimes witnesses slanting testimony to to protect somebody but i think the most important thing now is that hes acknowledged there was basically a quid pro quo here hes still trying to protect the president by saying he didnt know who ordered the quid pro quo but he was delivering the put pro quo message to ukraine many of his supporters is even if it was a quid pro quo thats not a crime. Well 1st of all it could be a crime if you just look at the at the transcript of the june to july 25th telephone call where trump is asking for a quote unquote favor. That call in and of itself was so damaging that the general counsel for the cia forwarded that to the Justice Department as a criminal referral they didnt see this as a big nothing burger they saw this as a potential crime and were not talking about anti trump people were talking about tru
Are all just spinning wheels hes going to be impeached in the house and not convicted in the senate and everyone thinks that. Well you know something larry really nobody knows whats going to happen when we started the impeachment proceeding against Richard Nixon and october on 1973 after the saturday night massacre we didnt know what a high crime and misdemeanor was there was no headcount in the House Judiciary Committee no headcount in the house no headcount in the senate we had no idea was there be enough votes whether it be an impeachable case or what was going to happen and as it turned out the the matter never even got to the house of representatives and much less to the senate because the president resigned the case was so strong and so fairly made then so professional he resigned. But thats not good news so well never answer the question. You know you know whats going to happen here we still have 2 people whove been to henchmen of Rudy Giulianis one of whom is now whove been ind
News fortunately we have 3 people in the room who have the answers to these questions melissa ryan a digital strategist strategist who studies online toxicity and extremism and writes the weekly blog control all right delete i love that name jody westby a legal expert on privacy and computer crime and the founder of global 6 cyber risk and Jennifer Brody who has worked on programs combat online dissent from asian and works at the Digital Rights group access now thank you all for joining us today where you have some fun with this one i think so let me just start with with you melissa censorship or free speech how do we draw that line between what we see is the you know my right to say what i want to do and the question of basically becoming the source of conspiracy theories and false is i think its really important that we consider the frame of speech and who social media empowers the Tech Companies have consistently made policy. That empower the already powerful so what happens is for