Transcripts For KCSM Democracy Now 20170606

Jake williams, who is a former member of the nsas tailored access operations hacking team. Then to philadelphia politics. Will a defense attorney with a long record of standing up to prosecutors and police soon head one of the nations most bustling District Attorney offices . Civil rights attorney Larry Krasner is considered the front runner in philadelphias next District Attorney race after overwhelmingly winning the democratic primary last month. The coulter is like a sports culture. They try to maximize convictions and maximize years. It is a failed approach. It has made things worse instead of better. Is Larry Krasner. Im running for District Attorney because the das office to the working for us, not against us. Amy over his career, krasner has represented protesters with black lives matter, grannies for peace, act up, occupy philadelphia. Hes a longtime opponent of Capital Punishment whos promised to never seek the Death Penalty. Well also speak with his republicanpponent Beth Grossman, who is a prosecutor with more than 20 Years Experience serving in every unit in the philadelphia District Attorneys office. I spent 21 years in the District Attorneys office prosecuting all types of crimes, tried to improve quality of life. Heres how the District Attorneys office can make a real difference in peoples lives by being responsive and available to peoples concern. They need to be able to reach out to us as problem solvers. Amy all that and more, coming up. Welcome to democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman. A new expose by the intercept reveals Russian Military intelligence conducted a cyberattack on at least one u. S. Voting Software Company just days before the u. S. President ial election last november. A federal military contractor has been charged with leaking the topsecret nsa report. About an hour after the story was published on monday, the Justice Department announced it was charging 25yearold intelligence contractor Reality Leigh Winner with sending a classified report to the news media. She was arrested by the fbi at her home on saturday in augusta, georgia. The intercept calls the classified report from may 5, 2017 the most detailed u. S. Government account of russian interference in the election that has yet come to light. It shows that the agency is convinced the russian general staff Main Intelligence Directorate, or gru, was responsible for interfering in the 2016 president ial election. This comes as former fbi director james comey is set to testify thursday before the senate intellince committee on russian interference in the 2016 election. On monday, White House Spokesperson Sarah Sanders told reporters the white house would not block comeys testimony. The president s power to exert executive privileges is very well established. However, in order to facilitate a swift and thorough examination of the facts sought by the Senate Intelligence committee, President Trump not assert executive privilege regarding james comey schedule testimony. Amy well have more on the intercept expose after headlines. The New York Times reports Drug Overdose deaths surged in 2016, killing nearly 60,000 Americans Last year alone. For americans under the age of 50, Drug Overdoses are now the leading cause of death. The New York Times analysis found Overdose Deaths increased significantly across the east coast last year, including in ohio where the state has filed a lawsuit against the pharmaceutical industry, accusing drug manufacturers of aggressively advertising opioids and lying to both doctors and patients about the dangers of addiction. President trump announced monday plans to privatize air Traffic Control. A Congressional Budget Office analysis says privatizing air Traffic Control would increase the cost of air travel. The consumer advocate group flyers rights says the proposal amounts to handing the airlines free control over a core public asset, and providing them nearly unbridled power to extract new fees and increased taxes from passengers. In breaking news from afghistan,t least sen civilians have been killed and another and another 60 wounded in a blast outside a mosque in western afghanistan today. This comes as the death toll from last weeks massive suicide bombing in kabul has risen to more than 150 people, making it the deadliest attack in kabul since the United States invaded afghanistan in 2001. Although the attack struck a Diplomatic Area near several embassies, all of the bombings victims were afghan. London mayor sadiq khan is calling for President Trumps state visit to britain to be canceled after trump misquoted and then berated the mayor following saturdays attack in london, which killed seven people. Sadiq khan is londons first muslim mayor. After the attack, trump tweeted at least 7 dead and 48 wounded in terror attack and mayor of london says there is no reason to be alarmed in fact, khan had been speaking about the increased Police Presence in the city when he said there was no reason to be alarmed. Meanwhile, London Police say they have identified the three men involved in saturdays attack on the London Bridge and borough market. Police say alleged attacker khurum shazad butt was a british citizen known to both police and British Intelligence agencies. He was featured in a channel 4 documentary entitled the jihadis next door. The two other alleged attackers, Rachid Redouane and youssef zaghba, were not known to authorities. British unions and some politicians, including labor leader jeremy corbyn, are calling for Prime Minister theresa may to resign over cuts to police funding. National elections are being held in britain on thursday. In syria, the u. S. Backed Syrian Democratic forces say theyve gun the battle to retake the city of raqqa from isis. Raqqa is considered the de facto capital of isis. The u. S. Led coalition has been waging an escalating Bombing Campaign in and around raqqa for months in advance of the battle to retake the city. The journalistic Monitoring Group airwars says the u. S. Led coalition reportedly bombed five homes near a Swimming Pool killing up to 20 civilians. Saturday, airwars says at least 21 civilians were reportedly killed by either Coalition Airstrikes or artillery shelling launched by the u. S. Backed Syrian Democratic forces on sunday. In china, at least eight people have died and nine more were injured when a liquefied gas tanker exploded at a Petrochemical Company in shandong province on monday. Its the latest in a series of fatal industrial accidents in china. In more news on china, the acting u. S. Ambassador to china has resigned in protest of President Trumps decision to pull out of the landmark 2015 paris Climate Change agreement. David rank had served 27 years in the state department before resigning monday. His resignation is the latest in a series of protests against trump by top diplomats at the state department. Last month, the u. S. Ambassador to qatar tweeted increasingly difficult to wake up overseas to news from home, knowing i will spend today explaining our democracy and institutions. Meanwhile, california governor jerry brown is in china and has said that Climate Change could be even more dangerous than fascism during world war ii, while speaking at a Clean Energy Forum in beijing on monday. When there is a war, people react. During world war ii, resident roosevelt on one day said no more fossil fuel cars. We want tanks. We want airplanes. We want ships. He made the transition because there was a threat. The threat of Climate Change is not of the same nature as the fascist forces that were threatening the world, in some ways, it may be even more devastating. Amy george conway, the husband of white house adviser kellyanne conway, took to twitter to mock President Trump monday over trumps furious tweeting about his proposed muslim travel ban. Early monday morning, trump criticized his own Justice Department, writing the justice dept. Should have stayed with the original travel ban, not the watered down, politically correct version they submitted to s. C. , referring to the supreme court. In response, conway wrote these tweets may make some ppl feel better, but they certainly wont help osg get 5 votes in scotus, which is what actually matters. Sad. Osg refers to the office of the solicitor general, which is arguing in favor of trumps travel ban in front of the supreme court. The tweets come after conway withdrew his name from consideration for top positions within trumps white house, including heading the Justice Departments civil division. In florida, a u. S. Army veteran killed five people on monday when he opened fire with a semiautomatic handgun at his former factory. 45yearold john robert neumann, jr. , had been fired from the awning manufacturer fiamma in april. He began his shooting rampage around 8 00 a. M. , shooting his former coworkers multipleim in the head before he killed himself. He did not have a permit for the handgun. And students at the university of puerto rico have voted to end their two monthlong strike which was protesting the , defunding of Public Education and the imposing of widespread austerity amid puerto ricos debt crisis. At midnight, students reopened the gates at the University Main campus and classes are slated to resume on june 12. And those are some of the headlines. This is democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman. And im juan gonzalez. Welcome to all of our listeners and viewers from around the country and around the world. A new expose by the intercept reveals Russian Military intelligence conducted a cyberattack on at least one u. S. Voting Software Company just days before last novembers president ial election, and sent socalled spearphishing emails to more than 100 local Election Officials. The story is based on a top secret nsa report provided anonymously to the intercept, and has now prompted the first criminal leak case under President Trump. The intercept calls the classified report from may 5, 2017, the most detailed u. S. Government account of russian interference in the election that has yet come to light. It shows that the agency is convinced the russian general staff Main Intelligence Directorate, or gru, was responsible for interfering in the 2016 president ial election and executed Cyber Espionage operations against a named u. S. Company in august 2016, evidently to obtain information on electionsrelated software and hardware solutions. The actors likely used data obtained from that operation to launch aoter registrationthemed spearphishing campaign targetinu. S. Local government organizations. Although the leaked port does not directly identify a specific company, it refers to a product made called vr systems, which provides electronic Voting Services and equipment used in eight states. The intercept makes a point to note that while the document provides a rare window into the nsas understanding of the mechanics of russian hacking, it does not show the underlying raw intelligence on which the analysis is based. A u. S. Intelligence officer who declined to be identified cautioned against drawing too big a conclusion from the document because a single analysis is not necessarily definitive. Amy about an hour after the intercept story was published, the Justice Department announced it was charging a 25yearold intelligence contractor named Reality Leigh Winner with sending a classified report about russias interference in the 2016 election to the news media. The fbi arrested winner at her home in augusta, georgia on saturday. Federal Officials Say she confessed to an agent that she had printed out the report and mailed it to an online news outlet. An fbi affidavit said winner has worked for Pluribus International corporation at a government facility in georgia since february. Hillary clintons 2016 Vice President ial running mate, senator tim kaine, responded to the report and the arrest monday night during an interview with cnns erin burnett. I dont condone leaks by anybody, so there are laws about it. If she has broken laws, then just to suffer the consequences for that we alsoave to get to the bottom of the story. As you pointed out, there has already been public reporting of the fact that the russians not only invaded the dnc and democratic emails, the Intelligence Community has concluded they wanted to defeat Hillary Clinton and elect donald trump, but they also were rummaging around through state boards of elections is of public reporting as they sucked data on more than 200,000 people out of the Illinois State board of elections, for example, that they could then use to target them with false news stories or all kinds of other things. This is all part of a pattern. Somebody who leads documents has to sever the consequences that the American Public is also entitled to know the degree to which russia invaded the election did take the election away from american voters. Amy attorney general Jeff Sessions has vowed to crack down on leakers, saying he has initiated appropriate steps to address these rampant leaks that undermine our national security. Espionage act charges can carry a sentence of up to 10 years in prison. On monday, wikileaks publisher Julian Assange called for the public to support winner, tweeting that the she is accused of courage in trying to help us know. All of this comes as former fbi director james comey is set to testify thursday before the Senate Intelligence committee on russian interference in the 2016 election. For more, we are joined by two guests who were consulted as for the intercepts story. In san francisco, Jake Williams is the founder of rendition infosec, a Computer Security firm. Hes also aorer or membthe nsas tailored access operations hackteam. And in washington, d. C. , we are joined by Bruce Schneier a , security technologist. Hes a fellow at harvards Berkman Center for internet and society. Author of data and goliath the hidden battles to collect your data and control your world. Jake williams and Bruce Schneier welcome to democracy now you worked at, the nsa. Can you talk about the document that has been released, its significance, and also the arrest of the person who allegedly leaked it . I will start by saying when i comment on the intercept story, i was unaware of the leak document. The first time i heard that was when i read the story itself. They talked to me about the technical aspects of how russia would have done what they did with the attacking of that voting company. As far as all of that goes, obviously, there are laws against leaking i think we have to balance some of that and the public interest. Said, when i first commented, i had no idea it was based on that leaked nsa document. That being said, i think it is a relatively interesting development. Ultimately, technically detailed as far as getting insight into the specific actor and actions that were conducted. , i wouldce schneier like your response to the story and also the rapidity with which the government moved to arrest the alleged whistleblower in this case. The story is an interesting one. This is just one document that is a piece of a much larger pule. It shows something very specific. That in august, the russian gru makesed vr systems, which voting role software. They are not involved in election software. It is software that manages voting rolls. They do that for eight states in the u. S. , as far as we know, from their website. The russians did that to get information about vr systems that they used a few days before the election to run an attack 122 state Election Officials according to the document. Near as we can tell, Nothing Happened with this. If youre going to attack voting rolls, the effect would be to change their party affiliate, change their address they are. We did not seeing about. So this feels much more exploratory as an attack than operational. But we dont know. This was a document written by the nsa, so it shows the nsa analysis reasonably, it was sent to the fbi who would be doing the domestic investigation as to what happened. And we dont see that. We do not know if there are attacks against other Election Officials, other Voting Software companies and what those effects might have been. The document seems to have come reality winner. The New York Times talks about the arrest, that it seems she said the document to the intercept. But when the intercept sent it to the nsa, the nsa noticed the document was folded. There was a piece of paper folded. From that, they concluded it was printed out and handcarried from a secure location. They checked their auditing system and found only five or six people had printed that document. Winner was the only person who interacted with the intercept via the mail. On Operational Security the part ofwinner and intercept. A negotiated a work and you know from her work imo to the intercept . It is unclear, but that is the impression i got. Which is was just crazy. It could be from a gmail account. It is hard to tell from the story. But it was any now that was traceable that the innocent was able to trace. They seem to have known who it was before the story was released. The intercept had talked with the nsa about what was to be redacted. That is very common practice for news organization. The nsa figured out who this was. They seem to awaited for publication before making the arrest but had identify the leaker in the days previously. Amy didnt they arrest her on saturday, but they charged her yesterday and issued a press release . That is something i did not know. That would make sense. The documents fundamentally, it isnt all that. It does show russian interference. It is not interference in the election. No interference seems to have happen. This is part of a Broad Campaign from russia to find out pressure points in our election and to see what they can do. This isnt evidence that they did interfere with the ection, that they certainly could have, i think, if they wted to. They might be setting the stage for future interference. They might just be seeing where the vulnerabilities are and what they can do. Echo the an and intelligence official at the intercept story that said, you know, there is a lot more missing from this document and it is hard to mcgraw generalis. Juan one thing that seems clear, bruce, president obama had indicated i think it september of last year that he is personally spoken to that russia and attempt to interfere in russian elections and after he spoke to putin, it had stopped. According to this report, some of these overtures occurred just before the election. Obviously, the russians did not get the message from president obama. The first attack happened in august. The Second Attack happen in thesenovember fulls top were attacks against u. S. Election officials directly. Theres a broad set of things going on. We know about vulnerabilities election machines and voting rolls, the dnc hack about vulnerabilities in the parties in the networks and their information. Election system is broad and complicated. There are vulnerabilities everywhere. Exactly what is being targeted and what counts, we have to decide. But this is an example of after the september conversation, the russians doing more meddling. We also know from last fall that there were attacks into voting databases. Bys president ial candidate cain mentioned one of them earlier, in illinois. We did not know who, but someone did access voting rolls in illinois and another state and downloaded information as you get an adjective he used to target different propaganda campaigns, to just cause problems. Nothing seems to have happened about that. We dont know who did that. Yet another example of interference. Amy Jake Williams, can you explain what the gru is, the russian general staff Main Intelligence Directorate that allegedly this document shows conducted the cyberattack . So the gru generally targets generally clinical organizations as well as a number of Technology Organizations in the u. S. And abroad. Basically, we assume them and quite a few networks. When i commented or request for comments on the story, they just talked to me about the technical end. They never mention gru or russia. I said, this sounds very much like the gru and reporter says, hey, have you know that . I said, it is like reading a playbook. The techniques they describe, while not specific to the gru, are very typical of their types of operations. We haveortant to note seen them strike far and wide. This is not unique to u. S. Election interference. We have seen them in quite a few of our client networks, both in the u. S. And outside the u. S. As well. Juan jake, if elections in this country are so fundamental or critical to the society and the governing process, why are why is there election machinery so vulnerable . You have to step back and look at the fact, as the vote totals coming, their total by county commissioners who at the end of the day, have very little , if any, Cyber Security training. Ere is no realtime monitoring of these machines in any case i have been involved in. As we look at the small county governments, they simply dont have the funding to fend off or chordate a nationstate of facts. Some of our fortune 50 clients cannot effectively get rid of keep the attackers out of their networks. County governments simply dont have a chance. It is easy to stand on high the federal level and say, we have to get this right, have to secure this i hear this is a talking point quite a bit leading up to the election. But it is an Unfunded Mandate basically to secure these systems. It doesnt surprise me a bit that the gru would target county and state Election Officials because the reality is, they are the ones that are most horrible vulnerable. All of this makes sense from a targeting perspective both in the easy to get at information and these are the people least likely to discover such an attack. Amy Jake Williams, he recently gave a speech about how to hack an election. How would you do it . Back in november after the Election Results have been posted, i give a speech a conference about basically how i would hackett election. This is based on research i did into that mode. Look, i think of the state level, it gets pretty difficult to the neglect vote totals. I said i would go down to the county governments, the individuals certifying the individual vote totals. We saw before the election some demonstrations of how to hack putting machines. People note these are air gap voting machines. The reality is, theyre programmed from computer cards that ultimately are programmed on a computer that is very likely in every case connected to the internet. If you look at we would target these lowlevel machines. The second thing i would target would be absentee ballots. To do that, specifically mentioned, i would go after voter rolls. It was interesting to see that come out of the story. Amy Bruce Schneier, i want to get your comment on Julian Assanges tweet saying that the person accused of this, reality winner, is accused of encouraging and trying to help us know. Your thoughts . Are two sides to this. It is very complicated. On the one side, these are classified documents and our laws and rules. She committed a crime by releasing it. On the other hand, there is a public right to know. There are lots of lawsuits going on right now, Electronic Privacy Information Center has a lawsuit trying to get the details of that january repor in january, with a report from the director of National Intelligence sing that russia interfered with the elections in an attempt to sway the votes. We just got the unclassified summary. There is a detailed report behind that that we are trying to get released through various legal means. There are ways to do that. There is also leaking. There are times that leaking is incredibly beneficial. This document does not seem worth the risk, unfortunately. I wish i did not say that. Yes, i think principled leaking is extremely important and valuable and a safety check against government overclassification. On the other hand, this is prosecutable and i cannot fault the Justice Department. It is not the trump administration. Anybody would do this. Heres a person who took a documents, mailed it to the press, did not cover her tracks, and she is going to be convicted for it. I believe she already confessed. There is both going on here. It is very hard to tease them apart. I understand both sides. I sympathize with the leakers and i very much like sing the information, but it is a crime and a risk. Juan it is interesting that Julian Assange, who has been often critical of the media for alleging russian interference in the elections, that there is no solid proof of it, would come out with a statement in defense who leaked this document and that the intercept, which has published articles come also critical of how the media is painting the russians with criminal act activities without any direct proof, then print a document that does suggest there was much more russian involvement than people are aware. In both cases, these in julians case and the intercepts case, they seem to be going against the it things they have gone against in the past. It is one thing to see a report saying, our studies conclude our intelligence says, but to show the document this is what happened, this is a classified document, here are the steps, here is what we know that level of detail is convincing in a way of public spokesman never is. Partyeems to transcend politics. These are the facts. The thing about this document, it is dated may 5. It is a very recent documented. It was not written in december. It was not a part of the january report. This is new information. This shows the nsa is still going through their intercepts, their intelligence, their raw data looking for evidence. And when they find it, they are writing of reports and sending it to, i assume, the fbi to continue their investigation. So things are ongoing in our Intelligence Community. It is not that we know everything. We are still learning. Amy is there anything that you think will come out of this weeks expose that comey will be talking about on thursday, the muchanticipated testimony of the fired fbi director . It is hard to know. He will be asked about this. The document is dated after he left the fbi, so he would not have seen it in his role but he mightve heard about it. There might be other evidence. He will be asked about this. Unfortunately, the answers will be classified. You will be unable to say a lot of things. But this will become part of the narrative of the russian interference with 2016 election. Amy we want to thank you both for being with us, bruce securitychnology technologist. Jake williams is the founder of rendition infosec, a Computer Security firm. Also a former member of the nsas tailored access operations hacking team. Bruce schneier is with the harvards Berkman Center for internet and society. Author of data and goliath the hidden battles to collect your data and control your world. This is democracy now when we come back, we will be speaking with two contenders for the philadelphia District Attorneys race. We will start with Larry Krasner. Very interesting defense attorney for decades who is now running to be District Attorney. Stay with us. [music break] amy clampdown, sung by sheer mag and joined onstage by our next guest, philadelphia District Attorney candidate Larry Krasner. This is democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman with juan gonzalez. Juan will a defense attorney with a long standing record of standing up to police soon head one of the nations most bustling District Attorney offices . In philadelphia, civil rights attorney Larry Krasner is poised to become the citys next District Attorney after overwhelmingly winning the democratic primary last month. Philadelphia is a solidly democratic city and the odds for winning novembers general election are in krasners favor with democrats commanding a 7to1 registration advantage. Over his career as a criminal defense and civil rights attorney, krasner has represented protesters with black lives matter, grannies for peace, act up, occupy philadelphia and other progressive groups. Hes a longtime opponent of Capital Punishment whos promised to never seek the Death Penalty. Philadelphia jails more people than any other city in the northeast and krasner is on record opposing police stopandfrisk policies. He told the intercept he hopes to create a team that will investigate and prosecute police and Public Officials for abuses. Thiss a clip from an ad released by krasners campgn. When i heard larry said he was going to run, i said, youre going to run for da . Perfect. Unlike any other candidate in the race, larry is calling for a new approach. I have been aware of Larry Krasner since the 1990s when he was defending protesters involved with act up. I knew very because he and i worked together pro bono in representing activists. He is the attorney for black lives matter. Amy as an attorney, krasner has never prosecuted a case but instead spent his career representing protesters and the economically disadvantaged. He has also filed over 75 civil rights cases against Police Officers and successfully gotten some 800 narcotics thrown out by revealing two officers perjured themselves. For more were joined in studio , by Larry Krasner, longtime criminal defense and civil rights attorney. The democratic nominee for District Attorney for philadelphia. Larry krasner, welcome to democracy now thank you. Good morning. Amy why did you decide to run for District Attorney . You have gone after prosecutors for decades. I have spent 30 years being fiveiminal court for to days a week. Ive been watching what i view as slowmotion car crash for that time. We have more and more people in jail all the time and yet the rate of the rate of poverty, the rate of infant mortality, the rate of suffering in many ways does not get better and we dont get safer. I think the truth is when you are really read a report card and it is all fs it is time for a change. Juan howery able to catch fire with the voters given the required if you candidates running several with other progressive positions similar to yours, but you managed to gather not just a minor victory, but a big victory. It was not about me, it was the ideas. The reality is, especially in a place like philadelphia which is a present democratic and about 50 nonwhite, youre dealing with people who dont want the Death Penalty. They realize it is nothing but a waste of money. They want the public schools, not mass incarceration. They want treatment for people who are suffering from the disease that is addiction. They also dont want civil asset forfeiture, cash bill they step on the poor and dont make us any safer. Juan because you have been a defense attorney, you are well or part ofge portion the legal system is pleabargaining. It is the actual criminal trials where guilt and innocence is determined by a jury of your peers, but basically prosecutors forcing defendants to somehow or other plea bargain to get a reduced sentence, rather than risk a longerterm. How would you as District Attorney try to change that . Plea bargains always have been and always will be part of the system. The problem we have now is they are done in such a coercive fashion. Very often poor people sit in jail from the moment they are arrested and effectively serving a sentence. At the time they come up to the date, to an of to plead guilty even if your innocent is high. People are punished and often severely for taking a case to trial. This is how we have coercive pl bs. Argain i dont believe people should be punished or exercising their constitution right to a trial. That is not something i intend to do as teachers attorney. We need it as District Attorney. We need to be responsible, evenhanded, and seek justice. That does not mean maximizing sentences. Amy i want to turn to candidate donald trump who called for nationwide stop and Frisk Program at a town hall meeting hosted by fox news. This is town hall participant Ricardo Simms questioning trump. There is been a lot of violence in the black community. I want to know what you would do to help stop that violence, black on black crime . I would do,ne thing ricardo, i would do stop and frisk. I think you have to. We did it in new york and it worked incredibly well. You have to be proactive. [applause] change theirle mind automatically. You understand. You have two in my opinion, i see what is going on here and in chicago. I think stop and frisk in new york city, it was so incredible the way it worked. We had a very good mayor. New york city was incredible the way that worked. I think that would be one step you could do. Is therry krasner, what new york version of stop and frisk in philadelphia and what is your position on it . Donald trump, the gift that keeps on giving. So much wisdom. It is a disaster. Stop and frisk in philadelphia results in the following 50 areg men, the vast majority people of color, get searched and they find something one out of 50 times. They find a gun one out of 400 times. What theyre doing is alienating over and over the other 49 young men, mostly young men, reminding them they are poor, reminding them there are certain neighborhoods where police will do whatever they want. And they are creating an environment in which no young men dont want to be Police Officers and in which those young people do not want to share information with the police at about a shooting that may be about to happen or a shooting of a friend that has already happened. This is the destruction of intelligencebased policing in which information is shared. This is the genesis of the dont snitch culture. You have this incredible divide which has been created by a policy that is unconstitutional. Amy the for turn order police is very powerful in philadelphia. They believe it is very powerful. 50 with them at the results of the last election, not so much. I dont say that to gloat. The problem is not the rankandfile police in philadelphia. Many are very good people. The problem is the leadership of the fob, and porcelain, during the campaign, engaged in rhetoric that was very much throwback, reactionary rhetoric. This is the same group on record as having endorsed donald trump in a city that is a to present democratic. To the absolute outrage of the women, Women Officers and the officers of color. Union of police in philadelphia get a press conference over how upset they were about that. Hasleadership of the fop been good at attracting attention during the election cycle, but they have not met with me and are now talking in a fashion. What concerns me is the police coissioner, and we have had two fairly Progressive Police commissioners in a row, he and i have no sort of relationship. We have met and spoke to my telephone. While we will disagree on some things, i much more concerned about working with the Police Department as opposed to worrying about some throwback had of the police union. Juan your ability to run for the seat was held by the fact the current District Attorney is now facing trial for corruption himself. It was not that long ago the state attorney general in pennsylvania was also faced faced colonel charges herself. Im wondering your sense of what is going on now or even a prosecutors are ending up on corruption trials in pennsylvania . For his long as ive been practicing, which is 30 years, the people have become District Attorneys of Philadelphia County have been politicians must ultimately, their goal was not to stop in the District Attorneys office. It was to be governor or become senator or whatever it may be. It goes back to arlen specter, lynne abraham, and so it is not surprising the day and up embroiled in corruption scandals. The truth is, theyre mostly running for hire office. It has been an exercise of ego to large extent. I want to run for this until things got out of hand. I think i am coming at it from a different perspective. I have worked for the outside for justice for very long time. I see an opportunity to be more effective on the inside, and that is what i would like to do. Juan do you fear the career prosecutors in that office are going there have been some reports, thoughts of open rebellion of people resigning. People are used to watching law and order and seeing the heroic battle of prosecutors, new york city, and other places. Is it your sense theres going to be rebellion and the ranks when you come and . Not at all. The reality is, there certain people who are trying to use publicity to indicate there is more distant than there is. Im looking forward to working with a lot of these prosecutors. Many of their personal cell phones are in my phone because i am in court four to five days a week trying cases with them. Arethere are some that truly excellent. They have been feeding me information about Police Corruption they could not address within the Office Without causing problems for their own careers. Thishere is no question location, as in many locations across the u. S. , there will be some change of the guard. There has to be. When josh shapiro the can the state attorney general in pennsylvania, he dismissed about 13, 13 , 40 in his office. 13 , 14 ismissed about in his office. There is nothing unusuaabout having changing of the guard. Otherwise, you would be violating your promises to achieve the cultural change that you have. Amy would you ever pursue the Death Penalty in the case . No. Amy why . Flex so many reasons. Let me want to fight the moment. Pennsylvania is the executed anyone against his wilsons 1962 when it was when youre old, three people wanted to die in the 1990s and th were committed to doing so. But during the period of time, the been six generations of innocent people from death row. There has been over 1 billion spent in the pursuit of executions that are never impose. 1 billion. If you break it down, turns out to be 40,000 a head, about 500 schoolteachers or social workers or young Police Officer across the commonwealth of pennsylvania every year for the last 50 years. We know that measures like good Public Education stop crime, reduce homicides. We know that. We know there is the evidence the Death Penalty reduces crime. I see no value in destroying our public schools, which is what is going on, in favor of the penalty that is never impose or shouldnt be, because we would be executing, friendly, significant numbers of innocent people. Juan perhaps the most famous prisoner from philadelphia, if not in the entire country, is mamia abul jamal. Im wondering your thoughts on how justice was served in the case . Someone who may very well be the next District Attorney, i have to become about what i would say in advance of being in office because of could become the basis of an argument that i should not be involved in the case. In this case, as with other significant cases in philadelphia, for example, the investigation of the shooting and killing of brandon tate brown, im not commenting on during this campaign. Amy you have represented so many different groups, black lives matter, occupy, and many different groups, forming a kind of resistance right now to President Trump. Many of your supporters were Bernie Sanders supporters. Do y seeourself rrying on is fht . Think the answer is yes. While Bernie Sanders did not have quite a detailed platform a criminal justice as i would like to see, that this campaign is much more a tradition of Bernie Sanders, the most exciting thing, in my view, to come out of this campaign is in the last two similar election cycles for the da, their work over 400,000 total votes each time. This time, there were 150,000 votes. The reason the national and democratic parties are noticing what is happening is not me. What theyre noticing is in a state that was lost by Hillary Clinton to donald trump by 40,000 votes in a single city in an off year election, about 45,000 new votes have turned out. There is a gold mine of untapped progressive votes and there is a coalition of africanamerican and progressive votes that, unfortunately my Bernie Sanders was not able to tap as well as he would have liked. But they are there. This could be a model for what is possible across the country. Amy Larry Krasner, thank you for being with us criminal , defense and civil rights attorney democratic nominee for , District Attorney for philadelphia. When we come back, we will be joined by the republican nominee , the contender for District Attorney for philadelphia. Stay with us. [music break] amy this is democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman with juan gonzalez. Juan we continue our coverage of the philadelphia District Attorneys race with republican nominee Beth Grossman. Shes a prosecutor with more than 20 Years Experience serving in every unit in the philadelphia District Attorneys office. She is a fourthgeneration philadelphian who says she is committed to seeking justice and improving the quality of life for all philadelphians. From 2007 to 2015, she led the citys Public Nuisance Task force which handled civil asset forfeiture. The controversial practice enables District Attorneys to seize peoples property and cash even if they are not convicted of a crime. Grossman was previously registered as a democrat, but changed partyaffiliations over, she says, disgust with excessive corruption by Democratic Party officials. In march, then incumbent democratic District Attorney Seth Williams was indicted on corruption and briberyrelated charges. He is set to go on trial later this month. This is part of an ad released by Beth Grossmans campaign. So based on that and my needs and my wanto bring integrity and ethics effective it is Attorneys Office District Attorneys office, that is why i decided to run as a republican in the District Attorneys office race. I needed a change and i think the city needs a change as well. A is then 65 years of democratic city and having a oneparty city creates an absolute political imbalance. Amy Beth Grossman now faces a tough battle in the upcoming november election against democratic rival Larry Krasner for the District Attorney seat. Philadelphia has been a staunchly democratic city for more than 60 years. However, grossmans campaign notes donald trump received over votes in philadelphia during the 100,000 president ial election, and District Attorney candidates typically need only tens of thousands of votes to win. Well for more, we go now to , philadelphia where were joined by Beth Grossman, longtime philadelphia prosecutor. Beth grossman, welcome to democracy now why are you running for District Attorney . Dust first,all, as thank you for having me. I am running first to restore integrity of public trust to the das office. As mentioned, our current District Attorney Seth Williams is under federal indictment and fewto go to trial in a weeks. That being said, i am also running to ensure that people have were are entitled to a good quality of life and a high level of Public Safety in all neighborhoods throughout the city. As well as ensure that the law, which the commonwealth of pennsylvania through the das office, it would reinforce it, is done so fairly, appropriately , and justly. Juan we mention in the lead the period of time you handle the with civillso dealt forfeiture. Thes been a lot of criticism as avil Rights Violations result of that forfeiture program. Im wondering if you could respond to those claims . Im not going to concede that there are civil Rights Violations because we followed andlaw as it statutorily case law through the court. But that being said, i am happy should i be elected as District Attorney to reevaluate the practice, perhaps focusing on those who are convicted of crime , as well as i think the important thing is really to focus on prevention so we dont have those that are dealing drugs or have drug properties. I think maybe that is the way we should start looking at it now. Amy what are the other issues that you think are critical right now . We are having a spike in crime in philadelphia, which is always which is the critical issue. Recently, nine people were shot, including a oneyearold sitting on a porch. We had two people found shot execution style in a car a couple of days ago. One of our City Council People was stabbed in front of his home coming home from work. It is to focus on decreasing Violent Crimes in philadelphia. We ever long, hot summer ahead of us. It really gives me concern as to what that is going to bring. Juan i want to get your. Erspective on the war on drugs clearly, that is been a big focal point of prosecutors across the nation for decades now andrew been messing cars race and rate. Your concern about how the war on drugs has been been carried out by Law Enforcement . Think it has failed. I do agree with you on that point. As you said, it has led to an enormous amount of mass incarceration. Is him is likew a pendulum. I think we are to see and have been a first of all, addiction is not a crime. There are those who are suffering from addiction who need treatment. We also need to get education and prevention out there for kids in school do make sure theyre educated about things such as hills. We need to focus on those who are prescribing pills recklessly. That can be done through legislation and investigation. Her lower level drug dealers, diversionary programs that we can focus upon. Amy your position on the Death Penalty . Pennsylvania, it makes no sense economically. The last person who was involuntarily executed if it is a venue in 1962. The last one who voluntarily waived his appellate rights was in 1999. So it really cut except in extreme, extreme cases, if we have an example of terrorism and a First Responder is killed or the case like the gentleman who went another german, but individual who went in and shot nine people in a church down south, those are the examples i would consider. With the most part, i think utilizing the Death Penalty in the philadelphia District Attorneys office is not economically sound. Here are too many go ahead. Juan want ask you about some of the things donald trump has said about the city when he was running for his campaign. Use of the cities were out of control, when actually the crime rate has been dropping in most cities for years. Your sense of the trump administrations policy toward crime in the cities . Oni am not i am focused in this race, as i have been for two decades, and what happens in the city and county of philadelphia. That is what concerns me. Yes, crime has gone down, but in the past couple it has also gone up. That is what my concern and focus is. And what preventative measures we can utilize and make sure and it does not peak continues to go down. That is where my focus and concern is. Amy i want to ask you about a piece of mother jones that was headlined philadelphia cops shoot and kill people at six times the rate of the nypd. It says in a city where blacks and white each make up about 45 of the population, almost 60 of the officers involved in shooting between 2007 and 2013 were white, while 81 of suspects involved were black. So that was from a doj report. But the headline from mother jones philadelphia cops shoot and kill people at six times the rate of the nypd, your response . Well, i see really have not seen that article or the numbers, so i dont know what that whats the detailed response i can offer. What i can say is shootings in philadelphia by police have deeased enormously. Amy what i was reading to you was from a doj rept fro2015. Ok. My response is, hopefully, that number will continue to go down and that shootings in philadelphia by Police Officers to any individuals in philadelphia will hopefully continue to decrease. And we have to work to prevent that through Crime Prevention strategies, community policing, to Building Trust within the between the community and with the philadelphia Police Department. Juan i want to ask about stop and frisk, which has been a big issue here in new york city, but many cities across the country, as well as philadelphia in terms of disparate impact on the africanamerican and latino communities of stop and frisk. I am wondering your view of how it has been implemented in philadelphia and what you would hope would be changed by Law Enforcement if you became District Attorney . As a latest report or the numbers from the philadelphia Police Department is that stop and frisk is going down. I think that must continue to go down. I just hope as i said before, i think with those members going down, when there is stop and frisk, thick only 2 in the cases as anything found, it is a very low percentage. I think those numbers must continue to decrease. With that, i think youll gain more trust and more cooperation between the community and the philadelphia Police Department. There is that trust, i think it builds stronger relationships and people can join in and help want to process a pain anything that will war crime within his or her neighborhood. Amy you are democrat for many years and switched Party Affiliation to run. As a democrat or republican, what arer views on President Trump . I am running this race to be the District Attorney of philadelphia. What my views are of the president are irrelevant to this race, quite honestly. What concerns me is the quality of life and Public Safety for all philadelphians, whether they are republican, democrat, independent, or that belong to any other party. That is what my concern is. Amy Beth Grossman, thank you for being with us, longtime philadelphia prosecutor, republican nominee for District Attorney for philadelphia. That does it for our broadcast. 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 ] stop and. Smell the roses with my rosewater sweets from the middle east. Announcer julie taboulies is made possib by. Do your thing, do your thing syracuse, do your thing do your thing, do your thing syracuse, do your thing