of state hillary clinton comes out swinging, attacking the surging bernie sanders who focused much of his message last night on the economy. >> i believe the power of corporate america, the power of wall street, the power of the drug companies, the power of the corporate media is so great, that the only way we really transform america and do the things that the middle-class and working-class desperately need is through a political revolution when millions of people begin to come together and stand up and say, our government is going to work for all of us, not just a handful of billionaires. amy: we will spend the hour airing highlights from the debate and speak to a roundtable of guests. green party presidential candidate jill stein, pulitzer prize winning journalist les payne, author d watkins and zaid jilani of alternet. all that and more coming up. welcome to democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. five democratic presidential candidates faced off tuesday night in the first of six debates in the 2016 campaign. the participants were former secretary of state hillary clinton, vermont senator bernie sanders, former maryland governor martin o'malley, former virginia senator jim webb, and former rhode island governor lincoln chafee. they squared off on topics including gun control, economic inequality, regulation of wall street and the wars in iraq and , afghanistan. in the most heavily tweeted moment of the night, sanders said the debate should focus on income inequality not on hillary , clinton's use of a private email server. >> let me say something that may not be great politics. but i think the secretary is right. and that is that the american people are sick and tired of hearing about your damn e-mails. >> thank you. me, too. amy: more after the debate on the headlines. -- more on the debate after the headlines. in afghanistan, the taliban have announced their withdrawal from the city of kunduz, to avoid what they called a "unnecessary waste of ammunition." the taliban held the city for 15 days after hundreds of militants managed to overtake thousands of forces. the taliban destroyed government buildings and women-run radio stations, stashed weaponry, freed prisoners and reportedly , terrorized women in public positions, many of whom fled for their lives. the bid to oust the taliban was backed by u.s. airstrikes and special operations ground forces. of the dozens killed in the violence, about half died in u.s. airstrike on a doctors without borders hospital, which killed 22 medical staff and patients, even though u.s. officials had been informed of the hospital's coordinates beforehand. more than 30 others are missing. resident obama, meanwhile, is reportedly rethinking plans to withdraw all but a small number of u.s. troops from afghanistan. considering leaving up to 5000 troops there. the taliban now controls more of afghanistan than at any point since the 2001 u.s. invasion. the united states and russia are planning to hold a third round of talks on air safety in syria after it emerged that combat aircraft from the two countries flew within 10 miles of each other on saturday. the u.s. continues to call for the ouster of syrian president bashar al-assad, and criticizes russia's strategy of backing assad. meanwhile, officials say the syrian army and allied iranian and hezbollah troops, backed by russian air strikes, are preparing a ground offensive against anti-assad rebels in aleppo. an anonymous official told reuters thousands of iranian troops have been arriving for the offensive. israeli troops are moving to lock down palestinian neighborhoods in east jerusalem today, amid a wave of stabbing attacks by palestinians and escalating violence by israeli forces in the occupied territories. this comes as israeli soldiers killed a palestinian protester in the west bank city of bethlehem tuesday. in total, at least 29 palestinians and seven israelis have been killed in the last two weeks. human rights watch said the lock down measures in jerusalem will increase tension. >> the wave of attacks against israeli civilians, we challenge any police force, but locking down palestinian neighborhoods in east jerusalem is the wrong response. the checkpoints will restrict the freedom of movement of all residents, not just suspected attackers. even a history of abuse and neglect, it is only going to exacerbate tensions between residents and police. it is exactly what we don't need. amy: in the united states, supporters of prominent palestinian activist rasmea odeh are rallying outside an ohio courthouse today as an appeals court considers arguments she was denied a fair trial. odeh was convicted of immigration fraud and sentenced to 18 months in prison and deportation from the united states for failing to disclose her conviction on bombing charges by an israeli military court more than 40 years ago. odeh says her conviction was obtained through torture and sexual assault in israeli custody. she has lived in the united states for more than 20 years. her supporters say she was targeted over her support for palestinian liberation. odeh is free on bond pending her appeal. guatemalan authorities have called off the search and rescue operation for people buried under a massive landslide that killed at least 280 people near the capital about one week ago. at least 70 people are still missing. in news from japan, the governor of okinawa has revoked the construction permit at the site of proposed new u.s. military base, which the majority of residents oppose. takeshi onaga, who was elected on a platform of stopping the military base, said tuesday the permit issued by his predecessor had legal flaws. okinawa houses about 26,000 u.s. troops, and their presence has been the subject of protests for decades. planned parenthood has announced it will no longer accept reimbursement for the cost of donating fetal tissue for medical research, even though the reimbursement is legal. the step comes after republicans launched a series of hearings following anti-planned parenthood hearings following an anti-choice group's release heavily edited videos showing planned parenthood officials discussing fetal tissue donation. planned parenthood said of its nearly 700 health centers, only two provide fetal tissue for research, and only one takes reimbursement. but in a letter to the national institutes of health, planned parenthood ceo cecile richards said planned parenthood would stop taking any compensation to -- planned parenthood is profiting off the donations. in wisconsin, a jury has ordered a gun shop to pay nearly $5 million to two milwaukee police officers who were shot and wounded by a gun purchased at the shop. the jury found the store negligent for ignoring signs the purchaser was a so-called straw buyer, who was buying the gun for an 18-year-old who was too young to legally buy it himself. the teenager used the gun to shoot the two officers a month later. the case was closely watched by gun control advocates who say stores should be accountable for violence carried out with their guns. meanwhile, both wisconsin and michigan are considering new bills to expand access to guns on campus, less than two weeks when a gunman killed nine on the college campus in oregon. the american civil liberties union has filed a federal lawsuit against the architects of the cia torture program, accusing psychologists james mitchell and bruce jessen of war crimes. mitchell and jessen reaped more than for designing torture $80 million techniques used by the cia. the lawsuit was filed on behalf of two torture survivors and the family of a third man, gul rahman, who froze to death at a cia black site in afghanistan. aclu attorney dror ladin announced the lawsuit tuesday. >> there has been no accountability for these men. they've received no apologies. they have received no compensation. and his family is never even received his body. and so now that the senate torture report that came out at the end of last year provided in or miss details about mitchell and jessen's role in the torture program, now is the time our client thought was right to try to seek justice and accountability for what mitchell and jessen did to them. amy: a new report by credit suisse says the wealthiest 1% of the world's population now controls 50% of total global wealth. this is the most extreme concentration of wealth the bank has ever recorded. in contrast, the report shows average household wealth has fallen 17% in latin america and 12% in europe amid austerity programs. marlon james has become the first jamaican-born author to win the man booker prize, britain's most prestigious literary award. james won the prize for his novel, "a brief history of seven killings," inspired by the attempted assassination of singer bob marley in 1976. and the deadline club has announced democracy now! co-host and "daily news" columnist juan gonzález will be inducted into the new york journalism hall of fame. juan is the first latino journalist to be selected for the hall of fame. he will be inducted along with pbs host charlie rose, max frankel, lesley stahl, paul steiger and richard stolley. and those are some of the headlines. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. juan: and i am one gonzalez. amy: congratulations. juan: it is a real surprise and it is an honor for a kid who just love to write to be included in this group of religions of new york journalism, including people like bill more years and barbara walters and bob herbert and others. it is a humbling experience i think the deadline club for recognizing me. amy: i think it is long overdue and an honor for all of them to be there with you. juan: let's move on to the democratic presidential debate am a the first one of the 2016 campaign. five contenders squared off last night in las vegas. hillary clinton, bernie sanders, martin o'malley, jim webb and lincoln chafee. it was one of only six debate schedule for this year. senator bernie sanders focused much of his message on inequality and the economy. >> i believe the power of corporate america, the power of wall street, the power of the drug companies, the power of the corporate media is so great that the only way we really transform america and do the things that the middle class and working class desperately need is through a political revolution when millions of people begin to come together and stand up and say, our government is going to work for all of us, not just a handful of billionaires. amy: senator sanders also made headlines when he criticized the media for focusing too much on the controversy over hillary clinton's use of private e-mail servers while she was serving as secretary of state. >> let me say something that may not be great politics, but i think the secretary is right. and that is that the american people are sick and tired of hearing about your damn e-mails. >> thank you. me, too. me, too. juan: will senator sanders has surged in the polls, secretary clinton described herself as the outsider in the race. >> governor o'malley says the presidency is not a crown to be passed back in fourth between two royal families. this year has been the year of the outsider and politics, just as bernie sanders. why should democrats embrace an insider like yourself? >> i can't think of anything more of an outsider than electing the first woman president, but i'm not just running because i would be the first woman president. i'm running because i a lifetime of experience and getting results and fighting for people, fighting for kids, for women, for families, fighting to even the odds. and i know what it takes to get things done. i know how to find common ground and i know how to stand my ground. amy: in one of the feisty as moments of the debate, hillary clinton criticized sanders record on guns and his history of voting against measures like the brady bill. >> is bernie sanders tough enough on guns? >> not at all. i think we have to look at the fact we lose 90 people a day from gun violence. this has gone on too long and it is time the entire country stood up against the nra. the majority of our country -- [applause] even thebrumback and majority of gun owners do. juan: martin o'malley respectively stressed, check -- called for moving to clean energy. i'm put forward a plan and the only candidate, i believe, a nuclear -- and neither party to do this, to move america towards a 100% electric grid by 2050. we did not land on the man with the above strategy. it was intentional engineering challenge, and we solved it as a nation. our nation must solve this one. amy: off five candidates were also asked to identify what they believe is the greatest threat to national security. armor rhode island governor lincoln chafee spoke first. >> secondly, the cast of the middle east, no doubt about it. it all started with the iraq invasion. >> i believe remains along with climate change that makes cascading threats even worse. >> i think it has to be the spread of nuclear weapons, nuclear material that can fall into the wrong hands. i know the terrorists are constantly seeking it, and that is what we have to stay vigilant but also united around the world to prevent that. but senator sanders? >> the scientific community is telling us if we do not address the global crisis of climate change, transform our energy system away from fossil fuels to sustainable energy, the planet we're going to leave to our kids and grandkids may not be inevitable. >> our relations with china. our greatest in today's threat is cyber warfare against this country. progress military operational threat is resolving the situations in the middle east. amy: for more on the debate, we're joined by a number of guest. in new york, jill stein, 2016 presidential candidate for the green party. les payne, pulitzer prize-winning journalist and former editor at newsday. d. watkins is a columnist for salon. author of the book, "the beast side: living and dying while black in america." jill stein, your response, overall, to the debate, what was covered, what wasn't. >> it was not a new day for the democratic party. it was -- it was enriching, it was wonderful to see the focus on economic justice, and that was very welcome, but there it was taking place in the luxury when hotel in nevada, and this is where we are having a discussion about economic justice. and hillary clinton as the dominant voice in the debate is a little hard to believe. she is sort of talking out of both sides of her mouth. she wants to go against wall street, but she won't support glass-steagall. amy: explain what glass-steagall is. >> the law that separated speculative banking from everyday consumer banking. basically, allowed banks to take risks -- i should say, it prevents banks from taking risks at consumers' burden. it permits bailouts. or i should say, it prevents bailouts from going forward. glass-steagall was repealed under the clinton administration , and it needs to be brought back. senator clinton does not -- dynamic let's go to hillary and bernie sanders sparring over their plan to address abuses on wall street. >> senator sanders wants to break up the wall street banks. you don't. you say continue to monitor them. why is your plan better? >> my plan is tougher because of course we have to deal with the problem that the banks are still too big to fail. we can never let the american taxpayer and middle-class families ever have to bailout the kind of speculative behavior that we saw, but we also have to worry about some of the other players -- aig, the insurance company, lehman brothers, investment bank. there's this whole area called shadow banking. that is where the experts tell me the next potential problem could come from. >> she said hurt policy is tougher than yours. >> not true. the greed andr recklessness and illegal behavior of wall street, where fraud is a business model, helped to destroy this economy and the lives of millions of people. check the record. in the 1990's -- and all the respect -- in the 1990's, when i had the republican leadership and wall street spending billions of dollars in lobbying, when the clinton administration, when alan greenspan said, "what a great idea it would be to allow these huge banks to merge," bernie sanders focht them and helped lead the opposition to deregulation. today it is my view that when you have the three largest ranks in america, a much bigger than what we build them out would be too big to fail, we're got to break them up. amy: bernie sanders and hillary clinton, journalist, les payne, your response? >> i agree they were in swing surroundings, but in time hillary and sanders lifted it and put it in a back alley. i think -- the issues were joined. i thought -- i think hillary refused to throw her husband under the bus on glass-steagall and did her thing. throughout the debate, i found her committing -- pivoting. on glass-steagall, she pivoted. she said her issue was stronger. when they attacked her on iraq and washable to for the war, she said, yes, but i was banned secretary of state. she even embraced o'malley. game,ght she was on her but she is a good debater. she is been doing so since high school. if the next president is to be selected by who was the better debater, then clinton would be in the running. and perhaps deserve to be the front runner. juan: in terms of the overall picture that you got of this debate versus the first two republican debates, is there any particular lessons you can draw from the combined activities of these candidates versus what happened with the republicans? for think republicans win the personal. the issues were joined here. i thought anderson cooper and company did a pretty good job of getting the issues and the questions were sharp. it was a debate. for instance, someone observed -- for instance, when the audience was allowed to ask, does black lives matter, black was never mentioned in the first two republican's debate and african-americans was mentioned only one time. and that was by rand paul. away.learly state the six major issues they dealt with, the republicans, did not do with them at all. if you want to compare the two, it was the debate versus kind of a personal wall street -- wall around trump. juan: i was surprised on how little questioning there was on policy with a candidates, with the exception of iraq and syria, very little to try to elicit the differences between them when it comes to foreign policy. jill? >> yeah, i mean, not only there wasn't much said, but what was said was really pretty uniform. it was all kind of in the mode of the tough guy, american militarist approach to foreign policy. there was no -- you know, there was incredible cognitive disconnect. the middle east is going up in flames. we have about five failed its right now going on many more. we have created isis. and the thinking is that we can fix isis by doing more of what created isis. and there was absolutely no meaningful dialogue about this quagmire that we are plunging into headlong. amy: we are going to play some of the clips from the debate, but before we do, d. watkins, your overall take on the democrats and what they addressed last night in las vegas? >> it was great television. [laughter] it was interesting. it's funny, but from where i come from, baltimore, i'm responsible for working directly with the people. i felt like they don't even know a poor person. you don't even know what is going on out there. everything sounds great and it is cool to throw around rhetoric with gun control and black lives matter -- cool, i'm happy it made it into the debate, but i also feel like some of these politicians will say whatever they have to say just to the elected -- to be elected, and that is not when you change the conditions of anyone living in a place like baltimore city right now. juan: any particular statement by any of the candidates surprise you in terms of its refreshing this comment terms of it being on point? >> martin o'malley's love her african-americans surprised me. i did not know. i did not feel that. know a lot of my friends with through the system and they should not have gone through the system. the high, ridiculous amount of arrest that happened while he was mayor. dude going to jail for sitting on the side of the steps are riding a bike on the curb stop that is crazy. amy: we're going to take a break and come back to martin o'malley addressing just that issue. we're talking to d. watkins, author of, "the beast side: living and dying while black in america." we're also talking to pulitzer prize-winning journalist les payne and with green party presidential candidate jill stein. stay with us. ♪ [music break] amy: "crazy world" by buddy guy. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. our guests in new york are d. watkins, teaches college in baltimore, right for salon.com and is the author of a new book called, "the beast side: living and dying while black in america." us, thein is also with green party presidential candidate in pulitzer prize-winning journalist. les payne worked for years at newsday and is running a book on malcolm x.. also joins us from the table. and we will be joined by another guest in atlanta. night's last presidential debate, martin o'malley was also questioned about his record as mayor of baltimore. in the protest that exploded in the city after the police killing of freddie gray in april. prosecutor blames your zero-tolerance policy for sowing the seeds of unrest. why should americans trust you with the country when they see what is going on in the city that you ran for more than seven years. axa, what i believe what she said as there are a lot of policies that have led to this unrest. anderson, when i ran for mayor of baltimore 1999. >> just for the record, which was asked to name policies, she said zero-tolerance. there's a number of all policies seeing the're results of. the distress of communities were communities don't just afforded say who killed a three-year-old, the direct result of these failed policies. >> let's talk about this a little bit. one of the things that was not reported during a heartbreaking that of unrest in baltimore was that arrest had actually fallen to a 38 your low in your prior to the death of freddie gray. when i ran for mayor of baltimore 1999, it was not because our city was doing well. it was because we had allowed ourselves to become the most violent, addictive good, and abandon city in america. in iran and promised people that together we could turn it around. i did not make our city of immune to setbacks. but i attended a lot of funerals, including one for a family of seven who are firebombed in their sleep for picking up the phone in a poor, african-american neighborhood and calling the police because of drug dealers on their corner. we've saved over a thousand lives in baltimore in the last 15 years of people working together. and the vast majority of them were young and poor and black. it wasn't easy on any day. but we saved lives and we gave our city a better future, improving police and community relations every single day that i was in office. >> in one year alone, though, 100,000 arrests were made in your city, a city of 640,000 people. the aclu, the naacp sued you, sued the city, and the city actually settled, saying a lot of those arrests were without probable cause. >> well, i think the key word in your followup there was the word "settle." that's true. it was settled. arrests peaked in 2003, anderson, but they declined every year after that as we restored peace in our poorer neighborhoods so that people could actually walk and not have to worry about their kids or their loved ones of being victims of violent crime. juan: that was former maryland governor, former baltimore mayor martin o'malley. d. watkins, his defense of his record, your response? >> a lot of politicians like to throw around numbers. i get it, that is their game, stefan numbers. but i do with people. that 100,000 arrests that anderson was talking about, these are people that i know. these are people who get good jobs or who can't really navigate through the system because of that, because of whatever his policy was. it is easy to say crime is down if you're just locking up people for nothing. amy: 100,000 of 600,000. that is one in six people. is a blackhat time person in baltimore, all you do due to go to jail was walked in the street. people got locked up with the most ridiculous things -- talking back to a police officer. their people, right? they may have a badge and a gun and benefits, but they are people, right? they disrespect you and you say something back to them, you could go to jail. it was that simple. martin o'malley as a mayor stood behind that. amy: and yet you have them talking, for example, about black lives matter and the movement. i want to go to the clip that we have of the democratic presidential debate last night theas vegas, the part of debate about the black lives matter movement. or doblack lives matter all lives matter? let's put that to senator sanders. >> black lives matter. and the reason -- the reason those words matter is the african-american community knows that on any given day some , innocent person like sandra bland can get into a car, and then three days later she's , going to end up dead in jail, or their kids are going to get shot. we need to combat institutional racism from top to bottom, and we need major, major reforms in a broken criminal justice system. [applause] in which we have more people in jail than china. and i intend to tackle that issue. to make sure that our people have education and jobs rather than jail cells. >> governor o'malley, the question from arthur was do , black lives matter, or do all lives matter? >> anderson, the point that the black lives matter movement is making is a very, very legitimate and serious point, and that is that as a nation we have undervalued the lives of black lives, people of color. when i ran for mayor of baltimore -- and we were burying over 350 young men ever single year, mostly young, and poor, and black, and i said to our legislature at the time when i appeared in front of them as a mayor, that if we were burying white, young, poor men in these numbers we would be marching in , the streets and there would be a different reaction. black lives matter, and we have a lot of work to do to reform our criminal justice system and to address race relations in our country. amy: that is martin o'malley and bernie sanders before him, both talking about black lives matter. both had their campaign rallies in different places interrupted .y black lives matter activists ultimately, martin o'malley, originally said all lives matter. but apologized for that after he got a bunch of flak. les payne, your thoughts? >> as politicians do, there learned the correct answer for the test question. it doesn't mean they have changed their behavior, it means they know the correct answer now. that is why polling, in my view, knows against pulling being infallible as an editor, is suspect because people learn the correct answer. therefore, they pass. but his record stands up in indict him as a young man pointed out. mass incarceration against clinton, granted, legion was not the president, but she has supported and president clinton signed the omnibus crime bill, 101 crack cocaine to powder cocaine for instance, which was largely responsible for heavy federal incarceration, which president clinton has apologized for it says he's going to try to do something -- but he did i do anything while he was president. i think these presidential candidates who make these statements, the question is, and sanders said very strongly that he intends to do something about it, that remains to be seen. i think the problem is not simply whether there is zero tolerance -- i think one of the key problems is that disparate policing -- we have it in new york, ferguson, and we have it in baltimore. disparate racial policing. juan: i want to turn to an issue that got a lot of attention in the republican debates but not much in this one, the issue of immigration. let's turn to the exchange between the candidates on that issue. >> secretary clinton, governor o'malley wants to open up millions of a document immigrants and her children, including a list on the thousand people right here in nevada. do you? quick first of all, i want to make sure every child gets health care, that is why i help to grade the children self-insurance program and i want to support states that expanding health care, including undocumented children and others. i want to open up the opportunity for immigrants to be able to buy in to the exchanges under the affordable care act. i think to go beyond that, as i understand what governor o'malley has recommended, so that they would get the same subsidies i think that is -- it , raises so many issues. it would be very difficult to administer, it needs to be part of a comprehensive immigration reform, when we finally do get to it. >> governor o'malley? >> juan carlos, i think what you've heard up here is some of the old thinking on immigration reform, and that's why it's gridlocked. we need to understand that our country is stronger in every generation by the arrival of new american immigrants. that is why i have put out a policy for comprehensive immigration reform, that is why i would go further than president obama has on daca, and dapa. juan: that was exchanged between the candidates on immigration. we also join in atlanta by zaid jilani, staff writer at alternet. welcome to democracy now! can you respond to the candidates on what they said on immigration? >> first of all, it is great to be here. i just want to say that. as far as the response of hillary and o'malley gave, i think there isn't a goal of what we saw on the last primary election. remember, it was a difficult moment for hillary or she said undocumented immigrants should be up to get drivers licenses and now we have a new issue, which is health care and we see o'malley urging to her left saying, ask the, the undocumented should have the same access to the exchanges, the subsidies, the affordable care act were as hillary is tacking more to the right, trying to say this is a more dicey issue for me, you know, i'm not ready to go there yet. i think it is an echo of what we saw in 2008 at a huge opportunity for her opponents, including bernie sanders, who i don't think a stated a position on this, to get to her left and to embrace the immigrant community. amy: overall, can you respond to the tenor of the debate last night, what was raised, what you felt the hit head on, if anything? >> i think it is interesting. if you graded it like a high school debate team, basically, hillary, o'malley, and bernie were about equal. they all got a few applause lines and hits, it was on parity. in terms of coming away from the debate, bernie sanders was the big winner because he exposed himself to much larger national audience. google politics put out a stat he had 193 times increase in searches for his name last night and its campaigns as they raised 1.3 million dollars, grinning having 10 contributions a second at one point. as far as a substance, i do feel like the candidates were not necessarily -- we had an interesting moment early on are bernie sanders and hillary clinton were debating the nature of capitalism, democratic socialism, but it did not last long. the moderators constantly were badgering the candidates, trying to get back to scandals and that raise the moment were bernie sanders, hey, i'm sick of hearing about the damn e-mails. so i think we did start to see the candidate sort of make their own personalities. i think burning particularly got to hold new audience. he won the focus groups that cnn as well as a number of online polls. i think we are starting to see sort of the people form their camps, but i don't think the moderators pressed the candidates enough on a lot of key issues, for example, the drug war was only briefly brought up. or example, hillary clinton said she supports the patriot act, most people don't know over 90% of the uses of the patriot act by the federal government are for drug war uses. not just targeting young muslims , which is what a lot of people see it as. i don't think the israeli palestine issue was brought up considering what was happening in the holy land and hillary clinton's record, which was a failed record as secretary of state and moderating the conflict. i don't think climate change was really addressed considering it is a matter of global importance . i think it was in oppressive answer for bernie sanders to point out is is the greatest national security threat. i don't think the moderators pressed enough on that issue. while this was a good first debate in terms of what was happening with people forming their camps and making their opinions, i don't think the candidates were really given a chance to contrast their visions and i hope that moderators will bring up these key issues in future debates. juan: one of the issues that do get a lot of attention and sparked quite a bit of that can four through tweeting the candidates was the issue of gun control. this is anderson cooper questioning bernie sanders 2005 vote to shield gun manufacturers from liability lawsuits over shootings. >> you want to shield gun companies? >> of course not. this was a large and complicated bill. there were provisions in it that i think made sense. for example, do i think that a gun shop in the state of vermont that sells legally a gun to somebody, and that somebody goes out and does something crazy, that that gun shop owner should be held responsible? i don't. on the other hand, where you have manufacturers and where you have gun shops knowingly giving guns to criminals or aiding and abetting that, of course we should take action. >> secretary clinton, is bernie sanders tough enough on guns? >> no, not at all. i think that we have to look at the fact that we lose 90 people a day from gun violence. this has gone on too long and it's time the entire country stood up against the nra. the majority of our country -- [applause] supports background checks, and even the majority of gun owners do. senator sanders did vote five times against the brady bill. since it was passed, more than 2 million prohibited purchases have been prevented. he also did vote, as he said, for this immunity provision. i voted against it. i was in the senate at the same time. it wasn't that complicated to me. it was pretty straightforward to me that he was going to give immunity to the only industry in america. everybody else has to be accountable, but not the gun manufacturers. and we need u to stand up and sy enough of that. , we're not going to let it continue. >> we're going to bring you all in on this. but, senator sanders, you have to give a response. >> as a senator from a rural state, what i can tell secretary clinton, that all the shouting in the world is not going to do what i would hope all of us want, and that is keep guns out of the hands of people who should not have those guns and end this horrible violence that we are seeing. >> have you ever been to the eastern shore? have you ever been to western maryland? --were able to respect passes and still respect the hundred traditions. by leading with principle, not by pandering to the nra. and -- >> i don't think i'm pandering, but you have not been in the united states congress. maybe you ought to check it out. juan: that last challenge was from martin o'malley. les payne, the issue on how the candidate still with -- debt with gun control and how big of an issue you think it is going to be for the upcoming election? herself a declared progressive not a moderate, and was taking this issue to put herself to the left of bernie sanders. and i think that's a tactical move. she put a lot of energy and emotion in that, and i think that was a tactical debate tip. she was putting herself to the left of him on an issue and he is supposedly the progressive on the left. she was digging in on his ground, and i think -- as far as -- it will continue to play. gun control is a major issue i think between both parties most of amy: d. watkins, what does that control mean to you? >> i think everyone is saying with a should say, but they're not putting out any real ideas. tougher gun laws, to upper screen process, get them out of the hands of people that should not have them. you need to flesh out a plan that is for everyone. the people who praise guns a love guns aren't the people who are being shot. extremely,move extremely far left on this issue. my brother was murdered. a lot of my friends were murdered, too. i hate guns. honestly, i feel like -- i feel like if you want to own a gun in america, one of the qualifications should be you should have to be shot so you know what it feels like. if you like how it feels a new survive, then you should be able to get a run. people arese playing. and i think people who love guns and by guns and hunt and praise them and all that, they vote, so they are not going -- they're going to beat have enough to get the left, but not so tough that the people who potentially to be in the middle, so they won't run away. we need to get away from that. shootings are happening everywhere, so it is not just people being killed in neighborhoods like where i come from, but now people in the suburbs are getting shot in these mass shootings and everything. don't wait until it is your child or family member before you want to get tough on guns. you need to get on board now. nothing positive comes from it. i've never heard anybody say, this guy had a gun, so he saved the day. in ago we are going to come back to this discussion, not only around this country but around the world. we're talking about the first democratic presidential debate. our guests are dr. jill stein, green party presidential candidate, d. watkins who lives in baltimore, wrote the book, "the beast side: living and dying while black in america." pulitzer prize-winning journalist les payne and in alanna, zaid jilani, staff writer at alternet. stay with us. ♪ [music break] amy: this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. are green party presidential candidate chill stein, les payne, pulitzer prize-winning journalist, d. watkins who teaches in baltimore and wrote the book, "the beast side: living and dying while black in america." he writes for salon. and we're joined in alanna by zaid jilani, a staff writer at alternet. let's go to the whole issue of war. 2003 u.s. invasion of iraq was also debated in las vegas at the first of a credit presidential debate. this begins with senator bernie sanders. andenate veterans committee in that capacity, i learned a very powerful lesson about the cost of war. and i will do everything that i can to make sure that the united states does not get involved in another quagmire like we did in iraq, the worst foreign policy blunder in the history of this country. >> governor chafee, you are the only republican in the senate to vote against the iraq war. you say secretary clinton should be disqualified from the presidency because she voted in favor of using force in iraq. she has since said that her vote was a mistake. why isn't that good enough? >> we just heard senator sanders say that it's the worst decision in american history. that's a significant -- the norst decision in america history i just heard from , senator sanders. so as we look ahead, if you're going to make those poor judgment calls, a critical time in our history, we just finished with the vietnam era, getting back into another quagmire -- if you're looking ahead, and you're looking at someone who made that poor decision in 2002 to go into iraq when there was no real evidence of weapons of mass destruction in iraq -- i know because i did my homework, and, so that's an indication of how someone will perform in the future. and that's what's important. >> secretary clinton, he's questioning your judgment. >> well, i recall very well being on a debate stage, i think, about 25 times with then senator obama, debating this very issue. after the election, he asked me to become secretary of state. amy: there you had hillary clinton, before that former senator chafee of rhode island, martin o'malley and bernie sanders. dr. jill stein, your response? >> i mean, i had to laugh and hillary said, as if inge appointed secretary of state her decisioncated about iraq. she went on to make other really horrific decisions, and she also tried to justify her regime change in libya, creating the failed state that it is. in her position was just defenseless. it felt like we need to acknowledge what an incredible series of catastrophes barak initiated. they're not over yet. consider clinton