Transcripts For LINKTV Democracy Now 20170224

Nearly 900,000 people have signed an online petition entitled impeach donald trump now. This comes amid reports that the Trump Campaign and russia. We will speak to someone at the center of the unraveling of the theident the of presidency. Exclusivemocracy now interview with professional football star Michael Bennett made headlines when he pulled out of an israeligovernment sponsored trip to israel for nfl players. Ondoing my research palestine and israel and the things going on, i see between thees movement. Did not want to be an ambassador for a certain govevernment if i was not sure f i agreed with everything the government was doing. With michaelspeak bennet, coming up. Welcome to democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman. In north dakota, a heavily militarized police force raided the mainin resistance e camp sep by l lakota water protectors fightiting the 3. 8 billioion ka access pipeline. Ththe camp was largely v vacated ahead of a deaeadline set one day earlier, but Police Arrested at least 33 people who refused to leave. Police in Armored Vehicles backed by National Guard soldiers later raided the nearby rosebud resistance camp. Despite the evictions, indigenousled water protectors say theyll continue to oppose the pipeline. This is navajo activist lyla june. This movement in profound ways. All acrossnted seeds the world and inspired and awakened people to see water in a new way, to see water as life. Have united things that were never united before. Amy earlier this month, construction crews resumed work on the final section of the pipeline, after the Trump Administration granted an easement to allow Energy Transfer partners to drill beneath the missouri river. In mexico, Homeland Security secretary john kelly insisted thursday the u. S. Would not carry y out mass deportations and that President Trumps Deportation Program was not a military operation. Contradicting a statement made hours earlierer. Listen to this. Force ine of military immigration operations. None. There will be no use of military forces in immigration. Amy his commentnts came after was asaid the deportation military operation. Mr. Trump we are getting bad dudes out of this country at a rate no one has seen before. It is a military operation. Amy mexico has rejected Donald Trumps pledge that he will force mexico to pay for an expanded wall on the u. S. Mexico border. Mexicos foreign minister also denounced new rules authorizing the u. S. To deport undocumented immigrants to mexico, whether or not theyey are mexican citizene. Trump suggested thursday hes looking to expand size of the u. S. Nuclear weapons arsenal. Trumps comment came during an interview with reuters. Mr. Trump it would be wonderful if no countries had nukes. If c countries are going to have nukes, we are going to be at the top of the pack. Amy the statement drew alarm from antinuclear activists who fear it will touch off a new worldwide nuclear arms race. The Trump Administration said thursday it will seek to enforce federal laws barring the use of marijuana. It reverses the Obama Administration decision. The Trump Administration would prioritize enforcement in states that have passed laws allowing for the recreational rather than the medical use of the drug. They are going to continue to enforce the laws on the books. Amy meanwhile, the Justice Department said thursday it will reverse an Obama Administration policy that would have phased out the federal governments use of private prisons. The announcement touched off a spike in the afterhours share prices of forprofit prisons including core civic and geo group. White house chief strategist steve bannon made a rare public appearance thursday at the conservative Political Action conference, or cpac. Speaking alongside white house chief of staff Reince Priebus, bannon admitted that many of President Trumps cabinet picks were selected to head agencies Whose Mission they oppose. It is deconstructction of f the administrativeve state. It y you look at t the cabinet appopointees, they work selected fofor deconststruction. The progressssive left, ifif thy they aret it passed, going to put it in a regulatory agency. Amy steve bannon is the former head of breitbart media, a farright website which frequently publishes racist, sexist, antiimmigrant and xenophobic news. His appearance at cpac came as officials expelled White Nationalist Richard Spencer from the conference on thursday. A cpac spokesperson called spencers views venomous, horrible and repulsive. Breitbart has previously praised spencer, calling him one of the leading intellectuals of the soccalled altright t movemen. In kansas, police have charged a 51yearold man with first degree murder after he allegedly shouted get out of my country befofore firing on a pair of indian men at a restaurant in suburban k kansas cityty. The gunfire killed 32yearold srinivas kuchibhotla. His friend and a bystander who confronted the shooter were injured. Witnesses say Adam Purinton was drinking and spouting racial slurs before he opened fire. Purinton fled the scene and was arrested hours later after telling a bartender in clinton, missouri, he had just shot two middle eastern men. Police have said its too early in their investigation to dedetermine if theyll charge purinton with a hate crime. In new york city, customs and Border Protection agents met passengers as they exited a flight from San Francisco wednesday, demanding to check their ids. A staffer for vivice news who ws aboard the flight captured photos of the incident, saying passengers were told they couldnt disembark without showing their documents. The cbp later said its agents were assisting immigration and Customs Enforcement in seeking a person ordered removed by an immigration judge. In malaysia, a pair of women used a banned chemical nerve agent vx to assassinate kim jongnam, the halfbrother of north koreas leader. Kim died of a seizure on his way to a hospital febrbruary 13th, after the e women douseded his e wiwith the chemicacal as he was waiting to board a flight atat kukuala lumpur international airprport. The unitited nations has bannedx as a weapon of m mass destructi. Although north korea has dendd involvement in ks assassinination, the couountry s not a a signatory to t the cheml Weapons Convention and is believed to have stotockpiles of vx and othth nerve agentnts. White house chief of staff Reince Priebus soughght unsuccessfully to have the fbi refute news reports that Donald Trumps Campaign Advisers were in frequent contact with russian intelligence agents ahead of novembers election. Thats according to cnn, which repoported thursdaday the fbi declined to publicly corroborate priebuss denial. His outreach violated policies intended to limit communications between the fbi and the administration on pending investigations. We will have more on that story with white House Counsel, former white House Counsel john dean. The pentagon is consididering a planan that would see troopss to defeat of after the isis. They are discussing the possibilility, saying thehe possibility to extend Troop Deployment officer Gerrit Lansing was among six staffers fired by the white house after they failed an fbi background check. Lansing is the former head of the republican partys digital operations. According to politico, lansing failed due to conflicts of interest posed by his business investments. In the philippines, Police Arrested an opposition senator and fierce critic of president Rodrigo Duterte today, accusing her of taking bribes from drug dealers. Senator Leila De Lima says shes innocent of any crime, and called her arrest retribution for her criticism of dutertes bloody war on drugs, which has seen police carry out thousands of extrajudicial killings. The truth will be out in the right time. If they think they can silence they think i will no longer fight for finding the truth, it is my honor to get arrested because of what i am fighting for. Amy president duterte has boasted about personally murdering drug dealers. Last september he compared himself favorably to adolf hitler, saying he wanted to kill millions of drug addicts. In portugal, police have arrested a former u. S. Intelligence operative and are preparing to extradite her to italy, where she faces a prison sentence for her role in the kidnapping and rendition of an egyptian cleric in 2003. Former undercover cia officer Sabrina De Sousa was one of 26 americans convicted in absentia by an Italian Court in 2007. They were charged with illegally seizing the cleric, abu omar, from the streets of milan in 2003, and sending him to egypt where he was tortured during a fouryear imprisonment. De sousa moved to portugal in 2015, and was arrested monday as she attempted to leave the country. She faces four y years in an italian prison. Japans Supreme Court has denied bail to a prominent activist opposed to the u. S. Militarys presence in okinawa. Hiroji yamashiro was arrested last fall on charges he cut through a barbed wire fence surrounding a u. S. Base. For decades, residents have called for the expulsion of u. S. Troops from okinawa, which houses about twothirds of the 50,000 u. S. Troops currently stationed in japanan. In puerto rico, thousands of University Students are on strike this week, protesting imminent cuts to Public Education amid an economic crisis. Puerto ricos governor has until the end of the month to submit a budget plan to a federally appointed oversight control board with sweeping powers to run puerto ricos economy. The Oversight Board wants sharp cuts to public spending and a strategy to pay the debt to bondholders. If the demand is not met, the Oversight Board will make its own budget plan. On thursday, thousands of students gathered in front of the capitol and marched to the governors mansion. This is graduate student loderay bracero marrero. We are here in defense of the univerersity of puerto rico and Public Education and the educatioion of the working clas, for us to have an accessible and public eduducation. Different campmpuses have approd different shutdowns to prorotect the university of puerto rico. Of theecaying b because plans of wall street and the plans of the government that is a puppet of whatever the oversight control board says. Amy and those are some of the headlines s this is democracy n, dedemocracynow. Org, the wawar ad peace report. Im amy goodman. Asas of today, President Trump s been in office for only 36 days, and theres already a growing chorus of voices calling for his impeachment. Nearly 900,000 people have signed an online petition entitled impeach donald trump now. Thousands of protesters poured into the streets monday for not my president s day marches. Thousands more stormed republican town halls this week to confront Republican Leaders over their support for trump. Even the city of richmond, california, has joined the movement. On tuesday, the Richmond City Council Voted unanimously to approve a resolution calling on congngress to considider trumps impeachment, arguing trump is in viviolation of the constitutios ememolumenents clause, which prohibits People Holding federal office from acaccepting payments from foreigngn governments. The demand for trumps impeacachment comes as he e pres over an understaffed white house in near constant crisis. This comes as Reince Priebus sougught unsuccessfufully to hae the fbi refute news reports that Donald Trumps Campaign Advisers were in contact with russian intelligence agents before the election. That is according to cnn, which reported that the fbi declined to publicly corroborate his denial. Policiesach violates intended to limit communications between the white house and the fbi on pending investigations. Reince priebus denied the reports. Know what they were told. I have talked to the fbi. I know what they are saying. G. I would not be on your show telling you we have been assured there is nothing to the story if i did not actually have clearance to make this comment. Allegations of White House Communications with the fbi during t the investigation have raised questions as to whether the Trump Administration has violated ethics restrictitions meant to protect such investigations from political influence. They have also drawn comparisons to former president Richard Nixons 1972 discussion with aides who used the cia to push the fbi away from investigating the watergate burglary that later led to his resignation. Will thehe constant chaos, confusioion, and conflicts of interest in the Trump Administration lead to President Trumps impeachment . For more, we go to someone at the center of the unraveling of a presidency. Whiteent Richard Nixons House Counsel, john dean. He is the author of several books including, the nixon defense what he knew and when he knew it and conservatives without conscience, and broken government how republican rule destroyed the legislative,e, executive, and judicial branches. John dean, welcome to democracy now good morning. 36 days into this presidency. It took a second term of office for president nexen before the House Judiciary Committee voted on articles of impeachment against him. He would later resign. Can you talk about where donald trump is now . John what i see and hear in following it are echoes of watergate. Watergate ran about 900 days. It went on for years, starting with a bungled burglary, right up to Richard Nixons resignation, followed by the conviction of his top aides. It ran a long time. What we are seeing is accelerated. Thes partially because of media and technology today. It is also the behavior of , asld trump and his aides well as the medias vigilance on this. What i see and hear are echoes of watergate. We dont have watergate 2. 0, but something that looks like it could go there. To what tooko turn place in richmond, california. Became the first u. S. City to call for an investigation into whether to impeach president donald trump. A resolution approved by the Richmond City Council States trump is in violation of the emoluments clause of the constitution, which prohibits People Holding federal office from accepting payments fromom foreign governmentnts. These are e some of the city officials who voted unanimously in favor of the impeachment resolution. Ordinarily, to be talking everything about this administration is on. It would be odd to be talking about the impeachment of a presidident a month ininto hisi. Is oddlynately, it appropriate. The worord is clear thahate residents of these United States are not in alignment with his momovement of hate, his movement of fear, his movovement of bullying and intimimidation. Voices of the City Council Members in richmond, california. Do you think what they are accusing trump of could lead to his impeachment . Could if the republicans did not control both houses of congress. It is a beginning. It takes a lot of momentum, much more than one city. It takes hundreds of cities, a national change of attitude about this president before we will have an impeachment. Given the fact that the house and senate are controlled by the republicans, they are not going to impeach their president as long as he gives them what they want and signs into law a lot of the things they have had in their dreams for many years, they will not give him any problem. He will not give them any problem because he does not want to have a fight with them. It will be a while. Impeachment is not a legal process. It is primarily a political process. We are not there yet. It,t of people might like but it will not happen until the political process reaches that stage. Amy letet me ask you about the latest news out of cnn. Seekingriebus unsuccessfully to have the fbi refute news reports that donald advisers weregn infrequent touch with were in frequent touch with russian intelligence agents. They declined to corroborate the denial. He violated policies intended to eliminate to limit communications between the white house and the fbi during an investigation. Can you explain what is improper here and possibly what is illegal here . Ask about your position white House Counsel at the time. What were you seeing happening there and why these allegations are so significant . There is nothing illegal about talking to the fbi. No one has to talk to them unless they are carrying a subpoena or acting for a grand jury. There is no grand jury at this stage of any inquiry into his or his aides conduct. A policy written in the late to thousands between the fbi and anybody in the executive branch or Congress Talking to them about an Ongoing Investigation. That appears to be the regulation that may have been violated. Directors assistant told pulled Reince Priebus aside after a meeting and said the New York Times story is a little bit overboard. The fbi story was a little bit overboard as reported by the New York Times. Get moreiebus tried to out t of them and that is probay whwhere he crossssed a regulatoy line, not a legal line. Also, a call to comey, to get them to say the stories between the contact of trumps people and russia were not true. John it was an effort on behalf of the white house that failed. Buy into not about to it. He has an Ongoing Investigation and he was not about to undercut it by giving that kind of comment to Reince Priebus. The investigation has to play out. It will play out on capitol hill, in the fbi. Rusher breaks down into three categories. There is the preelection activity, and did the Trump Campaign have contact with russians and somehow know they dnc,hacking into the trying to hurt hillary and help trump . Then, there is the period between the election and the inauguration, when flynn was having contact with the ambassador, did the president , who else on his staff was trylved in those efforts to to u undercut the Obama Administrationon of they areg area investigating is what is the truth or falsity of the dossier that appeared from the mi six , who recordede what he was findining from somef his contacts in russia as to whether or not russia had compromised donald trump. Those are the big three areas they are looking at. Any one of those could cause mr. Trump a series of problems. A serious problem. Amy you discussed using the cia avoidinghe fbi from the investigation into the watergate burglary. By the had been called acting director of the fbi to have an update and a report. I reported what was going on. I have gone through every watergate conversation for the book i did. We transcribed e everything. Beginningit from the to the ends. What happened in that conversation is he took what i told him and pushed it farther th m mitchl or i thought tried to usitd as tool to use the cia to c ofthe fbfb and was later called obstruction of juscece. I am noture, thnically, was. Ie. Caught nix a and a he died he kw anythi about cover upntil i td him , it w the liehat caht himore than tt incint. A going to brk and co back to th discussio we a talking to joean, who served acounsel the esident, psident nt and. He is e authorf several oks s inuding, e nixon defense hat he kw and wh he kw it and onservatives thout cocience,nd brok govement how public rule deroyed thlegislive, execive, andudicial branes. Thenwe wilgo to our exusive interew with chael nnet. [music break] amy this is democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman. We continue our conversation with john dean. On thursday,pac white house chief strategist trumpsnnon threatened war on the media is going to get worse. Opposed to adamantly economic nationalist agenda like donald trump has. It will get worse. He is going to continue to press his agenda. Will getconditions better, jobs will get better, they will continue to fight. If y you think they arare goingo give you your country back without a fight, you ares adly mansour taken. Every day it will be a you are sadly mistaken. Every day it will be a fight. On what he isghts saying . Sayingnt trump himself the media, the press is the enemy of the american people. John i find it startling and troubling. Nian than nixon. Nixon made those comments we only know about because he had his egret taping system and seemed to forget it was on when he was in the office. Make those attacks against the media, calling the media the enemy, saying he was going to wiretap them. Top hatchete his man call the heads of the networks and read them the riot act for their coverage. Trump isifference is, doing this right out and challenging the first amendment, one of our most important, because it involves freedom of the press and freedom of the speech. Anything he does not like, reporting he calls being an enemy of the people, it is ludicrous. Troublesome he would try theway the press by using bully pulpit of his office to intimidate them. My hope is he e does not. I do not think, knowing the journalists i know, that he willll. Nixon failed. He had a deep reservoir of ill will to draw on when he got himself in trouble. Trump is creating the same problem for himself. Amy many have compared his speechch to the one givenen by richarard nixon in 1968. In we sesee citi developoped smoke and flames. Wewe hear sirens in the night. See ameriricans dying onn battlefifields abroaoad. Hating e each other, fightitingh other, kililling each ototheat hohome. As we see and hear these things, millionsns of americans cry outn anguish did we, all this way for this . Amy that was president nixon. Your thoughts . John i was not part of his campaign. Wasd not join him until he well into his first term. He was playing scare tactitics. Very much like donalald trump dd in hisis cleveland speech. They are both h authoritariann personalities. Is a tytype of personality that tries to frighteten peopleo take a strong maman as their leader. It worksks. No one knows how Many Americans are affecteded by this. Are about guesstimates 30 . It looooks like trump got morore than t that when he used these tactics. Not a healthy way to run a democracy, by trying to fight people i into voting for you. Amy i want to turn to donald trump speaking in new yoyork shortly before his inauguration. He addressed questions about his business interests, and asserted that as president , he would be exempt from possible conflicts of interest. Mr. Trump i have a no conflict of interest provision as president. It is many years old. They dont want president s getting tangled up in minutia. They want a president to run a country. I could actually run my business and run government at the same time. Looks, like the way that but i would be able to do that if i wanted to. I could run the trump organization, a great company, and i could run the country. I dont want to do that. My donald trump send the famously said if the president dodoes it, it is not illegal. John the law says he cannot be criminally prosecuted. A president cannot be criminally prosecuted for any offense. A president could shoot someone on 5th avenue and not be prosecuted for it. He could be impeached for it and then later prosecuted. President , the best tradition and law we have, and ,ots of opinions have come out but he is immune from prosecution. That does not mean he is immune from the law. It was anticipated he would set the example for conflicts of interest. Nixon, he sold all of his stock, passiveeal estate, a investment he could not affect. He got criticized for having makinggret service for improvements on the property for security reasons, that were also good for the value of his properties. Trump has pushed this to a level had to never seen, nevever cope with. It is very troublesome. Thingslear he is doing that are helping his business. At some point, americans are going to say this is not what we had in mind. Play and it will come back and haunt him. In january, he fired the acting attorney general, sally eight, hours after she announced sally yates, hours s after se announced the Justice Department would not defend trumps muslim travel ban. Chuck schumer referred to it as a monday night massacre, which alludes to president nixon and the saturday night massacre. Talk about that and this comparison. Suggests how ignorant he is about the job he has. I dont think he has ever read an autobiography of any of his predecessors. What he did is an example of the way nixon handled a special prosecutor he did not want to pursue his own tapes at that point. It is a very early effort. They didnt need to fire her. They could ask her to stay on as an acting attorney general. She was going to leave 1 8 permanent attorney general was confirmed. This is more evidence of his ignorance. Amy thank you for being with us. John dean, former counsel to the , white House Counsel to president nixon. Up next, an interview with Michael Bennet. [music break] amy this is democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman. We turn to our democracy n now exclusive. Earlier this month, Michael Bennet made headlines when he pulled out of his israeligovernment sponsored trip to israel for nfl players. In an open letter bennett, who plays for the seattle seahawks, wrote one of my heroes has always been muhammad ali. I know that ali always stood strongly with the palestinian people, visiting refugee camps, going to rallies, and always willing to be a voice for the voiceless. I cannot do that by going on this kind of trip to israel. Bennetts words struck a chord with his teammates. In the end, only 5 out of the original 13 players ended up traveling as ambassadors of goodwill for israel. Michael bennet about his decision not to go to israel. Michael doing my research on palestine and israel and the things going on, i s see similarities between the black lives movement and the palestinian movement. To go to israel, i should be able to see both sides. To be an want ambassadador for a certainin government if i was not sure i agreed with everything the government was doing. I thought it would be better to go on my own and figure out my own situation. Amy how did this trip get planned . Michael they contacted us during the last year, in the summertime. Getought it was a trip you to go see israel. I didnt know it was an ambassador trip. About that, myt friends said do you know this or that . , iecided i cannot do this dont want to be an ambasssador forr something i dont agree with. Amy what kind of response did you get from posting that letter . Michael there were people who thought i was antisemitic. They were getting mad. Against jewish people, not against anybody when it comes to people. Antisomatici was cop antisomatic antisem itic, but i am not. People were proud and athletes stood for something going on in the world. With the things going on in america, things going on around if i am anant am an ambassador, i wanted to be for the good of the world, whether we are talking , therertisan, baltimore are a lot of things going on here. Research, ii knew i could not go on this trip. You mentioned muhammad ali. I wantnted to go to aa clipp o f muhammmmad ali. Shoot thehem for what . Theyey never lynchched me. Theyey didnt put dogs on me. They did not rob me ofof my nanationality. Shoot them for what . How can i shoot those poor people . That was as he protested the war in vietnam. What does he mean to you . Michael he is an inspiration for athletes to use the platform for good. Of times, you get caught in the marketing situation, you forget you are a person. There are things going on, words you speak, you can inspire young kids to make decisions or bring awareness to things going on. Mohammed ali i inspires meme toe the voice f for peoplple. It is different from back then, when protesting and rallies and things you had to go o out and t them to follow you and do these things to share your message. A button onck of twitter, instagram, facebook, you can share your message and reach millions of people. You can change a lot of lives. The israel trip was about the time Benjamin Netanyahu came to the uninited states and had a News Conference with donald trump. Your thoughts on trump . Growing up, you see these different things. , in he became the president think k a lot of people were shockeked. For a man with three daughters, i see thehe way he talks about women, the womens movement, i dont agree with a lot of the ink he says or does. You think about building the ,all when the wall is built when so many things are done by them, i disagree with his policies and terms. I hope he realizes it takes everybody to have a place like america. People from chinese, african, italian, irish,s and wish, it native spanish, american dissentnt. It takeses everybody. I do not think he thinks about the choices and the mindset he creates for young people that might disagree with somebody. Your brother was also in the headlines. Five teammates of his and him, they said they will not visit the white house for the super bowl celebration as a protest against donald trump. Your thoughts on it. His decision. Port when a person has to deal with , i think a strong person, i definitely agree with. Im he disagrees with a lot of stuff trump says and i think that is why he does not want to go. He does not want to support a system that is keeping people of color down. I can understand that. You mentioned john carlos in your letter to the world, explaining why you would not go on the israelgovernmentsponsored trip. I wanted to go to the documentary film, not just a game. Equal chance to be a human being. We are five steps below the latter. Below the ladder. They dont want us to climb up. Carlos after john he raised his fist in the black power salute. F froming to play a clip whenen he came to visit us. W we took artifacts out there to illustrate certain points. We wore the black glove out there because this is the first titime the olympics was inin cor tetechnicocolor. We wanted thehere to be no doubt who was representing our race first and that we were representing the United States second. He suffered enormously over the years. It hurt his career, he got tremendous criticism. Over the decades, he has been more proud of what he has done. Mean toto youaction and youu feel repercussions for standingp . When john carlos did that, i dont think the worldd was readfofor what he did. Now, the wororld is ready for chanange. With technology, you can share your message. Did, itsions of what he probably ended his career, or the things ththat happened d to, but in sportrts, sometimes, peoe identify with your legacy, how manyny touchdowns to get, how my medals you get, how many grand slams you win. Definitely legacy is how many kids you can reach in your community, how much change can you make . Is staying held up the same. Picture people will remember. That momentmember when he put his fist up. Amy we are talking to Michael Bennet. Outspoken on everything from politics in the world to what is the nfl. Within or we are also joined by a we are also joined by dave. Michael bennet is a person of uncommon character. Person of uncommon character, he is part of a wave of athletes who are speaking out right now and have been speaking out over the last several years. Everything from the influencncef the black lives Matters Movement to the influence of social media, to the fact there are people in the streets of fed up with what is happening in this country and the world. Athletes dont live apart from this. Michael bennet has daughters. There is a misogynist and sexual harasser in the white house. Michael bennet reads the work of angela davis. It connects the issues of ferguson and palestine. About black lives matter without looking at it globally. These things are connectcted. At the same time, it takes those , like john carlos, colin, it takes those individuals willing to stand up and speak out and share with t e worlrld what they are learning r experiencicing. That is what makes Michael Bennet u unique. Courage is contagious. You see the Ripple Effect across the nfl and the sports world. Amy you raise the issue of call and cap her neck. Of Colin Kapernick it added power to a movement, the decision to take a knee during t t playing o of the nationonalnthehem. Your thoughts on what he did and the affect it had on you. Think thati did not movement would be coming from collin. I thought it would come from somewhere else. I was blindsided when it was him. When it was him who made the i was like do it well, collin is on another level. He is trying to make a conversation that we should of had a conversation about a long time ago. , when he didlize that, the way he made people speak around the world about this, athletes do have this platform. People just want to hear it. When he made the decision to do that, he changed a lot of lives. It brought out beauty in some people. For me personally, it channels me to join him and tried to make more where people understand. They want to be part of it. For me, the greatest thing about what he did, it wasnt that the adults or having a conversation. It was the young peoples having a conversation about it. Nt they understand they do not understand why they are taking a need, they dont understand the magnitude of what they are doing. The middle schools are taking the knee. It started a fire. The greatest thing was the young kids were aware and were starting to be awoken about things going on. Young people, the seed he planted with the young people started growing. It was special. He did something really special. It all started with a knee. It was a great thing. Students at the university of missouri, demanding change, toppled their president when a College Football team said they would not play until l he left. Michael people are the power. People havave so much power when theyey cononnect together. Truly, if you look at the great philosophers, people before us, to have somes solidarity, to put their minds together. One that would force thehe presidenent out, that was the mt amazing thing of the whole year. You mentioned angela davis. This was the day after donald. Rumps inauguration the next day, there were at least three times the number of people in washington. This is angela davis speaking at that protest. Upon toll be called our demands for social justice, to become more militant of our defense of vulnerable populations. Those who still defend the supremacy of white males hetero patriarchy had better watch out. 1459 days of the trunk administration willl be 1459 das of resistance. Angela davis speaking after the inauguration of donald trump. Her significance in your life and your familys life. Michael i love everything about her. You have a person who speaks her mind regardless of the backlash. There are a lotot of times peope talk to you and have never been through anything. For her, she is on the ground dadaily. Her daily fight and struggle is to make change in life. Whether it is in australia, women in jail, political prisoners, in palestine, her life is about how to create change. That is important. She encourages me to be able to dedicate my life to try to make change. Everything else doesnt matter if there is always a system that keeps certain people down. Matters, how many touchdowns i score is another black kid is shot and killed. It doesnt matter how many sacks i get if the Education System is unfair. It doesnt matter how many times i hit tom brady if there is a wall being built. She gives me power to go out there and speak how i feel and educate myself. She is a great role model for young women, even if f you dont agagree wiwith her message or te ink she says. You cannot disagree with her speake, her ability to and make a movement. You cannot disagree with her ability to organize. That is where young people have to look up to her, how to be organized, how to come together and the a change. Things sheing the has done, it motivates us to keep doing things we are doing. We are not looking at people, we are looking to link and connect at connect as people, not let the government do what they want to do to us. A chance to speak your mind and get the young people to take a step forward. I think she is a courageous person. I get goosebumps when i talked to her or listen to her messages, or if i am reading one of her books. It motivates me. On what are your thoughts the crackdown on immigrants right now, the attempt to build the wall on the southern border of the United States and the muslim ban is something that trump has used to describe what took place. Michael i disagree with it all. This c country was built on , from African Americans coming from africa, being enslaved, building the ink they built. The white house, you go to the the native americans who built all of these different things. The labor on the backs of slaves and immigrants. They should not be kicked out bebecause they built this place. Have you been surprised by the things trump has done in his first t days in office and the resistance he faces over the country . Michael i am not surprised by the resistance. There have been so many times when there have been movements, the 1960s, during world war ii, vietnam, civil rights movements, this is a time where people are agreements that we are all human beings. The resistance to trying to divide us, i am not surprised. I am encouraged and i am happy everybody is starting to come together and have their full circle. Amy Michael Bennet plays defensive end for seattle seahawks. He recently pulled out of an israeligovernmentsponsored trip. That does it for our broadcast. Announcer this is a production of China Central television america. Woman as the global population grows, the challenge to end hunger only deepens. The u. N. World food program wants to wipe out Global Hunger by 2030, but can it be done . This week on full frame, we look at someme of the innonovate and perhaps a little unconventional ideas for eradicating hunger around the world once and foror all. Im m may lee in losos angelese. Lets take it full frame