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- [00:15]
Amy Goodman
From New York. This is Democracy now.
- [00:19]
Kristen Clark
The all out effort by this administration and its cohorts in some state governments to seize control of how elections are run is the latest chapter in a very long story of power being used to silence the black community.
- [00:38]
Amy Goodman
As fallout grows from the Supreme Court's gutting of the Voting Rights act and Republican lawmakers race to redraw congressional maps to gain more seats in Congress, we'll speak to the new NAACP general counsel, Kristen Clark under President Biden. She served as assistant attorney general for civil rights. Talk about the attacks on voting rights and the weaponization of the Department of Justice under President Trump. Then two Palestine solidarity activists violently detained and held by Israel for 10 days after Israeli forces raided the Gaza bound global Samud flotilla on the high seas have been deported.
- [01:30]
Saif Abu Keshek
I left behind me thousands of Palestinian prisoners, children, women and men. Again, I am sure that the treatment I face is not compared to the suffering they are going through, the testimonies we hear of their torture, of their violation on daily basis. We have to continue mobilizing. We cannot forget the Palestinian prisoners.
- [01:52]
Amy Goodman
We'll be joined by one of those activists, Sayf Abu Kecha. He's in Turkey now. All that and more coming up. Welcome to Democracy now, democracynow.org, the War and Peace Report. I'm Amy Goodman. President Trump said Monday the US Ceasefire with Iran is on life support after he rejected Iran's proposal to end the war and reopen the Strait of Hormuz, calling it stupid.
- [02:25]
Juan Gonzalez
After reading that piece of garbage they sent us.
- [02:27]
Saif Abu Keshek
I didn't even finish reading it.
- [02:29]
Juan Gonzalez
They said, I'm not going to waste my time reading it. I would say it's one of the weakest right now. It's on life support.
- [02:37]
Amy Goodman
Iranian officials said they're prepared to retaliate if attacked, warning the US Would be surprised by Iran's response. Meanwhile, the Wall Street Journal reports the United Arab Emirates secretly carried out military strikes on Iran, including an April attack on a refinery on Levan island in the Persian Gulf. The Journal reports the Trump administration quietly welcomed the participation of the UAE in other Gulf states, wanting to join in the fight. The head of the Saudi Aramco oil company warned Monday the global oil market will lose around 100 million barrels every week of disruptions to the Strait of Hormuz continue at the current rate. Amin Nasser also warned that global supplies of gasoline and jet fuel could reach critically low levels by summer unless Iran allows shipping lanes to reopen. Here in the United States, Missouri Republican Senator Josh Hawley said Monday he's introducing legislation that would suspend federal taxes on gasoline and diesel fuel. Gas is currently taxed at 18.4 cents per gallon, diesel at just over 24 cents. Hawley's bill would suspend them entirely for 90 days, depriving the treasury of billions of dollars of tax revenue. This comes after the Trump administration released a record 8.6 million barrels of oil from the US Strategic Petroleum Reserve last week in a bid to lower US Gas prices, which have soared to an average of more than $4.50 a gallon. The Israeli military has issued a new forced evacuation orders for residents of southern Lebanese towns and villages as it continues daily violations of the U S Brokered April ceasefire On Monday, an Israeli airstri killed six people in a house in southern Lebanon. Elsewhere, Israeli forces blew up a water pumping station on the Latani River. Meanwhile, the UN says Israeli forces are impeding peacekeepers with unifil, blocking their movements with tanks and armored bulldozers. UN spokesperson Farhan Haq said violent incidents have surged since Friday.
- [04:59]
Saif Abu Keshek
During this period, peacekeepers Observed more than 1,296 trajectories of projectiles attributed to the Israeli Defense Forces and 64 trajectories of projectiles attributed to Hezbollah. Incidents involving the denial of freedom of movement to UNIFIL peacekeepers continue to occur
- [05:17]
Amy Goodman
daily in Gaza, Israeli forces have once again violated the U S brokered ceasefire with deadly violence, the Palestinian Health Ministry reports Israeli troops stationed in eastern Gaza shot and killed two civilians Monday. Elsewhere, medics retrieved the bodies of two Palestinians from central Gaza after they were hit by shrapnel from Israeli artillery fire. Meanwhile, a member of a Gaza bound humanitarian aid flotilla has returned home after he was abducted by Israeli commandos in international waters and brought to Israel for interrogation, the Brazilian activist Thiago Avila said from Sao Paulo on Monday. He and other prisoners suffered torture in Israeli custody. Avila blamed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for the abuses. Thanks.
- [06:09]
Saif Abu Keshek
Yes, he committed another war crime, but what he did against us is nothing compared to what they do to Palestinians every single day. Once again, we always need to say this. It's not about us individually. It's about a people that has been suffering eight decades of genocide and ethnic cleansing.
- [06:25]
Amy Goodman
Thiago Avila's mother died in Brazil while he was in Israeli custody. After Headlines we'll speak with Saif Abu Keshek. He was abducted from the Global Samud Flotilla by Israeli forces. He'll speak to us now after being held for 10 days by Israel. He'll speak to us from Turkey. In the occupied West Bank, Israeli forces fatally shot a 30 year old Palestinian man Monday as they raided the Kalanji refugee camp north of Jerusalem. He was shot in the head, later pronounced dead after Israeli forces barred ambulance crews from reaching his body. The killing came as Israeli forces stormed a vocational school opposite the camp and fired a barrage of tear gas, stun grenades and live ammunition. Separately, a Palestinian family in a village near Jenin says Israeli settlers forced them to exhume their 80 year old relative and rebury his body in a different grave. 80 year old Hussein Asassa died of natural causes last Friday. His son says he coordinated a burial with Israel's military. Yet settlers threatened to bulldoze his grave site unless he agreed to move the body, claiming the cemetery was part of an Israeli settlement. Such settlements are illegal under international law. The European Union has agreed to impose sanction on Israeli settlers in the occupied west bank after Hungary's new government lifted its longstanding veto of the measures. The move comes short shortly after Peter Magyar was sworn in as Hungary's new prime minister, ending 16 years of Viktor Orban's authoritarian rule. Viktor Orban was a close ally of the United States is President Trump. Ten Hamas leaders were also sanctioned. The EU and the United Kingdom also announced separate sanctions targeting Russian officials and institutions accused of systematically deporting and indoctrinating Ukrainian children during the war. The sanctions cover Russian individuals responsible for forcibly transferring children from occupied Ukrainian territories. Here in New York, protests erupted Monday outside a real estate expo that advertises properties for sale in the occupied Palestinian territories. The Intercept reports at least one table at the so called great Israeli real estate event, unquote advertised land sales in Kafar Eld and other Israeli settlements considered illegal under international law. This is Shraddha Joshi of the Palestinian Solidarity Group. Paul Alda in the buildings near us
- [09:19]
Kristen Clark
they are selling Palestinian land illegally in an event that is in direct violation of New York housing law, New York real estate law and international law. This is Palestinian land that is being sold right here in our neighborhoods. The properties that are being advertised in this land sale event exist in the occupied West Bank.
- [09:34]
Amy Goodman
That is direct violation of the Fourth
- [09:36]
Kristen Clark
Geneva Convention, which is in violation of international and we're here to say that we have a stake in this as community members and that New Yorkers will be out here and we will not be silenced.
- [09:45]
Amy Goodman
The U.S. supreme Court cleared the way Monday for Alabama to eliminate one of its two majority black congressional districts ahead of November's midterm elections. The move could hand Republicans an additional House seat. Alabama is one of several Republican led states rushing to redraw maps and disenfranchise black voters after the Supreme Court gutted a key Voting Rights act provision last month. Meanwhile, Virginia Democrats on Monday asked the U.S. supreme Court to restore a voter approved congressional map struck down by Virginia's high court last week. The new Virginia districts could help Democrats secure up to four seats in the House. President Trump set to arrive in China to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping this week for his first visit to China since 2017. President Trump will be accompanied by corporate executives including Apple CEO Tim Cook and Elon Musk of Tesla, Forbes reports. The five billionaires in President Trump's entourage have a combined net worth of $870 billion. The summit is expected to focus on trade tariffs, the U S. Israeli war in Iran, artificial intelligence and US Arms sales to Taiwan. Senate Democrats have condemned a Republican plan to spend a billion dollars in taxpayer funds. On Trump's ballroom in the east wing of the White House, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer accused Republicans of, quote, asking working families to pay the price. While Trump pockets the perks. At a time when Americans are struggling
- [11:32]
Saif Abu Keshek
to put food on the table, Republicans say let him eat cake and demand American taxpayers build Trump a palace while they're at it.
- [11:42]
Amy Goodman
This comes as soil excavated from the White House as part of the ballroom project and dumped at nearby East Potomac park has tested positive for lead, chromium and other toxic metals, according to National Park Service data reported by the New York Times. And a lawsuit filed by the Cultural Landscape foundation seeks to halt Trump's makeover of the Lincoln Memorial reflecting pool, whose repairs have ballooned from a promised $1.8 million to $13.1 million after the Interior Department added $6.2 million to a no bid contract last week. Meanwhile, in Miami, Florida, a 15 foot gold leaf bronze statue of President Trump dubbed Don Colossus was installed at Trump's Doral Miami golf course, commissioned by a cryptocurrency group and dedicated by Trump ally Pastor Mark Burns. On social media, Pastor Burns wrote, quote, let me say this plainly, this is not a golden calf, unquote, Haiti's prime minister said Monday. Haiti is too unstable to hold presidential elections as scheduled in August, which would be Haiti's first election in nearly a decade. Haiti has had no nationally elected officials since January 2023, and its parliament has been inactive since 2019. More than 1.4 million people have been displaced by gang violence, while key road linking the capital, Port au Prince, to the provinces remain unsafe or blocked. Doctors Without Borders has suspended hospital operations due to gunfire, safety concerns. And in the Philippines, a senator who once presided over former President Rodrigo Duterte's violent drug war fled federal agents Monday as they attempted to serve him an international arrest warrant. Outside the Philippine Senate, surveillance cameras caught the dramatic scene as 64 year old Senator Ronald de la Rosa dashed upstairs and raced along hallways before arriving at the Senate chamber where the officers have no power to arrest him. He slept at the Senate office overnight and has since refused to leave, vowing to fight extradition to the Hague to face charges at the International Criminal Court. De la Rosa served as police chief under Duterte between 2016 and 2018, when thousands of alleged drug dealers were shot and killed. A spokesperson for the ICC laid out the charges against him Monday. The judges assessed the material submitted by the prosecution and found reasonable grounds to believe that Mr. De la Rosa is allegedly criminally responsible as an indirect co perpetrator for the crime against humanity of murder. Meanwhile, the Philippine House of Representatives voted Monday to impeach Vice President Sarah Duterte over bribery and corruption charges. She's the daughter of the ex President Rodrigo Duterte, who's jailed at the Hague awaiting trial at the ICC for alleged crimes against humanity. It's the second time Sarah Duterte has been impeached, but she appears unlikely to be removed from office after her allies on Monday took control of the Senate. And those are some of the headlines. This is Democracy now. Democracynow.org, the War and Peace Report. I'm Amy Goodman. Coming up, the NAACP's new general counsel, Kristen Clark, the former assistant attorney general for civil rights at the Justice Department. Stay with us. The songbird has lost her voice. It's hard to sing when there's no choice. The raven has lost his wings. Man, he wished he learned to sing. The businesses moved to town. They're cutting all the oak trees down and there's nothing left to say except should we flee or should we stay? They say that grass is greener on the other side of the ocean. Tell my kids and family there's a safe place to go. We could leave tomorrow. We can find a new home. Songbird by Henry Furland this is democracy now, democracynow.org I'm Amy Goodman in New York, headed to Middleburg, Virginia, tonight and then to Atlanta on Friday and to Austin and Houston, Texas, over the weekend. Juan Gonzalez joins us from Chicago. Hi, Juan.
- [17:08]
Juan Gonzalez
Hi, Amy. And welcome to all of our listeners and viewers across the country and around the world.
- [17:13]
Amy Goodman
We begin today's show looking at the growing attack on voting rights across the United States. Following the Supreme Court's recent gutting of a key provision of the Voting Rights act of 1965, Republican lawmakers across the south are racing to redraw congressional maps in a move that's expected to lead to a historic drop in the number of black representatives in Congress. In Tennessee, Republican Governor Bill Lee signed into law last week a new Republican drawn map that aims to eliminate the state's only majority black district. And In Alabama, the U.S. supreme Court just cleared the way for Republican lawmakers to eliminate a district held by a black Democrat. NAACP President Derek Johnson responded to the unsigned ruling by saying, we are witnessing a return to Jim Crow. Meanwhile, in Virginia, Democrats have suffered a major setback after the state Supreme Court struck down a new congressional map just weeks after voters approved it. The new map could have allowed Democrats to win four additional House seats in November's midterm elections. On Monday, Democratic leaders in Virginia asked the U.S. supreme Court to overturn the state court's decision. To talk about all of this and more, we're joined by Kristen Clark. She's general counsel of the naacp. During the Biden administration, Clark served as Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights at the Department of Justice. She's also the former head of the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law. Kristen Clark, it's great to have you back. We used to often interview you when you were head of the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights. Then you were in the Justice Department. Department now the new general counsel of the naacp. Before we get into specifics, can you talk about what's happening to civil rights law in this country? What's happening at the Department of Justice and for a global audience to understand the Supreme Court's decision gutting the Voting Rights Act?
- [19:36]
Kristen Clark
Well, first, thank you for having me at at this turbulent moment in American democracy. A lot has happened in 14, 15 months into the Trump administration. But what we knew from day one is that this is an administration that would be hostile when it comes to enforcement of our civil rights laws. We've seen a Justice Department that is nothing but a shadow of its former self. The Civil Rights Division was once the crown jewel of the Justice Department, is no longer engaged in the business of standing up to protect our nation's most vulnerable communities. They have driven out career professionals and have weaponized our civil rights laws to target communities, to target black people and other vulnerable communities. The Supreme Court's devastating decision in the Louisiana v. Calais case, you know, has really turned our country upside down. I am a lifelong civil rights lawyer. I have spent the Vast majority of those years working on cases in the south, in the Deep South. The southern part of our country is a unique place that really wrestles with the legacy of discrimination. It is a place where you see tremendous suffering. It is a place where you see tremendous poverty. And a lot of those problems rear their ugly head in our politics, in our electoral politics. It is a part of the country where black folks have had tremendous difficulty getting a seat at the table, have had tremendous uphill battles when it comes to having success, getting elected to office. And the Voting Rights act has proven to be the one tool that has helped to open the doors of democracy by giving black voters a fair opportunity to elect candidates of their choice. There is no doubt that the Supreme Court decision in Louisiana v. Calais will mark a turning point in our country. And it is unsurprising that we are seeing the Deep south race at lightning speed to eradicate the gains that have been made over the decades. Tennessee is a place where the NAACP is working very closely to push back against this effort. Over the course of 48 hours, they moved at lightning speed to dismantle the one majority black district in that state. That is home to Memphis, which is the largest, the city with the largest black population in the country. It's also a special place. It is the place where Dr. Martin Luther King tragically was assassinated. It is place that is home to the kkk. The KKK was literally born in the state of Tennessee. And you feel and see that legacy today. And so we owe a great debt to the people of Tennessee, particularly those in former Congressional District 9. And we are determined to use every tool available in the courts, through our advocacy, through protests in the street, to push back.
- [23:20]
Juan Gonzalez
And Kristen Clark, a lot of attention has been focused in the last several months on the redistricting of congressional races. But really there's a lot more at stake than just the representatives in the House of Representatives. There are city councils, school boards, county boards, legislative districts that could also faced enormous redrawing in the next year or two. Could you talk about the impact at the local level as well?
- [23:54]
Kristen Clark
Yeah, that's right. You know, I think there are many people talking, rightly so, about the need for Supreme Court reform, the need to figure out a way to restore impartiality and balance to a Supreme Court that seems to be bent at putting its thumb on the scale this congressional election cycle. And it's why I think the focus right now is on the congressional map. But as you know, we will see potential ripple effects that will be felt at the State level, state supreme court maps, county commissions, school boards, city councils and the like. But. But, you know, it's time to really, I think, think about the democracy that we all want and deserve. The moment that we are in is a perilous one that is not sustainable. And it's why I think the main thing we should be thinking about is this election season and how critically important it is that we get out and make our voices heard. It's going to be incredibly important that in every corner of this country that people stand up and turn out in extraordinary numbers so that we can put ourselves back on a path to the reformation and electoral changes, that we need to bring back balance and order and reasonableness into the way that our democracy functions and operates.
- [25:32]
Juan Gonzalez
Could you talk in particular about Alabama officials have asked the Supreme Court for permission to throw out the state's congressional map, which has two majority black districts. Especially given the fact that Alabama is often considered sort of the birthplace of the voting rights movement.
- [25:51]
Kristen Clark
It is indeed the birthplace of a multi racial democracy here in America. I was just in Selma to mark the anniversary of Bloody Sunday, which was a turning point in our nation's history. Peaceful demonstrators who were brutalized on the Edmund Pettus Bridge. That incident and the courage of folks like John Lewis who marched that day prompted our president and Congress to galvanize and act. Those actions gave us the Voting Rights Act. And so it is devastating to see Alabama turning the clock back. There are two districts that afford black voters an opportunity to elect candidates of choice. One of them is led by Congresswoman Terri Sewell, who grew up in Selma in the shadow of that bridge, who honorably serves that community well. The other is Shammari Figures, who is the son of a father who fought the kkk, the son of a mother who serves in the state legislature. He is a public service, someone who's worked for government and who believes in standing up for communities. That Alabama would dare turn the clock back to a time that you know is looking back on the shadow of Jim Crow is truly despicable. But as they do so, they do so with the blessing of a United States Supreme Court that just yesterday made the decision that Alabama can use a previous map that a court found to be discriminatory. And the election is underway. So, you know, what we're seeing happening across the South, I think is made all the more pervasive because the primary election season literally is underway in many states like Alabama and Louisiana, soon after
- [28:00]
Amy Goodman
the landmark Supreme Court ruling that gutted the Voting Rights Act. You mentioned Louisiana The Louisiana governor, Jeff Landry, declared a state of emergency and abruptly suspended congressional House primaries just as voting was starting up. On Sunday, landry appeared on CBS's 60 Minutes. He was asked by CBS correspondent Cecilia Vega about why he suspended the congressional House primaries. This is what he said.
- [28:31]
Juan Gonzalez
The highest court of the land says the map that you have is unconstitutional. So we don't have a map under which our voters can vote on.
- [28:40]
Kristen Clark
This country has held elections during the Civil War, during two world Wars, Elections still went on.
- [28:47]
Juan Gonzalez
We're gonna have an election, and we're actually gonna have an election on election day.
- [28:52]
Kristen Clark
But voting was already happening. As we sit here right now, more than 45,000 ballots have been returned. What happens to those?
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Juan Gonzalez
Oh, those ballots are discarded, and those voters will vote again in November.
- [29:04]
Kristen Clark
You say that like it's not a big deal.
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Juan Gonzalez
Well, it's. It's not a big deal. It's not my fault. If anybody has a grievance, take it to the United States Supreme Court.
- [29:14]
Amy Goodman
Louis, that's Louisiana Governor Kristen Clark. Your response,
- [29:20]
Kristen Clark
incredibly disturbing. That in 2026, we live in a democracy where we would dare cast away the legitimate ballot of American citizens is deeply troubling. We have the same situation in Virginia, where the Virginia Supreme Court issued a ruling that renders null and void the votes cast by more than 3 million voters. We are taking a hundred steps backwards right now in American democracy. We have a lot of work to do to get back on a path to reform. But the way to get there, and it is the NAACP's strategy, is to galvanize, to make sure that our voices of protest are heard loudly, that we're showing up at the Capitol houses and protesting these, you know, disturbing efforts to redraw maps at the 11th hour in a way that is proving disruptive, chaotic, and racially discriminatory and working to make sure that our voices are heard, that we are standing up proudly and making sure our voices are heard in these primary and general elections, which will truly prove consequential to the future of American democracy.
- [30:43]
Juan Gonzalez
And, Kristen, at the same time, we've had a new Reuters investigation that has concluded that the Trump administration is seeking to gain federal control over elections in at least eight states, and that they're using investigations, raids, subpoenas for access to balloting system and voter records. Your response to this? What appears to be a complete determination of the Trump administration that no matter what happens, they're not going to lose these midterm elections.
- [31:19]
Kristen Clark
Yeah, no doubt. There is a coordinated campaign underway at the hands of this administration to lock out certain voters, to lock out black voters, brown voters and other voters of color. There is talk of deploying an election integrity army to polling sites. They are making efforts to access private information from voter registration lists across the country. We are fighting those efforts, efforts in about 10 states across the country. And what's happening as we see this administration issuing executive orders to weaponize the United States Postal Service to determine which absentee ballots will count and which will not. While they undertake all of these unlawful and disturbing actions, they seem to be doing so with the blessing of a United States Supreme Court that does not seem to be a faithful arbiter of the law and our Constitution. So we will push back against these efforts as we are doing in the courts. We'll work to provide clarity for voters amid the chaos that has been unleashed and work to make sure that everyone is laser focused and clear eyed about the importance of ensuring that their voices are heard loudly, loudly. This critical election season, I want to
- [32:53]
Amy Goodman
turn to Harmi Dhillon, the Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights who holds the same position you had during the Biden administration. She recently appeared on News Nation and talked about the Justice Department's demand for voter rolls from states.
- [33:10]
Kristen Clark
Now we've gone and asked all 50 states in the District of Columbia to
- [33:14]
Amy Goodman
give us their voter rolls.
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Kristen Clark
This is something that the attorney general
- [33:17]
Amy Goodman
is entitled to under the Civil Rights act of 1960, which is basically a transparency statute. And we're using those to try to
- [33:25]
Kristen Clark
help these states comply with their Help
- [33:27]
Amy Goodman
America Vote act requirements to keep their voter rolls up to date.
- [33:31]
Kristen Clark
So far, at least a third of
- [33:33]
Amy Goodman
the states have complied with us voluntarily or reach settlements with us.
- [33:36]
Kristen Clark
And what we're running and finding in these voter rolls is that there are hundreds of thousands of dead people on
- [33:42]
Amy Goodman
the voter rolls and there are quite a few suspected non citizens on the voter rolls. And now we're digging in further to
- [33:48]
Kristen Clark
see do people actually vote and what have you. But that's alarming and that is from the states who are cooperating with us.
- [33:55]
Amy Goodman
So that's Harmeet Dhillon, Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights, a position you know well, Kristen Clark, because you occupied it before in the Biden administration group are suing to prevent the federal government from getting access to these roles. If you can talk about the significance of what she was saying on Newsmax.
- [34:20]
Kristen Clark
Well, I think it is fair to say that her meet Dylan has completely hollowed out the civil Rights division. I led the division for four years with with the core focus of standing up to protect our nation's most vulnerable communities in every corner of this country. And she has been laser focused on carrying out Trump's agenda, on carrying out a partisan agenda. She does not follow facts and apply the law evenhandedly. She cherry picks and uses laws and ways to try and intimidate her way to the goal that she seeks to achieve. She has talked in interviews about using the force of the Civil Rights division, writing letters to kind of bully people into submission. That is not how I ran the Civil Rights division and it's frankly not how any of my predecessors ran the division. As she works to try and obtain voter registration lists, groups like mine, the naacp, are fighting feverishly against these efforts. They are unlawful and they also throw into chaos the way that election officials run elections in our country. The private voter registration list contain confidential information. I think, I think there are arguments that the Justice Department is violating state privacy laws in seeking to get their hands on these lists. And you know, again, it is just difficult watching a civil rights division that has crumbled, leaving people in every corner of the country more vulnerable. Instead of doing the work, standing up to fight hate crimes, standing up to combat sexual harassment and sexual violence, instead of standing up to protect the rights of people with disabilities, ensuring that people are able to vote, we've seen a civil rights division, really, that has been weaponized to carry out a partisan agenda.
- [36:42]
Juan Gonzalez
I wanted to ask you, in that clip we played of Harmony Dhillon, she mentioned that they have found dead people on the rolls and they have found non citizens on voter rolls in some states. But people who are familiar with the voting process at the local level in this country know that neither of those things are unusual because obviously when a person dies, the family doesn't immediately try to remove their, their loved one from the voter rolls. It'll take several years of the local, of the local election board seeing that the person doesn't vote to then send them a notice and purge them from the list. So it stands to reason there might be tens of thousands of people who have recently deceased that are on the voter rolls. That doesn't mean that there's any fraud involved in people voting who are supposedly dead. Your response to this attempt to talk about people on the rolls and not talking about people who actually vote.
- [37:45]
Kristen Clark
This is an administration that traffics in mass disenfranchisement, that traffics in mass purges of eligible voters from the rolls. Those data points, I have no doubt, are overblown, that they cannot be substantiated and are, you know, merely held out to create a pretextual basis for the purge schemes that they are driving. If anything, what we have seen is that there are thousands of eligible voters across the country who are unlawfully stripped away and removed from the rolls, people who show up on Election Day, who have voted for years, who no longer appear on the rolls. And so we need to be working to figure out how we can open up, up our process, make it more fair, make it more easier for people to exercise their voice in our democracy.
- [38:45]
Amy Goodman
Kristen Clark, I want to play a clip from a video obtained by the New York Times. This is of former special counsel Jack Smith speaking during a private discussion at the Cosmos club in Washington, D.C. last month, in which he discusses the weaponization investigation of the Department of Justice by the Trump administration. We have a Department of justice today. It targets people for criminal prosecution simply because the president doesn't like them. We have a department that fails to investigate cases because they might uncover facts that are inconvenient for narratives the president would like to press. And, of course, President Trump has gone after Jack Smith. But respond to what he's saying.
- [39:41]
Kristen Clark
I fully agree with Jack smith. Again, the U.S. department of justice is nothing but a shadow of its former self. This is an agency that, throughout its history, has engaged in one thing, and that is in fair and full enforcement of the law. Evenhandedly, you treat people, the powerful and the powerless the same. You stand up for vulnerable communities. You follow the facts and you enforce the law. And we have seen this Justice Department really operate as President Trump's personal law firm. President Trump lavished praise on his acting attorney general this week for, quote, keeping him out of jail, and for that reason presumes that he's doing a good job. This kind of entanglement, deep entanglement between the business of the Justice Department and the White House is not something that we have seen throughout the decades. It is the sign of a Justice Department that is broken and in dire need of repair. And sadly, we should fully expect to see more targeting of the kind that Jack Smith talked about in the road ahead. And it is, again, why it is so critical that this election season, people get out and make sure that their voices are heard this midterm season, because it's the first critical step towards putting us back on a path to normalcy and integrity in our country.
- [41:23]
Juan Gonzalez
And could you talk as well about what the Trump administration has done to the immigration courts, the administrative law judges that rule, and how they have basically pushed out anyone who doesn't go along with what the White House and the State Department want in terms of dealing with immigration cases.
- [41:52]
Kristen Clark
That's right. And one of the aspects here that I think is particularly troubling is that we have shut down our refugee program, that we were once a place that could be a safe haven for people suffering across the country in countries experiencing political violence and turbulence. We've shut the refugee program down but kept the doors open for white South Africaners from South Africa. It is deeply disturbing to see the immigration courts come to a grinding halt. It is, I think, disturbing to see us as a nation shutting the door on refugees and really challenging to see the weaponization of the Department of Homeland Security and ICE in particular as a force that is targeting Americans, targeting innocent Americans and terrorizing communities and causing turbulence in so many corners of the United States.
- [43:00]
Amy Goodman
I wanted to ask, while this redistricting is extremely radical and if you can explain how unusual it is, what it means to do this redistricting every 10 years, but President Trump pushing for it. In the middle of that, a couple quick things. One is we've been showing this picture of the Trump banner, a banner of President Trump's head that is out outside, hangs on the Justice Department. And the significance, the meaning of this and how unusual that is. And the other thing is, even if there is this redistricting and it gives Republicans an advantage, the fact is there's an extremely low rate of voting in the United States versus other countries. And maybe you could say about what it is, if more people voted, would this redistricting even matter?
- [44:04]
Kristen Clark
Well, the wave of late decade racial gerrymandering of maps that we are seeing right now, particularly in the south, is highly unusual. Redistricting ordinarily is something that is carried out once at the start of a decade, once you have newly released census data in states like Tennessee, there is actually a law on the books that prohibits mid decade redistricting, something that they repealed during their 48 hour marathon session to dismantle Congressional District 9, home to Memphis. But redistricting is, is not a small task. Ordinarily, this is one of the largest undertakings for a state legislature at the beginning of a decade, carried out over a series of hearings with opportunity for the public to engage, opportunity to consider and debate alternative maps, opportunity to hear testimony from lawmakers both for and against. It's a rigorous process with lots of deliberation and the kind of race at lightning speed to adopt new maps that we are now seeing in the Deep south is deeply disturbing and anti Democratic. In Tennessee, for example, lawmakers had no opportunity to see the Map before it was introduced a few hours into the 48 hour session, there was no alternative map. The one map was produced in a very opaque process. You know, we do not want redistricting carried out in the dark in the back rooms through a process that lacks any transparency or opportunity for public engagement. So there is the racial impact, the partisan impact that we are seeing in some places in the country. But then the lack of transparency really makes it something that runs contrary to principles that really should shape a modern democracy. And when we talk about a modern democracy, we want a democracy where we have high levels of voter participation and turnout. No doubt we lag woefully behind countries in Europe that enjoy turnout and participation rates at the 80% level. We are far below that in the United States. And this is an administration that wants to reduce those numbers even more. They want to make sure that they find ways to depress, intimidate and hold back the voices of black and brown voters and other voters of color. And it is why at the NAACP we'll continue to use advocacy, protest and aggressive litigation in the courts to ensure that we have an open, fair and equal democracy where everyone can exercise their voice and participate.
- [47:19]
Amy Goodman
I think the number is something like 65% for general elections. That means 35% of eligible voters don't vote. And in the midterm terms it's like half of voters don't. The last one was something like 52% came out. Half the eligible voters in the United States are not voting. What an amazing force that would be if all people who are eligible came out to vote. Kristen Clark, I want to thank you so much for joining us. The general counsel of the NAACP and she just took on that position last month. She was previously Assistant Attorney General for Civil rights at the U.S. department of Justice. Coming up, Israel's deported. Two Palestine solidarity activists who were violently detained and taken to Israel when Israeli forces raided the Gaza bound Global Samud flotilla in international waters. Stay with with us. There's a man homeless and hungry There's a wind,
- [48:35]
Saif Abu Keshek
it's hard and biting
- [48:38]
Amy Goodman
There's a song in need to sing There's
- [48:45]
Juan Gonzalez
a few
- [48:48]
Saif Abu Keshek
you need a lighter and
- [48:52]
Amy Goodman
it's no secret
- [48:54]
Saif Abu Keshek
the day is coming
- [48:58]
Amy Goodman
and it's a day
- [49:01]
Saif Abu Keshek
I hope to
- [49:02]
Amy Goodman
see but if they ask, if they ask you brother who told you they you didn't hear it from me.
- [49:18]
Juan Gonzalez
Let Freedom Ring Let Freedom Ring Let
- [49:25]
Amy Goodman
Freedom Ring by Tom Morello. He is going to be playing today Grammy award winning artist, activist and Rock and Roll hall of Fame inductee at noon at 26 Federal Plaza. They've put out a poster that says end ice abuse now. He's performing in New York with Bruce Springsteen last night to thousands of people at Madison Square Garden. This is democracy now, democracynow.org, the war and Peace Report. I'm Amy Goodman with Juan Gonzales. Israel's deported two activists who were violently abducted from a Gaza bound humanitarian aid flotilla. They were abducted by Israeli forces in international waters last month. The activists were sailing with the Global Samud Flotilla which was challenging Israel's maritime blockade and trying to deliver humanitarian aid to Palestinians devastated by years of war. Thiago Avila of Brazil and Spanish national Palestinian Sayf Abu Keshak were Among a hundred 175 international activists forced off their aid ships at gunpoint. While most of the activists were released in Crete, Abu Keshek and Avila were taken to Israel for so called questioning, according to Israeli authorities. Hadil Abu Saleh, an attorney on their legal team, called their detention unlawful and a, quote, sham proceeding with no legal basis intended to punish them for attempting to challenge Israel's illegal blockade on Gaza, unquote. The attorney also said they both faced severe physical abuse by their Israeli captors, the governments of Brazil and Spain. President Lula of Brazil and the Prime Minister of Spain, Pedro Sanchez, condemned Israel's actions and called for the immediate release of their citizens. Israel's Foreign Ministry accused Abu Keshek and Avila of affiliation with the Popular Conference for Palestinians or both, or PCPA, an organization U.S. and Israeli officials have claimed is a front for Hamas, although no charges were brought against the two men and they were released and deported on Sunday. This is Tiago Avila speaking to supporters after arriving in Sao Paulo, Brazil.
- [51:56]
Saif Abu Keshek
We need to defeat Netanyahu and Donald Trump. We need to defeat the war criminals. We need to defeat the industrial military complex that profits from war, the big techs that want to control our lives. We need to build a different future for us. And yes, he committed another war crime, but what he did against us is nothing compared to what they do to Palestinians every single day. Once again, we always need to say this. It's not about us individually. It's about a people that has been suffering eight decades of genocide and ethnic cleansing.
- [52:27]
Amy Goodman
That's Brazilian activist Thiago Avila speaking upon his return to Brazil where his mother, Teresa Regina de Avila Silva, sadly died while her son was in Israeli detention following a long illness. Fellow activist Spanish national Saif Abu Keshek also spoke to supporters following his release.
- [52:51]
Saif Abu Keshek
I left behind me thousands of Palestinian prisoners, children Women and men. I'm sure that, that the treatment I face is not compared to the suffering they are going through. The testimonies we hear of their torture, of their violation on daily basis. We have to continue mobilizing. We cannot forget the Palestinian prisoners for more.
- [53:14]
Amy Goodman
We go now to Turkey where we are joined by that activist, Saif Abu Keshak. He's a Spanish and Swedish national of Palestinian descent and a member of the Global Samud Flotilla Steering Committee. Just released from Israeli detention and deported after being seized by Israeli forces in international waters in April. Sayf, thank you so much for being with us. Can you describe your abduction? Can you describe what happened and particularly talk about what happened in Israeli custody in Israel?
- [53:52]
Saif Abu Keshek
Thank you. Thank you, Emy, and it's good to hear you again. I didn't expect to be out such an early time. We are used on the continuous violations of Israel and for them to act as they want. So another crime, as Thiago said, has been committed and we still see the complicity and the impunity that they act with. On the 30th of April, all of a sudden, on more than hundred nautical miles away from the shores of Gaza, they have intercepted part of our boats and they started moving from one boat to another. Collected around 175 participants of Global Sumo flotilla into a prison ship where we were asked to stay inside cargo containers that did not have any conditions. People were violently removed from their ships into the prison ship. Ships were left floating in the sea. One of the ships called Tam Tam participants were left inside the ship with a broken engine under the danger of roaring without being provided any help or support and were rescued by open arms then transporting us to the prison ship. People were violently strip searched, handcuffed and then pushed inside the cargo containers. Then some of us were being picked up slowly. It was very difficult to know what is exactly what's happening, but was in the middle of the international waters. Me and Thiago were transported into a different military ship and then taken to occupied Palestine. Arrived there on Saturday morning where the police was waiting for us. And then directly we are taken into the Shabak, which is the Israeli secret service and started interrogation until Friday a few days ago when we were informed that investigation is being closed and that we will be deported. I when they introduced themselves, they introduced themselves as the unit that is responsible for investigations around Gaza. I had eight investigators questioning me on different occasions with their continuous version of story that they have the right to go into 700 nautical miles that Gaza is not being Besieged, that there is no blockade, that there is no genocide, there is no military occupation, that settlers are normal citizens, even if they move around with guns and they attack people. One of the. Actually, one of the investigators told me that you should fight against other types of occupation, like, you know, Tenerife. I told him, well, there are no protests in Tenerife. And they said they killed them all. We tried to do this in Gaza. We only managed to kill 100,000, but we have finished all our bombs, and that's a number that we have managed to kill. We were hearing every day the screams of other Palestinians who were being tortured inside this investigation center all the time. During the day, during the night, deprivation of sleep, transportation to the court. It has been a process to see how Israel is evolving with impunity. I think they are acting in a way that we could expect next interception to be at the shores of Ibiza, at the shores of Mallorca, where there is no limit for the crime, that they are willing to take the risks that they are willing to put people in just to justify a false accusation that they have nothing to prove and they don't need even to explain why they are doing this illegally, kidnapping all of us. So what we really have to be concerned of, if we have somebody with a double nationality, that we have seen such a huge mobilization politically, and we have seen the media coverage and the social mobilizations everywhere. Imagine how Palestinians are being treated. Imagine the violations that people from Palestine are receiving. I mean, we heard about packs of dogs that are being trained to rape Palestinian men.
- [58:27]
Amy Goodman
Yes, we have 10 seconds just to
- [58:31]
Saif Abu Keshek
say that the testimonies that we are receiving from the Palestinian prisoners who are being released is nothing compared to the experience that we have. The continuous rape of women, of men, the continuous violations, administrative detention. This is a government that is acting this way for so long.
- [58:49]
Amy Goodman
We have to leave it there safe. Abu Keshek, Spanish and Swedish national, Palestinian origins and speaking to us from Turkey. That does it for our show. We'll be in Austin and Houston this weekend.