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- [00:15]
Amy Goodman
From New York. This is Democracy Now.
- [00:19]
Donald Trump
But most importantly, addressing this crisis of election security demands that Congress must pass the Save America Act. How easy is to do, unless you want to cheat.
- [00:35]
Amy Goodman
In a primetime address, President Trump calls on Congress again to overhaul U.S. elections by passing a law that could disenfranchise millions of eligible voters. Trump's call came after he accused China of election meddling. Critics are accusing him of spreading lies about the US Election system ahead of the midterms. Then Secretary of State Marco Rubio and White House adviser Stephen Miller are pushing for a global crackdown on leftist organizations.
- [01:06]
Stephen Miller
This is a fatal cancer to civilization, and the greatest risk that we have is that our institutions have grown too soft and too cowardly to be able to defend themselves against a mortal threat.
- [01:23]
Amy Goodman
Plus, we go to Houston, Texas, where hundreds gathered Thursday for a public viewing of the body of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, the Mexican father shot and killed by an ICE agent last week. And we look at calls to boycott Christopher Nolan's blockbuster new film the Odyssey, because part of it was filmed in Western Sahara land occupied by Morocco for the past half century. We'll speak with a Saharawi filmmaker. All that and more coming up. Welcome to Democracy now, democracynow.org, the War and Peace Report. I'm Amy Good. Iran's government says at least eight people were killed as the US Carried out a sixth straight day of attacks. Targets included a railway station, six bridges and other civilian infrastructure. Iran's energy ministry is calling on citizens to reduce their electricity use after Iran's energy grid came under attack despite sweltering summer heat with temperatures well into triple digits. In another bombing, the US Struck near a children's cancer hospital in the south southwestern city of Ahvaz. The attack sparked the panicked evacuation of more than 200 people, including young patients undergoing chemotherapy. In response, aram claimed a 13th wave of retaliatory strikes against US bases. Missile and drone attacks were reported in Bahrain, Jordan, Kuwait, Oman, Syria and Qatar, where officials say a child was injured by falling missile debris. Here in the United States, dense smoke from Canadian wildfires brought air quality alerts to people in more than 20 states in the Northeast and upper Midwest Thursday, with more smoke in the forecast. This weekend, the air quality index in Toledo, Ohio, climbed to over 600. That compares to a good air quality score of 50 or less. In Detroit, Michigan, it topped 720, more than double what's needed to trigger a hazardous air alert. Here in New York, Mayor Zoran Mamdani spoke. His readings topped 250 a level he said poses a health risk for everyone, regardless of their health status.
- [03:52]
Juan Gonzalez
Whether we're speaking about the heat, whether we're speaking about the air quality, or whether we're even speaking about the levels of rainwater and flooding in our city, I am concerned. And I'm concerned because what we see
- [04:04]
Ari Berman
is that the climate crisis exacerbates so
- [04:07]
Juan Gonzalez
much of what our city is facing.
- [04:10]
Amy Goodman
Meanwhile, in Texas, at least two people died as dangerous flooding swept through the central part of the state, the same area where more than 130 people, including 25 children at a Christian girls summer camp, died in flash floods last summer. President Trump used a primetime address Thursday to accuse China of interfering in the 2020 election, despite a US Intell assessment finding no evidence to support his claim. A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson said Trump's accusations were, quote, totally fabricated and a malicious smear, unquote. President Trump also urged Republicans in Congress to pass the Save America act, which requires IDs at the polls and proof of citizenship during voter registration.
- [04:59]
Donald Trump
Tonight I'm announcing the immediate declassification and release of critical intelligence revealing shocking vulnerabilities in our election infrastructure. This evidence shows that the election system we have dangerously exposes and really exposes like levels never thought possible to hacking,
- [05:22]
Amy Goodman
exploitation and foreign interference, federal investigators have found. President Trump's longtime teleprompter operator Gabriel Perez made more than $100,000 by BET on Trump's speeches. He allegedly used the prediction market Kalshi to place the bets. The company alerted the Commodity Futures Trading Commission to Perez's suspicious activity on its mentions market, where users can bet on whether specific words or phrases are uttered during public remarks. White House press secretary Carolyn Levitt was questioned Thursday about the scandal. Obviously I'm aware of the report. The president is too. I spoke with him about it. He believes it's deeply unfortunate and frankly a disgrace. This comes as President President Trump's company Truth Social announced plans to charge for special high speed access to Trump's social media posts, including statements on national security and financial topics. In response, Connecticut Senator Richard Blumenthal wrote, quote, the president's social media post covering war and peace and government regulations move markets. Truth Social selling preferential access is yet another example of flagrant corruption trading access to the White House for Trump's self enrichment, Blumenthal said. Meanwhile, a senior Iranian official told Dropsite News Iran had informed Vice President J.D. vance that Trump's son in law Jared Kushner and his Middle east envoy Steve Witkoff were more interested in exploiting insider knowledge of the cease fire negotiations to potentially profit than they were in reaching a deal. Iran provided dropsite written documentation of evidence that Kushner and Wyckoff were using diplomatic developments to manipulate financial markets. The White House flatly denied the allegations. In Maine, the ICE agent who fatally shot Joan Sebastian Duran Guerrero during a traffic stop in Biddeford Monday has been identified as David Brulette, a former police officer and U.S. army veteran. His ex wife Ashley told the Portland Press Herald he called her and admitted he was the officer behind Monday's shooting. Ashley Brulette described abusive behavior both during and after her marriage to David Brulette. She said she wanted to speak out publicly because she'd previously reported concerns about her husband's mental health to his superiors in the military. Separately, the Associated Press reports several of David Brulette's close relatives say he struggled with serious mental health issues since early childhood and never should have been given access to a badge and a gun. Speaking anonymously, one relative said, quote, afghanistan destroyed him, trained him to be a killing monster, a machine. They took someone who was extremely mentally ill and turned him into a killing machine, the relative said. On Thursday, the widow of Joanne Sebastian Duran Guerrero spoke publicly for the first time since her husband was killed as he set off for work Monday morning. Carolina Rojas Alvarez said the loss of her husband has been devastating for their three year old daughter. The day before he took her to
- [08:41]
Ruby Powers
the park and they had a wonderful time.
- [08:47]
Amy Goodman
That Monday afternoon was supposed to be
- [08:49]
Ruby Powers
her day with her dad, but he
- [08:53]
Amy Goodman
never came home and now my daughter
- [08:55]
Ruby Powers
is asking about her father and I don't have the strength to tell her that he's not coming, that she can't
- [09:01]
Amy Goodman
hug him anymore or say daddy, I love you. In Nevada, rights groups are demanding an investigation into the violent attempted arrest of an elderly man by plainclothes ICE agents at the Las Vegas International Airport. Video of Monday's incident shows two people in plainclothes, one masked, the other hooded, pushing a man to the floor and handcuffing him as he cries out for help. One of the agents then tries to swat away an observer's camera as he approaches.
- [09:38]
Juan Gonzalez
Law enforcement.
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Abedin Mohammad Moody
What's going on?
- [09:40]
Amy Goodman
We can stop the rights know what's going on. Everyone back up.
- [09:44]
Cesar Espinosa
Are you okay?
- [09:45]
Amy Goodman
Responding to the video, Nevada Democratic Senator Jackie Rosen called for ICE to follow the same guardrails as other law enforcement agencies. She wrote, quote, plain clothes, no uniforms, no body cameras, no identification, unquote. The White House's so called border czar Tom Homan has issued a warning to Democrats who are critical of ice, its mass deportation campaign or its violent encounters with the public, shut your mouth or the quote, unquote bloodshed will continue. Homan issued the threat during an appearance Wednesday on Fox News. I said if the hateful Rhettic didn't
- [10:22]
Donald Trump
stop, there will be bloodshed.
- [10:24]
Amy Goodman
And I'm saying it right now, there's still going to be more bloodshed unless they shut their mouth and let ICE enforce the laws that they enacted. The Trump administration moved to tighten visa rules for foreign students, journalists and cultural exchange visitors. Student and cultural exchange visas would be limited to four years. Visas for journalists, which previously lasted for years, would now last up to 240 days. In the case of Chinese nationals, journalist visas would last up to 90 days. And Denise Oliver Velez, longtime activist, organizer and educator, has died at the age of 78. She was a central figure in the civil rights movements of the 60s and 70s, was the first woman elected to the Young Lords Central Committee, a radical Puerto Rican civil and human rights organization. She was also a member of the Black Panther Party and later became the first black female program director in public radio and taught at SUNY New Paltz. This is Denise Oliver Velez describing the legacy of the Young lords during a 2019 appearance on Democracy Now. I think that what is so revolutionary about the Young Lords was we created a bridge. We broke down a lot of barriers between groups that were dealing with their individual communities. And that also has a lot to do with when you talk about Spanish Harlem, el Barrio. You had a about a third of the population in El Parria was African American. And you also had marriages between black Americans and Puerto Ricans. So we had people in the Lords who identified as both. And those are some of the headlines. This is democracy now, democracynow.org, the war and Peace Report. I'm Amy Goodman in New York with Democracy Now's Juan Gonzalez in Chicago. Juan, our deepest condolences on the death of Denise Oliver. The two of you were both in the Young Lords. You helped to found the Young Lords here in New York.
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Juan Gonzalez
Yes, Amy, thanks. Well, it's impossible, really, to overstate the impact that Denise had not only in her early years as a brilliant, articulate and fearless member of two iconic revolutionary groups, the Young Lord's Party and the Black Panther Party, but on thousands of young people who for decades were inspired by her example, Temple, by her writings on music, culture, politics, by her scholarship and her teaching. And her work continued until just days before her death. As you mentioned, she was the first woman in the top leadership of the Young Lords, first as minister of finance and then of economic development. She helped develop many of our serve the people programs and helped to shape and write some of the key literature we produced back then. She played a pivotal role in the design production of our newspaper Pallante and our weekly radio program on wbai. And she was a co founder, with Edis Morales of the Women's Caucus that battled against oppression of women both in the broader society within the movement itself. And of course, she joined the Panthers in 71, following the disastrous split in that organization between the Huey Newton Bobby Seal wings and the Eldritch and Kathleen Cleaver wings. And for a while, she lived in Algeria and other parts of Africa with Eldridge and Kathleen. But Denise was never afraid to speak her mind, to challenge authority, and to tell her comrades what they needed to hear, not what they wanted to hear. And she always did it with love and kindness, and that was instilled in her by her parents. Most people don't know that. Both of her parents were really activists and traveled in left wing circles in the 1940s. Her mother, Marjorie Roberts Oliver, was from Philadelphia. Her father, George Bodine Oliver from Chicago. They both met at Western Virginia State College. Her father was a Tuskegee airman and a tremendous athlete and a tennis player. And after the war, they moved to New York City so he could pursue an acting career. There he met many prominent African American activists of that day, of the day, Paul Robeson. And he got his first major break with the great Puerto Rican actor Jose Ferre, who cast him in Lillian Smith's Broadway show Strange Fruit, and then in Cyrano de Bergerac. But with so few roles for African Americans, her father ended up becoming a professor of dramatic literature. And Denise really got to know many of the giants of the African American community of those days. She was in college at Howard University with Rap Brown. She brought Fannie Lou Hamer to speak at Howard. Whether it was Amiri Baraka, Sonia Sanchez, all the giants of 20th century African American legacy, all knew Denise. And yet she did her most important and I guess, most lasting work in the young Lords, advocating for the Puerto Rican community. And she was also for 20 years, contributing editor to the Daily Coast. And I just want to read. The Daily coast did a great memorial for her yesterday. And the editor said this. For literal decades, every difficult decision about the direction of Daily Calls has included the same question. What is Denise going to think about this? Denise has been the voice in the back of my mind, advising me, guiding me, oftentimes scolding me. If I was going to ignore what I knew Denise would tell me, I had better have a damn good reason. And so Denise, we're all going to miss her. We're all better for having known her. And the legacy she left behind is immeasurable.
- [16:38]
Amy Goodman
Again, our deepest condolences and for our audience around the world. You can see our full interview with Denise Oliver Velez@DemocracyNow.org yes, this is Democracy Now. When we come back, the president's primetime address. Stay with us. Sensation by Elado Negro and Reyna Tropical. Today their new album is released, their first collaboration, Elado Tropical. It was a pleasure to spend the morning with them yesterday. Soon, at our website, democracynow.org, you'll be able to see their performances as well as the interview. This is Democracy now. Democracynow.org, i'm Amy Goodman with Juan Gonzalez. President Trump used a primetime address Thursday night to accuse China of interfering with the 2020 election, despite a US intelligence assessment finding no evidence to his claim. A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson said Trump's accusations were totally fabricated and a malicious smear, unquote. During the speech, Trump announced he was declassifying documents that show what he called shocking vulnerabilities, our election infrastructure. But Trump offered no evidence that China or any other nation had directly interfered with the recent elections, including in 2020 when President Trump lost to Joe Biden. This is part of what Trump said last night.
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Donald Trump
Put together these disclosures reveal an election system so broken and so vulnerable that no one can possibly defend it. It is not defensible. Hundreds of millions of US Voter files are in the hands of foreign governments. Our machines and ballot counting systems are exposed to hacking and manipulation and corruption. China and other countries have been trying to meddle in our elections. Evidence of fraud has been buried. Hundreds of thousands of noncitizens and dead people are listed and active on the voter rolls. And yet we still have elections with no voter id, no proof of citizenship, and tens of millions of ballots floating aimlessly through the mail.
- [20:35]
Amy Goodman
After the speech, all 24 Democratic governors in the United States issued a joint statement saying, quote, it's deeply alarming. President Trump continues to try to undermine free and fair elections. No amount of lies and conspiracy theories can change the fact that our country's elections have repeatedly been proven to be safe and secure. These attacks are intended to intimidate and silence voters, the governors wrote. President Trump ended his speech by urging lawmakers to pass the Save America Act.
- [21:06]
Donald Trump
But most importantly, addressing this crisis of election security demands that Congress must pass The Save America Act. How easy is that to do? Unless you want to cheat. The only reason you wouldn't do it is you want to cheat because your policies are so bad and your candidates are so pathetic that you can't get away or can't get elected any other way.
- [21:35]
Amy Goodman
Voting rights activists have warned the Save America act could disenfranchise millions of eligible voters. We're joined now by Ari Berman, the national voting rights correspondent for Mother Jones, author of the book Minority the Right Wing Attack on the Will of the People and the Fight to Resist It. Ari, what were your takeaways from last night's primetime address? Fascinatingly, a number of news outlets did not run it live or pulled away from it to counter what they said were President Trump's lies. That they weren't just going to give him a platform for that.
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Ari Berman
Hi, Amy. Well, thank you for having me back on the show. It's an honor to be on twice in one week. But I have to say that Trump's speech was shockingly weak. It had no new evidence, despite him claiming that there would be really big news. No new evidence about the 2020 election. No evidence that votes were tampered in some kind of way, that election equipment was accessed in some kind of way. The declassified documents did not show claimed Trump claimed they purported to show. And so really, if Trump was trying to build another case, cuz he's been making this argument for six years, but was trying to build a smoking gun case that the 2020 election was stolen, he failed miserably. That said, I am still very concerned that this speech is intended to lay the groundwork for the administration to interfere in the midterms and that his speech is going to ratchet up pressure to interfere in the midter. And he's gonna point to all the things he's done, all the intelligence he's just classified and say, now I have evidence, even though he doesn't have the evidence, but he's gonna claim he has the evidence to do things like attempt to seize voting machines, stop mail voting, require proof of citizenship to register to vote. And so even though the speech itself was very underwhelming, the threats to fair elections remain and if anything have gotten more dire in the wake of the speech.
- [23:45]
Juan Gonzalez
Aria, I'm wondering if you'd comment on two things. One, this whole issue of this president talking about interference in elections when he's directly tried to influence or interfere elections recently in Argentina, in Colombia, in Honduras, actually threatening voters in those countries if they didn't vote for what the United States would do if they didn't vote for his candidate. And also this whole issue of dead people. He keeps raising dead people voting. Well, anybody who knows anything about elections knows the last thing a family thinks about when a loved one dies is removing them from the voter rolls. So it usually will take about two years or more for any state to actually purge people who have passed away from their voter rolls. He doesn't talk about dead people voting, he talks about dead people being on the rolls. Wondering your thoughts?
- [24:41]
Ari Berman
Yeah, Juan, those are all really good points. I want to make a few comments in response to them. Number one, if anyone has benefited from foreign interference in US elections, it's been Donald Trump. He benefited from Russian interference in the 2016 election. He benefited from Russia interference the 2020 election. He totally ignored the evidence of that. So the extent that there was interference in elections, it was Russia helping Trump. Secondly, America is the last country in the world that should talk about foreign election inter given what America has done all across the world for so many decades, overturning elections, and in particular what Trump has done to overturn elections, to just oust leaders altogether to invade countries unprovoked. I mean, it's the height of hypocrisy for him to say we're concerned about foreign election meddling given that the US under Trump is the one that's doing all the foreign election meddling. And then to your last point, yes, there may be some dead people that are still on the voter rolls cuz they have not been removed. There may be some some small number of noncitizens who are on the voter rolls accidentally. That does not mean they are voting in American elections. There is no evidence dead people are voting in elections. There is very, very little evidence that non citizens are voting in American elections. I'll just give you one example. Trump claimed in his speech 278,000 noncitizens were registered to vote. It turned out that number was actually 10,000 when they released the data. That number is likely wildly inflated because of false positives and inaccuracies in DHS databases. So we know American elections are secure because the results are audited extensively. At the state level, they're reviewed at the federal level. The 2020 election was meant was reviewed and found to be the most secure in American history. Trump keeps talking about the 2020 election a because he's a petty narcissist who can't get over his defeat, but B because he wants to create the predicate to interfere in the midterms and I believe that's what this speech was ultimately all about.
- [26:40]
Amy Goodman
Let's go to Trump threatening NBC and ABC for not fully airing the speech.
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Donald Trump
In a rare move, NBC and ABC Fake News have both said that they would not cover this speech. They knew what it was about because of the fact that they don't like the topic because they know how corrupt our system is and they don't want to reveal it. They and others in the media are part of a plot. They want to continue this fraud for whatever reason, they want to keep it going. They want to protect the radical left. They can't have a great country, and that's true. You can't have a great country without free and fair elections. Fraud like this should mean a revocation of their licenses. They use our public multi billion dollar in value airways for, for absolutely no money. They pay nothing.
- [27:32]
Amy Goodman
So that was President Trump last night threatening the licenses once again, this time of NBC and abc. The significance of this and also he keeps talking about the voter rolls being for sale and foreign countries taking them, though the documents he declassified do not reveal this. But the fact is voting rolls are for sale. Is that right, Ari? People have access to them.
- [27:55]
Ari Berman
Yeah, Amy. So first I'll just talk about the media. I mean, it's chilling that Trump threatened the broadcast licenses of networks that did not show this speech. However, it was heartening that so many networks chose not to show this speech. Trump has tried to intimidate the media in so many different ways and it felt like finally some elements of the corporate funded media have said, we've had enough, we've had enough of Trump, we've had enough of Trump's lies. And obviously that's going to drive Trump crazy, but it was ultimately good for democracy that they didn't show his speech in terms of the voter rolls. Yes, you can purchase publicly available information. Candidates can can purchase it, other entities can purchase it. That is different than saying that foreign countries hacked into voter rolls or somehow manipulated election systems. That's what Trump wanted you to believe. He wanted you to believe that China somehow accessed illegally election system, somehow changed votes or did something else to manipulate the outcome. That's not true. Would be very, very difficult to do in our system. There are some vulnerabilities that remain in American elections. Ironically, Trump has made those worse. He's gutted the cybersecurity agencies. He's disbanded task forces aimed at stopping foreign election interference. He has put cronies and political hacks in charge of things like the FBI and DHS and the Doj and so if Trump was really serious about stopping foreign election interference, which he isn't, he would not have gutted all the protections against that.
- [29:29]
Juan Gonzalez
That and Ari, briefly, if you could respond to your reaction to the testimony of Todd Blanch before Congress over his his confirmation as attorney general.
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Ari Berman
Well, I would just say in general, it was really shocking to me that Blanche described himself as still as Trump's lawyer when he's supposed to be head of the Department of Justice. I would also argue it was extremely concerning to hear Jay Clayton, when he was the nominee to be director of National Intelligence, refusing to say that Joe Biden won the election. And it's such a basic question that Biden won the 2020 election. The fact that you still have even the quote, unquote, reasonable Trump people refusing to say that Biden won the election just shows how far down the rabbit hole we've gone and how much the election deniers have taken over every aspect of the federal government in Trump's second term.
- [30:29]
Amy Goodman
Ari Berman, thanks so much for being with us. National voting rights correspondent for Mother Jones, author of Minority the Right Wing Attack on the Will of the People and the Fight to Resist it. This is DemocracyNow. DemocracyNow.org, i'm Amy Goodman with Juan Gonzalez. Just within the same hours as President Trump giving his address in Houston, Texas, hundreds of community members gathered Thursday evening for a public viewing of Lorenzo salgado Araujo, the 52 year old Mexican father of three US citizens shot and killed by an ICE agent on July 7th. Members of the public lined up outside the chapel at Farris Park, a Lawndale funeral home in Houston's predominantly Latino East End district, before making their way inside where the body of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo was laid in an open casket. His sons standing by their father's casket for hours, greeting mourners who wore different shades of blue. At the family's request, many of them in tears. A mariachi band wearing all black stood by the casket, filling the room with music. Photos and videos of some of the family's most joyful moments were produced, projected in the background. Several altars also adorned the chapel. One table held Salgado Araujo's construction tools, including two of his white hard hats, while another displayed two of his Mexico soccer jerseys. Democracy Now's Maria Nez Tericena spoke to some of the people who attended. She was outside the funeral home because recording was not permitted inside.
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Cesar Espinosa
My name is Cesar Espinosa and I am the executive director of fiel. The feeling inside is it paints a picture of a man who loved his family, who loved his kids, who loved life. And his life should have never been taken away. On that fateful Tuesday morning, July 7th, you know, three days after our Independence Day, on the streets of Magnolia Park. He should still be alive today at this time. Right now, he should. Should be having dinner at home. He should have been listening to his music, getting ready for the next workday, which he would have done regardless. I think it's the feeling, and there's one of somberness, but it's also a very peaceful kind of, you know, atmosphere. There's a lot of people wearing blue, which apparently was his favorite color. There's jerseys, There's. There's pictures, family pictures, shrines, things that the people have brought for the family. They're giving away these little songs, soccer balls, because just a few days before he was killed on our streets, he was watching the World cup, and. And according to his sons, up until the moment when he died, he was still upset that Mexico had lost. Looking back at history, it brought back memories of Emmett Till, when his mom also let the community grieve with them. And she wanted to show the world what they had done to her son. And I think today, this family also wanted to show the world what they had done to their father.
- [33:38]
Ruby Powers
Ruby palace, you are the attorney for Victor Salgado, Lorenzo Salgado, Araujo's younger brother, who witnessed the fatal shooting. We were just at the public viewing with the family, with community members. Earlier today, you were visiting Victor in an ICE jail here in Texas, about an hour from Houston. You know, I went there to work on our paperwork, but also to check in with him, because I'd been a few days and wanting to make sure he was doing well. But, yes, to see him and know that he's wanting to be here, but he's only here in spirit at the moment. Earlier in the week, we requested that Victor be able to come to his brother's visitation to pay his last respects, and we heard that ICE granted that request. We weren't given the when or where or the details, but we're hoping that it helps happen soon. And so he was looking forward to that. But I know that it's hard for him because even if he is allowed, it'll be very brief encounter, and he won't be able to interact with a lot of his family. And also, if he's allowed to come to the public viewing, it'll be with the presence of law enforcement, of ICE agents. Well, my understanding that if and when it happens. It'll be very private and so but, but yes, there's definitely conditions on that visit. But Having practiced for 18 years, I've never heard of someone being released for a situation like this. But this is a very unique situation. But you're right, you know, it's challenging. But I think that he'd rather be here, even if it's with those conditions, than not having the chance.
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Cesar Espinosa
Hi, my name is Hai Bui. I'm the founder of we the People Organize. When I walked in, it's the families are on both sides, full, full, amazing, big family. And of course they told me go to the Fandala to give respect and as a Buddhist, I pray for his good wishes and be here to help to fight justice for him. And we'll do whatever it takes to
- [35:45]
Ari Berman
stick with this case every week.
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Cesar Espinosa
We always pray that this wouldn't happen. To be honest with you, we just, we knew that the numbers because our city has the highest immigrant and we just knew that. We just prayed it won't happen.
- [35:58]
Juan Gonzalez
And it did happen.
- [35:59]
Amy Goodman
That was Haibui, Ruby Powers and Cesar Espinosa who attended the public viewing of the body of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo in Houston Thursday evening. Special thanks to our team at Democracy Now. Mariasena, Hani Massoud and Nicole Salazar are after the viewing. Lorenzo's eldest son, Ronaldo, posted a note of thanks on Facebook, saying in part, houston is such a wonderful place, full of love. My dad made the right choice in choosing this place to spend the rest of his life and raise his family surrounded by a strong community that supports and watches each other's backs. May my dad, Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, rest in peace and with y' all's love and support, may his legacy live forever ever, ronaldo said. On Wednesday, the Department of Homeland Security said it would reverse plans to halt traffic stops following the shooting deaths of two immigrants by ICE agents in less than a week in Houston and Biddeford, Maine. The U turn came after President Trump wrote on social media, we cannot give up one of ice's most important and effective crime fighting tools, the traffic stop. Trump added, it won't happen on my watch. Coming up, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, White House adviser Stephen Miller are pushing for a global crackdown on leftist organizations. Stay with us.
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Ruby Powers
Miles.
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Amy Goodman
More of Sensation by Alado Negro and Reina Tropical. Today, their new album is released. It's called Elado Tropical. This is democracy now. Democracynow.org, i'm Amy Goodman with Juan Gonzalez. Secretary of State Marco Rubio White House adviser Stephen Miller are pushing for a global crackdown on leftist organizations. On Thursday, hours before President Trump's primetime address, the State Department hosted an international summit where Miller described the left as enemies of civilization. This is part of Stephen Miller's speech.
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Stephen Miller
Here in the United States, we have taken the necessary and essential action of formally recognizing left wing violence as a form of political terrorism that is a direct threat to our national security and the survival of our Republican form of government. President Trump issued a directive, in our parlance, it's called a National Security Presidential memorial memorandum, or NSPM NSPM 7 to be exact, that directs for the first time in American history all of our law enforcement and intelligence agencies to work together to disrupt, identify, defund, debank, arrest and prosecute these political terrorists that are operating in our country. It's very important to understand that left wing political terrorism seeks as its ultimate end the overthrow of our system and form of government.
- [39:54]
Amy Goodman
On Thursday, the State Department announced new visa restrictions targeting what it calls, quote, members of far left terrorists and other aligned groups. Secretary of State Rubio talked about targeting anti fascist organizations. The President signed National Security Presidential Memorandum number seven, outlining a comprehensive strategy to
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Cesar Espinosa
investigate and disrupt antifa terror networks and their allies.
- [40:21]
Amy Goodman
Last November, the State Department designated four violent far left extremist groups as foreign terrorist organizations.
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Cesar Espinosa
And there will be more designations soon.
- [40:32]
Amy Goodman
We're joined now by two guests. Mike German, former FBI Special agent specializing in domestic terrorism and covert operations. His latest book, Policing White the Enemy Within. Also author of Disrupt, Discredit Credit and How the New FBI Damages Democracy. And we're joined by Ken Klippenstein in Madison, Wisconsin, independent investigative journalist who's been closely following the Trump administration's designation of left wing activism as terrorism. Ken, let's begin with you. Lay out what happened at the so called terrorism summit yesterday and what caused you most alarm.
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Ken Klippenstein
Well, it was an extraordinary event because it pulled in representatives over 65 different countries to discuss the supposed threat of political terrorism. And that's kind of how it was touted to the press in the run up to the event. But any pretense that this was going to be a neutral look at the threat of different political groups quickly fell by the wayside as they introduced a term which I have never heard before, which is, which is Far left Terrorism or FLT is the acronym they're using to describe this new purported threat. And if you look at the language they've used to describe this event, the White House put out an admirably frank press release yesterday. Describing the event as prioritizing a counterterrorism approach that treats the political left with the same, quote, ferocity as we, we have fought traditional jihadi groups in the past. So they're putting left wing political groups in the United States and abroad on the same footing as groups like Al Qaeda and isis.
- [42:14]
Juan Gonzalez
And can the legal basis of being able of requiring intelligence organizations that are directed abroad to begin to do internal investigations and internal repression within the US.
- [42:32]
Ken Klippenstein
Yeah, so there's actually no domestic terrorism statute, but that doesn't stop the FBI from using that distinction internally for them to predicate and open investigations into these groups and bringing up charges unrelated to that against the individuals. And that's an important distinction worth noting because I think early on the press kind of overlooked a lot of the mainstream press, overlooked the story saying, oh, there's no domestic terrorism statute, nothing can happen. That means you can't be charged for domestic terrorism. That doesn't mean that domestic terrorism can't be used as the predicate for the FBI to go and open up investigations into these groups that they might not be able to open up otherwise. And we saw a great example of that in the sentences that were handed down to the anti ICE protesters in Texas recently. And probably if you look at the sentences, they were extraordinary. It was almost, I'm not exaggerating, half a millennium of federal Senate years and years in federal prison, including 30 years for somebody who wasn't even present at the thing for moving left wing literature around which they alleged to be obstruction of justice. So this is very real. This is not just Trump rhetoric that I think it was regarded as early on. This is a policy that they're very serious about pursuing and they have the legal architecture to do so, particularly because of the global war on terror and the system that that created.
- [44:01]
Juan Gonzalez
I'd like to bring in Mike German into the conversation of former FBI special agent. Your most recent book, Policing White Supremacy, the Enemy Within. Your talk about the historic role of the FBI and other law enforcement agencies in terms of dealing with far right extremists in this country.
- [44:22]
Mike German
Thanks for having me. So it's a bit of a misnomer that there isn't a domestic terrorism statute. There's an entire chapter of the US criminal code called terrorism and it lists 57 federal crimes of terrorism, 52 of which apply to domestic terrorists. As an FBI agent in the 1990s, I investigated Neo Nazi groups engaged in violent and criminal activity. I investigated anti government militia groups. Nobody suggested we didn't have sufficient laws to address this. Issue the law, distinguish, however, international terrorism from domestic terrorism and give investigators greater access to investigative tools and allow investigators to target not just terrorists, not just people who are committing crimes or assisting those committing crimes or committing violent acts, but to attack people 2 or 3 degrees separated. And that's what I think this meeting is about, because it's focusing on the designation of left wing groups as foreign terrorist groups. And that's what will allow them to start targeting civil society in a way that in the same way that the Bush administration targeted Muslim and Arabic civil society in the United States during the global war on terrorism. So basically the purpose of this meeting is to reframe the discussion around domestic terrorism to imagine that it has these foreign connections that justify the use of these much more aggressive tools to target again, people look at the Material Support for terrorism statute and think that it helps target terrorists. But the purpose of it is to target people who are not terrorists, who are engaging in activities that are not criminal. But the government alleges that they, through a series of arguments in the end, benefit terrorist groups abroad. And that's what's dangerous because we saw how those laws were employed in the United States during the global war on terrorism, where Muslim American charities were shut down, where Muslim American civil rights group were denigrated by the FBI director and law enforcement officials without giving them a forum in which they could defend themselves without laying actual criminal charges and basically seizing assets without ever showing evidence of wrong doing.
- [47:23]
Amy Goodman
And you know, in your book, Mike, Policing White Supremacy, as you talk about FBI and law enforcement not collecting data around far right extremist violence, using their resources to target left wing political organizations. It's intensifying now, but it's been going on even though the State Department and other government's own reports say white nationalists are the greatest threat. Threats commit the vast majority of political violence in this country. And the last minute we have. Can you predict where this is all going now?
- [48:02]
Mike German
I think what we're going to see is a serious escalation of Trump's campaign of retribution against his perceived political enemies. So we've already seen organizations like the Southern Poverty Law center, which is investigates and publishes information about far right extremists be charged with criminal offenses. We've seen 15 anti ICE agent or anti ICE protesters in Minneapolis charged with very serious terrorism related crimes. And this effort to designate left wing groups as foreign terrorists, again using these broad terms like antifa, will allow them to go after people who are not committing violence, but who are simply engaging in the political process.
- [48:58]
Amy Goodman
Mike German we want to thank you for being with us. Former FBI special agents specializing in domestic terrorism and covert operations. His latest book, Policing White the Enemy Within. And Ken Klippenstein, independent investigative training journalist based in Madison, Wisconsin. We will link to your substack newsletter. This is democracy now. Democracynow.org I'm Amy Goodman with Juan Gonzalez. Hollywood's blockbuster adaptation of the ancient Greek poem the Odyssey premieres on movie screens around the world today. Amidst growing calls for a boycott, human rights campaigners are criticizing director Christopher Nolan over his decision to film a part of the film in Western Sahar, a vast territory in northwestern Africa that Morocco has occupied for the past half century. This is a trailer for the Odyssey. It features scenes that are believed to have been filmed in the Moroccan occupied Western Sahara.
- [50:02]
Maria Carrion
Odysseus,
- [50:09]
Amy Goodman
Don't you remember?
- [50:17]
Maria Carrion
Thunder.
- [50:22]
Ruby Powers
Fire.
- [50:26]
Ken Klippenstein
Death.
- [50:31]
Amy Goodman
Remember the trailer, a part of it for the Odyssey. Saharawi campaigners and filmmakers are demanding a boycott. Earlier this month, they held a protest during the London prem year of the Odyssey. For more, we're joined by two guests. Maria Carrion, former Democracy now producer. She lives in Madrid, Spain. She's executive director of Phi Sahara, the Sahara International Film Festival. And Abedin Mohammad Moody, filmmaker from Western Sahara, born and raised in the Saharawi refugee camps in Tindouf, Algeria. He's part of Saharawi Voice, a collective of Saharawi filmmakers and journalists. Maria, let's begin with you. If you can talk about how you found out about the making, where part of the film was made and your efforts to reach out to Christopher Nolan. Nolan,
- [51:44]
Maria Carrion
yes. We found out exactly one year ago. Some activists from Dakhla, which is in southern Western Sahara, alerted us to the fact that Christopher Nolan and his team were in Dakhla in the White Dune filming part of the movie. As a result, we asked them to leave. We asked Universal to stop the shoot and Nolan to leave with his team. However, instead of leaving, leaving Nolan. Well, he was first photographed with the Moroccan Minister of Culture, Mehdi Ben Said. Then the Moroccan Minister of Culture went on to say that this shoot was going to be just what Morocco needed in order to promote Dakhla as a filming destination, in addition to it being a tourist destination, now this occupying force is practicing cultural genocide against the Saharawi people. Ethnic cleansing, especially in Dakota, where people are being routinely ousted from their homeland. And it's the site of megaprojects, big port resorts, wind farms, agriculture, roads. And so by staying silent for one year and then using this footage, Nolan has basically become an accomplice to Moroccan occupation of Western Sahara. The real odyssey being that of the Sahrawi people who for 50 years have tried, tried to liberate their homeland. They are separated by a wall. As you've covered extensively in Democracy now, the people in Western Sahara are repressed, arbitrarily arrested, imprisoned. There's actually a Saharawi prisoner now, political prisoner, on hunger strike, facing death. And the only thing he wants is to be released, as the United nations nations has called for him to be, along with all of the other political prisoners from the Khadimi Z protest camp. And his name is Namas Fari, and he is fighting for self determination in Moroccan prison. So what we've done is first we call for them to leave, then for them not to edit the scenes into the film. And now that the film has been released and clearly they have used use these stolen images from Dahla, we're calling on a campaign by the public not to go see the film and instead watch films about Western Sahara and become aware that it's an occupied territory also supported by the Trump administration.
- [54:24]
Juan Gonzalez
And I'd like to ask Abedin Mohammed, how did Donald Trump's President Trump's 2020 decision to recognize Moroccan sovereignty over Western Sahara as part of the Abraham Accords paved the way for Universal Pictures and Christopher Nolan to do this filming in Western Sahara?
- [54:45]
Abedin Mohammad Moody
I mean, to be honest, we were very surprised because the United States was respected widely and especially at the United nations for their stance of respecting international law. And the sudden decision really surprised all of us. And I think that, as you have mentioned, it has opened the door to all these international companies. Because if the government that claims to be referenced worldwide for respecting human rights, for respecting democracy, for defending it, for being the land where the people came to seek freedom, stands and steps over international law and does such a thing, I think that it opens the door to all these people to take Western Sahara as if it is a territory where they can decide to who it belongs to, who to give it to, and where they can decide whether to go filming it or not, while the Sahrawis are denied all of the rights. And as known, international law recognizes the right of the Sahara people to be the only ones to decide on Western Sahara.
- [55:47]
Amy Goodman
But Dean, we're speaking to you in Tindouf in Algeria, in the refugee camps there where the fi Sahara Film Festival is held, tens of thousands of of Saharawis there. Can you go home? Could you go, for example, to Dakhla?
- [56:05]
Abedin Mohammad Moody
Absolutely not. Actually, my parents were born in Dakhla. They always tell me all about how they grew up in Western Sahara, in Dakhla specifically. And to think that Christopher Nolan, backed by Universal Pictures and his own production company, can just go there and film and be complicit in the occupation of my homeland. And then me being denied of going there, my parents being denied, and the actual Sahrawis who live under occupation, going through all this repression. It is such a metaphor of how the Western world uses human rights democracy narratives whenever they want and then ignore it in other parts of the the world.
- [56:50]
Amy Goodman
You know, we covered East Timor for years. The same year it was occupied by Indonesia. It would ultimately win its freedom with a referendum and they became one of the newest nations of the world, the Democratic Republic of East Timor. They've always had great affinity with the people of the Western Sahara. Occupied Western Sahara. What are you calling for, Mohammed? What are the people of the refugee camps? What are the Sahrawi calling.
- [57:18]
Abedin Mohammad Moody
What we're calling for is very simple and I think it's very easy to implement, is to respect international law, respect your resolutions, give the Sahara people the right to self determinations. We are the legal owners of Western Sahara, of the territory of Western Sahara. And obviously, as you mentioned, Istimore is a great example of people struggling to gain their freedom. And what we are demanding and we will keep struggling for is to gain our right to self determination and independence. And we will use film in my case, and all the other tools available to the Sahara people, whether it's in the refugee camps or in the occupied territories, to keep struggling. And we are aware of the difficulty of all this process. We have given sacrifices and we are willing to give everything in our hands to gain our freedom.
- [58:02]
Amy Goodman
And in the last 10 seconds, if you were in Western Sahara, occupied and you were filming, can you talk about what would happen
- [58:11]
Abedin Mohammad Moody
if I was. First of all, I would be denied to enter Western Sahara. If I was there and I was filming, the first thing is I'd be repressed by the police, taken to jail, just like Naamal as Fari, who Maria has mentioned and many other Sahrawis have given their lives to different.
- [58:25]
Amy Goodman
Mohammad Hammoudi. We want to thank you for being with us. Filmmaker from Western Sahara part of Sahara We Voice, a collective Saharawi filmmakers and journalists and Maria Carreon, executive director of Feast Sahara, the Sahara International Film Festival. You can go to Democracy now to see our documentary Four Days in Western Sahara, Africa's last colony, including an interview with the Saharawi activist Naha as far who's been on hunger strike since early June. That does it for our show. I'll be in Kansas City this weekend for the screening of Steal the Story. Please. I'm Amy Goodman with Juan Gonzalez.