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GOP Candidates Spar on Syria & Immigration, But Agree on One Thing: Don't Raise the Minimum Wage
The fourth Republican presidential debate took place in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, last night with a smaller field of candidates on stage. Eight out of the 14 hopefuls took part in the main event after low poll numbers forced Gov. Chris Christie and Mike Huckabee to the so-called undercard debate. Donald Trump and Ben Carson remained center-stage as the top front-runners despite ongoing controversy over statements by both and new questions over whether Carson has embellished his life story. Trump doubled down on his pledge to deport 11 million undocumented immigrants and faced boos for complaining about rival Carly Fiorina. Meanwhile, Sen. Ted Cruz delivered the night’s biggest gaffe when he failed to list all five of the government agencies he wants to shut down. As hundreds of people protested outside as part of a nationwide "Fight for 15" day of action, the three front-runners—Trump, Carson and Sen. Marco Rubio—all agreed on opposing a minimum wage increase.
TRANSCRIPT
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
AMY GOODMAN: The fourth Republican presidential debate was held in Milwaukee last night with a smaller field gracing the stage. Eight out of the 14 candidates took part in the main event after low poll numbers forced New Jersey Governor Chris Christie and former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee to be the undercard. Donald Trump and Ben Carson remained center-stage as the top front-runners, despite ongoing controversy over statements by both and new questions over whether Carson has embellished his life story.
Part of the main action Tuesday came not at the podiums, but right outside. Hundreds of people staged a protest as part of a nationwide "Fight for 15" day of action, demanding higher pay and union rights for fast-food and other low-wage workers. Asked about the protests by debate moderator Neil Cavuto of Fox Business, the three top candidates—Donald Trump, Ben Carson and Marco Rubio—all said they oppose a higher minimum wage. Trump said he thinks wages are already too high.
NEIL CAVUTO: Mr. Trump, as the leading presidential candidate on this stage and one whose tax plan exempts couples making up to $50,000 a year from paying any federal income taxes at all, are you sympathetic to the protesters’ cause, since a $15 wage works out to about $31,000 a year?
DONALD TRUMP: I can’t be, Neil. And the reason I can’t be is that we are a country that is being beaten on every front economically, militarily. There is nothing that we do now to win. We don’t win anymore. Our taxes are too high. I’ve come up with a tax plan that many, many people like very much. It’s going to be a tremendous plan. I think it will make our country and our economy very dynamic. But taxes too high, wages too high, we’re not going to be able to compete against the world. I hate to say it, but we have to leave it the way it is. People have to go out, they have to work really hard, and they have to get into that upper stratum. But we cannot do this if we are going to compete with the rest of the world. We just can’t do it.
NEIL CAVUTO: So do not raise the minimum wage?
DONALD TRUMP: I would not raise the minimum.
NEIL CAVUTO: Dr. Carson?
DR. BEN CARSON: As far as the minimum wage is concerned, people need to be educated on the minimum wage. Every time we raise the minimum wage, the number of jobless people increases. It’s particularly a problem in the black community. Only 19.8 percent of black teenagers have a job, who are looking for one. You know, and that’s because of those high wages. If you lower those wages, that comes down.
NEIL CAVUTO: Senator Rubio.
SEN. MARCO RUBIO: If I thought that raising the minimum wage was the best way to help people increase their pay, I would be all for it. But it isn’t. In the 21st century, it’s a disaster. If you raise the minimum wage, you’re going to make people more expensive than a machine. And that means all this automation that’s replacing jobs and people right now is only going to be accelerated.
AMY GOODMAN: In the biggest gaffe of the night, Texas Senator Ted Cruz stumbled and fell short when trying to name the five federal agencies he would cut to fulfill his vow to reduce the size of government. The error recalled the infamous "oops" moment of then Texas Governor Rick Perry during the 2012 campaign.
SEN. TED CRUZ: Five major agencies that I would eliminate—the IRS, the Department of Commerce, the Department of Energy, the Department of Commerce and HUD—and then 25 specific programs. Again, that’s on our website at TedCruz.org. You want to look at specificity? It’s easy for everyone to say cut spending. It’s much harder and riskier to put out, chapter and verse, specifically the programs you would cut to stop bankrupting our kids and grandkids.
MARIA BARTIROMO: Thank you, Senator.
AMY GOODMAN: On government spending, Senators Marco Rubio and Rand Paul sparred over the nation’s military budget.
SEN. MARCO RUBIO: So I have a child tax credit increase, and I’m proud of it. I am proud that I have a pro-family tax code, because the pro-family tax plan I have will strengthen the most important institution in the country: the family.
SEN. RAND PAUL: Neil, there’s a point I’d like to make here. Neil, a point that I’d like to make about the tax credits. We have to decide what is conservative and what isn’t conservative. Is it fiscally conservative to have a trillion-dollar expenditure? We’re not talking about giving people back their tax money. He’s talking about giving people money they didn’t pay. It’s a welfare transfer payment. So here’s what we have. Is it conservative to have a trillion dollars in transfer payments, a new welfare program that’s a refundable tax credit? Add that to Marco’s plan for a trillion dollars in new military spending, and you get something that looks to me not very conservative.
SEN. MARCO RUBIO: I know that Rand is a committed isolationist. I’m not. I believe the world is a stronger and a better place when the United States is the strongest military power in the world.
AMY GOODMAN: That’s Marco Rubio and Rand Paul. Paul later criticized several rival candidates for backing a no-fly zone in Syria, which he said could spark a military confrontation with Russia. As Carly Fiorina pushed back, Donald Trump drew boos from the crowd when he complained about Fiorina interrupting.
SEN. RAND PAUL: You can be strong without being involved in every civil war around the world. Ronald Reagan—
NEIL CAVUTO: Then how would you respond?
SEN. RAND PAUL: Ronald Reagan was strong, but Ronald Reagan didn’t send troops into the Middle East.
CARLY FIORINA: And Ronald Reagan walked away at Reykjavik. He walked away. He quit talking—
SEN. RAND PAUL: Can I finish with my time?
CARLY FIORINA: —when it was time to quit talking.
SEN. RAND PAUL: Can I finish with my time?
DONALD TRUMP: Why does she keep interrupting everybody?
SEN. RAND PAUL: Yeah.
DONALD TRUMP: Terrible.
SEN. RAND PAUL: Yeah, I’d like to finish—I’d like to finish my response, basically.
SEN. MARCO RUBIO: You know, if I may respond? You know, this—
SEN. RAND PAUL: This is an important question. This is an incredibly important question. And the question goes to be: Who do we want to be our commander-in-chief? Do you want a commander-in-chief who says something that we never did throughout the entire Cold War, to discontinue having conversations with the Russians?
AMY GOODMAN: That was Rand Paul. Donald Trump and Jeb Bush also sparred over Russia’s military campaign in Syria. Trump said he welcomed it.
DONALD TRUMP: If Putin wants to go in—and I got to know him very well because we were both on 60 Minutes, we were stablemates, and we did very well that night, but you know that. But if Putin wants to go and knock the hell out of ISIS, I am all for it, 100 percent, and I can’t understand how anybody would be against it.
JEB BUSH: They’re not doing that.
DONALD TRUMP: They blew up—hold it. They blew up—
JEB BUSH: They’re not doing—
DONALD TRUMP: Wait a minute. They blew up a Russian airplane. He cannot be in love with these people. He’s going in, and we can go in, and everybody should go in. As far as the Ukraine is concerned, we have a group of people and a group of countries, including Germany, tremendous economic behemoth. Why are we always doing the work? We are—I’m all for protecting Ukraine and working, but we have countries that are surrounding the Ukraine that aren’t doing anything. They say, "Keep going, keep going, you dummies, keep going. Protect us." And we have to get smart. We can’t continue to be the policeman of the world. We owe $19 trillion. We have a country that’s going to hell. We have an infrastructure that’s falling apart—our roads, our bridges, our schools, our airports—and we have to start investing money in our country.
MARIA BARTIROMO: Thank you, sir.
JEB BUSH: Donald—Donald is wrong on this. He is absolutely wrong on this. We’re not going to be the world’s policeman, but we sure as heck better be the world’s leader. That’s a—there’s a huge difference, where, without us leading, voids are filled. And the idea that it’s a good idea for Putin to be in Syria, let ISIS take out Assad, and then Putin will take out ISIS? I mean, that’s like a board game. That’s like playing Monopoly or something. That’s not how the real world works. We have to lead. We have to be involved. We should have a no-fly zone in Syria. There are—they are barrel bombing the innocents in that country. If you’re a Christian, increasingly in Lebanon or Iraq or Syria, you’re going to be beheaded. And if you’re a moderate—a moderate Islamist, you’re not going to be able to survive either. We have to play a role in this, to be able to bring the rest of the world to this—to this issue before it’s too late.
AMY GOODMAN: For more on the fourth Republican presidential debate that took place in Milwaukee, we’re joined by—well, we’ll begin with Jamil Smith, the senior editor at The New Republic, also the host of Intersection, a podcast about race, gender and identity. His most recent piece at The New Republic is headlined "The Black Bogeyman Cometh."
Before we talk about that—
JAMIL SMITH: Yes.
AMY GOODMAN: —let’s talk about what was happening inside and outside the hall. Yes, they sparred on a number of issues, the smaller candidate pool now, the front-runners. But what they agreed on is: Do not increase the minimum wage. You wrote about this.
JAMIL SMITH: Yes. I found it very interesting that, you know, the first debate question was spurred by activists outside the building. I’ve never seen that before. And I strongly doubt that the minimum wage would have come up in the context that it had, had the protesters not, you know, been voicing their concerns. You know, I mean, obviously, the answers were expected. The Republican platform is steadily against raising the minimum wage. President Obama has come out for raising it to $10.10. Obviously, $15 is the goal for a lot of these activists. But I think—
AMY GOODMAN: And achieved in a number of states and cities. Well, cities.
JAMIL SMITH: Exactly, in Seattle and in other places, in other localities. But I think Ben Carson’s answer was most troubling, because he couched it within his own personal narrative, because that’s only—that’s really all he’s got to sell. He doesn’t have any political experience to speak of, so he just goes back to his personal narrative, which is based in this sort of Horatio Alger myth of coming up, you know, pulling yourself up by your bootstraps and moving forward into, you know, prominence.
And so, basically, what Ben said is that African-American teenage unemployment is somewhere—you know, at least per his figures—somewhere over 80 percent, because he said only 19.8 percent of teens have jobs, when actually the Bureau of Labor Statistics states that 25.6 is the unemployment rate for teenagers, for black teens ages 16 to 19. So, I have no idea where he got that number. And it really served to buttress his very faulty argument about the minimum wage depressing black employment.
Actually, you know, history shows that if you increase the minimum wage, you’re going to not only put more money in the pockets of more African-American families, because per capita African Americans do make up a little bit more of the—you know, of the people below poverty. But I think what you have is Ben Carson trying to say, "Hey, I made it. You can make it, too. And this is how you make it, by taking low-paying jobs or non-paying jobs, like I did, and somehow magically ending up in the top echelon of—you know, of America." It’s a fantasy more than it is a policy.
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Jamil Smith: After Scapegoating African-Americans for Years, GOP Faces "Black Bogeyman" Ben Carson
Neurosurgeon Ben Carson remains a leading Republican candidate despite questions over whether he’s embellished multiple aspects of his life story. At Tuesday’s Republican presidential debate in Milwaukee, Carson was questioned about recent news reports questioning the accuracy of his biographical record. We discuss Carson and the GOP with The New Republic’s Jamil Smith. "The complex of the 'black bogeyman' within Republican politics has not gone away," Smith says. "Just because Willie Horton is in prison doesn’t mean they haven’t gone searching in this particular election cycle — they [unsuccessfully] tried with Black Lives Matter. ... I recommend that they look internally, because they really need to deal with Ben Carson, who is presenting this false narrative of himself."
TRANSCRIPT
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
AMY GOODMAN: I want to stick with Ben Carson for a minute. You have written extensively about him. At the debate, Dr. Ben Carson was questioned about recent news reports questioning the accuracy of his biographical record.
NEIL CAVUTO: Dr. Carson, to you, you recently railed against the double standard in the media, sir, that seems obsessed with inconsistencies and potential exaggerations in your life story, but looked the other way when it came to then-Senator Barack Obama’s. Still, as a candidate whose brand has always been trust, are you worried your campaign, which you’ve always said, sir, is bigger than you, is now being hurt by you?
DR. BEN CARSON: Well, first of all, thank you for not asking me what I said in the 10th grade. I appreciate that. But—
NEIL CAVUTO: I’ll just forget that follow-up there.
DR. BEN CARSON: The fact of the matter is, you know, what we—we should vet all candidates. I have no problem with being vetted. What I do have a problem with is being lied about and then putting that out there as truth.
AMY GOODMAN: So that’s Dr. Ben Carson. Jamil Smith, you’ve been writing a lot about Ben Carson. Talk about his biography and the controversy around it.
JAMIL SMITH: I think that it’s interesting that you see a Wall Street Journal logo right behind Ben Carson as he was speaking there, because The Wall Street Journal published one of the most damning reports in the last week concerning untruths, you know, in his—not only in his biography, Gifted Hands, but also in speeches that he’s given over the years. And, you know, it’s all part of painting this picture of Ben Carson as somebody who has achieved amazing, wonderful things, when—achieved the American dream, when, in fact—
AMY GOODMAN: From Detroit, in poverty—
JAMIL SMITH: From—right.
AMY GOODMAN: —to being a leading neurosurgeon in this country.
JAMIL SMITH: Exactly, exactly. And so, what I think is, it’s all part of, you know, building up the legend of Ben Carson, which he has now put in danger, frankly, by running for president. I think what you see here is a man who, you know, has achieved great things in the medical field, but is now trying to take his legend to another level by running for president. And, I mean, whether it’s to sell books or to actually win the White House, I’m not—I can’t say for certain. I’m not inside the man’s head. But I think what you have—
AMY GOODMAN: Both Donald Trump and Ben Carson are on book tours—
JAMIL SMITH: Right.
AMY GOODMAN: —and just launched their books.
JAMIL SMITH: So, what you see there is, you know, it’s sort of like this—you know, the Republican—this Republican-profit complex that you have, when you have people running for office and then ending up with Fox News contributorships and book deals. I honestly think that that’s going to end—you know, what it’s going to end up for, for Ben Carson. I don’t think, obviously, that the party would be so foolish as to nominate him for president. But I think what you have in those stories that are coming out is—you know, I’ve been there. I was a black nerd, too. And I get the idea that you want to, you know, present yourself as more than you are. And there’s a real temptation for that. But I think that he has slipped into—you know, that he’s fallen victim to the temptation to buttress his personal narrative at the expense of the truth.
AMY GOODMAN: Your piece is called "The Black Bogeyman Cometh: A year away from the election, Republicans are looking for a new Willie Horton. But they have to deal with Ben Carson first." Explain.
JAMIL SMITH: So, I think that we’ve seen throughout the—you know, since the inception of the Southern Strategy, and really it peaked in 1988 when George H.W. Bush ran for president, and Lee Atwater and George H.W. Bush’s team ran the infamous ad about Willie Horton, the Massachusetts inmate who was on furlough under Michael Dukakis and, when he was on furlough, raped a woman twice and then, you know, never returned to prison. He was caught about a year later and is now serving a life sentence—and still is serving a life sentence.
But what you have there is, you know, the complex of the black bogeyman within Republican politics has not gone away. Just because Willie Horton is in prison doesn’t mean that they’ve gone searching—they haven’t gone searching in this particular election cycle. They tried to make Black Lives Matter the bogeymen and bogeywomen of this election. I think what you have there is, you know, a failure to really make that stick, because Black Lives Matter has not actually advocated, as Chris Christie has said, for any cops to be murdered. I mean, it’s very easily researchable. And I think in the digital era, I think it’s actually hurting them. Facts are a lot more at people’s fingertips than they were in the 1980s. And what you have is—they’ve already tried it also with the Mexican immigrant who murdered a woman in San Francisco. That didn’t really take hold in the news cycle.
But when you talk—I, actually, in my piece, recommend that they look internally, because they really need to deal with Ben Carson. They have their own problematic black man, you know, on their hands, so to speak. And so, you have Ben Carson, who is presenting this false narrative of himself. And granted, yes, I mean, some of these stories that have come out are a little bit sloppy. The Politico story was presented in a pretty sloppy way, which has given him an opening to say they’re lying, and what have you, and offer the rebuttal that he did last night. But overall, there’s an underlying narrative of untruth in his campaign. And I think, you know, should they be unfortunate enough to actually nominate this guy, I don’t think that it’s going to play very well in the general election.
AMY GOODMAN: We’re talking to Jamil Smith, senior editor at The New Republic. We’ll go to break and come back, as we bring you more clips and highlights of the debate and talk with Ann Louise Bardach about two of the leading presidential candidates in the Republican Party, interestingly both Cuban-American. Stay with us.
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Terror in Little Saigon: New Doc Ties U.S.-Allied Kill Squad to Unsolved Murders of Vietnamese Journos
During the 1980s, five Vietnamese-American reporters were murdered in the United States. Despite lengthy FBI probes, none of the victims’ killers were ever brought to justice. Could a stunning new investigative documentary lead authorities to reopen the cases? We speak to journalists A.C. Thompson and Rick Rowley about their PBS Frontline report, "Terror in Little Saigon." Thompson and Rowley uncover new evidence potentially tying a right-wing paramilitary Vietnamese exile group to the journalists’ deaths—and a U.S. government link that may have helped them evade justice.
TRANSCRIPT
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
AMY GOODMAN: When journalists are killed for doing their job, their names often become known around the world, martyrs in the cause of media freedom. But we turn now to a series of killings that happened in this country but were all but ignored. During the '80s, five Vietnamese-American reporters were murdered. The killings shared key traits. All five victims appeared to be deliberately targeted. All five worked for small outlets serving the Vietnamese refugee community after the end of the Vietnam War in 1975. All had either voiced support for Vietnam's Communists or had published criticism of a right-wing paramilitary Vietnamese exile group called the National United Front for the Liberation of Vietnam, known as "the Front." And despite a lengthy FBI investigation, none of the victims’ killers were ever brought to justice. But now the case is being re-examined in the new PBS Frontline documentary called Terror in Little Saigon.
NARRATOR: Years after the Vietnam War, a wave of terror and murdered journalists in the Vietnamese-American community.
NGUYEN NGUYEN: So they said, "Tell your father to stop what he’s doing, or he will pay the consequence."
NARRATOR: No one was ever charged.
KATHERINE TANG-WILCOX: Somebody knows who’s responsible for each and every one of these acts.
NARRATOR: A shadowy group.
CLAUDIA KOLKER: For them, the war did not end.
NARRATOR: With plans to raise an army.
DOUG ZWEMKE: For them to pull that off in such a quick time, that takes money, that takes support.
NARRATOR: And some of the records are still classified.
STEPHEN ENGELBERG: So many things from that period have been declassified. What could still be a secret?
NARRATOR: ProPublica reporter A.C. Thompson investigates this cold case, searching for answers across the United States and in Thailand.
A.C. THOMPSON: Do you think the Bureau should reopen the investigation?
KATHERINE TANG-WILCOX: If new information has developed, oh, yeah.
AMY GOODMAN: An excerpt of the new documentary, Terror in Little Saigon. The journalist duo of correspondent A.C. Thompson and director Rick Rowley uncover new evidence potentially tying Front members to the journalists’ deaths—and a U.S. government link that may have helped them evade justice.
The Front was led by a group of former Vietnamese military officers from the U.S.-backed army of South Vietnam. They ran a militia out of Thailand to try to restart the Vietnam War. Meanwhile, here in the U.S., the Front had its own death squad, the K-9. In interviews with the filmmakers, five former K-9 members concede the group assassinated political opponents. One of the K-9 members also admits their responsibility for two of the journalists’ murders.
The documentary also reveals Richard Armitage, former deputy secretary of state, helped the Front’s leader obtain U.S. citizenship. And as a high-ranking Pentagon official, Armitage contacted Thai generals to back the Front’s effort to establish its base in Thailand. The FBI investigators suspected Front members of carrying out the killings, but never made a single arrest.
For more, we’re joined by the duo behind Terror in Little Saigon. A.C. Thompson is the documentary producer and correspondent and a staff reporter at ProPublica. And Rick Rowley is producer, writer and director of Terror in Little Saigon, independent journalist with Big Noise Films. He was nominated for the best documentary Academy Award for the 2013 film, Dirty Wars.
We welcome you both to Democracy Now! Rick Rowley, let’s begin with you. Why did you take on this story?
RICK ROWLEY: Well, when A.C. first approached me, it was—I think his email said something about "I have a story that might sound a little bit far-fetched to you. It’s about a death squad operating with impunity in the U.S. in the 1980s." And that was immediately intriguing. But the more we dug into it, the more fascinating stories within stories were opened up onto. I mean, this was one of the most significant unsolved domestic terrorism cases in U.S. history, and it’s all but forgotten. And the group at the center of these killings, you know, five journalists, seven people, 30-some acts of terrorism across the United States over the course of a decade—it wasn’t done by ISIS or ISIL or some foreign group overseas. It was a group—at the center of all of this was a Cold War militia that was a part of the strange constellation of groups on America’s side of the Cold War during the ’80s.
AMY GOODMAN: I want to turn to a clip from Terror in Little Saigon. This is the beginning of the film. It tells the story of Houston newspaper editor Dam Phong Nguyen, who was killed in 1982 in front of his home in Houston.
A.C. THOMPSON: We tell ourselves that our work matters, that it’s worth the risk, that it will be remembered. When another journalist is killed, we rush to tell their story and to say to the world that their life was not wasted. And so it shouldn’t have taken this long to get here. Over 30 years late, I’ve arrived at Dam Phong’s grave. His case is three decades cold, without a conviction or an arrest. Just this headstone telling us that Dam Phong died for journalism.
TU NGUYEN: My dad was always controversial. Any time when you write the truth, and the truth is not for sale, you are controversial. My dad get threatened all the times.
A.C. THOMPSON: What do you remember about the day your father was killed?
TU NGUYEN: I wanted to know if he needed me to help him with the newspaper, the delivery. So I called home, and someone answered the phone. It was an American. I hung up. I thought I got the wrong number. I called him again. The same person introduced himself as a sergeant with the HPD. Then he said, "Son, you need to come home quick. There’s been an incident." And then at that time I knew it was over.
NEWS ANCHOR: Houston police detectives are still trying to find out who killed Vietnamese newspaper editor Dam Phong Nguyen. Night Beat reporter Kathleen—
A.C. THOMPSON: Dam Phong’s sons gave me an old VHS tape.
REPORTER: Journalism was Dam Phong Nguyen’s life and possibly caused his death, according to—
A.C. THOMPSON: On August 24, 1982, this 44-year-old newspaper publisher and father of 10 was shot and killed in front of his home in Houston, Texas.
REPORTER: Nguyen’s 19-year-old son Tu wants to do political work to help other Third World—
A.C. THOMPSON: It’s strange to see their young faces back then, saying brave words for the camera.
TU NGUYEN: He died for his country. He died for the truth.
NGUYEN NGUYEN: The most important thing is freedom.
A.C. THOMPSON: It’s as if their story is frozen in time, without an ending.
NGUYEN NGUYEN: My father’s body was laying right over there. The blood drips all the way inside. My mother was on the phone with him, so she heard everything. And he said, "Honey, wait, I have to answer this door." My mom heard the voice, that he talked to a person. And then, all of the sudden, my father screamed. And then the gunfire began.
A.C. THOMPSON: There was an audible sound—
NGUYEN NGUYEN: Yeah.
A.C. THOMPSON: —from the weapon.
NGUYEN NGUYEN: But no witness on the right, no witness up front.
A.C. THOMPSON: The police never made an arrest, but Dam Phong’s sons say his old papers are full of suspects.
NGUYEN NGUYEN: The clues are all here in his writing, in the newspaper.
A.C. THOMPSON: They tell me he was a dogged investigator whose stories on politics and corruption made him powerful enemies in the Vietnamese-American community.
NGUYEN NGUYEN: He received threats all the time. I heard some of the threats come on the phone. They said, "Tell your father to stop what he’s doing, or he will pay the consequence."
A.C. THOMPSON: How many of these threats do you remember getting on the phone, that you heard?
NGUYEN NGUYEN: At least three a week.
AMY GOODMAN: The story of Dam Phong Nguyen, who was killed in 1982 in front of his Houston home, being interviewed by A.C. Thompson, who’s also with us from Berkeley, California. A.C., you’ve been working on this story for several years. How is it that no one was brought to justice in these killings?
A.C. THOMPSON: Well, that was one of the fundamental questions that we set out to ask. It was baffling to me, when I started looking into these cases, that you could have this wave of terror and no one would be arrested. Here’s what I think. Looking at the documents, interviewing people involved, you can see early on local police departments really didn’t know how to deal with these cases. They didn’t understand the political nature of them. They didn’t realize that these were terror cases, early on, and so they made crucial mistakes.
The FBI started looking at these cases in the '80s. And for a long time, in some FBI offices, there was another big mistake being made, that these were chalked up again as sort of singular incidents that weren't linked to one another. So, for example, in the San Francisco FBI office, the first killing happened in 1981. All the way to 1987, the FBI was acting as if there was no politics, that it wasn’t an act of terror, and it wasn’t linked to other cases. Those were sort of crucial failings, I think, on law enforcement’s part.
Beyond that, when the FBI finally started taking these cases seriously, 15 years after the first killing, in 1995, they really had trouble penetrating the inner layers of the group they were looking at, the Front, and really getting people to spill the beans and really talk about what happened.
AMY GOODMAN: Let’s turn to another clip from Terror in Little Saigon, featuring former Front member Tran Van Be Tu.
A.C. THOMPSON: I learned of a former Front member who spent years in prison. He had shot a man in Orange County over statements he made to the L.A. Times calling for dialogue with the Communist government of Vietnam. The would-be assassin’s name is Tran Van Be Tu, and he agrees to meet me at a hotel just off the expressway.
So he came out of this pho shop.
TRAN VAN BE TU: Yeah, yeah, and we tried to get him in the car. But he grabbed my hand like this. Look. Just, just—when I go like this, I shoot. He fell like a tree. Pah! I thought maybe died. Communists are like sick, sick people. So, let the sick people, they die. They die.
A.C. THOMPSON: No regret, no remorse. For Be Tu, this was not attempted murder, it was an act of war.
TRAN VAN BE TU: We feel proud to do that. To me, I don’t call me that a hero, you know, but that time, in Orange County, they called us like a hero.
A.C. THOMPSON: Be Tu had been a hardcore Front member. He says they’d even tried to recruit him to join K-9. But he split from the group before the shooting.
So you were recruited to join the K-9 organization, is that right?
TRAN VAN BE TU: Right, right.
A.C. THOMPSON: And it was your understanding that K-9 was a hit squad or some kind of secret operations squad, is that right?
TRAN VAN BE TU: Exactly. That’s a secret unit, yes.
A.C. THOMPSON: Each chapter had people who were in the K-9, so Houston, San Jose, Orange County, is that right?
TRAN VAN BE TU: Could be. Could be. Yes.
A.C. THOMPSON: Dam Phong’s family think that Dam Phong is criticizing the Front, and that got him killed. Does that sound accurate to you?
TRAN VAN BE TU: That’s what I heard, you know. That’s what I heard many, many times from people, our people, around. K-9 is professional. They do good job, but they never get caught.
A.C. THOMPSON: Do you know the name of the person who killed Dam Phong?
TRAN VAN BE TU: Sound like you are FBI.
AMY GOODMAN: Former Front member Tran Van Be Tu, interviewed by A.C. Thompson in Terror in Little Saigon. The film also reveals a surprising connection between a high-ranking U.S. government official and a member of the Front.
A.C. THOMPSON: A few months before his death, Dam Phong went to Thailand, investigating the Front’s base there and its leader, Hoang Co Minh. I had focused on the Front’s U.S. leadership. But when I opened Minh’s file, everything changes. On his citizenship application, he assumes a Japanese cover name: William Nakamura. The home address he cites belongs to an adviser for the U.S. National Security Council. And a surprising name shows up: Richard Armitage, a top Pentagon official. The documents also show the Pentagon asked for Hoang Co Minh’s naturalization to be expedited. And their request is followed by six blank pages that have been redacted for national security reasons. It’s the immigration application of a man who’s been dead for almost 30 years. What possible national security reason would keep them classified now?
AMY GOODMAN: A clip from Terror in Little Saigon. A.C. Thompson, more on Armitage and what you discovered?
A.C. THOMPSON: Well, you know, when we spoke to former Front members, we’d say, "Hey, was the CIA involved in this? Was there someone helping you in the U.S. government?" And they would all say, "No, the CIA didn’t help us." But the name Richard Armitage kept coming up. They kept saying, "He was our patron. He was the person that seemed to be supporting us."
We came to Armitage, and we said, "Hey, this is what we’ve been hearing. Is there any truth to this?" And he said, "I made an introduction between the leader of the Front and the Thai military. It wasn’t in person, but I told the Thai military, 'Hey, this is a great officer. I knew him,' etc., etc." And we believe that that introduction helped the Front set up its base in Thailand, from which it tried to invade Vietnam on three occasions. Now, Armitage says, "I warned the Thais that we’re not supporting these guys officially through the U.S. government. I don’t think this is a good idea." But he does seem to have made this introduction that really helped the group set up its cause.
AMY GOODMAN: Rick Rowley, the leaders of the Front are leaders of their community today.
RICK ROWLEY: Yeah, it is a—one of the things that is kind of tragic, I think, you know, looking at the story as a journalist, is that—like Dam Phong, for instance. He knew his killers were coming. He was getting death threats for weeks before he was killed. People—he had angry meetings where leaders of the Front told him to stop publishing what he was publishing. And he saw his killers coming, and he let them come. He kept publishing, because he thought that his work was worth it, was worth the risk, and that, you know, he—it will be remembered after he was gone, and that if something happened to him, other journalists would flock to his story and pick up the threads of his reporting and would hold accountable the people who were responsible for his killing. But now, you know, 30 years later, he was wrong. I mean, the terrorists won. His stories were all but forgotten. We think that the Houston police didn’t even translate the newspapers that he was publishing. And yet, the group—the leaders of the group that were at the center of his criticism and his writing, they remain prominent members in their community.
AMY GOODMAN: A.C. Thompson, we have 10 seconds. The information that you have gathered, is this going to cause the reopening of these murders?
A.C. THOMPSON: You know, I have no idea. I certainly think there are new leads here. Should anyone want to follow them, there is new information.
AMY GOODMAN: We’re going to do Part 2 of this conversation online at democracynow.org. I want to thank A.C. Thompson and Rick Rowley for this remarkable documentary that aired on Frontline, Terror in Little Saigon.
That does it for our broadcast. Democracy Now! is hiring a development director. Check our website at democracynow.org. And we have internships. Check there.
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Cuban-American Candidates Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio Tout Immigrant Narratives Despite Stances on Reform
Two of the candidates at Tuesday’s Republican presidential debate are Cuban-American: Senators Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio. We discuss Cruz and Rubio with Ann Louise Bardach, a journalist who has reported on Cuban-Miami politics for more than 20 years. Bardach is a contributor to Politico magazine, where her latest piece explores Rubio’s family ties to a Miami drug kingpin. Bardach discusses Cruz and Rubio’s questionable claims about their family histories as Cuban exiles and the challenges both candidates face over immigration reform.
TRANSCRIPT
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
AMY GOODMAN: At last night’s debate, two of the Republicans on the stage were Cuban-American senators, Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio. Cruz talked about his Cuban roots in his closing statement.
SEN. TED CRUZ: Fifty-eight years ago, my father fled Cuba. As he stood on the deck of that ferryboat with the wind and salt air blowing, he looked back at the oppression and torture he was escaping. And yet he looked forward to the promise of America. His story is our story. What ties Americans together is we are all the children of those who risked everything for freedom.
America is in crisis now. I believe in America. And if we get back to the free market principles and constitutional liberties that built this country, we can turn this country around. I believe that 2016 will be an election like 1980, that we will win by following Reagan’s admonition to paint in bold colors, not pale pastels. We’re building a grassroots army. I ask you to join us at TedCruz.org. And we, the people, can turn this nation around.
AMY GOODMAN: To talk more about presidential candidates Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio, we’re joined by Ann Louise Bardach, who has reported on Cuban-Miami politics for more than 20 years, contributor to Politico magazine, where her latest piece is headlined "Prodigal Son: Marco Rubio’s Complicated Cuban Legacy." She’s also the author of several books, most recently, Without Fidel: A Death Foretold in Miami, Havana and Washington.
Ann Louise Bardach, welcome back to Democracy Now! Start with Ted Cruz, and then let’s move on, move on to your more extensive piece on Marco Rubio. Tell us Ted Cruz’s background.
ANN LOUISE BARDACH: Well, Ted Cruz is half-Cuban. His father, Rafael, was born in Cuba and came here. The story has recently been contested in The New York Times to the extent that he, the father, made initial claims that he fought against Batista, that he fought with the guerrillas of Fidel Castro, you know, but basically the storyline is that he did fight against the government, or at least his sentiments were against the Batista government, and he gave the new rebels a go at it. The particulars have recently been challenged, and the degree of his activism.
But he did come to the United States. I’m not sure if the salt was in the air, as Ted Cruz told us last night, or exactly what happened on that ship, but the father did get here, and actually—and, of course, eventually settled in Canada, which is where Ted Cruz was born. The mother, on the other hand, is entirely Anglo, and so he’s half. He was not raised, like Marco Rubio, in a Cuban or a Hispanic environment and is not a fluent Spanish speaker at all. He can’t campaign in Spanish. So his background is very, very different than, say, Marco Rubio.
AMY GOODMAN: So let’s talk about Marco Rubio. You wrote an extensive piece in Politico, "Prodigal Son: Marco Rubio’s Complicated Cuban Legacy." Tell us who Marco Rubio is. And does it differ from what—your version differ from what he says?
ANN LOUISE BARDACH: Well, Marco Rubio grew up in Cuban Miami. Again, he also had a contested family narrative. Both men have been challenged in the media about the veracity of their accounts, because, of course, both men want to be known as families of anti-Castro—anti-Castro Cubans, which is, of course, the leading demographic traditionally in South Florida. And for many years, Marco Rubio said his family came to America to flee Castro. But in fact his parents, Mario and Oriales Rubio, actually came in May of 1956. It is true that they were fleeing a tyrant, but the tyrant they were fleeing in 1956 could not have been Fidel Castro. It would be Fulgencio Batista. In fact, in 1959, after the rebels did take control, Rubio’s beloved grandfather went back to Cuba, lived and worked in Cuba for a government ministry for one or two years, and his mother went back on four different occasions. And then they made the final exodus to the United States. So they’re—they are not the traditional, what’s called the el exilio histórico, which is the exiles of Miami that became incredibly powerful, that really created the Cuban-American Miami political machine, for lack of a better word, that has turned out so many successful politicians. And of them, I would say, at this point, Marco Rubio is their most gifted scion.
AMY GOODMAN: Now, interestingly, Marco Rubio was not asked about immigration at the debate—
ANN LOUISE BARDACH: Interesting.
AMY GOODMAN: —though there was a very heated debate, and I want to turn to it and then go back to Marco Rubio. Let me go to that clip in the debate, during—when immigration came up, perhaps the most heated part of the night. Candidates were asked about the recent 5th Circuit Court of Appeals ruling upholding an earlier injunction blocking President Obama’s plan to protect up to 5 million people from deportation. You hear from John Kasich, Jeb Bush, Ted Cruz, but first Donald Trump.
DONALD TRUMP: And it was a two-to-one decision. And it was a terrific thing that happened. And I will tell you, we are a country of laws.
GOV. JOHN KASICH: Maria, can we comment on that?
GERALD BAKER: Senator—Senator Rubio—
GOV. JOHN KASICH: Can we comment on that?
GERALD BAKER: Yeah, one quick comment, yes.
GOV. JOHN KASICH: Well, look, in 1986, Ronald Reagan basically said the people who were here, if they were law-abiding, could stay. What didn’t happen is we didn’t—we didn’t build the wall effectively, and we didn’t control the border.
AMY GOODMAN: This is John Kasich.
GOV. JOHN KASICH: We need to. We need to control our border, just like people have to control who goes in and out of their house. But if people think that we are going to ship 11 million people who are law-abiding, who are in this country, and somehow pick them up at their house and ship them out of Mexico—to Mexico, think about the families. Think about the children.
So, you know what the answer really is? If they’ve been law-abiding, they pay a penalty. They get to stay. We protect the wall. Anybody else comes over, they go back. But for the 11 million people, come on, folks. We all know you can’t pick them up and ship them across, back across the border. It’s a silly argument. It’s not an adult argument. It makes no sense.
DONALD TRUMP: All I can say—
GOV. JOHN KASICH: So the fact is, all I’m suggesting, we can’t ship 11 million people out of this country. Children would be terrified, and it will not work.
MARIA BARTIROMO: Thank you.
GOV. JOHN KASICH: Somebody’s got to call the truth.
GERALD BAKER: OK, OK, thank you. You’ve had a lot—
DONALD TRUMP: I created tens of thousands of jobs.
GERALD BAKER: Mr. Trump, you’ve had a good—let me just—let’s—
DONALD TRUMP: I created tens—built an unbelievable company worth billions and billions of dollars. I don’t have to hear from this man, believe me. I don’t have to hear from him.
GERALD BAKER: Mr. Trump, Mr. Trump, you, yourself—you, yourself, said, "Let Governor Bush speak." Governor Bush?
JEB BUSH: Thank you, Donald, for allowing me to speak at the debate. That’s really nice of you. Really appreciate that. What a generous man you are. Twelve million illegal immigrants, to send them back, 500,000 a month, is just not possible. And it’s not embracing American values. And it would tear communities apart. And it would send a signal that we’re not the kind of country that I know America is.
SEN. TED CRUZ: Now, I want to go back to the discussion we had a minute ago, because, you know, what was said was right. The Democrats are laughing, because if Republicans join Democrats as the party of amnesty, we will lose. And, you know, I understand that when the mainstream media covers immigration, it doesn’t often see it as an economic issue. But I can tell you, for a million of Americans at home watching this, it is a very personal economic issue. And I will say, the politics of it would be very, very different if a bunch of lawyers or bankers were crossing the Rio Grande, or if a bunch of people with journalism degrees were coming over and driving down the wages in the press.
AMY GOODMAN: Ted Cruz, a Texas senator, wrapping up that part of the debate. Interestingly, Ann Louise Bardach, Marco Rubio was not asked about immigration, even though he was part of the "Gang of Six" who originally proposed immigration reform in the Senate and has said now he would do away with DACA.
ANN LOUISE BARDACH: Well, I think he truly dodged a bullet last night and is probably quite grateful today. Immigration is a very tricky issue for both Cruz and Rubio, probably more Rubio. Rubio has had a history of vacillating, hesitating, equivocating responses to immigration reform. When he was in the House in Florida, he proposed some elements of the DREAM Act. And then when he ran for Senate against Charlie Crist in Florida, he just said no. He just went to completely no immigration reform. But when he got into Congress, he was a member, as you said, of the Gang of Eight, proposing a path towards citizenship. Well, the blowback from the tea party, which—you must remember that his victory in 2010 owed a great deal to the tea party, and the blowback was tremendous. He backed off, and he hasn’t come near it since. Now, it’s very tricky for him for a bunch of reasons. If what he’s advocating today were the law for his parents—remember, his parents were not Cuban exiles post-1959—they wouldn’t be in this country, what he’s proposing. It would be very different for his own family. And his family narrative of his hard-working, struggling parents is really the central narrative of his campaign.
The other issue that almost everybody in the media misses, or particularly in the Anglo media, are the nuances of this. Cuban Americans have a very special immigration policy. We call it "the Cuban exception." They benefit from the 1966 Cuban Adjustment Act, which means if you are a Cuban, but no one else, you become entitled to all kinds of benefits that lead to permanent residency and citizenship. We also have a "wet foot, dry foot" policy here, that any Cuban that lands on U.S. soil one toe, you’re in. Now, every other immigrant from every other country gets the boot. Now, for the life of me, I cannot understand, with immigration being so important, that not at a single debate are Cruz and Marco Rubio asked this very important issue, which so impacted their own families, which is the basis of their own narrative, and really hits at a very fundamental hypocrisy with immigration law: Do we have an exception for just one ethnic group? So when you hear that the Republican Party is against a blanket amnesty, that is incorrect. They have supported a blanket amnesty, and for many decades, but for just one ethnic group. And that is Cuban Americans.
AMY GOODMAN: Ann Louise Bardach, we’re going to have to leave it there, though there is so much to talk about, we want to have you back. Ann Louise Bardach has reported on Cuban-Miami politics for more than 20 years, contributor to Politico magazine. We’ll link to her piece, "Prodigal Son: Marco Rubio’s Complicated Cuban Legacy." She’s the author of a number of books, including Without Fidel: A Death Foretold in Miami, Havana and Washington. And thanks so much to Jamil Smith, a senior editor at The New Republic, host of Intersection, a podcast about race, gender and identity.
This is Democracy Now! When we come back, we look at the Terror in Little Saigon. You’ll come to understand what it is. Stay with us.
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Candidates Reject Minimum Wage Hike at GOP Debate
The fourth Republican presidential debate took place in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, last night with a smaller field of candidates on stage. Eight out of the 14 candidates took part in the main event after low poll numbers forced New Jersey Governor Chris Christie and former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee to the so-called undercard debate. The first question of the night focused on protesters who massed outside the debate venue demanding a $15-an-hour minimum wage. Donald Trump, Ben Carson and Florida Senator Marco Rubio all rejected a minimum wage increase. Trump said wages are already too high.
Donald Trump: "Taxes too high, wages too high, we’re not going to be able to compete against the world. I hate to say it, but we have to leave it the way it is. People have to go out, they have to work really hard, and they have to get into that upper stratum."
Fast-Food Workers Walk Out Across the U.S.
Trump’s remarks came as fast-food workers walked off the job in hundreds of cities across the country, demanding a $15-an-hour minimum wage and union rights. Here in New York, restaurant server Gabrielle Hatcher said the movement has broad support.
Gabrielle Hatcher: "This is support for a lot of different things. I know that One Fair Wage is here. I know that Black Lives Matter is here. And I think some people are wondering why they’re here, but racial justice and economic justice are just two sides of the same coin. As a woman of color, I’ve been passed up for promotions for higher-paying positions because I’m a woman of color. I’ve been turned away from fine dining restaurants because they only hire white males as servers. So they are one in the same. And there’s no room for growth right now, and I think that that needs to change and that it can change."
New York to Increase Minimum Wage for State Workers
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has announced he will increase the minimum wage for state workers to $15 an hour, making New York the first state to do so.
Bernie Sanders Joins Striking U.S. Capitol Workers
Workers who serve food at the U.S. Capitol also took part in Tuesday’s nationwide strike. They were joined by Vermont senator and Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders, who echoed their call for a $15-an-hour minimum wage. Hillary Clinton has called for raising the minimum wage to $12 an hour.
Netanyahu Praises Meeting with Obama, Requests Record Aid
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has wrapped up a visit to Washington. A day after meeting President Obama at the White House, Netanyahu sat down with lawmakers and addressed the Center for American Progress, a Democratic think tank. His appearance comes as leaked emails reported by The Intercept show CAP has censored its own writers on the topic of Israel. Netanyahu has reportedly requested a record $5 billion in annual U.S. military aid, an increase over the $3 billion the U.S. already provides. Ahead of Netanyahu’s visit, Israel moved to greenlight the expansion of Israeli settlements in the West Bank with 2,200 new housing units. The move recalled a similar act by Netanyahu just before a visit to Israel by Vice President Joe Biden in 2010. The settlements are considered illegal under international law. Addressing the Jewish Federation of North America, Netanyahu praised his talks with Obama, saying, "Israel has no better friend than America."
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu: "I had a very good meeting with President Obama at the White House, and I deeply appreciate his commitment to bolster Israel’s security at the time when the Middle East is becoming more dangerous than ever. And I also want to say that we are sharing so many things. The United States is giving indispensable help to Israel, indispensable, but Israel is returning that assistance almost on a daily basis in intelligence and in many other things."
Palestinian Youth Arrested for Stabbing; Camp Raided with Live Fire
Two young Palestinian cousins have been arrested and accused of stabbing and wounding an Israeli security guard in East Jerusalem. The guard shot and wounded the younger boy, who was 12. In separate incidents Tuesday, Israeli forces killed two other Palestinians accused of attempting knife attacks around Jerusalem. Meanwhile, the Palestinian Ma’an News Agency reports Israeli forces used live fire during a raid on the Qalandiya refugee camp near the occupied West Bank city of Ramallah today, wounding 13 Palestinians.
Obama to Sign Military Bill Restricting Guantánamo Transfers
President Obama is expected to sign a sweeping military spending bill, even though it restricts prisoner transfers from Guantánamo. The National Defense Authorization Act passed by the Senate Tuesday extends a ban on moving Guantánamo prisoners to the United States and sets new restrictions on transfers to other countries, including Libya, Syria, Yemen and Somalia. White House spokesperson Josh Earnest said Obama will likely sign the measure anyway.
Josh Earnest: "Our view of those specific provisions have not changed. And what the president does believe, though, is that there are a number of provisions in the NDAA (National Defense Authorization Act) that are important to running and protecting the country. And so that’s why I would expect that you would see the president sign the NDAA when it comes to his desk, whenever it comes to his desk. But that certainly does not reflect a change in our position or the intensity of our position about the need to close the prison at Guantánamo Bay and the need for Congress to actually cooperate with us in doing so."
This week, the Obama administration is expected to unveil its long-awaited plan to close Guantánamo.
U.S. Contractor Detained in Yemen Dies
An American contractor detained by Houthi rebels in Yemen is dead. The State Department confirmed the death of John Hamen Tuesday but did not say how he had died.
Portugal: In Anti-Austerity Move, Left-Wing Parties Oust Gov’t
In a defeat for austerity in Portugal, an alliance of left-wing parties has toppled the center-right government less than two weeks after it came to power. Lawmakers from the Socialist, Communist and Left Bloc parties joined together to vote down the government’s austerity program, forcing the government to automatically resign. The Socialist Party leader is now expected to become prime minister.
Lufthansa Cancels a Third of Flights amid Strike
The German airline Lufthansa has cancelled about a third of its flights after a German court rejected a bid to stop a strike of cabin crew workers. The strike began Friday over pay and retirement provisions.
Students Continue to Rally for Racial Justice at U. of Missouri
And the University of Missouri has named its first interim vice chancellor for inclusion, diversity and equity, after protests over racism on campus forced two top officials to resign. President Tim Wolfe and Columbia campus Chancellor R. Bowen Loftin both announced they would step down after students of color on the football team joined the mounting protests. After the resignations, graduate students rallied Tuesday, vowing to keep up the fight for racial justice on campus.
U. of Missouri Professor Who Confronted Reporter at Protest Resigns
Meanwhile, an assistant communications professor has apologized and resigned her courtesy appointment at the University of Missouri journalism school after a video went viral showing her calling for "some muscle" to help remove a journalist from a protest.
Mark Schierbecker: "I’m media. Can I talk to you?"
Melissa Click: "No, you need to get out! You need to get out!"
Mark Schierbecker: "No, I don’t."
Melissa Click: "You need to get out."
Mark Schierbecker: "I actually don’t."
Melissa Click: "All right. [Turns to the crowd and shouts] Hey, who wants to help me get this reporter out of here? I need some muscle over here!"
Melissa Click apologized for the incident, saying, "I regret the language and strategies I used."
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