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Obama Is Killing Yemen: A Yemeni Journalist Speaks Out After U.S.-Backed Bombing Strikes Funeral
On Sunday, thousands of Yemenis gathered at the United Nations building in Sana’a calling for an international investigation into the U.S-backed Saudi assault on a funeral. The attack was carried out with warplanes and munitions sold to the Saudi-led coalition by the United States. The U.S. Air Force continues to provide midair refueling to Saudi warplanes. According to the U.N., more than 4,000 civilians have been killed and over 7,000 injured since the Saudi-led coalition bombing began last year. Airstrikes have reportedly caused about 60 percent of the deaths. We go to Sana’a to speak with Yemeni journalist Nasser Arrabyee and Sarah Leah Whitson of Human Rights Watch.
TRANSCRIPT
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
AMY GOODMAN: I wanted to see if we can reach Nasser Arrabyee, the Yemeni journalist based in Sana’a, founder and president of the media service company Yemen Now. Nasser, are you with us?
NASSER ARRABYEE: Yes, yes. Thank you very much.
AMY GOODMAN: Can you tell us—you’re speaking to us from the capital. Can you talk about what you understand happened, who you’ve spoken to? And what evidence is there of the U.S. support for the Saudi attack?
NASSER ARRABYEE: Well, no single Yemeni doubt that Saudi Arabia was not the one who did this crime at all, because it is not the first, it is not the last. Saudi Arabia has been committing war crimes since March 26, 2015. So, without doubt, it;s Saudi Arabia.
But let me tell you what is the—what is also the thing. The big criminal is Obama himself. This is how Yemenis see to the situation, because every Yemeni believe that Saudi Arabia would not have done that at all, would not have done a war in Yemen, without the approval of Obama. And it is very clear to everyone that Obama wanted to appease the Saudis after the Iranian nuclear deal. But, unfortunately, he appeased them by the Yemeni blood. And this is a big problem to the Americans. Obama is destroying the values and the principle of America now. Obama is leading the world to the law of jungle. Obama, unfortunately, is doing—is killing Yemen now, killing Yemen. No killer except Obama in the eyes of Yemenis now, because everybody knows Saudi Arabia and what it would do if there is not the approval of Obama.
AMY GOODMAN: Nasser, you tweeted this morning, "Obama Has been killing Yemen humans With Saudi hands for about 20 months now." Also, from The Intercept, they write, "Multiple bomb fragments at the scene appear to confirm the use of American-produced MK-82 guided bombs. One fragment, posted in a picture on the Facebook page of a prominent Yemeni lawyer, says 'FOR USE ON MK-82 FIN, GUIDED BOMB.'" Nasser Arrabyee?
NASSER ARRABYEE: Yes, yes. Well, let me tell you something very important. You know, the problem why—or the reason why we say Obama is killing Yemen, is killing Yemen humans, is simply because Obama or United States, the administration of the United States, is cooperating. And this is announced. This is known to everyone. But it is not only a matter of cooperating with the refuel or with the intelligence or with the logistic things. No. But it is a will. It is Obama will to support the Saudi Wahhabi regime, which means to us is Obama now is supporting the Qaeda, ISIS, because Obama is saying he’s supporting the internationally recognized government, the exiled government based in Riyadh now. Obama should know—and I think he knows—that three members, at least—three members, at least, of this government are designated by Obama, by Treasury Department, as global terrorists. I can give you the names now. Three, at least, of this government in Riyadh are Qaeda, ISIS leaders. They are leading their operators here in Yemen, using the American weapons, using the Saudi money. This is what Obama is doing in Yemen. Obama is leading the Americans to the law of jungle and the world to the law of jungle. He is crazy now.
AMY GOODMAN: In June, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon removed the U.S.-backed, Saudi-led coalition from a blacklist of forces responsible for killing children. Ban later acknowledged he was coerced into doing so after the kingdom threatened to cut off funding to the U.N.
SECRETARY-GENERAL BAN KI-MOON: The report describes horrors no child should have to face. At the same time, I also had to concede the very real prospect that millions of other children would suffer grievously, if, as was suggested to me, countries would defund many U.N. programs. Children already at risk in Palestine, South Sudan, Syria, Yemen and so many other places would fall further into despair. It is unacceptable for members states to exert undue pressure.
AMY GOODMAN: That’s U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. Sarah Leah Whitson?
SARAH LEAH WHITSON: The fallout to U.S. and U.N. credibility from this support for Saudi Arabia and its disastrous war in Yemen has been quite severe. Not only is the U.S. implicated in the crimes that are being carried out by the Saudi coalition in Yemen, not only has the U.N.'s credibility been tarnished by basically accepting a bribe to take Saudi Arabia off of this list of shame of worst attackers on children, but now we have the U.S. government standing behind a government, the Saudi coalition, that is carrying out the exact same kind of strikes in Yemen—an attack on a funeral—that extremist groups in Iraq, ISIS, has been carrying out in Baghdad for over a year, and, again, making it very hard for people to tell the difference about who the extremists really are. Finally, the recent vote on—at the U.N. Security Council about a resolution on Aleppo was significantly stymied because the U.S. just could not maintain condemning an attack by Russians and Syrian government forces on civilians, while it's supporting, aiding and abetting very similar attacks that its partner, its number one arms client, is carrying out in Yemen.
AMY GOODMAN: I wanted to turn to Senator Chris Murphy, who’s spoken out against the U.S. support for the Saudi-led bombing campaign in August. He was on CNN.
SEN. CHRIS MURPHY: There is an American imprint on every civilian life lost in Yemen. Why? Well, it’s because though the Saudis are actually dropping the bombs from their planes, they couldn’t do it without the United States. It’s our munitions, sold to the Saudis. It’s our planes that are refueling the Saudi jets. And it’s our intelligence that are helping the Saudis provide their targeting. We have made a decision to go to war in Yemen against a Houthi rebel army that poses no existential threat to the United States. It’s really wild to me that we’re not talking more about this in the United States. The United States Congress has not debated a war authorization giving the president the power to conduct this operation in Yemen.
AMY GOODMAN: Connecticut Senator Murphy went on to say that Congress can put an end to arms sales in Saudi Arabia, again, speaking on CNN.
SEN. CHRIS MURPHY: Congress may have a chance to weigh in, in September, because the Saudis need more bombs, and so they need the Congress to reauthorize a new sale of weapons. So Congress can step in and say enough is enough.
AMY GOODMAN: And Senator Murphy said that the perception in Yemen is that the United States is responsible for the war, not Saudi Arabia.
SEN. CHRIS MURPHY: If you talk to Yemenis, they will tell you that inside Yemen, this is not perceived to be a Saudi bombing campaign, this is perceived to be a U.S. bombing campaign. What’s happening is that we are helping to radicalize the Yemeni population against the United states.
AMY GOODMAN: Which is exactly what Nasser Arrabyee, our guest, just said from Sana’a. So, he was talking about cutting off the weapons supply back in September. It’s now October, Sarah Leah Whitson.
SARAH LEAH WHITSON: Mm-hmm. And there was a remarkable vote in the Senate, which was defeated, to suspend arms sales to Saudi Arabia, but there were more votes in support for it than ever could have been imagined. So, clearly, there is a shift and a reconsideration. And, of course, most importantly, on Saturday, the State Department announced that it was going to review what it called its drastically reduced support for Saudi Arabia in the war in Yemen. So, clearly, the administration is feeling the heat.
We need an international investigation, a true, impartial investigation, to understand what is happening with these airstrikes and to hold those responsibility to account. And I think the U.S. Congress has a major role to play, not only in suspending arms sales to Saudi Arabia, but in forcing this administration to tell us exactly what sort of assistance it has been providing and what its involvement has been in every single one of the unlawful strikes that we’ve documented. There are answers that the U.S. government, that the National Security Council, the State Department, owes the American people as to what exactly it’s doing in terms of its support for this war in Yemen. And it’s only given very vague and cryptic answers.
AMY GOODMAN: Why is President Obama doing this?
SARAH LEAH WHITSON: Well, as your guest said and as the administration has itself repeatedly conceded, this war in Yemen is the price of the Iran deal. The Yemeni people are paying the bill for Saudi being very upset about the Iran deal. And I think the administration calculated that this would be a very short war, that the Houthis would be quickly dislodged, and they could befriend and win over the Saudis. What they didn’t count on, and what we’ve seen time and again in the region, is that the war unfolds into a massive disaster and the U.S. in way over its head.
AMY GOODMAN: Nasser Arrabyee, we have 30 seconds. Your final message to the American people from Sana’a, from Yemen?
NASSER ARRABYEE: The final message is that the—we want to salute the American heroes, despite all the war crimes of Obama, because there are a lot of people who—I mean, the Americans, all the Americans, we respect them. We know that they are with us. Human Rights Watch and the senators like Chris Murphy and Rand Paul and a lot of senators, they are heroes. We respect them. We salute them. We know they are going to rescue the values and the principles of America against Obama. Obama is misled. Obama is bylined by Saudi dirty money. Saudi dirty money is destroying the principles of American values of America. They should stop Obama and every official who does not know what’s happening in Yemen now.
AMY GOODMAN: Let me just ask—let me ask Sarah Leah Whitson, very quickly: Last month, the U.S. Senate approved a billion-dollar arms deal to Saudi Arabia; is there any chance this might be revoked, if there are concerns that the U.S. itself is involved with war crimes?
SARAH LEAH WHITSON: Absolutely. Even if the deal itself is not revoked, delivery can be suspended, delivery can be delayed. And we’ve already seen the U.S. government, for example, suspend the transfer of various weapons during the courses of various wars. So they can absolutely suspend this. And I think the U.S. government knows that, really, the time is up for this war and its support.
AMY GOODMAN: Well, so let’s see some of the moderators of the debates ask the presidential candidates these questions. Sarah Leah Whitson, thanks so much for being with us, from Human Rights Watch. And, Nasser Arrabyee, thank you for joining us from Sana’a, Yemeni journalist based in Sana’a, founder and president of the media service company Yemen Now. This is Democracy Now! We’ll be back in a minute. ... Read More →
1 Million in Haiti Urgently Need Humanitarian Assistance After Hurricane's "Apocalyptic Destruction"
In Haiti, the death toll from Hurricane Matthew has topped 1,000. Haitian interim President Jocelerme Privert is warning the country faces a possible famine from what he described as the "apocalyptic destruction" of Hurricane Matthew. The country is also battling a growing cholera outbreak. The storm hit a week ago, but many areas have still received no aid. Food and medicine have run out. Authorities are now digging mass graves for those killed by the Category 4 storm. United Nations officials say nearly 1 million people are in urgent need of humanitarian assistance, with up to 80 percent of Haiti’s food crops destroyed in some areas. Aid agencies estimate at least 60,000 people are staying in temporary shelters. We speak to Ninaj Raoul, executive director of Haitian Women for Haitian Refugees and a board member of IFCO/Pastors for Peace.
TRANSCRIPT
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
AMY GOODMAN: In Haiti, the death toll from Hurricane Matthew has topped 1,000. Haiti’s interim president, Jocelerme Privert, is warning the country faces a possible famine from what he described as the "apocalyptic destruction" of Hurricane Matthew. Haiti is also battling a growing cholera outbreak. The storm hit a week ago, but many areas have still received no aid. Food and medicine have run out. Authorities are now digging mass graves for those killed by the Category 4 storm.
United Nations officials say nearly 1 million people are in urgent need of humanitarian assistance, with up to 80 percent of Haiti’s food crops destroyed in some areas. Aid agencies estimate at least 60,000 people are staying in temporary shelters. One unidentified person told reporters the hurricane took everything including her home.
HAITIAN WOMAN: [translated] I don’t have a home. All my things went with the water. I’m going to give birth this month. I have nothing. I have been here in the shelter since Monday.
AMY GOODMAN: On Monday, the U.N. made an appeal for emergency life-saving funds to provide critical food, water and shelter to the hundreds of thousands of people suffering in southwestern Haiti. This is Rudolph Müller of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs speaking at a news conference.
RUDOLPH MÜLLER: The government of Haiti and the humanitarian countries team flash appeal seeks to provide life-saving assistance and protection to 750,000 people out of 1.4 million people in need over the next three months. To do so, we urgently need to mobilize $119 million U.S.
AMY GOODMAN: The United Nations says Hurricane Matthew has triggered the largest humanitarian crisis in Haiti since the 2010 earthquake that killed as many as 300,000 people. Survivors reported drinking well water contaminated by dead livestock. At least 13 people have died of cholera, after floodwaters mixed with sewage. On Sunday, Haiti’s ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva, Pierre André Dunbar, told reporters Haiti may also face famine.
PIERRE ANDRÉ DUNBAR: [translated] This is not a population which is now on its knees, but on the ground in front of the atrocity of Hurricane Matthew. The city of Jérémie, which is an important one, this city has been systematically devastated, and 80 percent of the houses were destroyed, without mentioning houses which were damaged or severely damaged. Crops were also destroyed, which means the country will face a severe famine as the southwestern peninsula is considered as the breadbasket of Haiti. So the needs are urgent.
AMY GOODMAN: Meanwhile, Sunday’s planned presidential election in Haiti was postponed indefinitely in the wake of Hurricane Matthew.
For more, we’re joined now by Ninaj Raoul, executive director of Haitian Women for Haitian Refugees, also a board member of IFCO/Pastors for Peace.
Ninaj, welcome to Democracy Now! Can you talk about the severity of what happened, the thousand people lost?
NINAJ RAOUL: Yeah. First of all, the area of Haiti that was hardest hit is the southwest and some parts of the northwest. And the fact that the bridge was destroyed, a bridge that’s in Petit-Goâve, it cuts off access to the south, southern part of Haiti, that southern peninsula, which was hardest hit. And this part of Haiti is mostly farmers that live off of their crop and working with livestock animals. And most people lost a good amount of the crop and the livestock. So, this is all they had. This is all they had. And they are in very remote areas. You know, there are some areas where people were not even aware that the hurricane was coming, because they don’t have access to radio.
AMY GOODMAN: We’re talking about a thousand people dead, possibly much more.
NINAJ RAOUL: Yeah, it’s hard to know how many people are dead, because people weren’t even able to access to even look for people. So these are just really rough estimates. And as we see, the toll keeps going higher and higher rapidly.
AMY GOODMAN: Your husband is from that area and has just headed there this morning?
NINAJ RAOUL: He just left for Haiti this morning. He’s on his way there down now. And he’s from a town called Baconnois, which is in the Nippes—Nippes—area of Haiti. That’s the top part of the southwestern peninsula. And, you know, folks that are in a town called [inaudible], that were visited directly after from folks that we know, you know, didn’t—were not even aware that the hurricane was coming. So, they weren’t even prepared to do anything about it, to defend themselves.
AMY GOODMAN: So you have the people who have died. You’ve had the water supply, the crops that are destroyed. What about the water, and then the possibility that the water is contaminated, and a cholera outbreak?
NINAJ RAOUL: Well, first, some of these are coastal villages, so the sea—the saltwater spills over and contaminates the soil, which makes it hard to farm again. And then you have overflowing latrines that are going to further contaminate the waters that go into drinking water and just regular water that everyone uses every day. So, we already had a problem with cholera. And whenever we have these floods caused from disaster, it exasperates the problem, and more people—we’re starting to see deaths from cholera already, even in the early days following the earthquake—the hurricane.
AMY GOODMAN: Hurricane Matthew hit the coastal town of Les Cayes especially hard. Conditions at a local hospital remained bleak after flooding and power outages made treating patients nearly impossible. This is one of the patients at Les Cayes Hospital.
PATIENT: [translated] I have been waiting here for 12 days. I was ready for an x-ray that they were supposed to do on Tuesday, but then the hurricane came.
AMY GOODMAN: Subsistence fishermen are reportedly among the most vulnerable in Haiti after Hurricane Matthew tore through Haiti, destroying boats and equipment used for daily catches. This is fisherman Jethro Laurent.
JETHRO LAURENT: [translated] Look at the misery of one country, our country and the trees that were destroyed. Nothing remains. Our materials were lost in the sea. Others are under the ground. What are we going to do?
AMY GOODMAN: So, you spoke about cholera. Talk about the history of cholera in Haiti.
NINAJ RAOUL: Well, cholera—there has been a history of cholera in Haiti over the years. But in recent years, the epidemic was caused from the U.N. troops that had spilled some sewage, some latrines, into the rivers. And—
AMY GOODMAN: And explain this. This is after the earthquake of 2010.
NINAJ RAOUL: This is after the earthquake, when you had all these peacekeepers, peacemakers. The U.N.—
AMY GOODMAN: These were Nepali peacekeepers who had come in—
NINAJ RAOUL: Exactly.
AMY GOODMAN: —for the U.N..
NINAJ RAOUL: Right. So, just from carelessness and neglect, some of their latrines had leaked into the rivers, and that’s where this latest cholera epidemic started. It’s close to 10,000 have died as a result. And every time there is a disaster, which Haiti has many, then the situation gets worse, and the cholera outbreaks begin again. And we’ve seen that in the past week already.
AMY GOODMAN: And so, how do you prevent this outbreak once again?
NINAJ RAOUL: It’s hard to say, Amy, because there have been massive vaccination programs coming in, but it’s been proven that these vaccination programs—sometimes it’s business-related, and the strain that they’re treating is not the same strain that exists in Haiti. I know that the Cuban doctors that are—the Cuban brigade that are there in Haiti have been—have been excellent and preventing a lot of death and recovering folks faster.
AMY GOODMAN: You know, I remember going down to Haiti after the earthquake, and in the hospitals where the Cuban doctors were, this is where the care was best. People were afraid to tell Americans that it was Cuban doctors that were there, fearful that U.S. aid wouldn’t then come in.
NINAJ RAOUL: Right. But now, right away, after this latest disaster, Cuba sent 800 doctors right away. And you’ve seen that changing a bit, especially in Africa with the Ebola outbreak, because the Cuban doctors took the forefront of everything, and people were—had to admit that they were there.
AMY GOODMAN: Now, what about refugees and deportations? Explain the latest situation with Haitian refugees in this country being deported back to Haiti. Wasn’t it just recently announced last month that—the Department of Homeland Security announcing it would fully resume deportation of undocumented Haitian immigrants?
NINAJ RAOUL: Right. That was September 22nd that they announced that any—the new policy for Haitian refugees. Any Haitians that reach the borders of the U.S. without permission to enter will be automatically detained until they are deported. Now, this was in reaction to a surge of refugees that have been coming up—Haitian refugees coming from Brazil. These are Haitians that moved to Brazil, that were welcomed there after the earthquake because they need the labor force when they were preparing for the World Cup and later the Olympics. Now that Brazil has—is experiencing this economic crisis, the Haitians are being pushed out, and they’re heading north to try to come to the U.S. borders.
They’ve been entering on—through Mexico. They cross like 10 countries to get there. A big part of it is by foot. Many people die on the way. And then they’ve been mostly entering through the Tijuana-San Diego border. We’ve been receiving refugees coming up to New York from this group since late May. There are about 4,000 to 5,000 refugees that came in at that border. Now, because of so many folks coming in—there are more on the way, there’s at least 1,500 waiting outside of the border of San Diego—then the Obama administration announced that they are going to stop taking them in, and detaining them and deporting them.
AMY GOODMAN: I wanted to ask about aid going to Haiti. The Red Cross notorious there, a lot of criticism, suggestions that it, quote, "lost" half a billion dollars there. ProPublica in 2015 wrote, "How the Red Cross Raised Half a Billion Dollars for Haiti and Built Six Homes: Even as the group has publicly celebrated its work, inside accounts detail a string of failures." The New York Times: "The report is here. The details are ugly. It says the Red Cross claims it gave homes to over 130,000 Haitians, but it actually built only six."
NINAJ RAOUL: Well, this is not the first time that we’ve seen the Red Cross do this. They do this all over. They raise money on disasters and don’t use most of it for the disasters. This is probably the most—the worst situation, because they made so much money from the Haiti earthquake in 2010. And again, we see they were the first ones collecting money, and they’re all over. The mass media is recommending people to give to the Red Cross for aid in Haiti right now. So, it’s sickening that they get away with doing this. They’re basically getting away with murder, because they’re making money on the backs of these disaster victims.
AMY GOODMAN: So how can you assure that money actually gets to Haitians?
NINAJ RAOUL: I think that it’s important to support Haitians that are helping Haitians, especially on the ground in Haiti. There are many, many. We’ve always—I know the Haitian Women for Haitian Refugees, we’ve been—we’ve been going down for disasters since 2004, and the first thing we do is identify people in the affected areas and work directly with them. There are a lot of serious, great people that are on the ground in Haiti, that are very organized, especially in these remote villages where government does not reach. And they are—I work with refugees, and a lot of them are persecuted because of their organizing work that they do. And I hear the stories. As recent as last week, I had refugees that are applying for asylum, that have come in, and simply for trying to improve their area. So there are people. You know, we just ask that people work with Haitians that are supporting Haitians.
AMY GOODMAN: In the wake of the hurricane, has the Department of Homeland Security said they will stop deporting Haitian refugees?
NINAJ RAOUL: They haven’t, and that’s one of the things we’re asking for. First, I want to say that when the Department of Homeland Security, just before the hurricane, announced that they are going to be detaining and deporting, the reason they gave was that Haiti is in a better place than it was from the earthquake, that it’s starting to recover. Meanwhile, the State Department is warning Americans not to travel to Haiti because it’s dangerous. So that’s a direct contrast right there. So, no, they have not stopped the deportations. They’re detaining people. Haiti—prior to that, Haiti was only accepting 50 deportees—only had the capacity to accept 50 deportees per month. Meanwhile, 50 people per day are coming in just in the Tijuana-San Diego border. So, that means people are already being moved to other detentions throughout the country, and they’re just going to be sitting there waiting to be deported.... Read More →
Bill Clinton's Trade Policies Destroyed Haitian Rice Farming, Now Haiti Faces Post-Hurricane Famine
In 2010, former President Bill Clinton publicly apologized for forcing Haiti to drop tariffs on imported subsidized U.S. rice during his time in office. It wiped out rice farming, seriously damaging Haiti’s ability to be self-sufficient. "It may have been good for some of my farmers in Arkansas, but it has not worked. It was a mistake," Clinton said in 2010."I have to live every day with the consequences of the lost capacity to produce a rice crop in Haiti to feed those people, because of what I did." Six years after Clinton’s apology, Haiti faces a new food crisis in the wake of Hurricane Matthew. We speak to Ninaj Raoul, executive director of Haitian Women for Haitian Refugees and a board member of IFCO/Pastors for Peace.
TRANSCRIPT
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
AMY GOODMAN: After the earthquake, and still many people live in makeshift tents because of the earthquake from 2010, but being there in Port-au-Prince and seeing ceremonies with President Bill Clinton, who said there are two critical issues in his life at that time. One was the marriage of his daughter, the imminent marriage of Chelsea, and the other is the reconstruction of Haiti. He was a major force in Haiti. What happened?
NINAJ RAOUL: So, first of all, we have to go back. When we look at Bill Clinton and his relationship in Haiti when he was president, one of the worst things the he’s done, that’s still hurting Haiti now, especially in the wake of these disasters that keep happening to Haiti, is this policy where he took the excess rice from Arkansas, where he’s from, and dumped it in Haiti and used our tax dollars to subsidize it. Up until this past recent year, there’s legislation that keeps getting knocked off to reverse this policy. Although he’s apologized for it—
AMY GOODMAN: Let’s go to that apology.
NINAJ RAOUL: Yeah.
AMY GOODMAN: Yes, in 2010, former President Clinton publicly apologized for forcing Haiti to drop tariffs on imported subsidized U.S. rice during his time in office. The policy wiped out Haitian rice farming, seriously damaging Haiti’s ability to be self-sufficient. This is the president apologizing at a hearing before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. At the time, he was the U.N. special envoy to Haiti.
BILL CLINTON: Since 1981, the United States has followed a policy, until the last year or so when we started rethinking it, that we rich countries that produce a lot of food should sell it to poor countries and relieve them of the burden of producing their own food, so, thank goodness, they can leap directly into the industrial era. It has not worked. It may have been good for some of my farmers in Arkansas, but it has not worked. It was a mistake. It was a mistake that I was a party to. I am not pointing the finger at anybody. I did that. I have to live every day with the consequences of the lost capacity to produce a rice crop in Haiti to feed those people, because of what I did. Nobody else.
AMY GOODMAN: That’s President Clinton. Ninaj Raoul?
NINAJ RAOUL: This practice is still in effect in Haiti. It’s always getting rice dumped on them. Rice is a staple. There’s no reason why Haiti should be importing rice, because it’s something that’s always—the rice grown in Haiti is much healthier. Ever since this rice has been coming in, there have been diabetes epidemics. People didn’t used to have that much diabetes. This is the worst thing that could have happened to Haiti.
AMY GOODMAN: But right now, in the aftermath of the hurricane, with Haitian officials warning there could be a famine, what are the most critical actions that you feel need to be taken?
NINAJ RAOUL: I think it has to be supporting the farmers that are in these hardest-hit areas. You know, by bringing rice and other things that could have been grown in Haiti, that’s not helping at all. I think we need to support the farmers to start to recrop, you know, going forward and for the long term of Haiti. We need to start growing our rice in Haiti again, supporting the farmers in the Latibonit version—the Latibonit region of Haiti, where rice has always been grown in Haiti and supplied for the entire country.
AMY GOODMAN: And for the families of loved ones who have died, for the cholera epidemic, what is most critical right now, that you’re hearing from family and friends there?
NINAJ RAOUL: I just think support. I mean, most of the families are supported by their families over here. And the fact that these refugees are being returned, these are refugees that want to work to support their families. If they’re going to keep them in detention, they’re not able to work. Prior to this announcement on September 22nd, they were letting them in; 4,000 to 5,000 people came in. They simply stopped it, because they thought it would look bad for Hillary Clinton, with the election coming on, having all these refugees come in. There are thousands more on the way. Let these people work, and let them support their families.
AMY GOODMAN: Ninaj Raoul, I want to thank you for being with us, executive director of Haitian Women for Haitian Refugees, on the board member of IFCO. That’s Pastors for Peace.
This is Democracy Now! When we come back, what’s happening in Yemen today. Stay with us.... Read More →
U.S.-Backed Saudi Forces Bomb Yemeni Funeral, Killing 140, Injuring 500 in Possible War Crime
Documents obtained by Reuters show the U.S. government is concerned it could be implicated in potential war crimes in Yemen because of its support for a Saudi-led coalition air campaign. The Obama administration has continued to authorize weapons sales to Saudi Arabia despite warnings last year from government lawyers that it might be considered a co-belligerent under international law. This comes as a Saudi airstrike on a funeral hall in Sana’a on Saturday killed at least 140 mourners and wounded more than 500 others. Survivors spoke of back-to-back bombings during a funeral service for the father of an official with the rebel Houthi government, which controls Sana’a. We speak to Sarah Leah Whitson, executive director of Human Rights Watch’s Middle East and North Africa Division.
TRANSCRIPT
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
AMY GOODMAN: Documents obtained by Reuters show the U.S. government is concerned it could be implicated in potential war crimes in Yemen because of its support for a Saudi-led coalition air campaign. The Obama administration has continued to authorize weapons sales to Saudi Arabia despite warnings last year from government lawyers that it might be considered a co-belligerent under international law. This comes as a Saudi airstrike on a funeral home in the capital Sana’a on Saturday killed at least 140 mourners and wounded more than 500 others. Survivors spoke of back-to-back bombings during a funeral service for the father of an official with the rebel Houthi government, which controls Sana’a.
WAHEEB AL-SARARI: [translated] This is a heinous crime one can barely imagine. No one ever thought they would strike a mourning hall. Can anyone imagine hitting people mourning to death? The battle is taking place on the borders and several other places, yet they bomb a hall. And now they deny it was their missiles. We are all here. Our homes are nearby. We heard the missiles and the planes. There were two planes and four airstrikes, not just two.
AMY GOODMAN: Thousands of Yemenis gathered at the United Nations building in Sana’a on Sunday calling for an international investigation into the assault. The attack was carried out with warplanes and munitions sold to the Saudi-led coalition by the United States. The U.S. Air Force continues to provide midair refueling to Saudi warplanes.
Meanwhile, the U.S. military has said one of its missile destroyers was targeted Sunday in a failed missile attack from Houthi-controlled territory in Yemen. Saudi Arabia and the United States accuse Iran of supplying weapons to the Houthis.
According to the U.N., more than 4,000 civilians have been killed and over 7,000 injured since the Saudi-led coalition bombing began last year. Airstrikes have reportedly caused about 60 percent of the deaths. The latest attack came as the U.N. warned the civil war is leading to famine in Yemen, where some one-and-a-half million children are currently malnourished and 28 million people are short of food.
To talk more about the situation, we’re joined by Sarah Leah Whitson. She is executive director of Human Rights Watch’s Middle East and North Africa Division. She’s made numerous trips to Yemen, including a visit this year to examine the impact of the Saudi-led coalition airstrikes.
This latest attack on a funeral, can you explain what you understand happened, Sarah Leah?
SARAH LEAH WHITSON: Well, what we know so far is that the funeral was actually publicly announced on Friday, so that it’s clear that the coalition knew that there was a funeral planned at this site, which is used for weddings, funerals, parties and so forth. And we know that it has been regularly used for such public civilian gatherings, you know, over the past year.
There were two strikes that we know of on the funeral, during the funeral, one followed by a second strike, which actually ended up injuring some first responders. So, again, we saw a repeat strike, clearly indicating this was not an accident. Initially, the Saudis denied the airstrike, but they have since, according to the BBC, acknowledged that this was a Saudi coalition airstrike on this funeral home. What we do know, as well, is that there were at least a dozen senior Houthi and GPC officials, including military officials from the Houthi armed group, who were killed in the strike. But we also know that there were hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of civilians there, including children, who we know were among the dead.
AMY GOODMAN: You’re calling this a war crime?
SARAH LEAH WHITSON: We are saying it is a likely war crime, the extent to which it was foreseeable and knowable that this would result in a mass killing of civilians.
AMY GOODMAN: You talked to eyewitnesses to the attack?
SARAH LEAH WHITSON: We have talked to eight eyewitnesses, and we’re continuing to talk to more, people who are documenting who was at the funeral, what happened, how the attacks took place, what the results were, the first responders who were hit in the second strike.
AMY GOODMAN: Reuters has obtained these official documents showing government officials are concerned U.S. could be implicated in potential war crimes in Yemen because of its support for the Saudi-led airstrikes.
SARAH LEAH WHITSON: They have a good reason to fear, because they are implicated in the unlawful strikes that are being carried out by the Saudi coalition. And that’s not just because the U.S. is the primary arms seller to Saudi Arabia and the Saudi coalition member states, but also because it’s actively participating in the conflict by providing targeting assistance to the Saudis and critical refueling support for Saudi planes, without which it’s very clear these strikes could not be taking place. ... Read More →
"All the President's Misogynists": Jodi Jacobson on Why It Took So Long to Derail the Trump Train
Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump’s campaign is facing increasing turmoil as House Speaker Paul Ryan told fellow Republican lawmakers Monday he would no longer campaign for Trump following the release of the 2005 videotape showing Trump boasting about sexually assaulting women. The announcement by Paul Ryan comes as a growing number of Republican officials have called on Trump to step down as their party’s nominee following the release of the video. Fifteen Republican senators, including former GOP presidential nominee John McCain, are now openly opposing Trump’s candidacy. We speak to Jodi Jacobson, president and editor-in-chief of Rewire. Her latest article is titled "All the President’s Misogynists: Why It Took So Long to Derail the Trump Train."
TRANSCRIPT
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
AMY GOODMAN: Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump’s campaign is facing increasing turmoil as House Speaker Paul Ryan told fellow Republican lawmakers Monday he’ll no longer campaign for Trump following the release of this 2005 videotape showing Trump boasting about sexually assaulting women.
DONALD TRUMP: I’ve got to use some Tic Tacs just in case I start kissing her. You know, I’m automatically attracted to beautiful—I just start kissing them. It’s like a magnet. I just kiss. I don’t even wait. And when you’re a star, they let you do it. You can do anything.
BILLY BUSH: Whatever you want.
DONALD TRUMP: Grab ’em by the pussy. You can do anything.
AMY GOODMAN: The video was recorded by NBC’s Access Hollywood in 2005 and released Friday by The Washington Post. The announcement by House Speaker Ryan comes as a growing number of Republican officials have called on Trump to step down as their party’s nominee following Friday’s release of the video. Fifteen Republican senators, including former Republican presidential nominee John McCain, are now openly opposing Trump’s candidacy; scores more congressmembers are.
For more on the fallout from these revelations, we’re joined by Jodi Jacobson, president and editor-in-chief of Rewire. Her latest article is headlined "All the President’s Misogynists: Why It Took So Long to Derail the Trump Train."
Welcome to Democracy Now!, Jodi.
JODI JACOBSON: Hi, Amy.
AMY GOODMAN: Why don’t you respond to this increasing number of Republicans who are pulling their support from Trump, not to be confused with House Speaker Ryan, who did not unendorse Trump, but said he won’t campaign for him?
JODI JACOBSON: Well, I think it’s a few things. You know, one, this came on the heels of a really bad first debate performance by Trump. And secondly, he transgressed a line by making it clear that he felt impunity at sexually assaulting white women, and particularly white married women, because if you look at the whole spectrum of Trump’s comments throughout the entire campaign, he has been assaulting verbally immigrants, refugees, women generally, and no one thought at the time, "Gee, what about, you know, the daughters, wives and sisters of Mexican immigrants, who might be feeling ashamed for being called—having their, you know, parents called rapists or criminals or what have you?" So now we’re hearing a lot from the Senate Republicans and House Republicans about how hurtful this was to them, because they can’t imagine their wives, daughters and mothers being subject to this kind of thing. I think it’s a little bit too little, too late, but it’s not surprising to me that suddenly they would take this turn of events and start to abandon ship.
AMY GOODMAN: The highest-ranking Republican woman in Congress condemned Trump’s comments. This is Washington state Congressmember Cathy McMorris Rodgers, who said, quote, "It is never appropriate to condone unwanted sexual advances or violence against women. Mr. Trump must realize that it has no place in public or private conversations." She framed it as sexual violence, Jodi.
JODI JACOBSON: Well, it is sexual violence and assault. You have a lot of, you know, GOPrepresentatives now, both senators and congressmen, trying to deflect from whether or not grabbing women against their will is assault. There have been several who have sort of, you know, waffled on whether they would call it "assault." "I don’t know if it is." Suddenly, "I’m not a lawyer. I can’t tell." You know, it’s—whenever it’s convenient for theGOP to deflect or deny something, they suddenly become unexpert at those things, and they can’t circulate anything. So, you know, this is—
AMY GOODMAN: You also have—you also have, as early as just—as late as Thursday, Donald Trump once again saying that the Central Park Five, five young men who were sentenced up to 13 years and served that time in prison for what’s known as the Central Park jogger case, a jogger who was raped and left almost for dead in Central Park—these men who served all this time in prison, who Donald Trump took out full-page ads in The New York Times and other publications to have them executed, were then exonerated. The person who did the crime admitted it, who had nothing to do with them. And the City of New York settled for $41 million with these five young men, who lost so many years in prison. Yet just last Thursday, he continued to say they were guilty. Jodi?
JODI JACOBSON: Well, exactly. You know, Donald Trump is clearly interested in making everyone else a predator but himself, but he’s clearly a predator. And he’s also incredibly grotesque in his historical references to his daughter’s body, to, you know, putting his daughter’s body out for view, commenting on his daughter’s body. This one tape is really just a slice of what’s out there that we already know. And it’s clear from what I’ve heard from people inside the production companies of his shows that there’s lots more tape to be had, if one could get their hands on it. And I know people are looking into that now.
So, you know, I think this is a man who has acted with impunity for a very long time, who has not been held to account. He wasn’t held to account by the press earlier. And now he’s grown into this full-fledged monster, and the GOP created that monster by allowing this kind of rhetoric and this kind of assault on values and on rights, basic human values and basic human rights, to go on throughout the campaign.
AMY GOODMAN: We have to leave it there. Jodi Jacobson—
JODI JACOBSON: So, they really have no one to—
AMY GOODMAN: We have to leave it there. We will link to your piece at Rewire. ... Read More →Headlines:
House Speaker Paul Ryan Will No Longer Campaign for Donald Trump
Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump’s campaign is facing increasing turmoil as House Speaker Paul Ryan told fellow Republican lawmakers Monday he would no longer campaign for Trump following the release of a 2005 videotape showing Trump boasting about sexually assaulting women.
The turmoil within the Republican Party comes as another round of newly leaked emails show how Hillary Clinton’s campaign struggled to deal with Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders’s popularity during the primary season. The emails, released by WikiLeaks, appear to come from the account of Clinton campaign chairperson John Podesta. In one email, an adviser wrote to Podesta, "Message needs to be more positive, upbeat, hopeful. … Bernie is saying we can change the world. Her msg is ‘No, we can’t’ because …" The aide also recommended Clinton’s campaign feature more young people in her campaign ads. Another email also shows Clinton aide Doug Band calling Clinton’s daughter, Chelsea, a "spoiled brat." This is the second batch of Clinton campaign emails released by WikiLeaks in the last four days.
In more news from the campaign trail, the Trump Taj Mahal casino hotel in Atlantic City officially shut down Monday—leaving 3,000 workers without jobs. Taj Mahal workers have been on strike since July 1, demanding reinstatement of health, pension and other benefits eliminated during 2014 bankruptcy proceedings. Donald Trump opened the Taj Mahal 26 years ago, but it now belongs to Trump’s friend and fellow billionaire, Carl Icahn.
Haitian interim President Jocelerme Privert is warning the country faces a possible famine from what he described as the "apocalyptic destruction" of Hurricane Matthew. The death toll from the hurricane has topped 1,000 as the country battles a growing cholera outbreak and authorities dig mass graves for those killed by the Category 4 storm. The storm hit a week ago, but many areas have still received no aid. Food and medicine have run out. We’ll have more on Haiti after headlines.
Meanwhile, the death toll in the United States from Hurricane Matthew has risen to at least 30 people, as floodwaters continue to rise. North Carolina is struggling with historic flooding, while in Georgia more than 100,000 people are still without electricity.
In news on Yemen, documents obtained by Reuters show the U.S. government is concerned it could be implicated in potential war crimes in Yemen because of its support for a Saudi-led coalition air campaign. The Obama administration has continued to authorize weapons sales to Saudi Arabia despite warnings last year from government lawyers that it might be considered a co-belligerent under international law. This comes as residents of Sana’a are mourning airstrikes on a funeral hall on Saturday that killed at least 140 mourners and wounded more than 500 others, making it the single deadliest attack during the ongoing U.S.-backed, Saudi-led war in Yemen. This is one the mourners.
In Afghanistan, a suicide car bomb has killed at least 14 people in Lashkar Gah, the capital of Helmand province. Local officials say at least 10 of the victims were Afghan police officers. This comes as the Taliban has announced a new offensive to retake control of the provincial capital. In August, 100 U.S. soldiers were deployed to Lashkar Gah to fight the Taliban in what was believed to be the first deployment of U.S. troops to the city since 2014.
The prime minister of Ethiopia has declared a six-month state of emergency amid massive protests by the Oromo people, which has been met by a bloody government crackdown. The protests began last year over resistance to the government’s plan to lease a forest to private developers, and have since grown into a nationwide campaign against human rights abuses. As many as 500 people have been killed in the government’s crackdown, and tens of thousands have been detained. On Sunday, Ethiopia’s prime minister declared a state of emergency.
On Monday, protests and actions were held across the country to mark Indigenous Peoples’ Day and to oppose further construction of fossil fuel infrastructure. In North Dakota, hundreds of Native Americans and their allies gathered to resist the construction of the $3.8 billion Dakota Access pipeline, which has faced months of resistance from the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and members of hundreds of other tribes from across the U.S., Canada and Latin America. At least 27 people were arrested blockading construction at two separate worksites, including Hollywood actress Shailene Woodley.
This comes as the battle over the construction of the Dakota Access pipeline continues to play out both on the ground and between various government agencies. Red Warrior Camp says the Morton County Sheriff’s Department has called in 400 sheriffs from outside North Dakota to police the ongoing resistance. Meanwhile, Sunday’s ruling by a D.C. appeals court permits the Dakota Access pipeline company to resume construction on a 40-mile stretch of private land spanning the Missouri River. However, on Monday, three federal agencies—the Justice Department, the Army and the Interior Department—issued a second joint statement, stating: "The Army will not authorize constructing the Dakota Access Pipeline on Corps land bordering or under Lake Oahe. We repeat our request that the pipeline company voluntarily pause all construction activity within 20 miles east or west of Lake Oahe." Thousands of Native Americans have vowed to continue to fight the pipeline.
Meanwhile, in Peekskill, New York, seven activists were arrested Monday blockading the construction of Spectra Energy’s AIM pipeline, which is slated to run only hundreds of feet from the aging Indian Point nuclear power plant and then under the Hudson River. Four of the activists blockaded construction of the pipeline for more than 15 hours by crawling inside the pipeline and locking themselves to each other. This is one of the protesters.
In Arizona, hundreds of people rallied at a U.S.-Mexico border checkpoint on Sunday to demand the permanent closure of all border checkpoints throughout the United States. Activists linked arms at the checkpoint and refused to leave. Authorities threatened to use tear gas to disperse the protesters. Protesters also staged a die-in in at the steps of the Customs and Border Patrol office. The action was organized by the group SOA Watch.
In Vermont, five high school students have died after a motorist driving the wrong way down Interstate 89 slammed into the teenagers’ car, which burst into flames. He then stole a police car after the officer stopped to try to put out the fire. He then drove away, turned around and raced back, smashing into more cars that had stopped to help the students in the car crash. The driver, Steven Bourgoin, is a U.S. military veteran who served in Iraq. Authorities say he suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder, PTSD, and that he’d gone to the emergency room the morning before the crash seeking help, but that he was not screened by a mental health clinician. His ex-girlfriend took out a restraining order against him after a domestic violence incident in May. She says he’s threatened to kill her by driving them into a pond. She has won full custody of their toddler. Authorities say Bourgoin is still unconscious and in critical condition after the crash. The students killed in the crash were 16-year-old Mary Harris, 16-year-old Cyrus Zschau, 16-year-old Liam Hale, 15-year-old Janie Cozzi and 16-year-old Eli Brookens. Four of the five students attended Harwood Union High School in Duxbury, Vermont. The co-principal of the school has called it "an unprecedented tragedy." About a thousand people attended a candlelight vigil for the students, who were all juniors in high school.
In technology news, Samsung has ended the production of its Galaxy Note 7 smartphone, because the device is prone to catching on fire. This comes after Samsung also recalled 2.5 million phones after complaints the batteries were exploding.
And writer and journalist Ignacio Carrión died on Saturday from lung cancer. Born in Spain in 1938, Carrión worked as a journalist for more than 45 years, including in London, San Francisco and Washington, D.C., for El País and other outlets. He was also the author of more than a half-dozen books. Carrión was the father of former Democracy Now! producer María Carrión.
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Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump’s campaign is facing increasing turmoil as House Speaker Paul Ryan told fellow Republican lawmakers Monday he would no longer campaign for Trump following the release of a 2005 videotape showing Trump boasting about sexually assaulting women.Donald Trump: "I’ve got to use some Tic Tacs just in case I start kissing her. You know, I’m automatically attracted to beautiful—I just start kissing them. It’s like a magnet. Just kiss. I don’t even wait. And when you’re a star, they let you do it. You can do anything."
Billy Bush: "Whatever you want."
Donald Trump: "Grab ’em by the pussy. You can do anything."
That was Donald Trump, speaking with TV host Billy Bush in the 2005 video recorded by NBC’s "Access Hollywood" as the two prepared to meet a star of the soap opera "Days of Our Lives." The video has caused widespread outrage and further fracturing of the Republican Party. On Monday, Ryan did not fully unendorse Trump, but he did tell Republicans he would no longer campaign for him. Ryan’s spokeswoman also said, "The speaker is going to spend the next month focused entirely on protecting our congressional majorities." In response, some Republican lawmakers lashed out at Ryan, saying he shouldn’t concede the presidency to Hillary Clinton. One Republican lawmaker, Arizona Congressmember Trent Franks, slammed Ryan, saying he can’t support Clinton over her pro-choice stance on abortion, claiming a Clinton presidency would result in the destruction of fetuses "limb from limb."
Leaked Emails Show Clinton Campaign Struggling to Address Sanders's Popularity
The turmoil within the Republican Party comes as another round of newly leaked emails show how Hillary Clinton’s campaign struggled to deal with Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders’s popularity during the primary season. The emails, released by WikiLeaks, appear to come from the account of Clinton campaign chairperson John Podesta. In one email, an adviser wrote to Podesta, "Message needs to be more positive, upbeat, hopeful. … Bernie is saying we can change the world. Her msg is ‘No, we can’t’ because …" The aide also recommended Clinton’s campaign feature more young people in her campaign ads. Another email also shows Clinton aide Doug Band calling Clinton’s daughter, Chelsea, a "spoiled brat." This is the second batch of Clinton campaign emails released by WikiLeaks in the last four days.Trump Taj Mahal Shuts Down, Leaving 3,000 Out of a Job
In more news from the campaign trail, the Trump Taj Mahal casino hotel in Atlantic City officially shut down Monday—leaving 3,000 workers without jobs. Taj Mahal workers have been on strike since July 1, demanding reinstatement of health, pension and other benefits eliminated during 2014 bankruptcy proceedings. Donald Trump opened the Taj Mahal 26 years ago, but it now belongs to Trump’s friend and fellow billionaire, Carl Icahn.Haiti Recovering from "Apocalyptic Destruction" After Hurricane Matthew
Haitian interim President Jocelerme Privert is warning the country faces a possible famine from what he described as the "apocalyptic destruction" of Hurricane Matthew. The death toll from the hurricane has topped 1,000 as the country battles a growing cholera outbreak and authorities dig mass graves for those killed by the Category 4 storm. The storm hit a week ago, but many areas have still received no aid. Food and medicine have run out. We’ll have more on Haiti after headlines.Death Toll from Hurricane Matthew in U.S. Rises to 30
Meanwhile, the death toll in the United States from Hurricane Matthew has risen to at least 30 people, as floodwaters continue to rise. North Carolina is struggling with historic flooding, while in Georgia more than 100,000 people are still without electricity.Yemen in Mourning After U.S.-Backed, Saudi-Led Airstrike Kills 140
In news on Yemen, documents obtained by Reuters show the U.S. government is concerned it could be implicated in potential war crimes in Yemen because of its support for a Saudi-led coalition air campaign. The Obama administration has continued to authorize weapons sales to Saudi Arabia despite warnings last year from government lawyers that it might be considered a co-belligerent under international law. This comes as residents of Sana’a are mourning airstrikes on a funeral hall on Saturday that killed at least 140 mourners and wounded more than 500 others, making it the single deadliest attack during the ongoing U.S.-backed, Saudi-led war in Yemen. This is one the mourners.Yahya Mohammed Saree: "This act is completely void of humanitarian norms and is unprecedented and considered one of the most serious crimes to date."
Meanwhile, the U.S. military has said one of its missile destroyers was targeted Sunday in a failed missile attack from Houthi-controlled territory in Yemen. We’ll have more on Yemen later in the broadcast.
Afghanistan: Car Bomb Kills 14 in Lashkar Gah
In Afghanistan, a suicide car bomb has killed at least 14 people in Lashkar Gah, the capital of Helmand province. Local officials say at least 10 of the victims were Afghan police officers. This comes as the Taliban has announced a new offensive to retake control of the provincial capital. In August, 100 U.S. soldiers were deployed to Lashkar Gah to fight the Taliban in what was believed to be the first deployment of U.S. troops to the city since 2014.Ethiopia: Prime Minister Declares State of Emergency Amid Protests
The prime minister of Ethiopia has declared a six-month state of emergency amid massive protests by the Oromo people, which has been met by a bloody government crackdown. The protests began last year over resistance to the government’s plan to lease a forest to private developers, and have since grown into a nationwide campaign against human rights abuses. As many as 500 people have been killed in the government’s crackdown, and tens of thousands have been detained. On Sunday, Ethiopia’s prime minister declared a state of emergency.27 Arrested Resisting Dakota Access Pipeline on Indigenous Peoples' Day
On Monday, protests and actions were held across the country to mark Indigenous Peoples’ Day and to oppose further construction of fossil fuel infrastructure. In North Dakota, hundreds of Native Americans and their allies gathered to resist the construction of the $3.8 billion Dakota Access pipeline, which has faced months of resistance from the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and members of hundreds of other tribes from across the U.S., Canada and Latin America. At least 27 people were arrested blockading construction at two separate worksites, including Hollywood actress Shailene Woodley.Police Officer: "Right now you’re being placed under arrest for criminal trespassing, all right?"
Shailene Woodley: "It’s because I have 40,000 people watching. So everybody knows we were going to our vehicle, which they had all surrounded and waiting for me with giant guns and the giant truck behind them, just so they could arrest me, so they knew this would happen. I hope you’re watching, mainstream media."
#NoDAPL: Water Protectors Call for Reinforcements as ND Calls in Out-of-State Sheriffs
This comes as the battle over the construction of the Dakota Access pipeline continues to play out both on the ground and between various government agencies. Red Warrior Camp says the Morton County Sheriff’s Department has called in 400 sheriffs from outside North Dakota to police the ongoing resistance. Meanwhile, Sunday’s ruling by a D.C. appeals court permits the Dakota Access pipeline company to resume construction on a 40-mile stretch of private land spanning the Missouri River. However, on Monday, three federal agencies—the Justice Department, the Army and the Interior Department—issued a second joint statement, stating: "The Army will not authorize constructing the Dakota Access Pipeline on Corps land bordering or under Lake Oahe. We repeat our request that the pipeline company voluntarily pause all construction activity within 20 miles east or west of Lake Oahe." Thousands of Native Americans have vowed to continue to fight the pipeline.Water protector: "The government had just the 20-mile ban, the injunction, so they lifted it, so now it’s full outright war against the Native people, since the Dakota Access pipeline is going to go full force ahead. They have called in reinforcements from other sheriff’s departments across the U.S. And the camp, the Oceti Sakowin Camp, the Red Warrior Camp and all the other encampments are calling for reinforcements to come, not only get on the front lines, but also help to prepare for winter and winterize the camps."
Activists Block AIM Pipeline Construction by Locking Down Inside Pipe
Meanwhile, in Peekskill, New York, seven activists were arrested Monday blockading the construction of Spectra Energy’s AIM pipeline, which is slated to run only hundreds of feet from the aging Indian Point nuclear power plant and then under the Hudson River. Four of the activists blockaded construction of the pipeline for more than 15 hours by crawling inside the pipeline and locking themselves to each other. This is one of the protesters.Activist: "We crawled into the pipeline at about 7:00 this morning. The workers realized that we were here about a half an hour later, and police officers were called. They attempted negotiating with us from afar. They made a few threats about sending in canines and things like that. Otherwise, most of the day was spent with us sitting here playing 20 questions."
Arizona: Hundreds Rally at U.S.-Mexico Border Demanding End to Border Checkpoints
In Arizona, hundreds of people rallied at a U.S.-Mexico border checkpoint on Sunday to demand the permanent closure of all border checkpoints throughout the United States. Activists linked arms at the checkpoint and refused to leave. Authorities threatened to use tear gas to disperse the protesters. Protesters also staged a die-in in at the steps of the Customs and Border Patrol office. The action was organized by the group SOA Watch.VT: 5 High School Students Killed After Iraq War Vet Drives into Car on I-89
In Vermont, five high school students have died after a motorist driving the wrong way down Interstate 89 slammed into the teenagers’ car, which burst into flames. He then stole a police car after the officer stopped to try to put out the fire. He then drove away, turned around and raced back, smashing into more cars that had stopped to help the students in the car crash. The driver, Steven Bourgoin, is a U.S. military veteran who served in Iraq. Authorities say he suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder, PTSD, and that he’d gone to the emergency room the morning before the crash seeking help, but that he was not screened by a mental health clinician. His ex-girlfriend took out a restraining order against him after a domestic violence incident in May. She says he’s threatened to kill her by driving them into a pond. She has won full custody of their toddler. Authorities say Bourgoin is still unconscious and in critical condition after the crash. The students killed in the crash were 16-year-old Mary Harris, 16-year-old Cyrus Zschau, 16-year-old Liam Hale, 15-year-old Janie Cozzi and 16-year-old Eli Brookens. Four of the five students attended Harwood Union High School in Duxbury, Vermont. The co-principal of the school has called it "an unprecedented tragedy." About a thousand people attended a candlelight vigil for the students, who were all juniors in high school.Samsung Ends Production of Galaxy Note 7 Because Phone Catches on Fire
In technology news, Samsung has ended the production of its Galaxy Note 7 smartphone, because the device is prone to catching on fire. This comes after Samsung also recalled 2.5 million phones after complaints the batteries were exploding.Spanish Journalist & Author Ignacio Carrión Dies
And writer and journalist Ignacio Carrión died on Saturday from lung cancer. Born in Spain in 1938, Carrión worked as a journalist for more than 45 years, including in London, San Francisco and Washington, D.C., for El País and other outlets. He was also the author of more than a half-dozen books. Carrión was the father of former Democracy Now! producer María Carrión.Donate today:
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Breaking: Activists Reportedly Shut Down Five Pipelines Carrying Tar Sands Oil into U.S.
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Expanding the Debate: Jill Stein "Debates" Clinton & Trump in Democracy Now! Special - Part 1
With the presidential election just over four weeks away, Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton faced off Sunday night at Washington University in St. Louis in what Politico described as "the ugliest debate in American history." We play excerpts and expand the debate by giving Green Party nominee Jill Stein a chance to respond to the same questions posed to Trump and Clinton. Stein and Libertarian presidential candidate Gary Johnson were excluded from the debate under stringent rules set by the Commission on Presidential Debates, which is controlled by the Democratic and Republican parties. We invited both Stein and Johnson to join us on the program; only Stein took us up on the offer.
TRANSCRIPT
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
AMY GOODMAN: We spend the rest of today’s show airing excerpts of the Donald Trump-Hillary Clinton debate and give Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein a chance to respond to the same questions posed to the major-party candidates. Again, Dr. Stein and Libertarian presidential candidate Gary Johnson were excluded from the debate under stringent rules set by the Commission on Presidential Debates, which is controlled by the Democratic and Republican parties. We invited both Stein and Johnson to join us on the program; only Stein took us up on the offer. So we go now to Washington University. The debate co-moderators were Anderson Cooper and Martha Raddatz. This is Martha Raddatz of ABC.
MARTHA RADDATZ: Mr. Trump, I want to get to audience questions and online questions.
DONALD TRUMP: So, she’s allowed to do that, but I’m not allowed to—
MARTHA RADDATZ: You’re going to have—
DONALD TRUMP: Sounds fair.
MARTHA RADDATZ: You’re going to get to respond right now.
DONALD TRUMP: Sounds fair.
MARTHA RADDATZ: This tape is generating intense interest. In just 48 hours it’s become the single most talked-about story of the entire 2016 election on Facebook, with millions and millions of people discussing it on the social network. As we said a moment ago, we do want to bring in questions from voters around the country via social media, and our first stays on this topic. Jeff from Ohio asks on Facebook: "Trump says the campaign has changed him. When did that happen?" So, Mr. Trump, let me add to that: When you walked off that bus at age 59, were you a different man, or did that behavior continue until just recently? And you have two minutes for this.
DONALD TRUMP: It was locker room talk, as I told you. That was locker room talk. I’m not proud of it. I am a person who has great respect for people, for my family, for the people of this country. And certainly I’m not proud of it. But that was something that happened.
If you look at Bill Clinton, far worse. Mine are words, and his was action. His was—what he’s done to women, there’s never been anybody in the history politics in this nation that’s been so abusive to women. So, you can say any way you want to say it, but Bill Clinton was abusive to women. Hillary Clinton attacked those same women and attacked them viciously, four of them here tonight. One of the women, who is a wonderful woman, at 12 years old, was raped, at 12. Her client she represented got him off, and she’s seen laughing on two separate occasions, laughing at the girl who was raped. Kathy Shelton, that young woman, is here with us tonight.
So, don’t tell me about words. I am absolutely—I apologize for those words. But it is things that people say. But what President Clinton did, he was impeached, he lost his license to practice law. He had to pay an $850,000 fine to one of the women, Paula Jones, who’s also here tonight. And I will tell you that when Hillary brings up a point like that and she talks about words that I said 11 years ago, I think it’s disgraceful, and I think she should be ashamed of herself, if you want to know the truth.
MARTHA RADDATZ: Can we please hold the applause? Secretary Clinton, you have two minutes.
HILLARY CLINTON: Well, first let me start by saying that so much of what he’s just said is not right, but he gets to run his campaign any way he chooses. He gets to decide what he wants to talk about, instead of answering people’s questions, talking about our agenda, laying out the plans that we have that we think can make a better life and a better country. That’s his choice. When I hear something like that, I am reminded of what my friend Michelle Obama advised us all: When they go low, you go high.
And look, if this were just about one video, maybe what he’s saying tonight would be understandable. But everyone can draw their own conclusions at this point about whether or not the man in the video or the man on the stage respects women.
But he never apologizes for anything to anyone. He never apologized to Mr. and Mrs. Khan, the Gold Star family whose son, Captain Khan, died in the line of duty in Iraq, and Donald insulted and attacked them for weeks over their religion. He never apologized to the distinguished federal judge, who was born in Indiana, but Donald said he couldn’t be trusted to be a judge because his parents were, quote, "Mexican." He never apologized to the reporter that he mimicked and mocked on national television, and our children were watching. And he never apologized for the racist lie that President Obama was not born in the United States of America. He owes the president an apology, he owes our country an apology, and he needs to take responsibility for his actions and his words.
DONALD TRUMP: Well, you owe the president an apology, because, as you know very well, your campaign, Sidney Blumenthal, he’s another real winner that you have, and he’s the one that got this started, along with your campaign manager, and they were on television just two weeks ago. She was saying exactly that. So you really owe him an apology. You’re the one that sent the pictures around. Your campaign sent the pictures around with President Obama in a certain garb. That was long before I was ever involved. So you actually owe an apology.
And number two, Michelle Obama. I’ve gotten to see the commercials that they did on you, and I’ve gotten to see some of the most vicious commercials I’ve ever seen, of Michelle Obama talking about you, Hillary. So, you talk about friend? Go back and take a look at those commercials—a race where you lost, fair and square, unlike the Bernie Sanders race, where you won, but not fair and square, in my opinion. And all you have to do is take a look at WikiLeaks and just see what they said about Bernie Sanders and see what Deborah Wasserman Schultz had in mind, because Bernie Sanders, between superdelegates and Deborah Wasserman Schultz, he never had a chance. And I was so surprised to see him sign on with the devil.
But when you talk about apology, I think the one that you should really be apologizing for and the thing that you should be apologizing for are the 33,000 emails that you deleted and that you acid-washed, and then the two boxes of emails and other things last week that were taken from an office and are now missing. And I’ll tell you what, I didn’t think I’d say this, but I’m going to say it, and I hate to say it. But if I win, I am going to instruct my attorney general to get a special prosecutor to look into your situation, because there has never been so many lies, so much deception. There has never been anything like it. And we’re going to have a special prosecutor. When I speak, I go out and speak, the people of this country are furious. In my opinion, the people that have been long-term workers at the FBI are furious. There has never been anything like this, where emails—and you get a subpoena. You get a subpoena, and after getting the subpoena, you delete 33,000 emails, and then you acid-wash them or bleach them, as you would say. Very expensive process. So we’re going to get a special prosecutor, and we’re going to look into it, because you know what? People have been—their lives have been destroyed for doing one-fifth of what you have done. And it’s a disgrace. And honestly, you ought to be ashamed of yourself.
MARTHA RADDATZ: Secretary Clinton, I want to follow up on that. I’m going to let you talk about emails.
HILLARY CLINTON: Martha, let me just quickly say, because everything he just said is absolutely false, but I’m not surprised.
DONALD TRUMP: Oh, really?
HILLARY CLINTON: In the first debate—
MARTHA RADDATZ: And really, the audience needs to calm down here.
HILLARY CLINTON: In the first debate, I told people that it would be impossible to be fact-checking Donald all the time. I’d never get to talk about anything I want to do and how we’re going to really make lives better for people. So, once again, go to HillaryClinton.com. We have literally Trump. You can fact-check him—fact-check—fact-check him in real time. Last time, at the first debate, we had millions of people fact-checking, so I expect we’ll have millions more fact-checking, because, you know, it is—it’s just awfully good that someone with the temperament of Donald Trump is not in charge of the law in our country.
DONALD TRUMP: Yeah, because you’d be in jail.
AMY GOODMAN: Green Party presidential nominee Jill Stein, it’s your chance to respond.
DR. JILL STEIN: This—this debate, so-called, is really a sad commentary on what our political system has become. This debate is indeed a sham debate. The League of Women Voters called this process established by the Commission on Presidential Debates a fraud being perpetrated on the American voter. What we’re hearing, as this debate opens, is the candidates go at it about their personal histories, about Hillary’s emails, about Donald’s despicable, abusive behavior and language towards women. And yes, this is all, you know, fair terrain, but it’s—it’s shameful that this has to be the focus of the discussion here. The American people have very serious issues before us, and we need to get past this debate over whether Hillary or Donald is more corrupt, who has the more offensive history.
Let me, you know, just say, there are critical issues before us. The American people have really had it economically. This recovery has been a recovery at the top, despite some minor—minor suggestions that income is rising. Indeed, this is only a small amount among lower- and middle-income families, probably due to the living-wage battles that have been led by the working people of America. An entire generation is locked in debt. Black lives are struggling for safety, walking down the street or driving down the street. Millions of immigrants are living in fear of deportation. Donald Trump has shown that the Republicans are the party of hate and fearmongering, but the Democrats are the party of deportation, detentions and night raids.
We have wars for oil that are massively expanding, have no end. The Obama administration is now bombing seven countries. This is bankrupting our budget. Half of our discretionary budget is being spent on these wars, which are not making us more safe, but rather less safe. Almost half of your income taxes are going to this massive Defense Department, which is not really not a Defense Department, it is an offense department.
And the climate is in meltdown. We are seeing superstorms now in the Caribbean, a thousand people tragically killed in the country of Haiti, illustrating again how it is people of color and people in undeveloped nations and poor people who are really on the front lines of climate change; extended drought, continuing fires in the—in the West of the country. We have a climate crisis here.
And these two are bickering about who is more abusive and who has been more derelict in their responsibilities towards the American people. And I—personally, I think they’re both right, that Donald Trump’s behavior is absolutely abusive and inexcusable; Hillary Clinton, on the other hand, though her demeanor is certainly much nicer and her message is easier to hear, it’s important to remember that it’s not the talk, it’s the walk. And while Hillary is talking about, you know, her history defending and promoting women and children and the cause of our families, remember, it was the Clintons who dismantled Aid to Families with Dependent Children—that is, the major social safety net—throwing over a million families and children into poverty. The Clintons actually passed—and I mean Bill signed, but Hillary supported—NAFTA, which sent millions of jobs overseas, and Wall Street deregulation, leading to the economic meltdown and, in fact, the miserable economic conditions that have led to the rise of Donald Trump.
So, let’s be clear, what Hillary is offering is more of this neoliberal centrism, especially now that Republicans are fleeing into her camp. It’s one big happy Demo-Republican party. And let’s not fool ourselves for a moment that Hillary has the solution. As Bernie Sanders himself said repeatedly, the only real solution to this crisis of right-wing extremism that Donald Trump represents—and he’s certainly not the only one—the real solution is truly radical, progressive policies that are represented by the Green Party. Whether Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump gets into the White House—and let’s hope neither of them do—but there needs to be a strong movement and a strong political voice to that movement to continue fighting against this rule by the economic and political elite that both Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump represent.
AMY GOODMAN: Let’s go back to debate co-moderator Anderson Cooper.
ANDERSON COOPER: Last month, taxes were the number one issue on Facebook for the first time in the campaign. The New York Timespublished three pages of your 1995 tax returns that show you claimed a $916 million loss, which means you could have avoided paying personal federal income taxes for years. You’ve said you pay state taxes, employee taxes, real estate taxes, property taxes. You have not answered, though, a simple question: Did you use that $916 million loss to avoid paying personal federal income taxes for years?
DONALD TRUMP: Of course I do. Of course I do. And so do all of her donors, or most of her donors. I know many of her donors. Her donors took massive tax write-offs.
ANDERSON COOPER: So have you not paid personal federal income taxes?
DONALD TRUMP: A lot my—excuse me, Anderson. A lot of my write-off was depreciation and other things that Hillary Clinton, as a senator, allowed. And she’ll always allow, because the people that give her all this money, they want it. That’s why. See, I understand the tax code better than anybody that’s ever run for president. Hillary Clinton—and it’s extremely complex. Hillary Clinton has friends that want all of these provisions, including they want the carried interest provision, which is very important to Wall Street people, but they really want the carried interest provision, which I believe Hillary is leaving. And it’s very interesting why she’s leaving carried interest. But I will tell you that, number one, I pay tremendous numbers of taxes. I absolutely used it, and so did Warren Buffett, and so did George Soros, and so did many of the other people that Hillary is getting money from. Now, I won’t mention their names, because they’re rich but they’re not famous. So we won’t make them famous.
ANDERSON COOPER: Can you—can you say how many years you have avoided paying personal federal income taxes?
DONALD TRUMP: No. But I pay tax, and I pay federal tax, too. But I have a write-off. A lot of it’s depreciation, which is a wonderful charge. I love depreciation. You know, she has given it to us. Hey, if she had a problem—for 30 years she’s been doing this, Anderson. I say it all the time. She talks about healthcare. Why didn’t she do something about it? She talks about taxes. Why didn’t she do something about it? She doesn’t do anything about anything other than talk. With her, it’s all talk and no action.
ANDERSON COOPER: In the past—
DONALD TRUMP: And again, Bernie Sanders, it’s really bad judgment. She has made bad judgment not only on taxes. She’s made bad judgements on Libya, on Syria, on Iraq. I mean, her and Obama, whether you like it or not, the way they got out of Iraq, the vacuum they’ve left, that’s why ISIS formed in the first place. They started from that little area, and now they’re in 32 different nations, Hillary. Congratulations. Great job.
ANDERSON COOPER: Secretary—I want you to be able to respond, Secretary Clinton.
HILLARY CLINTON: Well, here we go again. I’ve been in favor of getting rid of carried interest for years, starting when I was a senator from New York. But that’s not the point here.
DONALD TRUMP: Why didn’t you do it?
HILLARY CLINTON: You know—
DONALD TRUMP: Why didn’t you do it?
ANDERSON COOPER: Allow her to respond.
HILLARY CLINTON: Because I was a senator with a Republican president.
DONALD TRUMP: Oh, really?
HILLARY CLINTON: I will be the president—
DONALD TRUMP: You could have done it. If you were an effective—
HILLARY CLINTON: —who will get it done. That’s exactly right.
DONALD TRUMP: If you were an effective senator, you could have done it. If you were an effective senator, you could have done it. But you were not an effective senator.
ANDERSON COOPER: Please allow her to respond. She didn’t interrupt you.
HILLARY CLINTON: You know, under our Constitution, presidents have something called veto power.
Look, he has now said repeatedly 30 years this and 30 years that. So let me talk about my 30 years in public service. I’m very glad to do so. Eight million kids every year have health insurance because when I was first lady I worked with Democrats and Republicans to create the Children’s Health Insurance Program. Hundreds of thousands of kids now have a chance to be adopted, because I worked to change our adoption and foster care system. After 9/11, I went to work with Republican mayor, governor and president to rebuild New York and to get healthcare for our first responders, who were suffering because they had run toward danger and gotten sickened by it. Hundreds of thousands of National Guard and reserve members have healthcare because of work that I did. And children have safer medicines because I was able to pass a law that required the dosing to be more carefully done.
When I was secretary of state, I went around the world advocating for our country, but also advocating for women’s rights to make sure that women had a decent chance to have a better life, and negotiated a treaty with Russia to lower nuclear weapons. Four hundred pieces of legislation have my name on it as a sponsor or co-sponsor when I was a senator for eight years. I worked very hard and was very proud to be re-elected in New York by an even bigger margin than I had been elected the first time. And as president, I will take that work, that bipartisan work, that finding common ground.
ANDERSON COOPER: Thank you.
HILLARY CLINTON: Because you have to be able to get along with people to get things done in Washington.
ANDERSON COOPER: Thank you, Secretary.
HILLARY CLINTON: And I’ve proven that I can. And for 30 years, I’ve produced results for people.
AMY GOODMAN: Green Party candidate Jill Stein?
DR. JILL STEIN: Donald Trump made the point that he takes advantage in every way of tax deductions and pays as little taxes as possible, and that Hillary’s donors do that, as well. I think that statement is kind of a microcosm of a larger dynamic here, which is that one candidate represents the billionaire class, the other candidate represents the donors—or, I should say, her donors represent that billionaire class. I’m the only candidate in this race that does not take money from lobbyists, from corporate interests, and that does not have a super PAC. So, that liberates me to actually represent what the American people desperately and urgently need.
In this election, we are not only deciding what kind of a world we will have, but whether we will have a world or not going forward. We are facing catastrophic climate change. I’m the only candidate that is talking about that and the transformative solutions that we need. We call, quite simply, for an emergency jobs program that will solve the emergency of climate change, creating 20 million good-wage jobs to transform our economy to 100 percent clean, renewable energy, a healthy and sustainable food system, and public transportation which is efficiently and renewably powered, and restoring our ecosystems. This will revive the economy, turn the tide on climate change, make the wars for oil obsolete, and it pays for itself simply in terms of the incredible benefits to our health from phasing out fossil fuels. There are—I should mention, we call for phasing out these fossil fuels completely by 2030, so a truly emergency program. And we call for an immediate ban on all new fossil fuel infrastructure. This includes in the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation, where this battle is going on that is being so courageously led by our indigenous brothers and sisters who are setting an example for us all of how we must stand together and stand strong for our water supply, for our human rights, for our democracy and for the one Mother Earth that we share, who is incredibly imperiled, as we speak.
AMY GOODMAN: Jill Stein, we’re going to break—Green Party presidential nominee Jill Stein—as we break the sound barrier, joining the major-party candidates Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton. All are in St. Louis. The major debate took place on Sunday night. This is Democracy Now! Back with more in a minute.
[break]
AMY GOODMAN: "Wheels of Confusion" by Black Sabbath, here on Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report. I’m Amy Goodman. We’re spending the show airing excerpts of the Donald Trump-Hillary Clinton presidential debate at Washington University in St. Louis and giving Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein a chance to respond to the same questions posed to the major-party candidates. We invited, as well as Dr. Stein, Libertarian presidential candidate Gary Johnson, but he did not take us up on this invitation. We turn now back to the debate. This is debate moderator Martha Raddatz of ABC.
MARTHA RADDATZ: Mr. Trump, in December, you said this: "Donald J. Trump is calling for a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States until our country’s representatives can figure out what the hell is going on. We have no choice. We have no choice." Your running mate said this week that the Muslim ban is no longer your position. Is that correct? And if it is, was it a mistake to have a religious test?
DONALD TRUMP: First of all, Captain Khan is an American hero. And if I were president at that time, he would be alive today, because, unlike her, who voted for the war without knowing what she was doing, I would not have had our people in Iraq. Iraq was a disaster. So he would have been alive today. The Muslim ban is something that, in some form, has morphed into a extreme vetting from certain areas of the world. Hillary Clinton wants to allow—
MARTHA RADDATZ: And why did it morph into that.
DONALD TRUMP: —hundreds of thousands—excuse me.
MARTHA RADDATZ: No, did you—
DONALD TRUMP: Excuse me.
MARTHA RADDATZ: No, answer the question: Do you still believe—
DONALD TRUMP: Why don’t you interrupt her?
MARTHA RADDATZ: I do.
DONALD TRUMP: You interrupt me all the time. Why don’t you interrupt her?
MARTHA RADDATZ: Would you please explain whether or not the Muslim ban still stands?
DONALD TRUMP: It’s called extreme vetting. We are going to areas like Syria, where they’re coming in by the tens of thousands because of Barack Obama, and Hillary Clinton wants to allow a 550 percent increase over Obama. People are coming into our country like we have no idea who they are, where they are from, what their feelings about our country is. And she wants 550 percent more. This is going to be the great Trojan horse of all time. We have enough problems in this country.
I believe in building safe zones. I believe in having other people pay for them—as an example, the Gulf states, who are not carrying their weight, but they have nothing but money and take care of people. But I don’t want to have, with all the problems this country has and all of the problems that you see going on, hundreds of thousands of people coming in from Syria, when we know nothing about them. We know nothing about their values, and we know nothing about their love for our country.
MARTHA RADDATZ: And, Secretary Clinton, let me ask you about that, because you have asked for an increase from 10 to 65,000 Syrian refugees. We know you want tougher vetting. That’s not a perfect system. So why take the risk of having those refugees come into the country?
HILLARY CLINTON: Well, first of all, I will not let anyone into our country that I think poses a risk to us. But there are a lot of refugees, women and children. Think of that picture we all saw of that four-year-old boy with the blood on his forehead because he’d been bombed by the Russian and Syrian air forces. There are children suffering in this catastrophic war, largely, I believe, because of Russian aggression. And we need to do our part. We, by no means, are carrying anywhere near the load that Europe and others are. But we will have vetting that is as tough as it needs to be from our professionals, our intelligence experts and others.
But it is important for us, as a policy, you know, not to say, as Donald has said, we’re going to ban people based on a religion. How do you that? We are a country founded on religious freedom and liberty. How do we do what he has advocated, without causing great distress within our own country? Are we going to have religious tests when people fly into our country? And how do we expect to be able to implement those? So, I thought that what he said was extremely unwise and even dangerous. And indeed, you can look at the propaganda on a lot of the terrorist sites, and what Donald Trump says about Muslims is used to recruit fighters, because they want to create a war between us.
And the final thing I say, this is the 10th or 12th time that he’s denied being for the war in Iraq. We have it on tape. The entire press corps has looked at it. It’s been debunked. But it never stops him from saying whatever he wants to say.
DONALD TRUMP: Has not been debunked.
HILLARY CLINTON: So, please—
DONALD TRUMP: Has not been debunked. And I was against—I was against—
HILLARY CLINTON: Go to HillaryClinton.com, and you can see it.
DONALD TRUMP: I was against the war in Iraq. Has not been debunked.
AMY GOODMAN: Jill Stein?
DR. JILL STEIN: [inaudible] is a crisis, a global humanitarian crisis. Millions of people are fleeing for their lives from Syria. I think it’s something like half of a million people have actually been killed in Syria. It is a humanitarian catastrophe that we have very much to do with. The power of ISIS in Syria comes directly out of the catastrophe of Iraq, which Hillary Clinton supported, and Donald Trump did, as well. At least initially, he supported going into Iraq. Hillary Clinton certainly led the charge into Libya and created that catastrophe, which led to the release of huge stockpiles of arms and incredible violence and catastrophic situation in Libya, all of which helped fan the flames in Syria. So, we have certainly a great deal to do with the crisis in Syria, and not to mention that we have been bombing in Syria, as well, and apparently funding some of the rebel groups, the very unsavory rebel groups, which appear to be al-Qaeda-related. So, we have had a major hand in the chaos of Syria and, indeed, the major hand instigating the chaos in the Middle East.
So, being the wealthiest country in the world, it’s very important that we do our share in caring for the Syrian refugees. But, let me say, it’s also really important that we go back to this crisis in Syria and in the Middle East, and instead of continuing to pour gasoline on this fire, we need to take a stand on behalf of a weapons embargo to all parties, since our weapons are getting into the hands of all parties. We need to impose a freeze on the bank accounts of our allies that are continuing to fund terrorist enterprises, and to work with the Turks, who are our ally—in name, at least—to close down their border to the flow of terrorist militias across their border. That is the contribution that we need to make. And we need to reinstigate the ceasefire and begin a peace process in Syria. The language being used by Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton toward Syria is extremely irresponsible and very dangerous and is bringing us to the brink of conflict with Russia, another nuclear-armed power that could blow up on us very quickly. We need to be very cautious about where this is going.
AMY GOODMAN: Let’s go back to debate moderator Anderson Cooper of CNN.
ANDERSON COOPER: Mr. Trump, let me follow up with you. In 2008, you wrote in one of your books that the most important characteristic of a good leader is discipline. You said if a leader doesn’t have it, quote, "he or she won’t be one for very long." In the days after the first debate, you sent out a series of tweets from 3:00 a.m. to 5:00 a.m., including one that told people to check out a sex tape. Is that the discipline of a good leader?
DONALD TRUMP: No, there wasn’t "check out a sex tape." It was just take a look at the person that she built up to be this wonderful girl scout, who was no girl scout.
ANDERSON COOPER: You mentioned "sex tape."
DONALD TRUMP: By the way, just so you understand: When she said 3:00 in the morning, take a look at Benghazi. She said, "Who’s going to answer the call at 3:00 in the morning?" Guess what. She didn’t answer, because when Ambassador Stevens—
ANDERSON COOPER: The question is: Is that the discipline of a good leader?
DONALD TRUMP: —six hundred—wait a minute, Anderson. Six hundred times—well, she said she was awake at 3:00 in the morning. And she also sent a tweet out at 3:00 in the morning, but I won’t even mention that. But she said she’ll be awake. Who’s—the famous thing: "We’re going to answer our call at 3:00 in the morning." Guess what happened. Ambassador Stevens—Ambassador Stevens sent 600 requests for help, and the only one she talked to was Sidney Blumenthal, who’s her friend—and not a good guy, by the way. So, you know, she shouldn’t be talking about that.
Now, tweeting happens to be a modern-day form of communication. I mean, you could like it or not like it. I have—between Facebook and Twitter, I have almost 25 million people. It’s a very effective way of communication. So you can put it down, but it is a very effective form of communication. I’m not unproud of it, to be honest with you.
ANDERSON COOPER: Secretary Clinton, does Mr. Trump have the discipline to be a good leader?
HILLARY CLINTON: No.
DONALD TRUMP: Oh, I’m shocked to hear that.
HILLARY CLINTON: Well, it’s not only my opinion, it’s the opinion of many others—national security experts, Republicans, former Republican members of Congress. But it’s in part because those of us who have had the great privilege of seeing this job up close and know how difficult it is—and it’s not just because I watched my husband take a $300 billion deficit and turn it into a $200 billion surplus, and 23 million new jobs were created, and incomes went up for everybody. Everybody. African-American incomes went up 33 percent. And it’s not just because worked with George W. Bush after 9/11, and I was very proud that when I told him what the city needed, what we needed to recover, he said, "You’ve got it," and he never wavered. He stuck with me. And I have worked, and I admire President Obama. He inherited the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. That was a terrible time for our country.
ANDERSON COOPER: We have to move along.
HILLARY CLINTON: Nine million people lost their jobs. Five million homes were lost.
MARTHA RADDATZ: Secretary Clinton, we have to—Secretary Clinton, we’re moving on.
HILLARY CLINTON: And $13 trillion in family wealth was wiped out. We are back on the right track. He would send us back into a recession with his tax plans—
MARTHA RADDATZ: Secretary Clinton—
HILLARY CLINTON: —that would benefit the wealthiest of Americans.
MARTHA RADDATZ: —we are moving to an audience question. We’re almost out of time. We have another—
DONALD TRUMP: We have the slowest growth—
MARTHA RADDATZ: Mr. Trump, we’re moving to an audience question.
DONALD TRUMP: —since 1929. It is—our country has the slowest growth, and jobs are a disaster.
MARTHA RADDATZ: Mr. Trump, Secretary Clinton, we want to get to the audience.
AMY GOODMAN: Jill Stein, your final comment for this hour? You have 90 seconds.
DR. JILL STEIN: I want to finish this discussion about this endless war in the Middle East. And I think it’s very important that the American people have the benefit of knowing what we are paying for this war and what we are getting from it. This war, according to a Harvard study a couple years ago, would cost us about $6 trillion for just Iraq and Afghanistan alone, when you include the ongoing costs of caring for our wounded veterans, who deserve far more than what they’re getting, not only in healthcare, housing,PTSD support, job training, etc. But it’s about $6 trillion, which comes down to about $50,000 for every American household.
But what have we achieved with this endless war? Failed states, mass refugee migrations and worse terrorist threats. They are not getting better, whether you look at the Taliban, who are stronger, have more territory now than they did when we began fighting them some 16 years ago, whether you look at al-Qaeda, which has become a global movement, or ISIS. This doesn’t work, yet it’s costing us half of our discretionary budget and almost half of your income taxes. So, it’s very important that we have a new offensive in the Middle East. We call it a peace offensive. And it begins with a weapons embargo and with a freeze on the bank accounts of our allies, like Saudi Arabia, if they continue to insist on funding terrorist enterprises around the world.
AMY GOODMAN: Green Party—
DR. JILL STEIN: That is the way forward.
AMY GOODMAN: Green Party presidential candidate Dr. Jill Stein, as part of our "Expanding the Debate" two-hour special. We will do another hour of this debate. You can go to democracynow.org. ... Read More →
Expanding the Debate: Jill Stein Spars with Clinton & Trump in Democracy Now! Special - Part 2
Part 2 of our special two-hour "Expanding the Debate" coverage. We play excerpts from the Hillary Clinton-Donald Trump debate and expand the debate by giving Green Party nominee Jill Stein a chance to respond to the same questions posed to Trump and Clinton. Stein and Libertarian presidential candidate Gary Johnson were excluded from the debate under stringent rules set by the Commission on Presidential Debates, which is controlled by the Democratic and Republican parties. We invited both Stein and Johnson to join us on the program; only Stein took us up on the offer.
TRANSCRIPT
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
AMY GOODMAN: With the presidential election just over four weeks away, Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton faced off Sunday night at Washington University in St. Louis in what Politico described as the "ugliest debate" in U.S. history. The debate came two days afterThe Washington Post published a shocking video from 2005 of Donald Trump talking on an open microphone, bragging about sexually assaulting women. Trump is now facing a growing number of calls to step down as the Republican Party’s nominee.
We will spend the rest of the show airing excepts of Sunday’s debate and giving Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein a chance to respond to the same questions posed to the major-party candidates. Stein and Libertarian presidential candidate Gary Johnson were excluded from the debate under stringent rules set by the Commission on Presidential Debates, which is controlled by the Democratic and Republican parties. We invited both Stein and Johnson to join us on the program; only Stein took us up on the offer. We turn now to the debate moderators Anderson Cooper and Martha Raddatz in St. Louis at Washington University, Raddatz of ABC, Anderson Cooper of CNN. This is Cooper.
ANDERSON COOPER: We have a question here from Ken Karpowitz. He has a question about healthcare. Ken?
DONALD TRUMP: I’d like to know, Anderson: Why aren’t you bringing up the emails? I’d like to know. Why aren’t you getting to the bottom—
ANDERSON COOPER: You brought up the emails.
DONALD TRUMP: No, it hasn’t. It hasn’t. And it hasn’t been finished at all.
ANDERSON COOPER: Ken Karpowitz has a question.
DONALD TRUMP: It’s nice to—one on three.
KEN KARPOWITZ: Thank you. Affordable Care Act, known as Obamacare, it is not affordable. Premiums have gone up. Deductibles have gone up. Copays have gone up. Prescriptions have gone up. And the coverage has gone down. What will you do to bring the costs down and make coverage better?
ANDERSON COOPER: That first one goes to Secretary Clinton—
DONALD TRUMP: Thank you.
ANDERSON COOPER: —because you started out the last one to the audience.
HILLARY CLINTON: He wants to start. He can start.
DONALD TRUMP: No, go ahead, Hillary.
HILLARY CLINTON: No, go ahead, Donald.
DONALD TRUMP: No, I’m a gentleman, Hillary. Go ahead.
ANDERSON COOPER: Secretary Clinton?
HILLARY CLINTON: Well, I think Donald was about to say he’s going to solve it by repealing it and getting rid of the Affordable Care Act. And I’m going to fix it, because I agree with you. Premiums have gotten too high, copays, deductibles, prescription drug costs. And I’ve laid out a series of actions that we can take to try to get those costs down.
But here’s what I don’t want people to forget when we’re talking about reining in the costs, which has to be the highest priority of the next president. When the Affordable Care Act passed, it wasn’t just that 20 million people got insurance who didn’t have it before. But that, in and of itself, was a good thing. I meet these people all the time, and they tell me what a difference having that insurance meant to them and their families. But everybody else, the 170 million of us who get health insurance through our employers, got big benefits. Number one, insurance companies can’t deny you coverage because of a pre-existing condition. Number two, no lifetime limits, which is a big deal if you have serious health problems. Number three, women can’t be charged more than men for our health insurance, which is the way it used to be before the Affordable Care Act. Number four, if you’re under 26 and your parents have a policy, you can be on that policy until the age of 26—something that didn’t happen before. So, I want very much to save what works and is good about the Affordable Care Act. But we’ve got to get costs down. We’ve got to provide some additional help to small businesses, so that they can afford to provide health insurance.
But if we repeal it, as Donald has proposed, and start over again, all of those benefits I just mentioned are lost to everybody, not just people who get their health insurance on the exchange. And then we would have to start all over again. Right now we are at 90 percent health insurance coverage. That’s the highest we’ve ever been in our country.
ANDERSON COOPER: Secretary Clinton, your time’s up.
HILLARY CLINTON: So I want to get to 100 percent but get cost down and keep quality up.
ANDERSON COOPER: Mr. Trump, you have two minutes.
DONALD TRUMP: It is such a great question, and it’s maybe the question I get almost more than anything else, outside of defense. Obamacare is a disaster. You know it. We all know it. It’s going up at numbers that nobody’s ever seen worldwide. It’s—nobody has ever seen numbers like this for healthcare. It’s only getting worse. In '17, it implodes by itself. Their method of fixing it is to go back and ask Congress for more money, more and more money. And we have right now almost $20 trillion in debt. Obamacare will never work. It's very bad, very bad health insurance, far too expensive, and not only expensive for the person that has it, unbelievably expensive for our country. It’s going to be one of the biggest line items very shortly.
We have to repeal it and replace it with something absolutely much less expensive and something that works, where your plan can actually be tailored. We have to get rid of the lines around the state, artificial lines, where we stop insurance companies from coming in and competing, because they wanted, President Obama and whoever was working on it—they want to leave those lines, because that gives the insurance companies essentially monopolies. We want competition. You will have the finest healthcare plan there is. She wants to go to a single-payer plan, which would be a disaster, somewhat similar to Canada. And if you ever noticed, the Canadians, when they need a big operation, when something happens, they come into the United States in many cases, because their—their system is so slow, it’s catastrophic in certain ways. But she wants to go to single payer, which means the government basically rules everything. Hillary Clinton has been after this for years. Obamacare was the first step. Obamacare is a total disaster. And not only are your rates going up by numbers that nobody’s ever believed, but your deductibles are going up, so that unless you get hit by a truck, you’re never going to be able to use it.
ANDERSON COOPER: Mr. Trump, your time—
DONALD TRUMP: It is a disastrous plan, and it has to be repealed and replaced.
AMY GOODMAN: Green Party presidential nominee Jill Stein, your response?
DR. JILL STEIN: It’s not rocket science how to fix this disaster that the Affordable Care Act is. In fact, healthcare costs are skyrocketing. It’s now—you know, we pay essentially $3 trillion a year, is what the price tag is for healthcare, when you include government, business and out-of-pocket expenses. One out of every three Americans now cannot afford healthcare. Yes, the numbers of coverage have gone up, but there is massive underinsurance, and it is prohibitive. The premiums and the deductibles and the copays are just too high, so many people with insurance cannot afford to get it. There is almost half a trillion dollars of needless expense in the Affordable Care Act. This was the boondoggle built in for insurance companies and pharmaceutical companies, that they are making out like bandits here in a healthcare system based on profit, not based on people.
And the solution is pretty straightforward. We need a Medicare-for-all system, an improved Medicare-for-all system. Right now 25 percent of healthcare costs are spent on wasteful paper pushing, on CEO salaries, on advertising, etc., on exorbitant pharmaceutical costs like paying $400 for an EpiPen, which contains $1 worth of medication. This is the kind of abuse that is built into this program, because we do not have the capacity to negotiate and do bulk purchasing, which needs to be built in. Under an improved Medicare-for-all system, that 25 percent overhead is reduced to about 1 percent, 1 to 2 percent overhead. So it enables us to put our healthcare dollars truly into healthcare, so that you are covered, head to toe, cradle to grave, your mental health, your pharmaceuticals, your hearing aid, your insulin pump, whatever, and your reproductive healthcare and your mental healthcare. And the healthcare decisions are between you and your doctor. It gets corporations off your back, and it gets CEOs out of the business of deciding and micromanaging your healthcare.
AMY GOODMAN: Green Party presidential nominee Jill Stein. After a short break, we’ll return to the Donald Trump-Hillary Clinton presidential debate and give Dr. Stein a chance to respond to those same questions posed to the major-party candidates at Washington University in St. Louis. Stay with us.
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AMY GOODMAN: "Headache" by Frank Black, here on Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, "War, Peace and the Presidency." I’m Amy Goodman. We’re spending the show airing experts of the Donald Trump-Hillary Clinton presidential debate at Washington University in St. Louis, giving Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein a chance to respond to the same questions posed to the major-party candidates. Stein and Libertarian presidential candidate Gary Johnson were excluded from the debate under stringent rules set by the Commission on Presidential Debates, which is controlled by the Democratic and Republican parties. We invited both Stein and Johnson to join us; only Stein took us up on the offer. We thought we’d, well, bring you what democracy sounds like, what it looks like, as we go back now to debate moderator Anderson Cooper of CNN.
ANDERSON COOPER: Thank you, Mr. Trump. The question from Patrice was about: Are you both modeling positive and appropriate behaviors for today’s youth? We received a lot of questions online, Mr. Trump, about the tape that was released on Friday, as you can imagine. You called what you said "locker room banter." You described kissing women without consent, grabbing their genitals. That is sexual assault. You bragged that you have sexually assaulted women. Do you understand that?
DONALD TRUMP: No, I didn’t say that at all. I don’t think you understood what was said. This was locker room talk. I’m not proud of it. I apologize to my family. I apologize to the American people. Certainly I’m not proud of it. But this is locker room talk.
You know, when we have a world where you have ISIS chopping off heads, where you have—and, frankly, drowning people in steel cages, where you have wars and horrible, horrible sights all over, where you have so many bad things happening, this is like medieval times. We haven’t seen anything likes this, the carnage all over the world. And they look, and they see. Can you imagine the people that are, frankly, doing so well against us, with ISIS, and they look at our country, and they see what’s going on?
Yes, I’m very embarrassed by it. I hate it. But it’s locker room talk and it’s one of those things. I will knock the hell out of ISIS. We’re going to defeat ISIS. ISIS happened a number of years ago in a vacuum that was left—
ANDERSON COOPER: So—
DONALD TRUMP: —because of bad judgment. And I will tell you: I will take care of ISIS.
ANDERSON COOPER: So, Mr. Trump—
DONALD TRUMP: And we should get on to much more important things and much bigger things.
ANDERSON COOPER: Just for the record, though, are you saying that what you said on that bus 11 years ago, that you did not actually kiss women without consent or grope women without consent?
DONALD TRUMP: I have great respect for women. Nobody has more respect for women than I do.
ANDERSON COOPER: So, for the record, you’re saying you never did that?
DONALD TRUMP: I say I said things that, frankly, you hear these things. They’re said. And I was embarrassed by it. But I have tremendous respect for women.
ANDERSON COOPER: Have you ever done those things?
DONALD TRUMP: And women have respect for me. And I will tell you—no, I have not. And I will tell you that I’m going to make our country safe. We’re going to have borders on our country, which we don’t have now. People are pouring into our country, and they’re coming in from the Middle East and other places. We’re going to make America safe again. We’re going to make America great again. But we’re going to make America safe again. And we’re going to make America wealthy again, because if you don’t do that, it just—it sounds harsh to say, but we have to build up the wealth of our nation.
ANDERSON COOPER: Thank you, Mr. Trump.
DONALD TRUMP: Right now, other nations are taking our jobs, and they’re taking our wealth.
ANDERSON COOPER: Thank you, Mr. Trump.
DONALD TRUMP: And that’s what I want to talk about.
ANDERSON COOPER: Secretary Clinton, do you want to respond?
HILLARY CLINTON: Well, like everyone else, I’ve spent a lot of time thinking over the last 48 hours about what we heard and saw. You know, with prior Republican nominees for president, I disagreed with them on politics, policies, principles, but I never questioned their fitness to serve. Donald Trump is different. I said, starting back in June, that he was not fit to be president and commander-in-chief. And many Republicans and independents have said the same thing.
What we all saw and heard on Friday was Donald talking about women, what he thinks about women, what he does to women. And he has said that the video doesn’t represent who he is. But I think it’s clear to anyone who heard it that it represents exactly who he is, because we’ve seen this throughout the campaign. We have seen him insult women. We have seen him rate women on their appearance, ranking them from one to 10. We’ve seen him embarrass women on TV and on Twitter. We saw him, after the first debate, spend nearly a week denigrating a former Miss Universe in the harshest, most personal terms. So, yes, this is who Donald Trump is.
But it’s not only women, and it’s not only this video that raises questions about his fitness to be our president, because he has also targeted immigrants, African Americans, Latinos, people with disabilities, POWs, Muslims and so many others. So this is who Donald Trump is.
And the question for us, the question our country must answer, is that this is not who we are. That’s why, to go back to your question, I want to send a message—we all should—to every boy and girl—and, indeed, to the entire world—that America already is great, but we are great because we are good. And we will respect one another, and we will work with one another, and we will celebrate our diversity. These are very important values to me, because this is the America that I know and love. And I can pledge to you tonight that this is the America that I will serve if I’m so fortunate enough to become your president.
MARTHA RADDATZ: And we want to get to some questions from online—
DONALD TRUMP: Well, am I allowed to respond to that? I assume I am.
MARTHA RADDATZ: Yes, you can respond to that.
DONALD TRUMP: It’s just words, folks. It’s just words. Those words, I’ve been hearing them for many years. I heard them when they were running for the Senate in New York, where Hillary was going to bring back jobs to upstate New York, and she failed. I’ve heard them where Hillary is constantly talking about the inner cities of our country, which are a disaster education-wise, job-wise, safety-wise, in every way possible. I’m going to help the African Americans. I’m going to help the Latinos, Hispanics. I am going to help the inner cities. She has done a terrible job for the African Americans. She wants their vote, and she does nothing. And then she comes back four years later. We saw that firsthand when she was a United States senator. She campaigned where the primary part of her campaign—
MARTHA RADDATZ: Mr. Trump, Mr. Trump, I want to get to audience questions and online questions.
DONALD TRUMP: So, she’s allowed to do that, but I’m not allowed to—
MARTHA RADDATZ: You’re going to have—
DONALD TRUMP: Sounds fair.
MARTHA RADDATZ: You’re going to get to respond right now.
DONALD TRUMP: Sounds fair.
AMY GOODMAN: Green Party presidential nominee Jill Stein, you have two minutes to respond.
DR. JILL STEIN: So, the question, you know, is we candidates are modeling behavior that is appropriate for our children to emulate. And I—you know, I agree in the strongest terms that Donald Trump’s abusive behavior and abusive language towards women and everybody else is shameful and despicable and a terrible thing for our children and the rest of society to witness. Sexual violence towards women is not a trivial matter. One out of six women is a victim of sexual violence. Three women a day are killed by domestic violence. So, this issue cannot be overemphasized as a really critical concern for all of us.
At the same time, it’s very important that we not lose sight, not allow this despicable incident here to overshadow the other issues that are very much at stake. Let’s just look, for example, at the condition of our youth and our younger generation, not only the sky-high rates of unemployment they’re facing, the incredible skyrocketing of the costs of college education, the fact that 43 million young people are locked into predatory student loan debt with no way out in the economy as it exists, with low-wage, part-time, temporary jobs having, you know, become available since the Wall Street crash. That recovery is pretty much limited to the upper 5 to 10 percent, a few little, you know, changes around the margins, but this hasn’t been a recovery for everyday people.
My campaign is the only one that is speaking to the climate crisis falling on the shoulders of young people, the only campaign that is speaking to the endless wars that are making us less secure and that are bankrupting our budget, and the only candidate that will bail out young people the way Barack Obama and Democrats and Republicans in Congress bailed out Wall Street to the tune of $16 trillion. It’s about time for us to bail out the victims of Wall Street: the younger generation, who is trapped in predatory student loans debt.
And I just want to encourage people to go to my website, Jill2016.com, to be a part of this movement. The numbers are there: 43 million young people are locked into debt. That is a winning plurality of the vote. If that word were to get out, this election could be turned on its head. There is a voter revolt which is actually in full swing right now. And you can see that the corporate media is working overtime to try to do a blackout on our campaign, which is the real threat to this politics as usual that is throwing us under the bus. Thank you.
AMY GOODMAN: So, let—let’s go back to debate moderator Martha Raddatz of ABC.
MARTHA RADDATZ: This next question comes from the public through the bipartisan Open Debate Coalition’s online forum, where Americans submitted questions that generated millions of votes. This question involves WikiLeaks’ release of purported excerpts of Secretary Clinton’s paid speeches, which she has refused to release, and one line in particular, in which you, Secretary Clinton, purportedly say, "You need both a public and private position on certain issues." So, Tiu from Virginia asks: "Is it OK for politicians to be two-faced? Is it acceptable for a politician to have have a private stance on issues?" Secretary Clinton, your two minutes.
HILLARY CLINTON: Well, right. As I recall, that was something I said about Abraham Lincoln after having seen the wonderful Steven Spielberg movie called Lincoln. It was a master class watching President Lincoln get the Congress to approve the 13th Amendment. It was principled, and it was strategic. And I was making the point that it is hard sometimes to get the Congress to do what you want to do, and you have to keep working at it, and, yes, President Lincoln was trying to convince some people, he used some arguments; convincing other people, he used other arguments. That was a great, I thought, a great display of presidential leadership.
But, you know, let’s talk about what’s really going on here, Martha, because our intelligence community just came out and said in the last few days that the Kremlin, meaning Putin and the Russian government, are directing the attacks, the hacking on American accounts to influence our election. And WikiLeaks is part of that, as are other sites where the Russians hack information—we don’t even know if it’s accurate information—and then they put it out. We have never in the history of our country been in a situation where an adversary, a foreign power, is working so hard to influence the outcome of the election. And believe me, they’re not doing it to get me elected. They’re doing it to try to influence the election for Donald Trump. Now, maybe because he has praised Putin, maybe because he says he agrees with a lot of what Putin wants to do, maybe because he wants to do business in Moscow—I don’t know the reasons, but we deserve answers. And we should demand that Donald release all of his tax returns, so that people can see what are the entanglements and the financial relationships—
MARTHA RADDATZ: And we’re going to get to that later.
HILLARY CLINTON: —that he has with Russians and other foreign powers.
MARTHA RADDATZ: Secretary Clinton, you’re out of time. Mr. Trump?
DONALD TRUMP: Well, I think I should respond, because—so ridiculous. Look, now she’s blaming—she got caught in a total lie. Her papers went out to all her friends at the banks, Goldman Sachs and everybody else. And she said things—WikiLeaks—that just came out. And she lied. Now she’s blaming the lie on the late great Abraham Lincoln. That’s one that I haven’t—OK, honest Abe. Honest Abe never lied. That’s the good thing. That’s the big difference between Abraham Lincoln and you. That’s a big, big difference. We’re talking about some difference.
But as far as other elements of what you were saying, I don’t know Putin. I think it would be great if we get along with Russia, because we could fight ISIS together, as an example. But I don’t know Putin. But I notice any time anything wrong happens, they like to say the Russians, the—she doesn’t know if it’s the Russians doing the hacking. Maybe there is no hacking. But they always blame Russia. And the reason they blame Russia, because they think they’re trying to tarnish me with Russia. I know nothing about Russia. I know about Russia, but I know nothing about the inner workings of Russia. I don’t deal there. I have no businesses there. I have no loans from Russia.
I have a very, very great balance sheet, so great that when I did the Old Post Office on Pennsylvania Avenue, the United States government, because of my balance sheet, which they actually know very well, chose me to do the Old Post Office between the White House and Congress, chose me to do the Old Post Office. One of the primary things—in fact, perhaps the primary thing was balance sheet. But I have no loans with Russia. You could go to the United States government, and they would probably tell you that, because they know my sheet very well. In order to get that development, I had to have.
Now, the taxes are a very simple thing. As soon as I have—first of all, I pay hundreds of millions of dollars in taxes. Many of her friends took bigger deductions. Warren Buffett took a massive deduction. Soros, who’s a friend of hers, took a massive deduction. Many of the people that are giving her all this money, that she can do many more commercials than me, gave her—took massive deductions. I pay hundreds of millions of dollars in taxes, but—but as soon as my routine audit is finished, I’ll release my returns. I’ll be very proud to.
AMY GOODMAN: Green Party presidential nominee Jill Stein, your response?
DR. JILL STEIN: So, you know, on this issue of Hillary’s statement about the public views versus the private views, that’s certainly borne out by her history, where, you know, her public statement is that she is the friend to women and children, but, in fact, privately and her actual track record is to dismantle Aid to Families with Dependent Children, to have supported NAFTA and the offshoring of our jobs, to support the Trans-Pacific Partnership. And now she says she’s against it, but her director of transition, Ken Salazar, is a big booster, as is her VP candidate. So, you know, which is it?
In Haiti, as secretary of state, Hillary Clinton led the charge to push down the abysmal poverty wages of the Haitian people from 60 cents an hour down to a shocking 40 cents an hour, so as to boost the profits of the American corporation. So, you know, and on Black Lives Matter, you know, there was lip service to the cause of racial justice. But the Democratic Party official position, revealed again in some leaked emails, was that, you know, pat them on the head, you know, meet with them, but don’t make any concessions to them, do not give them any ground, do not, in other words, acknowledge what a crisis situation this is, where African Americans are at risk, driving in their cars down the street, from police violence. So, this is a real problem, and it goes hand in hand with another statement that was just released, where Hillary said that she doesn’t have much contact with the people because of the economic fortunes that she and her husband have enjoyed.
In blaming this on Abraham Lincoln, or blaming her statement on Abraham Lincoln, it’s noteworthy that Abraham Lincoln was a third-party candidate, and that in times of great social upheaval, third parties occasionally prevail. And for so many people, the issue here is the politics of fear and the greater fear of Donald Trump that overrides everything else, including Hillary Clinton’s record creating the economic misery leading to the rise of Donald Trump. So I just want to underscore for people to remember what happened under Richard Nixon, one of the most terrible, regressive, oppressive presidents we’ve ever had, where we had the courage of our convictions. And under this terrible president, we achieved bringing the troops home from Vietnam, women’s right to choose, the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, protections for workers in the workplace, because we, the people, were standing up and leading the charge towards the kinds of policies that we actually deserve. It’s important for us to lead with the politics of courage. The politics of fear, unfortunately, has delivered everything we were afraid of.
AMY GOODMAN: Green Party presidential nominee Jill Stein. After a short break, we’ll return to the Donald Trump-Hillary Clinton presidential debate in St. Louis and give Dr. Stein a chance to continue to respond to the same questions posed to the major-party candidates. This is Democracy Now!’s "Expanding the Debate" special. Stay with us.
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AMY GOODMAN: Downtown Boys performing "Wave of History" here in our Democracy Now! studio. To see our full interview with them, go to democracynow.org. Yes, this isDemocracy Now!, democracynow.org, "War, Peace and the Presidency," as we continue our "Expanding the Debate" special. We’re spending the show airing excerpts of the Donald Trump-Hillary Clinton presidential debate in St. Louis at Washington University and giving Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein a chance to respond to the same questions posed to the major-party candidates. We also invited Libertarian presidential candidate Gary Johnson, but he did not take us up on our offer. Let’s go back to the debate. It’s co-moderated by Anderson Cooper of CNN, and this is Martha Raddatz of ABC.
MARTHA RADDATZ: We have another audience question. Beth Miller has a question for both candidates.
BETH MILLER: Good evening. Perhaps the most important aspect of this election is the Supreme Court justice. What would you prioritize as the most important aspect of selecting a Supreme Court justice?
MARTHA RADDATZ: We begin with your two minutes, Secretary Clinton.
HILLARY CLINTON: Thank you. Well, you’re right. This is one of the most important issues in this election. I want to appoint Supreme Court justices who understand the way the world really works, who have real-life experience, who have not just been in a big law firm and maybe clerked for a judge and then gotten on the bench, but, you know, maybe they tried some more cases, they actually understand what people are up against, because I think the current court has gone in the wrong direction. And so I would want to see the Supreme Court reverseCitizens United and get dark unaccountable money out of our politics. Donald doesn’t agree with that. I would like the Supreme Court to understand that voting rights are still a big problem in many parts of our country, that we don’t always do everything we can to make it possible for people of color and older people and young people to be able to exercise their franchise. I want a Supreme Court that will stick with Roe v. Wade and a woman’s right to choose, and I want a Supreme Court that will stick with marriage equality.
Now, Donald has put forth the names of some people that he would consider. And among the ones that he has suggested are people who would reverse Roe v. Wade and reverse marriage equality. I think that would would be a terrible mistake and would take us backwards. I want a Supreme Court that doesn’t always side with corporate interests. I want a Supreme Court that understands because you’re wealthy and you can give more money to something doesn’t mean you have any more rights or should have any more rights than anybody else. So I have very clear views about what I want to see to tend to change the balance on the Supreme Court. And I regret deeply that the Senate has not done its job, and they have not permitted a vote on the person that President Obama, a highly qualified person—they have not given him a vote to be able to have the full complement of nine Supreme Court justices. I think that was a dereliction of duty. I hope that they will see their way to doing it, but if I am so fortunate enough as to be president, I will immediately move to make sure that we fill that, we have nine justices—
MARTHA RADDATZ: Thank you, Secretary Clinton.
HILLARY CLINTON: —and they get to work on behalf of our people.
MARTHA RADDATZ: Thank you. You’re out of time. Mr. Trump?
DONALD TRUMP: Justice Scalia, great judge, died recently, and we have a vacancy. I am looking to appoint judges very much in the mold of Justice Scalia. I’m looking for judges, and I’ve actually picked 20 of them, so that people would say highly respected, highly thought of and actually very beautifully reviewed by just about everybody, but people that will respect the Constitution of the United States. And I think that this is so important. Also, the Second Amendment which is totally under siege by people like Hillary Clinton—they’ll respect the Second Amendment and what it stands for, what it represents. So important to me.
AMY GOODMAN: Dr. Jill Stein, presidential nominee of the Green Party, your response? You have two minutes.
DR. JILL STEIN: OK, and I’ll try to be quick on this. We very much need Supreme Court justices who are ready to stand up for everyday people. And that means to end the stranglehold that big money has on our political system. So that means not only overturning Citizens United, but supporting the fact that money is not speech and that corporations are not people. In addition, we need strong support for our rights as voters, which are being encroached on by voter ID laws terribly. And we need to support the constitutional right to vote, and ensure that there is positive and continuous support for that right to vote, which is very much under threat. And in addition, the Supreme Court needs to be strongly in support of women’s rights, the rights of immigrants, workers’ rights and LGBTQ rights. Thank you.
AMY GOODMAN: Let’s go back to debate moderator, Martha Raddatz of ABC
MARTHA RADDATZ: And, Secretary Clinton, I do want to follow up on the emails. You’ve said your handling of your emails was a mistake. You disagreed with Director—FBI Director James Comey calling your handling of classified information, quote, "extremely careless." The FBIsaid that there were 110 classified emails that were exchanged, eight of which were top-secret, and that it was possible hostile actors did gain access to those emails. You don’t call that extremely careless?
HILLARY CLINTON: Well, Martha, first let me say, and I’ve said it before, but I’ll repeat it because I want everyone to hear it. That was a mistake, and I take responsibility for using a personal email account. Obviously, if I were to do it over again, I would not. I’m not making any excuses. It was a mistake. And I am very sorry about that.
But I think it’s also important to point out where there are some misleading accusations from critics and others. After a year-long investigation, there is no evidence that anyone hacked the server I was using, and there is no evidence that anyone can point to at all—anyone who says otherwise has no basis—that any classified material ended up in the wrong hands. I take classified materials very seriously and always have. When I was on the Senate Armed Services Committee, I was privy to a lot of classified material. Obviously, as secretary of state, I had some of the most important secrets that we possess, such as going after bin Laden. So I am very committed to taking classified information seriously. And as I said, there is no evidence that any classified information ended up in the wrong hands.
MARTHA RADDATZ: OK, we’re going to move on.
DONALD TRUMP: And yet, she didn’t know the word—the letter C on a document. Right? She didn’t even know what that word—what that letter meant. You know, it’s amazing. I’m watching Hillary go over facts, and she’s going after fact after fact. And she’s lying again, because she said she—you know, what she did with the emails was fine. You think it was fine to delete 33,000 emails? I don’t think so. She said the 33,000 emails had to do with her daughter’s wedding, number one, and a yoga class. Well, maybe we’ll give three or three or four or five or something. Thirty-three thousand emails deleted, and now she’s saying there wasn’t anything wrong.
And more importantly, that was after getting a subpoena. That wasn’t before. That was after. She got it from the United States Congress. And I’ll be honest, I am so disappointed in congressmen, including Republicans, for allowing this to happen, our Justice Department where her husband goes onto the back of an airplane for 39 minutes, talks to the attorney general, days before a ruling is going to be made on her case. But for you to say that there was nothing wrong with you deleting 39,000 emails, again, you should be ashamed of yourself. What you did—and this is after getting a subpoena from the United States Congress—
ANDERSON COOPER: We have to move on. Secretary Clinton, you can respond, and then we’ve got to move on.
DONALD TRUMP: If you did that—wait a minute. One second.
MARTHA RADDATZ: We want to give the audience a chance here.
DONALD TRUMP: If you did that in the private sector, you’d be put in jail, let alone after getting a subpoena from the United States Congress.
ANDERSON COOPER: Secretary Clinton, you can respond, then we have to move on to a audience question.
HILLARY CLINTON: Look, it’s just not true. And so, please, go to—
DONALD TRUMP: Oh, you didn’t delete them? You didn’t delete them?
ANDERSON COOPER: Allow her to respond, please.
HILLARY CLINTON: Those were personal emails, not official.
DONALD TRUMP: Over 33,000? Yeah, right.
HILLARY CLINTON: Not—well, we turned over 35,000, so it was—
DONALD TRUMP: Oh, yeah. What about the other 15,000?
ANDERSON COOPER: Please allow her to respond. She didn’t talk while you talked.
HILLARY CLINTON: Yes, that’s true, I didn’t.
DONALD TRUMP: Because you have nothing to say.
HILLARY CLINTON: And I didn’t in the first debate, and I’m going to try not to in this debate, because I’d like to get to the questions that the people have brought here tonight to talk to us about.
DONALD TRUMP: And get off this question.
HILLARY CLINTON: OK, Donald. I know you’re into big diversion tonight, anything to avoid talking about your campaign and the way it’s exploding and the way Republicans are leaving you. But let’s at least focus—
DONALD TRUMP: Let’s—let’s see what happens in the [inaudible]. Let’s see what happens.
ANDERSON COOPER: Allow her to respond.
HILLARY CLINTON: —on some of the issues that people care about tonight. Let’s get to their questions.
AMY GOODMAN: Green Party presidential nominee Jill Stein, your response? You have two minutes.
DR. JILL STEIN: You know, Hillary Clinton’s behavior, I think, you know, extremely careless with regard to the emails. That amounts to gross negligence, which technically is the threshold for prosecution for having violated laws about how national security information should be handled. The fact that a leaker was not—or that a hacker was not discovered doesn’t mean anything, because hackers often leave no trace, and you only find out long, long after.
Hillary Clinton also stated—and this was in the inspector general’s report—that this was intentional, that she did not want her private business subject to FOIA, to Freedom of Information Act. And, in fact, what she deleted amounted to half the volume of her emails, which is pretty staggering that someone on a job as busy as the secretary of state’s job has half of their time on the job, or at least half the volume of their emails, is spent on their own personal business.
And it’s a little bit disturbing that as she is conducting the secretary’s business, she has concurrently this Clinton Foundation business, where she is granting special favors, special partnerships, special government contracts, weapons deals, etc., to Clinton Foundation donors.
So, there’s just a lot here that represents how the economic and political elite are very much represented, I think, by both of these candidates, and underscores why it’s really important for us to exercise our power in a democracy. We have a right to know who we can vote for, as well as a right to vote. And I urge people to go to my website,Jill2016.com, and join our campaign for open debates, so that we can truly learn what is at stake in this election and what our options are. Thank you.
AMY GOODMAN: Let’s go back to debate co-moderator Martha Raddatz of ABC.
MARTHA RADDATZ: We’re going to move on to Syria. Both of you have mentioned that.
DONALD TRUMP: But she said a lot of things that were false. I mean, I think we should—
MARTHA RADDATZ: You’ve—you—
DONALD TRUMP: —be allowed to maybe dispute—
MARTHA RADDATZ: We can—no, Mr. Trump, we’re going to go on. This is about the audience—
DONALD TRUMP: —because she has been a disaster as a senator.
MARTHA RADDATZ: Mr. Trump, we’re going to move on. The heartbreaking video of a five-year-old Syrian boy named Omran sitting in an ambulance after being pulled from the rubble after an airstrike in Aleppo focused the world’s attention on the horrors of the war in Syria, with 136 million views on Facebook alone. But there are much worse images coming out of Aleppo every day now, where in the past few weeks alone 400 have been killed, at least 100 of them children. Just days ago, the State Department called for a war crimes investigation of the Syrian regime of Bashar al-Assad and its ally, Russia, for their bombardment of Aleppo. So this next question comes from social media, through Facebook. Diane from Pennsylvania asks: "If you were president, what would you do about Syria and the humanitarian crisis in Aleppo? Isn’t it a lot like the Holocaust, when the U.S. waited too long before we helped?" Secretary Clinton, we will begin with your two minutes.
HILLARY CLINTON: Well, the situation in Syria is catastrophic, and every day that goes by, we see the results of the regime, by Assad, in partnership with the Iranians on the ground, the Russians in the air, bombarding places, in particular, Aleppo, where there are hundreds of thousands of people, probably about 250,000 still left. And there is a determined effort by the Russian Air Force to destroy Aleppo in order to eliminate the last of the Syrian rebels who are really holding out against the Assad regime. Russia hasn’t paid any attention to ISIS. They’re interested in keeping Assad in power. So I, when I was secretary of state, advocated, and I advocate today, a no-fly zone and safe zones. We need some leverage with the Russians, because they are not going to come to the negotiating table for a diplomatic resolution unless there is some leverage over them. And we have to work more closely with our partners and allies on the ground.
But I want to emphasize that what is at stake here is the ambitions and the aggressiveness of Russia. Russia has decided that it’s all in in Syria, and they’ve also decided who they want to see become president of the United States, too, and it’s not me. I’ve stood up to Russia. I’ve taken on Putin and others. And I would do that as president. I think wherever we can cooperate with Russia, that’s fine, and I did, as secretary of state. That’s how we got a treaty reducing nuclear weapons. It’s how we got the sanctions on Iran that put a lid on the Iranian nuclear program without firing a single shot. So I would go to the negotiating table with more leverage than we have now. But I do support the effort to investigate for crimes, war crimes, committed by the Syrians and the Russians, and try to hold them accountable.
MARTHA RADDATZ: Thank you, Secretary Clinton. Mr. Trump?
DONALD TRUMP: First of all, she was there, as secretary of state, with the so-called line in the sand, which—
HILLARY CLINTON: No, I wasn’t. I was gone. I hate to interrupt you, but at some point—
DONALD TRUMP: OK. But you were in contact—excuse me. You were—
HILLARY CLINTON: At some point we need to do some fact checking here.
DONALD TRUMP: You were in total contact with the White House, and perhaps, sadly, Obama probably still listened to you. I don’t think he’d be listening to you very much anymore. Obama draws the line in the sand. It was laughed at all over the world, what happened.
Now, with that being said, she talks tough against Russia. But our nuclear program has fallen way behind, and they’ve gone wild with their nuclear program. Not good. Our government shouldn’t have allowed that to happen. Russia is new in terms of nuclear. We are old. We’re tired. We’re exhausted in terms of nuclear. A very bad thing. Now, she talks tough. She talks really tough against—against Putin and against Assad. She talks in favor of the rebels. She doesn’t even know who the rebels are. You know, every time we take rebels, whether it’s in Iraq or anywhere else, we’re arming people. And you know what happens? They end up being worse than the people. Look at what she did in Libya with Gaddafi. Gaddafi’s out. It’s a mess. And, by the way, ISIS has a good chunk of their oil. I’m sure you probably have heard that. It was a disaster, because the fact is, almost everything she’s done in foreign policy has been a mistake, and it’s been a disaster.
AMY GOODMAN: Jill Stein, your final comment, presidential nominee of the Green Party, on this issue of Syria?
DR. JILL STEIN: So, Syria is a disaster, and it’s a very complicated disaster. It is a civil war. It is a proxy war among many nations. It is a pipeline war also between Russia and the Gulf states, who are competing to run their pipelines with fracked gas into Europe across Syria. So, this is a very complicated situation, and there is a hornets’ nest, a real circular firing squad of alliances here that’s, you know, extremely, extremely complicated.
To present a no-fly zone here as a solution is extremely dangerous. A no-fly zone means we are going to war with Russia, because it means we will be shooting down planes in the sky in order to create this no-fly zone, which is where Russia has a commitment to defending the Assad government. So, remember, there was a ceasefire, which was very hard-won, and that ceasefire was destroyed by the action of the Americans bombing, apparently by mistake, although some people say not by mistake, but it was our bombing of the Syrian troops that destroyed that ceasefire.
We need to redouble our efforts here. And we need to acknowledge that war with Russia is not an option. There are 2,000 nuclear weapons on hair-trigger alert. And who was it that dropped out of the nuclear arms control? That was George Bush. That was our part, the U.S., in allowing the nuclear arms race to re-engage. Mikhail Gorbachev, the former premier of the Soviet Union, said last week—
AMY GOODMAN: Ten seconds.
DR. JILL STEIN: —that we are now at a more dangerous period regarding nuclear war than we have ever been. So, it’s really important for the warmongers in the Democratic and Republican parties to be cooling their jets now and for us to be moving forward towards a weapons embargo and a freeze on the funding of those countries that are continuing to fund terrorist enterprises.
AMY GOODMAN: Green Party presidential candidate Dr. Jill Stein, thanks so much for being with us as part of our "Expanding the Debate" two-hour special. If you didn’t get the whole thing, go to democracynow.org, and also our three-and-a-half-hour special on the night of the St. Louis debate, Sunday night, with all of our guests in pre- and post-debate conversation. ... Read More →
In Shocking Tape Trump Boasts of Sexually Assaulting Women: "When You're a Star…You Can Do Anything"
Sunday’s presidential debate between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump capped an extraordinary weekend that saw top Republicans call on Trump to end his presidential run following the release of a videotape showing Trump boasting about sexually assaulting women. The three-minute video, recorded by NBC’s "Access Hollywood" in 2005, was released Friday by The Washington Post. It opens with audio of Trump and TV host Billy Bush speaking on a bus as Trump prepares to meet Arianne Zucker, star of the soap opera "Days of Our Lives."
TRANSCRIPT
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
AMY GOODMAN: With the presidential election just over four weeks away, Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton faced off Sunday night at Washington University in St. Louis in whatPolitico described as the "ugliest debate" in U.S. history. We’ll play excerpts from the debate in a moment and expand the debate by giving Green Party nominee Jill Stein a chance to respond to the same questions posed to Trump and Clinton. But first we turn to the Trump videotape that has shaken up the race.
On Friday, Washington Post published a shocking video from 2005 of Donald Trump talking on an open microphone, bragging about sexually assaulting women. The video is unaired footage from NBC’s Access Hollywood. In the video, you can hear Trump and TV host Billy Bush speaking on a bus before Trump appears on the soap opera Days of Our Lives. A warning to our audience, this video contains vulgar, disturbing language.
UNIDENTIFIED: She’s still very beautiful.
DONALD TRUMP: I moved on her, actually. You know, she was down in Palm Beach. I moved on her. And I failed. I’ll admit it.
UNIDENTIFIED: Whoa!
DONALD TRUMP: I did try and [bleep]. She was married.
UNIDENTIFIED: That’s huge news there!
DONALD TRUMP: No, no, Nancy. No, this was—and I moved on her very heavily. In fact, I took her out furniture shopping. She wanted to get some furniture. I said, "I’ll show you where they have some nice furniture." I took her out furniture—I moved on her like a bitch, but I couldn’t get there. And she was married. Then all of a sudden I see her; she’s now got the big phony tits and everything. She’s totally changed her look.
BILLY BUSH: Sheesh, you girl’s hot as [bleep]. In the purple.
DONALD TRUMP: Whoa!
BILLY BUSH: Yes!
DONALD TRUMP: Whoa!
BILLY BUSH: Yes! The Donald has scored!
DONALD TRUMP: Whoa!
BILLY BUSH: Whoa, my man! Wait, wait, you’ve got to look at me when you get out and be like—
UNIDENTIFIED: Just remember who set this up. Just remember.
BILLY BUSH: Will you give me the thumbs up?
DONALD TRUMP: That is very funny. Look at you. You are a pussy.
BILLY BUSH: You’ve got to put the thumbs up. You’ve got to give the thumbs up.
UNIDENTIFIED: You can’t be too happy, man.
BILLY BUSH: You’ve got to give the thumbs up.
DONALD TRUMP: All right, you and I will walk in.
BILLY BUSH: Oh, my god!
DONALD TRUMP: Maybe it’s a different one.
BILLY BUSH: It better not be the publicist. No, it’s her. It’s her.
DONALD TRUMP: Yeah, that’s her, with the gold. I’ve got to use some Tic Tacs just in case I start kissing her. You know, I’m automatically attracted to beautiful—I just start kissing them. It’s like a magnet. I just kiss. I don’t even wait. And when you’re a star, they let you do it. You can do anything.
BILLY BUSH: Whatever you want.
DONALD TRUMP: Grab ’em by the pussy. You can do anything.
BILLY BUSH: Look at those legs. All I can see is the legs.
DONALD TRUMP: Oh, looks good.
BILLY BUSH: Come on, shorty.
DONALD TRUMP: Ooh, nice legs, huh?
BILLY BUSH: Oof, get out of the way, honey. Oh, that’s good legs. Go ahead.
DONALD TRUMP: It’s always good if you don’t fall out of the bus. Like Ford, Gerald Ford. Remember?
BILLY BUSH: Down below. Pull the handle.
DONALD TRUMP: Hello. How are you? Hi.
ARIANNE ZUCKER: Hi, Mr. Trump. How are you? Pleasure to meet you.
DONALD TRUMP: Nice seeing you.
ARIANNE ZUCKER: Pleasure to meet you.
DONALD TRUMP: Terrific. Terrific. You know Billy Bush?
ARIANNE ZUCKER: How are you?
BILLY BUSH: Hello. Nice to see you. How are you doing, Arianne?
ARIANNE ZUCKER: I’m doing very well. Thank you. Are you ready to be a soap star?
DONALD TRUMP: We’re ready. Let’s go. Make me a soap star.
BILLY BUSH: How about a little hug for the Donald? He just got off the bus.
ARIANNE ZUCKER: Would you like a little hug, darling?
DONALD TRUMP: OK, absolutely. Melania said this was OK.
BILLY BUSH: How about a little hug for the Bushy? I just got off the bus.
ARIANNE ZUCKER: Oh, Bushy, Bushy.
BILLY BUSH: There we go. Excellent. Well, you’ve got a nice co-star here.
ARIANNE ZUCKER: Yes, absolutely.
DONALD TRUMP: Good. After you. Come on, Billy. Don’t be shy.
BILLY BUSH: As soon as a beautiful woman shows up, he just—he takes off on me. This always happens.
DONALD TRUMP: Get over here, Billy.
ARIANNE ZUCKER: I’m sorry. Come here.
BILLY BUSH: Let the little guy in here. Come on.
ARIANNE ZUCKER: Yeah, let the little guy in. How you feel now? Better?
BILLY BUSH: It’s hard to walk next to a guy like this.
ARIANNE ZUCKER: I should actually be in the middle. Here, wait. Hold on.
BILLY BUSH: Yeah, you get in the middle. There we go.
DONALD TRUMP: Good. That’s better.
ARIANNE ZUCKER: This is much better. This is—
DONALD TRUMP: That’s better.
BILLY BUSH: Now, if you had to choose, honestly, between one of us—me or the Donald—who would it be?
DONALD TRUMP: I don’t know. That’s tough competition.
ARIANNE ZUCKER: That’s some pressure right there.
BILLY BUSH: Seriously, you had to take one of us as a date.
ARIANNE ZUCKER: I have to take the Fifth on that one.
BILLY BUSH: Really?
ARIANNE ZUCKER: Yup. I’ll take both.
DONALD TRUMP: Which way?
ARIANNE ZUCKER: Make a right. Here we go. Right on The Days.
BILLY BUSH: Here he goes. I’m going to leave you here.
DONALD TRUMP: OK.
BILLY BUSH: Give me my microphone.
DONALD TRUMP: OK. You’re going to—oh, you’re finished?
AMY GOODMAN: Video footage of Donald Trump from 2005. Trump is now facing a growing number of calls to step down as the Republican Party’s nominee. At least 15 Republican senators, including former Republican presidential nominee John McCain, are now openly opposing Trump’s candidacy. The highest-ranking Republican woman in Congress condemned Trump’s comments. Congressmember Cathy McMorris Rodgers of Washington state said, quote, "It is never appropriate to condone unwanted sexual advances or violence against women. Mr. Trump must realize that it has no place in public or private conversations," she wrote. Donald Trump has rejected calls to step down. Trump’s running mate, Mike Pence, said Saturday, quote, "We pray for his family and look forward to the opportunity he has to show what is in his heart when he goes before the nation tomorrow night," unquote.
After a short break, we’ll spend the rest of the show airing excerpts of the presidential debate in St. Louis and give Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein, who’s in St. Louis, a chance to respond to the same questions posed to Hillary and Trump—to Clinton and Trump. Stein and Libertarian presidential candidate Gary Johnson were excluded from the debate under stringent rules set by the Commission on Presidential Debates, which is controlled by the Democratic and Republican parties. We invited both Stein and Johnson to join us on the program; only Stein took us up on the offer. We’ll be back in a minute.... Read More →Headlines:
Haiti: Hurricane Death Toll Tops 1,000 as Cholera Spreads
In Haiti, the death toll from Hurricane Matthew has topped 1,000 as the country battles a growing cholera epidemic and authorities dig mass graves for those killed by the Category 4 storm. U.N. officials said nearly 1 million people are in urgent need of humanitarian assistance, with up to 80 percent of Haiti’s food crops destroyed in some areas. Aid agencies say at least 60,000 people are staying in temporary shelters. Survivors reported drinking well water contaminated by dead livestock. At least 13 people have died of cholera, after floodwaters mixed with sewage. Haiti’s ambassador to the U.S., Paul Altidor, said there are fears of a growing epidemic.Paul Altidor: "Cholera was an issue that Haiti was dealing with, has been dealing with in the past few years. So, in light of what just took place over the past few days, yes, cholera and other health issues may be on the rise."
Sunday’s planned presidential election has been postponed indefinitely in the wake of Hurricane Matthew.
TOPICS:
Haiti
Climate Change
Hurricane
U.S.: Hurricane Death Toll at 17 Amid Severe Flooding
Climate Change
Hurricane
U.S.: Hurricane Death Toll at 17 Amid Severe Flooding
In the U.S., the death toll from Hurricane Matthew has reached 17, after the storm lashed the Atlantic Coast from Florida to Virginia. At least eight people died in North Carolina, where heavy rains caused record-breaking flooding. Parts of Georgia saw record storm surge as high as 12.5 feet. Florida Governor Rick Scott said his state was spared a direct hit, but said the storm caused an "unbelievable" amount of beach erosion.TOPICS:
Hurricane
Climate Change
Donald Trump Boasts of Sexual Assault in 2005 Video
In news from the campaign trail, a defiant Donald Trump squared off against Hillary Clinton in a bitter presidential debate on Sunday, capping an extraordinary weekend that saw top Republicans call on Trump to end his presidential run following the release of a videotape showing Trump boasting about sexually assaulting women. The three-minute video, recorded by NBC’s "Access Hollywood" in 2005, was released Friday by The Washington Post. It opens with audio of Trump and TV host Billy Bush speaking on a bus as Trump prepares to meet Arianne Zucker, star of the soap opera "Days of Our Lives." A warning to our audience: This video contains vulgar, disturbing language.Donald Trump: "I’ve got to use some Tic Tacs just in case I start kissing her. You know, I’m automatically attracted to beautiful—I just start kissing them. It’s like a magnet. Just kiss. I don’t even wait. And when you’re a star, they let you do it. You can do anything."
Billy Bush: "Whatever you want."
Donald Trump: "Grab ’em by the pussy. You can do anything."
TOPICS:
2016 Election
Donald Trump
Sexual Assault
Clinton, Trump Square Off in Caustic Presidential Debate
Donald Trump: "Grab ’em by the pussy. You can do anything."
TOPICS:
2016 Election
Donald Trump
Sexual Assault
Clinton, Trump Square Off in Caustic Presidential Debate
The release of the video dominated campaign coverage throughout the weekend and set the tone for Sunday night’s debate in St. Louis, where Trump was confronted by co-moderator Anderson Cooper of CNN.Anderson Cooper: "You called what you said 'locker room banter.' You described kissing women without consent, grabbing their genitals. That is sexual assault. You bragged that you have sexually assaulted women. Do you understand that?"
Donald Trump: "No, I didn’t say that at all. I don’t think you understood what was said. This was locker room talk. I’m not proud of it. I apologize to my family. I apologize to the American people. Certainly I’m not proud of it. But this is locker room talk."
Trump’s campaign brought three women to the debate who have accused Bill Clinton of sexual crimes, including Juanita Broaddrick, who alleges she was raped by Bill Clinton nearly 40 years ago and that Hillary Clinton worked to cover it up. Clinton did not directly address those charges. She said the video released Friday showed the real Donald Trump.
Hillary Clinton: "What we all saw and heard on Friday was Donald talking about women, what he thinks about women, what he does to women. And he has said that the video doesn’t represent who he is. But I think it’s clear to anyone who heard it that it represents exactly who he is."
Meanwhile, Donald Trump confronted Hillary Clinton over tens of thousands of emails deleted from private email servers she maintained during her time as secretary of state. Trump said Clinton would "be in jail" if he wins the presidency.
Donald Trump: "If I win, I am going to instruct my attorney general to get a special prosecutor to look into your situation, because there has never been so many lies, so much deception. There has never been anything like it. And we’re going to have a special prosecutor."
During the 90-minute debate, Clinton and Trump fielded questions about the Affordable Care Act, potential Supreme Court nominees, Islamophobia and Trump’s call to ban all Muslims from entering the country, income taxes, Syria’s civil war, and energy policies. Global warming was mentioned only once, in passing, by Hillary Clinton. There was no discussion of police killings of people of color or the Black Lives Matter movement. Third-party candidates, including Libertarian Gary Johnson and the Green Party’s Jill Stein, were excluded from the debate stage under stringent rules set by the Commission on Presidential Debates, which is controlled by the Democratic and Republican parties. But after headlines, Democracy Now! will be expanding the debate: We’ll pause the tape after questions answered by Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton to get response from Green Party presidential nominee Jill Stein.
TOPICS:
2016 Election
Hillary Clinton
Donald Trump
Expanding The Debate
Top Republicans Call on Trump to Step Down as Republican Nominee
The debate came as a growing number of Republican officials called on Trump to step down as their party’s nominee following Friday’s release of the video showing Trump boasting of sexual assault. Fifteen Republican senators, including former GOP presidential nominee John McCain, are now openly opposing Trump’s candidacy. The highest-ranking Republican woman in Congress condemned Trump’s comments. Congressmember Cathy McMorris Rodgers of Washington state said, "It is never appropriate to condone unwanted sexual advances or violence against women. Mr. Trump must realize that it has no place in public or private conversations." Donald Trump has rejected calls to step down. In the wake of the tape’s release, there’s a renewed focus on other reports of Trump’s mistreatment of women. New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof published a piece Friday titled "Donald Trump, Groper in Chief." It details the claims of Jill Harth, a Florida business associate of Trump who sued him for sexual harassment after he groped her at a business dinner and later attempted to sexually assault her in the empty bedroom of his daughter Ivanka. Harth described the incident to The Guardian.Jill Harth: "He pulled me aside in the children’s room and made another sexually aggressive advance on me, where he tried to make his move. He pushed me up against the wall and had his hands all over me and tried to get up my dress again. And I had to physically say, 'What are you doing? Stop it.' It was a shocking thing to have him do this, because he knew I was with George, he knew that they were in the next room. And how could he be doing this when I’m there for business?"
TOPICS:
2016 Election
Donald Trump
Sexual Assault
NBC Suspends Billy Bush from "Today" Show over Trump Tape
Meanwhile, NBC News has suspended Billy Bush from the "Today" show over his comments in the 2005 Donald Trump video. Bush is heard cheering on Donald Trump’s descriptions of groping and sexually assaulting women, and objectifying Arianne Zucker, saying, “Sheesh, your girl’s hot as [expletive]” and “Yes! The Donald has scored! Whoa, my man!” Billy Bush is the cousin of former Florida Governor Jeb Bush and President George W. Bush.TOPICS:
2016 Election
Donald Trump
WikiLeaks Reveals Parts of Hillary Clinton’s Speeches to Wall Street
In other campaign news, WikiLeaks has released excerpts of Hillary Clinton’s paid remarks to Wall Street firms, showing the Democratic presidential nominee’s closed-door remarks were starkly at odds with many of her public positions. The speeches became a major flashpoint in the Democratic primaries after Clinton’s opponent, Sen. Bernie Sanders, challenged Clinton to reveal transcripts of her speeches, for which she was paid more than $22 million. The excerpts came in hacked emails of campaign chair John Podesta. In one speech to a housing trade group in 2013, Clinton spoke of "unsavory" political maneuvering and needing "both a public and a private position" when crafting laws. In an exchange with Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein in 2013, Clinton complained about ethics rules requiring politicians to sell off certain assets when taking office. In other speeches, Clinton largely absolved Wall Street firms for the crash of 2008 and said financial reform "really has to come from the industry itself."TOPICS:
2016 Election
Hillary Clinton
WikiLeaks
Clinton Campaign Accuses Russia of "Weaponizing" WikiLeaks
The WikiLeaks revelations came just hours after the Clinton campaign accused Russia of siding with Donald Trump in the presidential race. A campaign spokesperson blamed Russian hackers for stealing Clinton campaign emails, and said the Kremlin had "weaponized" WikiLeaks to meddle in the U.S. election.TOPICS:
2016 Election
Hillary Clinton
Russia
WikiLeaks
Yemen: U.S.-Backed Saudi Coalition Bombing Kills 140, Wounds Hundreds
In Yemen, hospitals struggled to care for the wounded after a U.S.-backed Saudi coalition bombed a funeral hall in the capital Sana’a, killing at least 140 mourners and wounding more than 500 others. Survivors spoke of back-to-back bombings during a funeral service for the father of an official with the rebel Houthi government, which controls Sana’a.Salim Saleh Rowaishan: "There were over 800 people in the hall, including the elderly and children. Suddenly we heard the sound of airplanes, and then the bombing took place. The first bomb ripped through the ceiling and exploded, with the basement destroyed, as well. I was injured and was at a loss. The heat made me feel I was burning. I got up and ran toward the door, where people came in to rescue us. Just then, the second bomb came and hit those people coming to rescue us."
Thousands of Yemenis gathered at the United Nations’ building in Sana’a on Sunday calling for an international investigation into the assault. This is protester Aamer Hussein Al-Salimi.
Aamer Hussein Al-Salimi: "We came out to the United Nations today to call for our human rights and to denounce this unprecedented massacre that took place yesterday at the mourning hall. Where are the human rights? Where is the U.N.? Where is the world?"
The Obama administration on Saturday condemned the airstrikes, saying in a statement, "U.S. security cooperation with Saudi Arabia is not a blank check." The attack was carried out with warplanes and munitions sold to the Saudi-led coalition by the United States. The U.S. Air Force continues to provide midair refueling to Saudi warplanes. The latest attack came as the U.N. warned the civil war is leading to famine in Yemen, where some 1.5 million children are currently malnourished and 28 million people are short of food.
TOPICS:
Yemen
Saudi Arabia
Arms Trade
Russia Vetoes Security Council Resolution on Syria Ceasefire
In Syria, a militia loyal to President Bashar al-Assad advanced on eastern Aleppo, where more than a quarter-million people have been living under siege and daily bombardment. Members of the Quds Brigade said they had taken control of a crossroads northeast of the city. The fighting came as Russia on Saturday vetoed a resolution at the U.N. Security Council calling for a ceasefire and demanding the grounding of Syrian and Russian warplanes over Aleppo. A Russian counter-resolution that allowed for continued bombing was rejected on a 9-4 vote.TOPICS:
Syria
Russia
United Nations
Federal Court Rules Against Standing Rock Tribe in Dakota Access Pipeline Suit
A federal appeals court on Sunday rejected a bid by the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe to permanently halt construction on part of the Dakota Access pipeline. The ruling by the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals paves the way for the Dakota Access company to resume construction on private lands adjacent to Lake Oahe on the Missouri River. A decision on whether the pipeline can proceed under the river rests with the Army Corps of Engineers. The Standing Rock Tribe argued unsuccessfully that construction of the $3.8 billion pipeline is destroying cultural artifacts and sacred sites. Members of hundreds of indigenous nations who’ve gathered at the Standing Rock reservation say they’ll continue to fight the Dakota Access pipeline.TOPICS:
Dakota Access Pipeline
Natural Gas & Oil Drilling
Environment
Indigenous
Native American
Iowa: Unicorn Riot Journalist Arrested Covering #NoDAPL Protests
Meanwhile, activists in southeastern Iowa continued a campaign of civil disobedience aimed at stopping the Dakota Access pipeline company from boring under the Mississippi River. On Saturday, members of the Mississippi Stand encampment locked their arms together at the site and halted work for about an hour while police worked to separate them. Later on Saturday, an activist locked herself to the underside of a truck, delaying construction while crews dismantled the vehicle’s axle. Among those arrested over the weekend was Lorenzo Serna, who was filming video for the online news site Unicorn Riot.TOPICS:
Dakota Access Pipeline
Natural Gas & Oil Drilling
Environment
Phoenix, AZ and Vermont Observe Indigenous Peoples’ Day
And Phoenix, Arizona, has become the largest U.S. city to replace Columbus Day with Indigenous Peoples’ Day. Phoenix joins a growing list of cities including Denver, Seattle, Minneapolis and Albuquerque. In Vermont, Governor Peter Shumlin issued a statewide proclamation making the second Monday of October Indigenous Peoples’ Day. Columbus Day has long evoked sadness and anger among Native Americans, who object to honoring a man who opened the door to European colonization, the exploitation of native peoples and the slave trade.TOPICS:
Indigenous
Native American
Columbus Day-------
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SPECIAL BROADCAST
Watch Democracy Now!Special Coverage of Clinton vs. Trump Debate in St. Louis
WEB EXCLUSIVE
Soraya Chemaly: Trump Tape May Be Shocking, But So is Broader GOP Agenda Toward WomenWriter Soraya Chemaly and law professor Kimberlé Crenshaw analyze the significance of the 2005 videotape showing Donald Trump boasting about sexually assaulting women. The three-minute video, recorded by NBC’s "Access Hollywood" in 2005, was released Friday by The Washington Post. "I’ve got to use some Tic Tacs just in case I start kissing her," Trump says in the video. "You know, I’m automatically attracted to beautiful—I just start kissing them. It’s like a magnet. I just kiss. I don’t even wait. And when you’re a star, they let you do it. You can do anything."
TRANSCRIPT
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
AMY GOODMAN: Welcome to Democracy Now!, democracynow.org. This is "War, Peace and the Presidency." I’m Amy Goodman.
NERMEEN SHAIKH: In an hour, Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton will take the stage at Washington University in St. Louis for their second of three debates before next month’s election. The debate is occurring two days after The Washington Post uncovered a shocking video from 2005 of Trump talking on an open microphone about groping women. In the tape, he’s heard saying, quote, "When you’re a star ... you can do anything. Grab ’em by the pussy. You can do anything."
Beginning at 9:00 p.m. Eastern time, we’ll bring you the Trump-Clinton debate and expand the debate by giving Green Party presidential candidate Dr. Jill Stein a chance to respond to the same questions posed to the major-party candidates. Stein and Libertarian presidential candidate Gary Johnson were excluded from the debate under stringent rules set by the Commission on Presidential Debates, which is controlled by the Democratic and Republican parties. We invited both Stein and Johnson to join us on the program; only Stein took us up on the offer.
AMY GOODMAN: But first, Nermeen Shaikh and I will host a roundtable discussion looking at the state of the race as scores of congressmembers, senators and Republican leaders are now calling for Trump to step down. But before we introduce our guests, we’re going to play the full unedited 2005 tape of Donald Trump that’s shaken up the presidential race. This video is unaired footage from NBC’s Access Hollywood of Trump and TV host Billy Bush speaking on a bus before Trump appeared on the soap opera Days of Our Lives. It was released on Friday night. All the networks have been airing it. A warning to our audience: This video is vulgar, and it contains very disturbing language.
UNIDENTIFIED: She’s still very beautiful.
DONALD TRUMP: I moved on her, actually. You know, she was down in Palm Beach. I moved on her. And I failed. I’ll admit it.
UNIDENTIFIED: Whoa!
DONALD TRUMP: I did try and [bleep]. She was married.
UNIDENTIFIED: That’s huge news there!
DONALD TRUMP: No, no, Nancy. No, this was—and I moved on her very heavily. In fact, I took her out furniture shopping. She wanted to get some furniture. I said, "I’ll show you where they have some nice furniture." I took her out furniture—I moved on her like a bitch, but I couldn’t get there. And she was married. Then all of a sudden I see her; she’s now got the big phony tits and everything. She’s totally changed her look.
BILLY BUSH: Sheesh, you girl’s hot as [bleep]. In the purple.
DONALD TRUMP: Whoa!
BILLY BUSH: Yes!
DONALD TRUMP: Whoa!
BILLY BUSH: Yes! The Donald has scored!
DONALD TRUMP: Whoa!
BILLY BUSH: Whoa, my man! Wait, wait, you’ve got to look at me when you get out and be like—
UNIDENTIFIED: Just remember who set this up. Just remember.
BILLY BUSH: Will you give me the thumbs up?
DONALD TRUMP: That is very funny. Look at you. You are a pussy.
BILLY BUSH: You’ve got to put the thumbs up. You’ve got to give the thumbs up.
UNIDENTIFIED: You can’t be too happy, man.
BILLY BUSH: You’ve got to give the thumbs up.
DONALD TRUMP: All right, you and I will walk in.
BILLY BUSH: Oh, my god!
DONALD TRUMP: Maybe it’s a different one.
BILLY BUSH: It better not be the publicist. No, it’s her. It’s her.
DONALD TRUMP: Yeah, that’s her, with the gold. I’ve got to use some Tic Tacs just in case I start kissing her. You know, I’m automatically attracted to beautiful—I just start kissing them. It’s like a magnet. I just kiss. I don’t even wait. And when you’re a star, they let you do it. You can do anything.
BILLY BUSH: Whatever you want.
DONALD TRUMP: Grab ’em by the pussy. You can do anything.
BILLY BUSH: Look at those legs. All I can see is the legs.
DONALD TRUMP: Oh, looks good.
BILLY BUSH: Come on, shorty.
DONALD TRUMP: Ooh, nice legs, huh?
BILLY BUSH: Oof, get out of the way, honey. Oh, that’s good legs. Go ahead.
DONALD TRUMP: It’s always good if you don’t fall out of the bus. Like Ford, Gerald Ford. Remember?
BILLY BUSH: Down below. Pull the handle.
DONALD TRUMP: Hello. How are you? Hi.
ARIANNE ZUCKER: Hi, Mr. Trump. How are you? Pleasure to meet you.
DONALD TRUMP: Nice seeing you.
ARIANNE ZUCKER: Pleasure to meet you.
DONALD TRUMP: Terrific. Terrific. You know Billy Bush?
ARIANNE ZUCKER: How are you?
BILLY BUSH: Hello. Nice to see you. How are you doing, Arianne?
ARIANNE ZUCKER: I’m doing very well. Thank you. Are you ready to be a soap star?
DONALD TRUMP: We’re ready. Let’s go. Make me a soap star.
BILLY BUSH: How about a little hug for the Donald? He just got off the bus.
ARIANNE ZUCKER: Would you like a little hug, darling?
DONALD TRUMP: OK, absolutely. Melania said this was OK.
BILLY BUSH: How about a little hug for the Bushy? I just got off the bus.
ARIANNE ZUCKER: Oh, Bushy, Bushy.
BILLY BUSH: There we go. Excellent. Well, you’ve got a nice co-star here.
ARIANNE ZUCKER: Yes, absolutely.
DONALD TRUMP: Good. After you. Come on, Billy. Don’t be shy.
BILLY BUSH: As soon as a beautiful woman shows up, he just—he takes off on me. This always happens.
DONALD TRUMP: Get over here, Billy.
ARIANNE ZUCKER: I’m sorry. Come here.
BILLY BUSH: Let the little guy in here. Come on.
ARIANNE ZUCKER: Yeah, let the little guy in. How you feel now? Better?
BILLY BUSH: It’s hard to walk next to a guy like this.
ARIANNE ZUCKER: I should actually be in the middle. Here, wait. Hold on.
BILLY BUSH: Yeah, you get in the middle. There we go.
DONALD TRUMP: Good. That’s better.
ARIANNE ZUCKER: This is much better. This is—
DONALD TRUMP: That’s better.
BILLY BUSH: Now, if you had to choose, honestly, between one of us—me or the Donald—who would it be?
DONALD TRUMP: I don’t know. That’s tough competition.
ARIANNE ZUCKER: That’s some pressure right there.
BILLY BUSH: Seriously, you had to take one of us as a date.
ARIANNE ZUCKER: I have to take the Fifth on that one.
BILLY BUSH: Really?
ARIANNE ZUCKER: Yup. I’ll take both.
DONALD TRUMP: Which way?
ARIANNE ZUCKER: Make a right. Here we go. Right on The Days.
BILLY BUSH: Here he goes. I’m going to leave you here.
DONALD TRUMP: OK.
BILLY BUSH: Give me my microphone.
DONALD TRUMP: OK. You’re going to—oh, you’re finished?
NERMEEN SHAIKH: That was the 2005 video of Donald Trump that has shaken up the presidential election. In his first response to the video, Trump said, quote, "Bill Clinton has said far worse to me on the golf course—not even close. I apologize if anyone was offended." Trump later recorded a video apology.
DONALD TRUMP: I’ve never said I’m a perfect person nor pretended to be someone that I’m not. I’ve said and done things I regret. And the words released today on this more than a decade-old video are one of them. Anyone who knows me knows these words don’t reflect who I am. I said it, I was wrong, and I apologize.
I’ve traveled the country talking about change for America, but my travels have also changed me. I’ve spent time with grieving mothers who have lost their children, laid-off workers whose jobs have gone to other countries, and people from all walks of life who want a better future. I have gotten to [know the great people of our country. And I’ve been humbled by the faith they’ve placed in me. I] pledge to be a better man tomorrow and will never, ever let you down.
Let’s be honest. We’re living in the real world. This is nothing more than a distraction from the important issues we are facing today. We are losing our jobs, we are less safe than we were eight years ago, and Washington is totally broken. Hillary Clinton and her kind have run our country into the ground.
I’ve said some foolish things, but there’s a big difference between the words and actions of other people. Bill Clinton has actually abused women, and Hillary has bullied, attacked, shamed and intimidated his victims. We will discuss this more in the coming days. See you at the debate on Sunday.
NERMEEN SHAIKH: That was the video that Trump released late on Friday night. Trump is now facing a number of calls to step down as the Republican Party’s nominee. Fifteen Republican senators, including former Republican presidential nominee John McCain, are now openly opposing Trump’s candidacy. The highest-ranking Republican woman in Congress condemned his comments. Congresswoman Cathy McMorris Rodgers of Washington state said, quote, "It is never appropriate to condone unwanted sexual advances or violence against women. Mr. Trump must realize that it has no place in public or private conversations." Donald Trump has rejected calls to step down.
AMY GOODMAN: Donald Trump’s running mate, Mike Pence, said, quote, "As a husband and a father, I was offended by the words and actions described by Donald Trump in the 11-year-old video released yesterday. I do not condone his remarks and cannot defend them. I am grateful that he has expressed remorse and apologized to the American people. We pray for his family and look forward to the opportunity he has to show what is in his heart when he goes before the nation tomorrow night," unquote.
More attention is also being paid to other reports of Trump’s mistreatment of women.New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof has written a piece titled "Donald Trump, Groper in Chief." It details the claims of a Florida business associate of Trump who sued him for sexual harassment after he groped her at a business dinner and later attempted to sexually assault her in the empty bedroom of his daughter Ivanka in Florida.
To talk more about the Trump tape and its significance, we’re joined by a number of people. We start with Soraya Chemaly, who is joining us from Washington, D.C. She is a writer and journalist who covers the intersection of gender and politics.
Soraya, welcome back to Democracy Now! Share your response to this tape and what is happening online right now and what you feel is the significance of it.
SORAYA CHEMALY: I think that the significant aspect of this tape is the outrage that it’s generated in the Republican Party, which I think is largely being miscategorized. There’s nothing in particular revealing about this videotape. It says more about why people are responding the way they are, but a specific set of people, right? What we’re really talking about are the people who are in charge of the Republican Party. And their response at this point, it seems to me, is a fairly viscerally selfish one. They’re worried about Senate and House seats that might be lost, and I also think they’re worried about what the exposure of that private conversation says about their generally paternalistic approach to thinking and talking and legislating women’s lives.
AMY GOODMAN: Can you respond to the language that Donald Trump used, what exactly he said he was doing, the issue of, well, what people are calling—and this includes a number of Republicans—sexual assault and being a sexual predator?
SORAYA CHEMALY: So, he describes women as bits and pieces—legs, arms, tits. He talks about grabbing them without their consent. He very, very easily and casually displays the kind of extremely toxic male sexual entitlement that women have to navigate all day every day, that we start navigating when we’re children. And he does all of this, and then he walks out of this bus with Billy Bush, and they make a quiet mockery of the woman that they’re greeting. And I think that entire package, together, says a great deal about this useful division that we have in our society between what is public and what is private. It has, for a very, very long time, protected conversations like those. And we’re supposed to go along with the idea that these are unrelated, that the way a man like Trump behaves in private should be kept secret or should be thought of as not publicly relevant, when very clearly it’s critically important to understand.
The thing about what Trump did, though, is he used grossly dehumanizing language, which didn’t break the mold of any history of Republican legislators talking about women’s bodies. I mean, they may not sexualize them and use the kind of vulgar language that he did, but when debates happen about immigration or about women’s reproductive rights, we often, as we did two weeks ago in the debate about the Hyde Amendment, hear women being compared to dogs or mules or pigs or farm animals, and that, too, is a dehumanization. So it’s not that distant from what Trump did. Secondly, he is really fundamentally talking about disregarding women, their desires, their needs, their expressed preferences and their consent. And those kind of ideas drive a lot of the Republican agenda when it comes to talking about social policies and political policies that profoundly shape women’s lives without their participation.
NERMEEN SHAIKH: Well, I’d like to bring in Kimberlé Crenshaw, professor of law at UCLAand at Columbia University. She’s the founder of the African American Policy Forum and a V-Day board member. Welcome to Democracy Now!, Kimberlé.
KIMBERLÉ CRENSHAW: Thanks.
NERMEEN SHAIKH: Can you talk about what you think the impact will be of these tapes on tonight’s debate and, in particular, the speculation that Trump is expected to bring up Hillary’s alleged role in discrediting women who accused her husband, Bill Clinton, of sexual abuse?
KIMBERLÉ CRENSHAW: Yeah. Well, this is unprecedented in American politics. The closest thing that I can ever remember to this was the war of the sexes that happened in the ’70s, when Bobby Riggs goaded Billie Jean King into a tennis match—right?—to challenge women, whether they had the right to be considered equal. But that pales in comparison, because that was basically just for bragging rights. This is for the job of being the leader of the so-called free world.
So, at the center of this debate is the predation of one of the candidates, the long history—this is not new, as everybody has pointed out—of a presidential candidate who has shown nothing but disdain for not just women, but for the general parameters of legitimate public discourse. I mean, to be [inaudible] presidential debate and to call out another woman like Rosie O’Donnell as being a loser, to go on to talk about other candidates being unattractive, to be [inaudible]—presidential. She has to appear congenial. She has to be calm under pressure.
Now, these are not things that are unusual for any woman to deal with. We see many examples of women having to deal with sexist bossed, philandering husbands, wailing children, all while appearing to be calm under pressure. But what adds to this is [inaudible] he is likely to try to pull her into a deeply personal and obviously hurtful situation with her husband. And she’s—she’s really in a Catch-22, because, on one hand, part of the rape culture in which he is operating is meant to blame women for the philandering of their husbands. The other side side of it, of course, is, if she had left him, she would have been blamed for that. So, we know that this is a very, very difficult line that she has to walk.
It is true that the election seems largely to be over. But at the same time, this is not without risk for Hillary Clinton. She really has to be able to step into this. She has to make—make a space for Republican refugees. And that’s going to be a challenge. And she’s got to, at the same time, really motivate the base, because this is really going to be about turnout, especially in areas that are undergoing vote repression.
AMY GOODMAN: Professor—Professor Crenshaw—
KIMBERLÉ CRENSHAW: So, it’s a major moment.
AMY GOODMAN: I wanted to go to a number of clips that are now coming out and, it seems, that we’re going to start hearing and watching a lot more. This is September 2004, an interview, when Donald Trump appeared on The Howard Stern Show. Stern asked Trump if he can call his daughter Ivanka a piece of ass. Trump responded by saying, "Yeah."
DONALD TRUMP: Beautiful Ivanka, she—
HOWARD STERN: By the way, your daughter.
DONALD TRUMP: She’s beautiful.
HOWARD STERN: A piece—can I say this? A piece of ass.
DONALD TRUMP: Yeah. She’s—
HOWARD STERN: Boy, I would back up the Brinks truck. Introduce me to her.
AMY GOODMAN: Two years before, in 2002, Donald Trump appeared on The Howard Stern Show and called 30 the perfect age for women. He described 35 as, quote, "checkout time."
HOWARD STERN: How old is Melania?
DONALD TRUMP: Melania is 30.
HOWARD STERN: [inaudible].
ROBIN QUIVERS: Everybody’s 30. What is this?
DONALD TRUMP: It’s a good age. Howard, it’s a great age for you and I.
HOWARD STERN: It is. You know what? Think about it. Take your age. I don’t know how old you are now. I’m 48. You put it in half, and then you subtract seven. And that’s how old [inaudible].
UNIDENTIFIED: I wouldn’t be flying in helicopters, Howard, if I was you.
DONALD TRUMP: Yeah, it was always very embarrassing. Like, you know, for the last couple years, I’d go out with somebody, and she’s like 21, and she’s talking about, you know, what are you doing, and she’s studying algebra.
HOWARD STERN: So what?
DONALD TRUMP: It was always embarrassing for me to walk in. It’s too young. Thirty is like a perfect age.
HOWARD STERN: Absolutely. She’s had enough life experience.
UNIDENTIFIED: Until she’s 35.
HOWARD STERN: Yeah.
ROBIN QUIVERS: Don’t ever change. Don’t ever change.
HOWARD STERN: Too much—too much life experience.
DONALD TRUMP: What is it at 35, Howard? It’s called checkout time.
AMY GOODMAN: In April of 2005, Donald Trump appeared on The Howard Stern Showand was asked if he ever had sex with a Miss Universe or Miss U.S.A. contestant.
HOWARD STERN: When you were single—
DONALD TRUMP: Right.
HOWARD STERN: —and you own this pageant, you go over, you look—you’re meeting the girls. One of them comes up to you and says, "Mr. Trump, you’re a very sexy man."
DONALD TRUMP: "You’re a beautiful man. You have fantastic hair."
HOWARD STERN: "Well, you’re a powerful man, right? Right? You’re a powerful man."
DONALD TRUMP: Right.
HOWARD STERN: "I want to sleep with you." Now, you’re not the type that would say no.
DONALD TRUMP: I don’t want to hurt their feelings.
HOWARD STERN: Right, no.
DONALD TRUMP: Right.
HOWARD STERN: But, I mean, you see a beautiful woman, you want to have that.
DONALD TRUMP: Right. Well, you certainly think—
HOWARD STERN: You’re a guy who likes to have everything, right?
ROBIN QUIVERS: Well, couldn’t that be construed, however, as—
HOWARD STERN: Conflict?
ROBIN QUIVERS: Yes.
HOWARD STERN: I don’t—I don’t see it as a conflict.
DONALD TRUMP: It could be a conflict of interest. But, you know, it’s the kind of thing you worry about later.
ROBIN QUIVERS: Oh, I see.
HOWARD STERN: Yeah.
DONALD TRUMP: You tend to think about the conflict a little bit later on.
UNIDENTIFIED: The question is: How can it not be construed?
HOWARD STERN: No, I mean—I mean, some of these foreign girls, you know, "Mr. Trump, in my country, we say hello with the vagina. And"—
DONALD TRUMP: Well, you could also say, as the owner of the pageant, it’s your obligation to do that.
HOWARD STERN: So you have done that? Now, tell me what—
DONALD TRUMP: Well, I’ll tell you, the funniest is that I’ll go backstage before a show.
HOWARD STERN: Yes.
DONALD TRUMP: And everyone’s getting dressed and ready and everything else. And, you know, no men are anywhere, and I’m allowed to go in because I’m the owner of the pageant, and therefore I’m inspecting it. You know, I’m inspecting.
ROBIN QUIVERS: Right, right.
DONALD TRUMP: I want to make sure that everything is good.
HOWARD STERN: You’re like a doctor. You’re there—
DONALD TRUMP: So, yeah, they’re dressing. "Is everyone OK?" You know, they’re standing there with no clothes. "Is everybody OK?" And you see these incredible-looking women. And so I sort of get away with things like that.
AMY GOODMAN: That’s Donald Trump in 2005. Soraya Chemaly, your response?
SORAYA CHEMALY: Well, again, I think this is well documented over years. He has an industry based on this treatment of women. And so, again, I come back to this idea of what is the source of this outrage. There really is literally nothing new. And some of it comes back to this idea of who do we trust, right? What we have now is a lot of men expressing outrage, a lot of conservative men expressing outrage. Women have been saying these things for a very long time. And even if they haven’t been saying them out loud, they’ve been experiencing them.
So, I think a lot of this has to do, in a somewhat ironic way, with what they might call identity politics, because Donald Trump is exhibiting the ugliest, crassest, most predatory version of—or flip side, rather, of benevolent sexism—right?—of the paternalism that drives the bargain that many men that are conservative leaders have made. And that bargain is, more or less, we will protect you women, and in exchange for that, we get power. But if that protection is fraudulent, if that protection is this corrupt, if that protection is this predatory, then what does that say about the legitimacy of the power? And I don’t think we can really overstate that, because I think a lot of these responses have to do with a sense of shame, based on this association now with Donald Trump, and what the risk is to that core sense of power.
Again, he has been saying these things and doing these things. He’s been saying them unabashedly. And he’s also said other horribly egregious and hateful things. He’s xenophobic. He’s racist. He cannot seem to tell the truth from one sentence to the next. And so, again, I think that this moment in time is almost a last gasp of panic. I mean, really, what are they supposed to do with this candidate? And what he’s doing now by bringing women who have accused Bill Clinton into the room, which he has done in a press conference prior to this debate, is fall back on this idea that women belong in a different realm, that they compete among themselves in a world on their own, and that he, as a man, cannot directly compete as equals with a woman. I mean, he’s not running against Bill Clinton. He’s running against Hillary Clinton. But he can’t seem to find a way, in his worldview, to do that in a palatable way.
NERMEEN SHAIKH: Well, the release of the video of Donald Trump discussing groping women has raised new questions about Trump’s persecution of the Central Park Five, a group of black and Latino teens who were wrongfully convicted of raping a female jogger in Central Park 25 years ago. Media coverage at that time portrayed them as guilty and used racially coded terms to describe them. Donald Trump took out full-page ads in four city newspapers calling for the reinstatement of the death penalty so they could be executed. Their convictions were vacated in 2002 when the real rapist came forward and confessed, after the five had already served jail terms of up to 13 years. In 2014, a federal judge approved a $41 million settlement for the group, with each of the five receiving around $1 million for each year they were wrongfully imprisoned. So, I’d like to ask you—
AMY GOODMAN: And we have a clip. We have a clip right now of—is it Raymond Santana, who was one of the Central Park Five.
RAYMOND SANTANA: I tried to get my life back together and put one foot in front of the other. But I didn’t—you know, I didn’t realize the social death that we were given as a sentence.
AMY GOODMAN: Now, I want to read from The Washington Post. This past week, "when confronted again with just how wrong he was about the Central Park Five," you know, taking out these full-page ads calling for the—them to get the death penalty, "Trump not only refused to acknowledge widely reported and well-known facts or the court’s official actions in the case. He did not simply refuse to apologize: He described the men as guilty—again, I’m reading from The Washington Post—and then demonstrated, once again, that he is a master at the dark art of using long-standing racial fears, stereotypes and anxieties to advance his personal and political goals." Professor Crenshaw, can you talk about this coming at the same time, like a day before, the video was released?
KIMBERLÉ CRENSHAW: A day before, yeah. So, I think this is the crux of the matter. It is abundantly clear this is a moment in which rape culture is being explored and, for once, at the center of the conversation. But the reality is that this is not just a product of rape culture. It’s a racist rape culture. And it’s a racist rape culture, obviously, for a couple reasons. Number one, it is abundantly clear that no African-American candidate would have been viable if he had had the track record that Donald Trump had. If he had said he owned women in a beauty pageant, if he had talked about his anatomy, if he had talked about the attractiveness of his daughter or having sex with his wives, he would not have been palatable. So, number one, these are not just rantings of a sexist or a chauvinist or elitist playboy. This has whiteness at the core of an exercise of ability to do these things.
Then you add to that this story from last week, which basically hasn’t gotten the attention it deserves. So, effectively, five young men of color might well have been executed for something that they did not do, if Donald Trump had had his way. Rather than seeing this as a moment to reflect, along the lines that he said in his apology—he’s grown, he’s learned, he’s seen new things—rather than walking that back, he doubles down on the idea that these young men should have actually perhaps confronted the death penalty, even after the criminal justice system, as it rarely does, acknowledges that it was an illegitimate conviction. So, it’s this tried and true idea that we’ve seen many, many times before, from the Scottsboro Boys, nine young men who themselves faced possible death by an illegitimate prosecution, all the way to today, the idea being that "Don’t look at what I do. My sexual predatory behavior is for me to do. But for men of color across history, they are the ones that carry the burden of the idea of being the rapists." So, it’s about rape culture.
And, of course, the last thing that we cannot forget is that women and girls of color who are sexually abused never come into Donald Trump’s framework of those who he wants to defend. The very week that the Central Park jogger was raped, 28 other women were raped, most of them women of color. One was thrown down an elevator shaft. The resources and attention that he could have directed to making women safe ends up being an expression of bloodlust. That’s a part of our history that many of us thought that we had gotten away from—until Donald Trump ran for president.
AMY GOODMAN: Well, I want to thank you very much for being with us, Kimberlé Crenshaw, professor of law at UCLA and Columbia University, founder of the African American Policy Forum and a V-Day board member. I also want to thank Soraya Chemaly, who is the journalist who covered the intersection of gender and politics, speaking to us from Washington, D.C.
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