Democracy Now! Friday, March 6, 2026

0:00We've got no shortage of munitions. Our stockpiles of defensive and offensive weapons allow us to sustain this campaign as long as we need to. We have only just begun to fight. The US and Israeli war on Iran has entered a seventh day. The Trump administration says the war is just beginning. We'll go to Lebanon as Israel intensifies its attacks after ordering the entire population of southern Lebanon hundreds of thousands of people to flee their homes. The officials are threatening to turn southern Lebanon into another Gaza. We are now on the northern border after the IDF instructed all residents of the area to

1:04evacuate. You wanted to bring hell upon us. You brought hell upon yourselves. The Dakhia will look like Kanyunas. Our northern residents will live in quiet peace and security. Then President Trump fires Christy Knome as head of Homeland Security. But she was grilled by lawmakers over her record from corruption allegations to the killing of US citizens in Minneapolis. And finally, President Trump's hinting, Cuba might be his next target after Iran. This weekend, Trump's hosting right-wing leaders from across Latin America as the US deploys special forces to Ecuador, all that and more coming up. Welcome to democracy now, democracynow.org, the War and Peace Report. I'm Amy Goodman. The House of Representatives rejected a war power's resolution to reign in President Trump's ability to wage war against Iran. Four House Democrats join nearly every Republican, as the measure narrowly failed on a vote

2:05of 212 to 219. The vote came as the US and Israel intensifies bomb attacks across Iran and one day after the Senate similarly rejected a war power's resolution. Just two Republicans voted in favor of the House War power's resolution. This is its co-sponsor, Kentucky Republican Congress member, Thomas Massey. The President says we had to strike first because an Iranian strike was imminent. Meanwhile, the Department of Defense conceded there was no evidence of an imminent Iranian strike. Some told us this war was about nuclear weapons, but six months ago we were assured our last strike on Iran decimated their nuclear program. So which is it? I think the most candid answer came from the Secretary of State who told the press that Israel forced our hand and dragged us into this war again. And that truth is the very reason why it is Congress that must decide war.

3:06In Iran, mass of explosions shook the capital, Tehran, overnight as the city's 10 million residents endured the most intense night of bombing since the US and Israel launched a joint attack Saturday. There were airstrikes reported near Tehran University on an Iranian military academy, on government buildings and on civilian sites, including residential buildings, car parks and gas stations. Tehran says more than 3600 civilian sites across the country have been damaged in US's early attacks, including ambulances and two dozen medical facilities. Among the dead, according to Iran State media, 20 people killed in 30 injured an attack on a residential area in the city of Shiraz. Meanwhile, Sri Lankan officials have evacuated more than 200 sailors from a second Iranian Navy ship off Sri Lanka's coast. The evacuation came after a U.S. submarine fired a torpedo to sink in a Iranian frigate

4:08that was unarmed and an international waters killing 87 people. On Thursday, Defense Secretary Pete Hague says that Iran is making a mistake if it believes the United States cannot sustain the war indefinitely. We've got no shortage of munitions. Our stockpiles of defensive and offensive weapons allow us to sustain this campaign as long as we need to. We have only just begun to fight and fight decisively. Political reports US Central Command asked the Pentagon to send more military intelligence officers to its Florida headquarters to support operations against Iran for at least 100 days and likely through September. The Center for Strategic and International Studies reports the first 100 hours of U.S. attacks alone cost $3.7 billion dollars. On Thursday, President Trump told Axios in an interview he needs to be personally involved in selecting Iran's next leader, just as he was in Venezuela.

5:14Axios reports Trump acknowledged much debacle on the Sun of the assassinated Supreme Leader, by harmony as the most likely successor, while making clear he finds that outcome unacceptable. Iran is continuing to fire retaliatory missiles and drones at Israel and nations across the Middle East that host U.S. military bases. Iranian missiles crashed down across Tel Aviv earlier today, sparking a fire and damaging several buildings, and no injuries were reported. One missile reportedly struck near Ben Gurion Airport, which hosts U.S. aerial refueling tankers used in the war in Iran. In Iraq, a drone struck an airfield operated by a U.S. firm in the northern Kurdish region, causing a fire. Officials in Bahrain say an oil refinery fire from an Iranian missile strike has been contained while Qatar has fully shut down natural gas liquefaction and won't be able to start operations for at least a month, adding to a growing energy crisis caused by the U.S.

6:16Israeli attacks on Iran. On Thursday, U.S. stocks dropped dramatically with the Dow falling nearly 800 points, as oil prices made their largest weekly gain, and the highest since President Trump took office, the highest weekly gain since 2020. Lebanon's health ministry reports 123 people have been killed in 683 wounded since Israel began massive wave of attacks across much of Lebanon on Monday. Among the dead are a five-year-old girl and a seven-year-old boy killed when the Israeli army raided their home in the town of Mashkara. Over the past 24 hours, Israeli jets bomb southern and eastern Lebanese towns and southern suburbs of the capital Beirut after threatening residents to leave their homes or face death. On Thursday, Israel's far-right finance minister Bezala Smotrich said that all of Beirut's southern suburbs will face devastation similar to Han Yunus in the Gaza Strip, which the Israeli military reduced to rubble.

7:20We are now on the northern border after the IDF instructed all residents of the area to evacuate. You wanted to bring hell upon us, you brought hell upon yourselves. The Dahia will look like Han Yunus. Our northern residents will live in quiet peace and security. In the Gaza Strip, the World Health Organization warns stocks of the central medicines, trauma, and surgical supplies are running critically low along with fuel needed to power medical equipment. The crisis exacerbated after Israel closed all border crossings in Gaza as it launched attacks on Iran Saturday. The Kerem Shalom crossing has since partially reopened but most crossings remain shut. This is Amjad al-Shawah, head of the Palestinian non-governmental organization's network in Gaza. If the crossings remain closed and aid in all its forms is not allowed in, whether medical, food, shelter supplies, and other basic necessities for Palestinian citizens,

8:23at the forefront of the water sector and the maintenance of water networks, we will be facing a dangerous situation and a return to famine, maybe in a form worse than before. Christine Nome has been ousted from her position as Homeland Security Secretary on Thursday, President Trump announced on social media he was firing Nome and replacing her with Republican Senator Mark Wayne, Mullin of Oklahoma. Mullins and enrolled citizen of the Cherokee Nation, Nome had faced intensifying calls to resign or be impeached over her disastrous handling of Trump's immigration rates nationwide and the unchecked violent use of force by her federal agents leading to the fatal shootings of at least four people, including U.S. citizens, Renee Good and Alex Petty and Minneapolis, which Nome then falsely labeled. She labeled them as domestic terrorists. Nome was also widely accused of corruption. Last year she was photographed wearing a gold Rolex Cosmograph Daytona that sells for about $50,000 as she toured

9:24El Salvador's notorious Secot mega prison where Trump had deported hundreds of Venezuelan immigrants. She posed in front of an overcrowded cell where dozens of men in prison at Secot were seen wearing nothing but white shorts. Nome also over saw a multi-million dollar self-promotional DHS advertising campaign. Trump told Reuters an exclusive interview Thursday he hadn't signed off on the $220 million campaign, well of more on Nome's ouster later in the broadcast. This all comes as the Department of Homeland Security remains under a partial shutdown after Senate Democrats blocked a Republican-led bill to fund DHS. Nome's firing was announced shortly before the vote. Earlier, Democratic Senator Richard Blumethov Connecticut had reportedly said quote, it might be easier for us to negotiate on DHS funding if Nome was fired. In Tennessee, a local Nashville journalist whose stories have been critical of ice was arrested and detained by federal agents earlier this week. As to funny Maria Rodriguez Flores,

10:27with the news outlet Nashville Noticias, was reportedly taken during a traffic stop on Wednesday, despite the federal agents not having an arrest warrant. The Tennessee and reported Rodriguez from Columbia has lived in the U.S. since 2021, with a tourist visa and work permit as pending green card and asylum applications. She's also married to a U.S. citizen. In South Sudan, at least 169 people were killed after dozens of armed assaults attacked a town near the border with Sudan. Victims included government soldiers and nearly 100 civilians who were women and children among the dead. A UN mission said it was sheltering more than a thousand civilians who fled the violence. A local official said the attackers were fighters aligned with Rick Machar, one of two rivals for control of South Sudan during the five-year civil war that officially ended in 2018 after an estimated 400,000 people died from the fighting. Meanwhile, the medical charity, doctors without borders, says 26 of its workers remain unaccounted for,

11:29a month after they fled attacks on two medical facilities in South Sudan's Zhongle state. In the Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, more than 200 people were killed after heavy rains triggered a landslide at a major coal-tanned mining site. About 70 children were reportedly among the victims. Their biomines are controlled by the M23 rebel group, which disputed the government's death toll, claiming there had been a bombing at the mining site and that only five people were killed. Al Jazeera reports that a biomine produces about 15 percent of the world's coal-tanned and essential metal that's processed into tantalum to manufacture smartphones, electric car batteries, and other devices. Child labor is rife at the mines with workers facing what's been described as modern-day slavery conditions. And the civil rights pioneer Bernard Lafayette, who joined freedom rides and fought for voting rights in the Jim Crow South as died at the age of 85. In the 1960s, Lafayette was a member of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee.

12:32He later became a faculty member at Auburn University in Alabama, where he lectured on non-violent social change. Democracy now last spoke to Bernard Lafayette in 2020. When he described how a white mob beat freedom riders, including Jim's work and John Lewis, at a Greyhound bus station, a Montgomery, Alabama, in May 1961 as they were protesting segregated interstate travel. Once we got to the bus station, all of the protection disappeared and we were on the platform. And Jim's work was beaten up and John Lewis was clobbered and I got kicked in the chest and had three broken ribs. So there was nothing you could do with broken ribs. So I went through the entire freedom rides with three broken ribs. I didn't tell my fellow freedom riders because they might have insisted that I had not go. So I just kept quiet. I quietly suffered the entire trip.

13:39Bernard Lafayette was 85 years old. And in Chicago today, family and friends of the Reverend Jesse Jackson are gathering for a memorial service, celebrating the life and the of the late civil rights leader who died in February at the age of 84. The service is open to the public. And those are some of the headlines. This is Democracy Now, democracynow.org, the warrant piece report. I'm Amy Goodman in New York with Juan Gonzales in Chicago, Taiwan. Hi Amy and welcome to all of our listeners and viewers across the country and around the world. The death toll in Iran has reached at least 1300 as the U.S. and Israeli war enters a seventh day. Massive explosion shook the capital to run overnight as the city's 10 million residents endured the most intense night of bombing. Around continues to retaliate by launching attacks on Israel and Gulf nations allied with the United States on Thursday. President Trump told Axios he

14:41needs to be personally involved in selecting Iran's next leader just as he was in Venezuela. Meanwhile, Israel's escalating attacks on Lebanon after ordering the entire population of southern Lebanon to flee or face death. In a video shared on Thursday, Israel's far right finance minister Bezal al-Smotrick threatened to turn areas of Lebanon into another Gaza. We are now on the northern border after the IDF instructed all residents of the area to evacuate. You wanted to bring hell upon us? You brought hell upon yourselves. The Dakhia will look like Hanyunas. Our northern residents will live in quiet, peace and security. Displaced residents of Lebanon say they've left everything behind without knowing when or if they will be able to return to their homes. This is Aliyah Hijazi, a mother of 10 who fled southern Lebanon. They said they were going to strike Dakhia so we left and here we are

15:41sitting in the street like you can see. Now we don't know where supposed to go. Where we should go honestly. We don't have any shelter to stay. Brother, you know what I mean? I have 10 children. I don't know where my children are. They're displaced. I don't know where my children are. I have four sons and six daughters. Only this girl is with me. Me and my husband. I don't know about the others. Each one is staying somewhere different. Everyone is living except us. We're not really living. I was six years old and I lived through them warned in 1971, 1982 and 2000 something. And it's still wars, wars, wars. When are we going to be done with wars? We're not going to be done. Brother, I swear we're not going to be done. We go now to Beirut where we're joined by Leila Eunice. She's an investigative journalist and writer based in Beirut. Her new piece for drop site news is headlined mass expulsion in Lebanon as Israel expands war. We don't know where to go.

16:42Leila, thanks so much for being with us. If you can start off by just describing what's happening on the ground as tens of thousands of people are told to leave their homes the entire area of southern Lebanon, which also includes Tyre, the Lebanon's second largest city. Yeah, so it all began on late Sunday night into Monday morning. It kind of the beginning of it was was marked by six very loud airstrikes that shook Beirut, waking many of us up and we all knew that the war here had escalated once again since then Israel first issued evacuation warnings for 50 villages, then 80 villages, and then completely said we are evacuating all villages south of the Lidani River and then yesterday chaos once again and we heard that they're also issuing evacuation orders for Dachhe. As you heard, the individuals who you just sound invited, people are basically fleeing north with nowhere to go. Shelters are filling up rapidly.

17:46People are sleeping on the pavement in the winter nights and it's completely unclear. When this is going to end. And also the Lebanese prime minister Noaf Salam has actually said that any retaliation or military action by his ball against the imperial is not sanctioned by the government. Could you talk about the government's response to the Israeli attack? Yeah, absolutely. So Noaf Salam came into power after the 66 days of escalated fighting in the fall of 2024. On a mandate really to disarm Hezbollah in the south and that mandate was of course coming from the U.S., which does fund the Lebanese army as well as from the Gulf states. The hope of course is that you know the Americans and the Gulf states ultimately help fund not only the reconstruction of southern Lebanon but Lebanon's been embroiled for years in the economic crisis since 2019. And so that investment has been promised to Lebanon

18:52on the condition that it disarms Hezbollah. So Noaf Salam, along with his supporters, have tried very hard for the past year to kind of push this agenda. We've seen the army along with the United Nations peacekeepers stationed in the south release footage of you know Hezbollah tunnels that they've discovered weapons storage sites that they intend to demolish. And yet you know what we're seeing here is it's quite a blow to those plans. Hezbollah clearly remains a significant military capacity even south of the Lithuanian river. They are engaging in active fighting with the Israelis. They're shooting rockets towards Israel missile defense systems and so on. And so you know this obviously doesn't go well for Noaf's agenda and I think that with this latest move calling Hezbollah's acts in Lebanon illegal even you know making claims you know saying that he now wants to start pursuing them asking the army to even you know the rest of people who were shooting rockets into Israel is him kind of trying to signal to the

19:53international community that he continues to stand by that mandate. However you know we're hearing now from from the Israelis and the Americans that they want more. They don't want symbolic actions quote unquote from the Lebanese government they really want to see the army confront the Hezbollah which is which is a quite a daunting prospect right we're talking about you know what could look ultimately like a civil war if such a thing were to take place. And what's your sense of the intention here of Israel are they actually going to try to occupy and hold Lebanese territory? They've said that they intend to occupy at least 15 kilometers they want to into southern Lebanon we're talking about dozens of villages and this is in addition to I think it's really really important to emphasize that Israel's already occupying land and southern Lebanon after the 66 days of fighting they occupied five different points within southern Lebanon they're all up on hills from which they can send drones to to surveil the people of the south and so

20:56you know this is kind of in addition to to what really has already been an occupation they're now saying that they want to push in they want to create a buffer zone and and so that is kind of their intention whether or not they'll be able to do it of course at this very moment unclear however I should add that you know the people of the south will tell you I think the best majority of them they they fear even prior to all of these recent years of war another occupation of southern Lebanon it would not be the first southern Lebanon was occupied it was a brutal occupation from the years of 1982 to 2000 liberation in 2000 and and so people have that the memory of that occupation very fresh in their minds in interviews that I have with people in the south they've frequently pointed to what recently happened in Syria when the south of that country was disarmed following the fall of the Assad regime you know Israeli forces swept into the the golden heights took a lot more land including land with very rich water resources blew up homes

21:58blocked people from there from their farmland and so you know there's great great fear among the people of the south but this is to be repeated again Arab and Muslim leaders I want to talk about them but first earlier today the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk warned about the situation in Lebanon at the moment with these blanket massive displacement orders we are talking here about hundreds and thousands of people we are colleagues on the ground here every day about the anguish that people face about not knowing where to go not knowing how long it will take obviously this raises serious concern under international humanitarian law and in particular when it comes to issues around forced transfer on to the human rights leader of Volker Turk's comments sorry can you respond to Volker Turk's comments yeah I mean I think that what he's saying it's

23:05it's very clear that this is illegal this is ultimately I mean you know we're not talking about issuing a warning for for a building we're talking about issuing warnings for the evacuation of an entire massive massive segments of the country I think every with the word on everyone's mouse here is ethnic cleansing the southern suburbs alone are home to half a million people those people are all now fleeing north and I'd like to tell you the story of one of them my in my article I write about Mustafa Arut who is the the Machtad another Arabic word for local leader of the village of Mesa Javal on the border you know and he I think the story of him and his young relatives is really one that I think he encapsulates the situation very well which is that you know he got the the call to evacuate from the Israelis he packs up with his family he begins to head north in the middle of the night nowhere to go he gets to slide down when I I talked to him when he's just reached slide that's taken him more than 12 hours on the road he's fasting it's Ramadan um he he he tells

24:10me that he's going to go perhaps to did is the Harane which is a village that also has an evacuation order promises no safety that is where he ended up staying the night despite an air strike there and then all the way there he learns that two of his young relatives were killed these two young relatives um Haidat and Rukhlaia ages two and four were actually already living displaced they were living displaced um in the village of uh Sultania in the south and so they're living displaced because their home in Mesa Javal was destroyed and as they're picking up their things their mother is carrying her children about to leave the house and flee and an Israeli air strike you know hits this home of these displaced people so so you know this idea uh so what what the the UN commissioner is saying is absolutely correct I mean this is this is a force transfer I mean I think that even though we're seeing some people like the people of the village of Haidat say we're not leaving some people but Dahia saying we're not leaving um you know the the fact that this this order is so sweeping means that Israel could potentially you know come and say oh well

25:14if we you know it can kill civilians well we shouldn't order for them so so you know we're not responsible for civilian deaths uh which is ludicrous given uh you know the conditions here the the lack of housing and and the fact that people are kind of being asked to massively the an entire regional country we're talking to Layla Eunice on the ground in Beirut Lebanon we're also joined by Omar Shakir the new executive director of dawn on Thursday dawn urged Iran to file a declaration granting the international criminal court jurisdiction over crimes committed in the US and Israeli strikes on schools and hospitals Omar's former Israel and Palestine director at human rights watch he's joining us from Aman Jordan this whole issue of international law Omar if you can talk about how it applies to what we're seeing with Israel and um US's thousands of strikes on Iran uh begun on Saturday uh and the thousands of strikes on Lebanon as we're just hearing

26:14Layla describe absolutely look I mean there's more and more evidence emerging every single day of grave war crimes being carried out by the United States and Israel in Iran and Lebanon and across the region international criminal law has developed mechanisms that can provide accountability for these crimes but it requires states to take particular actions so what Don is calling for now is for the Iranian government as well as other affected states in the region to file a declaration to give the international criminal court jurisdiction to look into serious crimes committed on their territory since February 28th states do not need to be members of the international court to file this declaration in fact both Ukraine and Palestine follow this particular route and ultimately and ended up ending up with the issuance of arrest warrants against perpetrators involved in the perpetration of very serious crimes there is action these governments who have been claiming

27:16inciting war crimes abuses they can't take these actions to provide a pathway to justice they should also be securing evidence they should be providing access to and engaging with human rights fact finders including the UN office of human rights that was cited earlier as well as commissions of inquiries that currently exist for Israel Palestine and for Iran so at the end of the day the abuses we seeing we we we we are seeing our harrowing but there are mechanisms the US has no veto on those mechanisms what is required is political will by these governments to ensure a pathway to accountability but Omar some would say that yes the United States has no ability to veto but it just simply has ignored international law and has faced really no consequences so why should Iran even try to go through the formalities of these of of of requesting this kind of action by the international legal community look I think one if you look at other contexts around the world

28:16the mere fact of arrest warrants can have a deterrent effect certainly in covering Israel Palestine for many years we've seen that reality the only thing that has really led to any sort of you know Israeli government pullback has been has been the threat of accountability or action for example the Palestinian village of Khan Lakhma in the West Bank one of the reasons why it has not been demolished and destroyed was that there was a warning issued by the International Criminal Court and according to Israeli officials after the fact they noted that that served as a deterrent we've also seen when action was taken by states in Europe and around the world around the EU Israel trade agreement we saw them ease up the restrictions and on the blockade in Gaza so ultimately it's easy for us to be skeptical when we see what's happening in the world and indeed what we're seeing is very much a threat to the world the rules based international order but that order still has tools available to it but it requires actions to be taken by states so we have reasons to be skeptical but in the face of you know dozens of school girls and teachers blown to pieces in the

29:21face of it again more than a dozen attacks on hospitals in Iran we're seeing the same playbook from Gaza there that led to a genocide being unfurled in Iran and in ways in Lebanon but we have action that we can take and it's critical that states take it it may not stop the abuses but it could have an effect at this point what we need is action and what about this whole issue of the Trump administration in particular actually going after the human rights monitors or the illegal community that is involved in making these decisions I'm thinking of Francesca Albanese of course but also the judges of the International Criminal Court the United States has certainly issued really draconian sanctions on prosecutors and judges as well as human Palestinian human rights organizations UN Special Procedures those are absolutely having an effect on those organizations but at the same time the International Criminal Court is continuing to do its work it has already

30:21issued arrest warrants for Prime Minister Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yav Galant four crimes against humanity and war crimes committed in Gaza they're ongoing investigations and other files Francesca and the Palestinian human rights organizations have not stopped their work they're continuing to document abuses they're continuing to issue reports they're continuing to be loud and vocal at the end of the day one it is the sign of weakness when instead of engaging with facts instead of defending your positions when you attack the messenger and ultimately those can those effects can be significant but we we are very lucky to have incredibly strong human rights defenders and mechanisms that are responding to this moment so it's critical we give them the chance to succeed and what governments today that are claiming war crimes being are being committed not just Iran but states in the Gulf Lebanon there are steps they can take it's critical if there's ever going to be justice if the perpetrators of the crimes that kill the schoolgirls in Iran

31:23that are killing people across the region there any hope for justice there needs to be preservation of evidence today that means securing sites securing the weapons remnants it means engaging with investigators so they can every single day that passes the evidence degrades ultimately the path to justice is uncertain but for it to even have a chance states need to act the human rights defenders are ready what's lacking is political will and also could you talk a comment on the situation that we've been discussing in Lebanon in terms of Israel's once again moving into Lebanese territory absolutely look I mean we have a clear track record of the Israeli government committing grave war crimes and other abuses in Lebanon even during the so-called ceasefire over the last year what we're seeing now with these mass evacuation orders we saw that same playbook used in Gaza human rights watch investigated those particular incidents

32:27and found that they amounted to war crimes and crimes against humanity because it is impossible for you to order hundreds of thousands of people to evacuate there's no safe place for them to go it's there's no showing that that sort of mass order is necessary by you know it's necessary given what the Israeli government has shown they've not shown made a sufficient finding that though that that that's warranted and ultimately what we what we see is grave risk for civilians remember there are many people that can evacuate older people people with disabilities and in addition to that the people that are being evacuated aren't necessarily finding safe places to go because we've seen the Israeli government strike throughout the throughout the country a ground invasion also pretends even further damage so the situation Lebanon is extremely worrying especially when we know the context of what happened after October 7th and even during the ceasefire where you continue to see Lebanese being killed ultimately the Israeli government because of impunity is emboldened across the region and unless we see a strong response

33:33from states that are willing to use the tools of accountability as well as willing to take action the risk to civilians across the region will continue to grow and grow day by day Omar Shakiru and thank you for being with us new executive director of dawn speaking to us from Aman Jordan and Layla Yunus investigative journalist and writer based in Beirut we'll link to your new piece for drop site news mass expulsion in Lebanon as Israel expands war we don't know where to go coming up president trump fires christy gnome a secretary of homeland security as thank you so much we'll be back in a second

34:41he loves to be free it's close tonight so i leave the candle burning to light your way home won't give up the fight the story is another i won't let you walk on the home i will say you would send me everybody deserves to be free by the resistance revival chorus this is democracy now democracy now dot org the warrant peace report i made me good man with wangan zalas as we turn to washington dc on thursday president trump fired christy gnome the secretary of homeland security he announced the decision on uh social media

35:44and said republican senator mark wane mullin of oklahoma would take over gnome has been facing intensifying calls to resign or be impeached over disastrous handling of trump's immigration raids nationwide she was grilled by lawmakers early this week at a series of hearings on capitol hill this is a republican center tom tell us of north carolina questioning gnome about the shooting deaths of u.s citizens rene good and alix pretty in miniapolis the fact that you can admit to a mistake which looks like under investigation it's going to prove it miss good and mr. pretty probably should not have been shot in the face and in the back law enforcement is the learn from that you don't protect them by not looking after the facts not only should the fby be investigating it but every single law enforcement agency in that jurisdiction should be invited to it so our law enforcement officers do not have this podcast upon them gnome was also widely accused of corruption in one instant you over so a self

36:45promotional department of homeland security advertising campaign that cost 220 million dollars the no bid contract was awarded to a newly formed limited liability company which then subcontracted with the strategy group a company whose CEO ben yoho is married to gnomes former assistant secretary at dhs trisha mcgothlin who just left this is republican senator john kennedy of luiziana you're testifying the president trump approved this they had a time as i understand uh we had conversations about making sure that we were telling people no man i'm asking you uh uh sorry to interrupt but the president approved the head of time you spending 220 million dollars running tv ads across the country in which you are featured prominently yes sir we went through the legal processes did it correct the president no you don't do this yes he did yes okay

37:48and president said in an interview with roiders he had not signed off on the spending while gnome is being removed as dhs secretary president trump said she'll stay in the administration in a newly created role special envoy to the shield of the americans an initiative trump said would be formally announced this weekend in summit in mayami we'll talk more about that later in the broadcast but first for moron gnomes outster and her replacement were joined by two guests chris stein is the senior politics reporter for the gardy in us is most recent peace headline trump fires homeland security secretary christie gnomes joining us from washington dc in new york just an Elliott reporter for popublica co-author of several investigative reports on christie gnom including the most recent christie gnomes led congress about top aids role in dhs contracts lay out uh just and if you will the corruption allegations against uh gnom and again she has not been entirely removed from the trump administration just moved to a different role at

38:50this point yeah i mean the the precipitating event that led to her her firing uh was that exchange you played with uh the republican senator kennedy from lousiana about this ad campaign and this ad campaign's been going on actually for you know since the very beginning of the trump administration as you said uh 220 million dollars of taxpayer money for these ads some of which featured gnom on horseback in front of mount rushmore uh and you know this did not go through the normal competitive process uh went to a Delaware LLC that was formed only a few days before uh before getting this absolutely massive contract we reported that uh one of the subcontractors as you mentioned was a uh republican media firm run by the husband of the former uh now former dhs spokesperson trisha maglothlin uh you know it turned out they actually got a relatively small amount of money but uh more money went to uh a couple of other republican media firms that uh

39:51handled the ad buying for present trump's campaign um and i will say that uh you know in sort of partial defense of gnom on this if if president trump or the white has had a problem with this ad campaign you know this this was no secret it was announced by press release a year ago the ads were literally running on fox and friends with which president trump watches uh present trump is featured in the ads not just christy gnome they they they look like uh sort of campaign style ads promoting both gnome and trump uh so i i i will say the official story here about about the white has being upset about these ads is is a little bit peculiar and just a good you also talk about in the hearings that were held in this uh the uh the the the focus also on the role of coryly and bowsky as a as a special government employee under uh under christy gnome absolutely so people may remember luandowski he was uh the trump campaign manager way back in 2016 uh he was occupying this

40:57i think unprecedented role where he was technically a volunteer not drunk a government salary but was effectively co-running the department alongside gnome uh what that means is that he's actually permitted to have uh some types of outside income unlike any other normal government officials so one of the major unanswered still unanswered questions is who was paying luandowski how is he paying the rent was he be being paid by companies lobbying firms at the same time that he was you know essentially co-running you know one of the most powerful agencies in the government by the way we're still reporting on that uh uh uh please please get in touch with me if anyone out there has information about it but gnome was asked about this at the hearing and she denied that he has a role in approving contracts uh we reported based on documents that we obtained that he he was literally signing off on contracts so that was not a correct uh you know description

42:00of what his actual role has been at dhf not only signing off on contracts as you pointed out but it was in her office firing people and of course there was a number of questions um by uh the senators and the congress members there were two days of hearings about uh her having an affair with someone who was supposedly reporting to her though she ultimately said no he is reporting to president trump i wanted to bring uh Chris Stein into this conversation um the senior politics reporter for the guardian us the question is as you report on gnome's ouster and now the Oklahoma Senator Mark Wayne mullen uh being uh uh trump saying that uh nominating him for uh this position in the cabinet isn't she just the face of the immigration policies of the trump administration crafted by trump

43:01and um Stephen Miller um Stephen Miller the architect of them talk about mark Wayne mullen and his stance on immigration i mean a lot of issues were raised about her calling the uh us citizens who were killed by immigration agents uh domestic terrorists before there was any kind of investigation or even evidence of this um i wanted to turn first to jamey raskin of merrill and questioning gnome over those statements based on what you know today madame secretary we're renaing good in Alex pretty domestic terrorists congressman what happened in minnesota in those two incidents was an absolute tragedy were they domestic terrorists as you said to the country my condolences to their families because i know that their lives will never be the same after that is that an apology for what you said we in those instances offer as much information as we can from officers and agents on

44:06the ground in a chaotic scene they get i'll repeat my question reclaiming my time based on what you know today madame secretary based on what you know today were renaing good in Alex pretty domestic terrorists as you know there's ongoing investigations that are being led by oh but you didn't wait for the investigation did you you didn't wait for the evidence you proclaimed that they were domestic terrorists at the time so christine um uh if you can comment on this uh interaction but also what markwayne mullen brings to this the senator now nominated to be secretary of the department of homeland security well what you just said uh you know regarding how gnome was the face of a immigration policy that really came from steven miller at the white house and of course it was approved by donald trump is exactly what top democrats said uh you know right after the outstair of gnome was announced and markwayne uh mullen was uh announced as her

45:08replacement um you know they have their own set of demands for the department of homeland security and they're you know they basically said that you know no matter who leads it we're gonna continue pursuing these demands um you know the person that has been chosen senator mullen from opalhoma is uh someone who when i encounter him at the capital uh you know i know he's gonna kind of defend the president on the issue of the day um he's not a senator known for opposing uh you know president trump or getting ahead of him or any you know having daylight between him in any way and when it comes the issue of immigration he has been known as a hardliner um you know has come forward making statements uh you know about uh ways in which uh he believes uh people who are here without documentation can be cracked down on or encouraged to leave or things that are happening in the immigration system that he thinks needs to be fixed so he clearly has thoughts on this subject he's not someone who the president has ever you know trouble with um he's uh often talks to the press

46:10he's out and about um saying these things um so in that way he is uh you know kind of an ideal pick to leave the department of homeland security from the president's perspective and Chris what about mullen's own previous business activities and the potential conflicts of interest as as a new secretary of homeland security uh he ran a plumbing business uh prior to winning election the house of representatives in 2012 he was also an MMA fighter um you know he's been in politics uh now for about 15 years um you know i don't think he necessarily has the same sorts of entanglements uh that we saw with christie nome and and core elu and dowski at least we don't know of anything like that yet back in november 2023 during a senate hearing Oklahoma senator mark wine mullen challenged teamster shano brian to a fight with committee chair senator bernie sender stepping in to defuse the situation as mullen got up from his seat to confront

47:15o brian you want to run your mouth we can be too consenting adults we can finish it here okay that's fine perfect you want it now i'd love to do it right now we'll stain your butt up then you stand your butt up uh hold it hold it stop it say you solution every point uh sit down sit down okay you don't know you're a united states senator acted christ time when i think about that clip it was obviously uh you know a pretty eyebrow raising at the time quite a thing to have happened in the middle in the middle of a senate committee hearing but then the teamsters went on to you know not endorse in the 2024 election uh even when in the past they endorsed democrats um you know that certainly isn't the reason why Kamala Harris lost um but you know you saw shano brian go and speak the republican national convention but not the democratic national convention so for all the fireworks there at the end of the day they ended up actually helping out senator mullen side much more than they did the democrats want to thank you both for being with us christine senior politics reporter for the guardian us and just an Elliot reporter

48:17for public for for pro public i will link to both your pieces at democracy now dot war coming up this weekend president trump is going to preside over uh gathering of right wing leaders from across lot in america and florida as he threatens to target cuba next stay with us i'm just done with american boy raised on in tv i seen all them kids so the pie beds another look like me so i started looking around for the light out of the damn first thing i heard it made sense was the word my homies be upon them

49:18i should do john walkers blues by steaver all performing in our democracy now studio this is democracy now democracy now dot org i mean me goodman with wangan zalas this weekend the trump administration's hosting right wing leaders from across lot in america and florida for the quote shield of the america's summit to launch a new security initiative for the western hemisphere the heads of state from argentina bulivia chileco hysterica the Dominican Republic equatorial salvador Honduras panema paraguay trinidad and tabago and possibly others are confirmed to attend the white has said the initiative will be to reinforce the so-called don row doctrine signaling a level of u.s intervention in let america not seen since the cold war speaking on thursday at the america's counter cartel conference at u.s southern command defense secretary pete hegseth urge latin american countries to take a more aggressive approach against drug cartels threatening the trump administration will

50:22otherwise be forced to act and today some two hundred years later we still marvel at the wisdom of president man rose declaration we like you want borders and sovereign territories that are secure we want unfettered access to key terrain and trade so that our nations can industrialize and we want to prevent external powers from threatening our peace and independence in our shared neighborhood this is the essence of the man road doctrine no external power will interfere in this hemisphere our should be a region of strong sovereign nations it's the same principle that animates president trump's defense approach today president trump and his department of war are ushering in a new era of homeland and hemispheric defense this comes as u.s special forces now an Ecuador to conduct joint military operations with Ecuador and commandos to reportedly target

51:23suspected drug traffickers and as president trump has suggested regime change in cuba might be his next target after attacking iran and venizuela for more we're joined by Jake johnson director of international research at the center for economic and policy research author of the book aid state elite panic disaster capitalism in the battle to control Haiti he's joining us from washington dc can you explain what this meeting is about and talk about cuba now in the crosshairs yeah of course and thanks for having me i i mean i think you know on its surface the the show with the summit is a show right an opportunity for trump to play out a moment of imperial fantasy and in front of fans in south florida but i think taking a step back you know this does fit very much in line with what has been really in many ways a bipartisan and decades-long strategy of undermining and breaking the left governments in latin america and consolidating a pro us

52:24right-wing you know block throughout the hemisphere and so you see the countries that have sort of appropriately shown their fidelity to the trump administration into us policy get invited and those that don't face the wrath of the trump administration we've seen that in venizuela in columbia in mexico and and elsewhere and obviously as you mentioned in cuba and jake for i guess for more than 80 years the main sort of international body that the united states supported in latin america was the oes the organization of american states uh what is the this say this attempt to create a right-wing uh basically pole uh in latin america say about uh us policy toward the region yes uh a really great point right i mean for for decades we've been saying all the oes is largely controlled by the us it's run by the us the us is you know funding more than half of its budget uh and that's true it has largely advanced us interest and for this administration even that's not enough because it is a form that everyone uh is invited to and there

53:27are you know actual rules and it's an institution that obviously doesn't suit these this administration's desires right which is to really erode those institutions erode any concepts of sovereignty and international law and we can see you know how this is not just about this hemisphere right i mean you mentioned the dawn dawn row doctrine this trump corralory to the to the mon row doctrine right and this is often interpreted as sort of a retrenchment from the rest of the world i mean one we we've seen trump bomb all over the world indiscriminately and so i don't think that was ever true but also you know looking at historical parallels here when con when the united states has sort of focused internally on the western hemisphere that is largely about consolidating control here to then export that globally and extend that globally and you saw you played in the intro right uh trump sort of referencing his intervention in venezuela now with iran you can see him doing this now of course they haven't actually consolidated control in latin america but you can see that sort of logic using the hemisphere as sort of a a place is as Greg grand in a frequent show

54:30guest on your show you know it's called at the empire's workshop and so we see how this you know the targeting of cuba the targeting of venezuela the indiscriminate bombing and extraditional killings with the drug boats and the caribbean and the pacific and all of these things this is not just about the hemisphere this is about us power more more globally and also could you comment about the the countries that are absent from this well clearly uh countries like nicaragua and and cuba and to some degree even venezuela would be excluded by the u.s but the three largest countries in population in latin america brazil mexico and columbia are also not a part of this effort how do you feel their governments are dealing specifically a mexico with this increased pressure from the trump administration to lock down and control all of latin america yeah i think this is this is really important obviously and we've seen you know pushback from columbia from brazil from mexico and i think it is you know worth noting this this

55:31represents about half of the population in the hemisphere so we can present this you know divided region or you know all of these right-wing governments but there is still this significant block but of course they're under extreme pressure right what this administration has shown with the bombing of caracas the abduction of maduro these extraditional killings right is that they will go to extreme lengths to punish you if you do not get in line uh mexico columbia and brazil have all faced that right of all tried to face that and are trying to survive so i think we do have to understand that and alone they are weaker right this this requires a a broader regional and institutional response to to check this administration sort of total erosion of international law and what we've seen i think you know this this effort to to gather the right wing is intended to prevent that right is intended to prevent any meaningful opposition to us policy both in the hemisphere and writ large and we've seen that right so after the abduction of maduro salac which is a regional grouping involving all the countries in latin american the caribbean but excluding the united states met to try and come up with a statement and actually a majority of countries did

56:35agree to a statement but a small block nine countries uh intervene to stop that statement from coming out there was no official statement now those nine countries are now almost all of them invited to my army to this summit right and you can see in the run up to this the news of the summit came out about three weeks ago and you've seen this sort of rash of decisions from leaders in the region to to sort of show their fidelity to the u.s. so ending cooperation with cuba you know and all sorts of other diplomatic decisions we saw Honduras and Bolivia actually withdraw from the hay group which was a diplomatic and the institutional initiative to try and use international law to end the genocide in gaza and which a number of countries in latin america have been a part of including columbia brazil and mexico and Honduras and Bolivia under left-wing governments had also been a part of that they both recently withdrew just in this last week as the hay group is meeting with 40 countries to try and come up with an institutional response to this so you can see again how this is about you know using the hemisphere and i think sort of

57:36ironically read a much of international law and these concepts of sovereignty really came out of latin american thinking and the administration now sort of using that same region to undermine them globally and finally jake um... u.s. commandos joining u.s. special forces in equidore joining equidore in commandos in this last twenty seconds yeah exactly i mean look this is a hyper-militarized and overtly politicized remix of the war on drugs and the war on terror right equidore has been begging for the u.s. to get involved in that for for and since neboa took power but this is not about drugs this is not about terror i mean the u.s. pardoned waterland or hernanda is the convicted drug trafficking former president of honderes and neboa in equidore his own family has been accused of involvement in the drug trade and so look if this is about politics this is about power this is not about drugs and this is not about democracy or anything else we want to thank you for being with us jake johnston director of international research at the center for economic and policy research that does it for our show headed to savanna georgia where the award-winning

58:40documentary steal the story please about 30 years of democracy now will be at the hindsight film festival at the bentucker theater at the odys jensen cultural arts center that's Saturday night at seven p.m. i made me goodman with one Gonzalez for another edition of democracy now