Democracy Now! Audio - Democracy Now! 2025-08-27 Wednesday

Episode Date: August 27, 2025

Democracy Now! Wednesday, August 27, 2025

From New York, this is Democracy Now. This resolution is straightforward and enforceable. It calls for the end of supplying weapons and military aid as we see the war ongoing and raging in Gaza. 7% of Democrats support the party's current position in this conflict and in this crisis. A Democratic National Committee panel has rejected a resolution calling for an arms embargo against Israel and a ceasefire in Gaza. We'll speak with the resolution sponsor, Alison Minerley, the 26-year-old DNC member from Florida. But first, we go to the head of pediatric. at Nasser Hospital in Gaza, where health officials are reporting an additional 10 deaths due to

starvation and malnutrition, including at least two children. Then, Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook says she'll file a lawsuit against President Trump's attempts to illegally remove her from her post. She's the first black woman to sit on the Federal Reserve's. board of governors. What's important to understand about the president's attempted firing of Governor Lisa Cook is that as much as it is about Governor Cook, it's also not about Governor Cook at all. It is about the Federal Reserve's independence as a central bank, their authority to set monetary policy, and yet another paragraph by a president intent on controlling all

levers of government. We'll speak with Aya Ibrahim, former senior policy advisor at the White House National Economic Council, where she supported Lisa Cook's confirmation. And 20 years ago this week, Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans and one of the worst natural disasters in U.S. history, due in part to a failed response from FEMA. Now, many FEMA workers have been suspended after they sent a Katrina declaration to Congress to protest the Trump administration rolling back many reforms put in place after the deadly storm. We'll talk to a former FEMA spokesperson who signed the letter. All that and more coming up.

Welcome to Democratic. Democracy Now.org, the War and Peace Report. I'm Amy Goodman. Ten Palestinians, including two children have starved to death in Gaza in the past 24 hours, bringing the total number of starvation-related deaths in the besieged strip to 313. 119 are children. Officials in Gaza say only 14% of essential food items were allowed into the enclave last month. At least 76 Palestinians have also been killed in Israeli. attacks in Gaza since dawn, including 18 people seeking food. This comes as Al Jazeera reports, Israeli forces are leveling entire blocks of Gaza City. The Israeli governments claiming Monday's deadly strike on Nasser Hospital targeted a camera used by Hamas for surveillance, but Israel provided no evidence to back up the claim. They didn't explain the second attack. It was a double-tap strike. that killed 21 people, including five journalists. In media news, a Reuters photojournalist has resigned over her outlet's response to Israel's

killing of journalists in Gaza, including Reuters cameraman Hussama Masri, who was killed in the Nasser Hospital attack. In his statement, Valerie Zink said, quote, By repeating Israel's genocidal fabrications without determining if they have any credibility, Western media outlets have made possible the killing of more journalists in two years on one tiny strip of land than in World War I, World War II, Korea, Vietnam, Afghanistan, Yugoslavia, and Ukraine combined, unquote. Meanwhile, human rights watch is saying, U.S. forces and personnel can be held liable for Israeli war crimes for, quote, providing intelligence for Israeli strikes and conducting extensive coordination. and planning, unquote, in Israel. Nationwide protests continue.

On Tuesday, more than 350,000 people gathered at Tel Aviv's public plaza calling on the government to accept a ceasefire deal to end the war on Gaza. Large protests were also held in Jerusalem. This is Mikhail Gamel Blanc, a protester in Jerusalem. We are here demonstrating in front of the cabinet, the government meeting that is supposed to discuss a deal, a deal for returning the hostages and end the fighting in the war. And we are here to remind our government that the deal needs to be sealed. All the hostages needs to come back home.

And we need to stop the war in order to do this. In the occupied West Bank, Israeli forces are conducting a raid on Nablus. At least 80 Palestinians have been injured. This comes a day after Israeli forces. raided Ramallah and Al-Bere. According to the Palestinian Red Crescent, 58 people were injured, eight by live fire,

and 14 by rubber-coated bullets. The Palestinian Ministry of Health said a child had to receive surgery after being hit by live fire. Israeli forces detained three Palestinians in the raid. Meanwhile, U.S. senators, Chris Van Hollen and Jeff Merkley,

visited the West Bank Tuesday and stopped at a Palestinian church in Taipei. that was attacked by Israeli settlers. Senator Van Halen called for an end to settler violence. Well, we're here overall because we want to focus on the really terrible situation throughout this area, including the war in Gaza, and one of our messages we need to end the war in Gaza and bring the hostages home. But we also need to end this continued settler violence.

on the West Bank, which people here in this town of Tai Bay witnessed and experienced firsthand. A coalition of 100 human and civil rights groups are calling on Secretary of State Marker Rubio to secure the release of Muhammad Ibrahim, a 16-year-old Palestinian-American who's been held in an Israeli prison for six months. The coalition includes the American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, the Center for Constitutional Rights and Pax Christi, USA. In a joint letter, the group say, quote, Muhammad is suffering from scabies and has not received any medication. He's also lost over 30 pounds due to Israel denying him food and medical treatment, unquote.

He was abducted from his family home in the West Bank over allegations of rock throwing and is currently being held in Israel's overprison known for its human rights abuses. There are no charges against him. A Democratic National Committee panel has rejected a resolution calling for an arms embargo on Israel and a ceasefire in Gaza. The vote came during a DNC meeting in Minneapolis. A second resolution on Israel was initially approved but then withdrawn by its author, DNC, chair, Ken Martin. Martin then called for a task force to be formed to help build party unity on the issue.

We'll speak to the sponsor of the arms embargo resolution later. in the program. A group of current and former Microsoft workers occupied the office of Microsoft's president, Brad Smith, Tuesday, to protest Microsoft's work with the Israeli military in Gaza. The tech workers accused Microsoft of, quote, powering the genocide in Gaza and the mass surveillance of Palestinians, unquote. Seven protesters were arrested. This comes as Bloomberg reports.

Microsoft has asked the FBI for help tracking pro-proping. Palestinian protests targeting the company. The Trump administration's making major changes to the U.S. citizenship application process by reinstating neighborhood checks to vet immigrants. In a memo obtained by CBS News, the administration detailed plans to interview neighbors and colleagues of citizenship applicants reviving a procedure last used 30 years ago by the George H.W. Bush administration. The government had previously waived neighborhood investigations, instead relying on the FBI to conduct background checks of immigrants.

The investigations would focus on the moral character of applicants and whether applicants are, quote, well disposed to the good order and happiness of the United States. Florida Governor Ronda Santis has asked a federal appeals court to put on hold a judge's ruling last week that could force the closure of a new immigration jail in the Everglades, the Republicans dubbed alligator alcatrans. The judge had ordered the Trump administration to stop transferring immigrants to the jail. Meanwhile, weekly vigils are continuing to be held outside the jail to protest what organizers have described as the inhumane treatment of people detained inside. Republican governors in 19 states have begun mobilizing the National Guard to assist ICE with immigration enforcement efforts. The Pentagon's confirm reports up to 1,700 National Guard members will be deployed in the

states. This comes as President Trump is threatening to send the National Guard to police Chicago against the wishes of local and state officials there. In other immigration news, the lever reports ISIS shielding details about its deportation flights by taking advantage of a regulatory loophole that was designed to make it harder to track the private flights of celebrities like Taylor Swift. In recent months, a number of private charter airlines working with ICE have added their planes to a specialist developed by the private jet lobby to keep flight data more secret. On Tuesday, during a three-hour cabinet meeting, President Trump said his administration will seek the death penalty in all murder cases in Washington. D.C. He failed to provide any details on the policy considering the fact the District of Columbia does not authorize capital punishment. Anybody murders something in the capital, capital punishment,

capital capital, capital. If somebody kills somebody in the capital, Washington, D.C., we're going to be seeking the death penalty. During the more than three-hour cabinet meeting, President Trump also said the U.S. would accept up to 600,000 Chinese students, an announcement that quickly drew backlash from his MAGA base, including from Steve Bannon and Laura Lumer. Trump said he liked having Chinese students in the U.S. But I like that their students come here. I like that other country students come here. And you know what would happen? If they didn't, our college system would go to hell very quickly. You'd have, and it wouldn't be the top colleges. It would be colleges that struggle on the bottom.

And you take out 300,000 or 600,000 students out of the system. The president's comments are a major shift from his previous policy. Back in May, the State Department announced it was vetting Chinese students for connection to the Chinese Communist Party. Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook says she'll file a lawsuit against President Trump's attempts to remove her from her post. Cook's the first black woman to sit on the Federal Reserve's board of government. Trump is claiming without evidence that Cook committed mortgage fraud.

Cook's attorney says the president, quote, lacks any factual or legal basis to fire her. Trump's also repeatedly threatened to fire Fed chair, Jerome Powell, who's been pressured by the president to lower interest rates, will have more on the story later in the broadcast. Lebanese journalists are demanding an apology from Tom Barrack, the U.S. envoy to Syria. for demeaning comments he made at a press conference in Beirut. The moment that this starts becoming chaotic, like animalistic, we're gone. So you want to know what's happening, act civilized, act kind, act tolerant, because this is the problem with what's happening in the region. The Union of Journalists in Lebanon called for a boycott of all future events with Tom Barrack, unless he apologizes for his comments,

saying, quote, the content of his remarks reflects ingrained colonial arrogance towards the peoples of the region and constitutes a blatant violation of basic diplomatic etiquette and the values that diplomacy should represent, chief among them, respect for press freedom, and the people's right to knowledge, unquote. FEMA's suspending staff members who signed a letter criticizing the Trump administration for gutting the agency's ability to handle natural disasters. The letter came just days before the 20th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, one of the deadliest and costliest hurricanes in U.S. history. At least 36 employees have signed their full names to the letter, titled the Katrina Declaration, and about 150 others have signed the letter anonymously.

On Tuesday, FEMA told the staffers they were put on administrative leave in a, quote, non-duty staffer. while continuing to receive pay and benefits, unquote. We'll speak with a former FEMA spokesperson who signed the letter. The Social Security Administration's chief data officer has said the personal information of hundreds of millions of Americans was uploaded onto a vulnerable cloud server by members of Doge, the so-called Department of Government Efficiency. The claim appears in whistleblower complaint filed Tuesday. In the complaint, the official, Charles Borges, writes, quote, should bad actors gain access to this cloud environment,

Americans may be susceptible to widespread identity theft, may lose vital health care and food benefits, and the government may be responsible for reissuing every American and new social security number at great cost, unquote. Denmark's foreign minister has summoned the top U.S. diplomat in the country after a news report alleged that three American citizens linked to President Trump were conducting covert influence operations in Greenland. Trump has repeatedly stated he wants to capture Greenland from Denmark due to its strategic location and wealth in critical minerals. According to recent polls, most Greenlanders do not want to join the United States.

And U.S. tariffs on Indian imports have double to 50 percent. The Trump administration imposed secondary tariffs on India as a penalty for buying oil and weapons from Russia. The Global Trade Research Initiative has warned that tariffs could endanger hundreds of thousands of jobs in India. And those are some of the headlines. This is Democracy Now. Democracy Now.org, the War and Peace Report. I'm Amy Goodman in New York, joined by Democracy Now's Juan Gonzalez in Chicago. Hi, Juan. Hi, Amy, and welcome to all of our listeners and viewers across the country and around the world.

world. We begin today's show in Gaza, where health officials are reporting an additional 10 deaths due to starvation in the past day, including two children. This brings a total number of starvation-related deaths in Gaza due to Israel's indiscriminate blockade to 313, nearly 120 of whom are children. Israeli attacks continue across the besieged strip as Israel's military forces intensify an offensive in Gaza City, where Israeli tanks and warplanes have leveled entire blocks destroying family homes. Gaza officials say Israeli strikes have killed at least 75 people in the past 24 hours, including 18 Palestinians killed seeking food. Meanwhile, more Palestinian families have been forced to flee Gaza City due to the relentless

Israeli shelling. Where is the South? Even if we die, we won't go to the South of Gaza. Gaza. The South is worse than here. There is no safety here or there. It is all the same. This all comes, as Human Rights Watch says, U.S. military personnel and contractors can be held liable for Israeli war crimes committed in Gaza for, quote, providing intelligence for Israeli strikes and conducting extensive coordination and planning, unquote. Today, Trump is set to chair a White House meeting on a comprehensive plan for managing post-war. Gaza. For more, we go to Gaza, where we're joined by Dr. Ahmed al-Fara. He's the head of pediatrics

at Nasser Hospital in Han Yunus. First of all, our condolences on this latest attack on Nassar Hospital. The world has recoiled an outrage this weekend with the killing of five journalists, as well as health care workers and civil defense workers who ran to the aid of the Reuters journalist who had been putting up a live stream. Can you explain what you understood happened and the Israeli response calling it a tragic mishap, this double-tap strike? Okay, thank you for having me, my friend and my colleagues. First, two days ago, merely at 10, 20 in the morning while I was in my office while examining a case, whose was some my colleagues sent it for me for consultation.

And I put a stichop in my ears. Suddenly we heard a very loud voice. It's like something extreme voice and a very loud voice, which is move the building that we are, standing or sitting in it. We were completely confused. Even the mother that I was examining her child has a psychobal attack and fainting, and we were confused to treat the mother or to continue examining the patient or to go downstairs and to see what's happening. Later on, we discovered that there were a bomb tank was directed to the external stairs,

of Elysine building. You know Elyssene building, it is the main building of Nassar Medical Complex. It belongs to the operation theater. It contains also the ICUs. It contains also the lab and the reception room. All the main department in Nassar Medical Complex are in Elyssine building. This stair is outstairs. It like emergency stairs. The top of that stairs is, they have some area in the fourth floor. This area is the most

powerful for a SIM card. You know, the journalists are using ESM cards for covering their events, for documented their events and sent that for their agencies. The first journalist whose name is

Hussein was there and he was covering and documented his material and sent by the ESM card to that area, but he was targeted. Later on, the occupational forces says that they are targeting something like a camera. Okay, I understand that you want to damage the camera. why you are killing the people you are you are highly

technique you have high technique you have a drone you have snipers you have everything you can shoot the camera okay you can evacuate you can tell the administration of the Nasr Medical Complex evacuate that camera with the journalist from that area what I mean that the first attack

was double attack. The first attack is for the external stairs of Liyazin building and in the same time there were another attack for the balcony of Liyazin building in the fourth floor. In that balcony there were

a doctor's, there are a medical student in the six year of faculty of Al-Azhar University which is local university and they are studying medicine and they were discussing the cases of intensive care unit with their colleagues.

So a doctor was executed, unfortunately, and Hussam, the journalist, also was executed, and also his assistant, the photographer, was severely injured. We, when we hear the voice, all the hospital, all the journalists, all the rescue team, they go upstairs to save their colleagues. You know, we are as Palestinian, we are. something like sympathy with the injured patient.

Everyone tried to help. Everyone, they are emotionally, highly emotion to help. So the rescue team is upstairs. The journalists are upstairs. When they are collecting and they try to make rescue or to do resuscation and to do evacuation

for the injured patient, unfortunately, another bomb tank. came and it make a massacre there. There were nearly 18 people were killed. Five from them journalists. Four in this attack and one in the previous

attack. Also three or four guys from the security guys of the hospital. Civil defense also were killed and the doctor were killed and some a person who want to help also were killed.

So again, this is a full a full crime. This deliberate compound attack constitutes a calculated trap and a targeting rescue team. This is unbelievable. The journalists, I think this is for silencing

witnesses and undermining the channel of survival for anyone to tell what happening there. So it is unbelievable to talk about that we want the camera. If you want the camera, why you did the second attack?

If you want to, someone that you are talking, that someone belongs to us, all the journalists are, belongs to Associated Press, NBC, American Channel, for writers, for Palestine, all of them, they are known for everyone. Why you did this massacre for them? It's unbelievable. It's incredible. It crosses all the red lines. But I will understand that this is normal, because this is the number of 245 journalists were killed since the beginning of the war.

I can understand that one of them. Dr. Alfa, I wanted to ask you, in addition to the people being killed by the shelling and the bombing of the Israelis, there are the reports of the increasing number of dead from famine and starvation, over 300 Palestinians now. What is the condition of the, well, the Israelis are saying that there's plenty of food that's just Hamas is stealing it. Could you respond to this question of the food situation and starvation that you're witnessing in Gaza? Again, according to the famine and severe acute malnutrition, my friend, we have to understand some critical points. First, that gas strip needs 600 truck every day to be fully feeding, fully medical supplies for everything.

The number of trucks that are coming nowadays is just 50 trucks. This is the first thing. Second, a gas strip is closing the closed borders since the last March. we are talking about five months so if you need to recompensate or compensate the quantity so you have to more

tracks to be getting the third and this is the most important one and we want the audience and everyone watching us to understand that the Israeli forces ask the trucks, the 50 tracks to come inside area that belongs

to them okay and they put it for the gangs and for someone to get inside. It's not delivered for the NGOs for UNRWA for UNICEF. And when, please, and when someone try to protect that trucks and try to deliver it for UNRWA or for UNICEF, they're targeting it by a drone. This is like chaos engineering. They don't, among the media, the trucks are coming inside.

Gaza and you see the flowers, someone is holding the flower. But this is actually like a sand in the eye. This is not a solution and not a final result to end that famine and that severe acute malnutrition. So I think that we will see a number of increasing of severe acute malnutrition. According to the media of Israeli that they are talking about someone is stealing Hamas or stealing this is something ended and everyone knows that

all that food will come to the UNICEF or UNRWA and will be distributed according to the civilian record according to the identity card for everyone everyone will receive his

food and everyone will receive his quantity that it is dealing with him with morality and with the humanity. The distribution that they are using with the GHF and the method that they are using with it, it is dealing with the Palestinian Suri,

sorry for explanation and for the suppression like animals. It is unbelievable. I am a doctor. I am 53 years ago. I will never go to the GHF because I'm unable to go there. And if I go there, I afraid to get back as a body or some of one, my son or my daughter. So, my friend, we will see, and we expect to see a lot of cases of severe acute

malnutrition every day. We receive either cases is more and more, more aggressive, and every day, our day by day, we receive someone who come with his son who was arrested and died in the evacuated area to the hospital. Dr. Ahmed al-Fadha, I want to thank you so much for being with us, head of pediatrics at Nassar Hospital, where he's speaking to us from in Han Yunus. He himself has been displaced twice, now lives in a tent. This is Democracy Now, Democracy Now.org, the War and Peace Report. I'm Amy Goodman with Juan Gonzalez.

A Democratic National Committee panel has rejected a resolution calling for an arms embargo against Israel and a ceasefire in Gaza. The vote came during a DNC meeting Tuesday in Minneapolis. This is Alison Minerley, a DNC member from Florida, sponsor of the Arms Embargo Resolution. This resolution is straightforward and enforceable. It calls for the end of supplying weapons and military aid as we see the war ongoing and raging in Gaza. Seven percent of Democrats support the party's current position in this conflict and in this crisis. A minute will be joined by Allison Minerley. A second resolution on Israel was initially approved, but then the author of the resolution,

DNC chair Ken Martin, withdrew it. Martin called for a task force to be formed to help build party unity on the issue. I am going to appoint a committee or a task force comprised of stakeholders on all sides of this to continue to have the conversation, to work through this, and bring solutions back to our party. And so with that, I would ask this committee to withdraw my resolutions so we can move forward United today. Recent polls show only a small percentage of Democratic voters here in the United States support Israel's war on Gaza. We go now to Minneapolis, where we're joined by Allison Minerley. She's 26 years old, a DNC member from Florida, sponsor of the Israel Arms,

embargo resolution that was rejected. Alison, welcome to democracy now. Can you explain what happened to yours? What was the vote on the panel? And then Ken Martin had a resolution calling for a ceasefire, but then withdrew it after yours was defeated. Explain. Yes. So earlier this month, I filed a resolution relating to Gaza calling for the arms embargo and the end of military aid to Israel as an official position of the Democratic Party. And what you saw yesterday is that the chair, Ken Martin, also filed a resolution. And his resolution specifically did not call

for some of these more actionable items. While it did call for a ceasefire, it didn't go far enough in addressing the humanitarian crisis that we're seeing and did not really align us with our base of voters. And so really the intention in filing my resolution was to make sure that as a party we're having the conversation,

but also that we are meeting our voters because it's so important. And so what you'll see yesterday is that once we got to the floor And once we had a vote, unfortunately, the resolution, resolution number 18 that I filed did not pass and did not make it through the committee, but Chair Martins did. But ultimately, Chair Martin decided to pull his resolution as well and decided upon request of the co-sponsors of my resolution, we were able to get him to commit to creating this task force and continuing the conversation because we think it's too important to ignore. Could you talk about the fault lines in the DNC and the Democratic Party leadership on Gaza? Is this largely a generational divide or what, how do you see it?

What's interesting is that I don't think it's necessarily generational. While I think a lot of young voters care about this in particular, I think that there are so many people, either members, people at home, even just everyday organizers that come from different backgrounds, different perspectives. And it's so widely and broadly supported, like you already mentioned, the percentage really is so slim of Democrats that do support the current position, around 7%. So even within that number, it's very a wide representation of just the base at large. So, oh, go ahead, Juan.

Yeah, and could you tell us also why you're relatively new to the Democratic National Committee? Why did you decide to join? And there are obviously many young people who think at this point neither the Republicans nor the Democrats answer the needs of the country. Absolutely. So earlier this year, everything, I would like to break down this process because I think it is something that not everybody knows about, which is that every year, right, you know, the DNC meets several times a year. And in these committee meetings, in these general body meetings, there are decisions like this that are made. And I think that what's really important to know is that anybody that's watching at home, if you get involved in your local state party, your local chapter, things like that, there's an opportunity for you to become a state committee person who then becomes eligible to be a DNC member, which is exactly what I did. And so while my win and, you know, paths of becoming a DNC member was unexpected, the Youth Coalition in Florida, the same young people that organized March for Our Lives, that let them don't say gay walkouts at their schools, we have a really strong history of youth organizing. And when we realized that the DNC slate, the people that were running to be our

DNC members didn't fully represent us or our values, we knew that we needed young people to step up and lead. And I was happy to, you know, heed that call and to take that action. And to really just use my voice as an extension of them, because this is really our seat, as youth organizers in Florida. Part of your resolution, part of your resolution, Allison, calls for Congress to recognize Palestine as a state. Was there a discussion about this?

And talk about how big the DNC is, the Democratic National Committee. I don't think people realize we're talking about hundreds of people. Yes. Absolutely. So the DNC itself was roughly over 430 members. This is allocated proportionally based on the state.

So as an example, I come from the state of Florida, where we have 11 members, there are also at-large appointments that the chair can make as well. So it's a generally, you know, decent-sized body. And what I think is really interesting

is just that, you know, from all the different states, there's so many different people with different perspectives, different backgrounds. And overall, when we think about that big membership that comes together, there's a lot of different conversations

that happen. But I will say when you talk specifically about, you know, calling for a Palestinian state, I think that you can't have a conversation about a two-state solution when you're not recognizing Palestine. And I really wanted to highlight

that there is a need for that. and that also this is not necessarily out of the norm. We're seeing so many other nations make this decision, make this call to really recognize Palestinian dignity. And I think that as Democrats, the party that has traditionally been for international law and human rights, this would be a step in the right direction. And I was proud to add that to the resolution. And finally, we just go ahead, Juan.

Yeah, and what do you see is happening next now that there's this joint group that Martin has called to meet on Gaza? Yeah. So we don't have next steps just yet. As I mentioned, this was a conversation that happened yesterday, kind of right after the committee vote. And so I am really looking forward to how those conversations will go. I think that the conversation is too important to ignore. Something that I mentioned yesterday is it feels like the DNC is putting a comma in a conversation where voters have put a period, right? When we think about only 7% Democrats supporting the current position, I don't think this conversation needed to be prolonged. However, we made a clear ask to Chair Martin as a coalition of co-sponsors. that there can't be an end to that conversation today. So even by him pulling his resolution, by our resolution, not proceeding forward, we thought that there was a clear, you know, called action there that we need to continue this conversation. And I will add to something that that will be happening today is that we are going to put

this resolution for a vote on the full floor today by calling it into question yet again. And so I think that this just shows that task force committee, we're going to keep continuing because Palestinian rights and dignity are just too important to ignore at a time like this. and we want the war in Gaza to end. Well, we want to thank you for being with us. We'll continue to follow these developments. Alison Minerley, DNC member from Florida. Again, she proposed a resolution at the summer meeting calling for an arms embargo on Israel.

Today, the White House is holding a meeting on Gaza. Next up, Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook says she'll file a lawsuit against President Trump's attempts to fire her. She's the first black woman to sit on the Federal Reserve. Board of Governors. Stay with us. High Flying by the late legendary pianist and composer Randy Weston to see our conversation. more of his music, go to Democracy Now.org. This is Democracy Now. I'm Amy Goodman with Juan Gonzalez. Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook says she'll file a lawsuit against President Trump's attempts to fire her. Cook is the first black woman to sit on the Federal Reserve Board

of Governors. Trump is claiming, without evidence, that Cook committed mortgage fraud. Cook's attorney says the president, quote, lacks any factual or legal basis to fire her. Trump's also repeatedly threatened to fire Fed Chair Jerome Powell, who's been pressured by the president to lower interest rates. For more, we're joined here in New York by Aya Ibrahim, former senior policy advisor at the White House National Economic Council, where she covered the financial regulation portfolio and supported Lisa Cook's confirmation in the Biden administration. Welcome to Democracy Now. It's great to have you with us. Tell us who Lisa Cook is. And for people who don't really understand what's going on here, is she a surrogate for President Trump not being able to fire Fed Chair Jay Powell?

Explain what's going on. Well, let's just start with, as you said, who Dr. Cook is. So, Governor Lisa Cook is a renowned economist. She's an accomplished economist. She is an expert in macroeconomics and in financial policy. She has had a distinguished career leading up to her nomination in 22 and her confirmation to the Federal Reserve Board of Governors. So that's who Governor Lisa Cook is. The president has been very adamant about his desire for the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates, which is their main purview, setting monetary policy for the country.

The president would like to see us run and the economy very hot. And he sees higher interest rates as an obstacle to that. The Federal Reserve is meant to be protected from these types of political pressures. It is an independent institution. It is a central bank that acts not just as a backstop for our financial system, but for the global financial system writ large. The president has pursued a line of attacks against Chairman J. Powell and others on. on the board for many months now, and again, his desire to pressure them into lowering interest rates.

But, and this is key here, the Federal Reserve is an independent entity, and it's meant to make long-term, and it's meant to make decisions with a long-term view. It's meant to manage inflation, which up until this point has remained an issue, and to maximize employment in the absence of an ability to pressure them to move as quickly as he would like. The president is now looking at other avenues to take over control of this, again, independent body. And could you talk about what his powers are here? He can remove a Fed governor for cause, but there has been no actual charges against a governor. or Lisa Cook. Could you explain what his delimitations by law of his power are?

So this is really a test of those limitations. Back in May, I believe, the Supreme Court ruled their Wilcox decision gave the president latitude to remove those who were to remove independent regulator. So the National Labor Relations Board, the Federal Trade Commission, the Supreme court gave the president the ability to remove those who were confirmed to those rules for cause. Whether or not that same approach can be taken for those who are sitting on the board of governors at the Fed, that is the open question here. The Federal Reserve Act only stipulates that a governor can be removed for cause. It does not define what? specifically what cause is. And so that is another open question. But at the end of the day,

allegations and unfounded allegations of misconduct are not cause. And Governor Lisa Cook and all others who were confirmed to the Board of Governors were confirmed to tenured roles, right? All of this is part of a design meant to insulate the Federal Reserve as an institution from the types of political pressures and attempts at power grabs that this president is. is clearly pursuing. And I wanted to ask you about the impact on the economy of this war of the president against the Federal Reserve Board. And of course, along with his constantly changing tariff proclamations, there's been an analyst,

financial analysts who have noted there's a huge sell-off of U.S. government treasuries in recent months. Could you talk about the impact on the economy, if there is any? Yeah, no, absolutely. I mean, the defining future of the U.S. economy, even in times of crisis, is as an underlying stability and, more importantly, credibility. So there is a reason that even, again, in times of financial distress, people turn to U.S. treasuries. They turn to U.S. debt as it's seen as a safe haven asset. And so people feel very comfortable putting their money there. They know that we're good for it, in other words.

And this president has come in and injected all kinds of questions into what otherwise was a settled matter. And whether it's the tariff policy that changes day in and day out, I believe this week a number of countries have suspended shipments into the United States because of a change in tariff rules or something referred to as a de minimis rule. So previously, packages up to a certain value were allowed into the United States and did not have to go through a process of clearing, a border processing, in the same way that other larger shipments coming in did. Now that has been changed without any additional resources, without any explanation. And so regular people at home are going to see things that they have otherwise had no problems having shipped. now being suspended. And that is all on top of, again, a very reckless approach to economic policy,

which really is dependent on a sense of trust and credibility and belief that the people in charge know what they're doing. Up until this point, there really was not a question that those at the Federal Reserve knew what they were doing in terms of executing their mandate, managing inflation, maximizing employment, and ensuring stability in our economy and in our financial system. This president is upending all of that. Can you talk about the significance of Lisa Cook being the first black woman to sit on the

Central Bank's board? And what this board is, how many people are on it, why he's honed in on her? So, again, yes, it is absolutely historically significant. that Governor Cook is the first black woman nominated and confirmed to the Federal Reserve Board of Governors. That being said, again, as much as it is about her, it isn't about her. She happens to be the target of the president's ire at this moment, but this is about a much larger issue of the president's desire to exert control over all parts of government, including those that are, by statute, meant to be independent for all of the reasons that we have discussed, the central bank needs to be able to, again, execute its mandate without fear

of retribution or targeting by the president. This board is made up of, I believe, five permanent members and seven that rotate from the regional banks. And there is the committee that set benchmark interest rates. And so this is about the president's, again, his desire to take control of this committee to basically have a stamp of approval on whatever he would like to see happen as it relates to interest rates. But even beyond that, the Federal Reserve maintains an almost unlimited balance sheet. So this is also about an attempt to potentially sidestep Congress in his, in the fiscal policy that he would like to pursue and utilizing the Fed as an avenue for sidestepping Congress as he tries to set policy that they might not be on board

with. Yeah, and I wanted to ask you, this issue of that you're saying that the Fed not only controls the interest rates, but really it controls the money supply, doesn't it? And the impact of the president gaining control of that as well. I mean, that is the spigot. It's the money spigot and the president would like control of the money spigot. He would like to have control over the levers for money supply. And it's incredibly dangerous because his interest politically is to run the economy as hot as possible.

So you want to be here for the boom. What happens when there's the inevitable problem? bust. And it is not clear to me that there is a plan or even any concern for what that means for regular working people and everyday Americans who will be left holding the bag. So she's suing. We just have 30 seconds. Does that mean she's going to work? I actually don't know. I knowing Governor Cook, her main focus is doing the job that she was confirmed to do. A. Ibrahim is former senior policy advisor at the White House National Economic Council.

Next up, FEMA workers have been suspended after they sent a Katrina declaration to Congress to protest the Trump administration rolling back many reforms put in place after the deadly storm 20 years ago this week in New Orleans. We'll speak with a former FEMA spokesperson who signed the letter back in 27. As a new river flow in the night. And somewhere, honey, some old stomping on the boat. Like a free, like a free stream of flame. Jump straight to you tonight. New River Blues by the late folk legend Michael Hurley performing in our Democracy Now studio. This is Democracy Now, Democracy Now.org.

I'm Mimi Goodman with Juan Gonzalez. FEMA is suspending over two dozen staff members who are among those who signed a letter criticizing the Trump administration for gutting things. FEMA's ability to handle natural disasters. The letter came just days before this 20th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, which devastated New Orleans and what was one of the costliest, deadliest hurricanes in U.S. history. More than 180 current and former FEMA workers signed the letter titled the Katrina Declaration. As the letter notes, the current acting FEMA head, David Richardson, has no experience managing natural disasters.

He made headlines in June for reportedly telling FEMA staff during a briefing he didn't know the U.S. has a hurricane season. Richardson was also nowhere to be found after the deadly flash flood in Texas in July. We go now to Jeremy Edwards, former spokesperson for FEMA, who signed the letter. He's also a former spokesperson for the Biden White House. He's now a senior communications advisor at the Century Foundation. Welcome to Democracy Now, Jeremy Edwards. It's great to have you with us. Can you explain what the Katrina declaration is? Well over 100 people signed it, some anonymously, some named, some formerly at FEMA like you, and some working at FEMA. Those people apparently have been suspended who were named, who signed the letter. Well, thanks for having me. I'm happy to be here. You know, I would call this letter to Congress.

Unfortunately, a cry for help. The agency has been badly damaged by this administration. They've fired a third of the permanent workforce. They've cut trainings. They've installed a person at the top of the agency, as you pointed out in your opening, has no experience. The Secretary of Homeland Security is taking

the unnecessary step and overly burdensome step of requiring her personal sign-off on mission assignments, contracts, grants, grants that are above $100,000, which is slowing down operations and leading to delays and getting assistance where it needs to go. So this letter represents, like I said earlier, a cry for help trying to get Congress's attention to do something about this before we make the mistakes that we made that led to the disaster that was Hurricane Katrina. And I wanted to ask you, how important is the policy, oversight, and support of

FEMA. We have not only the example of what happened 20 years ago with Hurricane Katrina, but even closer to President Trump, we had what happened in FEMA's response to Hurricane Maria when he was president in 2017, the president famously going down to Puerto Rico and throwing paper towels at the victims of Hurricane Maria. Talk about how important it is to have that or White House support for this agency? You know, it's absolutely critical. We've seen what happens when there are people in charge who don't take the agency's mission seriously.

We saw that in Katrina, as you pointed out, during the response of Hurricane Maria, we saw that as well. And unfortunately, we saw that most recently in the federal government's response to what happened in Texas. You know, you remember that during the Texas disaster, Texas floods there, because of Secretary Chrissy Nome's overly burdensome requirement to personally sign off on contracts that are over $100,000, there was a delay in getting

urban search and rescue teams to the area. Now, typically, it would take about six hours to move those people where they need to go, but because of her actions to personally sign off on these types of mission assignments, they didn't arrive until 72 hours late. Now, the administration will contend that, well, actually, they got there in 24 hours, but again, when you're dealing with these types of movements and these types of operations, every second counts. So every minute, every hour that you are running late to get there

is an hour that you could have been in the water helping to find survivors. And could you talk about the response to this letter and the attempts to silence FEMA employees? Yeah, unfortunately, these responses are not surprising. We saw the same thing when brave people over at EPA stood up to the moves being made by this. administration to silence them putting people on administrative leave unfortunately many of my

colleagues many of my brave colleagues from FEMA have also been placed on administrative leave you know I just want to say thank you to them for standing up knowing that this type of thing could have happened and I think another thing I want to point out to your listeners and to your viewers is how this represents the opposite of government efficiency that this administration claims is trying to take you know at EPA they put those people on administrative leave that means there's getting paid by the federal government. And then they delayed that administrative leave for, they extended that administrative leave three separate times. Again, at FEMA, we're seeing the same exact thing. They've placed these workers on administrative leave, which means they're still

going to get continued to be paid, but not be able to do the work that they're supposed to be doing on behalf of the American people. And I think I'd also add, in that same vein of government efficiency, of those 2,000 employees that have either taken the fork in the road or been laid off, many of them have also been placed on administrative leave. So the federal government is, in effect, paying people to not do their job. And that is a huge waste of government resources, especially when you consider a lot of these people had decades of experience leading the agency. You know, we saw the same thing happen when EPA employees signed a letter and they were put on leave. Jeremy Edwards, before we end, I wanted to ask you about the climate deniers.

within the administration. This, after all, is FEMA, the federal emergency management agency that deals with natural disasters that are not necessarily natural, but actually man-made when it comes to issues like climate change. Yeah, I think what I would say is that it doesn't really matter whether or not you want to believe in climate change or think that it is real. The effects are happening. We are seeing more intense disasters. They're happening more frequently and this administration can choose to bury its head in the sand, but that will not stop the devastation and catastrophic events from happening. You know, the one thing I will add is that this administration has basically put a pause on programs like building resilient

infrastructure and communities that is mitigation funding. That represents millions of dollars that are going to communities to help them build resilience to these types of disasters. And Every dollar that is spent in resilience saves about $6 for these communities. So it's also a good economic investment. Also concerning is that the president has stopped authorizing the use of hazard mitigation grant program funding. This was funding that was given to communities who had just experienced disasters that allowed them to use a percentage of those funds to build resilience. So again, I don't really care, it doesn't really matter whether or not you believe in climate change.

We can all agree that these storms are happening more frequently. The effects are becoming more severe. And whatever you want to call it, it's happening. And we need to acknowledge it and help these communities prepare. And now you have FEMA being used, preparing to send $608 million to states to construct immigrant jails as part of the push to expand capacity for detainees. We just have 10 seconds. But FEMA's role in this, Jeremy. I think FEMA's mission is very clear to help people before during an after disaster.

And any single dollar that isn't being spent to help people with that mission is a failure to the American people. That money should not be going to build immigration detention centers. They should not be sending FEMA personnel, which they are doing to help onboard new ICE agents. We have to leave it there, Jeremy Edwards, former spokesperson for FEMA, among nearly 200 FEMA workers who signed a Katrina declaration to Congress. Thank you for joining us.