Democracy Now! Audio - Democracy Now! 2025-09-11 Thursday

Episode Date: September 11, 2025

Democracy Now! Thursday, September 11, 2025

From New York, this is Democracy Now. A manhunt is underway in Utah after the prominent far-right activist Charlie Kirk was assassinated Wednesday, as he spoke before a crowd of thousands at Utah Valley University. While a suspect is not in custody, President Trump is already blaming the left for Kirk's murder. For years, those on the radical left have compared wonderful Americans like Charlie to Nazis and the world's worst mass murderers and criminals. This kind of rhetoric is directly responsible for the

terrorism that we're seeing in our country today. We'll look at the killing of Charlie Kirk and rising political violence with Jeff Charlotte, author of The Undertoe, scenes from a slow civil war. Then to Radley Balco on how President Trump is taking steps to build his own personal army by creating a standing military force to be deployed domestically. And we go to Tunisia for an update on the Gaza Bound. aid flotilla that's been attacked twice by suspected drones in recent days. There is no other government that is interested to stop such a civilian movement except

the government of Israel. So this is what they happen. It's a violation of Tunisian law, violation of civilians, attack on a ship that carry humanitarian aid with civilians on board. All then and more coming up. Welcome to Democracy Now, Democracy Now.org, the War and Peace report. I'm Amy Goodman. A man hunt is underway for the shooter who killed the conservative activist Charlie Kirk at Utah Valley University on Wednesday. Kirk founded the conservative youth organization Turning Point USA when he was just 18 years old and played a crucial role in President Trump's 2024 victory. Kirk was speaking outside, taking questions from the crowd when he was killed by a

single shot fired from a nearby rooftop on campus. Utah Governor Spencer Cox said, quote, I want to be very clear that this is a political assassination, unquote. Here's Scott Robbins, who witnessed the shooting. Absolutely horrible event. You know, Charlie Kirk, he goes up there. He even has security to protect him from other extremists that have attacked him before from just debating them civilly. And so people didn't expect that kind of thing to happen. President Trump blamed the, quote, radical left for Kirk's death before a suspect has been identified and even tied the shooting to his own assassination attempt. Back on my life in Butler, Pennsylvania last year, which killed a husband and father to the

attacks on ice agents, to the vicious murder of a health care executive in the streets of New York, to the shooting of House majority leaders, Steve Scalise, and three others. Radical left political violence has hurt too many innocent people and taken too many lives. President Trump neglected to mention attacks on Democrats, including the former Democratic Speaker of the Minnesota House, Melissa Hortman, and her husband, who, were assassinated in June. Kirk was shot in the midst of talking about mass shootings. He was asked by an audience member about the number of transgender mass shooters in the country compared to the overall number of mass shooters when a bullet hit him in the neck.

In the past, Charlie Kirk repeatedly praised the Second Amendment and downplayed the seriousness of gun violence. Here's what he said back in April of 2020. You will never live in a society when you have an armed citizenry and you won't have a single gun death. That is nonsense. It's dribble. But I am, I think it's worth it. I think it's worth to have a cost of, unfortunately, some gun deaths every single year so that we can have the Second Amendment to protect our other God-given rights. Charlie Kirk's murder comes after the former FBI special agent in charge of Salt Lake City, Metab Sayyed was forced out last month after just six months on the job.

We'll have more on this story later in the broadcast. In Colorado, a student opened fire at a high school injuring two of his classmates. The gunman died of self-inflicted injuries. Authorities are currently investigating a motive for the attack. On social media, Colorado Governor Jared Pulles posted, quote, we are all praying for the victims and the entire community, he said. Israeli air strikes hit Yemen Wednesday, killing 35 people and injuring 131. The strikes on the capital, Sana'a, and the northern province of Al-Jaf, come a day after Israel's strike on Qatar, targeting senior Hamas leadership.

Yemen's health ministry said Israel attacked civilian and residential areas in Sanaa, as well as a government compound in Al-Qaeda, aljof province. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the strikes were in response to a Houthi drone attack that struck an airport in southern Israel earlier this week. Qatar's prime minister, Muhammad bin al-rahman bin Jassi, Maltani, said Wednesday the Israeli strike on Qatar killed any hope for the hostages in Gaza. Speaking with CNN, he also called the deadly strike that killed six people Tuesday an act of state terror and said, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu needs to be brought to justice. The Wall Street Journal's reporting, President Trump had a tense phone call with Prime Minister

Netanyahu about his attack on Qatar. Trump reportedly told Netanyahu the decision to target Hamas leaders in Qatar wasn't wise that he was angry he learned about the attack from the U.S. military instead of Israel. Meanwhile, Israeli military reservists and family members of hostages protested and marched towards Israel's military headquarters in Tel Aviv Wednesday. This is Vicki Kohn, the mother of Nimrod Kohn, and Israeli hostage held in Gaza. It's not only a march, it's also a protest that was organized by IDF soldiers that are against the war. and they say, like we, the families of the hostages, that our prime minister need to stop the war

and sign a deal that will bring all of the hostages back home. Israeli forces have killed 22 Palestinians in Gaza since dawn, including 16 in Gaza City. Five Palestinians were killed seeking food. Meanwhile, Al Jazeera is reporting. Israel arrested seven fishermen off the coast of the coast, Gaza City holding them in an unknown location. Israel also bombed three homes in the densely populated Shati refugee camp in Gaza. This comes as Israel continues to bomb Gaza City, ordering the evacuation

of nearly one million people. On Wednesday, Palestinians searched through rubble and debris at the site of a Gaza City residential tower building that was hit by an Israeli strike. Here's Magad Sukhar, who was sheltering in a tent near the tower. Four tons of explosives hit the tower. Our belongings flew in the air. Our tents are gone. Our money is gone. Our conditions have gotten worse.

There's no shelter for us. What does Trump want? What does Netanyahu want? Members of the global Samud flotilla are vowing to continue their efforts to break Israel's siege on Gaza after two of the group's ships came under fire, apparently from drone attacks while docked in Tunisia. After initial downplaying the attacks, Tunisia's interior ministry said Wednesday they were premeditated acts but did not name a suspect. Activists have directly implicated Israel with a spokesperson saying there is no other authority that would do such an attack, unquote. On Wednesday, thousands of Tunisians rallied at a beach near Tunis to support the group's efforts to bring humanitarian aid to Gaza.

without committing ourselves to all the other oppressed. But it begins with Palestine, because Palestine crystallizes all the complicities of our governments, all the complicities of our governments. And that is why we, the people, must take the place of our governments. Because they do not do it. And we, people who have never sailed, commit ourselves on boats and are going to achieve the impossible. There are dozens of countries represented by the participants in the Samud Flotilla. Later in the broadcast, we'll go to Tunisia for an update.

Israeli President Isaac Herzog says he argued with British Prime Minister Kier Starrmer during a tough meeting at 10 Downing Street, London Wednesday. Speaking at the Chatham House think tank after the talks, Herzog said Israel's war in Gaza is aimed at, quote, defending Western values. We are defending Europe. We are defending Western values in the free world with the blood and the tears of our sons and daughters and families. That's what we're doing. As Israeli President Herzog spoke, protesters gathered outside Chatham House holding signs reading, stop the slaughter, don't listen

to war criminals. Meanwhile, the front page headline of the Scottish newspaper, the National Red Stormer rolls out red carpet for genocide, unquote. According to Middle East Eye, the Crown Prosecution Service's counterterrorism division appointed a prosecutor to urgently review an application for an arrest warrant for President Herzog. Palestinian rights group cited his remarks in October 2023, stating all Palestinians in Gaza were unequivocally responsible for the October 7th Hamas attacks. Despite the investigation, U.K. authorities made no attempt to arrest Herzog. Poland has invoked Article 4 of the North Atlantic Treaty calling for consultations with

fellow NATO members, including the United States, after at least 19 Russian. drones flew deep into Polish territory overnight Tuesday. The incursion prompted Polish and NATO forces to scramble fighter jets as authorities closed major airports. On Wednesday, Polish Prime Minister Tusk told Parliament, quote, this situation brings us the closest we've been to open conflicts since World War II, unquote. In Kiev, Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelensky, slammed Western leaders for what he called a lack on action against Russia.

calling the drone incursion another provocation by Moscow. From the first hour of the night, our military-recorded Russian drones moving towards the Polish border, and this movement was not an accident or mistake, but deliberate movement. The Russians used both our territory and Belarusian territory to push them into Polish airspace. This weekend, Belarus is set to play host to major joint military drills of Russian and Belarus. forces. They're the first such war game since early 2022 right before Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The Trump administration's considering military strikes on Venezuela if President Nicolas doesn't step up pressure on drug cartels, according to independent investigative

reporter Ken Klippenstein, citing military sources, who said the Pentagon's drafting plans to attack Venezuela's military aircraft or to bomb its airfields. This comes just days after Venezuelan F-16 fighter jets buzzed U.S. Navy ships gathering north of Venezuela. Meanwhile, the intercept is reporting the 11 people on board the boat in the Caribbean that was destroyed by the U.S. military last week were said to have survived an initial strike and were killed shortly after in follow-up attacks. The boat reportedly turned back toward shore after people on board apparently spotted a military aircraft stalking it. Republican Senator Rand Paul revealed the attack was carried out by a drone. Paul criticized the strike as a breach of long-accepted rules of engagement. The Trump administration's claimed without evidence that targeted Venezuelan drug traffickers,

legal experts called the extrajudicial killings acts of murder and a war crime. British Prime Minister Kier Starrmer has fired the UK ambassador to the United States, Peter Mandelson, over his ties to the disgrace, now-dead, sexual predator Jeffrey Epstein. A senior foreign office official told members of Parliament, Mandelson had failed to disclose the extent and depth of his friendship with Epstein when Starrmer appointed him ambassador. This comes after the tabloid newspaper, The Sun, published a trove of emails, revealing Mandelson urged Epstein to fight for early release from prison

after his 2008 conviction for procuring a child for prostitution, writing, quote, your friends stay with you and love you, he said. In Washington, D.C., Republican House Oversight Chair James Comer has rejected calls to hear testimony from a forensic handwriting expert about Donald Trump's signature on a birthday letter in Jeffrey Epstein's 50th birthday book. The note features a nude sketch of a woman and concludes with the words, may every day be another wonderful secret, unquote. On Wednesday, Comer told reporters the letter has, quote, absolutely nothing to do with the overall investigation, unquote.

This comes a day after the White House said it would support a forensic analysis of the signature amidst Trump's repeated denials that he'd signed it. Meanwhile, Senate Republicans blocked a bid by Democratic minority leaders, Chuck Schumer, to compel the Justice Department to release the Epstein files. Three former senior FBI officials who were fired last month are suing FBI director Cash Patel and the Trump administration alleging they were let go as part of a campaign of retribution for refusing to demonstrate loyalty to President Trump. Brian Driscoll, the former acting FBI director, Stephen Jensen, who ran the Washington Field Office

and Spencer Evans, who led the Las Vegas. field office are all alleging, Patel chose to follow orders from the White House rather than federal law. According to the lawsuit, Driscoll, and other top officials tried to stop attempts to fire and punish FBI officials for working on criminal probes of Trump.

In Texas, immigrant rights groups and supporters are demanding the release of an El Paso DACA recipient after a federal judge terminated her deportation proceedings. Catalina, Sochil, Santiago, is a longtime community organizer who was seized by Border Patrol agents at the El Paso Airport in early August as she was about to board a domestic flight for work. Santiago remains in an ICE jail even after immigration judge Michael Pletters ruled on Monday that her DACA status remains valid and that she cannot be deported or moved until federal judges can review her case.

Meanwhile, more than 300 South Korean workers who were rounded up by ice at a Hyundai plant in Georgia, last week are expected to be deported to depart for South Korea today. At a news conference Wednesday, South Korea's president said the incident makes South Korean companies more hesitant to invest in the United States. And in New York City, mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani is calling on FIFA to abandon dynamic pricing for the 26 men's World Cup as part of his game over greed petition. Here's Mamdani yesterday. It hurts because we know that while New York City is proud to be one of the hosts of the World Cup final next year,

so many of our neighbors will not afford to be able to be there. They will not afford to be able to be there because FIFA is quadrupling the max ticket price that it will charge in order to be in attendance. They will not afford to be able to be there because FIFA is now deciding to use dynamic pricing for the first time in its history. And those are some of the headlines. This is Democracy Now. Democracy Now.org, the war and peace report. Coming up, a manhunt underway in Utah after the prominent far-right activist Charlie Kirk was assassinated Wednesday as he spoke before a large outdoor crowd at Utah Valley University. Stay with us.

You know, I'm going to The late great Randy Weston playing the healers for Democracy Now, to see the interview and his music, go to DemocracyNow.org. This is Democracy Now. Democracy Now.org, the Warren Peace Report. I'm Amy Goodman. And I'm Nermin Sheikh. Welcome to our listeners and viewers across the country and around the world. A manhunt is underway in Utah after the prominent far-right activist Charlie Kirk was assassinated on Wednesday as he spoke before a large outdoor crowd at Utah Valley

University on the first stop of his fall campus tour. Kirk was 31 years old. He was founded Turning Point USA when he was just 18, which grew into the largest right-wing youth movement in the country. He was a close ally of President Trump and one of the most influential young voices in the Maga movement. Police believe Kirk was killed by a single shot, possibly fired from a nearby roof. Kirk was shot as he was responding to a question by an audience member about how many transgender individuals have been mass shooters. There's a lot, right? I'm going to give you some credit. Do you know how many mass shooters there have been in America over the last 10 years? Counting or not counting gang violence? Great.

Police have not yet identified the shooter. But on Wednesday night, President Trump blamed the shooting on, well, what he called the radical left. It's a long past time for all Americans and the media to confront. the fact that violence and murder are the tragic consequence of demonizing those with whom you disagree day after day, year after year, in the most hateful and despicable way possible. For years, those on the radical left have compared wonderful Americans like Charlie to Nazis and the world's worst mass murderers and criminals. This kind of rhetoric is directly responsible for the terrorism that we're seeing in our country today, and it must stop right now.

My administration will find each and every one of those who contributed to this atrocity and to other political violence, including the organizations that fund it and support it, as well as those who go after our judges, law enforcement officials, and everyone else who brings order to our country. During his address, Trump referenced several other attacks on public figures, including attempts on his own life, but made no mention of any Democratic politicians who've been the target of political violence. The shooting of Charlie Kirk comes less than three months after

Trump's supporter assassinated Democratic state lawmaker Melissa Hortman and her husband in their home. Meanwhile, a number of prominent right-wing figures are already calling for Trump to target left-wing groups. Elon Musk wrote on X, quote, The Left is the party of murder. The Manhattan Institute's Christopher Rufo wrote on X, the last time the radical left orchestrated a wave of violence and terror, Jay Edgar Hoover shut it all down within a few years. It's time within the confines of the law to infiltrate, disrupt, arrest, and incarcerate

all of those who are responsible for this chaos, end quote. Meanwhile, the far-right influencer Laura Lumer also wrote on X, quote, The best way President Trump can reinforce Charlie's legacy is by cracking down on the left with the full force of the government. Jail every single leftist who makes a threat of political violence. We can't allow for these people to live among us in society. These comments come despite evidence the vast majority of political violence in the United States is committed by the far right. Last year, a unit of the Department of Justice published a major study on domestic terrorism.

It found, quote, since 1990, far right extremists have committed far more ideologically motivated homicides than far left or radical Islamist extremists, including 227 events that took more than 520 lives, unquote. We're joined now by Jeff Charlotte, who's written extensively about political violence. He's journalist, author, and professor of English and creative writing at Dartmouth College. His latest book is The Undertoe, Scenes from a Slow Civil War. His most recent post on Substack is The Struggle is Long. Thank you so much for joining us, Professor Jeff Charlotte.

First, if you can respond to this horrific moment yesterday, as he was taking questions from the crowd, the assassination, one bullet to the neck. Talk about your response. I think we're in a moment of great peril. the minute I heard this, spending the time that I do amongst right-wingers and reading right-wing media and fascist media and understanding their imagination of the moment, which is, look, I'm not going to take away, they've lost one of their own, and I don't doubt some of them mourn him, but you also see a certain amount of glee. rippling through that world. The language that I keep seeing is the gloves are off. Everything's on the table. It's on. Now it's time to do it, right? So there's a sense in which, rather than mourning their fallen comrade, they're seeing it as, some are seeing it as licensed to further escalate political violence. Well, Jeff Charlotte, if you could just provide

some broader context, explain who Charlie Kirk was. and the kind of extremely broad influence that he had. I mean, some have commented that, in fact, he was more important for Trump than some of his cabinet secretaries. Yeah, I really think this is, he's one of the great underestimated figures outside right-wing organizing circles. And that's because he had a three-hour, daily, you know, three-hour talk show. He had bigger presence on TikTok than most political figures.

And so he was misunderstood as an influencer, and he was that. But primarily and fundamentally, what he was was an organizer and a very, very effective one, you know, political analysts quibble over how much essential he was to swinging so much of the youth vote to Trump. But there's no question that he was a huge, huge part of it. And he did that by transforming far-right youth politics in America. The previous organizations had always been built around ideology, rather it was kind of a William F. Buckley conservatism or libertarianism. And Kirk's insight was absolute devotion to the great leader, cult of personality, a central tenet of fascism.

His politics would change. his enemies were Trump's enemies, whoever that was that day. He was in so many ways. And I think Trump viewed him this as the son he really wanted to have, a figure of tremendous influence. And I think that's important for us to understand because the scale of the right-wing reaction is going to correlate with that. And Professor Charlotte, talk about Turning Point USA.

What is the significant of this organization and his role in building it? So he founded it in 2012. And at the time, he was kind of a Tea Party Republican. 18 years old, right? Yes, he was a young guy. He decided to drop out of college. I think a lot of people make a lot of that, and he couldn't even go to college. What the guy could do was organizing.

organized and charm a rich old white man and raise money. And he did it. And he grew and grew it and then took a turn toward Christian nationalism. It had originally been largely secular. It had been originally been somewhat indifferent to or agnostic on LGBTQ plus rights. But he would see the moment he was very good at like his hero, Trump, at sort of tacking ever right word, wherever the current would take him. He built it to this behemoth that has chapters on hundreds and hundreds of college campuses. I think it's worth noting because you're seeing some people saying, well, you know, I disagree with what he said, but he was a champion of free speech. He died debating. Look, the fact that he was murdered doesn't change the fact that he also

he was an opponent of free speech. There's no other way to cut it for a man who created something called Professor Watchlist, School Board Watch List, to name and frighten people from teaching, who advocated restrictions on what school teachers could teach, who called for, and there's a clip you can see online, who called for the televised public executions. And he had a pretty broad category in mind, but what was really chilling was he wanted this to be required viewing for children.

And you can look at this clip, and you can see his colleagues. They're sort of trolling. But Kirk, again and again, pulls it back to seriousness. And he says, no, no, no, this isn't a joke. This has to be a holy experience, a teaching experience for children watching enemies be killed. That is not a champion of free speech. And Jeff Charlotte, his main issues of immigration, women's rights, abortion, gun control, a major one, as you talked about, he repeatedly praised the Second Amendment. This is going back to April 23.

Never live in a society when you have an armed citizenry and you won't have a single gun death. That is nonsense. It's dribble. But I am, I think it's worth it. I think it's worth to have a cost of, unfortunately, some gun deaths every single. single year, so that we can have the Second Amendment to protect our other God-given rights. And this is Charlie Kirk speaking on his podcast in June discussing mass deportation, what he called Project 10 million, which would launch a soft civil war, he said, in the United States.

I'm telling you, everybody, we need to do Project 10 million. Project 10 million is removing the 10 million alien invaders in this country. We have 25, 30 million. 10 million is going to be a big number in four years, which is basically going to launch a soft civil war in the major cities. That's why what's happening in New York is so important, which we'll talk about later in the show. That's why what's happening in L.A. is so important. So that was Charlie Kirk. Chef, Charlotte, your response. Yeah, you know, you said his big issues, and you gave a list, I would say his big issue was singular. It was whiteness, and he would express it in any many number of different kinds of ways.

When he spoke of immigration, he was a subscriber to the conspiracy theory known as the Great Replacement Theory. And he was explicit in his very old-school anti-Semitic ideas that mysterious Jewish donors were funding an effort to de-whiteen America. He was radicalizing even further right word before his eyes. Until 2023, he would praise MLK afterwards. He started calling the Civil Rights Act, one of the great wrongs of American life. And he would engage an openly racist talk saying that I don't even like to give a voice, but saying that black women didn't have the mental processing power to hold these positions of responsibility. And if you saw one in such a place, she had stolen that job.

Again and again, it came into whiteness. And he closed it in a Christianity that was unrecognizable to so many Christians of real faith. It was an extreme language. And as with Trumpism in general, it was mutating and moving ever right word right before our eyes. So, Jeff, you wrote right after the shooting, soon after the shooting yesterday, Wednesday. You warned people not to celebrate, you wrote, if I have any credibility with you from 20 years of reporting on right-wing and fascist movements, please listen when I beg you not to celebrate Charlie Cook getting shot. Don't celebrate it. Don't mock it.

On the one hand, you saw quotes, tweets, people on social media doing that. On the other hand, this morning, you've commented on this piece, and I'd just like to read an excerpt. New York Times opinion columnist Ezra Klein, writing this morning, quote, You can dislike much of what Kirk believed and the following statement is still true. Kirk was practicing politics in exactly the right way. He was showing up to campuses and talking with anyone who would talk to him. He was one of the era's most effective practitioners of persuasion. When the left thought its hold on the hearts and minds of college students was nearly absolute,

Kirk showed up again and again to break it. Slowly, then all at once, he did. He did. College age voters shifted sharply right in the 2024 election, Ezra Klein wrote again this morning in the New York Times. So if you could comment on that. Yeah, I mean, here's a really, to me, very simple fact. Murder is murder. You don't celebrate it.

You don't need to mock it. but you also don't euphemize. You don't whitewash the dead. Kirk did not practice politics in the right way. He boasted of fomenting the J6 insurrection. As I said, he called for televised executions. He used the most vile language. He practiced a McCarthyism on campuses.

This is not free speech. There is no need in speaking. We can speak against political violence without somehow twisting ourselves around to defend others who spoke for it. We don't have to imitate Kirk's violent rhetoric, nor do we have to cover it up. We have to name it accurately. Accurately is what it was. We have to name the murder of Kirk accurately as what it was, an assassination, a murder. And, you know, I said if my whatever 20 years reporting gives me any credibility, a whole lot of people told me it doesn't.

We're in a moment where I understand the anger of people want to celebrate it. They think I hear people saying, you know, what more can fascism do? There's already troops in our cities were already there. And I say, there's more they can do. There's more that they've written of doing. And the struggle, I think, the struggle is to every step of the way name as accurately the moment we are in such that we can resist the tide toward full civil war that people like Charlie Kirk seem to be interested in pulling us into. And we're going to be talking about troops in the streets of the United States in just one minute. But Charlie Kirk was going to be coming to Dartmouth.

Is that right, Jeff Charlotte? Just in the next few weeks, he was set up to debate Hassan Parker, Hassan Piker, I'm sorry, and that was sold out immediately. Yes, and I have to admit I'm not teaching this term, so that was news to me. And I don't have anything to say to that other than the recognition. and let's also not fool ourselves. I think there's a temptation to say, oh, the only people he was able to pull onto his side

where a few know nothings. No, he was able to move a real youth vote. He was able to turn a lot of young people toward the right. Despite his racism, he managed to find a perverse way of fooling a number of young black people into believing him. He was an effect. organizer.

That's not a tribute to him. I want to be really clear. Sometimes we make the mistake of saying someone is good at something that the good of doing what they do means that they're good. And he was no good. But he was effective. And his organization goes on past him. Hassan Piker said this is a terrifying incident before Trump announced Kirk's death.

He said the reverberation of people seeking out vengeance. in the aftermath of this violent abhorrent incident is going to be genuinely worrisome. Jeff Charlotte, I want to thank you so much for being with us, joining us from Canton, New York, journalist, author, professor of English and creative writing at Dartmouth College. His latest book, The Undertoe,

Scenes from a slow civil war. His most recent post on substack, The Struggle is long on Charlie Kirk and resisting the momentum of civil war. This is Democracy Now, Democracy Now.org, the War and Peace Report. I'm Amy Goodman with Nermine Shea. We look now at the steps President Trump is taking to build his own personal army. A federal judge ruled Trump acted illegally when he sent National Guard troops to Los Angeles, but he's still vowing to send troops to Chicago and other Democrat-led cities.

Meanwhile, Trump's emergency order that federalized its police force of Washington, D.C., and sent in National Guard troops and the Air Force, and the Air Force, FBI expired Wednesday, but at least 150 military police will patrol the nation's capital until at least the end of November. This comes as Trump signed a new executive order last month that directs defense secretary Pete Hegeseth to, quote, ensure the availability of a standing National Guard, quick reaction force that shall be resource trained and available for rapid nationwide deployment. For more, we're joined in Nashville, Tennessee by Radley Balco, investigative reporter. New Peace for Rolling Stone headline Trump's most dangerous executive order.

Bauco is the author of Rise of the Warrior Cop, the militarization of America's police forces. His Civil Liberties newsletter is called The Watch. Bradley, we'll come back to Democracy now. Just before we go to what you consider Trump's most dangerous executive order of what, 200 he signed, your response to the assassination of Charlie Kirk. I think it's an ominous development in our country. I'm, you know, obviously we all denounce political violence. I'm really worried about the fallout.

And as Jeff Charlotte talked about the reaction that we're seeing from the right, calling for more political violence and government directed political violence at the people that they perceive to be their enemy, is really frightening. And, you know, again, this is before we have a suspect. It's before we have a motive. We still don't even know what happened, and there are already sort of weaponizing this.

And I think it's pretty ominous. And so could you also, Radley, then, comment on this new executive order, Trump directing Pete Hegzeth to, quote, ensure the availability of a standing National Guard quick reaction force that shall be resource trained and available for rapid nationwide deployment. Yeah. So Trump has always wanted his own muscle, right? He's always expressed envy for dictators and

authoritarian overseas who have forces that they can deploy to do their own sort of personal bidding, whether it's putting down protests or going after political opponents. And during his first term, if you'll remember, Trump regularly posted on social media about the bikers, soldiers, and cops who are ready to rally to his cause and hurt his opponents. It's hard to remove that context from this executive order. Trump wants these rapid deployment units created within the National Guard that he can deploy. I think it's the word nationwide is important, right? This isn't to deploy overseas.

This is a military force to be deployed domestically. we've long had a norm or an ethos in this country of keeping the military separate from domestic law enforcement. Trump is slowly eating away at that and creating a new norm where it's just sort of accepted that this is going to be part of our country now. We're going to have troops in the streets. But this is particularly problematic, worrisome because Pete Hexeth has no law enforcement experience, law enforcement background and asking him to oversee this project, to oversee the staffing, the training, and the general oversight. Presumably, he would be coming up with the rules of engagement for these forces.

Hex said, not only has no law enforcement background, but he defends war criminals. He doesn't believe war crimes are real or should be prosecuted. This is a person who wrote in his book that the military should be enlisted in a holy war. And this is a, you know, a guy who, his favorite word is lethality, right? So he's going to be the person overseeing this. I think it is a really dangerous development. I mean, over the course of, you know, recent modern history in, you know, the modern world, there have been a lot of strongmen and authoritarian who have created their own paramilitaries

who are loyal to them over the country or the Constitution or democracy in general, and those never, situations never turn out well. Radley Balco, for those who aren't familiar with who the National Guard are, who these troops are, talk about the difference between soldiers, you know, deployed to other countries, the National Guard, teachers, doctors, nurses, artists who sign up to help out in a time of emergency, like a flood or a hurricane, and what it means to deploy these people to the streets of cities and then set up this rapid deployment force. Explain the difference between National Guard, police, ice. Yeah. Yeah. So I think there's some important,

important distinctions in here. So the National Guard is, it sort of stradles the line between civilian and military. That's why we see National Guard troops deployed after natural disasters, but they are primarily supposed to be deployed in the service of the state where they live and where they serve. And so they're called up by governors in these kinds of situations where we need help. We need a force to fill sandbags or remove debris or deliver supply. lies to people after natural emergencies, but the president can also federalize the National Guard and call them up. And this is almost, in the past, this has almost always been done to send them overseas

in a support role for the military. Now, it doesn't mean National Guard troops never see combat, but primarily the idea is that they serve in a support role. And the reason why is because they are part-time. As you mentioned, they are teachers, their mechanics, their lawyers, their, you know, These are people who serve on the weekends, and, you know, it is an admirable form of public service, but it's not, you know, the full-time military. What we have not seen very often at all is a president calling up the National Guard to deploy them domestically. As I said, after a disaster, it's almost always done by the governor.

What we've never seen until now is a president federalizing the National Guard and deploying them in a state over the objections of that state's governor. That has never happened before. The closest we've ever come to that was in Little Rock during the Civil Rights Movement when Little Rock's governor called up the National Guard in Arkansas to protect segregation. And Eisenhower then sent in active duty military troops, an airborne division to, basically to escort black students into Central High School in Little Rock. But we've never seen a president deploy a state national guard against the wishes of that state government.

Now, one thing that I've made this point in the past, I think in some ways, the National Guard, sending the National Guard into a protest, I think it betrays an ignorance and a lack of appreciation by a president for this traditional line that we have between the police and the military. But as I said, national guard troops tend to live in the states where they're deployed for the most part until now. Trump and Stephen Miller have made it clear that they want to end that. But because of that, they tend to be, they're not sort of immersed in policing culture the way we've seen with ICE agents and Border Patrol agents. So for example, when Trump cleared out Lafayette Park of protesters during the George Floyd protest. It was the National Guard

actually that contradicted the White House. It was National Guard commanders and troops who said, no, that's not the way this happened because they were offended by what they saw. So in some ways, I think it's troubling to see troops in the streets. In some ways, I'm more hopeful that they would refuse illegal orders than I am that ICE or Border Patrol would. But, again, with these rapid deployment units, they are going to be staffed and trained and overseen by Hegsef. So he is going to choose the people who, you know, serve in these units. And that, I think, you know, as we've seen in every other branch of this government, of this administration, they will make loyalty to Donald Trump, you know, the paramount thing that they're looking for when they staffed these units.

And Radley, very quickly, we just have 30 seconds. if you could talk about the concerns you've expressed about this executive order in the context of the ICE budget being increased exponentially, whether the National Guard could be called in to support what ICE is doing? Yeah, well, I think there's a, yeah, I think there's a possibility that this could get struck down in the courts. We don't really know. We saw Trump's, as you said, his order to deploy the Guard in Los Angeles, struck down by a federal court.

If that happens, I think he'll create a similar unit with ICE or Border Patrol or Homeland Security agents. And, you know, there they can, he can send them into just about any city under the guise of immigration enforcement. But as we've seen, they do a lot more once they're there. And this unlimited, basically unlimited budget that Congress has given Trump to hire ICE and Border Patrol agents is going to allow them to really build out those forces. It's going to be one of the largest, it would be one of the largest militaries in the world if ICE itself were a military. And, again, they're going to staff it with people who are primarily loyal to Trump and who aren't going to be questioning unconstitutional orders. So, you know, I think he's trying to fulfill this vision of his own personal paramilitary force in multiple different ways. I want to thank you, Radley Balco, for joining us.

And echo what you said about, well, now his name is the Secretary of War. Trump has renamed the Pentagon. Pete Higgseth, talking about lethality. exact quote, we're going to go on offense, not just on defense, maximum lethality, not tepid legality, violent effect, not politically correct. Those are the words of Pete Hegseth. Radley Baucoe, investigative reporter will link to your piece in Rolling Stone, Trump's most dangerous executive order.

Radley Baucoe's author of Rise of the Warrior Cop, the militarization of America's police forces. His newsletter, The Watch. Coming up, we go to Tunisia for an update on the Gaza-bound aid flotilla. Stay with us. Picture the morning, taste and devour. We rise, early pace up the hour. Streets is bustling, hustling day harder.

You can't have the sweet with no sour. Spices, herbs, the sweet scent to flour. She came on precisely the hour. Clouds disappeared. Her sun shows the power. No chance of a probable shower. I fell in love with my neighbor's daughter. I wanted to protect and support.

Here on Democracy Now, Democracy Now.org. I'm Amy Goodman with Nirmin Sheik. Members of the global Sumud flotilla are vowing to continue their efforts to break Israel's siege of the Gaza Strip after two of the group's ships came under fire from apparent drone attacks while docked in Tunisia. After initially downplaying the attacks, Tunisia's interior ministry said Wednesday they were, quote, premeditated acts, but did not name a suspect. Activists have directly implicated Israel. Passengers aboard the flotilla include the Swedish climate activist Greta Toonberg, who was detained by Israel in June when Israeli forces raided an earlier Gaza-bound flotilla. genocide is being enabled and fueled by our governments, our institutions, our companies, our elected officials who are supposed to represent us and your complicity.

Another passenger on the flotilla is the late South African President Nelson Mandela's grandson, the South African MP Mandela. Mandela. Coming all the way from South Africa to participate in this is really a joy to once again be able to set sail and go and break the blockade in Gaza and end the siege, which has been going on for the past 18 years. And we hope that it will be received as such because we are peaceful people. We pose no threat. We are carrying humanitarian aid.

for our brothers and sisters in Gaza. We're joined now by two guests. On the boat in the port now is Mariana Murtagawa, Portuguese parliamentarian economist, and we're joined by Seif, Abu Khashik, a Palestinian activist based in Barcelona, has been organizing Palestinian solidarity across Europe for 20 years, was a lead organizer in the global march to Gaza. We welcome you both to democracy now. Let's begin with the Portuguese parliamentarian.

who is joining us now, Mariana Mertagwa. Why are you on the boat? Explain what's happened with these two attacks and what you believe has happened. Okay. I'm on the boat because I think that if our governments are not doing anything to stop the genocide and to break the siege, then the civil society has to organize. And I feel that as a member of the parliament, it's my duty to do this.

It's my duty to be here and to help in any way I can, to bring attention to the situation in Gaza and the genocide and to break the siege. As we know, many flotillas before this one has been somehow attacked by Israeli forces, either to drone attacks before they left, or they were intercepted or to bureaucratic sabotage. What we know is that in the two previous days, two of our boats have been attacked. One is the boat I mean right now called family boats, and it was attacked when one of my comrades from Portugal was on the boat

and saw the drone and saw the fire that came from the drone and attacked the boat. The next day, I was on the boat and I saw the other attack on Alma boat, which was right in front of us. These attacks were done in Tunisian waters. We were anchored by the ports of Tunisia. And we know who has interest in stopping these flotillas, in stopping this mission to Gaza. And we are very also aware of the fact that Israel did this. At the same time, they were displacing one million people in Gaza. So there is these tactics that they use all the time to change the attention,

to move the eye from Gaza to the flotilla, from the flotilla to Qatar, and they are using this in order to draw attention away from Gaza. And we want to put attention back there. So there are 1 million people being displaced in Gaza City right now and being bombed right now. And Seth, could you comment? You were a part of the Global March to Gaza earlier this year.

Talk about the significance, the importance of these repeated attempts to break the Israeli siege on Gaza? Well, I mean, we see the complicity of so many governments in the genocide and the blockage around Gaza and, of course, the support for the Israeli occupation during the past 78 years. Without civil society moving to pressure those governments, we won't achieve any advancement for the people, for the citizens who are living there. We have seen how the Spanish government took a decision for an empergo, a military embargo, which will stop any kind of military treatments with Israel. This is the path to go forward, and this only happens

through mobilization. In June, we have mobilized three movements through land by convoy from North Africa, through sea with Madeline, and then through air with more than 4,000 people going from more than 80 countries to Egypt to try to pressure the complicit governments in their participation in genocide. We have to continue working. There is no one mission or campaign that will have a direct outcome, in fact. But I believe solidarity work is an accumulative process that we have to build in. We have to mobilize people around the world.

We have to get pressure on governments because that's the only way that Israel will listen and will stop their crimes. Those governments are enabling Israel to continue. Mariana, Mortago, you're a Portuguese parliamentarian. If you could talk about what effect you think these attempts, the flotillas, the global march, whether it's having an impact on people, on ordinary citizens in Portugal and, you know, across Europe. Yeah, I think that's the main goal of the flotilla, besides breaking the siege and opening a new. humanitarian corridor to Gaza

is to show people that Gaza is a real place. It's not an abstract location. Gaza exists. It's there. Real people are living there and are living under attack, despite the fact that our governments just pretend that nothing is happening and that Israel

is not breaking international law every day in Palestine, but also attacking these humanitarian flotillas. So one of the consequences of these flotillas is trying to make our governments take a stand, trying to pressure the European Commission,

the European institutions to take a stand. And it is unfortunate that we need to have European citizens and European parliamentarians in boats towards Gaza to make our governments say something about Israel. It is unfortunate that we need a Portuguese boat with a Portuguese flag, being attacked with Portuguese citizens and parliamentarians on board by some, I wouldn't say that the drone has no flag, but we know who has interests and who gains from these attacks.

And it is unfortunate that we need these for the Portuguese government to say something about the genocide and to say something about Gaza. But if this is what it takes, then we'll continue with the fortila to open the maintering corridor and to make sure that all governments in the world have to say something about the genocide. They have to recognize the genocide. Mariana Martago, we want to thank you very much for being with us, Portuguese parliamentarian on one of the boats, part of the flotilla that hopes to challenge Israel's siege on Gaza.

and Saif Abu Keshek, Palestinian activists based in Barcelona. Both are taking part in the global Sumud flotilla. And as we wrap up today, here in New York, a moment of silence was observed at 8.46 a.m. this morning to mark 24 years since the September 11th attacks. That does it for our show. I'm Amy Goodman with Nirmin Sheikh. Thanks so much for joining us.