Democracy Now! Audio - Democracy Now! 2025-10-24 Friday

Episode Date: October 24, 2025

Democracy Now! Friday, October 24, 2025

From New York, this is Democracy Now. This is the Rush Ayn Alusha Bedouin community here on the West Bank. It's an area sea. Israel has control in this area. But the bedwins, I've been here now for more than 50 years. The settlement, which is an outpost in the distant behind us, that's new. Israeli settler violence continues in the occupied West Bank as top U.S. officials from Vice President Vance to Steve Wittkoff and Secretary of State Rubio. Go to what some call Bidi-Sat, the Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu,

and the shaky Gaza ceasefire. We'll speak with Jan Eglins, Secretary General of the Norwegian Refugee Council, just back from the West Bank. Then we look at growing fissures within the Republican Party. Many times I hate my own party and I blame Republicans

for many of the problems that we have today. As the government shutdown enters its 24th day, House Speaker Johnson still refuses to seat Democratic Congress, member-elect Adelida Grijalva, who would be the final vote to trigger the release of the Epstein files. We'll speak with former Republican political operative Stuart Stevens. Then, at least 15 people have died in the Harris County Jail in Houston, Texas, this year, including two this month. Most people in jail have yet to go to trial but cannot afford to

pay bail for their release. Now, a new animated musical documentary short film criminal is drawing attention to the crisis. More than 9,000 people dwell in this waterfront property, its impressive facade might compel or inspire those with a dough to peek in and inquire. Who wants a condo with a wonderful view right here in downtown Houston? Follow me. I'll show you. Upon closer inspection, let me lift the veil on the third largest hell in America, the Harris County Jail.

All that and more coming up. Welcome to Democracy Now, Democracy Now.org, the War and Peace Report. I'm Amy Goodman. The United Nations is urging Israel to open the Rafah border crossing to allow urgently needed aid into the Gaza Strip. This comes as 41 aid groups, including Oxfam and the Norwegian Refugee Council, have published an open letter accusing Israel of arbitrarily rejecting aid deliveries into Gaza. The letter says, quote, aid denied by Israeli authorities and includes tents and tarplins, blankets, mattresses, food, and nutrition supplies, hygiene kits, sanitation materials, assistive devices and children's clothing, all of which should be unrestricted

during the ceasefire, they wrote. The World Food Program warned it was falling short of its target of sending 2,000 tons of food into Gaza. Meanwhile, the WHO described Gaza's starvation crisis as still catastrophic. There is increase in amount after the ceasefire. But what is entering Gaza is significantly below the required target, significantly below the required target. And that also can explain the second, can be an answer to the second question, is there a dent in hunger level? So if the Gaza, if the aid that's entering Gaza is significantly low, it cannot dent the hunger level. And the situation still remains catastrophic because what's entering is not enough. In Israel, Secretary of State Marco Rubio met with senior Israeli army officials and held a news conference in Keryat Gat, the site of a new International Command Center with troops from the U.S., U.S., U.K., Jordan, and UAE.

Rubio said the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, known as UNR, cannot have a role in the Gaza Strip. He called at a, quote, subsidiary of Hamas. quote. Since the U.S. brokered ceasefire came into effect October 10th, Israel's killed nearly 100 Palestinians and wounded 230 in Gaza. President Trump responded Thursday to the Israeli Knesset's vote advancing legislation that would annex the occupied West Bank. The West Bank? Don't worry about the West Bank. Israel's not going to do anything with the West Bank, okay? Don't worry about it. Is that your question? They're not going to do anything with the West Bank. don't worry about it. Israel's doing very well. They're not going to do anything with it.

This follows a Time magazine interview in which Trump firmly opposed Israeli annexation, saying, quote, it won't happen because I gave my word to the Arab countries. Israel would lose all of its support from the United States if that happened, unquote. Separately, Secretary of State Marco Rubio called annexation in the West Bank, a, quote, threat to the peace process. Meanwhile, Al Jazeera's is reporting, a child has died after being wounded by Israeli forced. during a raid in the occupied West Bank town of Nablus. UNRWA reports, more than 1,000 Palestinians have been killed in Settler and Israeli Army attacks in the West Bank since October 7, 2023.

We'll have more on this story later in the broadcast with the Secretary General of the Norwegian Refugee Council. Members of the Israeli opposition are slamming far-right finance minister Bezalal Smotrick for his what they call harmful comments about Saudi Arabia. Smotrich resorted to stereotypes when he said he wouldn't agree to a normalization deal with Saudi Arabia if it required Israel to recognize a Palestinian state. If Saudi Arabia says to us normalization in exchange for a Palestinian state, friend, no thank you, continue riding camels on the sand in the desert. And Saudi Arabia, we will continue to develop, really, with economy and society and state and all the great and wonderful things that we know how to do. Smotrick has since apologized for his comments.

This comes as President Trump's set to host Saudi Crown Prince, Mohamed bin Salman, at the White House next month. It will be the Saudi Crown Prince's first visit to the U.S. since the 2018 murder of the columnist Kamel Khashoggi. President Trump asserted Thursday that he had the authority to continue to launch airstrikes against alleged drugboats in international waters without a congressional declaration of war. Since September, the Pentagon says it struck nine such boats, killing 37 people.

I don't think we're going to necessarily ask for a declaration of war. I think we're just going to kill people that are bringing drugs into our country. Okay, we're going to kill them, you know? They're going to be like dead. Okay. Trump also denied reports by the Wall Street Journal. The U.S. is sending B-1 bombers near Venezuela. Meanwhile, Venezuela's defense minister, Vladimir Padreino Lopez,

announced he's deploying armed forces along Venezuela's coastline. No attempt to destabilize the Venezuelan nation will pass through here. They may send, however, many CIA affiliate units and covert operations from any flank of the nation, and any attempt will fail as they have failed so far. President Trump says he suspended trade talks with Canada over an ad produced by the government of Ontario that criticizes tariffs. The ad features excerpts of a 1987 address by then President Ronald Reagan, warning of the dire consequences of high tariffs, like the 35% tariff Trump has imposed on most Canadian goods not covered under a trade agreement.

High tariffs inevitably lead to retaliation by foreign countries and the triggering of fierce trade wars. Then the worst happens. Market shrink and collapse. Businesses and industry shut down and millions of people lose their jobs. In a social media post, Trump lashed out at the one-minute ad calling it fake, writing, quote, based on their egregious behavior, all trade negotiations with Canada are hereby terminated, unquote. Former House Speaker, longtime San Francisco Congress member Nancy Pelosi is warning federal agents. They could face arrest by local police if they break California law while carrying out

immigration sweeps. In a statement, Pelosi wrote, quote, while the president may enjoy absolute immunity, courtesy of his rogue Supreme Court, those who operate under his orders do not. Our state and local authorities may arrest federal agents if they break California law, and if they're convicted, the president cannot pardon them, unquote. In response, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche wrote on X, quote, Stand down or face prosecution.

No one threatens our agents. No one will stop us from making America safe again, unquote. A group of civil and human rights groups is calling on immigration. and customs enforcement to end the jailing of pregnant people and to immediately investigate reports of severe medical neglect in ICE jails in Louisiana and Georgia. A joint letter signed by the National Immigration Project, the ACLU, and others describe the shackling of pregnant people during transport, solitary confinement, the denial of prenatal vitamins, inadequate food, and delayed or substandard medical care. They say one woman experienced a dangerous infection after a miscarriage due to ICE's medical neglect. Meanwhile, CNN is reporting the Department of Homeland Security is funneling $10 billion from the Navy in order to construct a sprawling network of migrant detention centers nationwide, funneling to the Navy. A source tells CNN the jails could hold as many as 10,000 people apiece.

The federal government shutdown has entered its 24th day. It's now the second longest in U.S. history, rivaled only by the 2018-19. shutdown during Trump's first term. On Thursday, the Senate rejected competing partisan bills to compensate some federal workers who've gone without pay since early October. This comes as at least 36 states are warning they're preparing to suspend November payments to snap the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. The Center for Budget and Policy Priorities warns that would leave about one out of every

eight people in the U.S. without food assistance, including some 16 million children, and 8 million older adults and 4 million people with disabilities. New York Attorney General Letitia James is set to appear in federal court in Virginia today. She's expected to plead not guilty to charges she lied in her mortgage application. James has said that she plans to ask the federal judge to dismiss her case on the grounds the U.S. attorney in eastern Virginia, Lindsay Halligan, was unlawfully appointed by President Trump. Last month, Trump forced out Halligan's predecessor, the Trump appointed Eric Siebert, after he refused to bring indictments against James and the former FBI director, James Comey. The Trump administration finalized plans Thursday to open more than a million and a half acres of Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, Anwar, to oil and gas drilling.

The Interior Department also announced the first oil and gas lease sale with the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska since 2019. and it approved a more than 200-mile industrial road through Alaska's Inbeck National Wildlife Refuge. Environmentalists condemn the announcements in a statement the Alaska Wilderness League wrote, quote, opening the entire coastal plain of the Arctic refuge to drilling would destroy one of the most ecologically significant landscapes on Earth. The birthing grounds of the porcupine caribou herd, vital habitat for polar bears and migratory birds, and sacred land for the Gwichan people who have stewarded its resources for millennia, unquote. President Trump Thursday pardoned the convicted founder of the cryptocurrency exchange Binance. Chang Peng Zhao pleaded guilty in 2023 to enabling money laundering while he was CEO of Binance.

According to the Wall Street Journal, Binance struck a deal with World Liberty Financial, the Trump family's crypto startup, which, has generated $4.5 billion since Trump returned to office. Binance also reportedly hired lobbyist Charles McDowell, who's a close friend of Trump's son, Donald Trump Jr. Republican Senator Tom Tillis blasted Trump's pardon, saying it sends, quote, a bad signal. When asked about Jow's pardon, President Trump said, quote, I don't know he was recommended by a lot of people. The Trump administration's released a list of wealthy donors and corporations Funding President Trump's $300 million construction of a 90,000 square foot ballroom at the White House among the donors are Amazon, Apple, Microsoft, Meta, Palantir, Lockheed Martin, and more.

Alphabet, the parent company of Google, is contributing $22 million after settling a lawsuit Trump filed against YouTube for banning him from the platform after he incited his followers to attack the Capitol on January 6, 2021. On Thursday, the Secret Service shut off public access to the ellipse, a public park adjacent to the White House, and one of the only spots to view the demolition. Photos show the entire West Wing has been knocked down. President Trump says he's canceled plans to send federal forces into San Francisco. On Thursday, Trump wrote on social media he'd been talked out of his plans for what he called a surge after he spoke with his friends. the CEO of Navidia, Jensen Huang, and the CEO of Salesforce, Mark Benioff. Trump's sudden reversal came as protesters rallied outside a U.S. Coast Guard base in the San Francisco Bay where more than 100 federal agents were reportedly preparing to ramp up immigration raids.

Police use flashbang grenades to drive protesters away from an entrance as customs and border patrol vehicles drove through. Separately, city officials joined protests at San Francisco City Hall. This is Laura Valdez, Director of Mission Action, which works on behalf of low-income and immigrant communities. Please remember that this might be the start of mass enforcement in our communities, and we need to prepare adequately. And even if it is not the start, we still need to be prepared, and this community is here to

back you up. And those are some of the headlines. This is Democracy Now, Democracy Now.org, the Warren Peace Report. I'm Amy Goodman. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio is in Israel today as the Trump administration pals pressure on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on the fragile Gaza ceasefire deal. A parade of top Trump officials held meetings with Netanyahu in Israel all week, starting with U.S. Special Envoy Steve Whitkoff and Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner,

then Vice President J.D. Vance. Just before broadcast, Secretary of State Marco Rubio held a news conference that Kyriott got in southern Israel, a newly opened international central command surrounded by military troops on what is his latest visit to oversee the implementation of the Gaza deal. Despite Israel's repeated ceasefire violations, Rubio praised the troops saying, quote, the truce, saying, quote, a lot of good progress is being made on a number of fronts. referring to Trump's 20-point so-called peace plan for Gaza. When asked whether UNRWA, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine refugees, would be involved in humanitarian efforts in Gaza, Rubia responded no and referred to the agency as a subsidiary of Hamas. Rubio's remarks came after a ruling by the International Court of Justice this week,

saying Israel has not, quote, substantiated its allegations that a significant part of UNRWA's employees are members of Hamas, unquote. Roobio was also questioned about escalating Israeli settler violence in the occupied West Bank, including against U.S. citizens. This is Rubio responding. A series of settler attacks against a village full of American citizens in the West Bank called Termosia. I was just wondering if you had seen any of the videos of these attacks. I'm aware of the incidents, and I've seen, I mean, not recently. I've seen some of the ones that have been posted and so many things on social media.

Our embassy has worked on that topic and has experienced. the U.S. opinion to the government. Obviously, the safety and security of Americans anywhere in the world is something that will be important to us. And we've expressed our position directly to the Israelis. As the Israeli-Knesset Thursday voted to annex the occupied West Bank, in his news conference in Kiriat-Gat, Rubio called the move, quote, a threat to the peace process. President Trump's also rejected Israel's plans to annex the occupied West Bank,

saying in a recent interview with Time magazine, it won't happen because I gave my word to the Arab countries. Israel would lose all of its support from the United States if that happened, Trump said. He spoke on Thursday. The West Bank is, don't worry about the West Bank. Israel's not going to do anything with the West Bank, okay? Don't worry about it. Is that your question? They're not going to do anything with the West Bank.

Don't worry about it. Israel's doing very well. They're not going to do anything with it. Trump's remarks came as very. Vice President J.D. Vance said he's personally insulted by the annexation vote, which came during his visit to Israel. It was a very stupid political stunt, and I personally take some insult to it. The West Bank is not going to be annexed by Israel. The policy of the Trump administration is that the West Bank will not be annexed by Israel. That will continue to be our policy. And if people want to

take symbolic votes, they can do that. But we certainly weren't happy about it. This all comes as the United Nations is urging Israel to open the Rafa crossing to allow urgently needed humanitarian aid into Gaza. Over 40 aid groups, including Oxfam and the Norwegian Refugee Council, have published an open letter accusing Israel of arbitrarily rejecting aid deliveries into Gaza. In a minute, we'll be joined by Jan Eglin, Secretary General of the Norwegian Refugee Council, who's just returned from a trip to the occupied West Bank. This is a clip of his visit. This is the Rush Ayn Alusha Bedouin community here on the West Bank. It's an area C. Israel has control in this area.

But the Bedouins have been here now for more than 50 years. The settlement, which is an outpost in the distant behind us, that's new. We go now to Amman Jordan to speak with Yan Aguille. Secretary General of the Norwegian Refugee Council, Jan, thanks so much for being with us. If you can start off by talking about that trip you just took, two-day visit to the West Bank, which you say is, quote, being intentionally and brutally carved up. Explain as people focus on Gaza, what's happening in the West Bank. No, indeed.

I mean, I was there three years ago the last time. I've been there now for more than 30 years altogether. And I was shocked to see how many new illegal settlements are strategically put on all hilltops in large parts of the countryside in the West Bank. At the same time as the thugs, the violent settler gangs from these settlements attack every single day. Palestinian rural communities, very vulnerable Bedouin communities, torch their houses, torch their mosque, their school, steal their livestock, and divert their water. So you see how the place is annexed and the occupation deepens because this is occupied land every single day now. And it's changing as we speak after the 7th of October, two years ago,

when Hamas did this atrocities, horrific atrocities in Israel. I think the settler movement felt they had a free hand to do whatever they wanted on the West Bank. And it happened in the shadows of the war in Gaza. And what do you make of the vote in the Knesset around the annexation of the West Bank. You just heard Vice President Vance saying he took it as a personal insult in Trump saying it's not going to happen, but it happened.

The vote happened. Yeah, it did happen. And of course, ministers in the Israeli cabinet are very outspoken on their ambition to annex formally the West Bank. And we're very glad that President Trump, Vice President

Vance, Secretary Rubio all say it will not happened. There will be no formal annexation of the occupied land on the West Bank. In reality, a lot of things are happening on the ground. I mean, every single day, Palestinian houses are demolished. Every single day, the communities are attacked. Every single day, people are beaten up. Thousands of olive trees are uprooted. I mean, it's happening as we speak. And I would encourage really U.S. and European and other decision makers to take a tour with us and see what's happening in the West Bank because the injustice is just enormous.

I wanted to go to the U.N. Humanitarian Affairs Office saying it's documented 71 attacks on the occupied West Bank by Israeli settlers against Palestinians and their property in just one week. Among the victims is a 55-year-old woman who is hospitalized with a brain hemorrhage after she was beaten unconscious by a masked Israeli settler wielding a club. We were picking olives, then a vehicle passed by, it kept on going by. Then a woman started screaming settlers, but we didn't see them. They were hiding between the olive trees. She told me, settlers, settlers, then me, my sister-in-law, my brother-in-law, and my son, ran away from the area.

I was looking around, and I saw around 20 settlers. and they started beating me on my head. I fell to the ground, and I couldn't feel anything. They continued beating me. I didn't see anyone, and then two people came and carried me. Independent journalist Jasper Nathaniel, who filmed Sunday's violence against Palestinian olive farmers in the occupied West Bank village of Termuz Ayah,

compared the Israeli settlers' attack to a lynch mob. Jasper Nathaniel and a group of Palestinians were then chased by a swarm of the war. Israeli settlers carrying stones and clubs. Jasper Nathaniel is a U.S. citizen. Also with him, a Palestinian man, Yasser, get into a car as settlers then try to smash the back window. Press, press, American press!

American press! Press! They're literally, right behind it. He's right here. He's about to smash him. There he is. Here he's scary. There it is.

Are the doors locked? So that's, Nathaniel, the American journalist. Jan Eglund, if you can respond. I mean, so far this year, there were over 750 Israeli settler attacks, which is a 13% increase over last year. What are you calling for now at the Norwegian Refugee Council? We're calling for international law to be exerted on the West Bank. I mean, the occupation has to be lifted. It has now been there in place since 1967. I would urge the Western governments in NATO countries who are so outspoken, rightly against the Russian occupation of Ukraine.

We support Ukrainian war against the occupier. Why is this tolerated when it happens on Palestinian land. It is occupation. So there has to be action where humanitarian workers on the ground were there every day trying to defend these people, but we're unarmed. We cannot really fight these settler mafias that are well armed and who worked without with impunity. Every time I met these people who had these hair racing stories that the Palestinian I asked them, but why don't you go to the Israeli occupation forces, to the police, to the army, Israeli army? And they say, we do that all the time.

And they laugh of us, or they take down the report, and then they come back and say, we investigated, and we found that to be no stealing of 1,000 sheep, which is now clearly in the hands of the settlers. And then if you come with forced segregation, you. will be in prison. So they feel there is impunity for the settlers. And that's one of the things I think the allies of Israel should be able to change. And I wanted to end with the last question to Marco Rubio today in his press conference in Southern Israel. He was asked about the video of attacks on Palestinians in the West Bank and also the attacks and killings of Palestinian

Americans. He said, we've expressed our position to the Israeli authorities. We care about Americans everywhere. So let's turn to this father of a 16-year-old American, Palestinian American, Mohamed Zahar, Ibrahim, demanding the U.S. government free his son from an Israeli prison. Anybody that's in the U.S. government, their duties to bring home any American citizen. And you know, Israel prison is one of the worst prison in the world. What are lost, can I guess, they only get 10 minutes a day outside. So the rest of a cell, crap that fits eight people. They have 16 in there. So from day one, they said, we're working on it.

And they, you know, then you go to for one month, two months, three months, we're eight months. He missed about half the last year's school. He's missing this year in school. There's no progress, you know. So I think the U.S. government either do something or admit you can't do nothing. So final question about the number of Palestinians who are imprisoned right now. This, an American father appealing for his American son, who just turned 16.

in an Israeli prison to be released in a Israeli prison. Your response, Jan Egland? Well, I would say that these are people in the thousands that have been under in detention with no law, no sentences, no trial for a very long time. this is administrative detention very often. And some liken it to hostage taking, they should be released really or put before a trial of law

and then to be proven to be criminals. If not, release them. I want to thank you very much for being with us, Jan Egel. And Secretary General of the Norwegian Refugee Council just returned from a two-day visit to the occupied West Bank. Next up, we look at the growing fissures within the Republican Party with a former Republican political operative.

Stay with us. Going to lay down my sword and shield down by the river's side down. Down by the river side. I'm going to lay down my sword and chill. Without my river, I ain't going to study war no more. I ain't going to study war no more. I ain't going to study war no more. I ain't going to study war no more.

I ain't going to study war no more. No, I ain't going to study war no more. Ain't going to study it war. Sweet Honey and the Rock performing down by the Riverside years ago in our firehouse studio. This is Democracy Now, Democracy Now.org. I'm Amy Goodman. President Donald Trump has abruptly demolished the entire east wing of the White House. And what is perhaps a perfect metaphor, many people are saying, about what he's doing to the institutional pillars of our

democracy, tearing them down with authoritarian hubris, answering to no one as he erects yet another garrish monument. This comes as the government shutdown enters its 24th day, with Republican majorities in Congress facing growing criticism, some of it from within the party itself. House Republican Congress member Marjorie Taylor Green spoke Tuesday on the Tucker Carlson show. I have no respect for Speaker Johnson not calling us back to Washington because we should be passing bills. We should be passing bills that reflect the president's executive orders, which are exactly what we voted for. We should be at work on our committees. We should be doing investigations

and you want to know something? We should be passing the discharge petition that Thomas Massey put in to release the Epstein files. Many times I hate my own party and I blame Republicans for many of the problems that we have today. And I blame them for being so America last to the point where they are literally slaves to all the big industries in Washington, the military industrial complex, big pharma, health insurance industries, you name it. They are literally slaves to them. And they love the foreign war so much. Congress member Marjorie Taylor Green, a Republican, has also called for the extension of the Affordable Care Act subsidies, a key demand of Democrats to end the government shutdown.

She wrote an ex-quote, I'm going to go against everyone on this issue because when the tax credits expire this year, my own adult children's insurance premiums for 2026 are going to double, along with all the wonderful families and hardworking people in my district, unquote. Well, today we look at the growing fissures within the Republican Party

as Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson refuses to swear in the Democratic Congress member-elect, Adelita Grijalva of Arizona, who would be the final vote on a discharge petition to release the Epstein files. Republican Thomas Massey co-sponsored the rare bipartisan bill to require the release of the full Epstein files. So far, four Republicans have signed on in addition to Massey. Yes, Republican Congress member Marjorie Taylor Green, Nancy Mace of South Carolina, and Lauren Bobert of Colorado, all Republicans. Meanwhile, as Trump sends federal forces into Democrat-led cities like Chicago, the Republican governor of Oklahoma, who's also the head of the National Governors Association, Governor Stitt, has criticized the move telling the New York Times, quote, Oklahomans would lose their mind if troops were sent into their red state.

This all comes as Trump's nominee to lead the Office of Special Counsel, Paul and Gracia, withdrew from consideration Tuesday following widespread. backlash, including of Republicans, over a slew of racist texts. He texted a group of Republicans that he has a, quote, Nazi streak, adding that the Martin Luther King Jr. Holiday should be, quote, tossed into the seventh circle of hell, unquote. After the texts were made public by Politico, several Republican senators said they wouldn't support his nomination, including the Senate Majority Leader John Hithune. Vermont State Senator Samuel Douglas has just formally resigned over his comments in the chat. For more, we go to Vermont, where we're joined by Stuart Stevens, a former Republican

political operative who worked on George W. Bush's presidential campaign was the chief strategist for Mitt Romney in 2012. Stevens did not support Donald Trump as a Republican candidate either time. He's a senior advisor to the Lincoln Project and the author of nine books, including the conspiracy to end America, five ways my old Party is driving our democracy to autocracy. And it was all a lie, how the Republican Party became Donald Trump. His recent essay for Zetao is headline, my plea to Democrats, stop being polite, go nuclear. He also writes for the Lincoln substack. We welcome you back to Democracy Now. Thanks so much for being with us, Stuart Stevens. Is there a growing fissure within the Republican

Party? Are these divisions significant? First of all, it's great to be here. Thanks for asking me. Listen, I think that what's happening with Margie Taylor Green is very specific to her desire to run as a statewide candidate in Georgia. And as we've seen, Georgia is increasingly a purple state. There's actually a lot of suburban voters that are not comfortable with the sort of ugliness of the ice raids. They're not comfortable with the idea that the, you know, East Wing is being torn down. They're not comfortable with the idea that Trump won't release the Epstein files.

So she's trying to appeal to those voters. I think it would be a mistake to make too much of these fissures because Donald Trump has a control over the Republican Party, unlike anything I think we've seen in modern political history. So let's talk about the different issues. For example, the Epstein files. You have one Republican after another now joining the Democrats and demanding they be released. I mean, this week, you know, you have President Trump breaking down, demolishing the East Wing. The East Wing of the White House was the wing of the First Ladies, by the way.

also paving over the Rose Garden, which was put in by Jacqueline Kennedy, interestingly. But you have one Republican congresswoman after another, Mace, Marjorie Taylor Green, Bobert, joining with Massey and demanding the Epstein files be released. Do you think more this will happen with more? And you have this unbelievable move at the House Speaker not seating an elected representative because he doesn't want the Epstein files released. That's what a lot of people are analyzing it as. Well, I think that's an absolutely correct analysis.

I mean, say what you will about Jeffrey Epstein. The guy's dead and he can still shut down Congress. You know, that's pretty rare. You know, I don't think this Epstein thing is really very complicated. Most of us aren't worried about being on the Epstein files, in the Epstein files. the only person who would not want it released is someone who was worried about being in it. And that goes to Donald Trump. And you have to grasp here, Amy, the degree to which the Republican subculture, maybe 40, 50 percent of the party,

has made the Epsine files for a decade, really, to be a great cause. this is a part of an international conspiracy of child molesters that run a secret government like the Illuminati and Epstein was at the center of this and they believed this and it's become sort of an article of faith so now you have the people who made fortunes out of becoming popular podcast host like Don Bonjani, of beating the drum to release the Epstein files.

Cas Patel. Now they're in a position where they can, and they're not doing it. So that's a natural tension there. And I think it's going to play out and it's ultimately going to have to be released.

At least to Sunday, when we talk about the Epstein files, it's sort of, what are we really talking about? There's such a vast trove of information, digital, and otherwise, it was seized by the FBI. I don't think we're going to know what all of it is, but I think we'll know more than we know now. Can you talk about the ad campaign that you're involved with with the Lincoln Project? Yeah, look, the Lincoln Project, just to kind of go to the origin story, was formed by a small group of Republican consultants who felt that Donald Trump was a great threat to the country. And we looked at this that for better or worse, we have certain skills that we've developed helping to elect Republicans.

Some of these Democrats don't do as well as we do. There's other things that Democrats do better. and our mission really was to appeal to a group of voters who are reluctant to support Donald Trump but need encouragement not to solve Republicans, some of these independents, and Democrats. And going back to 2020, this is what Steve Bannon said sort of famously, if these guys can get 5 to 6% of Republicans to vote for Biden, it's going to be a problem. And we started calling that the Bannon line. You know, it is our frustration of the hesitancy of the Democratic Party to be more assertive.

I mean, if you step back from it, Amy, we have this lunatic president who's supporting Russian stooges, drunks, lunatics like RFK Jr., across the government. We're carrying down the east wing. And we're talking about what's wrong with the Democratic Party? I really, how did this happen? Now, you're talking to somebody asked me, years pointing up flaws in the Democratic Party, but it is the only pro-democracy party in America now. The Republican Party has really become an extremist movement.

So we're very good in the Lincoln Project at working inside the Republican Party. We do a series of ads, we call it an audience of one, and we run it where we know Trump is going to see, which means we buy a lot of golf channels or Marlago and Binkert. And he responds to it. And it's an extraordinary

ability. If you go back to Hillary Clinton said that we shouldn't have a president who responds to a tweet. This guy responds to everything. And we're trying to increase those tensions because the more that the Republican Party fights internally, the less effective it is.

I wanted to go to one of those Lincoln Project ads that ran last year about Trump's racism against Puerto Ricans. We are Puerto Ricans, and we are Americans. But Donald Trump doesn't see us that way. We remember what he did to us after Hurricane Maria. We were dying by the thousands while he threw paper towels at us like we were a joke because he thinks we are garbage. I don't know if you guys know this, but there's literally a floating island of garbage in the middle of the ocean right now. Yeah.

I think it's called Puerto Rico. We are not your punchline. We know who we are. We are proud Americans. Proud Puerto Ricans. And we see who you are. You are a racist. You are a liar.

You are the one that is garbage. And we know where real garbage belongs in the trash. So Stuart Stevens, as we begin to, to wrap up, your comment on this. And also what's happening in Vermont. On the one hand, you have the governor, Phil Scott, not agreeing to the whole issue of federalizing the National Guard. And then you have Sam Douglas, the Vermont state senator, being forced to step down. He resigned over racist and anti-Semitic comments, like referring to an Indian woman as someone who just didn't bathe off enough. In another instance, Breonna Douglas, Sam's wife and the Vermont Young Republicans National Committee members saying her husband may have erred by expecting the Jew to be honest.

Can you comment on the whole young Republican scandal and what it's done in the country? Yeah, you know, look, there always was an ugly side to the Republican Party. Those of us who are involved in the Bush campaign, the compassionate conservative side, We saw this dark side. I mean, literally like me, Nicole Wallace, Matthew Dow, Mark McKinnon, Pete Wainer. We used to literally sit in the same room. But I think that we thought that we were the dominant gene of the party and that the party would come our way if only because the country was changing so much. And I don't know any conclusion that come to, but that I was wrong.

We were the recessive gene. and the party now has become what the party wants. So you have this generation of kids that came of age, a lot of them knowing nothing but Trump. And this is where transgressive behavior becomes a mark of purity. And really, the Republican Party has become an extremist movement. What we know about extremist movements is it demands more and more purity ticks. So it's ugly. there's much about, we don't talk enough about race in American politics, I think.

Trump's coalition in 20 was 85% white in the country that's what, 59% white and less after this show. He did a little better in the last election. It was 84% white. So the base of Trump's support is non-college educated white voters, which is the fastest declining large demographic in America. And they know this, which is why they're trying to curate the election and make it whiter and make it less educated. And obviously about Phil Scott, I help in some of his campaigns, you know, if the Republican Party had any sense, they would look at Phil Scott, as one of the most popular governors, if not the most popular governor in the country, who's a Republican in a heavily Democratic state. And they would go to them and say, what can we learn? What can you

teach us. Because if we Republicans could carry states like Vermont or Massachusetts, where Charlie Baker was, or Maryland, where Larry Hogan, all clients of mine were governors, we would rule the earth. We'd always win. Instead, they've made these governors, an increasingly small number of them, like a Phil Scott, they just ignore them. So Phil Scott did the right thing here. He said, no, I'm not going to have somebody that is a Republican who is rioting this racist stuff? I mean, why is this even complicated? Stuart Stevens, we're going to have to leave it there. But I thank you very much for joining us. Former Republican political consultant, senior advisor to the Lincoln Project Rights for the Lincoln Square Substack. Next up, a new documentary called Criminal, drawing attention

to the Harris County Jail in Houston, Texas, where at least 15 people have already died this year. Back in 20 seconds. Now here in this system. On the consumption of dissonance, may we live to veil. On the presumption of innocence in Harris County Jail. 8,000 souls, most awaiting trial. Half your misdemeanors

Justice American style Criminal by Strait of a President Trump signed two Trump signed two executive orders that aimed to eliminate so-called cashless bail and threatened to cut federal funding to Washington, D.C. and other jurisdictions that keep the policy in place. Cashless bail, a system in which people accused of minor offenses are released from jail while awaiting trial without having to pay a specific cash amount because they can't afford it. Next month, Texans will vote on Prop 3, which would amend the state's constitution to allow judges to deny bail to people charge with certain felonies. This comes as at least 15 people have died in the Harris County Jail and Houston.

in Texas this year, including just two this month. Most people in jail have yet to go to trial but cannot afford to pay bail for their release. Now a new animated musical documentary short film called Criminals drawing attention to the crisis. This is a trailer. More than 9,000 people dwell in this waterfront property, its impressive facade might compel or inspire those with a dough to peek in and inquire. Who wants a condo with a wonderful view? Right here in downtown Houston, follow me, I'll show you. Upon closer inspection, let me lift the veil on the third largest hell in America, the Harris County Jail. One thing that a lot of people don't appreciate about Harris County Jail is it looks very beautiful from the outside.

It's overlooking the bayou and the water in downtown Houston. There's all of these windows. One thing people don't understand is that these windows are fake. Windows without a view A metaphor Too perfectly sad to be true That in a nutshell Really captures the

facade, the veneer of what we call justice Criminal Justice It's criminal The criminal The criminal My criminal

Time to open up your Harris County windows The trailer for criminal And this is a clip from the new film, which features Alec Karakatsanas, author of Capaganda, who will hear from in a minute. This clip begins with a call from a Harris County jail prisoner. I have, as of today, been incarcerated for over 13 months. My next court date is not until the last week of July.

That's six months of dry sitting in jail for a so-called crime I never committed. Now I'm ready to become a felon just to get out of jail. or at least get this train over. That's one you already wasted. But most of us don't go to try. The money bail system, the money bail system, the money bail system is built to coerce guilty, please. In Harris County, Texas, in misdemeanor cases, if you're too poor to afford a couple hundred dollars to get out of jail, you plead guilty 84% of the time, and you do so in about 3.2 days.

It's too expensive to be innocent. That's a clip from the animated musical documentary short film. Criminal, which was published this month on the New Yorker magazine website. Democracy Now's Nermaine Schake and I recently spoke to three people involved with the film. Stu Stewart, Tony Award winner, singer, songwriter behind the critically acclaimed Broadway musical passing strange. His music and lyrics are featured in Criminal. He's a professor of the practice of musical theater writing at Harvard. Chris Gundu is executive director of the Texas Jail Project, and Alec Karakatsanas is the founder of the civil.

Civil Rights Corps, an author of Copaganda, how police and the media manipulate our news. We began by asking Alec about his comment in the film that, quote, there's no presumption of innocence and practice in the American legal system if you're poor. This was his response. Every single night, and right now as we're talking, there are hundreds of thousands of human beings in jail cells all over this country solely because their families lack cash to pay for their pre-trial release. The United States and the Philippines are the only two countries in the world that have a for-profit commercial money bail industry, which means that in the vast majority of cases all over the country, every single day, the reason that children are separated from their

parents, the reason people are taken away from their homes and jobs and schools and churches and communities, is not that anyone has determined that they're a danger to the community or or anyone has made a reasoned decision based on evidence that they should be jailed, but because they lack access to cash. And what this ends up doing is it ends up creating millions of coerced guilty pleas every single year all across the country just because people are so desperate to get out because they're deprived of their medication, there's no one to take care of their pets, they don't know where their children are.

All of these horrific things are happening to people in this country solely because they lack access to pay for pretrial money bail. And this is unconstitutional and it's the work that we've devoted ourselves to over the last decade in Civil Rights Corps. And Chris, could you speak about your work? You are co-founder and executive director of the Texas Jail Project. And you're featured in this documentary as well. If you could talk specifically about what you know of what happens at Harris County Jail. So Harris County Jail is the largest warehouse of people with mental illness in the state of Texas. Every time I say that, I find it's so hard to believe, but that is what we've decided to do

as a society, is to invest in punitive solutions to public health issues. So today, if you look at the Harris County Jail dashboard, out of the 8,763 people that are being held in jail, 78% are tagged as psychiatric. 78%. So we're the largest warehouse of people with serious mental illness in the state of Texas. Not a state hospital, not any kind of psych facility, but a county jail where the pretrial detention percentage is 67.8%. So what we're essentially doing is we're locking people up for their illness. We have criminalized mental illness. We've criminalized homelessness. We've criminalized reproductive rights. And so the jail has become the emergency room of our community.

And as a result, what you see are all these horrific deaths in our jail. So this year, we've had, this calendar year, we have had 15 reported deaths. 15. Out of that, at least six were people who had cycled through both the mental health and the jail system for years and years and years and never received the appropriate level of care that they needed. And also the people who died in our jail disproportionately are people with serious mental illness and medical issues

and so they can't advocate for their medical needs which is why they end up in sort of horrific tragedies and I'll give you one quick example of one of the deaths this year young man, 39 years old he struggled with severe schizophrenia

and he died of a completely treatable throat infection just a simple strep throat infection because he was not able to advocate for himself. And when we got his records and his autopsy report, his medical records and autopsy report, it turned out that he had starved to death because his throat closed up. So those are the kind of deaths that we're seeing in our jail. Stu, I wanted to ask you about your collaboration with Thomas Curtis. He was incarcerated for 11 years. How does his experience affect the visual

language of the piece, this very unusual collaboration between, you know, a regular documentary exposing the Harris County Jail, and it almost being a kind of really profound music video. Well, it's actually far more unusual than you could even imagine because when Heidi and I were creating the music, we never saw a single frame of what Thomas was doing. And that seems shocking to a lot of people, but I actually think the fact that we were working independently meant that we were investing deeply in the music and doing our best to serve the truth of the film. And we weren't worried about serving an image. And Thomas didn't have to necessarily worry about serving the music. He was just doing his thing.

We were doing ours. And there were no conversations. There literally were no conversations. We just, both parties just did what they do, and you see the result. Had you known about the Harris County Jail System before you wrote this musical piece, it opens with you describing this Harris County Jail in downtown Houston. That looks like high-rise with windows, and as you sing about it, there are no windows actually.

those are not windows yeah yeah yeah no turning the turning the facts into lyrics was you know incredibly challenging and and worrisome sometimes but the thing is i come from los angeles so i grew up and darrell gates is you know uh l-a pd you know i i was bailing friends out of jail by pawning my guitar amps while i was still in high school so we i grew up with this. So that part I was familiar with, from the police state that Los Angeles was that I grew up in, I was very familiar with this. I was not familiar with Houston specifically. But the feeling of what was going on was absolutely something I was completely familiar with. I want to go to another clip from criminal that looks at the conditions the Harris County Jail

during COVID-19 pandemic. And then COVID hit. Some of these men filed a civil lawsuit just to get mops and brooms. Yeah, after four weeks of sweeping with newspaper and mopping our pod with our towels. Yeah, we got 26 in a cell. And often the food is tossed in there through or under the door. Sometimes the guards count wrong or other prisoners even take more than money. Before everyone gets theirs. I spent seven days in quarantine, which meant solitaire.

military confinement. I was supposed to get out an hour once a day, but with 26 cells all in a row, if the guards change shifts before they got to my cell, sometimes they miss me. And I'd be in there for 36 hours straight. It was hell. Sometimes they'd have me go alone for more than a day with no food, no lounge time. Two prisoners died while I was in there. Criminal is a short animated musical documentary featuring the musician Stu Stewart, who wrote the music with Heidi Rodewald, Chris Gundu, executive director of the Texas Jail Project, and Alec Karakatsanas, founder of the Civil Rights Corps, and author of Copaganda, How Police and the Media Manipulate Our News. You can watch Criminal on the New Yorker magazine website and YouTube channel.

That does it for our show. Democracy Now is Nermaine Sheath is speaking Saturday in St. Louis. You can check it out at DemocracyNow.org. I'm Amy Goodman. This is Democracy Now. Democracy Now.org, the war on peace report.