Democracy Now! Audio - Democracy Now! 2025-10-27 Monday

Episode Date: October 27, 2025

Democracy Now! Monday, October 27, 2025

From New York, this is democracy now. No to the war, not war, not war, not war. Just peace, just peace, just peace, forever, forever, forever. The Trump administration escalates threats of war against Venezuela and Latin America, deploying the world's largest aircraft carrier and some 10,000 troops after carrying out its eighth strike against so-called drug traffickers in the Caribbean, killing at least 40. We'll get an update. Then, will the ceasefire in Gaza hold?

How is Palestinian leadership organizing? We'll speak with drop site news is Jeremy Scahill. While the acute phase of the genocide may have ended for now, we should not be under any illusion that this is the end of the war. Israel's annihilationist agenda remains in place, and Donald Trump and his corporate and government cronies remain focused on trying to privatize Gaza and make as much money off of this genocide as possible. And here in New York, early voting's underway in the city's mayoral race where record 164,000, people cast ballots on the first two days. The frontrunner, Democratic socialist mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani would be the city's first Muslim mayor. To be Muslim in New York is to expect indignity. But indignity does not make us distinct. There are many New Yorkers who face it. It is the

tolerance of that indignity that does. We'll speak with the New York Times opinion page staff editor, Mohamed. Her latest piece, when I look at Zohanamandani, here's what I see. All that and more coming up. Welcome to Democracy Now, Democracy Now.org, the war and peace report. I'm Amy Goodman. Venezuela's denouncing the U.S. for docking a United States warship in Trinidad and Tobago as tensions in the region continue to rise. The Pentagon's also sending the world's largest aircraft carrier. The USS Gerald R. Ford to the Caribbean. The carrier can hold 90 airplanes and attack helicopters on Friday. The Pentagon announced the U.S. had struck yet another vessel in the Caribbean, killing six people. Defense Secretary Pete Heggsett said

the victims were suspected drug traffickers but offered no proof. Venezuela and President Nicolas Maduro accused President Trump of fabricating a war. And the people of the United States know that they're making up a new eternal war. They promise that they will never enter a war, and they're making up a war, that we will avoid. How? With the mobilization of the peoples of South America, as South America and the Caribbean all say, no to war, yes to peace, yes to prosperity, yes to harmony, and living together. On Friday, the Trump administration sanctioned Colombian President Gustavo Petro, his wife, and other Colombian officials.

In recent weeks, Petros denounce the U.S. attacks on boats in the Caribbean. Also on Friday, 10 former Caribbean leaders denounce Trump's military escalation in the region. The former leaders wrote, quote, The gravity of the present signals demand we use all existing channels for dialogue to perpetuate a zone of peace. unquote. We'll have more on this story after headlines. An Israeli drone strike in southern Gaza has killed two people as Israel continues to attack Palestinians two weeks after the U.S. brokered ceasefire went into effect. Officials in Gaza say Israel's killed about 100 Palestinians over the past two weeks. Meanwhile, Israel's continuing to limit

aid into the famine-stricken Gaza Strip. This all comes as Hamas is expanding its story. search for the remains of 13 deceased Israeli hostages in Gaza. Over the weekend, a team from Egypt and the Red Cross entered Gaza to help with the search. We'll have more on Gaza later in the program. We'll speak with drop-site news is Jeremy Scahill. On Sunday, Israel carried out multiple strikes in Lebanon, killing three people. UN peacekeeping forces in Lebanon also shot down an Israeli drone. The UN forces said the drone had dropped a grenade near the peace.

peacekeepers, Israel denied the claim. The U.S. federal government shutdown has entered its 27th day. Funding for food assistance programs used by over 40 million people will run out on Saturday. Democratic lawmakers have criticized the Trump administration for refusing to draw on a contingency fund to continue funding SNAP and WIC benefits. Meanwhile, President Trump has said military troops, will keep getting paid in part due to a $130 million private donation. The New York Times has revealed the donor to be the reclusive right-wing billionaire

Timothy Mellon. Budget experts say using a private donation to pay troops would violate federal law. Meanwhile, Democratic Senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut appeared on CNN Sunday and said Trump is using the shutdown to expand his power. He likes the fact that the government is closed because he thinks he can exercise king-like powers. He can open up the parts of the government that he wants. He can pay the employees who are loyal to him. I mean, this is a leader who is trying to transition our government from a democracy

to something much closer to a totalitarian state. President Trump has arrived in Japan, the second stop in his age. trip. On the flight to Japan, Trump refused to rule out running for a third term in 2008, even though the 22nd Amendment forbids a president from being elected to office more than twice. On Sunday, Trump met in Malaysia with leaders of Thailand and Cambodia who signed a deal to expand their ceasefire. On Thursday, Trump will meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping in South Korea during the APEC summit. Over the weekend, the U.S. and China agreed to the framework of a new trade deal. On Saturday, over a thousand South Korean protesters rallied and sold to protest

ahead of Trump's arrival. At a time when our country should be focused on managing our own finances, the U.S. is acting like a robber, sudden, coercive and almost plundering us, asking us to invest $350 billion, which is an absurd amount and nearly 80 percent of our foreign reserves. In the U.S., all of a sudden, is far too forceful. I believe South Korea should firmly express its refusal to this demand. In other trade news, President Trump's announced he's raising tariffs on Canada by 10%. The move coming in response to an ad produced by the government of Ontario that featured a clip of former President Ronald Reagan, warning of the dire consequences of high tariffs.

In Argentina, far-right president, Javier Millet's party, won a decisive victory in Argentina's mid-term elections, picking up 14 seats in the Senate, 64 in the Senate. lower house of Congress, but it's still short of a congressional majority for Milley's party. It comes after President Trump earlier this month promised a $40 billion bailout for Argentina if Malay's party was victorious in these elections. After the results, Trump told reporters, quote, we've made a lot of money based on that election, unquote. Since taking office in 2023, Malay has imposed painful austerity measures on Argentina, slashing thousands of government jobs, curbing public investments in infrastructure, health care, and education, which led to widespread protests.

Earlier this year, Malay appeared on stage with Elon Musk at the conservative CPAC conference in the U.S., wielding a chainsaw and giving it to Elon Musk to symbolize cuts to government programs. Voters in Ireland have elected the independent socialist Catherine Connolly to be president. Connolly is a critic of NATO, who's accused the United States and Britain of enabling genocide in Gaza. She spoke to supporters in Dublin Saturday. I will be a president who listens and who reflects and who

speaks when it's necessary and a voice for peace, a voice that builds on our policy of neutrality, a voice that articulates the existential threat posed by climate change. The United Nations is calling

for the safe passage of civilians trapped in al-Fashar in Sudan's Darfur region. After the UAE-backed paramilitary rapid support forces, RSF, announced they've seized the Sudanese Army's main base in El Fasher. The Sudanese Army has yet to acknowledge they've lost control of El Fasher. The city's been besieged by the RSF for 18 months leading to widespread famine. The civil war in Sudan erupted in 2023, since then, more than 150,000 people have died across the country, and about 12 million have fled their homes. Hurricane Melissa has intensified to a rare Category 5 hurricane expected to make landfall in Jamaica Tuesday and pass through Cuba and the Bahamas later this week.

Melissa could be the most powerful storm to hit Jamaica in recent years. The U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami warned Jamaicans to remain shelter during the storm. Forecasters are warning of catastrophic flash flooding and landslides throughout the Caribbean. In Virginia, a 24-year-old Honduran man was fatally struck by a vehicle while fleeing federal immigration agents Thursday. Josue Castro Rivera is at least the fourth immigrant to be killed during an immigration operation under the Trump administration. Meanwhile, protests are continuing in Chicago over ongoing ice raids. On Saturday in northwest Chicago, federal agents deployed tear gas at residents who gathered to protest. ice activity. The incident occurred as parents and children in the neighborhood were preparing for

a Halloween parade. Meanwhile, White House advisor Stephen Miller appeared on Fox News Friday, suggesting Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker could be arrested for seditious conspiracy for obstructing the enforcement of federal immigration laws. Different kinds of crimes would apply. There is obstruction of justice. There is harboring illegal aliens. There is impeding. the enforcement of our immigration laws, and then as you get up the scale of behavior, you obviously get into seditious conspiracy charges, depending on the conduct and many other offenses. A federal judge has ruled ICE agents illegally detained a Chicago man whose daughters undergoing cancer treatment. Ruben Torres Maldonado is a painter and home renovator who was detained

by immigration authorities at a Home Depot in suburban Chicago earlier this month. And his ruling, U.S. District Judge Jeremy Daniel said, Molinado's detention violated his due process rights and that he must be given a bond hearing by October 31st. In Maryland, hundreds of activists and Democratic state legislators rallied in Annapolis Saturday, calling on Governor Westmore to end the state's contract with Avello Airlines, a private airline carrying out deportation flights. Avello has cut several routes amidst growing backlash in a nationwide boycott after it signed a $150 million contract with ICE earlier this. year. This is Maryland State Senator Clarence Lamb. When it comes to the state of Maryland, we have this airline that's flying through BWI Airport that we don't believe shares our values. And so anything that we can do to

shut down these ice flights, many of which are probably illegal, as we've seen from Supreme Court determinations, that we want to do our part. And if we can stop Avello from flying out of BWI, that would be all the better for our state. U.S. immigration authorities detained the prominent British Muslim journalist and commentator Sami Hamdi on Sunday at San Francisco International Airport. Hamdi was detained hours after he spoke in Sacramento at a gala for care. That's the Council on American Islamic Relations. In a statement, Kerr said, quote, abducting a prominent British Muslim journalist and political commentator on a speaking tour in the United States because he dared to criticize the Israeli government. genocide is a blatant affront to free speech, Kerr said.

The far-right activist Lara Lumer, who's described herself as a proud Islamophob, took credit for his detention, saying she pressured the Trump administration to revoke his visa. And here in New York, Democratic Socialist mayoral candidates on Mamdani spoke before 13,000 supporters in Forest Hill Queens on Sunday night. Together, New York, we're going to freeze the... Together, New York, we're going to make buses fast, and... Together, New York, we're going to deliver our universal. We will make our city one where every person who calls it home can live a dignified life.

Mamdani spoke alongside Senator Bernie Sanders, New York Congress member, Alexandra Casio-Cortez, and New York Governor Kathy Hokel, who's endorsed Mamdani over former Governor Andrew Cuomo. In recent days, Mamdani has repeatedly faced a string of Islamophobic attacks. If elected, Mamdani would be the first Muslim mayor. Early voting began on Saturday. A record 164,000 people cast ballots on the first few days. In a late endorsement, Democratic Congress member, Hakeem Jeffries has also backed Mamdani.

And those are some of the headlines. This is Democracy Now, Democracy Now.org, the War and Peace Report. I'm Amy Goodman. We begin today's show looking at the Trump administration's escalating threats of war against Venezuela and the region. On Sunday, the U.S. docked a warship in Trinidad and Tobago. The Pentagon's also deployed the world's largest aircraft carrier, the USS Gerald R. Ford, which can hold at least nought. 90 airplanes and attack helicopters, with Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro accusing the Trump

administration of fabricating a new eternal war. And the people of the United States know that they're making up a new eternal war. They promised that they will never enter a war, and they're making up a war, that we will avoid. How? With the mobilization of the peoples of South America, as South America and the Caribbean, all say, no to war, yes to peace, yes to prosperity, yes to harmony, and living together. There are approximately 10,000 U.S. troops, both at sea and on shore in the Caribbean, many stationed in Puerto Rico.

Meanwhile, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegeseth Friday confirmed the U.S. had struck another vessel in the Caribbean, killing at least six people whom Hegset accused without evidence of being drug traffickers. The U.S. has carried out at least eight naval strikes on boats in the Caribbean and two others on vessels in the Pacific Ocean, killing over altogether 40 people. The Trump administration Friday also announced sanctions against Colombian President Gustavo Petro, his family, as well as Colombian Interior Minister, swelling tensions between the U.S. and Colombia. Last week, Petro recalled Colombia's ambassador to the U.S. back to Bogota and recently accused the U.S. of committing murder for killing a Colombian fisherman in one of the Trump administration's boat attacks on the Caribbean in mid-S. Trump responded by calling Petro a lunatic and a, quote, illegal drug leader. Petro has also blasted the U.S. for attempting to destabilize the region under the guise of combating drug trafficking.

President Petro spoke at a massive rally in Bogotov Friday following news of the U.S. sanctions against him. To the current government of Donald Trump, we must not respond by kneeling. We must respond, as humanity has already done, by standing firm and taking to the streets to defend people's rights, the rights of democracy, not to be governed by tyrannies. I've never done business. I don't have a dollar in the United States. There's no account to freeze. I have no desire and I never will to do business in the United States. For more, we're joined in our New York studio by Alejandro Velasco, associate professor at NYU, where he's a historian of modern Latin America. Antonio Velasco is a former executive editor of NACLA report on the America as an author of Barrio Rising, urban popular politics, and the making of modern Venezuela. He was born and raised in Venezuela. Professor Alejandra Velasco, it's great to have you with us. Let's start off with the latest U.S. attack, bringing to 10

the number of vessels the U.S. has bombed in the Caribbean and the Pacific. It's horrifying on so many levels. On the one hand, of course, we have these competing interests that are in fact converging within the Trump administration. You have those who are intent on ousting the Venezuelan government, especially Marco Rubio. You have Pete Heggska, who's intent on starting war, even though Trump has said that he doesn't want to start wars. You have expat oppositions, including Maria Corrina Machalo, who has openly said that they want an intervention and then to be able to provide the United States with Venezuela's oil. She just won the Nobel Peace Prize.

But said President Trump should win the Nobel Peace Prize. In fact, it said that it should have been him and that she gave the award to him on his honor. And so all of these competing and conflicting interests that in other situations might not, in fact, align, are seeing Venezuela as an instrumental peace in order to achieve their own particular ends. And, of course, who's left out of this equation are Venezuelans and Venezuela, who would suffer tremendously the brunt of a chaotic invasion.

I wanted to turn to President Trump last week, asserting he had the authority to continue to launch airstrikes against boats and international waters without a congressional declaration of war. 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. We're just going to kill them. They're going to be like dead.

I mean, even Republican congressman ran poll, the Kentucky senator, objected speaking on Fox News Sunday. The Constitution says that when you go to war, Congress has to vote on it. And during a war, then, there's a lower rules for engagement. People do sometimes get killed without due process, but the drug war or the war or the crime war has typically been something we do through law enforcement. And so far they have alleged that these people are drug dealers. No one said their name. No one said what evidence. No one said whether they're armed.

And we've had no evidence presented. So at this point, I would call them extrajudicial killings. And this is akin to what China does, to Iran does with drug dealers. They summarily execute people without presenting evidence. to the public, so it's wrong. Just to be clear, that's Republican Senator Rand Paul. Professor Alejandro Velasco, your response. Again, they haven't pretended even to present evidence on either the strikes in the Pacific

or in the Caribbean. The number of people killed at least 40 at this point. Part of it is a show of force not only to Venezuela and the region, but it's also a show forced domestically to opponents in the United States whose activism is increasing to say that they are in fact above the law, that they do not care about the law. Yes, they can talk about what and how this fits into particular frameworks of the past and precedent. But the reality is that you even now have Republicans coming out and saying, no, this is not only illegal, but this is in the context of lack of oversight, extrajudicial killings. So, talk

Talk about the sanctioning also of Colombia at the same time. I mean, escalating pressure in all of these areas. And Secretary of State and National Security Advisor, Marco Rubio, who had that double title before. I think it was Henry Kissinger. That's right. Now wielding immense power. He has had a long time vendetta against Nicolas Maduro. talk about how much power he's wielding at this point.

As President Trump, in the last few hours, Speck said something like a refuse to rule out of run himself for president. He also talked about Marco Rubio, J.D. Vance, as a team for the 28th election. No, absolutely. What's fascinating and disturbing about Marco Rubio is that his animosity towards Venezuela, his sort of centered mindfulness on Venezuela, now saying the government certainly precedes Maduro. all the way back to Chavez.

And what he has discovered now, with the power that he has, is that his agenda, which is primarily ideological, he primarily just wants to get rid of the Cuban government, right? That this has long been his primary mission. He's Cuban-American. He is Cuban-American. And so he knows that he can't sell Trump on ideology. He can't sell Trump on the idea,

we're going to commit troops, we're going to commit a ground invasion, just on the basis of ousting a communist. So he has to find other ways to do that. And he's founded through drugs, right? But in order to make that more of a credible threat, he also has to tie it to Colombia, which is a major drug producer in the way that Venezuela is not.

So in some ways, Petro here has become involved in this larger effort to frame what's going on in the Caribbean and in Venezuela in particular as a larger war on drugs when, in fact, it's primarily Marco Rubio's ideological project. So the increased sanctions on Petro has, wife and others in the Colombian government. Also, Petro has been fierce around criticizing Israel on Gaza. Do you think that plays in? It does only insofar as it allows for this narrative to cement itself. But in fact, Marco Rubio, because he is the one that's driving this policy,

all he wants to do is to oust the government in Venezuela in order to out of outst the government in Cuba. He needs to ask the government in Venezuela to show Trump that this is something that we can do. and we can do it so easily. And as a result, there's nothing that Cuba can provide us. Venezuela can provide us oil. Cuba can provide us nothing. But it's okay because we've got this. I also want to talk about Argentina.

The far-right president, Javier Millet's party, won a decisive victory in Argentina's mid-term elections yesterday, picking up 14 seats in the Senate, 64 in the lower house of Congress, still short of a congressional majority for Malay's party. It comes after Trump earlier this month promised a 40 billion, dollar bailout for Argentina if Millet's party was victorious. Now, Trump told reporters, quote, we've made a lot of money based on that election. Since taking office in 2023, Malay has imposed

painful austerity measures in Argentina slashing thousands of jobs curbing public investments in infrastructure, health care, and education, which have led to widespread protests. So go to what is happening here. I mean, here in the U.S., millions face losing food benefits, health benefits, but President Trump is promising 20, it's $20 billion of government aid, and then supposedly Bessent and his friends, the Treasury Secretary, will give another $20 billion and make money at the same time. What about Trump saying he's going to make money out of this? I mean, it's so brazen, right? And we've seen this. is Trump's M.O. But it also speaks to a larger and more troubling reality, which is that he's

at the same time building, in fact, a global Trumpist coalition. Millet has absolutely bought into it. There are others in Ecuador and in other parts of Latin America, obviously in El Salvador, who very much fashioned themselves as Trumpists in a different place. And what's fascinating, of course, is that this completely belies the discourse of people like Rubio and others that we're intervening in Venezuela in order to promote democracy. Of course, what they're promoting is a Trumpist version of an entirely materially interested, you know, foreign policy and domestic policy agenda. And so, you know, what's surprising about the case of Argentina is that it's not the first time

that the United States has essentially extorted Latin American voters by promising massive amounts of deal in order to have a particular electoral result. This happened in Panama. This happened in Nicaragua in 1990. before the referendum there, that, you know, I was at the Sandinista government. And so this is a well-worn pattern in Latin America with the United States.

Well, I want to thank you for being with us. We continue to cover this. Alejandro Velasco, Associate Professor at New York University, NYU, where he's a historian of modern Latin America, former executive editor of NACLA, the report on the Americas, an author of Barrio Rising, urban popular politics and the making of modern Venezuela,

born and raised in Venezuela. Up next, will the ceasefire in Gaza hold? How is the Palestinian leadership organizing for the next phase of the deal? We'll speak with DropSight News as Jeremy Scahill. Stay with us. I'm going to be able to be. There's a lot of it. This is Democracy Now, Democracy Now.org, the War and Peace Report.

I'm Amy Goodman. We turn now to Gaza, where Israel's carried out repeated attacks, killing about 100 Palestinians over the past two weeks since the U.S.-backed ceasefire deal with Hamas came into effect. Israel's also continued to restrict the entry of humanitarian aid into Gaza in defiance of a ruling last week by the International Court of Justice, as Palestinian families are still in urgent need of food, clean water, fuel and shelter. Instead of the approximately 600 aid trucks per day pledged by Israel, it's reportedly allowing in only about 80 to 90 trucks a day. As part of the truth, Hamas released all the Israeli hostages agreed to release the bodies of

deceased hostages. Hamas says it's working with the Red Cross and others to search for the remaining bodies. The main group representing families of hostages, is calling on Israel to refuse to proceed to the next phase of the truth until the final 13 hostages' bodies are returned. This is Israeli government spokesperson Shosh Bedrosian. What I can share with you is the team is using between two to three excavator machines and two to three trucks to search for our deceased hostages. Now, the Red Cross and the Egyptian team are allowed entry beyond the IDF's yellow line position into Gaza territory to, conduct the search for our hostages. Gaza authorities say an estimated 10,000 Palestinians may be trapped under the rubble and have

called for access to the same equipment used to search for the dead Israeli hostages. Meanwhile, UNRWA, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine refugees, warns people in Gaza are increasingly in need of warmth this cold weather approaches, writing in a social media post, quote, shelter materials and winter supplies for displaced families are sitting in UNRWAIR warehouses in Jordan and Egypt blocked from entry. For more on the ceasefire, violations of the deal. And if at the last and what the next steps are, we're joined by Jeremy Scahill, co-founder of Dropsite News, where he's been closely covering the Gaza ceasefire.

He's the author of Blackwater, The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army and Dirty Wars. The world is a battlefield. Welcome back to Democracy Now, Jeremy. If you could start off, I mean, you're in a really unique position. You're one of the only Western journalists to regularly interview Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad. You broke the story that they had accepted the ceasefire deal more than half an hour before President Trump announced it. Talk about where you see it standing today. I mean, first of all, on the issue of

speaking to Hamas or Palestinian Islamic Jihad, this should be basic journalistic practice. In fact, it's utter malpractice on the part of all of these news organizations that have not regularly been interviewing the leaders, the negotiators of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad. This is by default allowing the dehumanization narrative of Palestinians to just take hold. When the United States and Israel make allegations, against Hamas, against Islamic Jihad, against the Palestinian armed resistance, the job of journalists should not be to just say, oh, well, they're foreboughton, we can't speak to them. Our job should be to say, let's fact-check these governments, let's talk to these people.

And when the U.S. started directly speaking to Hamas in the form of Adam Boler, who is a college friend of Jared Kushner, his former roommate, he was the special envoy on hostages, he goes and he speaks with Hamas leaders. And I spoke to those very leaders that Adam Boler spoke to. Bowler comes out and does interviews not just on CNN, but on Israeli television saying, these guys are not what has been presented. This becomes dangerous because when you humanize people on the other side, you start to fact check a 77-year narrative of Israel that's been bolstered by the U.S. That's how actually you get a human understanding. Palestinians have a great range of views on Hamas, and that's for Palestinians to decide.

But what has been enabled by large, powerful media corporations is a total silencing of the voices of Palestinians, which is why then you end up with this cartoonish portrayal. Oh, they're just terrorists. These guys are doctors. They're lawyers. They're veterinarians. They're chemists. Tell us who they are. Tell us. Name them and tell us who they are. Well, first of all, I mean, Khalil Al-Haya, who is the political leader in Gaza of Hamas, was a top aide to Yahyaz Sinoir, the former leader of Hamas who was assassinated by the Israelis. And Yajasinwar himself, all of these guys, their biographies, they grew up, in a concentration camp. They grew up in an open-air prison in Gaza. You could tell a biography

of every one of the leaders of Hamas, including the guys who Israel says, oh, they live in five-star hotels abroad. All of them have had direct family members killed. Kalil Al-Haya, multiple sons of his were killed, including one of his sons killed in the September 9th attempt to assassinate the negotiators in Qatar. Basim Naim, another one, a doctor-educated in Germany, but from Gaza, he has had multiple family members killed, including recently his son. These are all, if you can contrast the leadership of Hamas... In the bombing, Qatar. In the bombing of Qatar, you know, they failed to kill any of the senior Hamas officials,

but they did kill multiple administrative staff, including Khalil Al-Haya's secretary. They not only bombed, they hit with 12 missiles, they not only bombed the offices that Hamas had in Qatar at the request of the United States. Hamas was in Qatar to do these kinds of negotiations. But they hit the residence of Khalil Al-Haya. They wounded his wife, his daughter-in-law. They killed his son, and they wounded multiple grandchildren. Some of them very seriously.

You contrast that with Netanyahu's son, who's running around Miami, living his life like a spoiled frat boy. Khalil Al-Hia has had multiple sons killed. So you can have a debate, and Palestinians do, about what Hamas is. But it is total journalistic malpractice that more news organizations are not saying, we need to aggressively report. What is their perspective? What do they say to these allegations? So talk about their perspective on the ceasefire

and how you reported the ceasefire deal before Trump announced it. What they agreed to early on and what ended up being agreed to. And then we're going to talk about the bodies of hostages on both sides. Let's remember that when Joe Biden and Kamala Harris were in office,

they brokered one short truce a month into the war. in November, where there were, as an exchange of captives, there was an opportunity to end the war right there. And Biden, the main difference between Biden and Trump is Trump is a transactional guy. You should think of him as having these spheres of influence that are constantly circling his face, and whichever one he sort of captures at a moment, he then focuses on it. I don't think Trump could actually define what Zionism is. You know, he talks about Merriam Adelson, oh, she's got $60 billion in the bank. He has people that are hardcore Zionists in his administration.

But then he also is very close to all of these Arab Gulf monarchies. And he's doing business with them in the private sector and now in the White House. His son-in-law, Jared Kushner, bankrolled to the tune of billions of dollars from Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates. So he's a transactional erratic character that ultimately is looking to make constant real estate deals and cut off the top for profits for himself. Biden committed Zionist ideologue his entire political. career. So Matt Miller, the former State Department spokesperson under Joe Biden, admitted recently in an interview with Israeli television that the Biden administration allowed Netanyahu to repeatedly sabotage ceasefires and that they didn't go after him in a real way for fear that it would jeopardize a ceasefire. I mean, just think of the logic of it, but this is, this was admitted by the State Department spokesperson that that was the default policy of Biden. So when Trump becomes the president-elect, he then says, I want a ceasefire by the time that I come into office. And part of this was just his ego. He said, I'm going to end the war in Ukraine, you know, within an hour of

taking office or a day of taking office. You know, a lot of this was bluster. He would say whatever he needed to say to win. He also was able to exploit the fact that Kamala Harris's position when asked about all of this was, I wouldn't change a thing. You know, the position on the Gaza War was a huge factor in why Donald Trump took power. And, you know, Democrats need to face that. And Kamala Harris is on this revisionist book tour right now. She doesn't like it when people bring this up. But that's a fact. She had an opportunity to distinguish herself from Biden, and she doubled down on, I wouldn't change a thing. So whatever we think of Donald Trump and his motives, there wouldn't have been that original January ceasefire deal. Forty-two days into it,

Trump allows the Israelis to blow it up. They immediately, on March 2nd, reimpose a massive full-spectrum blockade on Gaza. We shouldn't call it humanitarian aid. Israel's an occupying power. These are life essentials. Humanitarian aid makes it sound like we need to just supplement the nutrition. They locked Gaza down completely. No food, no medicine, no life essentials, and starvation starts to take hold. March 18th, Israel resumes scorched earth terror bombing with the full enthusiastic support of the White House, and it goes on like that. To fast forward a bit through this, there was, there were rumblings about trying to restart a ceasefire process. The U.S. and Israel demanding that Hamas and Islamic Jihad accept what they called the Whitkoff framework.

13-point plan that would have started with an initial 60-day ceasefire in exchange of roughly half the captives that the Palestinians hoped would lead to a permanent end to the war, but there were not great guarantees in it. By August 18, Hamas officially accepts what the Qatari mediator said was 98% of the terms that the U.S. and Israel had demanded. Instead of responding to that, Israel begins to publicly threaten the external political leadership of Hamas, culminating with Trump saying, if you don't accept this deal, nasty things are going to happen to you. talking about the Palestinians in general, talking about the Hamas leadership. It's very important. Trump at a time when Israel starts to say we're going to assassinate the external leadership, the negotiators of Hamas that are in Qatar because the U.S. asked Qatar to house them.

It's pretty clear that Trump, one of two things, either greenlit in operation to kill those leaders or allowed it to happen. This cover story, oh, Steve Whitkoff just didn't make it in time to WhatsApp to tell the Emir of Qatar. That was the dominant story is nonsense. And Whitkoff then goes on 60 minutes and tells a different story, that they didn't know anything about it. So already there's a disconnect in their cover story, which is classic for the Trump administration. So instead of then saying to the Palestinian side, after they accept this deal, let's talk about some of the technical aspects of this, Israel then conducts an attempt to assassinate the political leadership of Hamas, the chief negotiators of Hamas. Remember, under Biden, the last real serious

ceasefire discussion was the summer of 2024, the Hamas. The Hamas, on July 2nd, 24, accepted a deal that the U.S. said they would get Israel to accept. Israel's response was to assassinate Ismail Hania, the head of Hamas, in Tehran, Iran, where he was attending the inauguration of the new Iranian president. They bombed Ismail Hania in a guesthouse owned by the most elite unit of the Iranian military. For 77 years, the Israelis are constantly assassinating any Palestinian that is willing to make a deal. And people around the world should be asking why. So then nothing happens. And they were sitting in Qatar looking at a 100-word ceasefire proposal that they were told came from Donald Trump. They gathered to do this. And that's when the assassination strike took place. The latest assassination strike. And they failed to kill any of the political leaders. And I knew, personally, I knew two of the senior Hamas leaders that were targets in this and have interviewed them numerous times, Basim Naim and Ghazi Hamad. I also knew two of the young

people that were killed in this strike. They were office assistants. These were guys that when you meet with Hamas in their offices are bringing in coffee or they're carrying bags. These are the logistical people. They're young people. That's who they killed. They didn't kill any of the senior leaders. What was the intelligence? I mean, there's a lot of stories about this right now. And, you know, the Palestinian story on this is that they were aware that they were targets. You know, the Israeli chief of staff had said days before this that our arm can outstretch even to the external leadership. You know, many Palestinian resistance figures don't go anywhere near a telephone. Those that do carry them when they go into a meeting, and this is just common sense,

obviously aren't bringing the phone into the meeting. Now, 10 years ago, we would have said that the Israelis were using geolocation data from the phones. We saw this under Obama's drone strike program. I think now the Israelis have, you know, far more sophisticated technology than we understand. So people tend to think, oh, it was that, you know, it has to do with the phones. Being in another room where the assistance were. You know, obviously the Mossad has extensive intelligence operations all around the world. I think there's some question of whether the intent was to actually kill Khalil Al-Hai on the negotiators or the intent was to do exactly what they did, try to kill family members and others as a warning shot. I don't have any information about it.

I think Israel doesn't often miss its target in this capacity. Jeremy, talk about what's happening now. As the second phase is being discussed, how is the Palestinian leadership and who is the Palestinian leadership that is organizing right now, both in Gaza and the West Bank? This is another great example of media malpractice. We use the word Hamas because Hamas is leading the negotiations. They are the combatants in this war in a military sense because they're holding the Israeli captives. They're the fighting force, Hamas and Islamic Jihad, and they have a mandate, they say,

from the Palestinian factions to negotiate an end to this acute part of the war, withdrawal, ceasefire, exchange of captives. But what they've said consistently is any issues about disarmament of the Palestinian people, governance of Gaza, the future attempts to, in a robust way, unify the occupied West Bank, occupied Jerusalem, and Gaza under the banner of an independent Palestinian state. Those are not the mandate of Hamas. And so if, if not, if not, you know, news organizations were doing real reporting on this, what they would know is that for much of the genocide, Hamas has consulted with a wide range of political factions, including its political opponents, including people like Dr. Mustafa Barguti, who doesn't control an armed force,

is a physician that has run for president of Palestine. He has emerged as an incredibly important figure in this because he has systematically refused to kick armed resistance under the bus, has robustly defended the Palestinian cause, but remains engaged in the world. So right now, what you're seeing is that Hamas and Islamic Jihad made a limited deal that has to do with this genocide and ending the occupation of Gaza, while understanding that the very future of the Palestinian cause is up for grabs. And so in the past several days, there have been a flurry of meetings with a range of political factions. An extraordinary meeting took place between Khalil Al-Haya, the leader of Hamas, and Hussein Sheikh, the designated successor of Mahmoud Abbas, the decrepit, corrupt. leader of the Palestinian authority. Hussein Sheikh is very close to the United States, is very close to Israel. There's great suspicion about his role in Palestine. But Hamas is an open,

engaged conversation with Fata. And what the Palestinians are saying from across the spectrum, and Fata is also saying this, we need to have a unified front because this is a neo-colonial agenda. This is talking about a privatization of Gaza. This is talking about huge investments coming in. This is talking about foreign troops coming in. This will cut to the heart of the very cause for liberation. So I think all Palestinian factions, regardless of what they think about Hamas or Islamic Jihad, are on loosely speaking the same page. They understand the very future is up for grabs.

Jeremy, before you go, I want to ask you about the dead hostages, the bodies of the dead hostages. The Palestinians are saying they need heavy equipment, Red Cross, and Egypt, I think, is bringing in the heavy equipment to find these bodies. The question is, will that equipment be able to stay as people claw their way through the rubble to find their loved ones as they return to their rubble homes, their demolished homes? You know, there are believed to be roughly 13 or so bodies of Israeli captives left. The great Yemeni cartoonist Kamal Sharaf had a piece of art the other day that showed a camera snake to a piece of construction equipment pummeling through the ground, past dead,

Palestinian bodies to try to find one Israeli body. And, you know, everything that Israel has accused the Palestinians of, Israel does as a matter of doctrine. You know, the confession, the accusation is the confession. And we've seen that for two years. Donald Trump said, what kind of sick people hold dead bodies? Israel since 1967 has had a policy of holding the bodies of Palestinians. As of before the genocide, there were believed to be more than 720 Palestinian bodies being held in coolers and numbered graves by Israel. There may be as many as 1,500 Palestinian bodies held by Israel since October 7th. So estimates are more than 2,000 dead Palestinian bodies are being held by Israel right now. One Palestinian political

prisoner, his body has been held since 1980, 45 years. So when Trump says what kind of sick and twisted people hold dead bodies, Israel does it. Since 1967, estimates of more than 2,000 Palestinian bodies right now, and those bodies that have come back, some of them bound, gagged, ropes around the neck. While we're sitting here, Amy, Palestinians are sitting in tents, watching screens of this is the tooth of one of the bodies, this is the hand, this is the piece of clothing, because there's no identification on them, not to mention the stories of the living hostages freed from Israeli captivity, telling horrifying stories of being tortured, telling the stories of what's

happening to the political leaders that are behind bars in Israeli captivity. right now. Let's talk about hostages. Let's talk about dead bodies. It's state doctrine in Israel to do the things that Donald Trump and the world says are sick or sadistic or torture. Look at the Israeli captives and the condition they were in held for two years under starvation and mass bombing versus the Palestinians coming with their blinded eyes, limbs removed in wheelchairs, telling stories of sadistic torture with dogs urinating on them, with being beaten repeatedly, intentionally infected with scabies and other diseases, looking like they just survived. concentration camps. Last question. We only have 30 seconds. What about the news of Israel

involvement with certain Palestinian clans or families in Gaza? Yeah, I mean, I would encourage people also to look at TrapSite. We've done extensive reporting about this, but throughout history, you always try to find collaborators and bootlickers that you can empower to try to do your dirty work for you. And throughout the genocide, Israeli-backed gangs have been the primary looters. Israeli-back gangs have been terrorizing the Palestinian population. And right now, you have three to five gangs in different parts of Gaza that are operating from the areas that the Israeli military is occupying. You know, roughly 50 percent of Gaza is under full-blown occupation right now. And I think you're going to see an attempt to foment something

resembling a civil war. That has failed repeatedly, though. When Hamas did these, and the security forces in Gaza did these public executions. There was a lot of focus on this, disproportionate to all the other issues, but law and order, Trump said, needs to be imposed. And I think Trump's people realize that they're going to have a tough time doing anything in Gaza without Hamas. It's been the governing authority for so long. Israel absolutely wants Palestinians to be killing each other, and that's been the point of this from the beginning of backing these gangs. Jeremy Scahill, co-founder of Dropsite News, closely covering the Gaza ceasefire. Thank you very much for being with us.

Coming up, early voting has begun in New York's mayor race. A massive rally took place last night. 13,000 people in the Forest Hills Stadium. We will look at the frontrunners or on Mamdani. If he wins, he's got a double-digit lead right now in the polls. He would be the first Muslim mayor. Stay with us. Gather your dreams all around you.

think of all the good things that you own the moon and the stars up above you and a girl that you can call your own all the little blessings that may come your way Memories that just you too can share Gather your dreams all around you Those are things no one can take away This is Democracy Now, Democracy Now.org, the War and Peace Report.

I'm Amy Goodman. We end today's show here in New York, where early voting began this weekend, than the city's mayor were race with a record 164,000 ballots cast in the first two days. Democratic Socialist mayor candidate, Zoran Mamdani, spoke Sunday evening before 13,000 supporters who pack the Forest Hills Stadium. Together, New York, we're going to freeze the... Together, New York, we're going to make buses fast, and... Together, New York, we're going to do. deliver universal?

We will make our city one where every person who calls it home can live a dignified life. Mamdani spoke alongside Independent Senator Bernie Sanders, New York Congressmember Alexandria Accio-Cortez, and New York Governor Kathy Hokel, who endorsed Mamdani over former Governor Andrew Cuomo, who she replaced when Cuomo resigned in disgrace in 2021 after an inquiry found he's sexually harassed at least 11 women. If elected, Soren Mamdani, would be the city's first Muslim mayor. In recent days, he's faced a string of Islamophobic attacks, including from Cuomo, who made this widely condemned remark Thursday on the sit-in-friends-in-the-morning radio show.

Any given morning is a crisis, and people's lives are at stake. God forbid another 9-11. Can you imagine Mondami in the seat? I could He'd be cheering He'd be cheering It's another problem But can you imagine that

No No On Friday Sir Ron Mamdani responded To the surge of Islamophobia In the mayoral campaign Speaking outside the Islam Cultural Center in the Bronx

To be Muslim in New York Is to expect indignity But indignity does not make us distinct There are many New Yorkers who face it. It is the tolerance of that indignity that does. Leading Democratic mayoral candidate Zoran Mamdani speaking Friday. For more, we're joined by Mejah Ahma, staff editor for the New York Times Opinions section. She interviewed Mamdani for her New York Times opinion essay headlined. When I look at Zoran Mamdani, here's what I see.

Welcome to Democracy Now. What do you see? I see a dynamic that I think lots of Muslims have experience in the United States, which is when they're given positions of power or are in a position of public scrutiny, that their faith is often the first thing that gets scrutinized. And that's part of the reason I was interested in writing this piece. I think I saw the degree of Islamophobia that Mamdani was already facing after the Democratic primary nomination in June and was shocked not just at the cadence of attacks, but also the kind of rhetoric that was being used against him by people within his own party. So talk about what he's faced right up through, well, President Trump and most recently

Vice President J.D. Vents. That's right. In the last week or so, we're seeing kind of outright Islamophobic attacks against him where politicians have said things like another 9-11 could happen if he were to become mayor. They've outright called him a jihadist or terrorist. But in the weeks prior to that, what we've seen is kind of a normalization of Islamophobic attacks against him, accusations of him being anti-Semitic, accusations of him harboring hatred towards Jews. And these kinds of accusations are ones that I think many Muslims are very familiar with. So we've kind of witnessed these attacks as a way to sideline us when we enter positions

of power. And with Mamdani being one of the most high-profile politicians right now with the Muslim faith, that's kind of become the main line of attack against him. Mamdani was talking about what happened after 9-11 with Muslims, especially in New York. And Republicans, like Vice President J.D. Vance, attacked his comments. Vance wrote, quote, according to Zoran, the real victim of 9-11 was his auntie who got some allegedly bad looks. Talk more about what happened. I mean, this generation that has grown up in the wake of 9-11 of Muslim New Yorkers and Americans.

Yeah, and in New York in particular where there was a large NYPD surveillance program that was deemed unconstitutional after the fact, Muslims were surveilled in their places of prayer, in their homes, at sporting events, really in everyday aspects of their lives. And what that ends up doing to a community is it puts them on the back foot. It makes it feel as though we need to prove ourselves it's not guilty to be able to participate in the city and to participate in any aspect of life. So to become politically engaged felt that much more frightening. And I think Mamdani speaks to this. There's this feeling of the way that you act amongst yourselves in your community privately where you feel more free to be yourself versus how you act when you go out into the street. And after 9-11, you know, there was an uptick of Islamophobic attacks against Muslims all over the country, but particularly in New York City.

And people who were visibly Muslim, particularly women, who wear hijabs, often became the target of those kinds of attacks. I think Momdani's comments had to do with the fact that his aunt's. he said felt too uncomfortable to go into public because she was wearing a hijab. J.D. Vance's comments then mock that and say, oh, she's supposedly the real victim of 9-11 because she felt this way. I think there's many, many victims of that event and to discount the experience of Muslim Americans as being one that needs to be compared to other victims at that attack really makes it so that we have no right to even express that we've been. facing racism and bigotry. Zaron Mamdani, when his state assembly member, got arrested outside Senator Schumer's house. Maybe that's not why he has not endorsed him around the issue of Gaza.

Mamdani's been very outspoken, Palestinian rights. I interviewed him at the Jewish Voice for Peace mass protest about a thousand mainly Jews shutting down Grand Central around Gaza. You write, the candidates become an avatar for many things, but when it comes to Islamophobia after October 7th, Mr. Mamdani's the poster child for the double standards Muslims in America are held to today. Explain. You know, I think advocating for Palestine is a complicated and difficult thing to do in the United States for a variety of reasons. But advocating for Palestinian rights while being Muslim is a particularly unique experience. And I

think part of that is because anti-Palestinian sentiment kind of rides on the back of Islamophobic ideas of who Muslims are. So when Muslims such as Mamdani advocate for Palestinian human rights, it becomes not just that they're advocating for Palestinians, but they're advocating for violence or attacks against Jews. And that's exactly what we've seen, you know, the accusations being hurtled against him. We saw a group of rabbis say that Jews would be in danger if he was to become the mayor. Some of the people that I spoke to for this story, I kind of asked to elaborate when you say you live in fear of him, what do you actually mean? And the explanation that I heard was that his criticism of Israel, which has now been accepted by, you know, multiple human rights organizations, is equivalent to advocating for violence against Jews.

What I argue is that kind of assumption of Muslims is inherently racist to assume that we have hatred towards Jews and to kind of use that as a bludgeon to make it so that our views on Palestine can't be, expressed publicly. And of course, so many thousands of his organizers or canvassers on the ground are Jewish New Yorkers. Exactly. I want to end by thanking you. Meher Ahmed is a staff editor for the New York Times opinion section. Her latest essay for the New York Times is headlined. When I look at Zoran Mamdani, here's what I see. In the print version, the headline was, what does it mean to be a good Muslim in America. That does it for our show. Democracy Now is produced with Mike Burke, Renee Feltz, Dina Guzder, Messiah, Roads, Namin Sheikh, Maria Teresana, Nicole Salazar, Sara Nassar, Tarina, Nadura, Sam Alcoff, Taymaria, Stude, John Hamilton, Rabbi Karin,

Honey Massoud. I'm Amy Goodman. Thanks for joining us.