Democracy Now! Audio - Democracy Now! 2025-11-13 Thursday

Episode Date: November 13, 2025

Headlines for November 13, 2025; Trump “Knew About The Girls”: Calls Grow For Full Epstein Files After Release of Emails; Rep. Adelita Grijalva Speaks out on Epstein Files & More After Being Sworn in 7 Weeks Late; Dr. Atul Gawande: Hundreds of Thousands Have Already Died Since Trump Closed USAID

From New York, this is Democracy Now. Did the president ever spend hours at Jeffrey Epstein's house with a victim? These emails prove absolutely nothing other than the fact that President Trump did nothing wrong. As the government shutdown comes to an end, a new trove of tens of thousands of files related to Jeffrey Epstein is again raising questions about President Trump's ties to the deceased convicted sex offender. In newly released emails, Epstein said Trump, quote, knew about the girls and that he spent hours with one of them at Epstein's home. Epstein once wrote about Trump, quote, I am the one able to take. him down. We'll speak to a lawyer for survivors of Epstein and Gilae Maxwell's abuse. Then to Arizona Congresswoman Adela Lita Gajava sworn into office Wednesday seven weeks

after being elected. Today is her first full day in office. It has been 50 days since the people of Arizona's 7th Congressional District elected me to represent them. 50 days that over 800,000 Arizonans have been left without access to the basic services that every constituent deserves. On Wednesday, Congresswoman Grechava provided the final signature needed to force a House vote ordering the Department of Justice to fully release the Epstein files. Then Trump's dismantling of USAID has already killed hundreds of thousands of people. people. That's according to Atul Gwanda, who headed global health at USAID during the Biden administration. We'll speak to him. There's not pictures of what the devastation is that's occurring right now. Because it's really hard to see the difference between the 70 and 90% vaccination rate, even though that will cost millions of lives.

All that and more coming up. Welcome to Democracy Now, Democracy Now.org, the War and Peace Report. I'm Amy Goodman. President Trump signed a bill to fund the government through the end of January, bringing an end to the longest government shutdown in U.S. history. His signature came hours after the House of Representatives approved the spending package largely along party lines. And 43 days after the shutdown furloughed hundreds of thousands of government workers, forced hundreds of thousands more to work without pay, caused the cancellation of thousands of flights and froze snap food stamp benefits for one out of every eight people across the United States. Ahead of the House vote, minority leader Hakeem Jeffries rallied Democratic lawmakers

and promised to fight soaring health care costs, which are set to spiral even higher under the Republican spending bill. Now, Republicans control the House, the Senate, and the presidency. They own the mess that has been created in the United States of America. They own it. This comes after eight members of the Senate Democratic Caucus joined Republicans to approve the legislation Monday, even though the bill did not include Democrats' key demand, an extension of the Affordable Care Act subsidies. Meanwhile, there's growing backlash over a provision of the spending bill that would allow eight Republican senators to personally sue the government for up to a

million dollars if their phone records were seized as part of Special Counsel Jack Smith's investigation into the January 6th, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol. Maryland Democratic Congress member Jamie Raskin called the measure one of the most blatantly corrupt provisions for political self-dealing and the plunder of public resources ever proposed in Congress, unquote. On Wednesday, Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson said he was shocked and angry after he learned of the provision and promised to schedule a vote next week to repeal it. Arizona Democrat, Adelaideh Grijalva, was sworn into office by House Speaker Mike

Johnson Wednesday, 50 days after winning her seat in Congress. Soon after, Grijalva provided the final signature on a discharge petition to force a vote on the Justice Department's full release of the Epstein files. For one individual to be able to silence 800,000 people, it's unconsulmonary. It's grossero. It's just not okay. Speaker Johnson purposefully obstructed my swearing in by canceling vote after vote. And the Epstein Files discharge petition sat one signature short. With my signing, we move one step closer to the truth, the truth that they will try to deny, but that survivors deserve their day of justice and the American people demand it. We'll speak with Congresswoman Adelita Gajava on her first full day in office later in the broadcast. Grechava's signature came as Democrats on the House Oversight Committee released three emails by the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein in which he referenced Donald Trump. In one 2019 email, Epstein wrote Trump, quote, knew about the girls.

In another email from 2011, his co-conspirator and convicted sex trafficking, Gailene Maxwell. Epstein mentioned that Trump had, quote, spent hours at Epstein's house with Virginia Joufrey. Earlier this year, Trump had said Epstein stole her from his club spa. Soon after the release of the three emails mentioning Trump, Republicans released a trove of over 20,000 emails from the Epstein estate, and one of them, Epstein had described Trump as a dirty businessman who was borderline insane. On Wednesday, White House press secretary Carolyn Levitt was asked about Trump's ties to Epstein, as described in the emails. Did the president ever spend hours at Jeffrey Epstein's house with a victim? These emails prove absolutely nothing other than the fact that

President Trump did nothing wrong. This comes, as President Trump reportedly called Republican Congress members Lauren Bobert and Nancy Mace, in a failed bid to have them remove their names from a discharge petition calling for a vote demanding that the Justice Department released the Epstein files. Congressmember Bobert was also reportedly summoned to the White House Situation Room Wednesday for a meeting with Attorney General Pam Bondi and FBI director Cash Patel to discuss the Epstein files. We'll have more on this story after headlines when we speak with a lawyer who represents several survivors of Epstein's and Ghislane Maxwell's abuse. Israel's carried out fresh attacks on Gaza in its latest violation of October's ceasefire

agreement. Israeli airstrikes are reported in Beitlachia, eastern parts of Gaza's city, and in Han Yunus, where some areas are also under Israeli artillery fire. On Wednesday, Israel reopened the Zakeem crossing into northern Gaza for the first time in two months, following repeated pleas by UN aid agencies to allow food and other essential goods to flow to communities, left Hungary and destitute by Israel's scorched earth bombing campaign. Meanwhile, Israel's increasingly barring foreign doctors from volunteering in Gaza, like California trauma surgeon, Dr. Frosidwa, who says he was blocked from entering Gaza this week. The World Health Organization warns only half of Gaza's 36 hospitals are even partially functional. This is Mohamed Wahel-Helis,

a 14-year-old Palestinian boy who's gone months without proper care. for a severe spinal cord injury he received when an Israeli airstrike struck the vehicle he was riding in. I have been waiting for surgery for 50 days, and my surgery shouldn't be delayed because I have a severed spinal cord. Also, there are thousands of people waiting for surgery rooms. I also have vertebrae fractures, and I can't breathe. Israel's Parliament has advanced a bill that would introduce the death penalty for individuals charged with terrorism against the state and against those who kill Israelis.

Critics of the bill point out the law would only apply to Palestinians' charge with terrorism and not Jewish extremists who target Palestinians. The head of the United Nations Migration Agency is called for a ceasefire in a humanitarian aid corridor in Sudan to help civilians trapped in the city of Alfasher, which was captured by the paramilitary group, the Rapid Support Forces, last month. The UN is also warning two. out of three people in Sudan are in dire need of aid and that the situation is, quote, horrific for civilians, unquote. Women fleeing al-Fashar described widespread killing, sexual violence,

rape and the disappearance of their children. This is Anna Mutavati, UN Women Regional Director for East and Southern Africa. Women's bodies, ladies and gentlemen, have just become a crime seen in Sudan. There are no safe spaces that are left. No way for women to gather safely, to seek protection, or even access, even the most basic psychosocial care. A new report by the climate action tracker finds the world is on pace to see the average global temperature rise by a catastrophic 2.6 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, far above the 1.5 degree limit to global heating proposed under the Paris Climate Agreement. Separately, the Global Carbon Project warned greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuels are on track to rise by about 1% this year,

with the growth of renewable energy failing to prevent record consumption of coal oil and gas. On Wednesday, thousands of climate activists in Belang, Brazil, launched a People's Summit flotilla to demand urgent action at the COP 30 UN Climate Summit. This is Catalina Pascuali, director of Greenpeace Brazil, which organized the flotilla of about 200 vessels. We are actually bringing climate negotiators and climate leaders to the heart of the forest to experience firsthand what it is to live here, remembering that the Amazon is a tipping point

and that the population here are suffering. We are suffering from droughts. We are suffering for climate change, from fires. This forest is a rainforest that should not burn. doesn't burn naturally. It only burns because there is a human ignition and because the forest is drier. Democracy now will be broadcasting live from the Belem-Cop-30 climate summit all next week. In Immigration News, detainees that a for-profit ICE jail in California are accusing a prison guard of sexually harassing and assaulting them. In federal complaints,

prisoners say a guard referred to as Lieutenant Quinn summoned them. from their dorms to an office late at night with no security cameras present and sexually assaulted them. One prisoner who threatened to defend himself says he was warned Quinn would summon prison guards and leave him facing charges of assaulting an officer. Quinn was later promoted and sent to another ice channel in Louisiana. Both facilities are run by the Geo Group, a Florida-based private prison company. Meanwhile, the brother of an ICE prisoner who died at the most Shannon Valley Processing Center in Pennsylvania, suing the government for more information about the jail's conditions and the

circumstances of his brother's death. Chao Feng Gay, a citizen of China, was found hanging by his neck in a shower stall back in August. His family said his hands and legs were tied behind his back. This is his brother, Yan Feng, speaking to reporters Wednesday. He filled me with great sadness to think of his final moments alone. I don't know how he could have. have had the opportunity to take his own life or what drove him to do so. But these sort of things should not happen to people who are in the government's custody. And those are some of the

headlines. This is Democracy Now. Democracy Now.org, the Warren Peace Report. I'm Amy Goodman. And I'm Narmine Sheikh. Welcome to our listeners and viewers across the country and around the world. I am the one able to take him down. Those are the words of Jeffrey Epstein talking about Donald Trump in a private email written in 2018. The email is part of a trove of over 20,000 pages of documents released Wednesday by the House Oversight Committee, raising new questions about President Trump's ties to the deceased convicted sex offender. Earlier on Wednesday morning, Democrats on the committee preemptively released three emails from the files. In one email from 2019, Epstein wrote that Trump, quote, knew about the girls. In another email from 2011,

Epstein described Trump as the, quote, dog that hasn't barked, noting that Trump had, quote, spent hours at my house with Virginia, a reference to the late Virginia Dufre, who accused Epstein of grooming and sexually trafficking her beginning when she was 16 years old. The Democrats released a version of the email with Virginia's name redacted, but an unredacted version of the email was later released.

In a recently published memoir, Virginia Juffray writes, She feared she would, quote, die a sex slave at the hands of Jeffrey Epstein. But in the book, Chufre does not allege wrongdoing by Trump. She worked at Trump's Marlago before being recruited by Gilein Maxwell. In another email from 2015, Epstein asked a reporter at the New York Times, quote, Would you like photos of Donald and girls and bikinis in my kitchen? We're joined now by Spencer Coogan, who represents several survivors of abuse by Jeffrey Epstein and Glein Maxwell. We have a lot to ask you about in very small amount of time.

Start off by responding to these emails that have been released. And now the latest news that the House is going to vote on releasing the whole trove of Epstein-Maxwell documents by next week, not in December, as was previously thought. Did you think Johnson get one of the Republican Congress members who are calling for the release to flip? Well, first of all, thank you for having me on. And I'm not sure exactly what they're going to actually do. But remember, this is just one procedural hurdle, right? The House has to pass this discharge petition. And then once the discharge petition has now gone through, they've got to vote on the floor. Then once that vote occurs, it's got to flip over to the Senate. And then the president will then have to sign off on releasing this information. So there are times or periods in this process where it can get hung up. And we never end up. up seeing this information. Also, remember that the most important thing that we want to see and that the general public should be shown isn't necessarily the documents. It's the videotapes and photographs that were taken into custody by the FBI at the various different homes of Jeffrey Epstein. We're talking about his homes down in the Virgin Islands, here in Palm Beach, where I'm at,

as well as his home in Manhattan. That's the information that's going to speak a thousand words. what the general public needs to see. Where are those videotapes? And does the Epstein estate have what many feel should the government should have taken? Well, I believe the videotapes are in the custody of the FBI because, remember, he was arrested at Teterborough Airport, and he never had an opportunity to get back to his mansion post-arrest. And the FBI then executed a search warrant on his home in Manhattan, that is where we believe that a wealth of video evidence was maintained. In addition to that, they then executed a warrant in the Virgin Islands. We know that after his arrest, here in Palm Beach, or actually I should say just before his arrest,

he had a team of people that took hard drives away from the home here in Palm Beach and secreted them away. We always understood his attorneys back then in 2007, 2008, when I was representing these young victims, that they had likely taken that evidence off to the Virgin Islands to secure it. So they've got 500 gigabytes of information that needs to be released. Well, Spencer, you had already seen the emails that were released yesterday, including the one that disclosed that Trump spent hours with Virginia. They were under a protective order by a federal judge, which is why you couldn't disclose them. Now, if you could talk about when you first saw them what most surprised you, and whether other lawyers or yourself have seen any of the photographic

or video evidence that you say is so crucial? Well, I can't talk about things that might be protected by, still protected by protective order. What I can tell you generally is, is that the emails were part of a litigation that occurred down in the Southern District of Florida. And when that disclosure occurred, remember that our advocacy as attorneys was on behalf of victims to try to upend or turn over the sweetheart deal that the U.S. government had executed with Jeffrey Epstein because they failed to keep the victims informed of that deal.

I only learned of it on behalf of my clients because an informant told me that I needed to rush to court because this secret deal was about to be entered. So a lot of that information was turned over in that litigation. We weren't really focused on Trump at the time. So it wasn't the focus of our investigation or our litigation back then. We were just tangently aware that they existed. Now that the focus is on this material, I can say that there is a lot more to come. And I can say that the FBI does have more information that needs to be released.

Well, the FBI has also interviewed, as you've said, over 40 girls, some just 14 years old. So where are those interviews? And is there any likelihood that the content of those interviews would be released? Well, first and foremost, I would wish that the identities of those individual victims continue to be protected. Some of them, like a lot of my clients, nearly all of my clients, have remained anonymous even to this day, almost 20 years later. No one has the identities or names of my clients that I have kept confidential. So I would hope that that remains to be the case. But the contents of those interviews, in other words, what they said and who they were with

and who they told police they had been with and been traded to at Epstein's mansion, we believe that that information should be made public, along with the videotapes and photographs that we believe the FBI has in their custody. And Spencer, your response to the latest revelation that Gilane Maxwell, aside from getting very special treatment at the minimum security jail that she was sent to in Texas that is shocked many because sex abusers are not supposed to be in these minimum security facilities, is applying for a commutation of her 20-year sentence? Well, of course she is.

I'm not shocked or surprised at any action that Galane Maxwell takes. She's a convicted liar and sex predator. So I don't believe anything she does, and in nothing she does, shocks me after. after 20 years. She will do anything she can to trade on information that she believes she has. We've seen that now in some of the emails that this duo of Epstein and Maxwell were all about leverage. They were trying to use leverage when discussing President Trump. They continued to use leverage when they were discussing Andrew in England and other notorious individuals. And I believe that that deal was struck to transfer her to this prison before she ever spoke.

to the Department of Justice, because why would a criminal, and why would an attorney advising a criminal to tell them speak to the Department of Justice when you have a pending appeal? It's assonite. It makes no sense whatsoever unless there was a deal that was struck beforehand that said, listen, if you talk and keep Trump's name out of this, we'll transfer you to a nicer prison. Spencer Coven, we want to thank you so much for being with us. lawyer for a number of survivors of Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell's abuse. Up next, we go to Washington, D.C., where we'll be joined by the newest member of Congress. Adelita Grahalva, it's her first full day in Congress.

She has become the final vote cast yesterday for the discharge petition that calls for the Department of Justice to release all the Epstein files. Stay with us. Sleep a night if you can stay alive, sleep a night if you can stay alive. Stay alive, if you can stay alive, stay alive, if you can sleep alive, stay alive, if you can sleep a night.

I was quite survived by Deerhoof, performed in our democracy. Now studio. This is Democracy Now, Democracy Now.org. I'm Amy Goodman with Nermine Sheikh. Arizona Democrat Adelita Grijalva was finally sworn into the office by House Speaker Mike Johnson on Wednesday, 50 days after winning her seat in Congress in a special election to fill the congressional seat left vacant when her father, Raul Grijalva, died in March. Up until yesterday, House Speaker Mike Johnson had refused to swear her in to prevent her from submitting the final signature on a discharged petition to force a vote on the Justice Department's full release of

the Jeffrey Epstein files. In a moment, Congressmember Adelita Grajava will join us. But first, let's turn to her speaking on the House floor on Wednesday. I rise today the proud granddaughter of Abracero, a hardworking Mexican immigrant who came to this country for a better life. And I stand as the proud daughter of a U.S. congressman, a man who spent his entire life fighting for justice, equity, and dignity for the most vulnerable. From working as a vackero, to serving in Congress in just a single generation, that is the promise of this country. That is the America I want to raise my.

my three beautiful children in, Adelina, Raul, and Joaquin. Stand up, stand up, baby. Look at them. They, along with my amazing husband, Sol, and my wonderful Mama Ramona, are here with me today. Thank you. And thank you to La Jente of Southern Arizona for making history electing me the first Latina, the first Chicana from Arizona to ever go to Congress.

historical for our community. It's an honor to be the first Latinas in represent Arizona in the Congress, and I am sure that, although I'm the first, not will be the

ultimate. And while we celebrate this moment today, our American promise is under serious threat. Basic freedoms are under attack. Healthcare premiums are skyrocketing. Babies are being ripped away from their parents by masked agents. We can and must do better. What is most concerning is not what this administration has done, but what the majority in this body has failed to do. Hold Trump accountable as a co-equal branch of government that we are.

It has been 50 days since the people of Arizona's 7th Congressional District elected me to represent them. 50 days that over 800,000 Arizonans have been left without access to the basic services that every constituent deserves. this is an abuse of power one individual should not be able to unilaterally obstruct the swearing in of a duly elected member of Congress for political reason our democracy.

Our democracy only works when everyone has a voice. This includes the millions of people across the country who have experienced violence and exploitation, including Liz Stein and Jessica Michaels, both survivors of Jeffrey Epstein's abuse. They are here in the gallery with us this evening. Thank you for being here.

Just this morning, House Democrats released more emails showing that Trump knew more about Epstein's abuses than he previously acknowledged. It's past time for Congress to restore its role as the check and balance on this administration and fight for we, the American people. We need to fight for our immigrant communities and veterans. We need to stand up for our public schools, children, and educators. We need to respect tribal sovereignty in our environment. We need to stand up for LGBTQ plus rights because that's what the American people expect us to do.

Fight for them. That is why I will sign the discharge petition right now to release the Epstein. Files. Justice cannot wait another day. Adelante, my gente, much. Thank you very much. I yield back.

That was Arizona's newly sworn in Congresswoman Adelaide, Grechava, speaking on the House floor Wednesday. She joins us right now from Capitol Hill. No longer do we have to call you Representative elect Grechava. This is your first full day in office. As you took the floor yesterday after being sworn in, you spoke in English and in Spanish. This is the first time in more than half a century, that a person who was elected was prevented from becoming a Congress member for what? More than seven weeks, your thoughts today? Yeah, Southern Arizona waited 50 days to be able to have a representative in Congress. Southern Arizona did their job, and Speaker

Johnson refused to do his, and as much as frustrating as it was for me personally, it's more heartbreaking when people needed help during this shutdown that was completely preventable. but they needed help with their VA benefits, understanding whether they were going to get furloughed, whether they were going to get paid back, what is happening, what is happening with Social Security and their immigration status, and I couldn't answer any of those questions. And so now we finally have the green light to be able to open up offices in district, offer services, on board staff, and I'm very excited for the opportunity that Southern Arizona has given me.

Well, Representative Grihalva, I mean, Mike Johnson, it was 50 days over seven weeks, as Amy said. His justification is that he couldn't swear you in while the House was out of session, but in fact there's no such rule that would block your swearing in, on top of which, during this time, he swore in two Florida Republicans while the House was in recess. I mean, your comments on how this unfolded. Well, every excuse that Speaker Johnson rolled out, whether it was, my race wasn't certified, we don't, that was never a requirement, has never been. He actually swore in three people less than 24 hours from the date of their election that we can't swear in in a pro forma, except that he did swear into Republicans during a pro forma session. And the fact that we couldn't do it while we were, you know, in a shutdown, there was a whole class.

class in 2019 sworn in during a shutdown. So every excuse was literally just that. Speaker Johnson was making a political ploy, was preventing my swearing in for a number of reasons, one of which was, I believe, the signing of the Epstein files. And so now that that's all out, my hope is that very shortly, Congress will be able to vote. The House will be able to vote on that very important issue. So the public in general will know where their representative stands on getting that information out and holding people accountable. So it is believed, of course, that he didn't want to convene the house because he didn't want what you had promised, which was to sign off on that discharge petition, which now has to

go to the floor of the house, calling for the DOJ to release the Epstein Maxwell Files. That was your first act in office. If you can talk about the significance of this, what this means. People just talk about, quote, the Epstein files. And, of course, many people feel are maybe surprised a bit since President Trump campaigned on releasing those files, that the fact that his name is mentioned throughout these files, that's why he held a situation room meeting yesterday. They called in your colleague, Congress member Lauren Bobert, who is crossing the aisle to vote for the release of the files. If you can talk about what it means as a young woman yourself, we're talking about possibly more than a thousand sexual assault victims, many of whom were underage.

Yeah, well, I sat next to Ms. Michaels for a period of time yesterday and just the strength that she has in having to tell her story over and over again, her credibility being questioned. And when just a tiny fraction of these files are released, we can see how many people are going to be implicated. It is so critically important that justice is finally served to those predators, to those people who committed pedophilia and rape against children and women. And every single individual, I don't care what their background is, I don't care what their political party is, has to be held accountable. And what my concern is, is this administration is doing literally everything they can to ensure that that information doesn't get out. And what we've seen is this is a bipartisan push, not just here in the House, but across the nation. Everyone wants to know what is going on and who is sitting in the White House and in positions of power throughout our nation. And Representative Grijalva, in fact, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries has accused Republicans of running what he described.

as a, quote, pedophile protection program. I mean, what is your message, first of all, if you could comment on that phrase? And also, you know, your message to the survivors, what can they expect in the coming weeks? Well, I mean, I think that Leader Jeffries is right on. The fact that this information hasn't come out, that Trump ran on this platform as part of his campaign on day one

he was going to release these files. And here we are, you know, we're into November, and he is doing literally everything he can, bringing in individual members of Congress and applying what I can only imagine is an incredible amount of pressure on every single one of them to remove their names. He did not want to see what happened yesterday, and if you look at the pressure that he was applying, it's no wonder that Speaker Johnson didn't swear me in for 50 days. I believe that we have to apply as much pressure as possible, not just to representatives to vote their values and vote their conscience, but when it goes to the Senate to do the same, Trump, I would love for him to be sitting at his desk and being forced to sign this document. And if he doesn't, then there should be legal consequences for him as well.

I mean, it is remarkable that the possibility that the House went out of session to prevent you from being a Congress member, to protect what someone called the Epstein class, and what this means, and then there's everyone else, and this goes to another issue. You represent more than 800,000 people. This was not just a violation of your rights, and we'd like to ask what's going to happen with your lawsuit brought by the Arizona Attorney General. at this point, Chris Mays, but not only a violation of your rights, but of your constituents' rights, you represent many people who lost their food stamps, who lost their SNAP benefits. What is your congressional agenda now that you're in office? What do you hope to accomplish? And the fact that so many have still not yet gotten their food aid.

Yeah. Well, one, this administration, I mean, it really is a campaign of cruelty. And when you look at the fact that SNAP was even, SNAP benefits were even part of this equation is unconscionable to take food away from people in poverty across the nation. When we've had shutdowns before, SNAP was never impacted because it's always funded. When you look at what Trump did with furloughed employees, threatening them, if they don't, show up. They were not going to, you know, get hired back. And maybe we'll just fire everybody. It's that kind of cruelty. I think that motivated some, those Senate Democrats to compromise. And that compromise is a horrible compromise that I hope goes down. I mean, that's one of the things that I was hoping for is that we would have bipartisan support in some of the basics in providing health care and food. But here we are. And so for the constituents in southern Arizona, I'm going to continue to push an agenda of transparency, of affordability, trying to hold on to every right rehab in this democracy, and, you know,

the issues that I was elected to fight for, public education, environmental justice, looking at our immigration policies and trying to make them more humane and working with wherever I can with any bipartisan group that wants to work for the American people and for rights of people. I will be there. Talk about your decision to speak Spanish and English on the floor of the house yesterday as you were sworn in. And I mean, there was a standing ovation for you throughout. Yeah, I was really appreciative of that. I felt it very important in southern Arizona. We have a lot of Spanish-speaking families and even many that are bilingual. And so I wanted to let them know that I was there for them and that I appreciate this glass ceiling that was broken and Southern

Arizona's faith in me, but that I will not be the last Latina from Arizona to hold this position. And your thoughts, I mean, this famous picture now where you're shaking the hand of the House Speaker who prevented you from serving out your full term, him complimenting your father, even as he disagreed with him. What was the little thought bubble as you, as you you were standing there, sort of half smiling? Well, I mean, I can, my faces, I don't play poker well, but I knew that it was something that I had to, I had to go acknowledge the speaker's role, and for him to look me in the face and understand that all of this was completely avoidable.

And the platform that I have right now, where people know who I am, is a direct result of him highlighting how corrupt this administration is. and how much work there is to do to ensure that we can get back to a country that all of us have an opportunity. And the report that in the Senate right now, part of the deal that was passed was that a number of senators can get up to a million dollars if their phone records were taken were being observed by the FBI after the 2021. insurrection, that that was included as people, millions, lose their food stamps, that these senators can get up to a million dollars of government money, they can sue the DOJ? Well, are Trump is suing the DOJ? So why can't they end?

I mean, I mean, that is to me just some of the most outrageous examples of how people under the Trump administration are enriching themselves. We don't have enough money for SNAP. We don't have enough money for affordable health care. We don't have enough money for basic infrastructure throughout our nation, but we do have money for a ballroom and retrofitting a plane and giving, you know, building up Trump's own army in ICE agents throughout. I mean, that's the kind of, it's the priorities.

A budget is a valid. statement. And this administration continues to show that they value enriching themselves, protecting themselves, making themselves more comfortable over everybody else. I just want to end with this observation on Wednesday. President Trump dined with Wall Street executives at the White House. Among the CEOs invited, J.P. Morgan Chase's Jamie Diamond, David Salman Goldman-Sachs, Black Rocks, Larry Fink, Morgan Stanley's Ted Pick. Their dinner came as millions of people who rely on SNAP food assistance benefits, continue. to be denied access to their full November benefits. A Department of Agriculture spokesperson

said Wednesday, some beneficiaries will have to wait even longer before benefits will be loaded onto the debit cards they use to buy groceries. In this last 30 seconds, your final thoughts, Congress member Grahava, as you take office. You know, Trump is so far removed in understanding what the average working person is going through right now. People are literally don't know where their next meal is going to come from. And the audacity of this administration to hold parties to cater to the wealthiest amongst us really highlights how far apart and far removed he is from the rest of the 99% of us in this nation. Adelaideh Grahava, we thank you very much for being with us.

U.S. representative, Congress member, for Arizona's seventh congressional district, the first Latina to represent Arizona in Congress and the daughter of former Congress member Raul Grahava. Congratulations. Coming up, the devastating human cost of the Trump administration's dismantling of USAID. We'll talk with Dr. Atul Guandi. He headed global health at USAID during the Biden administration. Back in 20 seconds. Mayfoye, you know-ol-of-ha-ber-ne-hi-ha-ma-ve-fon-ye.

N'-bally-ma-be-fon-hae. You know-woldeck, I-ha-ha-ha-ha-ma-ve-fon-ha. FENFO, something to say by the Mali and singer FACCHAMATA Jua, performed in our Democracy Now studio. This is Democracy Now, Democracy Now.org. I'm Amy Goodman with Nermyn Scheher. We turn now to the dismantling of the U.S. Agency for International Development or U.S. aid, the federal agency that funded global health initiative, around the world for over six decades.

Soon after President Trump began his second term in office, the agency found itself in the crosshairs of the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, or Doge, led by billionaire Elon Musk, a mega donor to Trump's election campaign. Musk and Doge pursued deep cuts and layoffs at the agency. Earlier this year, an independent analysis published in the medical journal The Lancet estimated that USAID had saved 92 million lives globally over two decades, including the lives of 30 million children. It further estimated the cuts to USAID could result in 14 million more deaths by 2030. The authors wrote that for many countries, quote, the resulting shock would be

similar in scale to a global pandemic or a major armed conflict. Of the roughly $15,000 per year, most Americans pay in taxes. The cost for U.S. aid is just $24 per person. In a moment, we'll be joined by Dr. Atul Gawande, the surgeon and health policy expert who headed global health at USAID during the Biden administration. His latest piece in The New Yorker is headlined, The shutdown of USAID has already killed hundreds of thousands. Earlier this year, Dr. Gwandi spent time in Kakuma, a refugee camp in Kenya near the South Sudan border looking at the impact of USAID cuts on childhood malnutrition. His experience is documented in a short film called Ravina's Choice, directed by Thomas Jennings and Annie Wong.

The film follows a mother, Ravina Naboy, as she tries to save her daughter Jane from starvation. Dr. Gwundi met her at Clinic 7, where the sickest children are seen. This is a clip from the film. After the changes in food rations, I realized my daughter Jane was sick. She had high fever and chills. Days later, she developed diarrhea and a skin rash. Then her whole body peeled into wounds and became swollen. People told me baby Jane should be treated at Clinic 7. The place is very far.

I had to leave the kids home alone with little food. I had to make the sacrifice to be with Jane at the hospital. For more, we're joined by Dr. Otil Gwundi, Professor of Surgery at Brigham and Williams Hospital in Boston, Professor of the Practice at Harvard Medical School, also an award-winning author of several best-selling books, including being mortal and complications. He joins us now from Boston.

Dr. Gwendi, it's great to have you back, but under such incredibly painful circumstances. You say hundreds of thousands of people have died since the Trump administration basically ended USAID. Explain how you know this in your recent trip to visit the survivors of South Sudan. I'll give an example. One of the things I was most worried about is the advances we've made in malnutrition. People don't recognize it, but in the last 20 years, we've discovered the protocols that could take a 20% death rate for children with severe acute malnutrition coming to hospital facilities and have brought that down to less than 1%. How does that happen? It does it by moving more of the care for the severely, acutely malnourished, closer to the home with community health workers, with a measuring tape and a scale, checking on the weights and

heights of kids, and catching early signs of severe acute malnutrition. Then when they, and they can get a fortified food, therapeutic foods formulated in the United States, much of it manufactured by America. farmers and deliver it at home and rescue 85% of those children, and then the remaining 15% go for complications or they're very young to hospitals. That process has dramatically changed malnutrition. It's saved millions of lives just by itself. And that was cut off instantly. When I went to visit, I visited multiple communities and Kakuma refugee camp was one of them where you saw the total dismantling of this. Food aid was cut in this camp, for example, refugees coming from

the South Sudan border from Somalia and other places were down to only 40% of the minimum needs for their calories being able to be provided. So children were down to just one meal a day. the community health workers were pulled from the field, the ability of nurses in the hospitals, those were pulled out. And so you see a situation like Ravina Naboy, whom I met among many families, trying to navigate a broken system. We had the cure for death from malnutrition, and we took it away. And Dr. Gawande, you pointed out, in fact, that in Trump's first administration, he advanced some of the agency's work. And Marco Rubio had also been a vocal supporter of USAID. So if you could say, you know, what do you think accounts for the change?

And also the fact that Rubio had initially said that critical life-saving aid would be exempt from these cuts. What's happened? It was a combination of total indifference of the White House and Elon Musk wielding his chainsaw. The rhetoric of this is a criminal enterprise, it's a money laundering operation, and Marco Rubio signing on along with that, it was a set of claims that are ideological and ignore the lives saved, it was immediately evident that hundreds of thousands of lives were going to be lost in a matter of months. And there's a, we now know it's not just malnutrition, we see loss of control of HIV,

loss of control of TB, all of the technical assistance we gave to many governments and communities that enabled the increases. and vaccination rates, enabled the delivery of better childbirth, those have gone away and you see the attrition of those services. Now, many of those deaths will take a while. The loss of vaccines, loss of HIV-controlled TB, many of the deaths take months or years. So we're seeing early deaths like the malnutrition cases, and then we see the wave that's more to come. Dr. Gawande, if you could speak specifically, you mentioned HIV. The status, the status, of PEPFAR, the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, which was one of the most successful

aid programs launched by the U.S. credited with saving 26 million lives and enabling almost 8 million babies to be born without an HIV infection. What is the status of that program? Well, on the one hand, PEPFAR has been, is under the best condition of many of the programs, half of the funds are remaining and moving out. And yet, even there, the damage is severe. First of all, the removal of the infrastructure of teams, you know, I had 2,500 people in 65 countries implementing assistance that reached hundreds of millions of people

and saved lives by the millions. Those people in the field are gone. the dismantling of oversight systems, inspectors general, that made sure that waste was reduced to a minimum. Was there more that could have been done on waste? Yes. But the removal of any data monitoring of the inspector generals has only made waste worse of a problem. There's medicines being lost in warehouses, food aid that's not distributed, and the PEPFAR program, you know, what keeps people alive are programs that ensure that high-risk groups are able to be identified, that they're able to help stay on their medicines if they have HIV, and get prevention if they

don't. The preventive programs have been completely dismantled. They're barely functioning at this point. We made a discovery, the United States, of a drug that could stop HIV, For six months and recent research shows it can be as long as a year, we would be deploying that right now to drive down the mortality from HIV. Some of that is supposed to be moving, but it isn't anything like the ramp up that should be happening and that PEPFAR would have been making happen right now. I mean, you quote Richard Rhodes, the historian's phrase, public man-made death. And you talk about a Boston University epidemiologist keeping track of the USAID cuts. As of November 5th, 600,000 people already died as a result of the cuts. Two-thirds of them children.

Talk about why it's so hard to get information on this. And can this be reversed? Of course, not for the people who have died, but for the future. We're in the midst of public man-made death now, and yet it can be so hard to see because it doesn't happen like in a war where the bomb drops and then you see the bodies in the field. Here it's difficult to see because, number one, data monitoring that would allow us to see it and the inspectors general and other audits aren't functioning, so you don't get some of the visibility there. Number two, the deaths are scattered. Seeing a mortality rate rise in communities for children from 3% to 4%, which is the kind of thing that you can begin to see now, that's a one-third increase in deaths. But you can't feel and see the difference just walking around.

A lot of the most powerful interventions that were done were ones that would raise vaccination rates from 60% to 90% or raise HIV coverage, keeping people on their medicines jumping from 70% to 95%. And then when you have that attrition, it can be very difficult to see, which is why I joined with a film team that followed me as we came to Kenya and as we're visiting other places in the world. And that allowed us to follow the story of individuals who are trying to stay alive, who are trying to keep their children alive, and what they have to go through that no longer is.

there. Now, USAID works by doing two things. One is humanitarian assistance, helping the most vulnerable and at risk to stay alive and to survive. But the second thing is building support for the countries, for the systems that they can stand up on their own. And Kenya is an example of a country moving towards middle income that has been in this process and the struts have been pulled out. Dr. Gawande, before we conclude, if you could also talk about the systematic attacks on science and medicine here in the U.S., from the CDC to NIH and, of course, Harvard University. Yeah, I returned from my time leading global health at USAID to my public health work at Harvard,

where the research center I founded with 200 associate faculty has had. a third of its budget shut down completely. Programs that we were running, for example, the surgery work that cut deaths by half that was now deploying new tools to figure out how to reduce the death rate for geriatric patients undergoing surgery, older adults. That funding is gone and blocked and terminated. This is, you know, Harvard, only one example. The NIH funds for research, CDC programs for HIV and vaccination have been slashed. We're seeing the dismantling of global public health abroad coming to domestic public health at home. And we are seeing many of the same results, not in the dire numbers

of hundreds of thousands already, but in conventional. conditions like measles, like HIV, having outbreaks and starting to move in the wrong direction again. Dr. Atul Gawendi, I want to thank you so much for being with us, former head of global health at USAID, U.S. Agency for International Development. We'll link to your article for the New Yorker. The shutdown of USAID has already killed hundreds of thousands, Professor of Surger at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, professor of the practice at Harvard Medical School. That does it for our show.

Very happy birthday to Ishmael Darrow. Tonight is the premiere of Steal the Story, Please, at the SVA Theater here in New York City. Nermaine and I will be there at 615. Tomorrow morning at IFC in New York City at 1115. I'll be speaking in Amsterdam, yep, in the Netherlands on Saturday before the two premieres at 515 and at 8.30 in the evening at the Royal Theater Carre. Hope to see many people there at the largest international dock fest in year. I'm Amy Goodman with Namin Sheikh.