Democracy Now! Audio - Democracy Now! 2026-02-09 Monday

Episode Date: February 9, 2026

Democracy Now! Monday, February 9, 2026

From New York, this is Democracy Now. I was carried face down through the street by my cuffed arms and legs while yelling that I had a brain injury and was disabled. I now cannot lift my arms normally. I was never asked for ID, never told I was under arrest, never read my rights, and never charged with a crime. As protests continue in Minnesota over the Trump administration's deadly immigration crackdown, we'll speak to Alia Rahman, a disabled U.S. citizen in Minneapolis. I smashed her car window, dragged her out, and detained her. She was heading to a medical appointment.

Then, President Trump is refusing to apologize after posting a video that depicted the Obama's as apes. He only deleted it after bipartisan outcry. on you to apologize for that post. Make a mistake. Plus, we look at the Winter Olympics in Milan, Italy. Vice President J.D. Vance was booed during the opening ceremony and thousands protested in the streets over the U.S. sending ice agents to the games. We'll also get an update on Gaza.

The rafa crossing has reopened, but few people are being allowed through. All that and more coming up. Welcome to Democracy Now, Democracy Now.org. the War and Peace Report. I'm Narmeen Sheikh. In Minneapolis, at least 50 people were arrested outside a federal building as they were marking the one-month anniversary of Renee Good's fatal shooting by an immigration officer. René Good's wife, Becca Good, issued a statement over the weekend saying, quote, you know my wife's name and you know Alex's name, but there are many others in the city being harmed that you don't know. Their families are hurting just like mine, even if they don't look

like mine, end quote. This is Annie Ganga, Renee Goodsister. No matter the adversity she faced, Renee always remained so tender and open and was a caretaker and protector. I'd like to acknowledge that this type of violence isn't new and how unfair it is that the way someone looks garneres more or less attention. And I'm so sorry that this is the reality. Meanwhile, Jim Stolley, the Chief Counsel for ICE in Minnesota, resigned from his position after 31 years on the job. This comes as government prosecutors are facing a surge of immigration cases that are overwhelming the court system. Last month, the top federal judge in Minnesota, Patrick Schiltz, criticized ICE for violating more than 100 judicial orders, saying, quote, ICE has likely violated more court orders in January

2026 than some federal agencies have violated in their entire existence. In more news from Minnesota, a Mexican immigrant whose skull was broken in eight places during his arrest by ICE last month has described harrowing details of his ordeal. Alberto Castaneda Mondragon says he was violently pulled from a friend's car outside a St. Paul shopping center by four masked men, thrown to the ground, handcuffed, then punched and struck in the head by a steel baton. He says he was then dragged into an SUV and taken to an ice jail inside the Whipple Federal Building, where he says he was beaten again. Kassaneda Mondragon's injuries are inconsistent with ICE officers' claims to the nurses

who treated him that he, quote, purposefully ran headfirst into a brick wall. In related news, more than a thousand workers at Google have signed a petition calling on their company to cancel contracts with ICE and Customs and Border Protection. They write, quote, Google is now a prominent node in a shameful lineage of private companies profiting from violent state repression. We must use this moment to come together as a Google community and demand an end to this disgraceful use of our labor, unquote.

In Massachusetts, a federal judge has put a temporary hold on data sharing between the IRS, Social Security Administration, and ICE. In a statement, the New York Immigration Coalition applauded the order, writing, quote, with taxis in here, this ruling ensures that immigrant families can meet their civic obligations without fear of retaliation or surveillance. President Trump is refusing to apologize for publishing a racist video that depicts former President Obama and Michelle Obama as apes.

Trump's account on his social media platform Truth Social posted the video late Thursday night where it remained for 12 hours before it was deleted around noon on Friday. It prompted rare criticism of the president from Republicans, including Tim Scott, the Senate's only black Republican. Scott said, quote, it's the most racist thing I've seen out of this White House, unquote, adding that he was praying it was fake. But speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One, Trump defended his actions. Mr. President, a number of Republicans are calling on you to apologize for that post. Is that something you're going to do? No, I didn't make a mistake. I mean, I'd look at a lot of thousands of things.

And I looked at the beginning of it. It was fine. They had that one post, and I guess it was a takeoff. By the way, a lot of people were covered. If you look at where it came from, a lot of, I guess it was a lot of, I guess it was a to take off on the Lion King. Certainly it was a very strong post in terms of voter fraud. The Justice Department is said to allow Congress access to unredacted files related to the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein starting today. Epstein's associate, the convicted sex

trafficker, Galane Maxwell, is also set to testify before the House Oversight Committee in a virtual deposition closed to the public. Maxwell's lawyers have indicated that she, she will invoke the Fifth Amendment and decline to answer questions. Attorney General Pam Bondi is expected to testify on Wednesday over the Justice Department's handling of the Epstein files. It comes as Republican Congress member Thomas Massey is pushing for Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnik to resign after emails revealed Lutnik lied when he claimed to have ended his relationship

with Epstein in 2005. At the National Prayer Breakfast last week, President Trump called Congress member Massey a moron. Meanwhile, in the UK, British Prime Minister Kier Starmar's chief of staff, Morgan McSweeney, has resigned over his role in recommending the appointment of Peter Mendelsohn, a friend of Jeffrey Epstein, as ambassador to the United States. Israel's security cabinet has approved new rules to tighten Israeli control over the occupied West Bank. The rules will make it easier for Israeli settlers to buy land in the occupied West Bank. Bank and give Israeli officials stronger powers to enforce laws on Palestinians in the area.

Meanwhile, a new report by the Intercept has uncovered the Pentagon's $210 million deal to buy advanced cluster munitions from an Israeli weapons manufacturer. The U.S. will pay the Israeli company Tomer over a period of three years to produce new 155mm shells containing smaller submunitions. The cluster munition monitor has recorded nearly 25,000 cluster munition injuries and deaths since the 1960s, the vast majority from unexploded remnants. Iran's foreign ministry says it's open to a deal to limit its ability to enrich uranium in exchange for relief from sanctions. But Foreign Minister Abos Aronchi said any new agreement must include the right to enrich nuclear material for peaceful purposes. His comments came after U.S. and Iranian diplomats held indirect talks in Oman on Friday,

as U.S. warships gathered within striking distance of Iran amid Trump's threats of a new attack. Iran's power lies in its ability to resist bullying, hegemony, and pressure from others. The U.S. and their allies are afraid of our atomic bomb, but we are not looking for an atomic bomb. Our key strength is the power to say no to the great powers. In more news from Iran, security forces have announced the arrest of four senior opposition politicians, including the head of the Reformers Front, widening a crackdown on dissent that's left thousands of people dead since protests erupted in late December. Those arrested faced charges of plotting to overthrow Iran's Islamic regime. Separately, the jailed Nobel Peace Laureate, Nargis Mohamedi, has ended.

ended a hunger strike after an Iranian court on Saturday sentenced her to another seven years in prison. She was on medical leave from prison in December when she was arrested at a memorial service for a well-known human rights lawyer who died under mysterious circumstances. Mohamedi has already spent over a decade behind bars. A Hong Kong court has sentenced media mogul Jimmy Lai to 20 years in prison. Lai had already been in detention for more than four. years while serving a separate prison term on fraud charges. Lai was arrested back in 2020 under the national security law that China implemented in Hong Kong following the pro-democracy

protests in 2019. He was the founder of the Hong Kong newspaper Apple Daily, which seized operations in 2021 after police arrested the paper's employees and froze its assets. In Sudan, a drone attack by the paramilitary group, RSF, hit a vehicle. carrying displaced families on Saturday, killing at least 24 people, including eight children. The attack took place close to the city of Arrahad in North Kordafan province, according to the Sudan Doctors Network, a group tracking the country's civil war. The conflict in Sudan is the world's largest humanitarian crisis, with more than 40,000 people killed and more than 14 million people forced to flee their homes.

A federal judge has unfrozen $16 billion in funds withheld by President Trump for rail infrastructure between New York and New Jersey. Friday's court order came as President Trump reportedly told Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer that he would release the funds if Schumer supported renaming Dulles International Airport in Virginia and Penn Station in New York City after him. New Jersey's acting attorney general, Jennifer Davenport, issued a statement saying, quote, the Trump administration must drop this campaign of political retribution immediately and must allow work on this vital infrastructure project to continue.

In Italy, thousands of people marched through the streets of Milan on Saturday to protest the environmental, social, and economic impacts of the Winter Olympics. They are also objecting to Israel's participation in the Games and the presence of immigration and customs enforcement agents with the U.S. delegation. Police fired tear gas and water cannons as some protesters approached a hockey venue. Inside the games, U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance was met with a chorus of booze when he appeared at the opening ceremony on Friday evening. This is how the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation covered the brief on-camera appearance by J.D. and Ushah Vance. Individual sport, what an honor for her.

There is the vice president, J.D. Vance, and his wife, U.S. U. Those are not. Those are a lot of booze for him. Those booze were not audible in video of Vance's appearance broadcast across the United States by NBC and then widely shared online, including by the White House's social media account. And Puerto Rican superstar Bad Bunny has made history as the first artist to perform a Super Bowl halftime show almost entirely in Spanish. Bad Bunny's performance came a week after he publicly criticized Ice at the Grammys during his victory speech for Album of the Year.

During the halftime performance, Bad Bunny held a football that read, quote, together we are America. The performance ended with Bad Bunny holding a light blue pro-independence variation of the Puerto Rican flag. He was followed by dancers holding the flags of every country in the Americas. So you, Maki. President Trump called the performance absolutely terrible, one of the worst ever, and an affront to the greatness of America. And those are some of the headlines. This is Democracy Now, Democracy Now.org, the War and Peace Report.

I'm Narmine Sheikh. And I'm Amy Goodman in Los Angeles, just back from the Santa Barbara International Film Festival, where the film, where the film steal this story, please, about, Democracy Now just won the Social Justice Award. We're looking forward to theatrical release on April 10th in New York, and then in the days after that, here in Los Angeles and in San Francisco and beyond. Yes, this is Democracy Now. I'm Amy Goodman with Nirmin-Sheikh. We begin today's show in Minneapolis, where at least 50 protesters were arrested

outside the Whipple Federal Building this weekend as they marked one month. since the fatal shooting of Renee Good, the 37-year-old mother of three, killed by an ICE agent on January 7th. The Whipple Federal Building has been a staging ground for federal immigration agents deployed to the Twin Cities, as well as at the heart of ongoing protests against Trump's raids. Good's fatal shooting, as well as the killing just days later of Alex Prettie,

a 37-year-old ICU nurse who worked in the Minneapolis Veterans Health Care System, have sparked nationwide protests in response to Trump's immigration crackdown. Renee Good's wife, Becca Good, issued a statement over the weekend saying, quote, you know my wife's name and you know Alex's name, but there are many others in this city being harmed that you don't know. Their families are hurting just like mine, even if they don't look like mine, unquote. And this is Annie Gangor, Ney Goode's sister. No matter the adversity she faced, Renee always remained so tender and open and was a caretaker and protector.

I'd like to acknowledge that this type of violence isn't new and how unfair it is that the way someone looks garners more or less attention. And I'm so sorry that this is the reality. Trump's deployment of federal agents in Minneapolis and across U.S. cities has continued to raise scrutiny over the violent use of force by the Department of Homeland Security officers who've been involved in the shootings of at least 13 people since September, including of U.S. citizens. At least four of those shootings have been fatal, including Renee Good, Alex Preti, and Silverio Villegas Gonzalez, a 38-year-old father from Mexico, fatally shot by federal immigration agents in a Chicago suburb last year. He was unarmed. Last week, the brothers of Renee Good, Brent and Luke Ganger, testified at a hearing held by congressional

Democrats, among others who testified was Martin Daniel Ruscon, who was shot at by border agents in California while driving with his family. Marimar Martinez, who was shot five times by a federal immigration agent in Chicago last year, and Alia Rahman, who was violently, dragged out of her car by federal immigration officers in Minneapolis after they smashed the car window. Alia Rahman will join us live in a minute. But first, this is a portion of her congressional testimony last week. My name is Alia Rahman, and I am a resident of South Minneapolis. I'm a Bangladeshi American, born in northern Wisconsin, and I'm a disabled person with autism.

and a traumatic brain injury. Not all autistic brains do this, but mine fixates on sounds, numbers, and patterns. And while what the world saw happened to me exactly three weeks ago today on video was a terrible violation, it is still nothing compared to the horrific practices I saw inside the Whipple Center. So I am here today with a duty to the people who have not had the privilege of coming home. And I offer this data, because these practices must end now. On January 13th, on the way to my 39th appointment at Hennepin County's Traumatic Brain Injury Center, I encountered a traffic jam caused by ice vehicles and no signs indicating how to get around it.

I had not wanted to pull into a blocked, chaotic intersection, but verbally agreed to do so and rolled down my window after an agent yelled, move, I will break your effing window. His first instruction. Agents on all sides of my vehicle yelled conflicting threats and instructions that I could not process while watching for pedestrians. Then the glass of the passenger side window flew across my face. I yelled,

I'm disabled at the hands grabbing at me and an agent said, too late. I felt immersed in a pattern and I thought of Genoa Donald an autistic black man, killed by police during a traffic stop in 2021. I remembered Mr. Siberio Vigga Gonzalez, who was killed by ICE in his vehicle last year. An agent pulled a large combat knife in front of my face, which I thought was for cutting me, and later learned was used to cut off my seat belt.

Shooting pain went through my head, neck, and wrists when I hit the ground face first, and people leaned on my back. I felt the pattern, and I thought of Mr. George Floyd, who was killed four blocks away. I was carried face down through the street by my cuffed arms and legs while yelling that I had a brain injury and was disabled. I now cannot lift my arms normally. I was never asked for ID, never told I was under arrest, never read my rights, and never charged with a crime. That's a portion of last week's congressional testimony by Alia Rahman, who's joining us now in Minneapolis.

And in Chicago, we're joined by Alexa Brunbrunt, director at the Illinois Office of the MacArthur Justice Center, attorney for Alia Rahman. Welcome both to Democracy Now. Alia, let's continue with you. This testimony is horrifying. I'm so sorry what happened to you. If you can tell us what happened next? They smashed the passenger side of the window. They took this knife by your neck and cut off the seatbelt and drag you out.

If you can continue with your reaction to what was happening and then where they took you next. Yeah, thank you, Amy, for asking that question and for having us. Because what people saw in that video is, of course, horrifying and shouldn't happen, and it's a violation of rights. But what happened after the video is the thing that really sits with me. You know, what I saw in that detention center was truly horrific. And the weight of an experience like that really leaves you with the duty. From the point you're asking about, you know, I hit the ground a couple of times.

The second time was face first. And I felt agents on my upper body, my back and neck, shooting pain starts going through my head and neck and wrists. As we know, I already had a brain injury and had told them I was disabled before they did that. And when I get to the Whipple Center, this kind of dynamic of having a complete disregard for any human's humanity or living body was absolutely continued, absolutely. You know, the first thing you see, the first thing I saw anyway, arriving at Whipple is lines of black and brown people chained together, being marched in the cold, I become one of these people outside.

in this outdoor loading dock as we are absolutely dehumanized, taunted, and not given medical care at any point. For me, not given disability accommodations like walking aids that I need. I can certainly talk about more

of either of those things, but, you know, I was taken out of that place, unconscious. And I believe that I lived because I had a cellmate who was willing to put herself in danger to bang on the door after I was unconscious. It was well over an hour from the first time we said this is an emergency because my speech had started to slur and my vision had blurred. And one of the last things I heard on that cell floor was my cellmate begging for medical care and somebody outside saying, we don't want to step on ICE's toes.

And when I opened my eyes at the emergency room, they told me I was being treated for assault wounds. Well, Alia, again, we're so sorry for this horrific experience of all that you endured. So you did, did you in fact receive any medical care? And then also, did you have access to any legal advice, were you able to access an attorney? Were you told that you were entitled to one?

I did not receive any medical care while I was conscious. When I arrived at the Whipple Center, I was already injured. I cannot lift my arms now, normally. I don't know how long that will be with me. You know, my body will heal or it won't. but it's important to me to fulfill a duty to folks like Mr. Mondragon, who you just mentioned, right? It is completely consistent with my experience to hear that the story of these folks that he ran into a wall headfirst is not true. Of course it can't be because these people do not regard human bodies as attached to humans.

And so, no, I arrived injured and I wasn't going. given a medical screening. And you know, from the second, you all can hear it in the video, from the second they first put their hands on me in the car, all the way through transport to the Whipple Center. From the moment I arrived at Whipple Center, I was asking for disability accommodations like, did anybody bring my cane? I asked for a lawyer. I asked, am I being charged with something? I was not given a phone call. I was not able to speak to a lawyer. I was not told that I was charged with anything. I was lifted from my chair by my injured shoulders when I asked for a cane and prodded in the back and said, walk, you can walk, you can do it,

all the while having a worry that I'm going to fall down in my head again, I finally found a wheelchair. I was placed in it. After a good long time of asking for this and being told, we don't know if we have wheelchairs here. Like, that is not an answer to that question. At a federal facility, you should know if there's a wheelchair there. And when I was placed in it, the man who was supposed to wheel me to interrogation paused for a second to take the time to say, hey, you were driving, right? So you're like to do work. And you really have to think about a sentence like that because that does not help anybody complete their job faster. If their job is related to immigration or public safety.

It does help you complete your job if the point is to dehumanize and terrorize people and to not speaking. Obviously, you know, that didn't work in my case. I'm here, I'm not going to stop talking, but no, I hear your question as a general question of where any of your rights respected, where your medical needs respected. The answer to that is no. And I think we have lots of testimony from folks inside these places that's consistent. with that and I'm very confused why we haven't immediately investigated these places and interviewed

everyone who's been through them. Alia, you said that they referred to the people at Whipple at the detention center as bodies, not people? Absolutely. Before that even, when I was placed in that SUV, after the videos where you all can see me yelling, I have a brain injury, I am disabled, I am autistic. asking for help around that. The answer I got was laughter and the driver radioing in

were bringing in a body. And you know, I really had to ask myself, what is going to happen to me before I get there if that's what they're saying? And when I get there, you hear this word yelled. There are lines of people being marched.

There are confused staff. those agents had no concept of how to do the tasks that they were assigned unless that task is dehumanization. They're really yelling things like they're bringing in bodies seven or eight at a time. There is no place to put them. They could not find an interrogation room for me because people kept saying there's already a body in that one. There's already a body in that one.

And again, I think human beings are not born calling each other bodies. So you have to ask, how do we get that way? And I read a lot of books. Anybody knows who studies history what happens when you have folks who are now treating these humans as bodies. And you have no reason to believe you're going to make it out alive from a place where they're already calling you a body. Well, I'd like to bring in, Alia, your legal counsel, Alexa Van Brunt. Now, Alexa, you know, this testimony, what Alia experienced is really horrifying also her descriptions of what she saw when she was arrested wrongfully.

What kind of legal recourse does she have? Oh, thank you so much for asking that question. It's been a major topic of discussion by advocates and by Congress and by lawyers. and it's a really timely and important discussion to have because there are limits to the kind of legal recourse people have at this stage against ICE agents, against federal agents who violate their rights. Alia and others can file a federal tort claims act lawsuit,

which is essentially a lawsuit against the federal government for violating their rights. And that is one way to get into federal court. And it's an important form of accountability. But they cannot sue the officers in their individual capacity. They cannot name those officers in a lawsuit because we do not have the same forms of legal redress for federal officers that we do for state officers, for a law enforcement officer at the county level or the city level who violates your rights. And that's the result of many years of legal cases. from the Supreme Court and other court cases limiting accountability for federal officers under the Bivens doctrine, as, you know, is often talked about these days.

But on a positive note, a lot of state legislatures have started to discuss ways to hold federal officers accountable, including where I'm based in Chicago and Illinois, passing laws called state Bivens laws that permit people whose rights of enforcement. violated like Alia to file actions against those who violated their rights, the federal officers. So these state laws hold some promise, but it would be really, really a very beneficial thing for everyone if Congress could change the laws so that federal officers can be held accountable themselves in a court of law. Well, thank you very much, Alexa Van Brunt, attorney. for Minneapolis resident Alia Rahman.

Last month, I smashed her car window, dragged her out, and detained her. Thank you, Alia Ramon, for joining us. When we come back, President Trump is refusing to apologize after posting a video that depicted the Obamas as apes. He only deleted it after bipartisan outcry. We'll speak with the NAACP, back in 30 seconds.

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Sin Mastikar without chewing by the Puerto Rican singer and songwriter Ile performing in our Democracy Now studio. This is Democracy Now, Democracy Now.org. I'm Nermine Sheikh with Amy Goodman. President Trump is refusing to apologize for publishing a racist video that depicts former President Obama and Michelle Obama as apes. The video was posted on Trump's truth social account late Thursday night, where it remained for 12 hours before it was deleted around noon on Friday. It prompted rare criticism of the president from Republicans, including Tim Scott, the Senate's only black Republican. Scott said, quote, it's the most racist thing. I've seen out of this White House, unquote, adding that he was praying it was fake.

But speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One, Trump refused to apologize. Mr. President, a number of Republicans are calling on you to apologize for that post. Is that something you're going to do? No, I didn't make a mistake. I mean, I'd look at a lot of thousands of things. I looked at the beginning of it. It was fine. They had that one post, and I guess it was a takeoff. By the way, a lot of people were covered.

If you look at where it came from, a lot of, I guess it was a takeoff on the Lion King. And certainly it was a very strong post in terms of voter fraud. For more, we go to Washington, D.C., where we're joined by Wisdom Cole, senior national director of advocacy for the NAACP. So President Trump tweets out a picture of the Obama's as apes doesn't take it down for more than 12 hours after there is not only Democratic but Republican outcry. Can you respond to him now refusing to apologize for this tweet, wisdom? This in the middle we'll just add of Black History Month. You know, Amy, I have to say I'm not surprised.

You know, this is disgusting and despicable display of racism from President Trump. You know, instead of unifying the nation and celebrating the achievements of Black America has made on the 100th anniversary of Black History Month, he chooses to continue to perpetuate bigotry. I want to be clear that this behavior is what we've seen from President Trump and the Trump administration through its countless racist policies, rolling back the efforts. efforts of diversity, equity inclusion, deployment of the National Guard, and ICE. These are all distractions that are really shaping the role of government, especially every

time we see more and more information about President Trump in the Epstein files. These distractions are distractions from a field economy where black unemployment has increased while President Trump and his friends continue to get rich. This is unacceptable behavior in America. If you could talk about the fact that actually this is not at all the first. time that Obama has, sorry, that President Trump has posted an AI-generated image of the Obamas. In fact, just last year, he shared a video, again, generated by AI, showing Obama being arrested at the White House and later in prison, and his systematic attacks on the

black community in the U.S., calling Somalis, saying Somalis have a low IQ. and his administration recently announcing rules that will ban nearly 90% of African immigration visa application. So if you could comment on that. And again, this month, the 100th anniversary of Black History Month. You know, this continues to show the weird obsession that President Trump has with the Obama's, right, even going way back into his declaring or finding up of his birthright, right, this obsession of this need to identify that, even though we do know the truth, right? We see this obsession with Representative Ilhan Omar and the remarks that he's made towards her,

as well as other immigrants, right? Immigrants are part of the fabric of America. It's important for us to understand and recognize their role here and what they've done to contribute to help build America, recognizing that this is an issue all across this nation, where we see that they're coming from a certain substantive group, they're coming for all of us, right? And in this 100th anniversary of Black History Month,

we have to double down and tell the truth and tell what is history, what are the lies as this administration continues to retell the truth, remove history from our areas or our sanctities or museums, right? We see that this administration is continuing to perpetuate lies. You know, Mick Mulvaney, the chief of staff and the first Trump administration, says the Republican Party has cost itself the midterms with the video, saying this weekend you can kiss the midterms goodbye. Before we go, the NAACP has launched a dry ice campaign urging the U.S. Senate to block federal funding for ice. Can you explain what this campaign is about? Absolutely. So the NACP has been present in Minneapolis. We have an amazing branch president and branch leaders who are there on the front lines working community with others. Just a couple weeks ago, myself and other NACP national leaders were there in Minneapolis after the murder of Alex Brady and working with groups to talk about what we do next, right? They are continuing to organize. They're continuing to mobilize. They're continuing to inform people about what is going on, right? Even when it comes to.

to the freedom of the press, right? We see young leaders across this nation who are speaking up and advocating. We see leaders who were in Minneapolis being detained because they are covering what is going on on the ground, right? Again, we have to recognize that this impacts all of us, and so we have to work together to mobilize. The NAACP's dry ice campaign is urging

the withdrawal of federal immunity from ICE agents to resignation or removal of DHS Secretary Chrissy Knoam and the prohibition of federal. and local law enforcement cooperation. In addition to that, we want to ensure that there's a mandate for unmasking agents while on duty to promote transparency and identification. It's important that we work together to dry ice out. This is an agency that is not serving our community, that is not serving our people, that's continuing to separate families, and it is disgusting. And wisdom, we just have 30 seconds, but I just want to ask you about this Atlantic report that

says that immediately after the video was posted on Truth Social, the meme coin, ape Bama, was minted. Within 12 hours, more than $4 million worth of ape Bama had been traded back and forth. Your response. This is another example of how President Trump and his friends are getting rich off of racism. Again, as we are reaching the 250th anniversary of America, this country that was built on the backs of immigrants that was built on the backs of folks who have worked together tirelessly to achieve the American dream. You see the rich get richer and using racism at their hand to continue to do that. We have to make sure that we stop this. We root this out and that we address this at all levels.

Wisdom Cole, thank you so much for joining us. Wisdom Cole is the senior national director of advocacy for the NAACP. Coming up, we'll look at the Winter Olympics in Milan, Vice President J.D. Vance was booed during the opening ceremony and thousands protested in the streets over the U.S. sending ICE agents to the games back in 30 seconds. without without chewing by the Puerto Rican singer and songwriter Ilae performing in our Democracy Now studio. This is Democracy Now, Democracy Now.org.

I'm Nermine Sheikh with Amy Goodman. The opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics in Milan, Italy, was held on Friday, Vice President J.D. Vance and Second Lady Ushah Vance attended the ceremony and were met with a chorus of booze when their image was displayed on screen. If you watch the ceremony on CBC, that's the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, this is what you would have heard. In an individual sport, what an honor for her. There is the vice president, J.D. Vance. And he's like, Ushah, whoops. Those are not.

Those are a lot of booze for him. Whistling, jerry. But here in the United States, announcers on NBC made no reference to the booze, which also could not be heard on the U.S. broadcast. In a statement, an NBC sports spokesperson denied editing any crowd audio of the opening ceremony. In Milan, there have been multiple protests in recent days over the Trump administration's decision to send U.S. ICE agents to provide security for the U.S. delegation. Some U.S. athletes have made comments about the political situation in the United States. This is U.S. Olympic skier, Hunter Hess speaking at a press conference. I think it brings up mixed emotions to represent the U.S. right now, I think.

It's a little hard. There's obviously a lot going on that I'm not the biggest fan of, and I think a lot of people aren't. I think for me it's more I'm representing my friends and family back home, the people that represent it before me. All the things that I believe are good about the U.S. I just think if it aligns with my moral values, I feel like I'm representing it. Just because I'm wearing the flag doesn't mean I represent everything that's going on in the U.S. So yeah, I just kind of want to do it for my friends, and my family, and the people that support me getting here. That was U.S. Olympic Scare Hunter Hess. President Trump responded by calling him a real loser. For more, we go to Jules Boykopf, author of six books on the Olympics, including Power Games,

a political history of the Olympics. He co-wrote a piece with Dave Zyron for the nation, Get Ready for This Year's Undemocratic, Debt-ridden, and Mobster-Infews, Went for Olympics, Ice Thugs in the Streets, Mafia Meddling, and Billions and Waste, seems like the games are off to a great start. Great start was the subtitle. Jules Boykoff played for the U.S. under 23 men's national soccer team between 1989 and 91. His forthcoming memoir is titled Kicking. He's joining us from Toronto. So, Jules, that's quite a title of your piece. Can you start off by talking about the booze events, talking about why you titled your piece, get ready for this year's undemocratic debt-ridden,

and momster-infused wimper Olympics with thousands protesting ice in the streets of Milan, Italy. And I'm not talking about frozen water. Yes, it's quite remarkable to see booing at the opening ceremony of an Olympics, which is generally quite festive and fun. There were two outbursts of booze. One, as you just played for J.D. Vance, when his photo flashed across the screen for all to see. but also when Israel walked out. So there's real global disgruntlement against the Trump administration and the Israeli government, and you saw that flare up. You know, these Olympics in Milan were open to many different cities, and many cities said no. In fact, there were a number of referendums in cities across Europe where voters got the opportunity to say whether they wanted to host the Olympics.

And in places like Innsbruck, which hosted the Olympics before, cities in. in Switzerland and also here in Canada in Calgary, voters said, no, we don't want these Olympics. Well, in Milan, they didn't get the opportunity to weigh in, and now they have these games. The International Olympic Committee is saying that they've put forth a slate of response in response to all those people saying, no, they have all these reforms that are supposedly going to fix the Olympic Games. But those responses are really only cosmetic in nature, and they don't get at the core elements that really plague the Olympic Games. And that's overspending. That's the intensification

of militarized policing. That's greenwashing. That's corruption. That's the displacement of local populations. And you're seeing all of those things in Milan here right now. And that's why you saw 10,000 or so people rise up in the streets of Milan just to say no to these games. Well, Jules, you know, this might be quite confounding for a lot of people, why it is, including myself, why it is that an immigration and customs government agency should be involved in security in a foreign country. What does this agency have to do with U.S. officials attending an international event outside the country? Well, first of all, this is not uncommon. There was ice in Paris at the last Olympics in 2024. And in fact, the United States has been

sending security agents to Olympics for decades now. What's different about this is that ICE is this sort of bet noir of the world. The mayor of Milan said it was a militia that kills. And so this gave a foothold for a lot of people to sort of realize how the securitization of the Olympics takes many forms, and this is just one of them. You're also seeing the intensification of security in Italy itself. I mean, the Olympics provide a once-in-a-generation opportunity for national and local police forces to multiply and militarize their weapon stocks. They take advantage of that state of exception, and that's exactly what they're doing here in Italy. And, Jules, also, you know, you point out in the nation piece that Italy, like all the other countries that have hosted the

Olympics, is using the Olympics to increase its security architecture and that that architecture will remain in place after the Olympics conclude. Could you give us some examples? What is that? What kind of security architecture? Absolutely. The Olympics have become a place to test new Olympic security measures that then stay in place after the Olympic Games.

So in Paris, for example, they used AI power video surveillance. They say it's just for the Olympics, but extended well beyond the Olympics. And now in France, they're trying to extend it even further because they're hosting the 2030 games. In Italy, it allows for the intrusion of military on the streets and in the skies. It allows for new forms of cybersecurity to be tested and surveillance drones that are purchased and aren't put bat in the box when the games are over.

They stay and they become part of normalized policing in the wake of the games. And that's what has a lot of people in Italy quite concerned. Well, Jules Boykoff, we're going to have to leave it there. Thanks so much for joining us. Jules Boycalf is the author of six books on the Olympics. We'll link to your recent articles on Democracy Now. This is Democracy Now, Democracy Now.org. I'm Narmine Sheikh with Amy Goodman.

We end today's show in Gaza, where the partial reopening of the southern Rafa crossing with Egypt has been marred by chaos as Israel enforces strict restrictions on Palestinians. Over the first four days of the crossings reopening, only 36 Palestinians in need of medical treatment were allowed to leave for Egypt, according to UN data. This comes amidst rising skepticism over the implementation of the second phase of the so-called ceasefire brokered by the Trump administration, which Israel has repeatedly violated with near daily attacks across Gaza. For more, we're joined by Arwa Damon, award-winning journalist, former CNN correspondent. She's the founder of Inara, a nonprofit organization that supports children impacted from war.

joining us from Istanbul, Turkey. If you can tell us what's happening, we hear that the Rafa border is partially open. We hear about the enormous medical need of children and others getting out of Gaza for treatment. And also, who's coming in? Can you talk about the workers for Anara, your organization, Arwa? Look, first of all, no one inside Gaza is calling this a ceasefire, not even the children. We support a number of makeshift educational tents. And the kids, and in this case, it was a group of girls, seventh graders.

They were talking to our team about how difficult it was just to get to the tent, how, you know, it shuts down when the rains are too intense because the tent floods. they don't have anything to really sit on, so they're on the cold ground. And it's really a struggle for them. And so our program coordinator, Yusta, was asking them, why do you bother to come to school? And they said, because when the war is over, that's when we will make our dreams come true. And this launched a conversation about what their perspective was right now. And they were talking about how, for them, the war hasn't ended and that they still go around every single day with that fear, that they could be bombed, that they're still struggling to get sufficient, you know, nutrition. And so when we talk about the Raffa border, you know, partially reopening, in theory, we were supposed to be seeing 50 patients off of a medical evacuation list that is close to 20,000 being permitted to leave every single day along with two relatives. What we saw in total, as you just mentioned there, for the entirety of the first week, was just 37 patients leaving. Even if we were to take that number,

and no one's really sure how that was exactly agreed upon of 50, it would still take over a year to get everybody out. And we have to keep in mind that, you know, these aren't people that are just signing up to a list to be able to leave Gaza. These are people, children, people of all ages, who have such debilitating injury that if they don't get treatment outside of the Gaza Strip because Gaza's hospital system has been entirely decimated, they are either going to end up with permanent injury

or they are going to die. In a period of just roughly seven months last year, more than 1,000 people died while they were waiting for medical evacuation. Now, when it comes to who's being allowed in, there is a list also of roughly 25 to 30,000 people, people who signed up to be permitted to go back in. The numbers being let in,

as far as we are aware, are even less than those that are being let out. And you hear testimony from some of them where they're talking about how they weren't permitted to bring their belongings in with them, how they were very aggressively interrogated, how they were blindfolded to be able to move through certain parts that, you know, presumably maybe Israel considers to be sensitive. Now, specifically when it comes to our team, our team is all actually based in Gaza and from Gaza. We and I myself, I've been denied entry by Israel for

over a year right now, something that we're trying to appeal through the Israeli courts process. but for all organizations, it's becoming more and more difficult to operate because of these new regulations and restrictions that Israel has put into place. In addition to this catastrophic medical situation, there is also an increasing problem with the sewage system in Gaza. If you could explain what the sanitation system is like and the problems that it's producing. I mean, look, we need to think about, you know, the two and a half plus years of this Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip that has utterly decimated almost all of Gaza's infrastructure. And that includes sewage infrastructure. And so all of these people who were displaced had to basically dig toilets. And when it rains, these holes overflow. And so when it rains, these holes overflow. And so when it rains in Gaza, when we see those images of flooding, that's not just rainwater.

That is sewage water. And it carries with it, obviously, any number of diseases. Now, couple that with the fact that access to water to be able to bathe with, access to hygiene kits. So is also very challenging and heavily restricted. There's no way to mitigate against the spread of disease. Now add to that the fact that there's not sufficient medication to be able to deal with some of these diseases that are emerging. And while I'm on the topic of medication, because we do talk a lot about the impact on children, it's also worth talking about the impact on the elderly, the elderly who have heart conditions or diabetes. They are quite often unable to access the medications that they need.

I was talking to another friend of mine whose father is with her who is quite ill. And she doesn't know what she's going to do if, you know, he has a crisis at any point of time in the day. Because, again, it's Gaza. You can't just walk out and hail a cab and get to a functioning hospital. And so when you do talk to people inside, they really don't feel as if, one, you know, it's a ceasefire, to that anything is really genuinely improved on the ground, or that anything has happened that is allowing them that just brief second of respite. Arwa, we have less than a minute.

What do you think the intention here is of the Trump administration, as his envoys, his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, Steve Whitkoff, say they're moving, negotiating into a second phase. What do you think? where does that leave Palestinians? You know, I think it would take someone with magical powers to try to predict what President Trump and what this administration's intentions, thoughts and sort of, you know, psychology and logic actually is.

But if we look at what has happened so far, it most certainly does not seem as if any of the plans that are being spoken about or suggested actually have the Palestinian population of Gaza's interests at heart. And that is a terrifying prospect. People still expect to be forcibly displaced once again. People are terrified that they might eventually be pushed out of Gaza altogether. Arwa Damon, I want to thank you for being with us, award-winning journalist, former CNN correspondent, founder of Anara, a nonprofit organization that supports children impacted by war. She has been banned from going back to Gaza. I want to encourage people to come out to our February 23rd Democracy Now 30th anniversary celebration

at the historic Riverside Church in New York. Guests will include Angela Davis and Naomi Klein, the Nobel Prize laureate Maria Ressa, Michael Stipe, the jazz legend, Witten Marsalis, the Palestinian poet Masabha, Bustoha, for the riffraff, and more. You can go to DemocracyNow.org to get information and tickets. Back to you, Nermaine. That does it for the show. I'm Nermine Sheikh with Amy Goodman in Los Angeles.