Democracy Now! Audio - Democracy Now! 2026-02-18 Wednesday

Episode Date: February 18, 2026

Democracy Now! Wednesday, February 18, 2026

From New York, this is Democracy Now. When you see Jesse Jackson, when my name goes in nomination, your name goes in nomination. I was born in the slum. Tributes are pouring in for civil rights icon Reverend Jesse Jackson. He died Tuesday at the age of 84. We'll speak to Bishop William Barber of the Poor People's Campaign and our own Juan Gonzalez, who traveled to Cuba with Jackson to meet Fidel Castro in the early 90s.

Then we get an update on the U.S. Iran talks in Geneva as the U.S. expands its military presence in the Middle East. We then speak with longtime organizer Annalila Mejia, who could soon be heading to Congress. She won last week's Democratic primary in New Jersey after running on a campaign accusing Israel of genocide and calling for ICE to be abolished. I'm running to hold Trump and his allies accountable for their blatant corruption. I'm running to unrig our economy that favors billionaires overworking people. We also speak with Alexis Goldstein. She was recently fired from her job at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

About a week ago, I was fired from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau because a year ago, I confronted some Doge employees and asked their names and if they had the proper required training. This is what I'm supposed to do for my job. And because of it, I was retaliated against and terminated. All that and more coming up. Welcome to Democracy Now. Democracy Now.org, the War and Peace Report. I'm Amy Goodman. The U.S. military says it's carried out strikes on three boats in the Caribbean and Pacific,

killing at least 11 people, again providing no evidence. that the boats were carrying drugs. Since September, the U.S. military has carried out 42 known strikes on small vessels in the waters near Latin America, killing at least 145 people. The recent strikes come weeks after the U.S. attack Venezuela and hadducted its president, Nicolas Maduro, and his wife, who are to face trial in New York on drugs, weapons, and narco-terrorism charges. The Washington Office on Latin America, and, after an advocacy group, said, quote, those being killed by U.S. military strikes at sea are denied any due process whatsoever, unquote.

As U.S. and Iranian officials held negotiations over Iran's nuclear program in Geneva, Switzerland, Tuesday, Iran temporarily closed parts of the Strait of Hormuz, a key international waterway through which 20 percent of the world's oil passes. Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali-Hamani warned, quote, the strongest army in the world might sometimes receive such a slap that it cannot get back on its feet, unquote. Tehran's foreign minister cautioned, more work still needs to be done in reaching a nuclear deal, but express some optimism about the negotiations. I can say that in this round, there were quite serious discussions and a more constructive

atmosphere than in the previous round. Various ideas were raised and these ideas were seriously discussed and finally we were able to reach a general agreement on a series of guiding principles. From now on, we will move based on those principles and enter into the text of a possible agreement. Meanwhile, Medi Mahmoudian, the Oscar-nominated co-writer of the film, it was just an accident, has been released from an Iranian prison. Earlier this month, he was arrested in Tehran after he signed a statement condemning Hamini and the regime's violent crackdown on anti-government demonstrators. To see our interview with the filmmaker Jafar Panache, go to DemocracyNow.org. Peru's Congress has impeached interim Peruvian president, Jose Hari,

for failing to disclose meetings with Chinese businessmen who are under investigation. His ouster came just about four months after taking office. He's the former head of Peru's Congress who also oversaw the removal of his predecessor, Dina Baluarte. Hei is the sixth Peruvian president in the past decade to leave office before the end of a term. Residents of the capital Lima took to the streets to celebrate his impeachment. Very good. Long live Peru. We're always standing, never kneeling. Now I tell my suffering people which have been subjected to, thousands of forms of slavery. Never again. Not one more vote to these far-right parties. We will not

trust them at all because they've proven their immorality and incapacity. Peru is scheduled to hold a general election on April 12th. Here in the United States, a federal judge has blocked efforts by the Trump administration to re-arrest Kilmar-Brigo Garcia, the Maryland father, who is wrongfully sent to El Salvador's notorious Seqat megap prison last March. Since his return to the United States in June, Obrigo Garcia has been fighting repeated deportation threats, as DHS has intended to send him to several African countries he has no ties to. U.S. District Judge, Paula Zinnis said in a ruling Tuesday, the Trump administration, quote, made one empty threat after another to remove him to countries in Africa with no real chance of success.

There's no good reason to believe removal is likely in the reason of. foreseeable future, she said. Abrago Garcia's legal team has said he had agreed to the possibility of being removed to Costa Rica, but Judge Zinnis blasted the Trump administration for, quote, purposely and for no reason, ignore the one country that is consistently offered to accept Abrago Garcia as a refugee and to which he agrees to go, unquote. To see all our coverage of Kilmar Abrago-Garcia's case, go to Democracy Now.org. In more related immigration news, an immigration judge has blocked the Trump administration from deporting Mosin Madawi, a graduate of Columbia University who was detained last April over his outspoken support for Palestinian rights.

Madawi is a green card holder from the occupied West Bank. He was arrested by ICE in Vermont when he appeared for what he was told would be a U.S. citizenship interview. He spent more than two weeks in ICE custody. After news of his deportation proceedings had been terminated, Madawi said in a statement, quote, In a climate where dissent is increasingly met with intimidation and detention, today's ruling renews hope that due process still applies and that no agency stands above the Constitution. This is not the end of the story.

It's the beginning of a deeper commitment to peace, dignity, and justice. he said. To see our interviews with Mossan Madawi, go to Democracy Now.org. Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Trisha McLaughlin, one of the most vocal supporters of President Trump's immigration crackdown and deportation campaign is resigning. The move comes amidst intensifying scrutiny over DHS's use of deadly force and public backlash against President Trump's deployment of federal agents to Chicago. Minneapolis and other cities nationwide. Earlier this year, public citizen reported McLaughlin's husband's company, the Strategy Group,

was granted part of a $220 million contract to run an anti-immigration advertising campaign for DHS. ProPublica also reported last year, McLaughlin's husband, Banjoho, worked on one of DHS Secretary Kristy Nome's ads filmed at Mount Rushmore. This comes as calls grow for Noam's impeachment and resignation. Following news of McLaughlin's departure, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said on social media, quote, another MAGA extremist forced out of DHS, Noam next keep the pressure on, he said. A two-month-old baby, Juan Nicholas, who became gravely ill while detained at ISIS's South Texas Family Residential Center in Dillie, has been deported, along with the his parents and 16-month-old sibling. That's according to Texas Congressmember Joaquin Castro, who had demanded the baby's release after news he'd been rushed to the hospital Monday.

Baby Juan had reportedly been detained at the Dilley Jail for about a month. Univision reporter Lydia Tarasas had spoken to Juan's mom who told her the baby had suffered a health episode choking on his own vomit. When he was taken to Dilley's medical area, guards were told there was no doctor available inside the jail at that time. In Bangladesh, the country's new prime minister, Tariq Rahman, was sworn in Tuesday after his party's landslide win in parliamentary elections. Rahman returned to Bangladesh last year after 17 years of self-imposed exile in the United Kingdom.

But there's also approved a raft of changes to Bangladesh's constitution aimed at preventing authoritarianism. This comes after Bangladesh's former Prime Minister, Sheikh Hasina, was sentenced to death for ordering a deadly crackdown on student protesters who successfully toppled her government in 2024. The UN reports 1,400 people were killed and thousands were injured in the crackdown. In Minnesota, independent journalist Don Lemon also pleaded not guilty, along with four others, including protest leader and civil rights attorney, Nikima Levy, Armstrong. This is Georgia Fort. speaking to supporters gathered outside the federal courthouse in St. Paul Tuesday.

She called attention to the attacks on journalists in the United States and around the world. This is a global crisis. According to Al Jazeera, more than 250 journalists and members of the media have been killed in Gaza. And most people don't even know about it. We live in a time when AI images and AI videos are shaping our world's reality with a portion of our society living in. and delusion. So if you stand for truth, I need you to stand up today. Again, in Minnesota, independent journalist, Georgia Ford, and activist Treherne Cruz pleaded not guilty in federal court in St. Paul yesterday. They were indicted on federal charges in connection with the protests last month at a St. Paul church where the pastor is also an ICE official. And late show host,

Stephen Colbert is accusing the Trump administration and CBS of censorship after the network informed the late show. According to Colbert, that he could not air an interview with James Tullerico, a Texas Democrat running for Senate. CBS said in a statement, quote, The Late Show was not prohibited by CBS from broadcasting the interview with Texas State Representative James Telerico. The show has provided legal guidance that the broadcast could trigger the federal

Communication Commission's equal time rule for two other candidates, including Representative Jasmine Crockett, and presented options for how the equal time for other candidates could be fulfilled, unquote. The FCC had previously issued an exemption for the equal time rule for news interviews, but earlier this year, FCC chair, Brendan Carr, mentioned he was considering dropping the exemption specifically for talk shows. Earlier this month, the FCC opened an investigation into the ABC show The View, which, also interviewed Tolariko. Colbert's interview with Tolariko was ultimately posted on YouTube outside the jurisdiction of the FCC. It garnered 5 million views. This is Stephen Colbert

last night, insisting CBS barred him from conducting his interview with Tolariko live on the late show broadcast. Between the monologue I did last night and before I did the second act talking about this issue. I had to go backstage. I got called backstage to get more notes from these lawyers, something that had never, ever happened before. And they told us the language they wanted me to use

to describe that equal time exception. And I used that language. So I don't know what this is about. CBS is currently owned by Paramount Skydance, run by Trump ally David Ellison, the son of

Oracle founder, Larry Ellison. who's repeatedly visited the White House during President Trump's second term, Paramount has restarted talks with Warner Brothers' discovery to acquire the company after Warner Brothers previously rejected Paramount's hostile takeover bid last year. The takeover would require the approval of Trump's FCC. And those are some of the headlines. This is Democracy Now, Democracy Now.org, the Warren Peace Report. I'm Amy Goodman in New York with Democracy.

Now is Juan Gonzalez in Chicago. Hi, Juan. Hi, Amy, and welcome to all of our listeners and viewers across the country and around the world. Well, tributes are pouring in from across the globe for the Reverend Jesse Jackson, who died on Tuesday. The civil rights icon and two-time presidential candidate was 84 years old. In a statement, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said, quote, from Selma in the American South to Soweto in 1979, where he visited following the death of Steve Biko,

Jesse Jackson defied the architects of apartheid and executors of brutality to declare that all people are equal and that justice would ultimately triumph over injustice, unquote. UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres praised Jackson for his, quote, work against racism, against apartheid, and for human. rights. Former President Obama cited Jackson's presidential campaigns in 1984 and 1988, saying, quote, in his two historic runs for president, he laid the foundation from my own campaign to the highest office in the land. This is an excerpt of the Reverend Jesse Jackson addressing the Democratic National Convention in 1988. When you see Jesse Jackson, with my name goes in nomination your name goes in nomination I was born in the slum but the slum was not born in me and it wasn't born in you and you can make it wherever you

are tonight you can make it stick your chest out you can make it it gets dark sometimes don't you surrender suffering for his character character to freeze faith in the end, faith will not to support. You must not surrender. You may or may not get there, but just know that you are qualified when you hold on. You must never surrender. America will get better and better. Keep hope alive. Keep hope alive. Keep hope alive. I love you very much. That was the Reverend Jesse Jackson in 1988 running for president. moment will be joined by Bishop William Barber. But first, Juan, we want to turn to you. Juan Gonzalez has been covering Jesse Jackson for decades. Can you reflect on your time covering Reverend Jackson here and in other lands?

Yes, Amy. Well, I first met Jesse more than 40 years ago back in 1983 as he was preparing. his first run for president. I was a young reporter at the Philadelphia Daily News back then, and the first national presidential convention I covered was the 1984 DNC gathering in San Francisco, where Jesse gave his now legendary first convention speech, urging the Democratic Party to adopt a program of true social justice. A few years later, in 1990, during the historic five-month labor strike at the New York Daily News, where I chaired the strike committee of the Newspaper Guild, Jesse was pivotal in rallying support for our cause. He joined Governor Mario Cuomo, Cardinal O'Connor, Mayor Dinkins, and speaking at a massive rally in support of our

our strike in front of the daily news. And later during Christmas week in 1993, I traveled with Jesse, labor leader Dennis Rivera, and a handful of others to Cuba, where we met with Cuban leader Fidel Castro, and Jesse convinced Fidel to allow Fidel's granddaughter to leave Cuba and reunite with the U.S. with her mother, with defectant. I was stunned at how many people in the streets of Havana instantly recognized Jesse and wanted to talk with him. And he spent time with them as well. And one, we're just showing a picture you can't see of Jesse Jackson sitting in a rocking chair.

Can you explain what this is? This was in Cuba. Right. Yeah, that's my favorite personal photo of him. It's early one morning I came down. We were in a guest house in Havana. I come down the stairs about 7 o'clock in the morning, and there is Jesse in his robe in a rocking chair reading the Bible.

No one else in the room at the time. Let me turn to Reverend Jesse Jackson as you talk about. You covered Jesse Jackson in that meeting that you all had with Fidel Castro. This is Jackson speaking in Havana in 2013. There are no rational security threats from us to Cuba. After we have Guantanamo base in Cuba, Russia is no longer, as we knew it in the 60s, in Cuba. There is no, Putin is not where Khrushchev was 60 years ago. And what would it mean to us except a market for telecommunications and cars and tourism?

And what would mean for Cubans, food and development? we saw stand to gain from pulling down blockades and building bridges. I am convinced if the wall between South Africa, white and black could come down. The wall in East, West Germany could come down. If we could begin to talk with Iran again after 35 years, now is the time to bring down this. There's a certain diplomacy spirit in the air. We should seize this moment to bring down this Cuba, Cuban-American barrier.

So that was Jesse Jackson in Havana in 2013. One of many trips he made there. Juan was with him on one of those trips. Juan? Yeah, and also back then in 1999, I again traveled with Jesse in a small group to the island of Vyakas, Puerto Rico, where we met with the protesters who were occupying the U.S. Navy's bombing range on Vieches, demanding that, that, um,

that the Navy leave Vietas. And I specifically recall at one point, because Jesse got so much press coverage on the island then, that the commander of the Roosevelt Roads Naval Base demanded a meeting with Jesse to explain the Navy's point of view. And he went on and on the commander about the importance of Vykes as a training facility for the U.S. military. And at one point, Jesse looks at him and says, you don't get it. these people don't want you here. You know, you're like a man who keeps telling a woman, yes, yes, yes, yes, and she tells you no, no, no, and you won't listen. It's up.

You have to leave. The Navy has to leave Yekis. And, of course, about a year or two later, finally, it was President Bush that finally pulled the Navy out of Yekis. So basically, Jesse was always there when people were fighting for some things. form of social justice. He could always be counted on to show up, express public support. And of all the U.S. leaders of the past half century, I believe none had a more international view and a commitment to worldwide social justice, as Jesse Jackson did. So those of us who knew him are all better for having known him. And it's a tremendous loss that he's gone. So, Juan, you're speaking to us

from Chicago, his long-time hometown. We're going to go right now to North Carolina to continue to talk about the life and legacy of the Reverend Jesse Jackson. We're joined by Bishop William Barber, President and Senior Lecturer of Repairors of the Breach and Cocher of the Four People's Campaign, founding director of the Yale Center for Public Theology and Public Policy. While you're joining us today, Bishop, from New Haven, you're usually in North Carolina. while Jesse Jackson was born in South Carolina, he went to school in North Carolina, as you did. Can you reflect on the significance, the life and legacy of Jesse Jackson, Bishop Barber? Thank you so much, Amy and Juan.

We just left a 50-mile walk in North Carolina. It's time to love for it together. This is our Selma. And in many ways, the way we organized it was what I learned with Jesse Jackson, broad and deep, black and white and brown and young and old. gay and straight and Asian and indigenous and multi-policy focused. Jesse Jackson, when I met him 40 years ago as a student, he asked me to work with his student campaign when he was running for president in 1984.

And what we heard in him was not a politician. What we heard in him was somebody was serious about people united to save humanity, pushing, that he was serious about an agenda of uplift. We didn't hear him just criticizing him. person he was running against or demeaning them, a message we need to have today. He instead gave people a vision. He talked about moving from civil right battlegrounds to economic common ground. He talked about moving to moral high ground. He framed issues in a moral perspective using both Judeo-Christian traditions as well as the Constitution. And Jesse had a way, just like Juan said,

of saying, if you can pull down the walls in German, if you can pull down the walls in South Africa, You can pull down the walls here in Cuba. You can pull it out in the walls that keeps people in poverty and in ghettos right here. And that's the uniqueness. Yes, he didn't just have a race critique. He had a race critique, but he recognized that a race critique alone was too limited. He remembered what Dr. King taught in 1965 at the end of the Selma of Montgomery March that the greatest fear of the greedy oligarchs in this country is for the masses of black people

and poor white people and others, Latinos, to join. together and form a voting block that could fundamentally shift the economic architecture of this nation. He pushed us hard, Amy, on knowing policy, and our adversaries and our own, knowing both sides and that we didn't have to be about demeaning our adversary. What we needed to do was give people a vision of hope and not just daydreaming and wishful thinking, but the kind of hope that grows out of building a movement, you know, people say he lost, he really didn't lose those two elections. He brought 10 million new people into the electorate. He changed rules in the Democratic Party. He lifted up an agenda for people who weren't even

hearing their names talked about. He was one of the few candidates that talked about the poor openly, talked about whether it was in Iowa or in Alabama or Mississippi or New York or upstate Connecticut, wherever he was. He was lifting up the people. And that is part of the genius and the kind of hope that he kept alive over and over again. And he never stopped. Even when he got ill, we were in Texas walking 21 miles supporting people in Texas, and Jesse Jackson showed up five years ago. When we were in the middle of COVID, when we were fighting to make sure that poor

and low-wage people would be treated as fast. Fairly, in COVID appropriations, Jesse Jackson just showed up one day. when we were standing there fighting for voting rights and demanding that the COVID bill and restoring voting rights be done the same time. And politicians didn't want to do that. Justice showed up and we went to jail together. When we started, I got arrested together. When we started the reiteration of the poor people's campaign, Jesse had been the mayor of Solidarity City. He came and said, I'm not even here to lead it.

I'm here to say it's about time that we picked this up 50 years later. and that it is the right thing to do because he recognized right now that we're not in a crisis of democracy or a crisis of a party. We're in the crisis of civilization. Something very flawed is happening when people think the only thing you do with power is hurt people and expel people and deport people and take people's health care and take people's living wages. Just his message is needed today. I would say everybody needs to go listen to 84 and 88 and listen to it and model much. other today in order for us to come up and out of the things that we are experiencing today. And Reverend Barbara, I'm wondering you've often said that like Selma in 65 and Birmingham

in 63, this is our moral moment now. Morgian, if you could briefly tell us why? Well, you know, one of the things when you listen, for instance, at the end of the Selma, the Mount German, when Dr. King gave his sermon on the sermon on the steps for the Alabama State House. It's interesting that he broadened what he was talking about. He wasn't just talking about voting rights for black people. He laid out what could happen if we had, if we expanded voting rights. He laid out how it would shift the democracy itself as we stand here right now. Jesse passed yesterday and when his family called me, his son called

me as we were praying as they were taking them out. His wife said, a mighty lion has fallen. That's what his son told me. And I think about the moral power of that lions both protect and expand the pride. Well, right now, we have less voting rights to date than we had August 6, 1965, when the Voting Rights Act was first passed. And Jesse would always teach us that voting rights wasn't just for black people. He taught what it did for white women, what it did for working people. We still do not have a living wage while we are making trillionaires, greedy trillionaires,

and giving more and more money to billionaires and the oligarch. We don't have a living wage. Over 140 million people are poor and low wage. 87 million people are without health care or underinsured at a time where we're passing big, ugly, deadly, destructive bills that take health care. We also live in a time when even on the Democratic side, politicians won't say the word poor. They'll talk about affordability, but they won't say the word poor. What Jesse Wood, and what he would say is that you can't just say rising tides, you know, help the middle class and everybody else will come up.

He knew some boats were stuck, and he knew that you have to lift from the bottom, not really rising tide, but lift from the bottom any other way that we need now. We need to let people know something that he often said, if you're black and you can't pay your light bill because you don't make a living wage or you're white, you can't pay your light bill because you don't make a living wage. We're all black in the dark. And the only way to get into light is for all of those in the dark to exercise their power. We're in the final one, a critical moral moment because 90 million people,

with all of this authoritarianism and neo-fascism being spewed and put in policy through this current administration, 90 million people stayed home. The current Congress is made up the way it is because of only 7,000 votes. And in many states, many states, the margin of, of victory is within 5% of just the number of poor low-wage people that didn't vote. And they said they didn't vote because nobody talked to them. Jesse would talk to them. And we need to be doing it today.

Bishop William Barber, we want to thank you so much for being with us. President and Senior Lecturer of Repairors of the Breach, founding Director of the Yale Center for Public Theology and Public Policy. Coming up an update on the U.S. Iran talks in Geneva as the U.S. expands its military presence in the Middle East. with us. Poutine on the on

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I am Iran. He dedicated it to the protesters. killed in Iran. This is Democracy Now, Democracy Now.org. I'm Amy Goodman with Juan Gonzalez. We turn now to news from the latest round of talks between the U.S. and Iranian officials, which took place in Geneva, Switzerland, Tuesday, against a backdrop of heightened saber-rattling between the two nations. President Trump's order to build up of U.S. forces in the region, including two aircraft carriers, dozens of warships, hundreds of fighter jets, and multiple air defense systems. On Friday, President Trump told reporters regime change in Iran would, quote,

be the best thing that could happen, unquote. Shortly after the talks began, Iran temporarily closed the Strait of Hormuz, a key international waterway. And Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamani warned, quote, the strongest army in the world might sometimes receive such a slap that it cannot get back on its feet, unquote. After Tuesday's talks to Iran's foreign minister cautioned, more work still needs to be done on reaching a nuclear deal, but express some optimism about the negotiations. I can say that in this round, there were quite serious discussions and a more constructive atmosphere than in the previous round. Various ideas were raised, and these ideas were seriously discussed, and finally we were able to reach a general agreement on a series of guiding principles.

From now on, we will move based on those principles. and enter into the text of a possible agreement. The re-unnamed Iranian officials told the New York Times, Iran had indicated an openness to suspend nuclear enrichment for three to five years in exchange for lifting sanctions and the embargo on its oil sales. Vice President J.D. Vance, speaking on Fox News, painted a more mixed picture of the talks. I think the president has a lot of options. We do have a very powerful military.

The president has shown a willingness to use it. He also has a remarkable diplomatic team. mission and willingness to use that too. And so what the president has been very clear with the Iranians. And actually, I just talked to Steve Whitkoff and Jared Kushner this morning about some of their negotiations is the United States has certain red lines. Our primary interest here is we don't Iran to get a nuclear weapon. For more, we're joined in Washington, D.C. by Trita Parsi, Executive Vice President of the Quincy and Stu for Responsible Statecraft, author of several books, including losing an enemy, Obama, Iran, and the triumph of diplomacy. Treata Parsi, talk about

what's happening in Geneva, the U.S. moving in aircraft carriers, one the largest in the world, the USS Gerald Ford, which he had just previously Trump had off the coast of Venezuela, where they attacked Venezuela and then abducted the president, Maduro, and his wife. You have a very dangerous situation because both sides actually believe that a short, intense war may improve their negotiating position. The Trump administration, of course, believes that because of its overwhelming military power, that it is now gathered in the vicinity of Iran, it will be able to take out Iran militarily rather quickly and then force it to capitulate. The Iranians have a different calculation. They believe that they have the

ability to inflict significant damage on the United States in the short term, including on civilian oil installations in the region, closing down the strait of hormones, that would shoot up oil prices. And the initial cost of this to the United States would be so immense. And the United States would recognize that it would have to go for a longer war, which it cannot afford. And as a result, it would get the United States to back off. Essentially, the Iranians are counting on the U.S. having a much lower threshold

for pain tolerance than what the Iranians have. And they're basing this partly on how the Houthis fought back against the U.S. for several weeks and eventually Trump essentially lost interest in and they did not want to have a prolonged conflict and backed off. The difference, however, is the Houthis never managed to kill an American soldier. They tried, but they didn't manage. And we have not been in a situation in which 30, 50, perhaps 200 American soldiers are killed under Donald Trump's watch.

So we do not know how his psychology will react to that type of scenario. So this is an extremely dangerous situation in which both sides are actually incentivized. to escalate with calculations that are completely contradictory to each other's. And Trita, what is your sense of the, if this, if hostilities do resume again in the U.S. attacks, the impact on the wider region, the potential, let's say, worst case scenario for the region? Well, the region, by and large, with the exception of Israel and perhaps the Emirates are completely against this for a variety of reasons. And they've played a very crucial role in trying to de-escalate the situation and find a diplomatic solution. The talks in Geneva,

for instance, were hosted by the Omani foreign minister at their embassy. You know, you have several factors here. On the one hand, of course, these countries are very worried about the instability. They do not believe that there will be some sort of a clean regime change in Iran, but rather that it will be a state collapse, potentially civil war, massive amounts of refugees flowing into other countries in the region, secessionist movement on the borders that will take advantage of the situation, a scenario that would be very problematic for Pakistan, with the Baluchis, for Iraq, for the Kurds, for the Turks, with the Kurds, with the Azeris. And as a result, they really stepped in.

Now, one thing that is very important to understand is that these factors were present in the past as well. And in the past, some of these countries were favorable towards a military confrontation, such as Saudi Arabia. They've changed their minds not just because of these consequences, but because of a deeper geopolitical change that has occurred in the region. Right now, Iran is much weakened, and Israel has become much stronger and completely unrestrained. The United States since the time of the Biden administration has essentially lifted all constraints on Israel. Israel is allowed to not only violated international law, but also violate American law, and then the governments or the administration of the Biden team,

as well as the Trump team, have essentially violated American law by lying on behalf of Israel in Congress, at least the Biden administration did this. This has now created a situation in which many of these countries in the region have now realized that their alliance with the United States does not protect them against Israel. Israel has attacked seven countries in the region since October 7th, including Qatar who has some of the best air defense systems that the United States has put there,

but apparently those American air defense systems were not activated when the Israelis attacked. So if an alliance with the United States cannot help a balance against Israel, then these countries have concluded that they need to create their own arrangement to be able to balance against what they see an increasingly aggressive Israel that is seeking regional hegemony. Iran is not part of that constellation, but it is a de facto buffer between these countries. countries. And this is Turkey, this is Saudi Arabia, this is Qatar, this is Pakistan, perhaps Egypt. It's a buffer between them and Israel. And as a result, they have this added reason to want to prevent this war because they need that buffer. Otherwise, they believe they will be the targets,

the next targets of the Israeli states. And I'm wondering, there's been a lot of media attention in the U.S. and in Europe, interviews with the Iran's exiled crown prince Rezapav. I'm wondering your sense of why so much fixation on this almost a relic of past institutions in Iran. Well, the son of the former Shah has emerged as a voice that some people in the diaspora have surrounded, have, you know, lent their support to. He clearly has a tremendous amount of support from Israel. He has closely allied himself with the Israelis. He supported the Israeli war in June. He is calling for military intervention either by Israel or the United States in this case.

And what we have seen over the course of the last two decades is a dramatic radicalization of the population as a result of both the brutality, the repression, of the Iranian regime in which it has refused to meet the demands of society. By and large, there's been a couple of exceptions, but in reality, Iran is more closed, more repressive today than it was 20 years ago. And on the other hand, policies driven by the United States and the West, as well as supported by people like Reza Pahlavi, that have sought to sanction the Iranian economy to oblivion,

to destroy much of its resources and wealth, and as a result, impoverish the population and drive them to a point of desperation in which they now have become so desperate, not all, of course, but a portion of them, a very loud portion, have become so desperate that they are even yearning for their country to be bombed as a way of getting rid of the current government there.

And this is a dramatic development, mindful of the fact that Iran is right next to Afghanistan, right next to Syria and Iraq, and have seen what these military interventions have produced in these countries, which is absolute disasters. But the combination of the repression of the theocracy and the manner in which the sanctions have destroyed the livelihood of ordinary Iranians have driven up to this point of desperation in which some, again, not a majority, but a loud number of people are now calling for this. and Reza Pallavi has become the main channel for the demand for military intervention.

And we just have 30 seconds, but, Praterpardy, we've talked to so many allies of the protesters who are anti-regime in Iran, but also anti-intervention. Absolutely. I would still say that there is a majority that are completely against intervention, but their voices are more or less not being heard in the mainstream media. And I think this is very much because of the support of certain elements to elevate. the voices for intervention. And we're seeing exactly what we saw during the Iraq war in which a large number of pro-intervention Iraqi voices were paraded through mainstream media in order to give the impression that not only is this something that is supported by the overwhelming majority of the

Iraqi society, but also that this is the morally right thing to do. And I find that to be very, very questionable. Trita Parsy, want to thank you for being with us, Executive Vice President, the Quincy Institute for responsible statecraft author of several books, including losing an enemy, Obama, Iran, and the triumph of diplomacy. Coming up, we speak to Alexis Goldstein. She was just fired from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. We'll also speak to New Jersey congressional candidate, labor activists, and Alilia Mechia. Stay with us. fly by the late legendary pianist and composer Randy Weston. This is Democracy Now, Democracy Now.org.

I'm Amy Goodman with Juan Gonzalez. We turn now to look at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the CFPB. The agency the Trump administration has been trying to dismantle for over a year. Last week, it fired program manager Alexis Goldstein for documenting a meeting a year ago between the agency and Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency or Doge. That's according to emails obtained by Bloomberg News. For more, we're joined now from Washington, D.C. by Alexis Goldstein, long-time financial regulatory expert who once worked on Wall Street before becoming involved with the Occupy Wall Street movement.

Alexis, welcome back to Democracy Now. Can you explain exactly what happened a year ago with these Dogey? temporary workers coming into your agency? So on February 7th of 2025, we had just seen the dismantling of USAID, a rucking ball was taken to that agency. And it became clear that the second agency that was going to be attacked by this administration was the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. So I came in like I normally do.

I drop off my toddler at daycare. There isn't stroller parking. so I wheel in my stroller, my empty stroller to the CFPB headquarters in Washington, D.C. And I was wheeling my stroller around the basement. And I noticed a number of people who I had never seen before who were not wearing the required CFPB badges. And they were accessing what appeared to be CFPB equipment. So I wanted to take a closer look. I wanted to try and investigate.

We are told over and over again that we are supposed to report suspicious activities, is that we are supposed to defend the sensitive data that we hold of American people. Millions of people trust us with their vulnerable moments if they're scammed by their financial company, if they're having trouble with their mortgage. The technical term we use for it is personally identifying information, and we have a lot of very specific training about how to handle it. And so I was very concerned that the people that I had never seen before were there appeared to have CFVE equipment.

So I tried to take a look. They moved from one conference room to the other when they saw me into a conference room that didn't have a window. And so I decided to go into that conference room. I ran into a coworker of mine. I asked him if there were Doge folks in the room. He declined to answer. So I opened the door and introduced myself. And I said, hi, are you my new coworker?

What's your name? Can I show you around? We have a nice rooftop. And there were three individuals in the room. one I now know to be Jordan Wick, he immediately ran away out of the room. The second was Jeremy Lewin, who was a big part of dismantling USAID. He immediately went into the corner of the room, and then the third those individual was Christopher Young. I didn't know any of this at the time.

I just asked them what their name was. They refused to give me their name. They said that they were authorized to be there, but they didn't have to tell me their name. And I said, we have a lot of really sensitive information and data from Americans. We have personally identifying information. Do you know the trainings that we have to take in order to handle this? Have you had those trainings? Do you know what those trainings are?

And they just stared at me blankly and said that they wished that security would come and kick me out of the building. A couple minutes passed where I continued to try to ask them their name. They refused to answer. A security guard did come down, asked me to leave the room. I immediately left the room. I presented my CFPB badge, which I had, these individuals, did not have CFPB badges. And I asked the security guard, who are these individuals? Are they authorized to be here? What are they doing? I see they appear to have a CFPB laptop. And the

security guard didn't know what to do. So he just turned away from me and got on the phone. And so I eventually walked away. I left of my own accord. And then later that day, I got an email saying I was immediately being placed on administrative leave. And I was not to enter our headquarters in Washington, D.C. nor access any work systems. And I have been on admin leave ever since until I was fired last week. And Alexis, your termination is the latest escalation between staff at CFPB and the Trump administration. How has the agency been effectively dismantled as you see it?

So the CFPB doesn't cost the public a single dollar, but has returned $21 billion to consumers in its short lifespan. the form of relief and restitution. I think that made us a big target. We do a lot of good. We don't cost the public a single dollar. So one of the first things that happened actually later that day was Elon Musk tweeted RIP CFPB. An email went out over the weekend saying that everyone, not just me, but everyone was banned from going to our headquarters building. We were ordered to stop all work. And then they began slowly over the coming weeks to dismiss our lawsuits over 20 lawsuits against financial firms, including firms like Navy Federal, who had already agreed to a

settlement to give $80 million back to consumers. That money never went back to consumers. And these lawsuits were dismissed with prejudice, which means that we can never bring up those lawsuits again. The supervisor, so as Amy mentioned, I got my start on Wall Street before, during and after the 2008 financial crisis. And part of the reason the CFPB was created by Congress is because Congress felt the other regulators fell down on the job. And there needed to be a single agency to protect people from predatory scams and discrimination in lending.

And they created the CFPB for that reason. And so we regulate the nation's biggest banks. And we are normally, in normal times, we have supervisors who go and sit inside the nation's biggest banks. One of the first thing the Trump administration did is sent all the supervisors home and told them to stop showing up to work. And so essentially no one is watching the biggest banks. There's no one trying to enforce the 18 different laws that the CFPB oversees. So Alexis, then what are your plans now?

So I'm trying to turn lemons into lemonade and I'm actually going, I'm running for the House of Representatives in Maryland's 6th District. It's a slightly crowded race. There's two mega-millionaires that are already running in the Democratic primary, April McLean Delaney and David Trone. But I think that the people of the 6th District deserve someone who's going to fight to build libraries, not ice jails. Like the detention center they're trying to build in Hagerstown, Maryland that's going to fight to fund schools, not data centers that are giveaways to big tech. And I think that the district has shown enormous bravery, the residents there, in standing up. for their neighbors. And I think that Maryland 6 deserves a representative that shows the same

amount of bravery as ordinary people. I'm not doing this as a vanity project. I'm doing this because I want to fight against fascism in America. Well, long-time financial regulatory expert Alexis Goldstein fired last week from the Consumer

Financial Protection Bureau announcing now that she's running for Congress from Maryland. This is Democracy Now. See Now.org. I'm Amy Goodman with Juan Gonzalez. We end today's show in New Jersey, where we're joined by Annalia Mechia. Last week, she won the Democratic primary to fill the House seat left vacant by New Jersey Governor Mikey Cheryl. If Mejia wins the special election on April 16th,

she'll become the first Latina to represent New Jersey's 11th district. Maria is the daughter of a Colombian garment worker and a Dominican laborer. She's a longtime labor organizer who served as 2020 national political director for Bernie Sanders. She also served as deputy director of the Labor Department's Women's Bureau under President Joe Biden. This is Annalia Maria, speaking at a Sanders rally last month. Renee Good and Keith Porter and all the Americans and all the Americans and all. All the human beings who have suffered under this rising tyranny deserve justice. Polish ice now!

In an unexpected twist, A-PAC, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee may have inadvertently helped Annalia Mahejo win last week, even though she described Israel's actions in Gaza as genocide. A super PAC linked to APEC spent at least $2.3 million, targeting her opponent former Congressman Tom Alinowski, who's described himself as pro-Israel, but also said he would be open to placing some conditions on U.S. aid to Israel. Ana Lillia Maria joins us now. So you have two elections in front of you. You have the April 16th election for Congress, which you are favored to win.

But then you have to go right into a primary again, because that election is the special election to fill now governor, Mikey Cheryl's seat when she was Congressmember. And now you have to run for the seat that you might win. Is that right? Ana Lillia Mejia. And what are your plans? Yes. And then I have to do it again in November.

So by the time that I'm done, it will be four races in, what, nine months. But as an organizer, as someone that is deeply connected to community, I know that it's an opportunity to engage voters in New Jersey's 11th congressional district. I ran this primary thinking and acting like an organizer, so I knew that I had to both introduce myself to my potential future constituents, but I also made a point to run trainings in the district to engage people so that they understood not only had a better insight on how they could address and meet rising authoritarianism, but how to protect themselves from the rising violence of ice that's happening across our country and starting to happen in New Jersey's 11th district as well.

And Anna, Lydia, could you talk a little bit about how you manage to win despite being outspent by several of your opponents in this race? So, you know, races are, we know, the biggest problem that we have in our nation is that outsized power of big money. We know that big money floods our electoral system. It then shapes or takes precedent in our policymaking. And it is a serious problem, obviously exacerbated after the Citizens United decision. As organizers across the country understand, you know, it's either people power or money power. And in this instance, what we focused on was how to connect with people, how to engage a the district and talk about the outsized power that big money has.

So by the time that APAC is making its big money spent, we had spent some serious time talking to voters about how that kind of action would end up corrupting our political system, our policymaking system. And I think it worked. It is, you know, from day one, I rejected the, I shared that I would not take corporate PAC dollars, that I wouldn't take APEC money, simply because I think that the only thing that should be,

that a representative should be focused on is representing their constituents, not trying to appease big money spends. And could you talk a little bit about your own background and how that informed your vision and especially your firm stand against ICE and the immigration rates? Look, I, so like many Americans, I'm watching this chaos with disgust and horror.

Like anyone who has studied American history understands every time across our nation's history, we keep having these cycles of when regular everyday Americans grab those words of freedom and try to pull them to cover as many of us as possible. We have kind of a reaction in this nation, whether it was after reconstruct, or after the civil rights movement, or after the election of Barack Obama, it's almost as if we have this snapback, this clapback to expansive freedom. So after Reconstruction, you have Jim Crow where the capture of Supreme Court's state-sanctioned violence, where political machinations to limit people's voting rights,

ends up ushering in 100 years of oppression towards the black community. You see the same thing after the civil rights movement. It's almost as if the war on drugs was a response to that seeking of expansive power or expansive democracy. And I contend that after the election of Barack Obama across this country, you had forces who were very angry at the idea of a just and free United States. It feels like we are caught in this cycle, but the thing that breaks it is, organizing. It's having community speaking with each other. It is training each other, engaging each other, understanding our history so that we can protect our democratic institutions and we could preserve the kind of self-governance that we strive for in the United States. I think we are

at a critical moment in our country and it requires sending organizers across the country, including Congress. We want to thank you so much. Lilia Mejia for joining us, Democratic nominee for New Jersey's 11th Congressional District. That does it for our show on Monday, February 23rd. We will be celebrating our 30th anniversary, Democracy Now, at Riverside Church in New York. Juan will be flying in from Chicago. Nermaine Sheikh will be here. I'll be joining with Angela Davis, Naomi Klein, Maria, Ressa, Michael Steipwitt, and Marcellus,

Masava, Botoja, V, hooray for the riff, riff, and more. See DemocracyNow.org for details. I'm Amy Goodman with Hwangans.