Democracy Now! Audio - Democracy Now! 2026-02-23 Monday

Episode Date: February 23, 2026

Headlines for February 23, 2026; Trump Lashes Out & Attacks Justices After Supreme Court Limits His Power to Impose Tariffs; “It’s Still a Genocide”: Poet Mosab Abu Toha on Reality of “Ceasefire” in Gaza; As U.S. Olympians Take on the Trump Administration, Trump Attacks Them While Kash Patel Parties

From New York, this is Democracy Now. In fact, they're just being fools and lap dogs for the rhinos and the radical left Democrats, and not that they should have anything at all to do with it. They're very unpatriotic and disloyal to our Constitution. President Trump lashes out at the Supreme Court after justice does strike down his sweeping global tariffs. Trump initially responded to the. ruling by announcing a new 10% global tariff. He then raised it to 15%. We'll speak to Lori Wallach of Rethink Trade. Then to Gaza, as a new study in the British Medical Journal, The Lancet, concludes

Israel's war on Gaza has killed far more Palestinians than initially reported. We'll speak to the Pulitzer Prize-winning poet, Mossab Abu Toha, who managed to leave Gaza with his family. And the Winter Olympics have ended in Italy? We'll speak with the journalist and former athlete Jules Boycott. He says recent reforms haven't fixed the core issues at the Olympics. 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. All that and more coming up. Welcome to Democracy Now. Democracy Now.org, the War and Peace Report. I'm Amy Me Goodman.

The Supreme Court struck down President Trump's global tariffs Friday ruling in a six to three decision that he didn't have the emergency powers he claimed to have to impose tariffs. President Trump immediately lashed out at the justices of the High Court vowing other alternatives are available to him to pursue tariffs and announced a 10% global tariff over the current rate. On Saturday, Trump raised his global tariffs to 15%. This time, Trump issued the latest round of tariffs under a different law, Section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974, which allows him to impose up to 15% tariffs, for 150 days. The tariffs are set to take effect starting February 24th. The Supreme Court's ruling on tariffs is deeply disappointing, and I'm ashamed of certain members of the court, absolutely ashamed, for not having the courage to do what's right for our country.

It's my opinion that the court has been swayed by foreign interests and a political movement that is far smaller than, people would ever think. Soon after the Supreme Court's ruling, Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker sent a letter to President Trump demanding tariff refunds for every family in Illinois. The letter reads, quote, the Supreme Court has ruled. This is yet one more unconstitutional act by you and your administration. This letter and the attached invoice stand as an official notice that the compensation is owed to the people of Illinois, and if you do not comply, we will pursue further action, he said. We'll have more on this

story after headlines. U.S. and Iranian negotiators are set to meet in Geneva Thursday to discuss a new nuclear proposal. According to Axios, U.S. officials say this is likely the last chance President Trump will give Iran before ordering a U.S.-Israeli military operation that could directly target Supreme Leader Ali Khomeini. It comes as the U.S. has been building up warships and fighter jets near Iran deploying

two aircraft carriers, the largest USS Gerald Ford and the USS Abraham Lincoln. This is President Trump's special envoy, Steve Whitkoff. I don't want to use the word frustrated. It's almost because he understands

he's got plenty of alternatives. But it's curious. He's curious. as to why they haven't, I don't want to use the word capitulated, but why they haven't capitulated. On Sunday, anti-government protests in Iran erupted on university campuses and the capital Tehran and the northeastern city of Mashat. In videos on social media, the student protesters appeared to wear black to mourn the thousands of demonstrators killed by Iranian security forces in last month's protest.

The Iranian government has arrested 40,000 people in connection with the anti-government demonstrations last month. At least three people were killed in another U.S. military strike on a boat in the eastern Pacific. The U.S. Southern Command confirmed the Friday attack, claiming again without evidence. The boat had been targeted for traveling along a supposed drug trafficking route. CNN reports at least 148 people have been killed since September when the Trump administration began at series of military strikes on boats in the Caribbean and Pacific, attacks that have been widely condemned as illegal. This comes as Cuba has been withdrawing security advisors and doctors from Venezuela in the

aftermath of the U.S. attack and abduction of the Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro and his wife in early January. Reuters reports the move comes as Venezuela's interim leader, Delsey Rodriguez, is facing growing pressure from the U.S. to cut ties with Cuba as the Trump administration seeks to further isolate the island to topple the Cuban government. At least 32 Cuban officers were killed in the U.S. attack on Venezuela last month, the officers part of Maduro's security detail. Mexican security forces killed Mexico's most wanted drug lord, Nemesio Reben Ozeggera Savantes, known as El Mentiono on Sunday in the town of Tapalpa in Hulis, state. The U.S. had provided intelligence to Mexican authorities for the operation. The U.S.

had placed a $15 million bounty on El Mancho, who led the Halisco New Generation Cartel, which is a designated terrorist organization in the United States. Following his death, violence erupted in multiple cities across Mexico. In Guadalajara, Halisco's capital, gunfire was reported in armed men reportedly set a gas station ablaze. Vehicles were set on fire near beachfront hotels in the resort city of Puerto Vallarta. The U.S. Embassy in Mexico urged Americans to shelter in place in multiple states across Mexico. Tourists were left stranded in Puerto Vallarta as Air Canada, Delta, American Airlines, and Alaskan Airlines all announced they were canceling flights to and from the town's airport due to the ongoing.

security situation. Israeli strikes have killed at least 12 people in eastern and southern Lebanon in another violation of the ceasefire deal with Hezbollah that went into effect November 2024. Lebanon's Ministry of Public Health said at least two people were killed in an Israeli attack on the Ainal Helwe camp, the country's largest Palestinian refugee camp. The Israeli military claim to target Hamas. The group denies it has training facilities in Lebanon's refugee camps. According to the UN, the Israeli military has launched more than 10,000 attacks since it agreed to a so-called ceasefire with Hezbollah.

In the occupied West Bank calls for justice are growing following the death of 19-year-old Palestinian-American Nasrallahamaama, Mohamed Jamal Abu Sayam, who succumbed to his injuries last week after he was shot by an Israeli settler. The teen was fired out when he tried to stop Israeli settlers from raiding his village, deal sheep. His families demanded accountability from the U.S. government with a State Department releasing a statement this weekend that said it expects a full thorough and transparent investigation into the teen's death. The Trump administration last year lifted sanctions on Israeli settlers involved in violence against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank. Abusayam was born in Philadelphia. He's at least the 11th U.S. citizen killed by Israeli soldiers and settlers since 2022. Arab and Muslim nations are condemning recent remarks by Mike Huckabee, the U.S. ambassador to Israel,

after he claimed Israel has a right to expand into most of the Middle East, Huckabee made the comments in an interview with the right-wing commentator Tucker Carlson. Here's the exchange. Does Israel have the right to that land? Because you're appealing to Genesis. You're saying that's the original deed. It would be fine if they took it all. But I don't think that's what we're talking about here today. What would be fine? Well, it's exactly what we're talking about today. But here's what I don't think you're...

You think it would be fine if the state of Israel took over all of the Georgia. They don't want to take it over. The League of Arab States said, quote, statements of this nature, extremist and lacking any sound basis serve only to inflame sentiments and stir religious and national emotions, unquote. An autopsy report by the Democratic National Committee on the 2024 election concluded Kamala Harris lost significant support because of the Biden administration's policy on Gaza. That's according to reporting by Axios. The DNC's report still hasn't been

released to the public. The Institute for Middle East Understanding IMEU policy project is accusing the DNC of withholding its autopsy report, in part because of its findings on Israel. The IMEU policy project reportedly told the DNC that the Biden administration lost its credibility among young people and progressives over its support for Israel. Hamid Bendas, a spokesperson for the IMU policy project, said during the meeting, quote, the DNC shared with us that their own data also found that policy was, in their words, a net negative in the 2024 election, unquote. In Britain, at least 12 activists with Palestine action have reunited with their families after

months in jail. Among the group released on Bail Friday were 400. hunger strikers. Only one of the 18 activists was not granted conditional bail. Their trial is scheduled for April. That's according to the BBC. Earlier this month, six Palestine action protesters were found not guilty of aggravated burglary, even after they admitted to breaking into a factory operated by the Israeli military firm Elbit. The British government has banned Palestine action under its Terrorism Act over direct action protests against Israel's war on Gaza. A 23-year-old U.S. citizen was fatally shot by an ICE agent in South Texas nearly a year before federal immigration agents killed Renee Good and Alex Preti in Minneapolis as part

of Trump's immigration crackdown. But ICE's connection to the March 2025 fatal shooting of Ruben Ray Martinez in South Padre Island was only made public last weeks in reports by Newsweek and the New York Times. Martinez was reportedly shot multiple times by the ICE agent, who's unnamed, after he didn't follow orders to exit his car. His mother told the Times he'd been in the area to celebrate his birthday at the time he was killed. She described him as hardworking, telling the New York Times, quote, he was a good kid.

He never got in trouble, unquote. Martinez worked at an Amazon warehouse in San Antonio. A powerful winter storm which meteorologists call a bomb cyclone has pummeled and paralyzed the northeastern United States, leaving over 40 million people under a blizzard warning by this morning. More than 260,000 customers in the mid-Atlantic region are without power, mostly in New Jersey and Delaware. New York City Mayor Zoran Mamdani declared a state of emergency on Sunday and ordered a citywide travel ban between 9 p.m. Sunday and noon Monday. Many school districts, including New York City and Boston, have declared a snow day with no remote learning or in-person learning today. Thousands of flights have been canceled nationwide with New York area airports experiencing the most disruptions.

Scientific experts have long warned. the worsening climate crisis is leading to more intense winter storms. University of Pennsylvania researcher Annabelle Horton said data shows, quote, that these really intense, really destructive nor'easters will, in fact, only get more destructive and more powerful in a changing climate, unquote. U.S. Secret Service agents fatally shot an armed man who breached the secure perimeter at President Trump's Maralago estate in Palm Beach, Florida Sunday. The Associated Press reports the man has been identified as 21-year-old Austin Tucker Martin from North Carolina.

He reportedly drove into the secure perimeter as another vehicle was exiting the resort. He had a gas can and a shotgun according to Secret Service. Martin had been reported missing by his family a few days ago. Trump and the First Lady Melania Trump were at the White House at the time of the incident. And those are some of the headlines. This is Democracy Now, Democracy Now.org, the War and Peace Report. I'm Amy Goodman. In a major setback to President Trump, the conservative Supreme Court in a 6-2-3 ruling, struck down his global tariffs in a decision that is major implications for the global economy.

Writing for the majority, Chief Justice John Roberts said, quote, The President asserts the extraordinary power to unilaterally imposed tariffs of unlimited amount, duration, and scope. In light of the breadth, history, and constitutional context of that assertive authority, he must identify clear congressional authorization to exercise it, unquote. Trump responded to the ruling on Friday by announcing a new 10% global tariff. Then on Saturday, he increased it to 15%. President Trump also personally attacked the justices for striking down his policies. The Supreme Court's ruling on tariffs is deeply disappointing, and I'm ashamed of certain members of the court, absolutely ashamed for not having the courage to do what's right for our country.

They also are a, frankly, disgrace to our nation, those justices. They're an automatic no matter how good a case you have. It's a no. But you can't knock their loyalty. It's one thing you can do with some of our people. Others think they're being politically correct, which has happened before far too often with certain members of this court, and it's happened so often with this court.

What a shame, having to do with voting in particular, when in fact they're just being fools and lapdogs for the rhinos and the radical left Democrats and not, that they should have anything at all to do with it. They're very unpatriotic and disloyal to our Constitution. It's my opinion that the court has been swayed by foreign interests and a political movement that is far smaller than people would ever think. Three conservative justices join the liberal justices to reject the tariffs,

Chief Justice Roberts and two justices appointed by President Trump. Neil Gorsuch and Amy Coney Barrett. He was asked about them on Friday. Mrs. Gorsuch and Barrett, are you surprised in particular by their decision today? I am. Do you regret nominating them? I don't want to say whether or not a regret. I think their decision was terrible.

I think it's an embarrassment to their families. You want to know the truth, the two of them. Yeah. An embarrassment to their families, he said, about Connie Barrett. and Neil Gorsuch. Soon after the Supreme Court's ruling, Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker sent a letter to President Trump demanding tariff refunds for every family in his state. The letter reads, quote, the Supreme Court has ruled this is yet one more unconstitutional

act by you and your administration. This letter in the attached invoice stand is an official notice that the compensation is owed to the people of Illinois, and if you do not comply, we will pursue further action, Governor Pritzker said. We're joined now by Lori Wallach, director of the Rethink Trade Program at the American Economic Liberties Project. So, Lori, there's a lot to unpack here,

not to mention what's going to happen with these tariffs that President Trump reimposed. Start off with his attack on his own justices. Two of the justices he appointed. That unhinged rant was truly terrifying. it sounded just like a dictator talking about the loyalty of judges to the king. But what it reflects is the real impact of that ruling, which is much more on Trump's power than on what the tariff rates in the United States are likely to be.

So what the court said is that Trump does not have tariff authority under the particular statute that he's been using most frequently, which is, a statute that had no limitations that allowed him to target with punishment or reward particular companies, whole economic sectors, reward friends and family, torture whole countries. And it really reduces Trump's ability not being able to use bad authority to hurl tariffs around with some, like some Zeus-like lightning bolts. But the reality is that there are a lot of other statutory authorities where Congress's delegated tariff rights to presidents. And so as you reported, immediately Trump announced other tariffs. So the tariff rates aren't likely to change, rather the use of the

tool as a really leverage power tool by Trump. And so he's furious about it because a court that's been otherwise willing to expand his authority endlessly drew a line. I want to note, it kind of drew a line at the place where under the hands of a different president, tariff authority could be something that actually limits bad corporate conduct, not rewards it. So it's sort of an interesting place where they drew the line. But they took away a bunch of his power. So explain what he did, the 10% applying it under different rules, and then increasing it to 15%.

So just to step back for one second, the Constitution has one of its starkest checks and bowels. on trade. So the Constitution gives exclusive authority over tariffs to Congress. So the only way a president can impose a tariff as if the Congress has delegated authority. So the question is what authority does the president have? And what he uses is a thing called Section 22, which refers to power the 1974 Trade Act. And Section 122 basically says, if you have a balance of payments problem, you can put up to 15 percent tariffs in place, Mr. President, automatically no other showing for up to months. And that's the statute he's used for these tariffs. Now, he started out at 10%, which honestly made kind of sense if you're trying to reestablish his baseline tariff, which applies to a bunch of

countries. And then he used discretion in that statute. Tariff chaos strikes again, literally overnight to raise it to 15%. The irony is by raising it to 15% the max under that particular statute, he ends up raising tariffs in a bunch of the countries that either always have had only 10% tariffs since so-called Liberation Day and with some of the countries that made deals with him. Now, they have higher tariffs after this than before the Supreme Court. Chaos. In a 63-page dissenting opinion, conservative justices Trump's appointee, Brett Kavanaugh, and then Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito, claim the majority's decision could lead to short-term chaos. Justice Kavanaugh wrote, quote,

the United States may be required to refund billions of dollars to importers who paid the AEPA tariffs, even though some importers may have already passed on cost to consumers or others, Kavanaugh said. So talk about this issue. I mean, he's warning about this, but he was in the minority, this critical point that the SCOTUS decision left unanswered, how the Trump administration may have to refund more than a hundred billion dollars in tariff revenues. And what, for example, the Illinois governor, J.B. Pritzker, said the population of his state is owed. So what's very interesting about this Supreme Court ruling, which goes on to 170 pages, it's clear they were all babbling over what to do and how to do it,

is that it doesn't speak to what to do about tariff refund. So if you've just said all these tariffs are not legal, then the question is there's almost been $150 billion paid in. and by most estimates. So then what do you do with that money? And it's very tricky because the likely scenario, particularly without more direction and guidance, is the biggest companies, the Costco's, the Walmarts, they have monopoly power in the market that they could force their foreign suppliers to eat the tariffs. So they charge them less for the imported good or they paid them for the tariff. But on the books at the U.S. Customs Department, they're listed Costco or Walmart is paying the tariffs. So if they get paid back, it's a win for.

because their supplier probably paid most of it up front, plus a bunch of them passed on those expenses to consumers. Small businesses are going to be totally stiffed if there's some horrible long process or you have to go through a lawsuit to get the money because they can't put the resources into that. And then what happens to everyone who paid more? And that's even trickier, honestly, because a bunch of prices went up for things that weren't charged tariffs. So some of the big companies didn't pay tariffs and they raised prices because they made their supplier pay. In other instances, things that didn't have tariffs we are all paying for. More.

I just want to talk about beef. 80% of beef eaten in the U.S. is raised in the U.S. Of the other 20%, half of it comes from Mexico and Canada and never had tariffs. So all this talked by Trump, if I'm cutting tariffs on beef to bring down prices, we're paying more for beef, we're hearing it's from trade, but there were no tariffs. So how in that mess you actually figure out how. to send the money back to the right people is a real pickle that the court was silent on. On Friday, President Trump claimed the Supreme Court had been swayed by, quote, foreign interests.

This is U.S. trade representative, Ambassador Jameson Greer, speaking on Face the Nation on CBS Sunday. What I'm telling you is that when the president talks about foreign influences, at a minimum, what we see is that foreign companies are involved in the coalitions, the PR effort, they're involved in the cases, and they don't want these tariffs. It's not a secret. Can you respond to this, Lori Wallach? So like many things the president says, the basis is in his head. He's just trying to be insulting.

The reality is that there's no evidence that there is foreign influence on the court, per se. It is also true that companies in other countries don't want to pay these terrorists. and frankly, U.S. multinational companies who offshoreed U.S. jobs to low-wage countries have an interest in not paying these tariffs. So I don't know the subsidiary of one of the big automakers in another country probably is unhappy about it. Is that a foreign company or is that a domestic company? The issue is really corporate power. And there are two things to think about that. One is because Trump so abused the IEPA tariff authority, he, lost it for good for all presidents. It was just shut down. No, Aipa has no tariff authority. And a different

kind of president might have been able to actually use that. And we might have wanted a different kind of president to use that authority judiciously in an emergency for the sake of protecting U.S. workers, our environment, food safety, whatever. That's gone because of Trump's abuse. And the abuse is things like he's cutting tariffs on China, where there really is a serious trade problem and mercantilist abuses that led to huge deficits, not just for us. I mean, the whole world is tariffs on China right now, Mexico, Brazil. And at the same time, you put 50% tariffs on Brazil because he didn't like the fact they were holding the former wannabe dictator accountable for his coup. So those kind of abuses lost this authority altogether. And the other piece of it is, to what end

is the Trump tariff program working? He promised it was to create more. more manufacturing jobs in balanced trade. But literally the day before this ruling, the trade data for 2025 came out. And we saw 88,000 more U.S. manufacturing jobs lost in the 11 months since Trump came back. And we saw the manufacturing trade deficits up in 2025 by $60 billion, almost 4%. So that's the opposite of the outcome. Tariffs can be a very useful tool if strategically deployed, if used as a weapon to go after political opponents to threaten to tariff Europe over Greenland, absurd uses of tariffs, and or to corruptly reward family, friends, companies. I mean, think about it.

They threatened Europe with high tariffs. If Europe doesn't deregulate big tech monopoly abuses, doesn't give up having privacy protections, and then offered to cut those tariffs if, and cut the tariffs, I'm sorry, on U.S. steel, real manufacturing, tariffs if Europe would give a favor to big tech. That is no trade policy. That's just coercion. And that's what the Supreme Court has taken away. But we're still going to have more tariffs because there are other statutes he can apply tariffs using. Lori Wallach, want to thank you for being with us,

Director of the RETRA, R rethink trade program at the American Economic Liberties Project. Coming up a new study in the British Medical Journal, The Lancet, concludes Israel's war on Gaza, killed far more Palestinians than initially reported. We'll speak to the Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Mossab Abu Toha, who managed to leave Gaza with his family. Stay with us. Alice Gerard and band singing when I loved you at the Brooklyn Folk Festival. last year. This is Democracy Now, Democracy Now.org, the War and Peace Report. I'm Amy Goodman.

A new study in the British Medical Journal, Lancets, concluded Israel's war on Gaza, killed far more Palestinians than initially reported. Researchers found there were over 75,000 violent deaths in the first 16 months of Israel's assault compared to the roughly 49,000 deaths reported by the Palestinian Health Ministry over that period. More than half of those killed in the Israeli strikes were women, seniors, or children. This comes as Israel continues to carry out strikes inside Gaza, despite the U.S. brokered so-called ceasefire that went into effect in October. To talk more about all of this and more, we're joined by Mossab Abu Toha. The Pulitzer Prize-winning Palestinian poet and author awarded the 2025 Pulitzer Prize for essays published in The New Yorker.

His latest poetry book is Forest of Noise. He left Gaza with his family in 2023 after he was jailed and beaten by Israeli forces. Masab, welcome back to democracy now. Talk about the state of Gaza, of the place where you lived your life until 2023, where it stands now, as the U.S. and Israel says that the ceasefire is entering its second phase. Me for having me. I mean, I want to talk about the place where I grew up in. I mean, I was born in a refugee camp in Gaza. There are eight refugee camps in the Gaza. Israel erased at least two of them. And then I grew up in Beitlahia. And yesterday, Israel murdered a Palestinian woman named Basma Bannat, 27 years old, in Beitlaahia, the city that was decimated by the Israeli terrorist attacks. People are still living in the tents. I have family members. I have sisters in Gaza

who are living with their husbands and their children and they are still living in tents in the streets or near the rubble of their houses. People do not have access to water. People do not have access to healthy food. I mean, it is true that some food trucks are entering, but those are not the essential food that people in Gaza need in order to survive the many months of the starvation in the gastrop.

There are so many patients, Amy, and I'm sure that you reported on that. There are about 20,000 patients who need urgently to be evacuated, and Israel is allowing a trickle of that number. Among the 20,000, as reported by Dr. Mohamed Abusselmia, there are about 4,500 cancer patients. There are 4,500 children, and there are about 10,000 wounded people. who need to have complex surgeries. And meanwhile, while on the wait list,

more than 3,300 people died while they were in the gas trip waiting for the border crossing, which Israel not only occupied but destroyed. So the situation in Gaza is so horrific. It's still a genocide ongoing. Since the so-called seas fire went into effect, Israel killed over 600, 642 people including 197 children emmy that's that's like killing 10 classroom

students in a public school in the United States and in general Israel has killed since the start of the so-called ceasefire if five people every day have an average of five people every day as far as as it goes to the to the to the tracks if Israel according to the Gaza Rights Center Israel allowed only 43% of the tracks that were agreed upon in the so-called ceasefire, including only 15% of fuel trucks. So the situation is not improving to an extent where people can survive, you know, the ongoing genocide. Explain how it works when people are trying to leave for medical attention.

Al Jazeera is reporting a Palestinian child died on Sunday while waiting for Israel to approve his exit from Gaza, for medical treatment amidst an ongoing health care crisis in the enclave, whose medical infrastructure has been destroyed by Israel's genocidal war, Al Jazeera writes. Nadal Abu Rabia's family told Al Jazeera they had medical referral documents approved to receive treatment abroad, but he was left waiting for 14 months to be allowed out of the enclave of 2.3 million Palestinians, most of whom are displaced. If you can explain what's going on, and especially at the Rafa border? This is so heart-breaking because the child that you just mentioned,

Abrabeah, he's also from Betlai. So I know that, I know members from that family. And, Amy, the problem is that these kids, you know, when they die, it's not like they're dying without anyone shouting, you know, and screaming in public that, oh, we need to evacuate this child or that man who has skin disease or has kidney failure who has, who is a cancer patient. So I don't remember how many times I posted on social media. Begging in the entire world on my social media, on X, on Instagram, on Facebook,

that this boy, this child, this woman, this mother, this grandfather needs to be evacuated immediately in order to survive. But I don't remember anyone reaching out to me or even reaching out to the family who was begging, you know, to help them evacuate. But it never happened. And that child, I'm sure that one, one. 100% many people posted about him that he needs, you know, to be evacuated. And by the way, Amy, an important point is that the fact, I mean, the stories of people dying in Gaza because they need immediate medical evacuation, it did not start in 2023. There are some cases from 2010, 2015, 2017 of people because the border crossing was closed,

because Israel was not giving security clearance to the families to go to the West Bank or some hospitals in Jerusalem. Many people died even before the genocide started in 2023. So this is not a new story for us. But now the numbers have been increased because of the larger number of people who need immediate medical evacuation. And I would like to correct that we should not, I think, call it Rafah border crossing. It's no longer a border. It is a military checkpoint. And if you're following the news and listen to the stories of witnesses and victims, you will hear the stories of families returning to Gaza or leaving, and they have been subjected to harassment and abuse by the Israeli terrorist

soldiers in Rafah. I wanted to get your response, Mossab, to Mike Hacobie's recent comments, the U.S. ambassador to Israel, Arab and Muslim nations. are condemning those comments. He was speaking to the right-wing commentator, Tucker Carlson. But this particular area that we're talking about now, Israel, is a land that God gave through Abraham to a people that he chose. It was a people, a place, and a purpose.

We can look at it that way. Christian Zionism. I want to go back because that's where we stand. I'm not going to let you off on this because you have said it three times that God gave this land to this people. And so it is entirely fair for me with respect to ask, what land are you talking about? Because I just read Genesis 15, as I have many times. And that land, I think it says from the Nile to the Euphrates, which is once again, basically the entire Middle East. It would be fine if they took it all.

That's the U.S. ambassador to Israel, Mossab Abu Toha. your response. I mean, I was confused as I was. I mean, that interview was really shocking and not shocking because this is not the first time I heard him speaking, you know, extremist language and a language, a genocide language for me. But I mean, maybe as a Palestinian, I sometimes found myself confused. I mean, is this an American ambassador to a country or is it an official in that country? I mean, the language he was using is a language that even it's more for me sometimes. It's more extreme than the language you hear from some Israelis who have been occupying our land and killing our people. I mean, sometimes I wonder, you know, if there is something else in the Bible that talk about, you know, justice, about peace.

I mean, there is Genesis that they were quoting from about giving our land, the land of my grandparents to other people. And there is the Amalak? Is there something else in the Bible that you can quote from about mercy and love and justice for the people, for human beings? And I remember, you know, hearing Tucker asking Mike Hacabee about doing, you know, doing DNA, you know, for Jewish people who are living in Israel, who are occupying our land. And I was wondering, why don't we do DNA for everyone on this earth, you know, to prove that we are all the creatures of God. We are all the creatures of God. I don't, I don't, I, as a Palestinian, I don't belong to anywhere else than Palestine. And I don't want to go to any place other than Palestine.

My grandparents when they were living in Yaffa in 1948, before they were expelled. I mean, they didn't know about the Bible. They were not born anywhere else. I mean, we are the original people of this land, and we do not know any place other than Palestine. And I was also disappointed, maybe I should not, that in the interview, Tucker did not ask him, what about the Palestinian people who are living there? I mean, are they foreign to the land, and how do we know if they were foreign to the land? We were not talked about as people who existed.

It seemed like there was a land and there was a prophecy and, okay, let's apply this prophecy. And it's like an empty land and let's just go back. It's like a project of return as if nothing else existed on that land. Last week, President Trump hosted heads of state and other officials from nearly 50 countries for the inaugural meeting of the so-called Board of Peace. He was in Washington, D.C. He vowed to provide $10 billion in U.S. funds to the organization. Congress has not approved this. Among other key proposals is to turn Gaza into an upscale seaside resort with gleaming skyscrapers and entirely new cities.

His son-in-law, Jared Kushner, has also described this. The Pope has refused to join the Board of Peace. Israel has joined the Board of Peace, along with other countries. Your final thoughts on this? I mean, I don't know whether to laugh or scream. I mean, I have at least two pieces of advice. First of all, instead of starting a board of something, you should start a board of justice. I mean, who is going to bring justice to this family?

Shabban and Abu Shaban family, I mean, two parents and their children. The youngest was two years old, as you see. Who's going to bring justice to this family? at least 4,000 children who were the only survivors of their families. And the second advice I have is that there is something that's called the United Nations, and that United Nations has, I mean, many, many resolutions that condemn Israel and its occupation, that is demanding that Israel end its occupation of Palestine. How about we adhere to the resolutions and the international law when it comes to the Palestinian people?

And maybe a third piece of advice, I mean, why would you have some? someone a country and someone who's accused. And it's a documentary thing, but at least he's accused and he has a warrant and arrest warrant for committing war crimes and crimes against humanity. How come do you have him as a member of that border to? So it is a joke. And I think it's an embarrassment for the coming generations to read what was happening. I mean, what happened in Gaza is a disaster.

It's a genocide. But how, you know, how the, the, the intelligence. international leaders have been acting, how they were responding. And I have a fourth piece of advice. And instead of raising money to rebuild Gaza, which is very good, I think it's very important to stop sending bombs that are killing our families in Gaza and reducing the Palestinian people and their homes and towns and houses to rubble. And I wanted to get your final response to a DNC report that has,

not been released publicly, though it's called an autopsy report of the Democratic National Committee about the 2024. It concluded Kamala Harris lost significant support because of the Biden administration's policy on Gaza, according to a report in Axios. The DNC report still hasn't been released to the public. The Institute for Middle East Understanding IMEU is accusing the DNC of withholding the report, in part because of its fight. findings on Israel. Your final comment on this, I mean, you lived in Gaza your whole life. You raised your family until 2023, but you're here in the United States since 2023, 24. So you're really aware of the politics of this country. And Kamala Harris's loss, of course, meaning President

Trump won. I think, I mean, it is, I mean, those who have stayed silent, I mean, I mean, it's not like the Democratic Party, you know, stayed silent. But, I mean, it's not that they stayed silent, but, I mean, they continue to justify Israel's war crimes. I mean, the videos and the stories of the people in Gaza who have been, you know, dismembered and who, I mean, there are 10,000, I mean, at least 10,000 people who have been still remained under the rubble of their homes. And we don't hear anyone talking about, you know, recovering their bodies. That's one point that I wanted to talk about. But I mean there are videos of people, you know, burnt in their tents. There are videos of babies who were decapitated.

These are not, you know, you know, fairy tales. These are real videos and photos and witness accounts. And no one respected us, you know, to tell our stories like we, they were telling, you know, some fake stories from the Israelis on October 7th. So we didn't hear about any stories from the Democratic Party. to stand in solidarity with the Palestinian people or to stop, you know, sending more and more bombs to the Israeli army, which they were using

to carry out crimes against humanity. So it is, I think it is a disgrace that this report is coming out now. I mean, it should have been very clear from Dewan that this is going to cause everyone a huge loss, but the hugest loss has been caused to us as Palestinians. Ms. Masa Babu Toha, I want to thank you so much for being with us. Pulitzer Prize-winning Palestinian poet and author awarded the 2025 Pulitzer Prize for Essays published in The New Yorker. His latest poetry book is Forest of Noise. Coming up, the Winter Olympics have ended in Italy. We'll speak to Joel Boykoff, author of six books on the Olympics. Stay with us.

Hey, they said I couldn't do it. They told me that I would fail. They said that I was dream. This is dreaming too big. Wake up and smell. But the flowers are around me. They all bloom so beautiful. Like a rose in the concrete, you are looking at a miracle. Coming up in the game, they want me to fall. But I studied the playbook.

I'm ready to ball. I got to chip on my shoulder and my backs against the walls. When you really down baddest when you're strong, that you're strong. This is Democracy Now. Democracy Now.org, the Warren Peace Report. I'm Amy Goodman. This announcement, I am so sorry to say that that he, huge celebration we're going to have with over 2,000 people we were supposed to have tonight,

February 23 at the historic Riverside Church, has been canceled because of the blizzard we are in right now in New York City, what's being called a bomb cyclone. We are going to let people know through email and on our website at DemocracyNow.org and on all social media, when we plan to have this 30th anniversary celebration, we hope it will be in the next few weeks. And we'll keep everyone up to date. But in the meantime, we want to ensure that everyone remains safe. The Winter Olympics wrapped up on Sunday in Italy. At the Games, Norway set a new record by winning 41 medals, including 18 gold.

On Sunday, the U.S. men's hockey team, be Canada. The men's team had an unexpected visitor in their locker room after the game. FBI director Cash Patel. A reporter from ProPublica posted video from inside the locker room showing Patel, chugging a beer and partying with the team. Patel, who is an avid hockey fan, had flown to Italy on a government plane sparking widespread criticism. The FBI had claimed the purpose of Patel's trip was for officials. business. During the Olympics, there were multiple protests over the Trump administration's decision

to send U.S. ICE agents to provide security for the U.S. delegation. We go now to Jules Boykopf, the author of six books on the Olympic, including power games of political history of the Olympics. His new piece for the Globe and Mail is titled, At the Olympics, Politics Has Always Come Before Sports. Boykoff played for the U.S. under 23 men's national science. soccer team between 1989 and 91. His forthcoming memoir is titled, Kicking. And he's speaking to us from Toronto. Jules, we talked to you at the beginning of the Olympics. There's so much to talk about. You say it's all about politics. Even as President Trump said and J.D. Vance said people should just play and not engage in politics. What struck you about these Olympics that took place in Italy?

Well, first off, Amy, the Trump administration has full on politicized these Olympics. From the very beginning when J.D. Vance showed up at the opening ceremony and was roundly booed and jeered by the audience. To him using the opportunity to be in Milan as essentially a campaign trip for 2028 election to what you were just talking about, the remarkable moment of Cash Patel flying to Milan on the taxpayer dime to watch a bunch of high. hockey games and then whoop it up with the United States hockey team in the locker room afterwards, chugging beers, slamming his hand on the table. But there's also President Donald Trump, who's politicized the games. After all, he punched down on Olympian Hunter Hess, who just was explaining in a pretty nuanced way how he felt like he had mixed feelings about participating

in these Olympics at this particular moment. Trump called him a real loser, unleashing a torrent of hate at Mr. Hess, who said this was the most difficult period of his life. You know, I wanted to play Hunter. I wanted to play Hunter in his own words, the 27-year-old USA freestyle skier, speaking at a news conference at the Olympics. I think it's, 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 like 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's Hunter Hess. Jules Boykoff continue. Well, that's significant for a number of reasons. One, when President Trump took to Truth Social to slam Hunter Hess as a real loser, he also mangled that very nuanced message that you just played for us. In the process, he unleashed a torrent of hate.

The Maga Army has come after Hunter Hess really hard. Second, I don't know how any of this fits with the Olympic spirit. I mean, I think President, it's not too much to say that President Trump wouldn't recognize the Olympic spirit if it came up and kissed him on the canckel. And third, the International Olympic Committee has been utterly silent when it comes to defending Mr. Hess. They just sat around and let him float in the wind. Fortunately, numerous Olympians from around the world spoke up in defense of Mr. Hess. You've got Eileen Gou, the great freeskyer who represents China, who said that he absolutely has the right to speak out. So did Chloe Kim, the superstar snowboarder from the United States, who said the same thing.

You've got a cross-country skier who even went as far as to say what Trump said was childish. And it's not just athletes who are defending Hess. Some of them actually gone on the attack. You've got Kelly Panic, who was a gold medal winner with the U.S. women's hockey team, who explained how she was proud to be from Minnesota, where people were taking to the streets to fight back against ice, and that she drew inspiration from them. got another curler from Minnesota, a guy named Rich Rul Honan, who said, he's also a lawyer, and he said, what's happening on the streets of Minnesota is disgusting and illegal, and there's

no gray area about it. And so it's been a really interesting moment to have these athletes speaking out. Jules, I wanted to go to the social movements on the streets. I wanted to go to the U.S. figure skater, Amber Glenn, the first openly LGBTQ plus athlete to compete in women's singles, skating at the Winter Olympics? It's been a hard time for the community overall under this administration. It isn't the first time that we've had to come together as a community and try and fight for our human rights. And now, especially, it's not just affecting the queer community,

but many other communities. And I think that we are able to support each other in a way that we didn't have to before, and because of that, it's made us a lot stronger. U.S. figure skater, Amber Glenn, Jules. God bless Amber Glenn. I mean, the courage that she has shown in the public sphere in the face of all this vitriol has been remarkable. And thank goodness for the U.S. figure skating team that brought so much joy to these

Olympic games, a joy that contrasts mightily with the hate that's spewing from Magaland right now. I also wanted to ask you about the Haitian. athletes. Describe what happened to them and their uniforms? Absolutely. So there were some athletes from Haiti that were participating in these Winter Olympics in Milano Cortina. And the designer of their uniforms put a nod to history on those uniforms. And it was the form of a figure of Toussaint-Lover Tour, the revolutionary leader, who got rid of slavery in Haiti and also started the first Black Republic in 1804. war. And the International Olympic Committee looked at that uniform and they said, oh, that's a breach of

our rules around being political. And they forced the Haitian squad to scrub Tuasant Lovertour off of their uniforms. And this points to the sort of selective morality that the International Olympic Committee has shown at these Olympics, whether it's doing that to Haitian athletes or forcing the bold Ukrainian skeleton athlete Bladislav Harriskavchavich to not participate because he wanted to wear a helmet of remembrance honoring those who died, his compatriots from Ukraine, who died to Russia in the war. And other people who were trying to bring up what was happening in their countries? I mean, you say the IOC, the International Olympic Committee, says it's neutral, but that simply means they side with power and put athletes in the crosshairs.

That's absolutely correct. And, you know, Amy, I think it's important to take a moment to look at Vladislav Harriskev, the Skeleton Olympian from Ukraine, who basically sacrificed his ability to compete on the altar of his political beliefs. He showed up in Milan, Cortina, with a beautiful helmet of remembrance, with the images of 24 athletes who'd been killed by Russia in war. The International Olympic Committee allowed him to wear that helmet in his practice runs. But when it came time to the actual competition, they said, no, you can't wear that. That's political. And so he decided Harris Kavich that he wasn't going to race. This is in sharp contrast with what the International Olympic Committee said to him in 2022, when after one of his runs,

he held up a placard that said, no war in Ukraine. So at that point, the IOC, in 2022 said, oh, that's fine. Don't worry about it. But now four years later, they dropped the hammer on him. And, you know, it's been remarkable to see them hide behind this idea of neutrality, as you mentioned. Neutrality, when you're talking about powerful people, neutrality tends to benefit the oppressors. Neutrality tends to benefit those who already have power. I'm confident that history will vindicate Mr. Harriskevich. He has shown the courage to remind us that sometimes the message is a lot more important than the medal. Finally, pressure is mounting publicly and privately for the entertainment mogul Casey Wasserman

to step down as chair of the 28, Los Angeles Olympics, following this series of salacious emails with Jeffrey Epstein, Associate Ghislane Maxwell, included in the Epstein files that were released by the Justice Department. Can you tell us what's happening there? When Los Angeles was first handed the Olympics by the International Olympic Committee back in 2017, they were viewed as a safe pair of hands. But that safe pair of hands has absolutely fumbled the torch time and again. The incident that you're talking about is disgusting. It's an immoral obscenity and it's led to the mayor of Los Angeles, Karen Bass, to call for his resignation alongside around a third of the Los Angeles City Council. But that's not the first

moral obscenity that Casey Wasserman has carried out in his official duties as running the LA Olympics. After all, as ICE ravaged Los Angeles and the military was called into Los Angeles, the LA 28 organizing committee sat totally silent, not a peep for them. Other sports administration groups around the city were speaking out, making statements, not LA 28. They sat totally quiet. There's also the fact that Casey Wasserman back in August when he attended a meeting with President Trump announcing the creation of a White House task force on the Olympics was the first person to clap for President Trump when he went on a random anti-trans rant, perfectly willing to throw the trans community under the bus to maintain power and to keep Trump on his good side. Those are the moral obscenities that I'm very concerned about and I hope that people think about as he

consider moving toward these Olympic games. Jules Boykoff, want to thank you so much for being with us. Author of Six Books on the Olympics, including Power Games, a political history of the Olympics. We'll link to your latest article at the Olympics. Politics has always come before sports. That does it for our show.

Our Democracy Now 30th anniversary celebration may be off tonight. It's not happening at Riverside Church, but it'll happen in the next week's. Keep who posted at DemocracyNow.org.