Democracy Now! Audio - Democracy Now! 2026-02-25 Wednesday

Episode Date: February 25, 2026

Headlines for February 25, 2026; “You Have Killed Americans,” “Black People Aren’t Apes”: Democrats Protest Trump’s State of the Union; Nobel Prize-Winning Economist Joseph Stiglitz Slams Trump’s Myths About Tariffs, Affordability; Rep. Summer Lee on Boycotting Trump Speech, Jesse Jackson, Voting Rights, “Endless Wars” & More; Jailed for “Standing Up”: DHS Assault Victim Aliya Rahman Arrested at State of the Union Address; “Lies, Gaslighting and Maligning”: Rep. Adelita Grijalva Boycotts Trump’s Speech

This is Democracy Now. You've seen nothing yet. We're going to do better and better and better. This is the golden age of America. In the longest state of the union address in recent history, President Trump held his economic record over the past year, but signs of resistance to his presidency keep growing. During one heated moment, Congresswoman Ilhan Omar of Minnesota,

shouted out, you have killed Americans. That is why I'm also asking you to end deadly sanctuary cities that protect the criminals and enact serious penalties for public officials who block the removal of criminal aliens. In many cases, drug lords, murderers all over our country. We will air excerpts of the State of the Union and get response, including from Congress members, Summerlee of Pennsylvania who gave the working family party's response to Trump's speech. So let's start with a simple truth. What we are witnessing from our government is authoritarianism. Any response that doesn't acknowledge that truth is a disservice to Americans who deserve and need

honesty right now. We'll also speak to Democratic Congress member Adelita Gerhalva, who boycotted Trump's speech, as well as the Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglis. All that and more coming up. Welcome to Democracy Now, Democracy Now.org, the War and Peace Report. I'm Amy Goodman. President Trump boasted about his record on the economy and doubled down on his harsh immigration policies during his State of the Union address before Congress Tuesday night. At one hour and 48 minutes, it was the longest state of the Union.

in recent history. President Trump ignored the challenges people are facing with the economy and instead touted the stock market and lower gas prices. Before Trump's speech, Democratic Congressmember Al Green of Texas held up a sign that read Black people aren't apes, referring to President Trump posting a racist video depicting former President Barack Obama and former First Lady Michelle Obama as apes. Congressmember Green was removed from the chamber. During the speech, President Trump repeatedly referred to immigrants as illegal aliens and commanded lawmakers to stand up that they agreed with his violent immigration crackdown. Democratic lawmakers refused.

After Republican applause, Minnesota Congress member Ilhan Omar shouted at President Trump, accusing him of killing U.S. citizens with his immigration population. policies. Isn't that a shame? You should be ashamed of yourself, not standing up. You should be ashamed of yourself. That is why I'm also asking you to end deadly sanctuary cities that protect the criminals and enact serious penalties for public officials who block the removal of criminal aliens. In many cases, drug lords, murderers all over our country, they're blocking the removal of these people out of our country. And you should be ashamed of you saying. That was Congressmember Ilhan Omar shouting, you're the murderer. You have killed Americans. After the speech, Virginia Governor Abigail Spanberger, a former CIA officer, gave the Democrats'

response. She criticized President Trump for the cost of living and for his attacks on immigrants. They have ripped nursing mothers away from their babies. They have sent children, a little boy in a blue bunny hat, children, too far off detention centers. And they have killed American citizens in our streets. And they have done it all with their faces masked from accountability. Roughly half of all Democratic lawmakers skip the State of the Union last night, as well as a majority of justices on the Supreme Court. Several Democratic lawmakers attended a people's state of the Union at the National Mall,

including Senators Chris Murphy, Chris Van Hollen, and Ruben Gallego. This is Connecticut Senator Murphy. The true state of the union is this. This union is in crisis right now. Our cities are under attack by lawless law. enforcement. Our democracy is wilting under ceaseless attack from a president who wants to be a despot. Millions of Americans are losing their health care because the president has chosen corruption to pad the pockets of his billionaire friends instead of helping average Americans.

You're not going to hear any of that in that speech tonight. We'll have more on President Trump's State of the Union for the whole show after headlines. response from Democratic Congress members Summerlee and Adelita Grahava, who represents Tucson, Arizona, on the border. Several Republican lawmakers are calling on GOP Congress member Tony Gonzalez to resign. Amidst allegations he had an affair with a staffer who took her own life by setting herself on fire. Gonzalez is accused of sending sexually explicit text messages in which, which he asked his staffer, Regina An Santos of Villis, to, quote, send me a sexy pick. After she declined to provide him with a photo, Congressmember Gonzalez then asked about her,

quote, favorite position. Congress members Thomas Massey of Kentucky, Lauren Bovert of Colorado, Anna Polina Luna of Florida, and Nancy Mace of South Carolina and several other Republicans are demanding Gonzalez resign immediately over the allegations. He has refused to step down. The Pentagon's giving the artificial intelligence company Anthropic an ultimatum to allow full access to its models by Friday. Defense Secretary Pete Hegsef reportedly told Anthropic CEO Dario Amade that the Pentagon is prepared to cancel its $200 million contract with the company and declare Anthropic a supply chain risk and even invoke the Defense Production Act to force the company to tailor its AI model for the Pentagon.

Anthropic has stated it's willing to adapt its policies for the Pentagon, but it won't allow its model to be used for mass surveillance to develop autonomous weapons. A Pentagon official told Axios, quote, the only reason we're still talking to these people is we need them and we need them now. The problem for these guys is they are that good, unquote. Anthropics AI tool, Claude, was reportedly used in the U.S. military's operation to abduct former Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his wife. Mexico's government is warned of potential legal action against Elon Musk after the tech billionaire falsely linked Mexican president Claudia Shanebaum to drug cartels.

Shanebaum spoke from Mexico City yesterday. Well, we're considering whether to take some legal action. The lawyers are looking into it. But what matters to me is what the people say, honestly. Musk's comments came in the aftermath of widespread violence in Mexico between cartels and Mexican forces in response to the killing of Mexico's most wanted drug lord, the Messia Rubin Osageta-Savantes, known as El Mencho. Reuters reports Iran is close to a deal to buy anti-ship cruise missiles from China as the U.S. has deployed warships near the Iranian coast in a military buildup across the region. and not seen since the U.S. led invasion of Iraq in 2003. It comes as President Trump's weighing a military strike against Iran over its nuclear program.

U.S. and Iranian negotiators are set to hold indirect talks in Geneva tomorrow. Meanwhile, campus protests in Iran continued for a fourth straight day as demonstrators clashed with pro-government militias. It's the first major protest since the U.S. Iranian government cracked down on anti-government demonstrations last month, reportedly killing thousands of people. A whistleblower is claiming that FBI agents were delayed in arriving to major crime scenes, such as the far-right activist Charlie Kirk's assassination, because FBI director Kash Patel frequently uses the agency's private jets. In a statement, Democratic Senator

Dick Durbin said, quote, since his confirmation as director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, FBI, Cash Patel is seemingly engaged in what amounts to irresponsible joyriding on DOJ and FBI operated aircraft at the expense of the American taxpayer and to the detriment of ongoing Bureau operations, unquote. Patel had used an FBI jet to travel to the Milan Olympics to attend the men's hockey final where he was filmed chugging beer in the U.S. team's locker room. The Trump administration suing the University of California, alleging UCLA, ignored and failed to report complaints of anti-Semitism after pro-Palestinian demonstrations erupted on campus. It follows a previous lawsuit in August when the Trump administration demanded the University

of California pay nearly $1.2 billion to settle civil rights investigations into UCLA over complaints of anti-Semitism. The federal government also canceled $584 million in research grants to UCLA last year. President Trump's reportedly considering issuing an executive order that would force U.S. banks to collect citizenship information from customers. That's according to the Wall Street Journal, which reported the measure is under review by the Treasury Department as part of the Trump administration's widespread crackdown on immigrants. Banks at times collect passport and social security information from customers, but they've never been charged with verifying a person's citizenship status.

There's also no prohibition on U.S. banks opening accounts for non-citizens. In Sudan, more than two dozen people were killed as the paramilitary rapid support forces raided a town in North therefore. The attack in the town of Mastaria was reported by Sudan Doctors Network, which said the town's sole health care center was destroyed. At least one medical worker was taken by RSF fighters. The network said condemning the attack as, quote, a fully fledged crime and a blatant violation of all humanitarian and international laws, unquote. This comes as drone attacks by the RSF and Sudanese army have intensified in the Kordafan region, targeting aid convoys, markets, universities, and health care facilities. Cordifan is a highly strategic region of Sudan rich in gold and oil. Meanwhile, on Monday, Chad closed its eastern border with Sudan following a series of clashes in the region.

The BBC has apologized for failing to censor the N-word after a Tourette syndrome campaigner in the audience shouted the racial slur at Michael B. Jordan and Delroy Lindo as they presented the award for best visual effects at the BAFTA Awards in London Sunday. The BAFTA awards are the equivalent of the Oscars in Britain. The BBC failed to edit out the word from the broadcast, which aired. two hours after the live show while cutting the phrase, free Palestine from an acceptance speech by filmmaker Akinola Davies, Jr. They also cut references to President Trump's crackdown in Minneapolis from the acceptance speech of BAFTA-winning filmmaker David Bornstein, co-director of the documentary, Mr. Nobody Against Putin. He spoke to Democracy Now Tuesday. I also in my speech compared the importance of resistance in Russia to the importance of resistance in Minneapolis,

and that was also taken out of the broadcast. So it seems that a lot of the political speeches were taken out of the broadcast. The BBC reported another racial slur was edited from the broadcast and that the N-word had erred by mistake. In South Carolina, as the measles outbreak, approach, approaches 1,000 reported cases. The state has enlisted the help of public health experts working outside the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert of Kennedy Jr. has significantly altered the agency's vaccine recommendations and gutted vaccine research. Reuters reports a dozen public health experts are arriving in South

Carolina to aid in the measles outbreak, which is the largest in the United States since 1992. Fifteen states led by Democrats are suing the Trump administration in an effort to reverse a policy by the CDC to reduce the number of vaccines it recommends for children. The lawsuit announced Tuesday also names HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and challenges his unlawful replacement of officials, as they put it, from a key vaccine advisory committee. This follows another lawsuit filed in January by several public health groups, including the American Academy of Pediatrics. And in Brazil, at least 30 people have been reported dead as homes were swept away by

massive landslides due to torrential rains in the southeastern state of Manasuries. A river burst its banks, says record rain. has battered the region with firefighting crews still searching for about 40 people who remain missing. This is a survivor. It was terrible. Words can't describe how sad it is. There's nothing to say. Just ask God to find those who survived and to perform a miracle. And those are some of the headlines. This is Democracy Now.Democracy.org, the Warren Peace Report. I'm Amy Goodman. In the longest state of the union in recent history, President Trump held his economic record over the past year, claiming the countries entering a golden age, but resistance to his presidency keeps growing.

And one of the most heated moments, Congresswoman Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, shouted out to Trump, you have killed Americans. Omar represents Minneapolis, where federal immigration agents recently fatally shot Renee Good. and Alex Preti. Omar's remarks came as President Trump launched an attack on immigrants. If you agree with this statement, then stand up and show your support. The first duty of the American government is to protect American citizens, not a legal alien. Isn't that ashamed? You should be ashamed of yourself, not standing up.

You should be ashamed of yourself. That is why I'm also asking you. to end deadly sanctuary cities that protect the criminals and enact serious penalties for public officials who block the removal of criminal aliens. In many cases, drug lords, murderers all over our country, they're blocking the removal of these people out of our country. And you should be ashamed of you say it. At another point in his state of the union, President Trump lashed out at Democrats and

accuse them of trying to destroy the country. Look, nobody stands up. These people are crazy, I'm telling you. They're crazy. Boy, oh boy. We're lucky we have a country. With people like this, Democrats are destroying our country, but we've stopped it just in the nick of time, didn't we have?

Earlier in the evening, Democratic Congress member Al Green of Texas was removed from the chamber after he held up a sign that read black people are not apes. He spoke to reporters after his removal. I attended the state of the union address, knowing that the president would come in and that he would have to pass by me to get to the podium. And I wanted him to know that portraying the President Obama and First Lady Obama as members of the president of the president. primate family is not only unacceptable, it is something that is deplorable and something that we will not tolerate. At least I will not. And I wanted him to get close to someone who could tell him to his face. And I did. And judging from the look on his face as he turned away quickly, he was

at a moment of vulnerability because he's not confronted by people who are willing to speak truth to him. Many Democratic lawmakers boycotted Trump's address and took part in a people's state of the union at the National Mall. This is Maryland Senator Chris Van Hollen. We have a president who seeks not to build a more perfect union, but one who wants to tear it down. And a president who said he would stop wars, who said he would stop wars, but instead is responsible for war crimes. and as we speak is threatening more wars. We need to stop him. We are gathered here because we know that we cannot pretend that any of this is normal

and that we will not and must not pretend that this is business as usual. We must get in the way of Donald Trump's march toward fascism. Virginia Governor Abigail Spanberger, who is a former CIA officer, gave the Democrats' official response to the state of the Union. They have ripped nursing mothers away from their babies. They have sent children. A little boy in a blue bunny hat. Children too far off detention centers. And they have killed American citizens in our streets. and they have done it all with their faces masked from accountability. Our president told us tonight that we are safer. Because these agents arrest mothers and detain children.

Think about that. Our broken immigration system is something to be fixed, not an excuse for unaccountable agents to terrorize our communities. Virginia Governor Abigail Spanberger was speaking from the House of Burgess's chambers in historic Williamsburg, Virginia. We'll be dealing with the State of the Union throughout the show. More after break. Through the winter's ice and cold down Nicollet Avenue.

A city of flame fought fire and ice beneath an occupier's boots. King Trump's private army from. The DHS guns belted to their coats Came to Minneapolis to enforce the law Or so their story goes Against smoke and rubber bullet The dawn's early light Citizens stood for justice

Their voices ringing through the I stood Streets, I looks pretty and running. Streets of Minneapolis by Bruce Springsteen, later in the broadcast, we'll speak with Alia Rahman. She was ripped out of her car, her windshield, the passenger glass broken by immigration agents as they cut her seatbelt, a U.S. citizen who was then invited to the state of the union by Congress member Ilhan Omar.

She was removed from the gallery. We'll ask her if she was also arrested. But that's coming up. This is Democracy Now, Democracy Now.org, the war and peace report. I'm Amy Goodman. During his state of the union, President Trump repeatedly held his economic record over the past year. He also openly criticized the Supreme Court again for striking down his global tariffs in a decision that's having major implications on the global economy.

Less than half, four of the nine Supreme Court justices attended the speech. This is part of what Trump said. Everything was working well. Countries that were ripping us off for decades are now paying us hundreds of billions of dollars. They were ripping us so badly. You all know that. Everybody knows it. Even the Democrats know it.

They just don't want to say it. And yet these countries are now happy. And so are we. We made deals. The deals are all done. And they're happy. They're not making money like they used to, but we're making a lot of money. There was no inflation, tremendous growth.

And the big story was how Donald Trump called the economy correctly. And 22 Nobel Prize winners in economics didn't. They got it totally wrong. They got it really wrong. And then just four days ago, an unfortunate ruling from the United States Supreme Court. It just came down. It came down. Very unfortunate ruling.

But the good news is that almost all countries and corporations want to keep the deal that they already made, right, Scott, knowing that the legal power that I as president have to make a new deal could be far worse for them, and therefore they will continue to work along the same successful path that we had negotiated before the Supreme Court's unfortunate involvement. So despite the disappointing ruling, these powerful, country saving, it's saving our country, the kind of money we're taking in. Peace protecting, many of the wars I settled, was because of the threat of tariffs. I wouldn't have been able to settle them without. We remain in place under fully approved and tested alternative legal statutes, and they have been tested for a long time. They're a little more complex, but they're actually probably, probably. better, leading to a solution that will be even stronger than before. Congressional action will not be necessary.

It's already time tested and approved. And as time goes by, I believe, the tariffs paid for by foreign countries will, like in the past, substantially replace the modern day system of income tax, taking a great financial burden off the people that I love. We're joined now by Joseph Stiglitz, Nobel Prize. winning economist, Columbia University professor, former chair of the Council of Economic Advisors. Professor Stiglitz is also currently the chief economist at the Roosevelt Institute, his latest book just out in paperback this week, The Road to Freedom, Economics, and the Good Society.

Professor Stiglitz, welcome back to Democracy Now. Your response, you're among the signatories, the economists who have signed a letter against the tariffs. Talk about the President's State of the Union and his argument for tariffs and against the Supreme Court. Two of his own appointees voted, ruled against him. Well, the speech was characteristic of Trump, lies, misleading statements. I was with a group of a large number of Nobel Prize winners who predicted that he would

be bad for the economy, and we were right. The tariffs are paid by Americans. They're not paid by the foreigners. He says they didn't have any effect on inflation. We saw inflation was going down, and if we compare where inflation would have been with where we are today, it has estimated the average family is paying somewhere between $1,000 and $1,700 in extra money because of the tariffs. And, you know, the irony is he said it was going to bring back manufacturing jobs. Manufacturing jobs are down in the United States in 2025 when they were up under President Biden. He doesn't talk about that. In fact, last year was one of the slowest growth in jobs ever, in recent memory, about a quarter of what it was under President Biden.

And interestingly, most or more than 100% of the jobs that were created were in the health care sector. Nothing to do with his tariffs at all. Trump said in the past, we have the most people working in history. What is the state of unemployment, of livable employment, the overall economy? Well, when the economy grow, more people in the country, yes, there are going to be more people working. That's true. The fact is that labor force participation has not gone up.

Unemployment rate has gone up a little bit, not a lot. But what is striking is how weak the job market is. We've not created, as I said before, we've not created very many jobs, less than a quarter of what we had created under President Biden. And anybody with friends trying to get jobs knows what a difficult labor market, today's labor market is. I want to go back to President Trump speaking last night. Now the same people in this chamber who voted for those disasters suddenly used the word, affordability, a word. They just used it.

Somebody gave it to them, knowing full well that they caused and created the increased prices that all of our citizens had to endure. You caused that problem. You caused that problem. Affordability, Professor Stiglitz. We're speaking to you here in New York. Of course, the new mayor, Zoran Mamdani, is sent the message to people all over the country, especially those who are considering elected office or to die-hard politicians, senators,

Congress members, that affordability was the word was the issue people are most concerned about. What about President Trump mocking it? Well, I think he's mocking the American people when he mocks the issue of affordability. The reason people worry about affordability is things are not affordable. And the other way of putting it is that their real incomes, adjusted for inflation, are down. Now, one of the striking things about what President Trump has done, he talked about this tax cut, the biggest tax cut in history, He was wrong about that as a percentage of GDP. It doesn't even rank near the top.

But where it does rank at the top is that it was the most regressive tax cut. That is to say, the benefits went to the millionaires, the billionaires, the corporations, and those at the bottom paid the price. They paid the price with almost a trillion dollar cut in Medicaid. And that was why the Democrats had insisted on the government shutdown. They said, you can't do that. That's not right that you would be giving a tax cut for billionaires and asking the poorest Americans not to have adequate health care in a country where health care is being so bad, so bad that life expectancy even before the pandemic was on the down. Your final comments, Professor Stiglitz, coming off of what's considered one of the longest state of the unions

and assessment of this country in modern history. Well, you know, long speeches like that reminds me of Castro and other demagogues who just love, they get the platform, they just talk and talk and talk. But I think the striking thing is that in spite of the tariffs that we're supposed to bring back manufacturing jobs, manufacturing jobs are actually down, and in spite of the tariffs that we're supposed to eliminate the huge trade deficit in goods, the trade deficit in goods is actually up. So his policies have failed, even in the areas where he said, in the objectives that he set forth. So yes, his speech was filled with misleading statements, with lies. We've come to

expect that. But in the core aspect of his agenda, the numbers show that he has dramatically failed to do what he promised. Joseph Stiglitz, Nobel Prize winning economist, Columbia University professor, former chair of the Council of Economic Advisors. Professor Stiglitz is also currently the chief economist at the Roosevelt Institute, his new book, just out in paperback this week, the road to freedom, economics, and the good society. This is Democracy Now, Democracy Now.org. I'm Amy Goodman. On Tuesday night, Congresswoman Summerlee of Pennsylvania gave the working family's party response to Trump's state of the union.

So let's start with a simple truth. What we are witnessing from our government is authoritarianism. any response that doesn't acknowledge that truth is a disservice to Americans who deserve and need honesty right now. I listen to Donald Trump's speech tonight. While Trump and his friends profit off his presidency, he's gaslighting us. He wants to convince working families that we're better off under his regime. But we know the truth. Our country is in crisis.

For millions of Americans, affordability is out of reach. Trump has driven up the unemployment. rate, cutting thousands of federal jobs across the country. Everything he does is making Americans less safe at home and abroad. He's bringing us to the brink of wars in the Middle East and South America. And at home, ICE agents are hunting down human beings and cities are under siege. The FBI is raiding election offices in Georgia. Students are being disappeared for protesting tyranny and genocide in Palestine. The environmental protections we earned after a generation of advocacy are being stripped away. That was Pennsylvania Congresswoman Summer Lee giving the working families party response to the state of the union.

Joining us now from Capitol Hill, Congressman Lee, if you can carry on from what you were saying last night, you did not attend the state of the union. Tell us why as well. Because the president is disgraceful and I don't think it's worth our time to give him in an audience. That's what he wants. He wants to be able to tell us to our face lies and gaslight us to our face. And the reality is that we have better things to do at our time. And I think that there are people who deserve our attention far more than he does. So talk about the people's state of the union.

The people's state of the union on the mall last night with many Congress members like you as well as senators speaking out. I think it was an opportunity for us to get in front of the people who are harmed most by Trump's and Republicans' policies. Right now, people in this country, they really want an end to the status quo. They don't care about the pomp and circumstance and the decorum of this institution. They're wondering why we're not disrupting or doing things differently or at least not giving any more credibility to this administration.

So the people's state of the union, I would grateful for it because it was an attempt for us and an opportunity for us to walk away from him, to walk or turn our backs on a president that is insistent on lying to us and just talking straight to the people about a truth that they were just not going to get last night. And that started obviously before the state of the union, but there was no reason for any of us to believe that this would be the first night that he finally actually tells the American people the truth about the state, the truth about his policies, and the truth about what his intentions are for the. country. As you stand at the rotunda, I'm reminded that the House Speaker has said that Jesse Jackson's body cannot lay an honor in the Capitol, as John Lewis did, as Rosa Parks did. Can you talk about the significance of this and what Jesse Jackson meant to you? Certainly. I don't find that, I don't find that shocking. This whole administration, this past year, has been about attacking black folks, attacking our history, attacking the legacy that has been created out of movements, like the civil rights movement, like the black power movement, and so many more. So for him to kind of try to insult the Reverend Jesse Jackson and his legacy at this last final resting point,

It's not shocking. But the reality is that he could do no such thing, right? What Reverend Jackson has done and what he has met to this country is not interrupted or is not changed by the fact that Donald Trump would not do right by him in this last moment. This is a man who, aside from and has impacted people, my district and my life, me, myself, around his ministry, his activism, his politics, laying the groundworks for more progressive campaigning. when there is a desperate need for an alternative message and for alternative ways of doing your politics, Jesse Jackson came and ran for president. He set the foundation for so many people after him,

including me, to run on a progressive, unapologetically bold platform. So I'm grateful for the work that he's done, whether or not he is in the Rotunda or not. We still honor the history. We still honor the work that he did. But more importantly, we recognize that right now more than ever. We have to carry on the work. that what those civil rights activists, heroes, movement leaders did in 50 years ago is still

happening right now and that we have to re-up that battle. So right now, listen, don't focus as much on that. Focus on the attacks, not on his person, on attacks, not on his final farewell. Focus on the attacks on his work. Let's go back to President Trump, criticizing Democrats last night for not supporting the SAVE Act, which voting rights advocates warned could disenfranchise millions. And the reason they don't want to do it, why would anybody not one voter ID? One reason, because they want to cheat.

There's only one reason. They make up all excuses. They say it's racist. They come up with things. You almost say, what imagination they have. They want to cheat. They have cheated. And their policy is so bad that the only way they can get elected is to cheat.

And we're going to stop it. We have to stop it, John. So that was President Trump last night. I'm looking at a piece in the Hill saying, in fact, instances of non-citizen voting are exceedingly rare. A 2016 general election study showed an estimated 30 incidents of suspected, not confirmed, non-citizen votes out of 23.5 million, which is 0.001% of the votes cast. voter fraud generally also exceedingly rare. Numerous studies have found fraud rates that are just a fraction of 1%. Talking about Trump's claims of widespread fraud in the 2020 election rejected by 62

courts that reviewed the matter. If you could comment further, Congressman Lee, on what President Trump is trying to do here by questioning legitimacy of U.S. elections. Oh, we all know what he's trying to do. When you take away the lie, and it's not just on this topic, when you take away the lie, there is no foundation for President Trump. There's no foundation for any of his cronies to stand on. They have to lie to people to get folks round up. They have to lie to get conservatives to participate or to at least not come to the side of where people are actually fighting for their interest.

They don't want people to vote. They don't want people who won't vote for them to vote. So clarification. They don't want people who will vote for them to vote. So whether that's black folk or old or disabled people, they don't want you to vote because they want to continue on a system that has been rigged against you and in favor of them, of him and Elon Musk and his family and his friends, and all of his friends who are on the Epstein Fowls with him.

That's who he is consistently protected. That's who they're protecting right now when they don't release the rest of the Fowls. It is the same story over and over and over again. But we know the truth, right? As you said, the facts, the data, it speaks for itself. There is negligible amount of voter fraud. But instances of people, especially our elders, especially disabled folks, especially rural folks being able to access adequate ID is a real issue.

So why in a country, right, as well run as we say ours is, why would we make it harder for people to vote? There is no other explanation. I want to go back to President Trump, speaking about Iran. After midnight hammer, they were warned to make no future attempts to rebuild their weapons program in a particular nuclear weapons. Yet they continue starting it all over. We wiped it out, and they want to start all over again.

And at this moment, again, pursuing their sinister ambitions. We are in negotiations with them. They want to make a deal, but we haven't heard those secret words. We will never have a nuclear weapon. A massive military, U.S. military presence has been moved near Iran. Congressmember, Lee, your response to what President Trump is threatening. Again, he started the speech off by saying that he alone ended six or so wars while also using this opportunity to threat another country,

to threat another endless war, to threat countless people who have been tied up in these endless wars that the United States continuously finds itself in. I think that President Trump has completely abandoned any form of diplomacy, is completely abandoned any responsibility as this country, as powerful as us, with our weapons, with our military,

military to be a positive force in the world. And it isn't just Iran. He's doing this in Gaza. He's done this in the southern hemisphere. He's done it with Denmark. It is chaotic. It dangers us. And again, like I said last night, everything he does makes us less safe abroad and makes us less safe domestically. And it's important that we call that out at any attempt that every day we fight to get more people to understand how dangerous his presidency is and how dangerous his policies and his rhetoric are. Summer Lee, we want to thank you so much for being with us, Democratic Congress member from Pennsylvania, the first black woman to represent Pennsylvania in Congress gave the working

family's response to President Trump's State of the Union. Coming up, we stay in Washington, D.C., where we speak with Alia Rahman, who is a guest at the state of the union. She was removed from the gallery and arrested. Last month, video went viral of federal immigration officers in Minneapolis violently dragging her out of her car. As she said, I'm disabled. Stay with us. Trump's federal face and his chest. Unshots. And Alex pretty lay in the snow dead. Just don't these whistles and phones against Miller and Estes. Streets of Minneapolis by Bruce Springsteen.

This is Democracy Now, Democracy Now.org. I'm Amy Goodman. As we continue to cover President Trump's state of the union, we're joined now by Alia Rahman, who attended the speech as a guest of Minneapolis Congress member Ilhan Omar. Last month, federal immigration officers in Minneapolis violently dressed a guy. She told agents she was disabled that she had a brain injury, but they ignored her pleas for medical attention. She had been headed to a doctor's appointment when she was dragged out of her car. Video of the incident went viral. Last month, she testified at a hearing

held by Congressional Democrats in Capitol Hill. I was carried face down through the street by my cuffed arms and legs while yelling that I had a brain injury and was disabled. I now cannot lift my arms normally. I was never asked for ID, never told I was under arrest, never read my rights, and never charged with a crime. That was Alia Rahman's testifying on Capitol Hill. Last night, she was removed from the gallery at the state of the union, then arrested in jail. She got out at like 4 o'clock this morning. Alia, welcome back to Democracy Now.

Tell us what you went through last night. And then what happened to you in Minneapolis? Thanks for having me back, Amy. Yeah, I, the reason I am wearing the same outfit I was at the State of the Union. And in the media I did with Representative Omar, I was a guest of Representative Ilhan Omar's, is because I got out from a hospital visit and the custody of Capitol Police just before 4 a.m. And I had already been scheduled to talk to you,

so I figured I would come and tell folks what happened. I was not just removed and arrested. I was arrested so physically that two other attendees upstairs, attempted to intervene in officers pulling on my shoulders after I told them, I have a torn rotator cuff tendon and multiple cartilage tears in both of my shoulders. That is what happened in the audio you just played. That is why I cannot lift my arms normally. Two women in the gallery and thank you to the woman in the white shirt with the red writing

who said, I need you to take your hands off of her and just let her walk with her. her cane. They did not do that, and only when their own sergeant intervened in a back stairwell of that building to say, stop, we need to get her medical care and a wheelchair. Did they stop tugging on me? While again, I was saying disabled. Amy, would you like to know why I was told that I was removed and arrested? The sergeant of arms told me it was because I was standing up. silently. No buttons, no facial expressions, no gestures, no signs, not one sound. Standing up. There are only two things you can do at the State of the Union and they are sit down and stand up.

All kinds of people were standing up all night, me too. I stood up at the moment that I heard this man say some of the most racist things I have heard come out of any leader's mouth about the people of my city and continue to trash talk my state of Minnesota and glorify DHS, the people who did this to me and who are being allowed to roam free on the streets. If you could very quickly, I'm so sorry this happened to you, but explain why you have a torn rotator cuff, uh, cuff, why you have tendons. in both shoulders. Yes, I have a tendon ripped in one shoulder, and then in that same shoulder, another cartilage

rip, and in my left shoulder two cartilage tears with what my doctor called ragged pieces of tissue hanging in the joint that may need to be operated on. That happened because in the audio you played, I was talking about, when I was pulled out of my car, most people see the first part of that video. I was put on the ground behind my car, cuffed behind my back, and then carried through the street. Face down, I was lifted up by my wrists and ankles with my hands already cuffed behind my back.

And then once I was in the Whipple Center, instead of getting me a walking aid because I'm disabled, they just jerked me around by my shoulders for a while. So that's what I'm dealing with. That's what I came here with. and I really wonder if these folks have noticed yet that every time you try to break my body, you fuel my spirit. I was arrested for standing up.

This administration wins zero prizes for their command of metaphors, my friend. The reason I stood up at that moment was not to disrupt anything. I was silent. arms by my side. I stood up because hearing this level of racism, I wanted to see with my own eyes, unmediated by anyone's lens, who had still come to this building to govern if there were any grownups down there? Who really believes this lie that was used to brutalize our city, my body? And if unchecked, this is the lie that will be used to brutalize communities of color, all sorts of communities

as people in this country as black folks, indigenous folks, as this has happened for centuries based on lies. And you know what? I can't think of it ever a time that someone has been very physically arrested or arrested

at all or even removed for silently standing up at the state of the union. That is what you do. The only reason I can think that they thought me standing silently there was a protest, is because by this point, my body, unafraid, even if broken, standing and looking at these people in their face, well, that must be a protest to you.

You know, I wonder if there's a charge standing without applauding, because certainly Republicans stood up dozens of times throughout President Trump's state of the union and applauded. But you stood silently. And yes, and actually the moment that they physically started removing me by my shoulders, all kinds of Republicans were standing up. I know they were Republicans because who was seated next to me, sheriff, coffee county Alabama, and the mayor of one of the mayors from Nevada. They were standing up.

None of them were arrested. I was much quieter than them. Well, Alia Rahman, I want to thank you so much for being with us. Arrested at the State of the Union last night, just got out a few hours before this broadcast came right to the studio. Alia was a guest of Representative Ilhan Omar. Last month, federal immigration agents in Minneapolis violently dragged her out of her car as she told them she was disabled. Video of the incident went viral. We'll also link to our previous conversation with her after that attack.

This is Democracy Now, Democracy Now.org. We spend the last part of this show with Congressmember Adelita Grachova. One was among several Democratic lawmakers who boycotted Trump's state of the union last night. She joins us now from Washington, D.C. Her district concludes Tucson, Arizona, near the southern border with Mexico. Congress member, Grasava, thanks for coming back on. As we heard that violent description of what happened to Alia, I think. thought about you being pepper sprayed, intervening in an ice attack in your district.

You have talk about why you didn't attend last night, the state of the union. I just, I couldn't in good conscience sit there and listen to Trump go on and on with what we knew was going to be hours of lies, gaslighting, and maligning the very people that I represent. He talked about. And that's literally exactly what he did. He broke his own record for just continuing to just spew during the state of the union. There was no attempt to try to bring this country together. He literally pointed at Democrats and called them out.

I mean, so I'm grateful that I wasn't there. I did watch it because I think it's important for me to understand what is it that he's saying so we can push back on it. But, I mean, at one point, he was handing out a lot of medals, right? and I literally said out loud, I am waiting for him to give himself a medal. And in the next breath, he said, oh, I think I should get one of those medals. You know, he continued to talk about,

and I feel like we're dismissing some of the jokes, right, about, you know, it should be his third term, that kind of thing. I feel we need to be very afraid of we know what he has done when he caused a violent out, like violent outwe. burst, something that has changed our country forever because he thought that he won the election. It doesn't matter that we all know that that's not true because there are a percentage of people in this country that believe every lie that he spews.

It doesn't matter how much evidence is backing it up. And his campaign of cruelty has devastating consequences, just like you heard the stories in Minneapolis. We have those same stories all over the nation and including in our district. I'm sorry to say we only have a minute to go, but I wanted to ask about you giving your seat up to Mubeshire Khalif Hassan, a Minnesotan of Somali descent, who was a second guest of Congress Member Ilhan Omar of Minneapolis. If in these last seconds you can tell us why you gave it to him, another man, a U.S. citizen who was attacked by ICE. Because I thought it was. really important when Trump was going to spew lies about what the state of our union, that he has to look at the

into the eyes of the people that he's harming directly. And I had the opportunity to hear his story when I went to Minneapolis and thought, and I just, you know, offered my seat to Ilhan because I knew she had a lot of people directly impacted that she could bring with her. In the last 20 seconds, the expansion of these ICE detention centers that you have, have been fighting all over the country? Yep. I mean, they want to pop up everywhere. It's just literal warehouses of human suffering.

And I'm afraid for this country. I'm afraid for the constituents in my community because he is locking up citizens. And the process to get them out is costly, expensive, and is tearing our communities apart. Congresswoman Adelaide to, Grajava, I want to thank you so much for being with us, the first Latina to represent Arizona in Congress. That does it for our show. Democracy Now. Produce with Mike Burke, Dina Guzder, Nermin Shea, Maria Teresana, Nassar, Nassar, Trina Nadura.

I'm Amy Goodman. This is another edition of Democracy Now.