Democracy Now! Audio - Democracy Now! 2026-03-06 Friday

Episode Date: March 6, 2026

Democracy Now! Friday, March 6, 2026

From New York, this is Democracy Now. We've got no shortage of munitions. Our stockpiles of defensive and offensive weapons allow us to sustain this campaign as long as we need to. We have only just begun to fight. The U.S. and Israeli war on Iran has entered a seventh day. The Trump administration says the war is just beginning. We'll go to Lebanon as Israel intensifies its attacks. after ordering the entire population of southern Lebanon,

hundreds of thousands of people to flee their homes. Israeli officials are threatening to turn southern Lebanon into another Gaza. We are now on the northern border after the IDF instructed all residents of the area to evacuate. You wanted to bring hell upon us? You brought hell upon yourselves. The Dakhya will look like Kanyanus. Our northern residents will live in quiet, peace, and security. Then President Trump fires Christy Noem, is head of Homeland Security, after she was grilled by lawmakers over her record from corruption allegations to the killing of U.S. citizens in Minneapolis.

And finally, President Trump's hinting Cuba might be his next target after Iran. This weekend, Trump's hosting right-wing leaders from across Latin America as the U.S. deploy special forces to Ecuador. All that and more coming up. Welcome to Democracy Now, Democracy Now.org, the War and Peace Report. I'm Amy Goodman. The House of Representatives rejected a war powers resolution to rein in President Trump's ability to wage war against Iran. Four House Democrats joined nearly every Republican as the measure narrowly failed on a vote of 2012 to 219. The vote came as the U.S. and Israel intensifies bomb attacks across Iran, and one day after the Senate similarly rejected a war powers resolution,

Just two Republicans voted in favor of the House War Powers Resolution. This is its co-sponsor, Kentucky Republican Congress member Thomas Massey. The president says we had to strike first because an Iranian strike was imminent. Meanwhile, the Department of Defense conceded there was no evidence of an imminent Iranian strike. Some told us this war was about nuclear weapons. But six months ago, we were assured our last strike on Iran decimated their nuclear program. So which is it? I think the most candid answer came from the Secretary of State who told the press that Israel forced our hand and dragged us into this war again. And that

truth is the very reason why it is Congress that must decide war. In Iran, massive explosions shook the capital Tehran overnight as the city's 10 million and residents endured the most intense night of bombing since the U.S. and Israel launched a joint attack Saturday. There were airstrikes reported near Tehran University on an Iranian military academy on government buildings and on civilian sites, including residential buildings, car parks, and gas stations. Iran says more than 3,600 civilian sites across the country have been damaged in U.S.-Israeli attacks, including ambulances and two dozen medical facilities. Among the dead, according to Iran's state media, 20 people killed and 30 injured an attack on a residential area in the city of Shiraz.

Meanwhile, Sri Lankan officials have evacuated more than 200 sailors from a second Iranian Navy ship off Sri Lanka's coast. The evacuation came after a U.S. submarine fired a torpedo to sink in an Iranian frigate that was unarmed and in international waters killing. 87 people. On Thursday, Defense Secretary Pete Higgs says that Iran is making a mistake if it believes the United States cannot sustain the war indefinitely. We've got no shortage of munitions. Our stockpiles of defensive and offensive weapons allow us to sustain this campaign as long as we need to. We have only just begun to fight and fight decisively. Politico reports U.S. Central Command asked the Pentagon to send more military intelligence officers to its Florida headquarters to support operations against Iran for at least 100 days and likely through September. The Center for Strategic and International Studies reports the first 100 hours of U.S. attacks alone costs $3.7 billion.

On Thursday, President Trump told Axios in an interview, he needs to be personally involved. in selecting Iran's next leader, just as he was in Venezuela. Axios reports Trump acknowledged Motsdabakh Amani, son of the assassinated supreme leader, Ali Khan, is the most likely successor while making clear he finds that outcome unacceptable. Iran is continuing to fire retaliatory missiles and drones at Israel and nations across the Middle East that host U.S. military bases. Iranian missiles crashed down across Tel Aviv earlier today, sparking a fire and damaging several buildings, though no injuries were reported. One missile reportedly struck near Ben-Gurion Airport, which hosts U.S. aerial refueling tankers used in the war in Iran.

In Iraq, a drone struck an airfield operated by a U.S. firm in the northern Kurdish region causing a fire. Officials in Bahrain, say an oil refinery fire from an Iranian missile strike has been contained, Meanwhile, Qatar has fully shut down natural gas liquefaction and won't be able to start operations for at least a month, adding to a growing energy crisis caused by the U.S. Israeli attacks on Iran. On Thursday, U.S. stocks dropped dramatically with the Dow falling nearly 800 points as oil prices made their largest weekly gain and the highest since President Trump took office, the highest weekly gain since 2020. Lebanon's health ministry reports 123 people have been killed and 683 wounded since Israel began massive wave of attacks across much of Lebanon Monday. Among the dead or a five-year-old girl and a seven-year-old boy killed when the Israeli army raided their home in the town of Mashkara.

Over the past 24 hours, Israeli jets bombs southern and eastern Lebanese towns and southern suburbs of the capital Beirut after threatening residents to leave their homes or face debt. On Thursday, Israel's far-right finance minister, Bezalos Motrach, said that all of Beirut's southern suburbs will face devastation similar to Han Yunus in the Gaza Strip, which the Israeli military reduced to rubble. We are now on the northern border after the IDF instructed all residents of the area to evacuate. You wanted to bring hell upon us. You brought hell upon yourselves. The Dachia will look like Han Yunus. Our northern residents will live in quiet, peace and security. In the Gaza Strip, the World Health Organization warns stocks of essential medicines, trauma, and surgical supplies are running critically low, along with fuel needed to power medical equipment.

The crisis exacerbated after Israel closed all border crossings in Gaza as it launched attacks on Iran Saturday. The Khadam Shalom crossing has since partially reopened, but most crossings remain shut. This is Amjad al-Shawa, head of the Palestinian non-governmental organizations network in Gaza. If the crossings remain closed and aid in all its forms is not allowed in, whether medical, food, shelter supplies, and other basic necessities for Palestinian citizens, at the forefront of the water sector and the maintenance of water networks, we will be facing a dangerous situation and a return to famine, maybe in a form worse than before.

Christy Noem has been ousted from her position as Homeland Security Secretary on Thursday. President Trump announced on social media he was firing Noam in replacing her with Republican Senator Mark Wayne Mullen of Oklahoma. Mullins, an enrolled citizen of the Cherokee Nation, Noam had faced intensifying calls to resign or be impeached over her disastrous handling of Trump's immigration raids nationwide and the unchecked violent use of force by her federal agents, leading to the fatal shootings of at least four people, including U.S. citizens, Renee Good and Alex Preti in Minneapolis, which Nome then falsely labeled. She labeled them as domestic terrorists. Nome was also widely accused of corruption. Last year, she was photographed wearing a gold Rolex cosmograph Daytona that sells for about $50,000 as she toured El Salvador's notorious Seqat megaprism, where Trump had deported hundreds of Venezuelan immigrant. She posed in front of an overcrowded cell where dozens of men imprisoned at Seqat were seen wearing nothing.

but white shorts. Nome also oversaw a multi-million dollar self-promotional DHS advertising campaign. Trump told Reuters an exclusive interview Thursday he hadn't signed off on the $220 million campaign. We'll have more on Nome's ouster later in the broadcast. This all comes as the Department of Homeland Security remains under a partial shutdown after Senate Democrats blocked a Republican-led bill to fund DHS. Nome's firing was announced shortly before the vote. Earlier, Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut had reportedly said, quote, it might be easier for us to negotiate on DHS funding if Nome was fired. In Tennessee, a local Nashville journalist whose stories have been critical of ICE

was arrested and detained by federal agents earlier this week. Estefani Maria Rodriguez-Flores with the news outlet Nashville Noticius was reportedly taken during a traffic stop on Wednesday, despite the federal agent. not having an arrest warrant. The Tennessean reported Rodriguez Flores is from Colombia, has lived in the U.S. since 2021 with a tourist visa and work permit as pending green card and asylum applications. She's also married to a U.S. citizen. In South Sudan, at least 169 people were killed after dozens of armed assailants attacked a town near the border with Sudan. Victims included government soldiers and nearly 100 civilians with women and children among the dead.

a U.N. mission said it was sheltering more than a thousand civilians who fled the violence. A local official said the attackers were fighters aligned with Rik Meshire, one of two rivals for control of South Sudan during the five-year civil war that officially ended in 2018 after an estimated 400,000 people died from the fighting. Meanwhile, the medical charity, Doctors Without Borders, says 26 of its workers remain unaccounted for a month after they fled attacks on two medical facilities in the medical. South Sudan's Jong-Lei state. In the Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, more than 200 people were killed after heavy rains triggered a landslide at a major coal-tan mining site. About 70

children were reportedly among the victims. The Rubio-Mines are controlled by the M-23 rebel group, which disputed the government's death toll, claiming there had been a bombing at the mining site, and that only five people were killed. Al Jazeera reports the Rubio-Mine produces about 15 percent of the world's coal tan, an essential metal that's processed into tantalum to manufacture smartphones, electric car batteries, and other devices. Child labor is rife at the mines with workers facing what's been described as modern-day slavery conditions. And the civil rights pioneer Bernard Lafayette, who joined Freedom Rides and fought for voting rights in the Jim Crowe South has died at the age of 85. In the 1960s, Lafayette was a member of the student nonviolent

Coordinating Committee, he later became a faculty member at Auburn University in Alabama, where he lectured on nonviolent social change. Democracy Now last spoke to Bernard Lafayette in 2020 when he described how a white mob beat freedom riders, including Jimswerg and John Lewis, at a Greyhound bus station in Montgomery, Alabama in May 1961 as they were protesting segregated interstate travel. Well, since we got to the bus station, all of the protection disappeared. And we were on the platform. And Jim's work was beaten up and John Lewis was clobbered.

And I got kicked in the chest and had three broken ribs. So there was nothing you could do with broken ribs. So I went through the entire Freedom Rides with three broken ribs. I didn't tell my fellow freedom riders because they might have insisted that I have not gone. So I just kept quiet. How quietly suffered the entire trip. Bernard Lafayette was 85 years old. And in Chicago today, family and friends of the Reverend Jesse Jackson are gathering for a memorial service,

celebrating the life of the late civil rights leader who died in February at the age of 84. The service is open. to the public. And those are some of the headlines. This is Democracy Now. Democracy Now.org, the Warren Peace Report. I'm Amy Goodman in New York with Juan Gonzalez in Chicago. Hi, Juan. Hi, Amy, and welcome to all of our listeners and viewers across the country and around the world. The death toll in Iran has reached at least 1,300 as the U.S. and Israeli war enters a seventh day. Massive explosion shook the capital to Iran overnight as the city's 10 million residents endured the most intense night of bombing. Iran continues to retaliate by launching attacks

on Israel and Gulf nations allied with the United States. On Thursday, President Trump told Axios he needs to be personally involved in selecting Iran's next leader, just as he was in Venezuela. Meanwhile, Israel's escalating attacks on Lebanon after ordering the entire population of of southern Lebanon to flee or face death. In a video shared on Thursday, Israel's far-right finance minister, Bezal-Smotrick, threatened to turn areas of Lebanon into another Gaza. We are now on the northern border after the IDF instructed all residents of the area to evacuate. You wanted to bring hell upon us.

You brought hell upon yourselves. The dahya will look like Han Yunus. Our northern residents will live in quiet, peace and security. Displaced residents of Lebanon say they've left everything behind without knowing when or if they will be able to return to their homes. This is Alia Hajazi, a mother of 10 who fled southern Lebanon. They said they were going to strike Dahlia, so we left, and here we are sitting in the street like you can see. Now we don't know we're supposed to go. Where we should go honestly?

We don't have any shelter to stay. Brother, you know what I mean? I have 10 children. I don't know where my children are. They're displaced. I don't know where my children are. I have four sons and six daughters. Only this girl is with me.

Me and my husband. I don't know about the others. Each one is staying somewhere different. Everyone is living except us. We're not really living. I was six years old and I lived through DeWar in the 1971, 1982 and 2000-something. And it's still wars, wars, wars,

when are we going to be done with wars? We're not going to be done. Brother, I swear we're not going to be done. We go now to Beirut, where we're joined by Leila Hunis. She's an investigative journalist and writer based in Beirut. Her new piece for Dropsite News is headlined mass expulsion in Lebanon as Israel expands war. We don't know where to go. Layla, thanks so much for being with us.

If you can start off by just describing what's happening on the ground as tens of thousands of people are told to leave. their homes, the entire area of southern Lebanon, which also includes Tire, the Lebanon's second largest city? Yeah, so it all began on late Sunday night into Monday morning. It kind of, the beginning of it was marked by six very loud airstrikes that shook Beirut, waking many of us up, and we all knew that the war here had escalated once again. Since then, Israel first issued evacuation warnings for 50 villages, then 80 villages, and then completely, you know, said we are evacuating all villages south of the Lidani River. And then yesterday, chaos once again, when we heard that they're also issuing evacuation orders for Doha. As you heard, the individuals

who you just soundbited, you know, people are basically fleeing north with nowhere to go. Shelters are filling up rapidly. People are sleeping on the pavement in the winter nights. and it's completely unclear, you know, when this is going to end. And also the Lebanese Prime Minister, Noaaf Salam, has actually said that any retaliation or military action by Hezbollah against Israel is not sanctioned by the government. Could you talk about the government's response to the Israeli attack? Yeah, absolutely. So Noaaf Salam came into power. after the 66 days of escalated fighting in the fall of 2024 on a mandate really to disarm Hezbollah in the South.

And that mandate was, of course, coming from the U.S., which does fund the Lebanese army, as well as from the Gulf states. The hope, of course, is that, you know, the Americans and the Gulf states ultimately help fund not only the reconstruction of southern Lebanon, but Lebanon's been embroiled for years in the economic crisis since 2019.

And so that invest, has been promised to Lebanon on the condition that it disarms Hasbalah. So Nawab Salam, along with his supporters, have tried very hard for the past year to kind of push this agenda. We've seen the army, along with the United Nations peacekeepers stationed in the South, released footage of, you know, Hasbullah tunnels that they've discovered, weapons storage sites that they intend to demolish. And yet, you know, what we're seeing here is quite a blow to those plans.

Hasbullah clearly remains a... significant military capacity, even south of the Littani River. They are engaging in active fighting with the Israelis. They're shooting rockets towards Israel missile defense systems and so on. And so, you know, this, this obviously doesn't vote well for Noaf's agenda. And I think that with this latest move, calling Hezbollah's acts in Lebanon illegal, even, you know, making claims, you know, saying that he now wants to start pursuing them, asking the army to even, you know, arrest people who are shooting rockets into Israel is him kind of trying to signal to the international community that he continues to stand by that mandate. However, you know, we're hearing now from

the Israelis and the Americans that they want more, they don't want symbolic actions, quote, unquote, from the Lebanese government. They really want to see the army confront the Hezad, which is quite a daunting prospect, right? We're talking about, you know, what could look ultimately like a civil war if such a thing were to take place. And what's your sense of the intention here of Israel? Are they actually going to try to occupy and hold Lebanese territory? They've said that they intend to occupy at least 15 kilometers. They want to, into southern Lebanon.

We're talking about dozens of villages. And this is in addition to, I think it's really, really important to emphasize that Israel's already occupying land in southern Lebanon. Lebanon. After the 66 days of fighting, they occupied five different points within southern Lebanon. They're all up on hills from which they can send drones to surveil the people of the South. And so, you know, this is kind of in addition to what really has already been an occupation. They're now saying that they want to push in. They want to create a buffer zone. And so that is kind of their intention, whether or not they'll be able to do it.

Of course, at this very moment unclear. However, I should add that, you know, the people of the South will tell you, I think the vast majority of them, they fear even prior to all of these recent years of war, another occupation of southern Lebanon. It would not be the first. Southern Lebanon was occupied. It was a brutal occupation from the years of 1982 to 2000, liberation in 2000. And so people have that, the memory of that occupation, very fresh in their minds, in interviews that I have with people in the South. They've frequently point to what recently happened in Syria when the south of that country was disarmed following the fall of the Assad regime. You know, Israeli forces swept into the Golan Heights, took a lot more land, including land

with very rich water resources, blew up homes, blocked people from their farmland. And so, you know, there's great, great fear among the people of the South, but this is to be repeated again. Arab and Muslim leaders, I want to talk about them. But first, earlier today, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk warned about the situation in Lebanon. At the moment, with this blanket, massive displacement orders, we are talking here about hundreds and thousands of people. We are colleagues on the ground here every day about the anguish that people face, about not knowing where to go. not knowing how long it will take, obviously this raises serious concern under international humanitarian law,

and in particular when it comes to issues around forced transfer. On to the human rights leader of Oker Turks' comments. Sorry, Amy. May I'm not sure I heard you. May I mean, can you respond to Volker Turk's comments? Yeah, I mean, I think that what he's saying, it's very clear that this is illegal. This is ultimately, I mean, you know, we're not talking about issuing a warning for, for a building. We're talking about issuing warnings for the evacuation of an entire,

a massive, massive segments of the country. I think the word on everyone's mouths here is ethnic cleansing. The southern suburbs alone are home to half a million people. Those people are all now fleeing north. And I'd like to tell you the story of one of them. In my article, I write about Mustafa Arut, who is the Muhtad, another Arabic word for local leader of the village of Mesa Jabil on the border, you know, and he, I think the story of him and his young relatives is really one that I think encapsulates a situation very well, which is that, you know, he got the call to evacuate from the Israelis. He packs up with his family. He begins to head north in the middle of the night, nowhere to go. He gets to Saita, when I, I talked to him when

he's just reached Saita. It's taken him more than 12 hours on the road. He's fasting. It's Ramadan. He tells me that he's going to go. perhaps Siddah Zaharan, which is a village that also has an evacuation order, promises no safety. That is where he ended up staying the night, despite an airstrike there. And then on the way there, he learns that two of his young relatives were killed. These two young relatives, Haidhar and Rukhaya, ages two and four, were actually already living displaced. They were living displaced in the village of El Sultanea in the south. And so they're living displaced because their home in Mesa Jabil was destroyed.

and as they're picking up their things, their mother is carrying her children, about to leave the house and flee, and an Israeli air strike, you know, hits this home of these displaced people. So, you know, this idea, so what the UN Commissioner is saying is absolutely correct. I mean, this is a force transfer.

I mean, I think that even though we're seeing some people, like the people of the village of Al-Mashab, say we're not leaving, some people with Ddafi saying, we're not leaving, you know, the fact that this, order is so sweeping, it means that Israel could potentially, you know, come and say, oh, well, if we, you know, if we kill civilians, well, we issued an order for them. So, so, you know, we're not responsible for civilian deaths, which is ludicrous given, you know, the conditions here, the lack of

housing and the fact that people are kind of being asked to mass flee an entire region of a country. We're talking to Lela Yunus on the ground in Beir, Lebanon. We're also joined by Omar Shakir, the new executive director of Dawn. On Thursday, Dawn urged Iran to file a declaration granting the International Criminal Court jurisdiction over crimes committed in the U.S. and Israeli strikes on schools and hospitals. Omar's former Israel and Palestine director at Human Rights Watch, he's joining us from Amman Jordan. This whole issue of international law, Omar, if you can talk about how it applies to what

we're seeing with Israel and U.S.'s thousands of strikes on Iran begun on Saturday. and the thousands of strikes on Lebanon, as we're just hearing Laila describe. Absolutely. Look, I mean, there is more and more evidence emerging every single day of grave war crimes being carried out by the United States and Israel in Iran and Lebanon and across the region. International criminal law has developed mechanisms that can provide accountability for these crimes, but it requires states to take particular actions. So what Don is calling for now is for the Iranian government, as well as other affected states in the region, to file a declaration to give the International Criminal Court jurisdiction to look into serious crimes committed on their territory since February 28th. States do not need to be members of the International Court to file this declaration. In fact, both Ukraine and Palestine followed this particular route and ultimately it ended up ending up with the issuance of arrest war in. against perpetrators involved in the perpetration of very serious crimes.

There is action, these governments, who have been claiming and citing war crimes abuses. They can't take these actions to provide a pathway to justice. They should also be securing evidence. They should be providing access to and engaging with human rights fact finders, including the UN Office of Human Rights that was cited earlier, as well as commissions of inquiries that currently exist for Israel, Palestine, and for Iran. So at the end of the day, the abuses we are seeing are harrowing, but there are mechanisms. The U.S. has no veto on those mechanisms.

What is required is political will by these governments to ensure a pathway to accountability. But, Omar, some would say that, yes, the United States has no ability to veto, but it just simply has ignored international law and has faced really no consequences. So why should Iran even try to go through the formalities of requesting this kind of action by the international legal community? Look, I think, Juan, if you look at other contexts around the world, the mere fact of arrest warrants can have a deterrent effect. Certainly in covering Israel Palestine for many years, we've seen that reality. The only thing that has really led to any sort of, you know, Israeli government pullback has been the threat of accountability. or action. For example, the Palestinian village of Khan al-Ahmad in the West Bank, one of the reasons why it has not been demolished and destroyed was that there was a warning issued by the International

Criminal Court. And according to Israeli officials, after the fact, they noted that that served as a deterrent. We've also seen when action was taken by states in Europe and around the world around the EU-Israel trade agreement, we saw them ease up the restrictions on the blockade in Gaza. So ultimately, it's easy for us to be skeptical when we see. see what's happening in the world. And indeed, what we're seeing is very much a threat to the rules-based international order. But that order still has tools available to it, but it requires actions to be taken by states. So we have reasons to be skeptical. But in the face of, you know, dozens of schoolgirls and teachers blown to pieces in the face of, again, more than a dozen attacks

on hospitals in Iran, we're seeing the same playbook from Gaza there that led to a genocide being unfurled in Iran and in ways in Lebanon, but we have action that we can take, and it's critical that states take it. It may not stop the abuses, but it could have an effect, and at this point, what we need is action? And what about this whole issue of the Trump administration in particular, actually going after the human rights monitors or the legal community that is involved in making these decisions? I'm thinking of Francesca Albanese, of course, but also the judges of the International Criminal Court. The United States has certainly issued really draconian sanctions on prosecutors and judges,

as well as Palestinian human rights organizations, UN special procedures. Those are absolutely having an effect on those organizations. But at the same time, the International Criminal Court is continuing to do its work. It has already issued arrest warrants for Prime Minister Netanyahu and former Defense Minister of Galant for crimes against humanity and war crimes committed. in Gaza. They're ongoing investigations and other files. Francesca and the Palestinian human rights organizations have not stopped their work. They're continuing to document abuses. They're continuing to issue reports. They're continuing to be loud and vocal. At the end of the day, one,

it is the sign of weakness when instead of engaging with facts, instead of defending your positions, when you intact the messenger. And ultimately, those effects can be significant. But we, we are very lucky to have incredibly strong human rights defenders and mechanisms that are responding to this moment. So it's critical we give them the chance to succeed. And what governments today that are claiming war crimes are being committed, not just Iran, but states in the Gulf, Lebanon, there are steps they can't take. It's critical if there's ever going to be justice, if the perpetrators of the crimes that kill the schoolgirls in Iran that are killing people across the region. If there are any hope for justice, there needs to be preservation of evidence today.

That means securing sites, securing the weapons remnants. It means engaging with investigators so they can, every single day that passes, the evidence degrades. Ultimately, the path to justice is uncertain, but for it to even have a chance, states need to act. The human rights defenders are ready. What's lacking is political will. And also, could you talk, comment on the situation that we've been discussing in Lebanon in terms of Israel once again moving into Lebanese territory? Absolutely. Look, I mean, we have a clear track record of the Israeli government committing grave war crimes and other abuses in Lebanon, even during the so-called ceasefire over the last year. What we're seeing now with these mass evacuation orders, we saw that same playbook used in Gaza.

Human Rights Watch investigated those particular incidents and found that they amounted. to war crimes and crimes against humanity because it is impossible for you to order hundreds of thousands of people to evacuate. There's no safe place for them to go. There's no showing that that sort of mass order is necessary by, you know, is necessary given what the Israeli government has shown. They have not shown, made a sufficient finding that that's warranted. And ultimately, what we what we see is grave risk for civilians. Remember, there are many people that can evacuate. older people, people with disabilities. And in addition to that, the people that are being evacuated

aren't necessarily finding safe places to go because we've seen the Israeli government strike throughout the country. A ground invasion also pretends even further damage. So the situation in Lebanon is extremely worrying, especially when we know the context of what happened after October 7th and even during the ceasefire, we continued to see Lebanese being killed. ultimately the Israeli government because of impunity is emboldened across the region.

And unless we see a strong response from states that are willing to use the tools of accountability, as well as willing to take action, the risk to civilians across the region will continue to grow and grow day by day. Omar Shakiru, and thank you for being with us, new executive director of Dawn, speaking to us from Amman Jordan and Lela Yunus, investigative journalist and writer based in Beirut. We'll link to your new piece for Dropsite News, mass expulsion in Lebanon, as Israel expands war. We don't know where to go. Coming up, President Trump fires Christy Knoem as Secretary of Homeland Security. Thank you so much.

We'll be back in a second. What happened to the worst for which we once do. I would stand for you. Would you stand for me? I would lend a hand. Would you lend a hand to me? Just to be free. It's close to night.

I'll leave the candle, won't give up the fire. Oh, and I would stay to stay. Everybody deserves to be free by the Resistance Revival Chorus. This is Democracy Now. Democracy Now.org, the War and Peace Report. I'm Amy Goodman with Juan Gonzalez as we turn to Washington, D.C. On Thursday, President Trump fired Christy Noem, the Secretary of Homeland Security.

He announced the decision on social media and said Republican Senator Mark Wayne Mullen of Oklahoma would take over. Noam has been facing intensifying calls to resign or be impeached over a disastrous handling of Trump's immigration raids nationwide. She was grilled by lawmakers earlier this week at a series of hearings. on Capitol Hill. This is Republican Senator Tom Tillis of North Carolina questioning Nome about the shooting deaths of U.S. citizens Renee Good and Alex Preti in Minneapolis. The fact that you can't admit to a mistake, which looks like under investigation, it's going to prove that Ms. Good and Mr. Petty probably should not have been shot in the face and in the back. Law enforcement needs to learn from that. You don't protect them by not looking after the

facts. Not only should the FBI be investigating it, but every. single law enforcement agency in that jurisdiction should be invited to it. So our law enforcement officers do not have this poll cast upon them. No one was also widely accused of corruption. In one instance, she oversaw a self-promotional Department of Homeland Security advertising campaign that cost $220 million. The no-bid contract was awarded to a newly formed limited liability company, which then subcontracted with the strategy Group, a company whose CEO, Ben Yoho, is married to Nome's former assistant secretary at DHS, Tricia McLaughlin, who just left. This is Republican Senator John Kennedy of Louisiana.

You're testifying that President Trump approved this ahead of time? It's not my understanding. We had conversations about making sure that we were telling people. No, ma'am. I'm asking you, sorry to interrupt. But the president approved ahead of time. you spending $220 million running TV ads across the country in which you are featured prominently. Yes, sir. We went through the legal processes. Did it correct?

Did the president know you're going to do this? Yes. He did? Yes. Okay. President said in an interview with Reuters, he had not signed off on the spending. While Noam is being removed as DHS secretary, President Trump said she'll stay in the administration in a newly created role, special envoy to the Shield of the Americas, an initiative Trump said would be formally announced this weekend in a summit in Miami.

We'll talk more about that later in the broadcast. But first, for more on Nome's ouster and her replacement, were joined by two guests. Chris Stein is the senior politics reporter for the Guardian U.S. His most recent piece headline Trump fires Homeland Security Secretary Christy Nome. He's joining us from Washington, D.C. In New York, Justin Elliott, reporter for PauPublica, co-author of several investigative reports on Christy Knoem, including the most recent Christy Noem, misled Congress about top aides role in DHS contracts. Layout, Justin, if you will, the corruption allegations against Noam.

And again, she has not been entirely removed from the Trump administration, just move to a different role at this point. Yeah, I mean, the precipitating event that led to her firing was that exchange you played with the Republican Senator Kennedy from losing. about this ad campaign. And this ad campaign's been going on actually for, you know, since the very beginning of the Trump administration, as you said, $220 million of taxpayer money for these ads, some of which featured Noem on horseback in front of Mount Rushmore. And, you know, this did not go through the normal competitive process, went to a Delaware LLC

that was formed only a few days before, before getting this absolutely massive contract. We reported that one of the subcontractors, as you mentioned, was a Republican media firm run by the husband of the now former DHS spokesperson, Trisha McLaughlin. You know, it turned out they actually got a relatively small amount of money, but more money went to a couple of other Republican media firms that handled the ad buying for President Trump's campaign. And I will say that, you know, in sort of partial defense of gnome on this, if, if President Trump or the White House had a problem with this ad campaign, you know, this was no secret.

It was announced by press release a year ago. The ads were literally running on Fox and Friends with which President Trump watches. President Trump is featured in the ads, not just Chrissy Knoem. They look like sort of campaign style ads promoting both Nome and Trump. So I will say the official story here about the White House being upset about these ads is a little bit peculiar. And, Justin, could you also talk about in the hearings that were held, the focus also on the role of Corey Landowski as a special government employee under Christenholm? Absolutely. So people may remember Lewandowski. He was the Trump campaign manager way back in 2016. he was occupying this, I think, unprecedented role where he was technically a volunteer,

not drawing a government salary, but was effectively co-running the department alongside Nome. What that means is that he's actually permitted to have some types of outside income, unlike any other normal government officials. So one of the major unanswered, still unanswered questions is who was paying Lewandowski? How is he paying the rent?

Was he being paid by companies, lobbying firms? At the same time that he was essentially co-running one of the most powerful agencies in the government. By the way, we're still reporting on that. Please get in touch with me if anyone out there has information about it. But Noam was asked about this at the hearing, and she denied that he has a role in approving contracts. we reported, based on documents that we obtained, that he was literally signing off on contracts. So that was not a correct description of what his actual role has been at DHS. Not only signing off on contracts, as you pointed out, but it was in her office firing people.

And, of course, there was a number of questions by the senators and the Congress members. There were two days of hearings about her having a lot of. affair with someone who was supposedly reporting to her, though she ultimately said, no, he is reporting to President Trump. I wanted to bring Chris Stein into this conversation, the senior politics reporter for the Guardian U.S. The question is, as you report on Nome's ouster, and now the Oklahoma Senator Mark Wayne Mullen being Trump saying that, nominating him for this position in the cabinet. Isn't she just the face of the immigration policies of the Trump administration crafted by Trump and Stephen Miller? Stephen Miller, the architect of them?

Talk about Mark Wayne Mullen and his stance on immigration. I mean, a lot of issues were raised about her calling the U.S. citizens who were killed. by immigration agents, domestic terrorists, before there was any kind of investigation or even evidence of this. I wanted to turn first to Jamie Raskin of Maryland questioning Nome over those statements. Based on what you know today, Madam Secretary, were Renee Good and Alex Pready domestic terrorists? Congressman, what happened in Minnesota in those two incidents was an absolute tragedy. Were they domestic terrorists, as you said to the country?

My condolences to their families, because I know that their lives will never be the same after that happened. Is that an apology for what you said? We, in those instances, offer as much information as we can from officers and agents on the ground in a chaotic scene that gets... I'll repeat my question, reclaiming my time. Based on what you know today, Madam Secretary, based on what you know, today were Renee Good and Alex Pready domestic terrorists. As you know, there's ongoing investigations that are being led by the FBI. Oh, but you didn't wait for the investigation, did you?

You didn't wait for the evidence. You proclaimed that they were domestic terrorists at the time. So, Chris Stein, if you can comment on this interaction, but also what Mark Wayne Mullen brings to this, the senator now nominated. to be Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security. Well, what you just said, you know, regarding how Nome was the face of immigration policy that really came from Stephen Miller at the White House. And, of course, it was approved by Donald Trump as exactly what top Democrats said, you know,

right after the ouster of Nome was announced. And Mark Wayne, Mullen was announced as her replacement. You know, they have their own set of demands for the Department of Homeland Security. and they basically said that, you know, no matter who leads it, we're going to continue pursuing these demands. You know, the person that has been chosen, Senator Mullen from Oklahoma, is someone who, when I encounter him at the Capitol, you know, I know he's going to kind of defend the president on the issue of the day. He's not a senator known for opposing, you know, President Trump or getting ahead of him or any, you know, having daylight between him in any way. And when it comes to the

issue of immigration, he has been known as a hardliner, you know, has come forward making statements, you know, about ways in which he believes people who are here without documentation can be cracked down on or encouraged to leave or things that are happening in the immigration system that he thinks needs to be fixed. So he clearly has thoughts on this subject. He's not someone who the president has ever, you know, trouble with. He often talks to the press. He's out and about. saying these things. So in that way, he is, you know, kind of an ideal pick to leave the Department of Homeland Security from the President's perspective. And Chris, what about Mullins' own previous business activities and potential conflicts of interest as a new Secretary of Homeland Security?

He ran a plumbing business prior to winning election to the House of Representatives in 2012. He was also an MMA fighter. You know, he's been in politics now for about 15 years. You know, I don't think he necessarily has the same sorts of entanglements that we saw with Christy Noem and Corey Lewandowski. At least we don't know of anything like that yet. Back in November, 2023, during a Senate hearing, Oklahoma Senator Mark Wayne Mullen challenged Teamster Sean O'Brien to a fight with committee chair, Senator Bernie Sanders stepping in to diffuse the situation as Mullen got up from his seat to confront O'Brien. Do you want to run your mouth? We can be too consenting adults. We can finish it here. Okay, that's fine. Perfect. You want to do it now? I'd love to do it right now.

Well, stand your butt up then. You stand your butt up. Oh, hold on. Oh, stop it. Is that your solution every poll. No, no, sit down. Sit down. You're a United States senator. Act it. Chris Stein. When I think about that clip, it was obviously, you know, pretty eyebrow raising at the time, quite a thing to have happened in the middle of a Senate committee hearing. But then the Teamsters went on to, you know, not endorse in the 2024 election, even when in the past they endorsed Democrats.

I mean, that certainly isn't the reason why Kamala Harris lost. But, you know, you saw Sean O'Brien go and speak at the Republican National Convention, but not the Democratic National Convention. So for all the fireworks there at the end of the day, they ended up actually helping out Senator Mullen's side much more than they did the Democrats. I want to thank you both for being with us. Chris Stein, senior politics reporter for the Guardian U.S. and Justin Elliott reporter for ProPublica.

We'll link to both your pieces at DemocracyNow.org. Coming up this weekend, President Trump is going to preside over a gathering of right-wing leaders from across Latin America in Florida as he threatens to target Cuba next. Stay with us. Just an American boy. He's done MTV. Seeing all them kids. So the Popsack like me.

I'm looking around. This thing I heard that made sense was the way upon him. John Walker's Blues by Steve Earl performing in our Democracy Now studio. This is Democracy Now, Democracy Now.org. I'm Amy Goodman with Juan Gonzalez. This weekend, the Trump administration's hosting right-wing leaders from across Latin America. in Florida for the, quote, shield of the America's summit to launch a new security initiative for the Western Hemisphere. The heads of state from Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Costa Rica,

the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Honduras, Panama, Paraguay, Trinidad, and Tobago, and possibly others are confirmed to attend. The White House said the initiative will be to reinforce the so-called Donro Doctrine, signaling a level of U.S. intervention in Latin America, seen since the Cold War. Speaking on Thursday at the America's counter-cartel conference at U.S. Southern Command, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth urged Latin American countries to take a more aggressive approach against drug cartels, threatening the Trump administration will otherwise be forced to act. And today, some 200 years later, we still marvel at the wisdom of President Monroe's declaration. We, like you, want borders and sovereign terrorists.

that are secure. We want unfettered access to key terrain and trade so that our nations can industrialize. And we want to prevent external powers from threatening our peace and independence in our shared neighborhood. This is the essence of the Monroe Doctrine. No external power will interfere in this hemisphere. Ours should be a region of strong, sovereign nations. It's the same principle that animates President Trump's defense approach today. President Trump and his Department of War are ushering in a new era of homeland and hemispheric defense. This comes as U.S. Special Forces are now in Ecuador to conduct joint military operations with Ecuadoran commandos to reportedly target suspected drug traffickers. And as President Trump

has suggested, regime change in Cuba might be his next target after attacking Iran and Venezuela. For more, we're joined by Jake Johnson, Director of International Research at the Center for Economic and Policy Research, author of the book, AIDS, State, Elite Panic, Disaster, Capitalism, and the Battle to Control Haiti. He's joining us from Washington, D.C. Can you explain what this meeting is about and talk about Cuba now in the crosshairs? Yeah, of course, and thanks for having me. I mean, I think, you know, on its surface, the show, the summit is a show, right? opportunity for Trump to play out a moment of imperial fantasy in front of fans in South Florida. But I think taking a step back, you know, this does fit very much in line with what has been really in many ways a bipartisan and decades-long strategy of undermining and breaking the left governments in Latin America and consolidating a pro-US right-wing, you know, block throughout

the hemisphere. And so you see the countries that have sort of appropriately shown their fidelity to the Trump administration into U.S. policy get invited, and those that don't face the wrath of the Trump administration. We've seen that in Venezuela, in Colombia, in Mexico, and elsewhere, and obviously, as you mentioned, in Cuba. And Jake, for, I guess, for more than 80 years, the main sort of international body that the United States supported in Latin America was the OAS, the Organization of American States. What does this say, this attempt to create a right wing, a bear? basically poll in Latin America say about U.S. policy toward the region.

Yes, a really great point, right? I mean, for decades, we've been saying, oh, the OAS is largely controlled by the U.S. It's run by the U.S. The U.S. is, you know, funding more than half of its budget. And that's true. It has largely advanced U.S. interest. And for this administration, even that's not enough, because it is a forum that everyone is invited to, and there are, you know, actual rules, and it's an institution. That obviously doesn't suit this administration desires, right, which is to really erode those institutions, erode any concepts of sovereignty and international law. And we can see, you know, how this is not just about this hemisphere, right? I mean, you mentioned the Donne Roe doctrine, this Trump corallery to the Monroe doctrine, right?

And this is often interpreted as sort of a retrenchment from the rest of the world. I mean, one, we've seen Trump bomb all over the world indiscriminately, and so I don't think that was ever true. But also, you know, looking at historical parallels here, when the United States, States has sort of focused internally on the Western Hemisphere. That is largely about consolidating control here to then export that globally and extend that globally. And you saw you played in the intro, right, Trump sort of referencing his intervention in Venezuela now with Iran. You can see him doing this. Now, of course, they haven't actually consolidated control in Latin America, but you can see that sort of logic using the hemisphere as sort of a place. As Greg Granon, a frequent guest on your

show, you know, it's called at the Empire's Workshop. So we see how this, you know, the targeting of Cuba, the targeting of Venezuela, the indiscriminate bombing and extraditional killings with the drugboats in the Caribbean and the Pacific and all of these things. This is not just about the hemisphere. This is about U.S. power more globally. And also, could you comment about the countries that are absent from this? Well, clearly, countries like Nicaragua and Cuba, and to some degree, even Venezuela, would be excluded by the U.S., but the three largest countries in population in Latin America, Brazil, Mexico, and Colombia are also not a part of this effort. How do you feel their governments are dealing, specifically Mexico, with this increased

pressure from the Trump administration to lock down and control all of Latin America? Yeah, I think this is really important, obviously. And we've seen, you know, pushback from Colombia, from Brazil, from Mexico. And I think it is, you know, worth noting. This represents about half of the population in the hemisphere. So we can present this, you know, divided region or, you know, all of these right-wing governments. But there is still this significant block. But, of course, they're under extreme pressure, right?

What this administration has shown with the bombing of Caracas, the abduction of Maduro, these extraditional killings, right, is that they will go to extreme lengths to punish you if you do not get in line. Mexico, Colombia, and Brazil have all faced that, right? have all tried to face that and are trying to survive. So I think we do have to understand that. And alone, they are weaker, right? This requires a broader regional and institutional response to check this administration's sort of total erosion of international law. And what we've seen, I think, you know, this effort to gather the right wing is intended to prevent that, right? is intended to prevent any meaningful opposition to U.S. policy, both in the hemisphere and writ

large, and we've seen that, right? So after the abduction of Maduro, Salak, which is a regional grouping involving all of the countries in Latin America and the Caribbean, but excluding the United States, met to try and come up with a statement. And actually, a majority of countries did agree to a statement, but a small block, nine countries intervened to stop that statement from coming out. There was no official statement. Now, those nine countries are now, almost all of them, to Miami to this summit, right? And you can see in the run-up to this, the news of the summit came out about three weeks ago. And you've seen this sort of rash of decisions from leaders in the region to sort of show their fidelity to the U.S. So ending cooperation with Cuba, you know, and all

sorts of other diplomatic decisions. We saw Honduras and Bolivia actually withdraw from the Hague Group, which was a diplomatic and institutional initiative to try and use international law to end the genocide in Gaza in which a number of countries in Latin America had been a part of, including Colombia, Brazil and Mexico, and Honduras and Bolivia under left-win governments had also been a part of that. They both recently withdrew just in this last week as the Hay Group is meeting with 40 countries to try and come up with an institutional response to this. So you can see, again, how this is about, you know, using the hemisphere. And I think sort of ironically, much of international law and these concepts of sovereignty really came out of Latin American thinking and the administration

now sort of using that same region to undermine them globally. And finally, Jake, U.S. Commandos joining U.S. Special Forces in Ecuador, joining Ecuador and commandos in this last 20 seconds? Yeah, exactly. I mean, look, this is a hyper-militarized and overtly politicized remix of the war on drugs and the war on terror, right? Ecuador has been begging for the U.S. to get involved in that for, for, and since Naboa took power. But this is not about drugs.

This is not about terror. I mean, the U.S. pardoned Juan Orlando Hernandez that convicted drug trafficking former president of Honduras. And Naboa and Ecuador, his own family has been accused of involvement in the drug trade. And so, look, this is about politics. This is about power. This is not about drugs. And this is not about democracy or anything else. We want to thank you for being with us, Jake Johnston, director of international research at the Center for Economic and Policy Research.

That does it for our show. I'm headed to Savannah, Georgia, where the award-winning documentary, steal the story, please, about 30 years of Democracy Now, will be at the Hindsight Film Festival, at the Ben Tucker Theater, at the Otis Johnson Cultural Arts Center. That's Saturday night at 7 p.m. I'm Amy Goodman with Juan Gonzalez for another edition of Democracy Now.