Democracy Now! Audio - Democracy Now! 2026-03-11 Wednesday

Episode Date: March 11, 2026

Democracy Now! Wednesday, March 11, 2026

From New York, this is Democracy Now. As the U.S. and Israeli war in Iran enters its 12th day, we'll speak to a former Marine who was arrested and had his arm broken while protesting the war during a Senate hearing. We'll also look at how the Pentagon, under Pete Hegset, has slashed teams meant to limit civilian casualties. Iran now says the U.S. and Israel have hit 10,000 civilian sites killing over 1,300 civilians. Then to the killers of Roe. The history of abortion rights in this country is a 50-year history of women dying preventable deaths at the behest of men who in many cases believe they had a direct line to God. It's a pretty tough history to stomach. And so the murder mystery theme started out as a way for me to entice myself to tell a real.

really difficult and serious story with some moments of levity and escapism. We'll speak to Amy Littlefield, author of the new book, Killers of Roe, my investigation into the mysterious death of abortion rights. All that and more coming up. Welcome to Democracy Now. Democracy Now.org, the War and Peace Report. I'm Amy Goodman. The U.S.-Israeli war in Iran has entered its 12th day.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced that Tuesday was the most intense day of U.S. strikes on Iran. Iranian authorities say U.S. and Israeli forces have bombed nearly 10,000 civilian sites in the country and killed more than 1,300 civilians since the war began. This morning, Iran says it targeted Israel's military intelligence agency, a naval base in Haifa and an Israeli radar system. Meanwhile, the Pentagon says Iranian strikes across the region has so far injured 140 U.S. service members killing seven U.S. troops. Another one has also died. This is White House Press Secretary Carolyn Levitt. What is your current timeline for how long the war will last? So look, as you know, Steve, the president and the U.S. military's initial timeline was about four to six weeks to achieve the full objectives of Operation Epic Fure. again, to destroy their missiles and their ability to make them, destroy their Navy,

permanently deny them nuclear weapons forever, and to, of course, weaken their evil terrorist proxies in the region. The Pentagon reportedly spent $5.6 billion worth of munitions during the first two days of striking Iran, according to a cost estimate shared with Congress. The Trump administration is expected to send Congress a supplemental military budget request this week. It comes as the Trump administration's reportedly considering deploying special forces into Iran to secure its stockpile of highly enriched uranium. This is Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal. I guess I am most concerned about the threat to American lives

of potentially deploying our sons and daughters on the ground in Iran. We seem to be on a path toward deploying American troops on the ground in Iran to accomplish any of the potential objectives here. Meanwhile, a New York Times analysis of missile fragments from the site of the bombing of the girls' school in Minab in southern Iran on February 28th resemble the markings of a U.S.-made cruise missile. It adds to the mounting evidence that U.S. forces struck the girls' primary school. It comes as Iran's foreign minister, Abbas Arakchi, dismissed the Trump administration's claims Iran was planning a preemptive strike against the U.S. as a sheer and utter lie, unquote. On Axe, wrote, quote, the sole purpose of that lie is to justify Operation Epic Mistake, a misadventure engineered by Israel and Pays. for by ordinary Americans, he wrote. This is Iran's ambassador to the UN, Amir Sayad Iravani.

Their intention is clear to terrorize civilians, massacre innocent people, and cause maximum destruction and suffering. The world is witnessing how a rogue and irresponsible state together with an illegitimate regime is targeting the Iranian schools, hospitals, residential, build, and a state, infrastructure, sports hall, and relief facilities. These attacks have already claimed the lives of hundreds of innocent civilians, including women and children. Israel continues its attacks on Lebanon with the war expanding to central Beirut.

An Israeli strike on a Ramada hotel killed at least four people. Israel claimed it was targeting commanders with Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps. According to the Lebanese government, Israeli strikes have killed 570 people in Lebanon, including over 80 children, while 750,000 people have been forced to flee their homes there. This is Basma Ramadan, who witnessed an Israeli strike on a building near her. We were sleeping. At around 5.30 a.m., I was asleep with my husband. My son was still awake after coming back from work. The sound was indescribable. The fear is indescribable. Enough is enough. Enough. This is a nightmare. When will it end? We can't, we really can't endure it anymore. Iran continued to fire retaliatory missiles and drones at targets across the Gulf region. Saudi Arabia says it destroyed five Iranian drones heading toward the kingdom's Shebaah oil field.

Kuwait set it down to eight drones off the coast of the United Arab Emirates and the Strait of Hormuz. A projectile hit a container ship. The Dubai government says that air defenses intercepted two drones near Dubai airport, injuring four people. In Iraq, a drone hit a major U.S. diplomatic facility next to the Baghdad airport. CNN's reporting Iran has laid a few dozen mines in the Strait of Hormuz and has the capability to place hundreds more. The U.S. military said it attacked and destroyed six. Iranian mine-laying vessels near the strait. Since the beginning of the war, international tankers have largely avoided the strait of Hormuz, and shipping traffic has considerably slowed.

The U.S. Israeli war in Iran has caused oil prices to surge from less than $70 a barrel on February 27th a day before the war to a peak of nearly $120 a barrel by Monday. Prices have now settled to about $90 a battle, a barrel. According to AAA, the average price of U.S. gasoline has shot up to $3.48 a gallon from just under $3 a week ago. The Iran War is also driving up the cost of fertilizers such as urea, ammonia, and other nitrogen products that are critical for food production. The American Farm Bureau Federation sent a letter to the White House saying, unquote. We are deeply concerned that failure to act could lead to disruptions to the food supply chain not seen since 2022 when food price inflation reached 40-year highs, unquote.

Reuters reports U.S. oil company Chevron and Shell are close to finalizing a deal that would become the first major oil production agreement with Venezuela since the U.S. abducted the former president, Nicolas Maduro, and his wife, Silia Flores. Just weeks after, Venezuela's interim leader, Delci Rodriguez, signed a law that opened Venezuela's oil industry to privatization, reversing a key principle of the Chavista movement and persevered in Venezuela for more than two decades. The artificial intelligence company Anthropic is suing the Trump administration after the

Pentagon designated Anthropic as a supply chain risk, unquote. That's after Anthropic refused to lift restrictions on its AI tool clawed, prohibiting the military from using it for autonomous weapons or domestic surveillance. It comes amidst reports that the Pentagon relied on Anthropics Clod tool to strike a thousand targets in the first 24 hours of its attack on Iran. The Pentagon had also reportedly used Claude in the abduction of Venezuela's former president. Nicolas Maduro and his wife. Meanwhile, a senior member of OpenAI's robotics team has resigned over the company's new partnership with the Pentagon. Caitlin Kowlenowski said she was stepping down on principle after Open AI agreed to make its AI systems available inside the Pentagon. A whistleblower complaint alleges a former worker with the so-called Department

of Government Efficiency or Doe. access two restricted databases and plan to share the highly sensitive information with a private employer. That's according to the Washington Post, which reported the Social Security Administration's internal watchdog is now investigating the complaint. If the allegations are confirmed, it would constitute an unprecedented breach of security protocols at the agency. The two databases included the records of over 500 million people in the United States living and dead. The former Doge employee reportedly copied the data onto a personal thumb drive. This adds to the mounting reported violations of Elon Musk's Doge as its slash funding for federal agencies.

Alabama's governors commuted the death sentence of Charles Sonny Burton, a 75-year-old African-American man who spent three decades on death row for a killing he did not commit. Burton was convicted for the 1991 fatal shooting of Doug Battle during a store robbery. Burton participated in the robbery, but it already left when the person he was with shot and killed battle. Republican Governor K.I.V.'s decision came two days before Burton was scheduled to be executed using nitrogen gas. The daughter of the victim, Tori Battle, had joined calls to commute Burton's death sentence, writing in an op-ed for the Montgomery

advisor, quote, my love for my father does not require another death, especially one that defies reason, unquote. Burton uses a wheelchair due to his painful arthritis. He will now serve a life sentence without parole. Governor Ivy has presided over at least 25 executions in Alabama. staff members at Columbia University in New York Presbyterian Hospital were discouraged from reporting abuse committed by convicted gynecologist Dr. Robert Haddon, who sexually assaulted hundreds of women over the span of more than 20 years while employed at both institutions. That's according to a new independent report, which blames the systemic abuses on Columbia's culture of silence as the university protected Dr. Hadden even after he was accused of assaulting a patient in 2012 and arrested.

The external investigation says Haddon used his prestigious position to prey on women. Hadden was sentenced to 20 years in prison in 2023. A statement from the survivors of Haddon's abuse said, quote, Survivors in the public at large have spent more than a decade rightfully demanding, the truth about what happened to Columbia. We are still waiting, they said. To see our extensive coverage of this case and interviews with many survivors, go to our website at Democracy Now.org. The Justice Department has reached a major settlement with Live Nation, the parent company of Ticketmaster, avoiding a breakup of the world's largest live entertainment company. The Justice

Department had accused Live Nation of operating an illegal monopoly on the concert business. According to the terms of the settlement, Live Nation agreed to change how it makes sickening deals with venues and would also pay up to $280 million in damages. Dozens of states have vowed to continue legal action against Live Nation. New York Attorney General Letitia James said, quote, we will keep fighting this case without the federal government so that we can secure justice for all. all those harmed by live nations monopoly, unquote. In Oregon, a federal judge is continuing to restrict federal agents from using tear gas on protests outside an ice building in Portland.

The preliminary injunction comes as part of a lawsuit filed by the ACLU and testimony by several protesters, including a married couple in their 80s and freelance journalists who describe having chemical or projectile munitions used against them. Video footage cited in court reportedly showed masked DHS officers discharging tear gas and firing pepperball munitions into crowds of peaceful protesters. U.S. District Judge Michael Simon described the aggressive tactics on nonviolent demonstrators as objectively chilling. And Chilean LGBTQ and women's rights activists are gearing up for the inauguration of Jose Antonio Cass today, the most right-wing president elected in Chile since the U.S. back Pinnishe military dictatorship.

Kast advocates for a total abortion ban in Chile and is a congressman voted against the right to a divorce in 2004. Kast is an unapologetic supporter of Pinnishe whose father was a member of the Nazi Party. Kast Party has announced plans to repeal Chile's current abortion law, which allows the procedure in cases of rape. And those are some of the headlines. This is Democracy Now, Democracy Now.org, the War and Peace Report. I'm Amy Goodman. Iran's accused the U.S. and Israel of killing more than 1,300 civilians and striking over 10,000 civilian sites during the first 12 days of the war.

U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth described Tuesday as the most intense day of U.S. attacks in Iran to date. Israel is also escalating its attacks on Lebanon, killing at least 19 people today, bringing the total to at least 570 since the war began. Nearly 800,000 people have been displaced in Lebanon. Earlier today, Israel struck a high-rise apartment building in central Beirut. Meanwhile, Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said it launched overnight its most intense and heaviest operation targeting Israel as well as U.S. allies in the Gulf. The New York Times reports Iranian strikes over the past 12 days have damaged at least 17 U.S. so far, including military bases and key air defense infrastructure.

On Tuesday, a drone attack hit a major U.S. diplomatic compound in Baghdad Iraq. The Pentagon's also revealed 140 U.S. troops have been injured in addition to the seven U.S. service members killed. Another service member has also died. On Tuesday, Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal spoke to reporters after receiving a classified briefing on the war. I emerged from this briefing as dissatisfied and angry, frankly, as I have from any past briefing in my 15 years in the Senate. I am left with more questions than answers, especially about the cost of the war.

my questions have been unanswered and I will demand answers because the American people deserve to know and I guess I am most concerned about the threat to American lives of potentially deploying our sons and daughters on the ground in Iran. We seem to be on a path

toward deploying American troops on the ground in Iran to accomplish any of the potential objectives here. We begin today's show with Akbar Shahed Ahmed, senior diplomatic correspondent for HuffPost. His recent piece has headlined Israel's applying Gaza logic to Lebanon with Trump's blessing. He's also reported on how the Pentagon, under Pete Hegeseth, has slashed teams meant to limit civilian casualties. His upcoming book titled Crossing the Red Line, Biden, his advisors, and Israel's War in Gaza. Ockbred, thanks so much for being with us again. I want to start off with this piece you wrote before Trump bombed Iran Pentagon slash teams meant to limit civilian casualties.

Explain. Absolutely, Amy. There's been a real effort in the U.S. government through the kind of post-9-11 moment through the catastrophes in Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Syria, to try to learn some lessons from that experience, to think why does the US end up in these situations where it has these huge strategic goals, it says it's going to remake the Middle East, promote democracy, promote stability, and instead you see continued chaos and often backlash. And a big focus of that has been how do we make the US less damaging towards civilians? How do we try to uphold international law and also reduce the impression that the U.S. is cavalier about the lives of those abroad. That's been a bipartisan effort. It actually continued even through Trump One into the Biden

administration, which made several steps. It set up teams within the Pentagon, within combatant commands at low levels that were doing things like red teaming, which is assessing whether a strike is proportionate, or having investigations of U.S. military operations and actually, publishing reports about how many civilians were killed. Pete Hexat comes into office January 2025 and you see the Trump administration systematically start to destroy that. So what my sources have told me within the military and sort of close to those discussions is that they are deeply worried. We're now in the biggest war since that entire machinery has been taken away. What I mean by that is people who were tracking civilian casualties have been reassigned to other

jobs. People, conversations that might have happened about should we do this or what could this result in for us in terms of international law or war crimes under US law, those aren't happening. And that puts civilians abroad at much greater risk. It also puts US service members at risk of being implicated in possible war crimes. And the narrative from the Trump administration combined with this is really alarming for people because you have secretary heads out they're saying things like we have, quote, no stupid rules of engagement. Let's go to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth speaking last week. B-2s, B-52s, B-1s, predator drones, fighters controlling the skies, picking targets,

death and destruction from the sky all day long. We're playing for keeps. Our warfighters have maximum authorities granted personally by the president and yours truly. Our rules of engagement are bold, precise, and designed to unleash American power, not shackle it. This was never meant to be a fair fight, and it is not a fair fight. We are punching them while they're down, which is exactly how it should be. Talk more about what he is saying. Pete Hegseth, Defense Secretary, who President Trump calls war secretary. This kind of language, Amy, of maximum authorities, of it's not a fair fight,

this is language that's pointing to concerns about proportionality. Is this a fight that's being taken into account of what the collateral damage might be? All those attacks actually in line with international law. And it's important to remember that we've actually seen within the last couple of years, the International Criminal Court issue its first arrest warrants for leaders aligned with the US,

for Benjamin Netanyahu and Yoav Galant, often citing the statements of those leaders themselves. So the worry for a lot of experts and even some people within and close to government is, if you're out here saying we're not playing fair, we're not following any rules, what does that both send internally as a message to the people launching these strikes? And what does that mean for your legal liability? It's the international criminal court. There's also many countries that pursue what's called universal jurisdiction.

If you violate international law to a serious degree, we will prosecute you. So this raises the specter of U.S. officials or service members down the line facing prosecutions and investigations. And it's not a defense under international law to say I was following orders from the president or from Pete Hexat. Pete Hexed out here saying, abide, the authorities vested in me. That doesn't provide a defense for someone who's been involved in an unlawful strike. And I just add two more important data points here. One is, of course, the boat strikes the Trump administration has also been pursuing in the Pacific, in the waters around Venezuela as well. Those have been also apparently violating international law, right?

Those have been attacking shipwrecked survivors. Those have killed more than 100 people on really vague charges. And so there's a pattern that's been set of these potentially illegal strikes by service members. And then, Amy, coming back to my reporting, I actually reported at the end of last year that a lot of the experts on international law, the laws of war, international humanitarian law, have quietly been leaving the Trump administration. These aren't people who necessarily have been fired, but they've gotten the sense that they're either no longer wanted or if they give their frank legal advice, they will be retaliated against. So those guardrails inside the government for how

the U.S. operates, those have crumbled really rapidly. And you have also pointed out that, let's see, if I'm going to be. I can find the sent-com quote of the chief saying that it's going to lead to more casualties. Sent-com chief, Brad Cooper, saying harm to civilians by U.S. forces risks our credibility and trust and puts our troops at risk. It puts, you know, the U.S. in a position, and it's striking to see this off to the Gaza war and the huge accusations of war crimes potentially implicating the US and certainly implicating Israel,

it puts the US in this position that many military and intelligence professionals have not wanted to be. They don't want to be associated with attacks like the school strike in Minab, Iran. They don't want to be associated with bombing of the capital of Beirut. But what there's such a concern, especially in this administration, of kind of is there anything that's wanted beyond the culture of yes men, right? And so while Admiral Cooper is the head of SENTCOM, you have Chairman of Joint Chiefs, Stan Kane, who's also made similar comments previously about we need to restrict civilian casualties.

It hurts us strategically. Are they either getting through to President Trump, or do they feel that they want to do that? Does that risk their own jobs, which has its own concerns? Akbar, more evidence has emerged linking the United States to that missile attack last week on a girl's primary school in southern Iran that. killed about 175 people, mainly girls. A New York Times analysis of missile fragments from the site resembles the markings of a U.S.-made Tomahawk cruise missile. Video also shows a tomahawk hitting the area at the time of the attack. On Tuesday, a majority of Senate Democrats sent a letter

to Heggseth calling for a swift investigation during a news conference Monday. President Trump repeatedly claimed Iran had carried out the attack. Tomahawk missile likely destroyed that Iranian girl school. So will the Americans, will the U.S. accept any responsibility? Well, I haven't seen it. And I will say that the tomahawk, which is one of the most powerful weapons around, is used by, you know, is sold and used by other countries, you know that. And whether it's Iran, who also has some tomahawks, I wish they had more.

whether it's Iran or somebody else, the fact that a tomahawk, a tomahawk is very generic. It's sold to other countries, but that's being investigated right now. Mr. President, you just suggested that Iran somehow got his hands on a Tomahawk and bombed its own elementary school on the first day of the war, but you're the only person in your government saying this. Even your defense secretary wouldn't say that when he was asked,

standing over your shoulder on your plane on Saturday. Why are you the only person saying this? Because I just don't know enough about it. I think it's something that I was told is under investigation. But tomahawks are used by others, as you know. Numerous other nations have tomahawks. They buy them from us.

But I will certainly, whatever the report shows, I'm willing to live with that report. I'm willing to live with that report, Akbar Shahed Ahmed. Unfortunately, 175 people at least died, most of them, girls, when the primary school, the girls' primary school was struck. Can you explain what Trump is saying? He even said, I wish Iran had more Tomok missiles and then just outright said, and he said it on Air Force One, that Iran did it. Even Hegsseth standing next to him said there has to be an investigation. It's absolutely surreal, Amy. And of course, the president has made this claim even before this. He's now made it repeatedly and to extend it to suggesting that Iran has some of the most advanced U.S. weaponry, having. been, as the administration likes to remind us, a U.S. enemy for 47 years at this point,

it just beggars belief. And it also, of course, undermines trust that this investigation will be carried out in a kind of serious and credible way. Or if it is, whether its results will ever be released. Will it be buried? Will it be dragged? This is an administration, again, that in this sort of rule and also in a prior administration has pushed out, independent inspectors general, they have pushed out government officials who have disagreed with their political preferences or suggested wrongdoing. So there is a pattern there of, are we actually having an honest discussion about the facts? I think for, this is, it's an interesting one that gets to honest splits within Trump's own circle, because how far will someone like Hexeth go to kind

of defend Trump here? And I think the president's willingness to kind of spin conspiracy theories about an attack that clearly killed people, where there are obvious, obvious, bodies are obvious American missile fragments. At some point, just saying things doesn't make it true, given clear evidence. And before we go, the piece you wrote Israel is applying Gaza logic to Lebanon with Trump's blessing. If you can talk more about this war on both fronts that Israel is conducting right now. It's deeply worrying any for folks underground in Lebanon who I'm talking to regularly

and just looking at the strategic picture of it. Israel was in Lebanon 15 months ago, right? It said that it carried out bombing, it weakened his blood out to a huge degree, it reached an agreement, it was happy with, so why are we at war again? Why are, you know, up now towards a million Lebanese being forced out of their homes, many of them sleeping on the streets, many of them without access to medical care or even aid that they got in the previous war. So it's raising a lot of fear. And I wrote about the Gaza playbook because what a lot of. of people are seeing in the kind of pattern of Israeli attacks and orders to leave areas is concern about ethnic cleansing. There's a fear and some far right Israeli officials and people

close to the government are already saying that Israel will want to seize territory. Yeah. So that's raising a lot of concern of will Lebanon as a state even survive after this war? And even as President Trump is out here saying perhaps he'd want to reign in the Iran war given its broader consequences for energy infrastructure, the Trump administration from my sources on the inside is basically paying zero attention to this broadening war in Lebanon, which is so worrying for a country that's already been so believed it. Akbar Shahed, Ahmed, who want to thank you so much for being with us, senior diplomatic correspondent for Huffpost will link to your recent articles at DemocracyNow.org.

Coming up, we speak to a former Marine arrested, his arm broken, while protesting the war during a Senate hearing. And then we'll talk about a new book, Killers of Row, My Investigation into the mysterious death of abortion rights. We'll speak with the nation's abortion access reporter Amy Littlefield. Stay with us. Yesterday I saw you standing there with your hand against the pain, looking out the window at the rain. And I wanted to. Tell you. All your tears were not in vain.

But I guess we both knew the same. The same. Peaceable Kingdom by Patty Smith performed in Democracy Now's 20th anniversary. On our 30th anniversary, which has been rescheduled for March 23rd, Monday at Riverside Church, Patty Smith will be singing again. We'll also be interviewing her. She'll be there along with Michael Stipe, hooray for the riffraff, and other special guests. We'll also be interviewing Angela Davis and others.

Coming up on Democracy Now, March 23rd, we'll have a live stream at DemocracyNow.org. And if you had tickets for the February 23rd event, which was put off because of the bomb cyclone, the blizzard that was happening that day, They will be honored on March 23rd. Go to DemocracyNow.org for details. This is Democracy Now. I'm Amy Goodman on Capitol Hill last week. A Marine Corps veteran and candidate for Senate in North Carolina suffered a broken arm after he disrupted a Senate hearing to voice his opposition to the U.S. Israeli War on Iran. The veteran, Brian McGinnis, was forcefully pulled through a door by Capitol Police.

His arm became stuck in the door and broke. Brian McGinnis interrupted the meeting while Senator Dan Sullivan was speaking, Sullivan's chair of the Armed Services Subcommittee. Our next witness is the assistant commandant of the Marine Corps, General Gehring. Israel is a reason for this war. America is not going to fight this war for Israel. Come on. Let's go.

America is not what it's down. It's sons and daughters to war for Israel. Just a reminder to all our, witnesses. Stand up as a Marine. The Capitol police will escort any protesters out of the hearing room. No one wants to find. We ask for calm in these hearings.

Why are you here? Why are you getting arrested? Free Palestine. From the halls of Manizupah to the Georgia, AAA. Palestine will be free. My God, they broke his honor. Brian McGinnis remained detained. by Capitol Police as he was treated in the hospital for a broken arm. He's now facing charges,

including assault on a police officer resisting arrest and unlawful demonstration. Brian McGinnis served in Iraq in 2003, a member of Veterans for Peace running for U.S. Senate from North Carolina on the Green Party ticket. This is to replace the outgoing Senator Tom Tillis. Brian McGinnis joins us now from North Carolina. We're also joined by his attorney, Salano Simmons. We welcome you both to democracy now. Brian, describe what happened. First of all, why did you go to that Senate hearing? Good morning, Amy. I'm smiling because I'm excited to be here and meet you. I'm sad from the headlines that have been sadly going across our screens for last two and a half years inside. I'm sad. I went to the hearing to hear what our leaders had

to say in regards to war preparedness. And it was not any different from what I would expect from military leaders. They are so separate from the people, so in line with, you know, big government and its plans and which we've been privy to with the last 25 years of war in Iraq and Afghanistan. It's just the people's voice are not being heard with any type of empathy. It's just, you know, full speed ahead with military force. And I think the people are tired of that. And that's the voice I was trying to present at that briefing. So walk us through that protests on March 4th.

What exactly happened? Well, how is your arm broken? Well, all that I can't speak about too much because of legal reasons. But everybody has seen the video or a lot of people have seen the video. or a lot of people have seen the video, so it's pretty self-explanatory. Those briefing rooms are customizable. They have removable walls, and so I think my arm got wedged between one of those walls and the door, and with the force being applied, my arm got broke.

My hand was completely stuck, and that's how that happens. Salano Simmons, you're Brian's attorney. Can you explain what the charges are against him? Yeah, first of all, Amy, thanks for having us. Brian is facing four counts. Three counts of assault on police officers. They are three individual names that are law enforcement. The fourth and final count is resisting arrest.

He's being charged by the United States government in Washington, D.C., Superior Court. And we're looking forward to having our day in court regarding these matters. I want to ask you, Brian, as you were being led away, you also said free Palestine. Your wife and kids are Palestinian. You participated in demonstration in the West Bank in 2024. What is your message to senators on the issue of Israel and Palestine right now? Their lack of research in the history of Palestine is abhorrent. There's so much knowledge of the military occupation of the Palestinians and the torturous reality they face every day that invades their humanity and their rights.

And being under such oppression, it would only be natural for someone to resist or fight back. And this seemingly easy dynamic of life to understand, and I am trying to present to Americans in a way. But sadly, the villainization of Islam or Islamophobia or the difference in American and Arab cultures have created such a gap in understanding that it's a challenging thing to do. But I'm not going to stop.

you said, my wife and children are American Palestinians. And so that brings us very close to home. I myself am an Iraq veteran. I have come a long way from who I was when I was in the service and then having children and just growing up and watching news and learning. I have a complete different realm of reality and knowledge to contextualize what I've done. And I have a lot of resentment and sadness about what America is doing with our brave sons and daughters in the military. Republican Senator Tim Sheehee of Montana helped officers remove you, Brian McGuinness, from the hearing. Afterwards, he posted on X, quote, Capitol Police were attempting to remove an unhinged protester from the Armed Services

hearing. He was fighting back. I decided to help out and de-escalate the situation. The Montana Senator Tim Sheehe said, as we wrap it. up. How do you respond to what Shehee said and explain why you've decided to run for Senate to take Tom Tillis a seat who's retiring? We have much larger problems at hand. The millions, you know, thousands of children are dying. That's the focus. So I'm not, no ill will towards Mr. Sheehe. Things happen. People have intentions to de-escalate or help situations. And I get that. We all step in and we're imperfect and we're good at sometimes and bad at sometimes. That's neither here nor there. I'm running for Senate

to be a voice for the people representing the Green Party. The Green Party is an established party that's only people run. We do not take corporate sponsors. That's very important because our government has shown to be highly influenced by big money. And the Green Party is not about that. And I was overwhelmed with looking at my email from the support and the genuine support I got from people from all over the world and here in America. And I really want to convince North Carolinians that I'm a genuine person and a good choice to represent the people in our government. And I just, And my experience at Senate this last weekend or last week was just it showed the wall between the people and the government. And I want to break through that wall for people.

Brian McGinnis, I want to thank you for being with us. Marine veteran arrested had his arm broken at a Senate hearing last week while protesting the war against Iran, running for Senate in North Carolina on the Green Party ticket. And I want to thank Salino Simmons, Brian McGinnis. attorney. Coming up, Amy Littlefield, author of Killers of Row, my investigation into the mysterious death of abortion rights. Back in 20 seconds. We who believe in freedom cannot rest. We who believe until it comes. We, we, we, we, we, we will a song, we who believe in freedom cannot rest until it comes by Sweet Honey and the Rock performing at the 2020. Peaceball. This is Democracy Now, Democracy Now.org. I'm Amy Goodman. We end today's show looking at

the Killers of Row. That's the title of a new book by Reproductive Rights journalist Amy Littlefield, and what she describes is the death of abortion rights in America. The book examines the movement to criminalize abortion in the years and decades before the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022. This year marks the 50th anniversary of the high-dustle of the high Amendment, which banned federal funding for abortion, which has disproportionately impacted the poor and women of color. Amy Littlefield is the Nation magazine's abortion access correspondent, also a former Democracy Now producer. Amy, welcome back to Democracy Now. Congratulations on the publication of your book. Why don't we start off by you talking about the state of reproductive rights in

the United States right now? Thank you, Amy. It's great to be back on the opposite side. Usually I was in the control room. So abortion access today is a landscape that is defined by contradiction. Half of states have some form of restriction on abortion before 24 weeks. More than a dozen states ban abortion outright. And yet, every year since the Supreme Court overturned the right to abortion, the number of abortions in this country has gone up, which is remarkable. And that's because eight states allow providers anywhere in those states to ship abortion pills anywhere in the country, including into states where abortion is banned. And they're doing so for free or for very cheap. And so in a way, abortion, which was always- Most abortions are done by these pills. Correct. Today, most abortions are by medication. And that's the ones that we can count. There's more community activists

circulating these pills completely under the radar. But that means that today, woman in rural Mississippi can get an abortion sent to her through the mail by pills from a clinician operating in a blue state like New York or Massachusetts for free right to her door, someone who would have had to drive hours and endure waiting periods and all kinds of hurdles in the time before the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. And so in a sense, access has expanded and yet choice has contracted, right? Because the options have narrowed. Often clinics are off limits. because many of them have closed and are not operating in states where abortion is banned. And so, you know, we used to have a landscape where there was choice.

There was a right to abortion legally, but access was curtailed because you needed the money to afford it. And now we see the situation where access has expanded, but people's choices really have narrowed, especially when you factor in the legal risk and the fear that can define seeking an abortion in a state where it's banned. Talk about the attempts to stop pills being sent to women. Right. So the most recent one that we've seen is the, you know, the Trump administration has not acted as quickly as abortion opponents would like to restrict medication abortion. And these pills are circulating freely through the mail. And so- Why do you think that is that they're not acting as quickly? Because abortion rights are super popular. I mean, they are more popular than maybe the New York mayor is one exception, but just about every politician. Abortion rights are more popular than that is a losing issue for Republicans, especially after the Dobbs decision. And so, that's why many people think Trump is not touching this issue until after the midterm elections,

which tells you everything you need to know about why abortion rights and democracy go hand in hand. And talk about what states and what courts the issue of restricting pills are in right now. What's the big decision you're looking at? So we should get a ruling any day from a federal judge who's looking at Louisiana's request to stop the mailing of abortion pills. And that obviously could disrupt this network that I'm telling you about that's. reaching people in corners of the country in Texas and Alabama where abortion wasn't accessible before. I want to talk about your book. Why'd you call it Killers of Row? So, Amy, I was a new mom when it became clear we were going to lose the national right to abortion. And about the only

thing I could tolerate, this was COVID times, right, was murder mysteries. That was all I was reading. And I knew that I was going to have to, you know, my years of an abortion, as an abortion reporter told me, that people were going to die as a result of Roe v. Wade being overturned. I knew this was going to be a hard story to tell. And it started out as a murder mystery because it was a way to entice myself to tell a really difficult story about women dying preventable deaths as a result of anti-abortion policy. And I knew I was going to have to sit with the killers of Roe with the men who had brought these policy changes about.

And I knew that was going to be a hard task to do. And so the murder mystery was a way for me. to look at the hidden figures. It's always the person who least suspect in a murder mystery. And I was talking to those people as I dug into the 50 years of how we lost abortion rights in America. And what does Agatha Christie have to do with this?

Agha Christie is my comfort. She's my escape. She got me through adolescence and she got me through new motherhood. And then it just so happened, she got me through the task of, you know, two years of reporting on this book to figure out who killed Roe and why. Your first quote of Agatha Christie is Ms. Marple. The great thing in these cases is to keep an absolutely open mind. Most crimes you see are so absurdly simple. Right. The crime was simple. They took away women's right to bodily autonomy. And yet the people, as I would learn, were so complicated, right? A twisted alliance of believers and opportunists is what I found as I dug into this history. Let's talk about one of those complicated characters in your book. Former.

Oregon, Senator Bob Packwood. Let's go to a clip from 1985. This is the National Women's Political Caucus, presenting Packwood with the Good Guys Award. Senator Packwood's, Packwood is women's number one ally in the Senate. Senator Packwood, you have touched millions of American lives by your example, by your hard work, your legendary independence, and courage. For all of that, we are grateful. So it's my honor to present a good guys award to you, a leader, a fighter, our ally, and our friend, Senator Bob Packwood. That's Republican Senator Bob Packwood of Oregon, who would leave the Senate in disgrace, having detailed his crimes in his diaries. Right.

48 women came forward to accuse Packwood, women's greatest ally in the Senate, of sexual misconduct. Right. He wrote some really disgusting things in his diaries, which later came to light. The line that was seared into my mind was, if she didn't want me to feather her nest, why did she come into the Xerox room? This was about a woman who had come into the Xerox room to photocopies and papers, presumably. Right. So that was his attitude towards women. And yet he was such a staunch feminist and worked really hard to promote abortion rights and was an ally of Gloria Steinem. And so... And attacked many Republican rights activists who would come into his office. Right. Acosted every, seemingly almost every woman who walked into his office he would accost. Pro-choice Republican, super complicated person. And my chapter on Packwood, I flew out to Oregon to interview him. He's in his 90s now. And I interviewed him with his wife. And my chapter starts out with my five-year-old, now five-year-old Tully asking me, is he a good guy or a bad guy? Tully had found my book with Packwood's face on the cover. Is he a good guy or a bad guy? And me trying to answer that question, because it's complicated. You know, You know, in cartoons, there's good guys and bad guys, and it's pretty straightforward. In murder mysteries and also in real life, it's a lot more complicated than that. So here's a clip of another major character in your book, former Maryland Congress member, Bob Bowman, speaking on the McNeil-era report in 1977 when the Hyde Amendment was being renewed in Congress. He was asked about projections that renewing the ban could result in dozens of maternal deaths.

To mourn the death of five or 90 is one thing when 300,000 deaths on the average are being financed by federal funding seems to me somewhat disproportionate. A death is just as tragic, whether it's a mother or a child in my view. That's former Maryland Congress member Bob Bowman. Talk about him. So he was one of the hidden figures that I was able to track down an interview behind one of the most defining anti-abortion policies in our history. The Hyde Amendment cut off abortion access for poor women almost 50 years ago and shaped the abortion access landscape in ways that we take for granted today, forced activists to raise millions of dollars each year to pay for people's abortions. Bob Bowman was a super unpopular guy. He was a really conservative member of Congress. He's the one who tapped his more popular colleague Henry Hyde on the shoulder and said, why don't you introduce the Hyde Amendment? It didn't work when Bob Bowman

didn't did it, but he thought maybe Henry Hyde was this charming, popular guy, and he could get it through instead. Now, in 1980, an FBI investigation found that Bauman had been cruising the streets of Washington, D.C., in a car with congressional plates, picking up men and paying them for sex, one of whom was allegedly a boy of 16. And so Bauman's political career ended at that point. He's been spending the years since writing treatises about offshore tax avoidance, and so that felt very consistent with sort of the wider conservative project. right? The person who helped withhold federal taxpayer funding for abortion went on to try to work against, you know, the ultra wealthy paying any taxes whatsoever. I saw you at your book launch with Fay Wadleton, the first black leader of the first black president of Planned Parenthood Federation of America, youngest ever.

She was something like 33 years old when she took office. Her obsession, she said, was the Hyde Amendment because it targeted poorer women and women of color. That's absolutely right. Fay Waddleton came in with a promise to try to repeal the Hyde Amendment, and she faced a huge backlash, including from within her own organization. And so part of the story of who killed Roe is also about democratic and pro-choice complicity in the fact that the policy that we knew was deadly, almost from day one, the policy that cut off abortion access for poor women indoors to this day. I want to talk about some of the victims. One of the deaths from abortion restrictions that you chronicle in your book is Becky Bell. Let's go to a clip of Becky's mother Karen testifying in the Indiana state legislature in 2017,

trying to stop Indiana from making it even harder for a minor to get an abortion in Indiana. September 16, 1988, my little girl, just 17. died of an illegal botched abortion right here in Indiana. They never found who did whatever they did to or with dirty instruments. It's been all over the news for years. My husband and I haven't talked for years because it got so dangerous when we were out that people tried to kill it for speaking against this law. I would have voted for the parental consent law like that, being the mom I was back 1988. I wasn't educated.

I thought, if my daughter, who I love more than anything in the world doesn't tempt me, that law will make her come and I'll take care of her. Well, it's a law that the daughters that love the more than you, more than life, they'll die for you. Karen Bell, mother of Becky Bell, I remember covering her death boy, the bell tolls for you. If you'll tell us about Becky Bell. Becky Bell was a 17-year-old who died because of a parental consent law in Indiana. She got pregnant and told a friend she loved her parents too much to tell them that she needed an abortion.

She didn't want to disappoint them. So she sought an unsafe abortion, died a horrible death from pneumonia. resulting from a massive infection. And her parents, who were this, you know, Midwestern couple, unlikely activists, instead of keeping the secret their daughter had taken to their grave, they spoke out against parental consent laws. But, Amy, what I want people to really understand about these laws, all but 14 states had some form of a parental involvement for abortion law on the books

when Roe v. Wade was overturned. That includes blue states. And so this was one of these policies that was popular, including in blue states, including among Democrats, and that the pro-choice movement didn't fight as vociferously from day one. And so, you know, looking at the death of Becky Bell, her death was preventable, you know, and that's the word that echoes from the pro-publica stories about the more recent deaths. Tierra Walker, right? Her son, JJ, finds her slumped over her bed dead on his birthday of preeclampsia because she couldn't get an abortion in Texas.

Candy Miller, her husband finds her dead in bed next to her three-year-old daughter because she was too afraid to seek fallout care when she had a rare complication. from a medication abortion in Georgia, right? Portia Gomesi, whose youngest child chases after women with braids on the street yelling, that's mommy because his mom is gone after she couldn't get miscarriage treatment in Texas. These deaths that are happening now could have been prevented if we had looked, if there hadn't been, you know, decades of Republicans using abortion as a political opportunity, Democrats surrendering too early and, you know, true believers, many of whom I talked to for this book,

building alliances with the politicians that they needed to accomplish these deadly policies. As we begin to wrap up, who was Rosie Jimenez? She was a 27-year-old Mexican-American mom of a four-year-old living in McAllen, Texas. She had two Medicaid abortions in Texas before that were paid for, but after the Hyde Amendment passed, she could no longer get her abortion covered. And so she sought an unsafe abortion and died. Another horrible, painful death in Texas. She was the first first victim of the Hyde Amendment. And I wrote about her first death and also her second death, which was the death that happened when the Hyde Amendment, the policy that killed her, was allowed to become such a mainstream accepted part of our politics, renewed by every single Congress ever since.

Finally, Amy, as you research this book, what surprised you most? You've been covering abortion access for decades. There were two motives that I found that many of the figures had that really surprised me. One of them was this guy Paul Herring, I talked to or wrote a first draft of the Hyde Amendment, this former IRS attorney, he kept trying to convert me to Catholicism by telling me the most important thing is we go to heaven. I heard that time and again. So many of these men were telling me that they worked against abortion because they believed it was going to help them get through the door of heaven. I thought, oh my gosh, they have put women through hell so that they can go to heaven. And they have put the rest of us in hell too. If you look at the news story, today, right? And the other thing that surprised me is just how much the anti-abortion movement was a reaction to the civil rights movement. Jennifer Holland, the historian, writes about how they created a civil rights movement for white people, a way that they could use social justice rhetoric and the right to life to avoid thinking about whiteness, avoid confronting white supremacy, and instead save the fetus, who they always imagined as white. Well, it is a remarkable book.

Killers of Roe. It's a revelation. And also, fun, at times. Killers of Roe, my investigation into the mysterious death of abortion rights. The book has just come out. Amy's Abortion Access correspondent for The Nation magazine. That does it for our show. Happy birthday to Georgia Trach.