Democracy Now! Audio - Democracy Now! 2026-06-05 Friday

Episode Date: June 5, 2026

Democracy Now! Friday, June 5, 2026

This is Democracy Now. We have proved once and for all that there is no such thing as progressive except for Palestine. I will fight for health care not bombs to abolish ice and to unread this economy once and for all. A former U.S. Army surgeon who volunteered in Gaza is one step closer to winning a seat in Congress, representing New Jersey. We'll speak to Dr. Adam Hamawi, who won the Democratic primary on Tuesday. He's also known for saving the life of U.S. Senator Tammy Duckworth when she was serving in Iraq, her legs blown off. We'll speak to also the prominent streamer and leftist commentator Hassan Piper, who is just banned from traveling to Britain. He's an outspoken critic of Israel and Britain's support of the genocide in Gaza.

The British government, instead of listening to the demands being made, listening to the demands being made by the masses, have decided to increase the repression. That's the way that they think they can deal with this problem. They think they can silence us. They think they can silence you. They think they can just jail and punish dissidents. and hope that it goes away.

Britain also banned Jank Yugar of the young Turks, who happens to be Hassan Piker's uncle. Pikers also facing a possible U.S. investigation for joining a solidarity trip to Cuba. And we'll talk to him about the divide within the Democratic Party over Israel and other issues. All that and more coming up. Welcome to Democracy Now, Democracy Now, Democracy Now,

to org the War and Peace Report. I'm Amy Goodman. Senate Republicans have rammed through a $70 billion budget reconciliation package to fund Trump's immigration crackdown through 2029. This is an addition to the $170 billion already approved for ICE and Border Patrol last year as part of Trump's so-called one big beautiful bill. Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski was the sole Republican to against the bill early Friday morning. The legislation does not include language that would permanently bar the Trump administration from creating a $1.8 billion slush fund for Trump's MAGA allies, a ban that was backed even by some Republicans. The legislation now heads to the House. This comes as detained immigrants continue to raise alarm over the inhumane, unsanitary,

and dangerous conditions they face in ICE jails nationwide amidst a record number of deaths in ICE custody since Trump's return to office. At least 18 immigrants have died in ICE custody since the beginning of the year alone. Meanwhile, the Washington Post reports ICE plans to stop reporting deaths of immigrants that occur within 30 days of being released from custody. Israeli attacks across Lebanon have killed at least six people so far today. Despite the announcement of an extension of the U.S. brokered so-called ceasefire, the agreement between Israeli and Lebanese diplomats seeks to create zones inside Lebanon in which Hezbollah operatives would be banned. Hezbollah has not been part of the negotiations which the group's leader, Naim Kassim,

has rejected as a force. On Thursday, Kassam also warned of more retaliatory attacks unless Israel agrees to a comprehensive ceasefire and withdraws from southern Lebanon. Over 3,500 people have now been killed, more than 10,000 injured in Israeli strikes on Lebanon since early March. Meanwhile, U.S. lawmakers have voted down a resolution seeking to block U.S. military support for Israel's assault on Lebanon. On Thursday, 91 House Democrats joined nearly all Republicans in a vote of 324 to 92 to defeat the resolution, authored by Michigan Congressmember Rashida Taleb, who forced the vote over what she calls Israel's genocidal war on Lebanon. Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps says there will be no peace in the region until Israeli forces withdraw from Lebanon.

and has reaffirmed its support for Hezbollah. This comes as the World Food Program warns millions of people face acute hunger due to soaring costs and shortages of fuel and fertilizer due to the closure of the Strait of Hormuz. The UN agency warns the crisis has pushed an additional two and a half million people in Somalia, 1.3 million people in Sri Lanka, and 2.3 million in Afghanistan into acute food in Somalia. security. In the Gaza Strip, Al Jazeera reports a Palestinian family of five was burned alive as they slept in their beds when Israel bombed their home in Gaza City overnight. They were among nine people killed in the attack. This is a Palestinian man who lost his daughter and his two grandchildren. The war did not end. It is a hoax. The war did not end. They're fooling people.

Nothing ended. They are martyrs every day. They are martyrs in all places in Gaza every day. What war ended? The war ended from one side only. Since October, when Israel agreed on paper to a U.S. brokered ceasefire with Hamas, it's killed nearly 950 Palestinians and near constant attacks on Gaza. Nearly 3,000 others have been wounded in that time. The Trump administration's begun dismantling the Ocean Observatory. Initiative, a network of ocean floor sensors that collect critical data on marine ecosystems, ocean currents, and the climate crisis. The National Science Foundation said this week, it'll decommission more than 900 deep-sea sensors installed a decade ago. Its closure was recommended by the Heritage Foundation Project 2025 playbook for Trump's presidency. Scientists warned

and the move will severely degrade efforts to monitor changing climate patterns and could negatively affect weather forecasting and extreme weather alerts. The Trump administrations propose rule changes to the Federal Register that would give the president and his political appointees far more power to decide how billions of dollars of scientific research grants are awarded. Draft regulations released by the Office of Management, and budget would give partisan political appointees oversight over how grants are awarded to scientists researching everything from vaccine safety to LGBTQ plus health to the climate crisis.

Trump appointees would also have the power to terminate active projects and could limit international scientific collaborations. The American Association for the Advancement of Science condemn the proposed rule as a brazen power grab and said it would make future discoveries less likely. The Union of Concerned scientists warn, quote, it could also give politically connected industries a functional veto over research that might reveal risks associated with products and practices. The White House has announced funding for construction of what would be the first new U.S. coal plants in 13 years. On Thursday, President Trump announced $700 million in new federal funding for the coal industry during an Oval Office gathering with Republican governors and cabinet members.

If you look at China, if you look at so many of the successful countries, they're using coal. If you look at some of the real great failures countries, they're using wind. This keeps blowing, blowing, blowing, and put you right. out of business. This week's attorneys general from seven states sued the Trump administration over its efforts to cancel a major offshore wind lease off the coast of New York. President Trump appeared to

struggle to remain awake during his appearance in the Oval Office Thursday, closing his eyes for extended periods of time, and at one point slumping in his chair at the resolute desk. It's the latest in a series of public events where Trump appeared to doze off in full view of the White House press corps. On Wednesday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio testified to a House committee that he'd never seen President Trump fall asleep. That prompted California Congress member Ted Liu to accuse Rubio of lying to Congress, who then played video from a December cabinet meeting

where Rubio praised Trump's leadership while the president appeared to sleep. You are literally talking about issues of war and peace, and Donald Trump is sleeping right next to you. No, he's not. If Donald Trump cannot stay awake at these important meetings where the cameras are rolling, imagine what he's like when the cameras are not there. So I'm going to ask you, have you been at classified meetings where Donald Trump has fallen asleep I've never been at any meeting. I've never been at any meeting.

And things are showing me now he was not falling asleep. The online prediction markets platform known as Kalshi has reported the disgrace former Republican Congress member George Santos to federal authorities on suspicion of insider trading. Two sources familiar with the investigation say Kalshi contacted the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and the Department of Justice, after Santos placed bets on whether or not he would attend the State of the Union address last February. Santos bet against his own attendance after posting this video to his hundreds of thousands of social media followers. I'm going to be there for the State of the Union in the gallery, guys. Just chill, trolls, chill, okay?

Santos was expelled from Congress. in 2023 and pleaded guilty last year to wire fraud, identity theft, lying to Congress, stealing money from campaign donors and fraudulent unemployment claims. He was released from federal prison in October after President Trump commuted his seven-year sentence. It's not clear whether Santos will face new criminal charges. This comes after President Trump lashed out at prominent politicians who've sought to regulate or ban Calci and similar platforms. Writing on his truth social site after Minnesota last month became the first state to ban prediction markets, Trump called Governor Tim Wall's scum, along with Chris

Christie, Letitia James, and J.B. Pritzker. Trump added, quote, other countries are after this new form of financial market, and we want to remain at the top, likewise and even more importantly, where we're currently the crypto, Bitcoin, etc. Capital of the world, other countries are trying to diligently replace us in that capacity, but we won't let that happen, Trump wrote. Democratic lawmakers are urging the Trump administration to scrap a proposal, making it easier for 401ks and other retirement plans to offer investments in cryptocurrency, private equity, and so-called alternative assets. In a letter to the Labor Department, Senators Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders and Congressmember Bobby Scott, Warren, quote, this would strip long-held

investor protections from retirement savers and encourage the use of more risky, complex, and expensive investments. The proposed rule is harmful to American workers, they wrote. In California, voters in the city of Monterey Park have approved a measure that permanently bans the construction of new data centers, defeating a proposal to build a massive new artificial intelligence. intelligence site near residential neighborhood. It's the first time a municipality has banned a data center through a direct ballot initiative. This comes as new research from the UN University warns that by 2030, global data centers are projected to consume 945 terawatt hours of electricity or nearly triple what Pakistan, Bangladesh,

Nigeria consume annually combined. The report also finds data center's water footprint will equal the basic annual domestic water needs of all 1.3 billion people in sub-Saharan Africa. In New Jersey, Republican Congress member Tom Kane Jr. won an uncontested primary election on Tuesday, even though he has not been seen in public in over three months. Kane's campaign has offered little explanation for his absence saying only it's due to a personal medical condition that might be several more weeks before Kane is healthy enough to return to Capitol Hill. Kane won the endorsement of President Trump, who praised him on social media as working tirelessly, while adding, quote, he will never let you down. Kane has missed over 100 votes since his disappearance in early March. The House Oversight Committee has released a transcript of Pam Bondi's testimony before a closed-door session with lawmakers last month, revealing the former Attorney General sought to lay responsibility for the release of the Jeffrey Epstein files at the feet of her former deputy, Todd Blanche.

Blanche once served as President Trump's lead criminal defense attorney before Trump tapped him as Deputy Attorney General under Bondi, after Trump fired. Bondi in May, Trump elevated Blanche to acting attorney general and has nominated him to permanently replace Pam Bondi. According to the transcript, Bondi said of Todd Blanche, quote, he was in charge of the process and the entire release of the Epstein files, unquote. In Peru, voters head to the polls for a presidential election Sunday that pits a leftist lawmaker against the daughter of a former dictator. Keiko Fujimori is the daughter of Peru's late ruler Alberto Fujimori. She faces Roberto Sanchez in a runoff election for the presidency this weekend. Sanchez has proposed drafting a new constitution to replace the current document, which was created under Fujimori's government in 1993.

Protesters ahead of the vote marched against Keiko Fujimori demanding justice. This is Indira Hulika, a former Congress member and the daughter of a union leader who was killed under the regime of Alberto Fujimori. Fujimorism has already captured the institutions, has already destroyed many democratic institutions, and that is why in this election, what we can choose is to give total power to Keiko Fujimori or open a path to rebuild democracy in our country. A Colorado appeals court has reversed the homicide convictions of two paramedics in the 2019 death of Elijah McLean, an unarmed two.

23-year-old black man. McLean had been walking home from a convenience store when he was assaulted by Aurora police and put in a chokehold before paramedics administered a fatal dose of ketamine to his body. McLean went into cardiac arrest on his way to the hospital and died several days later. On Thursday, the Colorado Court of Appeals ordered new trials for the two paramedics, Peter Kichuniac and Jeremy Cooper. Kachuniac has been sentenced to five years in prison.

prison, Cooper avoided any prison time. And the French-Iranian artist-fil-maker and graphic novelist Marjean Satrapi has died at the age of 56. In a statement, her relative said she had, quote, died of sadness after the passing of her husband, Swedish producer, Matthias Rippa, last year. Tributes have poured in from around the world honoring Satrapi, whose comic memoir Persepolis about a rebellious young Iranian girl navigating life following the 1979 revolution became an international phenomenon. In 2024, Satrapi spoke to democracy now just after Iranians elected, Masoud Pesachian as president.

All the elected representative of this country have the hand in the blood of the Iranian people, more or less, but they have their blood at the hand. Iranian, young people, women, from all walks of life, they express their desire for a true secular democracy. And this regime will never change. To see our interview with Marjean Satrapi, go to DemocracyNow.org. And those are some of the headlines. Coming up, Dr. Adam Hamawi, we last spoke to him while he was volunteering as a doctor in Gaza.

Now he might be heading to Congress after winning the Democratic primary. Mary in New Jersey Tuesday. And then we'll speak to the Twitch streamer, Hassan Piker. Stay with us. The Shades is a teammate, John. The Harvest Man by the Corner Lafers. This is DemocracyNow, DemocracyNow.org, the Warren Peace Report. I'm Amy Goodman in New York, joined by Democracy Now's Juan Gonzalez in Chicago.

Hi, Juan. And welcome to all of our listeners and viewers across the country. and around the world. We begin today's show in New Jersey, where Dr. Adam Hamawe beat a crowded field Tuesday to win the Democratic Party's nomination in the race to succeed retiring Congresswoman Bonnie Watson Coleman. Dr. Hamawe had the endorsement of progressives, including Senator Bernie Sanders and Congressmember Alexandra Casio-Cortez. Hamaoui is a former U.S. Army surgeon, Democratic Senator Tammy Duckworth, who also

endorsed Dr. Hamawi, said he helped save her life after her helicopter was shot down in Iraq. Her legs blown off. In 2024 and 2025, Dr. Adam Hamawi volunteered in Gaza, where he treated Palestinians injured there. In 2024, Hamawi spoke to Democracy Now from Gaza. Most of my patients are children. My average patients is about 12 or 13 years old. They range from the youngest one I've taken care of is about four, and the age goes up to like mid-60s or 70s. The people, since the invasion of Rafah, we've had a lot of the hospital personnel leave

because they are trying to get their families out of Rafah. Many of them have either moved there from other parts of Gaza or they have lived there and they're trying to flee. That was Dr. Adam Hamawe, speaking from Gaza back in 2024. On the campaign trail, Dr. Hamawi called for the U.S. to cut off arms sales to Israel and other countries that commit gross human rights violations. He also called for an end to apartheid in Israel.

This is Dr. Hamawi on Tuesday night after winning the Democratic Congressional primary in New Jersey. We have proved once and for all that there is no such thing as progressive except for Palestine. I will fight for health care not bombs to abolish ice and to unring this economy wants it for all. Dr. Anna Mamawi joins us now from Princeton, New Jersey. Congratulations on your victory Tuesday. Can you talk about overall your plank and what this means and what your victory says not only to the country but to the Democratic Party in particular? Thank you very much for having me again. Yes, I am, you know, I'm very happy about Tuesday,

and I was running on something very simple, is that we should be spending on health care, not bombs. We should be spending on our communities here, you know, in New Jersey, in America, and not funding bombs overseas for, you know, atrocities and genocide. We should not be funding the endless wars that we're seeing. We shouldn't be funding ICE. And this was a message that people wanted to hear, that people were waiting to hear because we see the problems that we have at home that we are ignoring. You just went through your War and Peace report,

and we see that, you know, we need the billions of dollars that are being spent on these endless wars to fix our communities and to restore the democracy that seems to be being dismantled right in front of us. And Dr. Hamouy, what prompted you to move from being on the front lines of medical treatment and many wars around the world to run for office? So I've been working in war in disaster zones for the last 30 years. I volunteered two weeks a year or sometimes longer. And then I come back feeling that I have given back. And I couldn't do that after coming back from Gaza. I just couldn't go back to life as usual because what I witnessed there wasn't a war. I witnessed a level of destruction I had never experienced before. What I witnessed was really a genocide.

I was taking care of the victims of it and I couldn't stay silent. And with the restriction on foreign journalists from entering, I had a front seat view and I felt that I had to go to my lawmakers and say, we are allowing, we are enabling this to happen as a country. We are using American tax dollars for this to happen. And I started advocating and going to D.C. And I found that many doors were closed. People didn't even want to hear what was happening.

They wouldn't even listen, whether they agreed or not. And so when this seat became open when Bonnie Watson Coleman, our current congresswoman, said she's going to retire, I felt I had to run. I had to continue her legacy of fighting for the people, fighting for justice, and having the moral courage to stand up and make sure that we continue this fight. And, you know, as a surgeon, you know, I don't like, you know, just putting band-aids on issues. I go to the source. And currently many of the problems that we have here at home with health care, with education,

with our infrastructure, with housing starts in Washington. And these endless wars start in Washington. So this is where I'm going. And yet you're running as the Democratic Party nominee and the Democratic Party when, especially when it comes to Gaza, to Palestinians and Israel, has really pretty much gone along with the imperial project of the United States and Israel. So I'm wondering your concerns about the Democratic Party. Well, you know, the party leadership has become disassociated with what the people want. we've seen over the last several years as people become aware of what's happening in the Middle East, of what's happening in Israel and our role in enabling this for decades. And the Israeli lobbies

influence on our government with APAC, people are becoming more aware. And if the Democratic Party doesn't start paying attention to what's happening on the ground, they're going to continue to lose elections. And I think that was one of the reasons for my success is because You know, the people in the district are sick and tired of this, and it's not just here, but it's around the country. We want a country where we use our resources, our tax dollars, these billions of dollars that we are spending on the Department of War, a trillion dollars a year. We need to be spending some of that right here at home to restore our nation, to fund universal health care like Medicare for All, to fund tuition fee public college. to rebuild our roads and bridges, to, you know, address the housing crisis. We're always told that we can't afford all these things,

but we always could afford more bombs and more money for war. And what do you make of the autopsy report that the head of the Democratic National Committee tried to suppress, but then after outcry, was forced to release it? And there wasn't any mention of Israel, no mention of God. And yet at the Democratic National Convention, I'm going to also put this question to Hassan Piker in the segment we do with him. We know what a major issue this was just at the convention alone with delegates outside holding a sit-in for over 24 hours demanding a Palestinian-American voice in the convention. Then when the autopsy comes out, it's not just that they dealt with Israel and Gaza, the occupied territories, in a certain way. But they didn't mention it at all.

Well, Israel is the third real of American politics. You can't criticize Israel or else. And that has been, you know, the norm for decades. And that's falling apart now. And this is why we see these, you know, these frantic gestures to try to restore. it. But the reason we lost the 24, uh, 2024 elections is not because more people came out to vote for Trump. It was because less people came out to vote, um, for, for Harris, for the, for the Democratic party,

because it's ignoring these issues. And this autopsy report, and that needs an autopsy report as well is how was such a big issue ignored? You know, Apex still has a huge influence on our politics. And, um, and, and we need to address that, or else we are not going to be able to move forward, and the party is not going to succeed and is going to continue losing elections, like I said. And Dr. Hammond, we would like to ask you about some of the issues that you've been addressing in your campaign.

You've called for tuition-free public colleges and universities. Why is this so important, and how would it be paid for? And also, your view on a big issue that's arising in many communities around the United States, the proliferation of, of AI data centers? We are the richest country in the history of the world. You know, and we are the only developed country that doesn't have universal, you know, medical care that can't provide basic education for our youth.

And we, you know, we keep spending a trillion dollars on war and defense. And yet, you know, when we have poor education, when we have poor, when we have health and bad infrastructure, I mean, these are security issues in itself. And so it seems that our first. focus really isn't on on security. Our focus is really on profits, profits for the corporations, and that's the military industrial complex, all these defense contractors that are making money and profiting off of war, and the billionaires who seem to be getting wealthier and wealthier. And we're told that, how are we going to afford all this? Well, if we just took a fraction of what

we are spending on war and spent it on these issues that we need at home, we're going to be able to fund it. You know, we're spending a trillion dollars and we are spending more than the next nine countries combined. If we took 20%, 30% from that budget and started spending it here at home, here in New Jersey, here around the country, we'd still be number one. So we have the money. We're just not making the choices. It's a lack of political will. And it's because of all the influence that we, the corrupt influence that we have in Congress. And we need to start addressing these directly. And, you know, this is what I've done. I mean, I've, you know, said I'm not going to take any corporate PAC money.

I'm not going to take any money from APAC as if they would offer me anything. And we need more lawmakers that make that commitment and answer to the people, answer to the constituents and start taking care of their needs rather than these corporate interests. Let me ask you, Dr. Homoie, about your response to the right-wing attacks on your campaign as you move into the general election. for Congress. You are called as a defense witness in the case, the trial of cleric Omar Abdul-Rahman, who is sentenced to a life sentence in prison for seditious conspiracy for a plot to blow up New York landmarks. Can you explain what happened in that trial? You know, my patriotism is clear. I have had decades of service for this country in and out of uniform. And, you know, this is just an attempt to distract from everything that I've done and bring up really that, you know,

you know, over 30 years ago, there was very few religious figures in New Jersey, New York area. I was, you know, in a last-minute carpool and was asked to testify about the events that happened during that ride. And I was called as a witness, and I testified under oath. I was in the military at the time before that and afterwards, you know, I swore an oath to defend the Constitution of the United States and I believe in the system of laws and justice. So I went and testified about the events. I was never accused or implicated or, you know, even thought of to be any, like, involved in any crime at all. The reason I was such a good witness is because I was completely not involved and was never a problem at a time. I was a medical student. I went

and testified in like 15 or 20 minutes in a in a in a trial that took weeks on end and went back to class the next day um the fact that they are trying to use this uh to make a story just shows shows how desperate they are and that they have nothing else to talk about they're ignoring my service they're ignoring that i'm a nine nine 11 first responder and that i've been fighting terrorism and war and uh my entire life and saving lives these are the same people that are advocating for war These are the same people who are funding ethnic cleansing and genocide. These are the same people who are, you know, funding the dismantling of our democracy, and, you know, this is all they have to argue with.

Dr. In 2024, Senator Tammy Duckworth appeared on NBC News and advocated for your evacuation from Gaza at the time. I'm alive because of Dr. Hamawi and the doctors and medical folks who saved me in Iraq. He was there. He took care of him when I couldn't take care of myself. But this is what he does. And this is what so many of these doctors are doing. He and his colleagues are in there providing aid, everything that they can do to help save lives there. I think he's in the European hospital. But again, this is happening. We've been helping other groups of doctors like Med Global get in and out and continue to provide aid. But he certainly is very near and dear to my heart because he saved my life 20 years ago. So that was Senator Tammy Duckworth, who had both her legs blown off in Iraq where she served.

Dr. Hamwe, could you describe what happened that day? What were you doing? And how did you help to save her? I was a U.S. Army combat surgeon in Baghdad. And, you know, that November of 2004, a Black Hawk was shot down why an RPD. The whole crew was brought in. It was a mass casualty event, and I was one of the surgeons in the trauma bay when she came in. She was the pilot.

She was the most seriously injured person in the crew and awake, and yet still all she was asking for was about her crew, how it was her crew doing, showing the type of leadership that she had and still has in Congress. and I spent several hours operating trying to stabilize her and also try to save as much as I can from, you know, she also had other injuries besides her legs. And a few hours after surgery, she was evacuated and I lost touch with her for many years until I saw that she was running for Congress.

And many years later, a couple years ago in 2024, when my team was trapped, while on the humanitarian mission in Gaza, she was able to pressure, you know, Israel and use the State Department and our government to be able to evacuate my team safely. So she was able to return the favor. And she was one of the first people I talked to when I decided that I wanted to run for Congress. And she encouraged and said, we need more people like you. And Dr. Hamouye, I want to ask you about another doctor whose situation you're familiar with Dr. Husam Abu Safia, the director of Kamal Adwin Hospital in northern Gaza. The Israelis have been holding him in detention.

They just extended his detention. He's in Negev prison under harsh conditions. And without being denied his medication, your concern about his fate and that of other disappeared doctors. from Gaza? Again, this is, you know, an example of the Israeli crimes. I mean, they've targeted him. They've targeted other health care workers. They've shot surgeons in the operating room because they wouldn't leave their patients. And yet we continue to allow this to happen. We continue to defend Israel despite these war crimes that are occurring. And so, you know, I demand, we all should be demanding, is access to these prisoners.

We should have the Red Cross. We should have a third party, be able to go in there, inspect their conditions, make sure that, you know, international human rights laws and the laws of war are being respected and enforced. And yet Israel has continued to deny this. They continue to make claims about, you know, the, quote, war they're conducting. And yet the genocide continues. And everyone is just asking to allow third party monitors to go on the ground and see what's going on there.

And they refuse to do that. Why is that happening? Why are they refusing? Why are we allowing this to happen? And so we should be demanding that he be released. We should be demanding that all the prisoners that are being held under these conditions should be let go and we should restore order there. And yet what's happening is the genocide is continuing.

Till today, it has broken every single ceasefire. It has made throughout its history. has extended this genocide to the region. We see what's happening in Lebanon, what's happening in Iran. It's the gazification of the entire region. And what they have used in Gaza over the last three years, they're now doing it in villages in Lebanon and beyond. Dr. Adam Hamoui, we want to thank you very much for being with us. He has just won the Democratic Party's primary representing New Jersey's 12 congressional district, former U.S. Army surgeon who volunteered in Gaza and helped save the life of now the current U.S. Senator Tammy Duckworth.

Coming up, we speak to the prominent streamer and commentator Hassan Piker. He was just banned from traveling to Britain after criticizing Israel. Stay with us. Dark Matter by the corner laughers. This is Democracy Now, Democracy Now.org. I'm Amy Me Goodman with Juan Gonzalez. Earlier this week, the British government banned the progressive political commentators, Hassan Piker and Jank Uger, from entering the U.K. They were scheduled to speak at the South by Southwest London Festival and the Oxford Union Society. The UK's home office said it was canceling their travel permits, quote, on the grounds that their presence in the UK may not be conducive to the public good, unquote.

Both Piker and Uyghur are outspoken in their criticism of Israel. Recent comments that have drawn scrutiny include Piker saying that as a, quote, lesser evil voter, he would vote for Hamas over Israel every single time, unquote. The week prior to their ban, British Labor MP, David Taylor, called for Piker to be barred, saying, quote, it's shocking that South by Southwest would invite someone who's openly supported a proscribed terrorist organization and spouted these kinds of vile anti-Semitic rants to speak at their festival. With the unacceptable rise in anti-Semitism on our streets, leaving British Jews in a constant state of anxiety, Hassan Piker is clearly not conducive to the

public good, he said. Hassan Piker is one of the most prominent online influencers on the left. He has millions of followers and subscribers across social media platforms. He live streams on the gaming platform Twitch for hours every day. Recently, he's drawn the ire of the Democratic Party leadership for endorsing and campaigning on behalf of progressive candidates and primaries across the country. To talk more about his ban from the UK, his views on Israel, his critique of the Democratic Party, and more were joined. by Hassan Piker from his home where he streams in West Hollywood, California.

Hassan, welcome to Democracy Now. Can you start off by responding to this ban on you? And Jenk is your uncle, is that right? Jenk, Ugar. On what this means. In fact, you're going to virtually participate in the Oxford debate anyway, right? Yeah. I was also supposed to, first of all, thank you for having me.

It's a real honor to be on the show. I'm basically listening to the show a lot earlier than I normally would because I usually do that in my morning routine. So Jank and I were supposed to participate at the Oxford Union. We were supposed to do different panels of South by Southwest. I was also supposed to have a conversation with Jeremy Corbyn and Zach Polanski, the leader of the Green Party. And I also had another talk set up with

former Greek finance minister, Janice Verifakis. And then Jank was supposed to travel to the UK with his family and he was stopped at the airport and he found out that his visa had been rescinded and that he could not get on the plane.

So I ended up checking my visa as well and found out that my visa was also revoked. Now, I find what the British government did here to be objectionable. I find it to be disgusting. I also find it to be terrifying.

I think it's a terrifying prospect for the future of Western liberal democracies. The fact that a country that has in the past harbored much more radical thinkers than myself to completely drop all pretext that they care about, free expression, instead of protecting it, is, I think, a sign of the times. I think is a sign that we're moving down. into, we're headed down a very different, dare I say, fascist direction in the Western world. And this is happening, Hassan, under a labor government in Britain, especially given Britain's particular role when it comes to Israel and Palestine,

being the primary imperial power that allowed the creation or promoted the development of the state of Israel. Yeah, absolutely. There's definitely a lot of culpability. That extends far beyond the Balfour Declaration. And the British government has been coordinating with the Israeli government. The Royal Air Force has been conducting surveillance missions flying off of their Cyprus base. Kier-Starmers actually visited this base and has openly admitted that he could never say in broad daylight, what the Royal Air Force is doing there. Starmar has also invited Isaac Herzog,

who has been mentioned in the ICC and the ICJ court cases against both Israel and Israeli officials, like former defense minister Yoav Ghalat and current Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. So the fact that England extends a red carpet to war criminals and collaborators of war criminals that have played a role in the genocide of the Palestinians. But then critics of Israel are considered to be real threats,

significant threats to public safety, is preposterous. But once again, I think this is a real warning, just as the prescription of Palestine action and the mass arrest that have taken place of pensioners in the UK that have demonstrated in support of Palestine action was a very clear attempt by the British government to do the exact opposite of the democratic process, to refuse to listen to the very just and moral demands of the masses and instead suppress their voices and try to silence them through state repression

is very clear that there's a terrifying direction that the UK is headed down. And yes, it is the labor government's complicity, both in the crimes that Israel is committed, but it's also the labor government's complicity in the acceleration towards fascism. Because the next government that comes in, if it's, God forbid, a reform government, a far-right authoritarian government, they're going to overtake this exact same process, and they might not have even the restrictions of the labor government is applying currently. So to offer them the keys of the castle in this manner is complicity. It's something that we've seen.

It's appeasement. It's something that we've seen throughout history in the past where liberals assume that they could overtake the reactionary demands coming from the right in an effort to keep control, and they ultimately failed to the fascists. I wanted to ask you also about another international issue, which you've been involved with controversy lately. You went to Cuba in March with the U.S. America convoy, which brought action. from 33 countries and medicines and supplies to Cuba to attempt to break this economic

blockade and warfare that the United States has been involved in against Cuba. But last week it was reported that the Treasury Department sent you and Medea Benjamin, founder of Code Pink, who helped organize the convoy a request for information from the Office of Foreign Assets Control to look into possible violations. What's your response to this inquiry? Yeah. So I've yet to receive a subpoena, even though Fox News claimed I received one. I have not.

But I think that the news article itself was symbolic. I assume that this is less of a real inquiry and more so an opportunity for the American government to try to silence political dissent and to also criminalize activism. We were there to support the Cuban population with humanitarian aid that was necessary. And I also separately got a journalism visa as well to cover the atrocities they were taking place on the ground and to try to figure out what our government's culpability was in the economic devastation that Cubans were facing. And I mean, it was horrifying. You guys have covered this stuff extensively.

but it's very clear that the Trump administration is not making it a secret that they want to prosecute all manner of political dissent, whether it be the counterterrorism initiatives implemented by Sebastian Gorka or even now lawfare by way of the Treasury Department. I think the goal here is to, once again, just like the British government, silence dissent and maybe even ultimately criminalize it. hopefully this won't be a precedent set in case, but we are headed down a scary path here. Hassan, I wanted to play a clip of a short documentary about your trip to Cuba. For years I've wanted to visit Cuba. I wanted to learn about the problems caused by the embargo. I wanted to see a socialist society in person.

Last month, I took the opportunity to go as part of a humanitarian mission to bring aid that my government won't. I'd be accompanying progressive international alongside hundreds of others from around the world. Activists, journalists, artists, and politicians will be coming to the island by Bowden Plain to deliver over 40 tons of necessary supplies, food, medicine, and medical equipment. All right. We're in the heart of, uh, we're in the heart of Havana right now. One of the things that I've immediately been hit with is, is how beautiful the city is, but also how hollowed out it is in many ways. It looks like, I mean, some of these houses,

they have the skeleton, they have the outside. But, inside, it looks like it's bombed out, you know. There's people living in it, but very clearly this is in a dire state of disrepair. And more indictments have been brought in this last day against Cuban leaders, Hassan Piker. Did you actually deliver medical supplies? How successful were you? Yes, so the humanitarian aid mission was accompanied by hundreds of other activists as well. It wasn't just medical supplies.

There was, I believe, food as well. The delivery was successful, but ultimately it's a drop in the bucket. And what the Cuban population actually needs right now is oil, because oil is what runs their entire energy grid. And unfortunately, the Trump administration has very openly created a blockade. And the island's energy grid is currently still suffering. Now, there's also one aspect of this that I think, think that's insult to injury and that's the reality that there is actually parts of the Cuban island that are receiving oil with regular frequency and that is of course Guantanamo Bay

that's a American military base on the island of Cuba and it's basically an old colonial outposts and so you have the situation where 90 miles off of our coastline you have nine million or so people suffering there's there's food shortages people can't deliver medicine on all around the island because there's simply no oil. And food is, medicine is also spoiling as well. They're just sitting in factories because there's no refrigeration. And yet a couple miles off,

a couple miles away from Havana, you have Guantanamo Bay where they have a McDonald's. And they have American military members stationed there. And they have energy for the entire island, potentially. I think this really shows the inhumanity and the juxtaposition. And it's, I feel like it's something that many Americans are completely oblivious to. If they were more aware of the crisis, that they would also find it to be morally repugnant and unconscionable.

And I suspect that's part of the reason why the federal government wants to stop these kinds of actions, or at least create an environment of threats and pressure so that, other people who could also freely travel to Cuba and see what's going on for themselves and maybe even deliver humanitarian aid themselves, think twice before they participate in something like this. I myself am unbought and I hope others will be too. Hassan Piker, at the 2024 DNC in Chicago, 30 delegates to the convention were with the National Uncommitted Movement. Uncommitted delegates were selected in state Democratic primaries to call for an end to the Biden administration's backing of Israel's assault on Gaza.

after the DNC denied their request for a Palestinian-American speaker on stage, uncommitted delegates and their allies stage to sit in outside the convention hall. This is a clip of the co-founder of the Uncommitted Movement, Abbas Al-Awea. Here is the scandal, my friends. Here is the scandal. The scandal is that there are forces within Democratic Party leadership who do not want us to talk about Palestinian human rights. But that's not sustainable.

This is a watershed moment. So this was a watershed moment. You actually were inside the DNC for a while before they put you out. You had a select seat there as a commentator. But can you talk about the fact I put this question also to Dr. Hamawi, who you campaigned with, along with Dr. El-Sayed, you campaigned with him also for his senatorial race. Can you talk about the autopsy report and it not talking about Israel and Gaza, though the issue took center stage at the DNC with the sit-in with people who are quite involved with the Democratic National Committee? Yeah, I think to myself all the time, whether this is a byproduct of incompetence or if they are totally aware that this is a major crisis, a major issue.

and they're cynically trying to avoid having a conversation about it. I also had interviewed the uncommitted movement outside, and I had my press credentials revoked in real time while I was live broadcasting at the DNC, while simultaneously being interviewed by a New York Times reporter, as a matter of fact, for my criticisms of the DNC. I was invited, but then I was, I guess, disinvited at the same time for these exact warnings that I was issuing to as many,

Democrats as I possibly could. It turned out those warnings were true. And yet the Democratic Party still has not learned a very important lesson and still seemingly chooses not to listen to the demands of the masses. A similar pattern arises here that we just talked about with the United Kingdom. I feel like there's a real crisis in democracy and illiberalism in the Western world because of our complicity with war crimes and our complicity in Israel's genocide. And instead of addressing these problems, instead of solving these issues, instead of leaning into the demands of the overwhelming majority of the masses, the American government and the Democratic Party, just like the Labor Party, which is supposed to be the left representation of politics in both these countries, has decided to suppress the needs of the masses. has decided to avoid having these conversations. Having said that, however, there is an opportunity here as, you know, Adam Homoie, Chris Robb in Philadelphia,

and numerous insurgent candidates that are propping up all around the country in the primary system and actually successfully defeating the establishment Democrats all around the country have created this unavoidable force that will hopefully present. a very good change within the party. And it's not just, of course, about Israel either. It's about these issues broadly. I feel like the center of power in the Democratic Party for far too long has conceded to the interests of profits, to the interests of corporations,

and oftentimes place them first and place the interests of the population of people. The masses, the working class, last. Hopefully, we can make a change. And we can force that change because I feel, as though the party right now needs fighters. We don't have a lot of time. Fascism is here, and someone has to fight back. And the way to do that is through the democratic process

and allowing real democracy to take place. Hassan Piker, we're going to thank you for being with us, political commentator and live streamer on the Twitch platform. That does it for our show. I'll be in Tampa, Florida. Tonight we'll be celebrating WM&F Community Radio at two screenings of the film, Steal the Story, Please,

about the history of Democracy Now and the importance of independent media. At the Sunray Cinema, you can check our website at DemocracyNow.org, and then at the O Cinema in Miami, Saturday and Sunday for three screenings. And, of course, it'll be screening beyond that. I'll be with the director, Tia Lesson.

That does it for our show next week in Sheffield in England, and then in Belfast in Ireland, and then back to a swing through Vermont. Check our website. I'm Amy Goodman with Juan Gonzalez.