01/24/23 01/24/23 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] amy: from new york, this is democracy now! >> this is a devastating tragedy for this community and the family touched by this unspeakable act of violence. amy: california is reeling after three mass shootings in three days. on mday, a gunman in half moon bay shot dead seven former coworkers, reportedly all

chinese and latinx farmworkers. meanwhile, the death toll from saturday's mass shooting at a dance studio in monterrey park on lunar new year has reached 11. both gunmen are believed to be asian men over the age of 65. and then there was a mass shooting in oakland monday night. we will go to california for the latest. then we look at the growing probe into president biden's mishandling of classified documents after the fbi searched his home for nearly 13 hours. we will speak with the intercept's jeremy scahill. >> these scannersbout mishandling classified documents from trump and joe biden has exposed the progress he in -- pocrisy elite washington. elite political figures almost never have anything meangful

happen to them, maybe a slap on the wrist. what this is eosing is the hypocrisy from donald trump to joe biden and beyond where you have one set of rules for elite washington and another set of rules not only for low-level officials, but for whistleblowers who have the book thrown at them. amy: all that and more, coming up. welcome to democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. in california, seven people were killed and another person was critically injured monday as a gunman opened fire on two sites in the coastal community of half moon bay. police say the suspect, 67-year-old chunli zhao, turned himself into police after the massacres. authorities could not confirm whether the semiautomatic weapon he used was obtained legally. a local official says the victims were chinese and latinx farmworkers at a local mushroom

farm where zhao reportedly worked for decades. dave pine is with san mateo county's board of supervisors. >> there are simply too many guns in this country. there has to be a change. this is not an acceptable way for modern society to conduct its affairs. the amy: thereave been three mass shootings in california and in the past three days. in open, california, at least one person was killed and another seven injured in a shootout at a gas station just after 6:00 p.m. a day night. it came as police in des moines, iowa, charged an 18-year-old with murder after a shooting at a center that provides education for struggling high school students. two students were killed in monday's assault and a teacher was injured. meanwhile, the death toll from saturday night's massacre at a lunar new year celebration in

monterey park, california, has risen to 11 after another victim died in the hospital. investigators said monday they recovered 42 bullet casings from the scene of the attack, the star ballroom dance studio. a 26-year-old man is being credited with thwarting an even larger tragedy after he wrestled the shooter's gun away from him at a second venue. brandon tsay said he confronted the 72-year-old gunman huu can tran after tran drove to another dance hall and appeared to be loading his semi-automatic assault pistol. >> something came over me. i realized i needed to get the weapon away from him. i needed to take his weapon, disarm him, or else everybody would have died. amy: police reportedly took five hours to alert the public the gunman was on the loose saturday night. tran was found dead sunday of a

self-inflicted gunshot wound. the los angeles county coroner's office has so far named four of his victims. among them is 65-year-old mymy nhan, whose family said in a statement monday -- "she spent so many years going to the dance studio in monterey park on weekends. it's what she loved to do. but unfairly, saturday was her last dance." on monday, residents of monterey park held a candlelight vigil to mourn the victims of saturday's massacre. local resident ann lau organized the vigil. >> we never thought that it would be one of us, and it is so shocking. the reason we came together is basically, i was talking to our friends and i thought, we have to do something just to get out

our emotions, just to comfort each other, just to tell each other that we can go forward. amy: in the wake of the shooting, cities including new york and los angeles have stepped up security precautions for lunar new year celebrations, fearing more violence against asian-american and pacific islander communities. after headlines, we'll speak with dr. connie wun, co-founder of the aapi women lead organization, and nick suplina of the group everytown for gun safety. a warning to our audience, the following headline contains graphic images and descriptions of police violence. in tennessee, the parents of a 29-year-old african american man who died after he was brutally beaten by memphis police say their son was defenseless during his ordeal. tyre nichols died of kidney failure and cardiac arrest on january 10, three days after his violent arrest following a traffic stop.

on monday, memphis officials privately showed police bodycam footage of nichols' arrest to family and attorneys. they said after viewing the video nichols was pepper-sprayed, tased, restrained, kicked, and beaten. this is family attorney antonio romanucci. >> he was defenseless the entire time. he was a human piñata for those police officers. it was an unadulterated, unabashed, nonstop beating of this young boy for three minutes. >> oh, my god. >> that is what we saw in that video. amy: in the wake of nichols' death, memphis police officials fired five officers for violating department policies, including excessive use of force and failing to render aid. like nichols, all five of the

former officers are black. tyre nichols was a skilled skateboarder, an amateur photographer, and father to a young son. four more members of the far-right group the oath keepers were convicted of seditious conspiracy monday for plotting to keep donald trump in power after the 2020 election, resulting in the deadly january 6 insurrection at the capitol. last month, a jury also convicted oath keepers' founder stewart rhodes of the same charges. in related news, an arkansas man who was photographed with his boot on a desk in house speaker nancy pelosi's office during the attack on the capitol was convicted monday on eight charges, including obstruction of an official proceedg. richard barnett, who was also convicted for carrying a stun gun inside the capitol, faces up to 47 years in prison. this follows the arrests of

three active-duty marines, who've been charged for taking part in the capitol insurrection. micah coomer, joshua abate, and dodge dale hellonen were among the mob of trump supporters attempting to stop the counting of the electoral votes on january 6, 2021. here in new york, a former senior fbi official was indicted in a federal court in manhattan monday after prosecutors accused him of taking hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes and conspiring to get russian billionaire oleg deripaska removed from a u.s. sanctions list. 54-year-old charles mcgonigal pleaded not guilty to the charges, which include money laundering and violating u.s. sanction the united states and israel have launched one of their largest-ever joint military exercises in the latest ratcheting-up of tensions over iran's nuclear program. the exercise, code-named "juniper oak," involves thousands of soldiers, a dozen

naval vessels, and over 140 warplanes, including nuclear-capable bombers. in the occupied west bank, palestinian protesters gathered monday at the site of a bedouin village after two high-profile israeli lawmakers demanded its demolition to make way for illegal israeli settlements. this is eid jahalin, a spokesperson for the bedouin villagers. >> the existence of settlements here means fragmentation of the west bank. this village is the key for peace in the middle east or the dream of every palestinian, the establishment of a state. if this village is taken and gone and they confiscate the area from jerusalem to the dead sea, the west bank will be split into west bank north and south. amy: on monday, human rights watch warned in a new report that israeli guidelines on access to the west bank for foreigners threaten to further isolate palestinians from loved ones and global civil society. the group added in a statement

-- "by making it harder for people to spend time in the west bank, israel is taking yet another step toward turning the west bank into another gaza, where 2 million palestinians have lived virtually sealed off from the outside world for over 15 years." in brazil, president luiz inácio lula da silva has fired the commander of brazil's army, two weeks after the attempted coup and violent attack on government buildings in the capital brasília by supporters of the far-right former president jair bolsonaro. army general julio cesar de arruda is the highest-ranking of dozens of military officers removed by president lula over their suspected involvement in the january 8 riots. in other news from brazil, authorities said monday they have identified a colombian illegal fish trader and gang leader as the person suspected of orchestrating the murders of british journalist dom phillips and brazilian indigenous

advocate bruno pereira last june. ruben dario da silva villar is already in the custody of brazilian police. he's accused of running an illegal fishing network in the cash near the border with peru and colombia and the region where pereira and phillips went missing days before their remains were found. meanwhe, preside lula s acsed jair bsonaro's far-rit governnt of committing genocide against the yanomami people of the amazon. la'remarks came after he visited yanomami communities as they face a hunitarian and health crisis triggered by illegal mining that polluted rivers and destroyed forests depriving people of key food urces. brazil's justice minister said he plans to order a federal investigation into the crimes. the music and audio streaming giant spotify says it is laying off 6% of its work force, or

about 600 workers. nearly 50,000 employees at u.s.-based tech companies have been laid off so far this year following nearly 100,000 tech layoffs last year. in california, workers at a peet's coffee store in davis have approved the coffee chain's first union. peet's workers united celebrated the victory tweeting, "we will not be the last." starbucks workers united, which has unionized hundreds of starbucks shops across the u.s., said on social media, "solidarity, from coffee shop to coffee shop. welcome to the labor movement." and in alabama, a worker who helped lead a union organizing drive at amazon's warehouse in bessemer says he was abruptly fired without explanation. darryl richardson, who led a campaign to organize his co-workers into the retail, wholesale and department store union, says he was given no reason for the firing, but he believes it was because of his union activity. this comes just days after the national labor relations board

throughout amazon's objections to a union drive at the company's massive staten island warehouse known as jfk 8, declaring the amazon labor union won last april's election. to date, the only successful unit -- unionization campaign at an amazon facility. and those are some of the headlines. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. when we come back, california is reeling after three mass shootings in three days. we will go to california for the latest. stay with us. ♪♪ [music break]

amy: this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman in new york, joined by democracy now!'s juan gonzález in chicago. hi, juan. juan: hi, amy.

welcome to all of our listeners and viewers from around the country and around the world. amy: we begin today's california, which is reeling after three mass shootings over three days. on monday, a gunman shot dead seven people in half moon bay, a seaside town located about 30 miles of san francisco. the gunman targeted a mushroom farm and a nearby trucking facility. the vice mayor of half moon bay said the victims included chinese and latinx farmworkers. police arrested 67-year-old zhao chunli after they found him in his car outside a sheriff's substation. he reportedly worked at the mushroom farm for decades, killing his coworkers. dave pine is with san mateo county's board of supervisors spoke monday. >> we mourn for the deceased

members of our community. this is an horrific event, one we would never think to occur. gun violence in this country is completely an acceptable level has really hit home tonight. our hearts are broken. we are deeply grateful for law enforcement for the work this evening. but in the end, their simile too many guns in this country and -- there are simply too many guns in this country and has to be a change. this is not way for modern society to live and conduct its affairs. amy: the shooting in half moon bay comes a day after a gunman in southern california opened fire inside a ballroom dance studio after a lunar new year celebration in the largely asian-american city of monterey park east of los angeles. the death toll in that shooting is now 11. the gunman fled the scene.

it took local police five hours to warn he was on the run. during that period, he attempted to attack another ballroom dance studio but fled after being confronted by a young man in the lobby. the suspected gunman, 72-year-old huu can tran, fatally shot himself sunday as a swat team approached his van. the group stop aapi hate said in a statement -- "our community has faced so much tragedy and trauma over the last several years. while the details are still developing, we do know that the shooter's access to guns turned this into a massacre." meanwhile, in oakland, california, at least one person was killed and another seven injured in a shootout at a gas station just after 6:00 p.m. on monday night. there have also been several other mass shootings across the country in the last few days.

in des moines, iowa, an 18-year-old has been charged with murder after fatally shooting two students at a center for struggling high school students. a teacher was also injured in that shooting. and in chicago, two died and three people were injured in shooting at an apartment saturday. and in baton rouge, louisiana, 12 people were injured early sunday in a nightclub shooting. earlier today, president biden released a statement on the shooting in half moon bay and repeated his call for congress to pass an assault weapons ban. we are joined now by two guests. nick suplina, managing director for law and policy at everytown for gun safety. in oakland, california, we are joined by dr. connie wun, co-founder of the aapi women lead organization and a researcher on race and gender violence. dr. wun, it is horrible to go

back to you because we last had you on after other killings, but can you talk about the experience this weekend, one after another mass killings. if so painful to even ask you about it. where were you when you heard about the lunar new year massacre? >> thank you for having me. it is actually really, really painful. i was -- i actually woke up around 11:50 p.m. pacific standard time to do my lunar new year prayers. i did my prayers and i went on the internet to wish everyone a happy new year. and the first thing i saw was reports of shooting deaths and the mass shootings in monterey park. so it was absolutely devastating. i was up for a couple of hours. our culture, whatever happens at midnight and on that day will be

what will take place the rest of the year. juan: dr. wun could you talk about the place where it happened, monterey park, majority asian population, the first city in the country to have a majority asian population? does the significance of that city affiliation -- >> absolutely. i have been learning a lot from my colleagues who are with the asian-american journalist association come asian-american studies. a lot of what we have been saying around monterey park is it is 65% asian, asian-american city that was an ethnic enclave for so many of our communities -- chinese, chinese immigrant, chinese-american, southeast asian. it was a place where people thrive. it is a home for so many of our community members. it is important to note one of

the main reasons monterey park was formed was in response to and i would say come again, kind of united states history of xenophobia against asian and asian americans. while the city is a thriving city for generations, it was in response to the racism in history. juan: a the news the assailant who perpetrated this horrific crimwas vietnamese immigrant? supposedly police believed may have been related to grievances he held about particular individuals. your response to hearing this was an attack on the asian community by another southeast asian? >> thank you for that question, juan. i have been saying this for a

number of years. the violence against asians and asian americans is multilayered and extends far beyond the discourses of hate or even hate crimes. the violence against us is historical. i think it is important we also begin mainstream america have an intersectional analysis of racial and gender violence in particular, i want to say racial and patriarchal violence because i think reports have said that he had a history of being angry, that there may be some relationship to interpersonal violence, perhaps gender-based violence. i think survivors and victims of patriarchal violence are across the gender spectrum. i think that is important because we don't talk enough, painfully, about patriarchal violence within our community's.

and by our community's, i mean across racial communities. i think the united states and globally has a long-standing history of film aside and of harming people based upon patriarchal violence. another thing i want to talk about is violence is about isolating, isolation and marginalization. i mentioned earlier monterey park is a suburb, and ethnic enclave. i want to also highlight half moon bay, when we are talking about chinese farmers, people only know half moon bay as a beach come as a place for surfing. we don't talk about the isolated marginalized chinese farmworkers or latinx farmworkers a latino that was also killed in monterey park. we're not talking about the ways of communities of color are isolated even though we have thriving communities. when we are in isolation, we are most vulnerable to other groups

of violence, including the forms you are talking about. as someone who appeared in oakland, the violence against our community's are barely addressed. i think that is also indicative symptomatic of the u.s. culture that isolates communies of color. d does not provide as resources or carlet alone have nuanced -- communities. amy: i want to turn to a california congressmember judy chu who called for greater gun safety measures in the wake of the monterey shooting. she represents california's 28th district, home to monterey park where that first attack took place. it is hard to say first attack, second attack, third gun shootings, mass shootings, but this is congressmember chu. >> i could not believe the extent of the violence. 10 people dead.

this is one of the worst mass shootings in l.a. county and one of the worst in the nation. i was also outraged because there are far too many of these mass shootings going on. we have to take actions to make sure people are safe in america. we have joined the gun safety caucus in congress and we have worked on legislation that should have passed a long time ago such as on the universal background checks which have proven to take guns out of dangerous people's hands. i want to say to those who are resistant to these gun safety laws, protect america. protect your fellow neighbors. amy: in this is california senator alex padilla, also urging stronger gun control laws. >> we do take it as a reminder

the urgency with which we need to strengthen our gun safety laws across the country. as my colleagues have pointed out, california has some of the street just laws of protections of any state in the nation. that is true. and they have worked and it is helpful, but when there is a patchwork of laws and protections to various degrees across states, clearly, there are vulnerabilities that can impact any community in the country. and so for the individuals and the community here in monterey park and throughout the country that are living in fear today of what has been witnessed, this is a reminder that more needs to be done. amy: in addition to dr. connie wun, we are joined by nick suplina. he is managing director for law and policy at everytown for gun safety.

when they were looking for the monterey gunmen -- gunman, there were bullets and shell casings because he had massacred 10 people, 11 have since died when they succumb to their injuries. if there was a federal database, they could have gone to it and found the person who owned the gun? it is not clear but that is a good start. but there is no federal database. and then have president biden calling for an assault weapons fan. the democrats have been in charge of the senate and the house until now. can you talk about the lack of gun control in this country and how alone the united states is in the industrialized world in the number of mass shootings there are? >> yeah, well, thank you for that. i feel like as we are grieving across california and across the country, we have to look at the

fact that we have come to almost expect these tes of mass shootings but we cannot accept them because we are alone in the developed world defacing gun violence levels like we do in america. it is not freedom and it is not saty and when to do so much more. we he to do it at the federal level. we nd congresso act. we need bipartisan action in congress. we saw some of that last summer and it was good start, but there are so much more to do at the federal level. as was noted, we are only as safe as the closest state with the weakest laws in this country. the patchwork of laws among our states simply does not deal with stronger laws. we have studied it. lower rates of mass shootings, too, but that is not going to cut it when you can just cross the state border and find

firems that are prohibited like the gun used in monterey park, which was banned in california and illegal in several different ways. one area i really want to focus on that is so often not part of the conversation is the gun industry thais makin money off of selling increasingly dangerous firearms to just about anybody who can get their hands on them. the gun industry is more than willing to sell dangerous firearms to neighboring states knowing where they will end up, knowing sometimes that they will end up in crime scenes across the country. over recent five-year period, over 1.4 million guns were recovered by law enforcement and crimes. mafacturers are making gun sellers who are selling these guns and they have decided to bury their head in the sand instead of addressing the problem. i think if you're going to have a national conversatn around gun violence and what we can do

to prevent it, we have to talk about these industry's role in this carnage. juan: just a few days before the mass shooting in monterey park, one of the largest gun shows in the country was occurring in neighboring nevada, las vegas. the shot show. can you talk about the significance of this conference and the student activism that occurred for the first time to raise awareness? and given the failur ofe congress to act, is becoming increasingly necessary for people to begin protesting directly these gun shows and confronting the gun lobby? >> well, i think so. i think so because the gun manufaurers and sellers are the proverbial men behind the curtain. they are the ones profiting off of an american public health

crisis. unless we protest, unless we call attention to this industry, they're going to continue to hide and continue to benefit from a national conversation that is just about gun safety versus gun rights. but let me tell you what happened at shot show. it is the inner convention of the gun industry. literally, miles of aisles of firearms, including ones like the one used in monterey park, a more modern version and more deadly version. you would not hear in the halls of the convention center there in las vegas anything about mass shootings, let alone the mass shooting that happen in las vegas just a little bit of the strip in las vegas. the gun industry has decided it is going to keep these closed events, not open to thpublic, and they're not going to address their role in gun violence. and that is why students demand

action, a grassroots arm of everytown, decided the time has come to draw attention to the industry. student demand action protesters were outside the convention center. they had billboards saying a simple fact, "guns are the leading cause of death in children in america" and these students donated to be heard. whether or not the gun industry listens is up to it but i will tell you the students have the fortitude and conviction to bring these gun manufacturers and sellers to account so they can't hide in the shadows, so they can't pretend this isn't their problem, that criminals using guns are just an inevitability when they are designing guns that are more dangerous. and quite honestly, not designing guys that could be more say. the advil bottle in my bag has a childproof top. why are guns childproof? why can my phone be protected

against theft but not a firearm? there's only innovation of guns that shoot faster, can carry more bullets before they expire. the fact is, the industry is playing us. we are at this point, you know, basically the holden to their industry profits. they want to keep selling more firearms. we need them to start acting responsibly. amy: nick suplina, you put out a steady come everytown did come only four firearm manufactures accounting for over half the guns in this country. please name the names posted also not just the gun companies, the nra is powerful though it is at its weakest point now, still the lack of gun control. i talk also about the national shooting sports foundation and how it has outspent the nra lobbying. >> so the nsf s which until recently come if you can believe

it, and newtown, connecticut, with the industry trade group for the target industry. they are sort of the better dressed, slightly better behaved version of the nra poste very powerful on the hill. they are seen as a more responsible derate voice but in fact, nine times o of 10 they are there with the nra opposing asked about every law you can imagine. as you noted, they are outspending the nra in lobbying now, especially as the nra is a bit hobbled bytes on corruption scandals. the fact is that we got about 31 mayors from across the country to pool guns that were recovered by law enforcement in crimes to the tune of well over 100,000 fiarms over several year period.

in 2021, glock alone represented 20% of guns recovered. it is not that glock is responsible for every crime committed with one of its products, but if you are responsible for 20% of the guns recovered in crimes across 30 populist cities, the biggest cities represented, wouldn't you want to do something about it as a company? woul't you want to say, ok, we want to continue selli our products because many people never use it in a crime and are completely law-abiding, but would we want to look and see, i don't know, whether some of the dealers that are guns are being so at are looking thother way for straw purchases or selling ou the back of the story? we know is is happening. atf has shown this is happening. but the gun mufacturers claim ignorance in knowing what happens. that has to change.

thank you for that question. glock is the leading maker of crime guns in the country based on our report. juan: speaking of naming names, could you also name the names in congress in both parties of those members of congress who keep resisting common sense gun control? not just republicans, but also democrats as well? >> it varies issued issue, but what i will say is i think we have icongress now an uphill battle. we have a divided congress. i think young's are changing. if you will indulge me with a little optimism what is absolutely awful day of series of mass shootings across the country angela with gun violence that is too high, we have our foot in the door from the bipartisan legislation from last summer. 15 republican senators signed

onto the billor a vote of5 in the senate. 100% of democrats, which has not happened previously. we are strengthening a bipartisan solution, but we're going to need a big bipartisan solution to get anything through the senate. and nowadays, in the house it is a tallrder. quite honestly, we're going to need to deal with really bad gun laws coming out of this house, including some really, really dangerous proposals that are just -- that are going to be the focus of attention far from sensible, widely popular gun saty legislation we are going to be fighting against, you know, rollbacks of existing laws. amy: finally, we're going to

give dr. connie wun the last word, what aapi is calling for no wake of one massacre after another? -- in the wake of one massacre after another? >> there are a of things we are calling for. one is a lot more attention to the different forms of violence that asians and asian americans have been experiencing. i think it is important to remember that you were talng about at least in the monterey park we're talking about the enemies refugee emigrate. -- that in these refugee immigrant. i want us to think about the history of violence and the impact the war in vietnam has had on our migration and what it has meant for our presence here is a bit and these pple inhe united states. i what the mainstream and i want people to pay closer attention and study the nuances of what it means to be asian and asian american here beyond the hate

crime discourse. i want us to think a lot about racial -- the intersections of racial and patriarchal violence. i think people -- we had not talked about this on this call, but 60% of mass shooters have histories of thomistic violence. that -- domestic violence. i would like the mainstream to pay attention to patriarchal violence in asian and asian american violence. it is a little more rabbit that i think our communities even want to acknowledge. i think that is important. the other thing is that continue to support organizations and researchers and scholars who are also talking about the nuances of being asian and asian american here. beyond hate crime discourse but about our legacies of violence, our legacies of resistance, our legacies of struggle, our legacies of working with other communities of color. i think that is when to be really important to really

understand what violence means to our communities. i think the other thing is for people to not modify and monetize the suffering of our communities -- come modify and monetize the suffering of our community's. as i noted two years ago on this call with you, the violence against us has been ongoing. the war in vietnam, the wars against south east asia, imperialism, colonization. that means the violence of our experience and then the forced immigration or the migration here come the lack of services here. the fact we have to create thriving ethnic enclaves that are also isolated i think people really need to pay attention to why it is we have been isolated, why it is we are marginalized. i think that attention in th nuances are going to be key to our survival.

i also think people really need, again, to not capitalize off the suffering of our community's pay close attention as i mentioned earlier. i think the other thing is -- delight amy: 20 seconds. >> the histories of our community needs to be studied, especially from women and non-minor communities who have been working around ending violence against our communities for a very long time. amy: dr. connie wun, thank you for being with us, cofounder of the aapi women lead organization and a researcher on race and gender violence. and thank you to nick suplina, managing director for law and policy at everytown for gun safety. coming up, the intercept's jeremy scahill on the growing probe into president biden's mishandling of classified documents after the fbi searched his home for nearly 13 hours. stay with us. ♪♪ [music break]

amy: this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman with juan gonzalez. political pressure is growing on president biden after the fbi searched his home for nearly 13 hours friday and found more classified documents. the documents date back to biden's vice presidency and his time as a senator. earlier this month, attorney general merrick garland appointed a special counsel after other classified documents were discovered at a former office used by biden and at his home. this all comes as former president donald trump also faces a probe into his mishandling of classified documents and for ignoring requests from the national archives to return missing presidential records. in august, the fbi searched trump's mar-a-lago estate and found 184 documents with classification markings. to talk more about these stories and related issues, we are joined by the award winning investigative journalist jeremy scahill. his latest article, "the secrets

presidents keep in their garages and luxury resorts: the ceaseless political scandals over classified documents point to deeper systemic problems with washington's obsession with secrecy." jeremy, it is great to have you back on with us. why don't you just talk about what is happening with both biden and trump and what you really call the scandal of classification overall. who gets caught and who doesn't? >> it is important just at the beginning to remember the reason some of the laws and regulations are in place that govern president biden's conduct regarding classified documents or than vice president biden's or president trump is because of the scanner from the nixon administration where there was an attempt and in some cases actual action taken to destroy documents. it is not just about classified documents, it is also the president is the ultimate public servant according to the law.

and everything they do as president has to be documented. wehe people y not have a right to know every thing they did immediately, but ultimately they are doing a job that is funded by th publiand is part of a democratic process. it is not just classified documents, it is all the records. donald trump was notorious as president for ripping up all kinds of documents and for completely rejecting many of the nos that are supposed to govern the executive branch in terms of document retention. what happened he left office, he was still thinking, ok, i might be able to overturn the selection -- we all know how that unfolded. he is also being investigated for his actions around trying to reverse the events of january 6 at the u.s. capitol. trump is notorious for trying to destroy documents and had been warned repeatedly by people close to him who are lawyers and he seemed not to care much about it. according torump, therwas a

standing order at the white house when he was president that simply by thinking about declassified documents, they became declassified. this pcess is pretty was -- anytime he would take documents, they became classified. fast-forward to the waning days of his administration to the helicopter taking off the lawn hours before president biden was sworn into office, you had boxes of documents that were shipped from washington to trump's resort home in palm beach florida at mar-a-lago. the national archives, which is in a political entity within the government that is in charge of securing all of these cuments, making sure the historical record is preserved, making sure classification garlands are followed with the relevant security agencies, started to say to trump's people, there are documents missing. what trump did from the very

beginning was lie, block access, stymie the efforts of the national archive to retain some of these documents. ultimately, this went on for about a year. in early 2022, donald trump's lawyers tell him, you really have to return this outpost of they give what we understand to be roughly half the documents we know trump to have taken -- possibly many, many more. what is relevant is once it became clear donald trump was holding documents and some of them were secret, top secret, even above top secret where he had comportment lysed -- comportment lysed, once trump's people return that to the national archives, investigators looked at what exact documents trump had taken. what we understand is they felt there was very serious risk that trump had taken sensitive

document to compel trump to hand re of these documents over. the allegation is trump lied or his team lied to investigators, lied the government, refused to fully comply with the subpoena. ultimately, attorney general merrick garland signs off on an extraordinary search warrant that was executed last summer in august where fbi agent conducted a raid at mar-a-lago and then seized hundreds of boxes -- dozens of boxes more containing 150 plus documents from trump. in the affidavit, that the fbi filed, they said they believed they were going to find evidence of crimes including some provisions under the espionage act that had to do with the handling of classified information. this is all extraordinarily relevant to what would then happen with president biden. because as the democrats have

done since before trump was elected president, they have portray trump as a stooge for vladimir putin, as in the pay of russia, as doing the bidding of foreign powers. in this document story fed into that narrative and there was this feeding frenzy, particularly when we learned that merrick garland had executed -- authorized this search warrant to be conducted at trump's property. they really went to town on this. joe biden appears on "60 minutes" this past september and is asked about this and says, how could someone be so irresponsible and that his first response when he saw the documents laid out on the floor at mar-a-lago was, what sources and methods have been compromised? fast-forward to november 2, joe biden's lawyers are shutting down any office that have been set up just blocks from the u.s. capitol providing in the period between his vice presidency and presidency at the university of

penn, called the penn finds intervals of the managing director of the center was tony blinken, who now is very senior official in the biden administration. one of the lawyers comes across a locked closet. mind you come this is based on what the biden have said so we had to take with a grain of salt because people in pow mislead and lie and all these things. i taking them at their word, the narrative is they discover a manila envelope marked "personal" and inside this envelope was a document containing classification markings. so they continue to search and find other documents that appear to be classified. the biden people of the white house are then informed and biden does not widely share this information with people in his administration. instead, they gather an informal wo council and among the people in this council to y to determine how to handle this --

mind you, they know immediately how incendiary this is. they have gone to town on donald trump over his mishandling of classified information and midterms are just days away. so the biden gather an informal war council the very famous democrat power lawyer and his wife. anita dunn, senior advisor to biden, an official in the obama white house, also was called by harvey weinstein when "the new york times" was about to break the story of his heinous crimes against women. she was like a pr group brought in by harvey weinstein. she is in the room trying to forgot how the biden are going to respond to this. what they ultimately decided, let's self-report this to the justice department and to the archives and let's just try to do the opposite of what trump is done. let's be complete transparent in the hes this wi all go away. what we now know is the biden

plan was not to say a word about this to the public until there can be a clearing of them by the justice department. well, then the nightmare starts to happen when more documents are discovered in late december not in a locked closet in a think tank blocks from the catal, but literally on the floor of joe biden's garage next to his price corvette. they did not for 68 days, the american public was not told the president of the united states had discovered documents that were not supposed to be in his possession once he left office and that in fact had been a prime attack vector they had opened up against donald trump. biden only acknowledged the first batch of documents, not the garage documents, wh cbs news broke the news that there had been an initial probe launched by merrick garland involving the u.s. attorney out of chicago. on the one hand you have the scandal of the documents themselves, which really deserves heavy scrutiny on both

biden and trump, but then you also have to fact the biden people clearly were not planning on informing the american public about this and they definitely delayed until after the midterm elections and probably would have deleted to this very day thinking that could just get cleared internally by the justice department. juan: jeremy, good you talk about the double standar that operates in washington in terms of classified material? remind us of some of the high-powered people who were caught illegally using the material but then got slaps on the wrist compared to whistleblowers and others? >> great question. one of the most famous episodes was bill clinton's former national security advisor sandy berger in 2003 when she made a number of trips to the national archives and physically removed multiple copies of a document

that had to do with the clinton administration's preparation for terrorism attacks. she had been called to testify in 2003 before the 9/11 commission. so his rationale for going into the national archives was that he was preparing for testimony. but he actually stepped documentinside his clothing and brought them out ofhe national archives. he destroyed some of those documents and left others of them near a construction site that he said he was going to go and pick them up later a ultimately sandy berger gets caught. mind you, this is destroying classified documents. serious questions about what sandy berger was actually doing their, but probably for a different time. what ended up happening is she was sentenced to -- he was sentenced no, penalties to speak of. david pretorius improperly

shared classified documents with his biographer with whom he was also having an affair. that brought him down as cia director but ultimately he just got probation and a $100,000 fine. there are cases of government employees, very junior pple, who mishandle classified documents for pretty mundane purposes. i tell the story of one woman was unab to acce documents she was using for classified dissertaon she was writing. she had taken three other classify dissertations because covirestrictions would not allow her to go into a secured classified intelligence facility anymore but if she was given three months in prison and basically had her entire career destroyed. joe biden has been in washington longer than anyone at this point and is the opinion be of the kind of career politician who has made their entire prayer of washington and biden himself tank the nomination for jimmy card cia's rector because

sorensen had written in an affidavit in support of daniel ellsberg -- the affidavit was not even filed but sorensen, was going to be a total reform of the cia and biden colludes with republicans and dig up files in which ted sorensen admits he had taken home classified documts to write h biography of his good friend john at the time biden suggested sorensen might be prosecuted under the espionage act for such conduct. the point sorensen was making is everyone in washington take some classified documents. with biden we now have this doc doc goose. with trump, we have the defines, yes i did, i the right to do it come and i am right in doing. this is a disaster for joe biden because republicans control the house. they're going to go after him.

they're going to bring in hunter biden come to the chinese have access to the garage. they will ignore trump completely. they're going to go to town on joe biden over this. there are skeletons in joe biden's closet. we all know that. this is going to be a really incendiary period for thishite house. amy: jeremy, we want to do part two after the show at democracynow.org. jeremy scahill, senior reporter and correspondent at the intercept. his latest piece "the secrets , presidents keep in their crushes and luxury resorts." --"the secrets presidents keep in their garages and luxury resorts: the ceaseless political scandals over classified documents point to deeper systemic problems with washington's obsession with secrecy." nominees for best foreign film include "argentina 1985." visit democracynow.org for our interview with the director. the nominees for best document your future from our "all that breathes."

that does it for our show. happy birthday to charina nadura!! [captioning made possible by democracy now!]

♪ hello and welcome back to nhk "newsline." i'm takao minori in new york. ukrainian leaders pressed their allies in the west for more modern weapons. now they are set to receive hardware that could be decisive. they say advanced tanks will give their troops a punching fist. ukrainians have been asking