FEATURING SOPHIE HURWITZ – President Donald Trump has just signed an executive order that ensures that civil rights protections against attacks on the basis of race, color or national origin applies to Jews. In an op-ed in the New York Times, the President’s son-in-law and adviser Jared Kushner explained in that the order was signed to make the clear case that, “Anti-Zionism is anti-Semitism.” 

Specifically college campuses where Jewish students are not protected from this form of Trump-defined discrimination, will forego federal funds. Critics point out that the target is clearly pro-Palestinian organizing on college campuses and the rise of the Boycott-Divestment-Sanctions movement. 

Sophie Hurwitz, a junior at Wellesley College, a student leader with Jewish Voice for Peace. 

The House Judiciary Committee on Friday morning voted 23 to 17 to pass 2 articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump, sending them to the full House for a vote as early as next week. Two days of contentious debates among the panel’s committee members were ended abruptly on Wednesday night by Committee chair Jerrold Nadler. On Friday morning the proceedings resumed for a vote followed by Nadler’s announcement. Republican lawmakers continued their theme of outrage with Representative Louie Gohmert of Texas expressing the GOP’s trademark anger at the challenge facing Trump. Trump on Friday responded to the vote saying he would do what he wanted and making clear that the Republican leadership in the Senate was coordinating with him.

CNN reported on Wednesday that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell met with the top White House lawyer Pat Cippolone to coordinate their strategy in the Senate Impeachment trial. Given that the Senate will vote on whether to remove Trump from office, Senators are de facto jurors in the case and McConnell’s move may be akin to a juror collaborating with the defendant – something that would not be tolerated in a court of law. McConnell told Fox News, “My hope is that it will be a shorter process rather than a lengthy process,” and added that he would be, “in total coordination with the White House counsel… There will be no difference between the President’s position and our position in how to handle this.”

Political historian Jon Meacham in an interview this week accused the Republican Party of “following a man,” rather than the US Constitution.” Meacham said on MSNBC, “The Republicans have basically become a monarchist party. Trump is their king, and their king right or wrong.” His accusations were underscored by former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee who says he plans to assert on Fox News that Trump is eligible for a third term and that he would be running Trump’s 2024 campaign. 

In international news Trump’s counterpart in Britain Boris Johnson won a huge victory on Wednesday in a general election that he called in order to resolve the Brexit impasse. Out of 650 seats in Parliament, the Conservative Party won 365, compared to the Labor Party’s 203. Labor Party leader Jeremy Corbyn, who had downplayed Brexit and focused instead on preserving the National Health System and expanding social programs, will be stepping down as party leader. The Scottish National Party increased its presence in Parliament winning a total of 48 seats and suggesting that there is an appetite for Scottish independence from the UK. Nigel Farage’s Brexit Party crashed, failing to win a single seat. Mr. Farage has said he plans to come to the US to campaign for President Trump’s reelection. Trump lauded the election results saying on Twitter that the US and UK would ...

FEATURING DR. MARIE DELUCA – Days after ProPublica published a horrific video of an immigrant teenager dying of the flu through neglect in a detention center, doctors at the California-Mexico border were arrested for demanding they be allowed to vaccinate detainees. 

The Guardian reported that, “Licensed physicians arrived at the Chula Vista border patrol station in San Ysidro [,California] prepared to operate a free flu clinic for the detained migrants, but CBP would not let them inside, claiming it was not ‘feasible’ to provide the medical care.”

For more information visit https://d4cc.nationbuilder.com/.

Dr. Marie DeLuca, Emergency Medicine Physician, with Doctors for Camp Closure.

The House Judiciary Committee began debating its articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump on Wednesday night, kicking off a contentious and argumentative rhetorical battle as the minority party was determined to throw up as many roadblocks as possible ahead of the committee vote. The ranking Republican on the committee, Doug Collins of Georgia complained that his party had no rights even though they were fully participating in the proceedings. The proceedings continued on Thursday morning and Democratic Congresswoman from California Zoe Lofgren, who has participated in the last three Presidential impeachments raised the issue of Trump’s affair with Stormy Daniels in the context of the Clinton impeachment. Republican Representative Matt Gaetz of Florida was among those who continued to justify Trump’s abuse of power in attempting to gain a political edge in the election by leveraging US military aid. Congressman Jamie Raskin of Maryland countered that it was ludicrous to consider Trump an anti-corruption crusader.

Ahead of the Judiciary Committee’s debate on impeachment, House Intelligence Chair Adam Schiff turned over a piece of classified evidence around a phone call between Ukraine’s President and US Vice President Mike Pence. The White House Office of Management and Budget, which has come under scrutiny for delaying the military aid to Ukraine, just filed a new legal memo justifying the delay and saying it was routine. Meanwhile CNN is reporting that if Trump is impeached and the Senate takes up the charges, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is moving to acquit the President rather than just dismiss the articles of impeachment.  

Civil liberties advocates are combing through the recently released Justice Department Inspector General report on the FBI’s motives for the Russia interference probe. Although the report confirms that there was no partisan effort inside the FBI aimed at Trump, it does expose the government’s surveillance overreach. Hina Shamsi of the ACLU told the New York Times, “The concerns the inspector general identifies apply to intrusive investigations of others, including especially Muslims, and far better safeguards against abuse are necessary.” 

Former Attorney General Eric Holder who served under President Obama, ripped the current AG William Barr in a scathing op-ed in the Washington Post on Wednesday night calling Barr “unfit” for his office. Holder accused Barr of making statements and taking actions, “that are so plainly ideological, so nakedly partisan and so deeply inappropriate for America’s chief law enforcement official that they demand a response from someone who held the same office.”

In spite of the partisan battles playing out over impeachment, the House of Representatives just passed a massive military budget in renewing the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) with bi-partisan support.

FEATURING ROBERT E. SCOTT – Democratic Party leaders and President Donald Trump are both claiming victory in reaching an agreement on the new version of NAFTA, the USMCA, or the US-Mexico-Canada Trade Agreement. 

On the same day that lawmakers announced two articles of impeachment against President Trump, they announced the USMCA deal, in part to claim that they could legislate at the same time as impeaching. 

Trump, at a political rally in Hershey, Pennsylvania on Tuesday night claimed that Democrats made the agreement in order to offset the embarrassment they felt about impeaching. 

But what is in the actual agreement? Is it better for workers, the environment, and consumers than NAFTA or does it benefit corporations like most trade agreements do?

Robert E. Scott, Senior Economist at the Economic Policy Institute.

FEATURING CEDRIC DE LEON – The two party system in the US today appears to be in serious crisis, with political polarization and seemingly insurmountable divides across the nation. But there is a precedent to this moment. Drawing from history, my next guest shows how the two party system has faced an existential crisis before. 

Cedric de Leon, Director of the Labor Center and Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. He is the author of The Origins of Right to Work, and Party and Society, and co-editor of Building Blocs: How Parties Organize Society. His latest book is ‘Crisis!: When Political Parties Lose the Consent to Rule.’

*This segment was originally broadcast on November 12, 2019.

The Justice Department’s Inspector General Michael Horowitz testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday about a report that he released earlier this week on the FBI’s motives in the Russia investigation. The report had been authorized by Attorney General William Barr based on accusations that Barr and President Donald Trump had made against the FBI saying the Special Counsel investigation into 2016 election interference was politically motivated. While Mr. Horowitz said the report did not vindicate the FBI he also debunked the various Republican conspiracy theories of anti-Trump motivations. In an opening statement that stretched for more than 40 minutes, Senate Judiciary Committee chair Lindsey Graham insisted that the FBI was biased against Trump. Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein in her questioning of Inspector General Horowitz, attempted to get at the report’s actual conclusions. Meanwhile Attorney General Barr dismissed Horowitz’s conclusions and blamed the press and the FBI. In an interview on NBC he said, “I think our nation was turned on its head for three years based on a completely bogus narrative that was largely fanned and hyped by a completely irresponsible press…I think there were gross abuses … and inexplicable behavior that is intolerable in the FBI.”

On the impeachment front, the House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday night plans to debate the 2 articles of impeachment that committee members drew up and announced on Tuesday. The debate will begin at 7 pm Eastern on Wednesday and continue at 9 am on Thursday. A committee vote on the impeachment articles is expected later this week or next week, setting up a full House vote possibly before Christmas. Both Democrats and Republicans are weighing their strategy going forward with the GOP reportedly considering doing away with witnesses in the Senate trial portion of the post-impeachment process. But the White House apparently wants House Intelligence Committee chair Adam Schiff to testify, as well as Hunter Biden and the original CIA whistleblower whose complaint sparked the inquiry. On the Democratic front, some moderate lawmakers are apparently pushing to censure rather than impeach Trump. 

Meanwhile President Trump on Tuesday hosted a closed-door meeting with Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov. The White House handed reporters a statement saying that, “President Trump warned against any Russian attempts to interfere in United States elections,” but Mr. Lavrov said later, “No we haven’t even actually discussed elections.” In a public press conference alongside State Secretary Mike Pompeo Lavrov claimed Russia was wholly innocent on election interference and that, “There are no facts that would support that. We did not see these facts. No one has given us this proof because, simply, it does not exist.” Pompeo did not push back against this claim despite the fact that the US has charged 12 Russian nationals on this issue and the Special Counsel’s report has detailed evidence contrary to Lavrov’s claim.

FEATURING MITCH JESERICH – The day finally arrived when House Democrats finally unveiled articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump. On Tuesday Democratic lawmakers Nancy Pelosi, Adam Schiff, Jerrold Nadler, Maxine Waters and others, announced two articles of impeachment: abuse of power and obstruction of Congress. 

Judiciary Committee staff reportedly worked overnight to draft them and a vote by that committee is expected either later this week or next week. If passed by the committee, the full House is expected to vote on the articles before Christmas.

Republicans united around President Trump, holding their own press conference hours after the articles were announced, calling the Democrats’ effort, “the slowest moving coup in history.”

Mitch Jeserich, Pacifica Reporter, host of Letters and Politics heard on KPFA and KPFK; covering the impeachment inquiry, veteran journalist on DC politics, impeachment correspondent.

FEATURING MARIA FOSCARINIS – The White House is reportedly preparing a plan to address homelessness in cities like Los Angeles that could ominously include a greater role for policing and also the repurposing of large unused federal facilities to house people living on the streets. 

But a new report by the National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty highlights the growing problem of unhoused people across the country and suggests that “Housing, Not Handcuffs” is the obvious solution.

Read the report HERE.

Maria Foscarinis, Founder and Executive Director of the National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty.

House Democrats introduced two articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump on Tuesday morning, one focusing on his “abuse of power,” and the other on his “obstruction of Congress.” House Judiciary Committee chair Jerrold Nadler joined other Democratic leaders in announcing the articles. Following him, Intelligence Committee chair Adam Schiff also spoke. Associated Press explained that, “Voting is expected in a matter of days in the Judiciary Committee and by Christmas in the full House.” If the House votes to pass the articles, Trump will become the third US President to ever be impeached, after Bill Clinton and Andrew Johnson. 

Although Democrats and Republicans are fiercely battling over impeachment, they have managed to put their differences aside to come to an agreement on a new regional trade deal with Canada and Mexico – an update to NAFTA, the North America Free Trade Agreement. The new version of the trade deal – dubbed by Trump as the US-Mexico-Canada or USMCA deal, had been negotiated by the Trump administration but was stymied by Democrats’ demands for greater labor protections. A day after Richard Trumka, who heads the AFL-CIO said he was satisfied, Democratic Representative Richard Neal who chairs the House Ways and Means Committee said on Tuesday, “We got the agreement, we’re going to go with it.” Robert Lighthizer, the White House’s chief trade negotiator, is traveling to Mexico on Tuesday together with the President’s son-in-law and adviser Jared Kushner to present the deal. In other trade news, the US has just shut down the World Trade Organization’s appeals court. The Associated Press explained that the court’s end means nations will be, “unable to reach a final resolution of disputes at the World Trade Organization and instead facing what critics call ‘the law of the jungle.’” There are seven unresolved cases brought against the Trump administration’s claims that steel and aluminum tariffs were hurting US national security. 

In other labor news, the Celadon trucking company on Monday announced bankruptcy, leaving thousands of truck drivers in the lurch just before the holidays. The Guardian newspaper reported that, “Many of the truck drivers were left stranded in the midst of making deliveries, as they await receiving bus tickets from the company to return home, now jobless and left without benefits two weeks before Christmas. Their fuel cards were shut off, and many were reported left without any directions on where or how to turn in their rigs.”

President Trump on Monday reacted to the long-awaited results of an investigation into the FBI over the Special Counsel probe. Speaking to reporters from the White House he painted the report’s conclusions as “far worse” than anyone thought they would be. But the actual report exonerated the FBI although it drew attention to some serious lapses in how surveillance was conducted. Upset that the FBI Director did not spin the report’s results in the way he would have like, Trump