FEATURING PAUL SEAMUS RYAN – President Donald Trump on Friday morning made an announcement from the White House that he was declaring a national emergency to obtain the funds to build a wall along the US-Mexico border. The announcement came a day after the House and Senate voted to pass a government-spending bill that included $1.375 billion in funding for fencing along 55 miles of the US-Mexico border. Trump said he would sign the bill even though he wasn’t happy about it. Now, with his declaration of a national emergency at the border, he is testing the limits of Congressional oversight power.

Democrats vowed to challenge the President. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi accused Trump of “making an end-run around Congress,” while Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer said it was a, “lawless act,” and “a gross abuse of the power of the presidency.”

How unconstitutional is the President’s declaration?

Paul Seamus Ryan, Vice President of Policy & Litigation at Common Cause.

FEATURING DANA FRANK – The caravan of refugees waiting at the US-Mexico border in Tijuana is dominated by Hondurans. There is good reason for that. The Central American nation of Honduras has become an increasingly violent place, plagued by state repression and paramilitary forces. Buåçt it is also a country where resistance has a long history and a powerful protest movement has been pushing back.

Most importantly – and this is a fact that is often obscured in media coverage of Honduras – the United States has played a critical role in undermining democracy in Honduras.

Dana Frank, Professor of History Emerita at the University of California, Santa Cruz. She is the author of numerous books including Bananeras: Women Transforming the Banana Unions of Latin America, Buy American: The Untold Story of Economic Nationalism, and more. Since the 2009 military coup her articles about human rights and U.S. policy in Honduras have appeared in The Nation, New York Times, Politico Magazine, Foreign Affairs.com, Foreign Policy.com, Miami Herald, Los Angeles Times, and more. She now joins me to discuss her newest book, The Long Honduran Night: Resistance, Terror, and The United States in the Aftermath of the Coup.

**This segment was originally broadcast on December 5, 2018. 

UPDATED: President Donald Trump on Friday morning made an announcement from the White House that he was declaring a national emergency to obtain the funds to build a wall along the US-Mexico border. PLAY VIDEO. That’s Trump on Friday announcing he is declaring a national emergency to obtain funds for a border wall.

The US House of Representatives on Thursday evening passed a spending bill, just hours after the Senate also passed it, funding the government for another year. The bill includes billions of dollars in so-called border security and $1.375 billion for 55 miles of fencing on the US-Mexico border. President Donald Trump is expected to sign the bill into law later on Friday, the deadline for funding to run out. Speaking on the floor of the Senate, Majority leader Mitch McConnell said he supported Trump’s plan to declare a national emergency to obtain the remainder of the $5.7 billion he has wanted to build a wall along the entire border. PLAY VIDEO. That’s Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell on Thursday indicating his support for Trump’s declaration of a national emergency for border wall funding. According to AP, the White House is eyeing several funds from which the money could come, including, “disaster funds, counternarcotic accounts and military construction dollars.” The disaster funds include money set aside for Houston and Puerto Rico’s recovery from major hurricanes.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi reacted to the announcement saying there was no national emergency at the border.  She also said, “You want to talk about an national emergency? Let’s talk about today, the first anniversary of another manifestation of the epidemic of gun violence in America,” referring to the Parkland, Florida, shooting that left more than a dozen high school students dead. “That’s a national emergency . . . A Democratic president could do that,” said Pelosi.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer joined his Democratic colleague in denouncing the idea of a national emergency declaration as well.  Activist groups around the country are readying mass protests in response.

In other news, the Senate voted to approve former Attorney General William Barr to once more serve in the same position under the Trump administration. Barr was confirmed 54-45 almost entirely along party lines. Republican Rand Paul voted against Barr while three Democrats, Doug Jones of Alabama, Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, and Joe Manchin III of West Virginia joined Republicans in voting for him. Barr will now directly oversee the Special Counsel’s investigation into the Trump campaign.

Andrew McCabe, former Director of the FBI, in an interview on CBS’s 60 Minutes said on Thursday that officials at the Ju...

FEATURING RAHUL MAHAJAN – The House of Representatives on Wednesday voted to end US support for Saudi Arabia’s war on Yemen in a rebuke to President Donald Trump. The vote was 248-177 with 18 Republicans siding with Democrats. The Senate had passed a similar measure last year 56 to 41 but the previous Republican leadership in the House had refused to hold a vote.

Now, with Democrats in power in the House the bill moves forward and the Senate is likely to pass its version of the bill in the coming weeks. House Republicans did push through an amendment that the US would continue its intelligence sharing partnership with Saudi Arabia whenever, “appropriate in the national security interest of the United States.” It is not clear if the President will sign the bill.

Rahul Mahajan is the the US Foreign Policy and Empire Correspondent for Rising Up With Sonali. He’s also the author of two books on the Iraq war: Full Spectrum Dominance: U.S. Power in Iraq and Beyond and The New Crusade: America’s War on Terrorism. He also teaches at University of Wisconsin, River Falls.

FEATURING STEFAN M. BRADLEY – There have been many political debates on the campuses of elite universities over the years. Often students have effectively led movements that mirror off-campus struggles. One great example of that is how black student movements historically used their positions within elite Ivy League schools to demand change.

A new book about the black-student led movements for civil rights and black power tells that story.

Stefan M. Bradley is Associate Professor and Chair in the Department of African American Studies at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles. He is author of Harlem vs. Columbia University: Black Student Power in the Late 1960s and co-editor of Alpha Phi Alpha: A Legacy of Greatness, The Demands of Transcendence. His new book is called Upending the Ivory Tower: Civil Rights, Black Power, and the Ivy League.

**This interview was originally broadcast on December 19, 2018.

The US House of Representatives on Wednesday voted to end US support for Saudi Arabia’s war on Yemen in a rebuke to President Donald Trump. The vote was 248-177 with 18 Republicans siding with Democrats. The Senate already passed a similar measure last year 56 to 41 but the past Republican leadership in the House refused to hold a vote. Now, with Democrats in power in the House the bill moves forward and the Senate is likely to pass its version of the bill in the coming weeks. House Republicans did get through an amendment that the US would continue its intelligence sharing partnership with Saudi Arabia whenever, “appropriate in the national security interest of the United States.” It is not clear if the President will sign the bill or not.

In news from the Special Counsel’s investigation, a federal judge ruled on Wednesday that Trump’s former campaign chair Paul Manafort repeatedly lied to prosecutors even after agreeing to cooperate with Robert Mueller’s team. Manafort is currently awaiting sentencing on other charges. The ruling on Wednesday could affect the severity of his sentence. According to the New York Times, “the judge found, he lied about his contacts with a Russian associate during the campaign and after the election. Prosecutors claim that the associate, Konstantin V. Kilimnik, has ties to Russian intelligence, and have been investigating whether he was involved in Russia’s covert campaign to influence the election results.” Additionally, “Mr. Manafort joins a string of former Trump aides who have been found to have lied to federal investigators about their involvement with Russians or their intermediaries, including Michael T. Flynn, Mr. Trump’s first national security adviser; George Papadopoulos, a former campaign adviser; and Michael D. Cohen, Mr. Trump’s longtime fixer and lawyer.”

Meanwhile Republican Senator Lindsey Graham and Democratic Senator Bob Menendez introduced a bi-partisan bill on Wednesday to impose sanctions on Russia as punishment for attempted election interference. The Senate had taken up a similar bill last year that failed to pass. This version is apparently tougher and would, according to Reuters, target “Russian banks that support efforts to interfere in foreign elections; the country’s cyber sector; new sovereign debt; and individuals deemed to ‘facilitate illicit and corrupt activities, directly or indirectly, on behalf of (Russian President Vladimir) Putin.'” Even if the bill passes both Congressional chambers, Trump may not sign it. He has been reluctant in the past to hold Russia accountable. Senator Menendez explained, “President Trump’s willful paralysis in the face of Kremlin aggression has reached a boiling point in Congress.”

A new poll on the bi-partisan legislation to avert a second shutdown has found strong support among the public. About sixty percent of Americans like the current agreement that has $1.375 billion in funding for 55 miles of border fencing, 24% want Trump to accept the deal but then declare a national emergency to get the rest of his coveted funds, and 16% thinks he should refuse to sign the deal even if it means the government shutting down for the second time. Rightwing commentators are encouraging Trump to not sign the deal by the February 15th deadline.

FEATURING IOAN GRILLO – The Mexican drug kingpin Joaquín Archivaldo Guzmán Loera, also known as El Chapo, has been found guilty on all the charges he faced in a federal court in Brooklyn, New York. Guzmán had been extradited to the US about two years ago and his trial lasted several months. American prosecutors, according to the Washington Post, said that he, “pumped drugs into the United States, bribed Mexican officials, laundered money and repeatedly commanded his ‘sicarios’ — or ‘assassins’ — to commit brutal acts of violence.”

Richard P. Donoghue, a US Attorney for New York said in a statement, “Today, Guzmán Loera has been held accountable for the tons of illegal narcotics he trafficked for more than two decades, the murders he ordered and committed, and the billions of dollars he reaped while causing incalculable pain and suffering to those devastated by his drugs.” But many contend that El Chapo’s high-profile arrest, trial, and conviction will do little to stop drug cartels.

Read Ioan’s op-ed in the New York Times entitled, ‘El Chapo’s Conviction Isn’t Enough,’ HERE.

Ioan Grillo, award winning journalist and writer based in Mexico City.. His books include El Narco: Inside Mexico’s Criminal Insurgency and Gangster Warlords: Drug Dollars, Killing Fields, and the New Politics of Latin America.

FEATURING MANUEL OLIVER – Groups involved in the March for Our Lives mobilized for actions against the National Rifle Association. The main March on the NRA took place outside NRA headquarters in Fairfax, Virginia.

There were smaller marches in cities around the country as well calling for gun control. Many activists marked what would have been the 18th birthday of a young man named Joaquin Oliver killed at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. His parents Manuel and Patricia Oliver said, “We don’t want thoughts. We don’t want prayers. We want change.”

For more information visit www.changetheref.org.

Manuel Oliver, father, activist, artist and founder of Change the Ref, a group whose mission is, “To raise awareness about mass shootings through strategic interventions that will reduce the influence of the NRA on the Federal level.”

**Originally broadcast on August 6, 2018.

President Donald Trump has, in theory, agreed to sign a bipartisan agreement to fund the government and avert a second shutdown. Earlier in the week a Congressional committee tasked with finding agreement between both parties announced an deal that would include funding for about 55 miles of border wall between the US and Mexico, costing about $1.375 billion instead of the $5.7 billion Trump was demanding. On Tuesday Trump said he wasn’t happy with the bill but argued that he would find a way to build the entire wall anyway. 

Senate Majority leader Mitch McConnell said to reporters, “I have recommended that if it becomes what we think it is, I do recommend he sign it.” He added, “I think he’s got a pretty good deal here.” Still, there is never a guarantee with Trump. In December he looked ready to sign the deal made then but after hearing intense criticism from Fox News pundits, Trump backed off and refused to sign, initiating a 35-day partial government shutdown – the longest in history. A key Republican Senator, Richard Shelby said he told the President, “that he’s getting a good down payment,” on the wall and pointed out that there will be more than $22 billion in funding for border security – a figure Trump appears to have grabbed on to as he tweeted on Tuesday evening, “Will be getting almost $23 BILLION for Border Security. Regardless of Wall money, it is being built as we speak!”

In other news, the Mexican drug kingpin Joaquín Archivaldo Guzmán Loera, also known as El Chapo, has been found guilty on all the charges he faced in a federal court in Brooklyn, New York. Guzmán had been extradited to the US about two years ago and his trial lasted several months. American prosecutors, according to the Washington Post, said that he, “pumped drugs into the United States, bribed Mexican officials, laundered money and repeatedly commanded his ‘sicarios’ — or ‘assassins’ — to commit brutal acts of violence.” Richard P. Donoghue, a US Attorney for New York said in a statement, “Today, Guzmán Loera has been held accountable for the tons of illegal narcotics he trafficked for more than two decades, the murders he ordered and committed, and the billions of dollars he reaped while causing incalculable pain and suffering to those devastated by his drugs.”

In other news, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell says he plans to set up a vote on the Green New Deal resolution that Massachusetts Senator Ed Markey recently introduced. Markey and New York Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez unveiled the resolution at a press conference last week. McConnell announced that he wants a vote on the Green New Deal resolution. Despite the fact that it is very popular among the public the resolution will likely fail the Senate with Republicans controlling 53 out of 100 Senate seats. McConnell likely wants vulnerable Democratic Senators, including Presidential contenders to go on record voting for the deal in order to exploit their vote politically in the month...

FEATURING ARIEL GOLD – Minnesota’s freshman Congresswoman Ilhan Omar has raised the ire of Congressional representatives in both parties with her pointed critique of Israel and the Israeli lobby. When she made the point on Twitter that campaign donations from the Israeli lobby group AIPAC spurs the vehemently pro-Israel positions of some members of Congress, she was singled out for being “anti-Semitic.”

Omar, who along with Rashida Tlaib became the first Muslim woman in Congress, is also the first woman to wear a hijab, and the first Somali American member of Congress. Both have come under intense scrutiny from an Administration and party that has used Islamophobia to score political points.

In a tweet on Monday Omar was forced to apologize for her comments, writing, “Anti-Semitism is real and I am grateful for Jewish allies and colleagues who are educating me on the painful history of anti-Semitic tropes.” She added, “I unequivocally apologize,” but also said, “At the same time I reaffirm the problematic role of lobbyists in our politics.”

Ariel Gold, national co-director of CODEPINK. She manages the organization’s campaigns for Palestinian rights.