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Colleen Ryan holds a photo of an office staff, all but two of whom diedin the attacks on the World Trade Center on September 11, including her brother, to urge Congress to set up a commission to investigate the events that led up to the attacks, on Nov. 23, 2002.

Photo: Tom Williams/Roll Call/Getty Images

After the World Trade Center bombing in 1993, the U.S. Justice Department brought the co-conspirators before the federal court in the Southern District of New York for a criminal trial.

After the 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania killed 12 Americans and more than 200 others, the U.S. Justice Department similarly brought the perpetrators to public criminal trials in downtown Manhattan.

Notably, both theWorld Trade Center bombing and the embassy bombings involved many of the same operatives, training camps, financial banking networks, communications facilities and hubs, methods of communications, sources, and methods of travel, travel networks, and travel identifiers as the 9/11 attacks. In fact, Al Qaeda was closely linked to theWorld Trade Center bombing and orchestrated the embassy attacks as well as the bombing of the USS Cole in Yemen in October 2000.

Of course, the number killed in the 9/11 attacks far eclipses the count of those injured and killed in theWorld Trade Center1993 bombing, the embassy bombings, and the USS Cole bombing combined. Historically speaking, the 9/11 families are the largest group of terrorism victims for terrorist attacks carried out inside the country. And yet the U.S. Justice Department has never indicted and fully prosecuted one co-conspirator for the crime.

Quite inexplicably, the 3,000 homicides by hijacking and bombing onSeptember 11 will go unanswered for in these United States. Even the case of Zacarias Moussaoui, who pleaded guilty to conspiracy for failing to prevent the attacks, was a debacle that for the 9/11 families only raised more uncomfortable questions surrounding the U.S. governments abject and systemic failures. As the Associated Press reported, The FBI agent who arrested Zacarias Moussaoui in August 2001 testified [that] he spent almost four weeks trying to warn U.S. officials about the radical Islamic student pilot but criminal negligenceby superiors in Washington thwarted a chance to stop the 9/11 attacks.

Without justice and accountability, the very dangerous message sent to terrorist murderers is that they may operate with free license to kill innocent civilians not just in places far from Americans, like Afghanistan, but also closer to their home, in the streets of lower Manhattan on sunny, blue-skied mornings. With the consent of Presidents George W. Bush, Barack Obama, Donald Trump and Joe Biden; Attorneys General John Ashcroft, Alberto Gonzales, Michael Mukasey,Loretta Lynch, Eric Holder, Jeff Sessions, William Barr, and Merrick Garland; Manhattan District Attorneys Robert Morgenthau and Cy Vance Jr. all of whom, as the saying goes, could easily indicteven aham sandwich and two decades worth of prestigious members of Congress vowing to never forget, a demand has never been made for full truth, transparency, accountability, and justice for the 3,000 dead.

Why?

I have studied this issue extensively, testifying twice before Congress and, with other 9/11 widows, forcing the creation of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States, known as the 9/11 Commission, and helping push through some of the national security reforms it recommended. Ive had scores of communications over 20 years with presidents and members of their national security councils, members of Congress, the director of the FBI, heads of counterterrorism divisions and joint terror task forces, CIA officials, ex-CIA agents, FBI agents and ex-FBI agents, former NSA analysts, whistleblowers, and even terrorist defense attorneys. I believe its clear that the U.S. government has plenty of evidence and information in its files to refer enough incriminating facts and irrefutable evidence to a myriad of grand juries, secure indictments, and thereafter prosecute all of the living 9/11 conspirators who contributed to the homicide of 3,000 innocent people on the morning of September 11, 2001. And yet justice is simply not sought.

Rather pointedly, the 9/11 hijackers did not act alone.

They had a substantial support network that was deeply embedded inside the United States and abroad for nearly a decade prior to, on, and after the 9/11 attacks. It is my understanding that this support network spanned several states including California; Arizona; Nevada; Washington; Minnesota; Oklahoma; Illinois; Florida; North Carolina; Virginia; Massachusetts; Maine; New York; New Jersey; and Texas. The support network also included several countries like Germany; Spain; France; the U.K.; Egypt; Kenya; Tanzania; Sudan; Yemen; Saudi Arabia;the United Arab Emirates;Qatar; Pakistan; Malaysia; Thailand; Iran; and Afghanistan.

Known and lethal terrorists openly and freely operated inside the U.S. for years before the 9/11 attacks, and yet authorities failed to prevent the cold-blooded murders of our 3,000 loved ones. More than 14 U.S. local and federal jurisdictions had law enforcement agencies that brushed up against the 9/11 hijackers and their supporters. Moreover, more than 18 foreign law enforcement counterparts also investigated some of those involved in the 9/11 attacks. They unearthed evidence, wrote reports, monitored activities, watched money wires, and investigated stock sales, arms and weapons shipments across borders, eyebrow-raising passports and visa documents, and lethal operatives roaming the world, planning murder, with impunity. Thesepeople remain fully aware of the truth and how their one part of the damning puzzle fits together. Yet none speak out.

Indeed, when a person looks at the facts and circumstances of the 9/11 attacks, taken as a whole, it would seem implausible that not one individual, entity, bank, or business has been fully prosecuted and found criminally responsible as a co-conspirator for the crime that took place. I say a crime, because my husbands death certificate, like every other 9/11 victims, lists the manner of his death as homicide, not war. And yet our nation, a democracy based upon the rule of law, that supposedly protects and entitles all of its citizens with a Constitution and clear Bill of Rights (and certainly the most basic universal human right to live and not be blown up in a building) has not found, and will not ever find, it necessary to hold any co-conspirator of the 9/11 hijackers accountable in a court of criminal law. The typically exceedingly easy-to-meet thresholds for who and what qualifies as a criminal co-conspirator and conspiracy have never quite been met by the screaming facts and circumstances of 9/11 and Id argue thats by systemic prosecutorial choice to look the other way for matters of political expediency, cover-up, or in the best case scenario, sheer embarrassment.

U.S.Marines arrive ata base in southern Afghanistan on Nov. 29, 2001.

Photo: Jim Hollander/Pool/AFP via Getty Images

While not using theSeptember 11murders to prosecute the obvious crime and deliver justice to the 9/11 families, this countrys leaders have alternatively used the 3,000 homicides to do many other things none of which have anything to do with serving and protecting the best interests of civilians and 9/11 victims,but everything to do with government overreach and the trampling of Americans constitutional rights. It wasnt Osama bin Laden and Al Qaedathat cracked the bedrock of our hallowed democracy; it was our very own leaders who carried out their own hijacking of our Bill of Rights in the wake of 9/11.

On the backs of the 9/11 dead, our leaders have chosen to start wars, some of which were illegal and based upon the shady unilateral decisions of presidents (both Democrat and Republican). These wars, which have lasted two full decades, cost trillions of dollars, the lives and physical and mental well-being of hundreds of thousands of U.S. troops, and the lives of hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians who were unlucky enough to be caught up in American-made war zones. All of these wars, interventions, and occupations have only further fomented terrorism and clearly inflamed global hostilities toward American foreign policy objectives that have little to do with what is truly in the best interests of citizens here or abroad.

On the backs of the 9/11 dead, our leaders have chosen to start wars, some of which were illegal and based upon the shady unilateral decisions of presidents.

I can say this with unimpeachable authority since I speak, firsthand, as one small piece of the collateral damage of four decades worth of this nations bad foreign policy decisions, starting inthe 1980s with the Iran-Contra affair and the arming of the mujahideen to fight the Soviets in Afghanistan; both President George H.W. Bush and the younger President Bush overlookingtheir oil-rich Saudi friends before and after 9/11; Obamas inexplicable veto of the Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act that was meant to hold terrorists and their co-sponsors accountable; Trump rubbing magical orbs with Saudi leaders prior to Jamal Khashoggi getting sliced into bits; and ultimately bookended by Bidens horrifying, grossly mismanaged withdrawal from Afghanistan.

Our government passed legislationin the name of 9/11 that has eviscerated our constitutional rights based upon the premise that such legislative action (the Patriot Act, Titles I-X, and subsequent reauthorizations by all presidents, Democrat or Republican) was needed to keep us safe from terrorists, when the truth is that all the information, evidence, and legal authorities the U.S. government needed to prevent the 9/11 attacks was readily available and atits fingertips beforehand.If onlyit had chosen to usethat informationto stop bin Laden and his operatives before they very successfully blew up my husband Rons building.

As the former chair and vice chair of the 9/11 Commission Tom Kean and Lee Hamilton, respectively have alarmingly confirmed,the 9/11 attacks were preventable because everything needed to prevent them was there before the attacks occurred. It wasnt an intelligence wall that stopped information from flowing before 9/11; it was purposeful (and Id argue criminal) withholding of evidence and information by foreign and domestic intelligence agencies that enabled Al Qaeda operatives to carry out their attacks unhampered. Chillingly, such purposeful withholding of information continues to this very day, since with no further executive or congressional demand for responsibility or accountability for 9/11, there is simply no incentive for our intelligence officials and policymakers to alter their toxic patterns, including repeated cost-benefit analysesin which the cost is only ever paid by the innocent known as collateral damage both here and abroad. Truly, is it any real surprise that former CIA Director George Tenet provided bad intelligence on weapons of mass destruction that led us into a war with Iraq, when just a few years before he had carried out poor intelligence decision-making (and cherry-picking of information) that left us vulnerable to the 9/11 attacks? Incidentally, Tenet was given the Medal of Freedom. He should be in jail.

During the past 20 years, extrajudicial drone strikes, illegal renditions, unlawful and inhuman torture, and indefinite detentions have become the norm all done, as well, in the name of our loved ones and to prevent another 9/11. Sadly, these inhumane and unlawful methods do not make any of us safer; they just allow presidents to unilaterally act outside the law, without oversight. Moreover, in addition to being a stain on the legacy of America, these unlawful methods have also further robbed the 9/11 families of our right to justice and our ability to hold terrorists accountable. None of thepeople detained at Guantnamo Baywith direct links to the 9/11 attacks (including the mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and alleged co-conspirators like Ramzi bin al-Shibh and Walid bin Attash, known as Khallad) are likely to ever be tried and brought to justice. Congress blocked their transfer to civilian courts in the U.S., and even within the military commission system at Guantnamo, trials are going nowhere because they were tortured by the CIA.

Theresa Regan, second left, who lost her husband during the 9/11 terrorists attacks, listens with her son Peter, left,and daughter Jill, third left, during a Senate Judiciary Committeehearing on Nov. 18, 2009, in Washington, D.C.

Photo: Alex Wong/Getty Images

So without being able to hold the known 9/11 terrorists in custody accountable, and without any standing indictments or prosecutions meted out by the Department of Justice against the other identifiable co-conspirators, the job of seeking out accountability and justice has fallen on the shoulders of the 9/11 families, who were left to take matters of justice into our own hands through the second-rate route of civil litigation. Unlike the embassy bombing and the1993 World Trade Center attack victims, who were able to use evidence brought forth during the governments public trials and prosecutions of the perpetrators of the killers of their loved ones, the 9/11 families have never been given such help, assistance, access to evidence, or prosecutorial favor. This leaves us alone and with a stark disadvantage as we try to hold terrorists and their co-conspirators accountable for the murder of our loved ones in federal civil court. For a country that invokes 9/11 so freely to start wars andattack terrorists and innocent civilians around them with drones, and expands executive branch powers beyond anything our Founding Fathers would have ever felt comfortable with, such use of the 9/11 tagline abruptly halts at the courthouse steps.

For a country that invokes 9/11 so freely to start wars and attack terrorists and innocent civilians around them with drones, such use of the 9/11 tagline abruptly halts at the courthouse steps.

For 20 years, the 9/11 families have only faced a Department of Justice that spends more of its time covering up for terrorists and terrorist co-conspirators, errant intelligence community agents, and officials bad (arguably criminal) decisions that either directly killed or in many ways strongly contributedto the mass murder of our innocent loved ones. Year after year, Department of Justice lawyers, attorneys general, and prosecutors willfully choose to not help the 9/11 families as we fight the terrorists in court; they nastily refuse to share or declassify the information and evidence they have in their files so that we can nail terrorists and terrorist supporters. Instead, horrifically, some U.S. prosecutors literally sit on the side of the defendants (in this case, Saudi Arabia) and help the key evidence we need stay secret.

Two decades down, it is now enough. We believe it is time for our families to have closure and truth.

We believe that all information surrounding 9/11 should be made public. Using the Khashoggi case as precedent, we want all members of Congress to be fully briefed on the 9/11 case files. Moreover, we want members of Congress to pass meaningful legislation that will achieve the same transparency, accountability, and justice that they called for immediately after Khashoggi was killed.

We wantBiden to release the 9/11 files to the American public just as he released intelligence from the Khashoggi files. And just as sanctions were assessed against Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salmans Tiger Squad for Khashoggis murder, we want sanctions to be brought against those Saudis implicated in 9/11. If the powers of the Magnitsky Act appliedto the gross human rights violation that occurred when Khashoggi was murdered and dismembered with a bone saw, then it should also applyto the gross human rights violations that occurred when thousands of people were crushed to death on the morning of September 11.

Most pointedly, the Khashoggi reports and evidence were used to publicly incriminate a sitting Saudi crown prince. We, too, believe that the 9/11 evidence should be used to incriminate any Saudi, be they a member of the royal family, part of an intelligence service, a diplomat anyone, regardless of privilege. Please note that in the Khashoggi matter, information from wiretaps of a Saudi royals private communications,which implicated him in Khashoggis murder, were leaked, and an intelligence summary was officially released, openly stating that Salman approved the killing. Such highly sensitive information clearly collected through secret sources and methods was somehow breezily declassified and made available to the public. And yet the 9/11 families cannot get basic wiretap information surrounding an Al Qaeda communications hub in Yemen from 1998-2001 or NSA intercepts for the 9/11 hijackers phone calls from inside the U.S. cases that dont involve the surveillance of a sitting Saudi crown prince, just the private communications of Osama bin Laden and his Al Qaeda operatives planning attacks like the embassy bombings, the USS Cole Bombing, and 9/11. So why cant Americans read the transcripts of those conversations and know what the NSA, CIA, FBI,Saudi intelligence, and other intelligence agencies heard about those attacks before they happened? Why cant such information be used by the 9/11 families so that we can hold terrorists and their co-conspirators accountable?

Jamal Khashoggi was not an American citizen. In fact, he was a close friend of Osama bin Ladens and said he wept when he was killed, adding that he wished bin Laden had not succumbed to anger. Our loved ones were Americans. And their cold-blooded, brutal murders in broad daylight should be given the same transparency, accountability, and justice. On the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, there should be nothing left to hide. As Biden has directed in a more recent context, all terrorists and their co-conspirators should be hunt[ed] down and made to pay for their crimes.

See the rest here:
My Husband Died on 9/11. I Am Still Waiting for a Trial of His Killers. - The Intercept

The Ohio Legislative Black Caucus Foundation, held its annual conference virtually last week. The Foundation is a group of former state politicians and community leaders who advocate for people of color in Ohio. At the event, speakers voiced concerns about the uptick in voter suppression bills that have been introduced across the country.

Eric Holder, former US Attorney General and Chairman of the National Democratic Redistricting Committee, says how state legislative maps are drawn this fall may have a big impact on the future of voting rights.

Gerrymandered districts prevent voters from being able to elect the candidate of their choice, and it prevents politicians from having to listen to their voters, said Holder.

Greg Moore is a member of the Ohio Citizens Redistricting Commission, an organization collecting community input to be used in the mapmaking process. At the event, he said Ohioans are eager to take a larger role in redistricting.

Over and over, participants show that they want to be part of the process of choosing their representatives, not the other way around, said Moore.

Next week, the states official redistricting body Ohio Redistricting Commission will hold ten public hearings at different locations across Ohio. At the meetings, citizens will be able to give testimony and input on the maps.

Read more:
Ohio Legislative Black Caucus Foundation Concerned About Redistricting And Voter Suppression - WYSO

Democrats are busy trying to ensure a victory in the 2022 elections. If public opinion plays any part (and if the elections are honest), theyll likely lose in even larger numbers than in 2020, which was bad for them, President Joe Bidens victory notwithstanding.

But the Democrats in power are very, very good at gaming the system; we can expect them to exploit fear porn associated with the COVID-19 pandemic. They will demand the continuation of practices that are rife with potential for fraud, such as ballot harvesting and mail-in ballots, and fight tooth and nail against election integrity efforts state legislatures are enacting. Indeed, Eric Holder, attorney general under former President Barack Obama, has already called for people to be in the streets, using considerable civil resistance and getting arrested to protect their voting rights. Holders call to arms sounds like hes summoning rioting mobs such as those that did up to $2 billion in damage in cities across the country in the summer of 2020.

This effort at intimidation is pure propaganda, and irresponsible to boot. In truth, no American citizens voting rights are threatened by the legislation currently making its way through a number of states. State legislatures must hold the line and enact legislation that will protect election integrity and prevent fraud and other illegal voting that does disenfranchise Americans.

Democrats know all this. They also know that they lose elections when Americans are told the truth about the policies theyre pushing which is why they rely upon the media to lie for them, and Big Tech to prevent anyone from telling the truth.

A perfect example of this is so-called universal or single-payer health care, which is one of Democrats pet projects. Imposing a socialist form of health care has been at the top of their wish list since long before Obama managed to get the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) rammed through Congress in 2009 without a single Republican vote, and based upon a series of lies repeated to the American public for months. (No, insured people could not keep their doctors or their plans; no, insurance was not going to cost less; yes, sorry premiums were going to skyrocket, and did.)

The launch of healthcare.gov, the website where Americans were supposed to sign up for insurance, was an unmitigated disaster, as were the state-run health care plans and exchanges, most of which closed or went bankrupt due to higher-than-predicted costs and inadequate revenue and government reimbursements.

Thats proof that health care should not be run, administered or paid for by the U.S. government. But in truth, it isnt the government that pays for health care in a single-payer system; its the taxpayers.

In that vein, the COVID-19 pandemic has revealed another ugly reality: what collectivist healthcare does to us as individuals, and the attitude that people begin to take toward other peoples health, their personal behavior and their medical care decisions.

The ongoing debate over the medical necessity and constitutionality of mask and vaccine mandates has brought out the authoritarian impulses in no small number of Americans. Pundits describe those with serious concerns about vaccines as evil and malicious. Actor and former California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger notoriously said screw your freedoms in response to people opposing mask mandates. Actor and activist George Takei is among many on social media who have called for the unvaccinated to be denied health care; or worse. Talk show host James Corden joked that unvaccinated people should be punched in the face. One Twitter user (who later deleted his account) actually said that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention should tell people to get the shot or get shot. Those who refuse, he tweeted, should be lined up in front of a trench and executed by a firing squad.

Even among those not moved to violence, the rationale offered for penalizing people is that the choice not to wear a mask or be vaccinated causes harm. When one points out that the same could be said of smoking, substance abuse or obesity, the response is, Thats different. Those choices dont affect other people.

Oht, but under single-payer health care, they would.

That would prompt the same hostility were seeing about COVID, and we already have the proof.

A Google search for Should the unvaccinated receive health care? pulls up dozens of links to editorials arguing against providing care. One author, Trish Zornio, explicitly uses limited resources as justification for denying care to those whose choices strain the system when resources become scarce. Choices have consequences, she wrote.

Yes, they do.

As the socialized health care systems in Canada and the United Kingdom both demonstrate, a single-payer system inevitably results in budget shortfalls. Governments are never accurate (or honest) about the costs of social programs, and you can only raise taxes so much. When the money runs low, here come the delays, waiting lists and rationing. Now the government will decide who receives care and who doesnt.

How will Americans feel about each other then?

Lets use obesity as an example. More than 40% of Americans are obese. Obesity is the single greatest comorbidity presaging serious complications from COVID. But even without the coronavirus, the costs of treating obesity-related illness heart disease, stroke, renal failure, hypertension and even some cancers runs into the hundreds of billions of dollars annually.

How long will it take before Americans start saying choices have consequences when they discover that other peoples behavior affects their access to health care?

Collectivism isnt kindness or charity; its compulsion. We cease being neighbors and instead become rivals for limited resources dispensed by powerful people over whom we have no control, so we seek to control our fellow citizens instead.

Dont be fooled. Socialized health care is a prescription for social disaster. Vote against those who would impose it.

Today's breaking news and more in your inbox

See the article here:
COVID exposes the ugly side of 'single-payer' health care - Minot Daily News

Summary

Trump still hasn`t been reinstated as president. Mike Lindell predicts Trump will be reinstated. Republicans control redistricting in 20 states. Census data to be used to allot congressional seats.

ARI MELBER, MSNBC HOST: You know what, we just -- we had our other artisan together, producer and rapper, I would love to do a joint interview Meek Mill with you. It would by my honor, Joy.

JOY REID, MSNBC HOST: Officially, we have pitched that just now on national T.V. Let`s do it.

MELBER: There it is, to the world.

REID: All right, Ari, have a great weekend. Thank you. All right, cheers.

All right, good evening everyone. We begin THE REIDOUT with the horror story. Today is Friday the 13th. Now, for most of us who are old enough to remember, that date conjures up memories of Jason Voorhees and his nightmare-inducing murdering rampages near Crystal Lake.

So spooky. In 2021, that nightmare has been replaced by another horrifying reality, the modern Republican Party. For many hardcore Trump followers and the orange emperor with no clothes himself, this Friday the 13th is the day of his glorious and his triumphant return to power. Yes. Today is the day that the military, which is secretly in power, will hand over the White House to the bloated retiree over in Bedminster and remove the Biden hologram. Trump, like every sad narcissist, believes this lie.

According to one report, he`s taking to telling people that he would be reinstated as president. Now, all of those people don`t just laugh in his face, it`s beyond me. But that probably explains why the #trumpisalaughingstock trended all afternoon. The factually dubious and dangerous idea was cooked up in the rancid bowels of the QAnon inter webs and pushed by right wing heretics led by, the MyPillow guy.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MIKE LINDELL, CEO, THE MY PILLOW: By the time, August 13th -- the morning of August 13th, it will be the talk of the world point. Hurry up. Let`s get this election pulled down and right the right.

On August 13th, Donald Trump is going to be reinstated as President. The alliance is going to overturn the cabal.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

REID: Nearly 30 percent of the Republican Party actually believes this nonsense.

Well, it is past 7:00 P.M. and Joe Biden is still the president. And he is not a hologram, because there is no constitutional mechanism or legal tool to reinstate a man who was rejected by 81 million Americans and lost his re-election bid, period.

Now some of this seems comical. The sheer stupidity of it all masks the truly disturbing under belly of the Republican Party in this moment, because today is just another example of how far the right-wing misinformation regime is willing to go, to feed poison to their people, poison that led to a deadly insurrection, poison that led to the only American president in modern history, in any of our of our history, to actively try to overthrow a free and fair election, poison that prompted the DHS to issue a terrorism threat alert that include a warning about domestic terrorists engage in grievance-based violence.

The bulletin also warned of violence stemming from conspiracy theories based on perceived election fraud and alleged reinstatement. Sound familiar? The same poison that`s now fuelling a two-pronged attack on democratic voters in the form of voter suppression and racial gerrymandering. This kind of corrosive propaganda has become acceptable to Republicans, even Republicans who know better, because it helps subjugate democracy in their quest for power.

Why did they allow all of this poison? Well, new census numbers this week give us a clue. The United States is increasingly multiracial and urban and the white population is shrinking. Even more interesting, the majority of the Americans under the age of 18 are ethnically diverse, the majority.

While the census also showed us is that the bulk of the diverse population growth is in states like Texas and Arizona, where Republicans get to draw the lines in a way that ensure that they keep more power than they deserve. That is what we call gerrymandering, folks.

That`s also what happens when old America keeps the new America from fully blossoming, because democracy can die in broad daylight. That`s why it feels like a deck is so stacked. Because every time democracy ekes out a victory, Republicans throw up a new hurdle.

Just take a look at what`s happening in Georgia or Texas or at the Supreme Court, where conservative justices have left the Voting Rights Act on life support, with a fading pulse. The next few months pose a make-or-break moment for America. And the question is what will Democrats do about it.

And joining me now is Eric Holder, former U.S. Attorney General under President Barack Obama, and the Chairman of the National Democratic Redistricting Committee.

And, General Holder, thank you so much for being here. You`re just the person that I wanted to talk to in this moment when it does feel like our democracy is teetering on the brink of collapse.

[19:05:03]

And I want to go back to start with this reinstatement thing. It`s ridiculous, it`s ludicrous, but it`s also a national security threat. And I wonder if as somebody who was attorney general, do you think that, U.S. attorneys and the current DOJ is being aggressive enough in having some sort of consequence for pushing this big lie and these big lies that are actually potentially making people get violent.

ERIC HOLDER, FORMER U.S. ATTORNEY GENERAL: Well, you know, the Justice Department clearly is investigating and prosecuting all the people involved on January the 6th. It seems to me that there probably needs to be a wider investigation to see how you tie what happened January the 6th to what happened starting the day of the election or immediately thereafter.

It seems to me these are part in parcel of the same things as the revelations come out about the White House trying to influencing the Justice Department, trying to get people at the Justice Department to say that the election results were fraudulent and use it as a basis to then use operatives in the state to, you know, overturn the election results. This is something that I think calls for a pretty expansive view of -- you know, review of what happened.

But here is the deal. You know, I think, in some ways, the most important thing is for that congressional committee to look at all these things so that the information that they get can be shared with the American people and can be shared with history.

Criminal investigations, you know, a lot of it happens in grand juries, a lot of it doesn`t get revealed to the public, ever. And there has to be an accounting of who was involved, what did they do. A prime question has to be, what did the president`s men know and what did they do.

REID: Well, and we know that there is not a history in this country unlike some countries of prosecuting a former president. But this just seems like a sui generis case with Donald Trump, when know that Spiro Agnew, former vice president, was prosecuted. But there isn`t -- there hasn`t really been a history of that.

But right now, this former president, Donald Trump, there is a Georgia investigation that is ongoing right now into his call to overturn the election directly there in the state of Georgia. Georgia election officials opened that in February about that phone call in which he pressured the secretary of state there to overturn the election.

And I wonder if combining that fact, that he is already under that criminal investigation, and the fact that there is this January 6th commission that is looking at what could come out to be crimes. I mean, George Conway has come out and said, there`s even prosecution here. If you were still in a position to do so, would you be open to the idea that perhaps Donald Trump should be prosecuted?

HOLDER: Yes. I certainly think that, you know, everybody who was involved in that matter, and, I mean, you just -- you can`t look at it. You can`t cabin (ph). You just think that January 6th is the only thing we need to be looking at. We have to go back a couple of months and everybody who was involved in that. I mean, everybody should be investigated and then potentially prosecuted.

Now, prosecution of a former president involves a whole range of things that you know goes -- that`s a little different from, you know, people who serve and below him. There are national interests, divisions that that could unleash, which is not to say that he should not be held accountable if he is found to have committed criminal acts. Put it in a minimum, at a minimum, an investigation needs to be done to find out who exactly was involved, what was the connection between people in the White House and the people who were there on January the 6th through intermediaries or direct.

REID: And you were there obviously when Merrick Garland was chosen to be on the Supreme Court by former President Obama. So I assume you know at least, know a lot about him. Do you get the sense that he is overcautious in that regard when it comes to investigating the former president, members of Congress and others who may have been complicit in what amounted to -- what not what amounted to, in what was an attempted coup, an insurrection against the United States?

HOLDER: No, I don`t think so. I mean, I`ve known Merrick for, you know, maybe 20, 30, 20, 25 years at this point. I think he is a person that is going to do things by the book. And I think he understands the enormity of what happened and the negative impact that, you know, what happened on January the 6th and what led up to January the 6th, The negative impact of that had on the nation, and, you know, the negative impact that would occur if people who are responsible for all that were not held accountable. You know, I think he feels that. I think understands that. And I think he is prepared, you know, to make those kinds of difficult decision.

You know, I got a lot of grief when I decided that I was going to look back at what happened in the prior administration, when it came to the use of -- a torture as interrogation technique. And, you know, I think Merrick went in to the job understanding this. Sometimes you`ve got to make these decisions that are going to be politically controversial, maybe even unpopular. You know, I think he has got the type of like a backbone that will allow him to make the appropriate determination in these cases.

REID: Now, that is good news I think to a lot of our viewers.

Okay, let`s get to the other half of the threat to democracy.

[19:10:00]

Republicans are using the big lie. Whether they personally believe it or not, they are deciding to use it to their advantage. I know you sued multiple states when you were attorney general over attempts to disenfranchise voters in some of this southern state, in these red states. We now have that on steroids happening in places like Texas, in Georgia et cetera.

In your view, how do we put the brakes on that enough to allow enough people to be able to vote so that we have a free and fair election in 2022? And are you worried that these states have now gone so far that we won`t have a free and a fair election?

HOLDER: They haven`t done things at to this point that are I think irreversible. I am concerned, however, that if we do not pass the For the People Act and pass the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, that we can`t get to a point where they will put measures in place that will be irreversible, and that could have a negative impact on our democracy.

I mean, some of the things that they were at least considering, and I think that`s still being considered, you know, in a variety of state, is this notion that you would somehow empower state legislators to an essence overturn the will of the people, overturn a vote by the people in a presidential election. That kind of stuff has going to be outlawed, in addition to, you know, the dark money components, the anti-gerrymandering component, the voter protection stuff that`s all in the For the People Act.

So, you know, the best way to get all of this stuff is to pass the legislation that the House has already passed and is now pending in the Senate.

REID: Let`s also get to the other part of what they are doing, the gerrymandering that`s coming. We know the census is out. We know it`s saying the country is much more diverse. The reaction to that among the Republican Party does not seem to be to say, well, let`s adjust our policies to make it more attractive to a diverse population. It seems to be that they are gearing up to gerrymander the hell out of the map in a way that could mean that even if Republicans and Democrats win huge majorities in state like Texas, Arizona, and Georgia, they won`t get the seats that seem that they would go with it. What can we do about that? I know that, that is what your organization is primarily focused on.

HOLDER: Well, certainly, again, you can pass the For the People Act. That bans partisan gerrymandering. Racial gerrymandering is already outlooked under the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and that remains in effect. But we really have got to make sure that we are focused on the decision in a way that we have not before. We`ve been working on this since January 2017. We have put people in place in the states who control the process. Governors and secretaries of state in a variety of states, they`d all be in a place to somehow act as a check against Republican legislatures.

We sponsored and put in place these independent commissions that will draw the lines. But also an advocacy campaign that has a big part of what it is that we are doing to make sure all of that stuff happen in a transparent way, that they don`t go all behind closed doors just draw the maps, you know, draw the lines, and then present maps that are in effect for the next ten years.

Given the census, we know that the population is now more urban, it is more diverse, it`s more suburban, it is less rural, it is more young. All of these things tend to favor Democrats. Those extra seats that Texas was getting, those are seats that should be Democratic seats, though they were fueled by 50 percent increase in Hispanic population. The overall population was increased by 90 percent. You know, overall increase of the population fueled by 90 percent of that being from people of color. So, you know, the drawing of lines there should reflect that, and you should have a greater Democratic representation from Texas, as well as from other states.

REID: Absolutely. Before I let you go, do you have any scoops for us on whether or not you think that any version of For the People actually will pass? Because it looks like the original For the People Act, it really should be called the John Lewis Act, because that is the one that his team wrote. Is any of that going to pass? And if so, how?

HOLDER: You know, I certainly hope so. I think Leader Schumer has got ideas about the process that they`ve going to go through to try to convince some Senators who, at this point, seem to be more concerned about the filibuster than about our democracy. So, I`m cautiously optimistic that will this can happen. You know, Senators Schumer has said this is the first thing they`re going to take up when they come back from their August recess. And I think we will have a better sense then as to how successful he`s going to be in getting these thing across the line.

But then that is a vital, vital piece of legislation. We`ve got to get the For the People Act passed.

REID: Well, thank you for saying that. I agree, and I think most of people who are watching tonight agree as well. Attorney General Eric Holder, thank you very much. It`s always great to talk to you. Thank you and have a great weekend.

HOLDER: Thank you.

REID: All right. And coming up next on THE REIDOUT, the cynical COVID politics of Ron DeSantis and Greg Abbott, the Republican governors willing to risk the lives of their own constituents in exchange for the votes of the anti-mask crowd.

Plus, as Rand Paul serves up COVID misinformation, he has some questions to answer about his family`s rush to profit from the pandemic.

And things are rapidly going from bad to worse in Afghanistan. But after 20 years, would there have ever been a good time for us to leave?

[19:15:05]

A member of Congress who served in Afghanistan joins me tonight.

THE REIDOUT continues after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

REID: As COVID rages in their states, two Republican governors are prioritizing their own political ambitions over the lives of their own constituents, and the toll is evident. First, Florida`s Ron DeSantis, who is standing by his ban on mask mandates while running the nation`s most transparent 2024 presidential campaign.

With the school year set to begin next week in Broward County, the second largest school district in the state, teachers return to news that three educators died of COVID within 24 hours this week. The teachers union said all three were unvaccinated and that their deaths are a tragedy. But what if those educators had been in a classroom with kids too young to get vaccinated and who, by governor`s orders, could be in the classroom unmasked.

[19:20:07]

That tragedy for these three families could have been extended to many, many more families. all because of Ron DeSantis. Broward County schools have already defied the anti-mask order, as have two other districts.

Then a judge heard a challenge to the mask mandate ban for parents in six counties today. Ron, the junior Don, conceded he doesn`t even have the authority to follow through on his threat to withhold the salaries of educators who defy his ban.

But his partner in carnage, Texas Republican Governor Greg Abbott, who, like DeSantis, is up for reelection next year, issued a threat of his own to Texas school districts rejecting his mask mandate ban.

Meanwhile, as Governor DeathSantis, as his detractors call him, soldiers on, the scope of the threat to Florida`s most vulnerable only grows. School districts around Tampa are reporting hundreds of cases in students and teachers. And in Palm Beach County, more than 400 students are in quarantine days after starting classes.

Amid that, more than 800 Florida doctors signed a letter to DeSantis, demanding that he repeal his stupefyingly dangerous order.

One of the doctors who signed that letter joins me now, Dr. Bernard Ashby, a Miami cardiologist, along with Olivia Troye, who resigned as a senior aide to the Coronavirus Task Force in the Trump administration and is currently director of the Republican Accountability Project.

And, Dr. Ashby, it`s always good to see you.

I have to say I take this one very personally. My three kids went to school in Broward County schools. If they were still young and we were still in Florida, that`s where they would be going to school. And I would be afraid to send them, quite frankly. I`m not sure that I would.

Talk to me about this letter that you all sent and about the impact of this ban on mask mandates in Florida.

DR. BERNARD ASHBY, COMMITTEE TO PROTECT MEDICARE: Joy, as always, it`s a pleasure to be here. But I wish it was under better circumstances...

REID: Yes.

ASHBY: ... considering our kids are now at risk from this pandemic.

So, basically, myself and some other physicians, or quite a few other physicians, as you can see, decided to basically speak from the point -- from our reference point as front-line workers and as physicians, frankly, with our mandate of ethics, meaning that what we do is, we protect the well-being of our patients.

And it`s not only within the context of the hospital or our clinics, but this goes for the community as well. And, essentially, what we were asking DeSantis to do was essentially, do your job, meaning that your job, as our governor, duly elected, is to protect the health, the wellness of our community.

And he`s derelict in his duties. And, essentially, what the point of the letter was, was communicating that message and hopefully -- hoping that he would have some semblance of humanity and do what`s right for our children and our entire state.

REID: But he`s not.

I mean, what -- his response to that is to sell these stupid anti-Fauci T- shirts. And now his new thing is to urge Floridians to use Regeneron antibody treatments, which is like $1, 200 a pop. And he`s deploying mobile units to administer the treatment, basically saying, let COVID in the school, let people go unmasked and be exposed to unvaccinated people who could have COVID, and then I will send a van to give them Regeneron.

Does that make sense to you as a physician?

ASHBY: So, Joy, believe it or not, we actually advocated that he promote this monoclonal antibody therapy.

There`s a 70 percent chance of hospitalization and death if you get that therapy early. And right now, in the midst of an emergency while our hospitals are being filled up, that`s one of the therapies that we can use, in addition to vaccines, to kind of quell this outbreak.

However, he only did that because of our advocacy. I have been on really about do something, do something. And these are one of -- this was one of the measures that we have asked him to do. And now he`s finally moving forward on that.

So it`s one thing for him to be against masks, which is ridiculous and indefensible. It`s one thing to for him to actually criticize vaccines de facto with his criticism of Fauci and others, but he wasn`t doing anything.

And so this is the least that he could do, given the fact that that therapy is so effective and underutilized and could potentially save a lot of lives. But what would save more lives is actually wearing a mask. And the fact that he`s actually against masks, with no reason, rationale whatsoever, and simply making this a political issue, is simply inhumane and simply derelict.

And this is something that, if we were in a fantasy world, wouldn`t even make sense to me, because people are literally dying because of the decisions that`s making.

[19:25:06]

REID: Olivia, having served on the Trump task force that ostensibly was about preventing us getting to where we are right now, I am just fascinated to hear your thoughts on these governors, for political purposes, siding with what now includes the Proud Boys are showing up and violently -- threatening violence, essentially, against doctors, like Dr. Ashby, people who are trying to save lives.

These doctors are being shouted down and bullied, including by the Proud Boys, who helped with the insurrection.

Your thoughts on the fact that these Republican governors have decided that this is their key to power, and the fact that they don`t seem to care that it could be killing people?

OLIVIA TROYE, FORMER U.S. HOMELAND SECURITY OFFICIAL: No, they don`t care.

And it is frustrating. And it is so angering to me especially, because I have seen this before. I have seen this whole show before. I saw them do this a year ago, when we were going into a really terrible winter, where they created this divisiveness, and they got ahead of it. And they could have put measures in place that would have prevented the deaths of many.

And that was back then. And we are seeing this show again. And, look, talking about the Proud Boys, I have to say, DHS just issued their latest bread advisory. And what was striking to me in it was the language in it, and also the highlighting of potential threats because of the current misinformation and rhetoric and divisiveness that we have across the country on COVID specifically.

So, now, let`s think about that. Our own homeland security enterprise is warning about the potential for violence and increased rhetoric and divisiveness across the country. So, of course, Proud Boys, yes, you`re seeing the congruence of these narratives come together with this belief system.

And it`s being driven by people like DeSantis and Abbott, the governors of the states. These are leaders of our country that are encouraging these types of narratives that are inevitably going to lead to these threats, this increase in it.

So you have national security officials warning about this, while you have governors at odds with what -- truly what they`re saying. And they`re part of the messaging that is driving these threats.

REID: We have had Dr. Fauci on last night, where he said that he`s -- he`s constantly getting threats. Doctors are having to get added security, because it`s become a matter of sort of cultural rage just the idea of putting on a mask.

You`re nodding, Dr. Ashby. Have you experienced that?

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Transcript: The ReidOut, 8/13/21 - MSNBC

The Mexican government is planning to sue U.S. gun manufacturers due to the number of illegal guns in Mexico. Certainly, this is in collaboration with the progressive Democrats that despise the ability for law abiding Americans to protect themselves. This is also a confession of the Mexican governments inability to govern. But instead of looking introspectively to determine why this problem exists and how to fix it, it is easier to blame others, especially when payday appears to be near.

The second amendment was purposefully created by our founders (educated during the enlightenment era) because they understood human behavior, and that Democracy is fragile to maintain. Had it not been for the American idea to maintain arms, the Revolutionary War and the ultimate outcome would have ended much differently.

A gun is an inanimate object and is harmless in and of itself. Guns dont kill people, people kill people. A vehicle is a deadly weapon in the wrong hands. We have tests and procedures to ensure this privilege is either maintained or taken away to protect others. Whats next, suing Ford and GM for making cars that in the wrong hands kill people?

If the Mexican Government really wants to sue someone in America for the illegal guns in their country, sue Eric Holder, Attorney General who authorized the Project: Gun Runner and Operation Fast and Furious that exported hundreds of assault weapons across the border, then refused to testify before Congress. Now that would be justice for justices sake.

David Eddy

Middletown

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Letter to the editor: 2nd Amendment maintains democracy - The Winchester Star