Democracy Now!

As we broadcast all week from the COP29 talks in Azerbaijan, we look at what Donald Trump's reelection as U.S. president means for the climate. Clean energy and environmental advocates are raising alarm over Trump's picks for key roles in his administration, including fracking magnate Chris Wright to serve as energy secretary and North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum to lead the Interior Department, where he could greatly expand drilling on federal lands. Burgum, a major ally of the fossil fuel industry, was also tapped to head a newly created National Energy Council aimed at increasing oil and gas production. For more on the White House transition, we speak with Manish Bapna, president of the Natural Resources Defense Council and Natural Resources Defense Council Action. He calls Trump's picks deeply troubling" but says there is still room for optimism. The clean energy transition in the United States is unstoppable. It's going to hit some speed bumps now, but it will move forward," says Bapna.

As we broadcast this week from the U.N. climate talks in Baku, human rights groups have warned of Azerbaijan's escalating crackdown on civil society groups, government critics and the press. Since the announcement last year of Azerbaijan as the host of COP29, dozens of activists and journalists have been arrested, arbitrarily detained or prosecuted on bogus charges," says Giorgi Gogia, associate director of the Europe and Central Asia Division at Human Rights Watch. Azerbaijan has had an abysmal rights record for many years, but it has dramatically deteriorated in the run-up to COP29," states Gogia, who joins us from Tbilisi, Georgia, and co-authored the recent HRW report titled 'We Try to Stay Invisible': Azerbaijan's Escalating Crackdown on Critics and Civil Society."

We are broadcasting live from the COP29 climate summit in Baku, Azerbaijan, which has entered its second and final week, and already there is frustration over a lack of progress on the key issue of financing the energy transition and climate adaptation in Global South countries. Asad Rehman, executive director of War on Want and lead spokesperson for the Climate Justice Coalition, says this year's summit is supposed to be the finance COP" and calls for about $5 trillion a year in financing, but rich, developed countries are putting pennies on the table." He also addresses the overwhelming presence of industry lobbyists at the annual summits and calls from some activists to boycott the talks. If we, as civil society, weren't here also holding the feet of Global North governments to the fire, we would see much worse outcomes than we are seeing already," says Rehman.

We are broadcasting live from COP29, the United Nations climate summit in Baku, Azerbaijan, where countries are shaping the world's response to the climate crisis. Despite pledges at last year's summit in Dubai to cut global emissions, the burning of coal, oil and gas has continued to rise as the world keeps breaking temperature records. This year's summit is also taking place under the shadow of a second term in the White House for Donald Trump, who has called climate change a hoax and promised to take the United States out of the Paris Agreement and ramp up domestic fossil fuel production. Despite restrictions on demonstrations at COP29, climate justice activists have been taking a stand, including on Saturday when they held a silent protest in the halls of the conference venue to demand trillions in climate financing for the Global South to speed up the transition to clean energy. Democracy Now! was there, and we bring you some of their voices. I'm here because I am trying to enhance my voice to talk about our people, our communities and why climate change [needs] to be treated urgently. We need the money. We need it now," says Juliana Melisa Asprilla Cabezas, an Afro-descendant climate activist from Colombia, referring to the push for a fair climate finance deal. We are protesting here because we have discovered that there's more fossil fuel lobbyists attending the COP29, which means the voices of the voiceless will still be suppressed," adds Thabo Sibeko. Palestinian delegation member Akram Al-Khalili explains that a key demand is for a global energy embargo.

Biden Gives Ukraine Go-Ahead to Strike Inside Russia with U.S. Long-Range Missiles, Pope Calls for Investigation into Gaza Genocide as Israel Kills Dozens More Palestinians Every Day, Israeli Strikes Kill Another 8 Paramedics in Lebanon, Hezbollah Media Chief, Protesters Arrested After Setting Off Flares Near Home of Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu, House GOP Working to Push Through Bill That Would Let Trump Shut Down Nonprofits, Trump Selects Fracking Exec. Chris Wright, Climate Crisis Denier, to Lead Energy Dept., WaPo: Defense Secretary Nominee Pete Hegseth Paid Off Woman He Sexually Assaulted in 2017, Trump Taps FCC's Brendan Carr, One of Project 2025's Authors, to Chair Communications Agency, Deadly Typhoon Man-yi Slams Philippines, Sixth Major Storm to Hit the Country in Past Month, COP29 Protesters Call for Energy Embargo over Gaza Genocide, Climate Catastrophe, Activists Take to Rio Streets as G20 Gets Underway in Brazil, Guatemala Court Reverses House Arrest Order for Jose Ruben Zamora, Sending Journalist Back to Prison, Las Vegas Police Kill Man Inside His Home After He Called 911 to Report a Break-in, DOJ Opens Civil Rights Probe into Sheriff's Deputy's Fatal Shooting of Sonya Massey in Her Own Home, Malcolm X's Family Files $100 Million Federal Lawsuit Against NYPD, CIA, FBI

In the acclaimed new book Gaza Faces History, historian Enzo Traverso challenges Western attitudes toward Israel's ongoing genocide in Gaza by reckoning with the larger historical context of the Holocaust and the Nakba. Traverso details how memorializing the Holocaust became a sort of civil religion" that honored human rights and the values of Western liberal democracies after the Second World War. However, in recent decades, Traverso warns, the memory of the Holocaust experienced a paradoxical metamorphosis, and it was weaponized by Israel and by most Western powers in order to become a policy of an unconditional support of Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories." Witnessing this distortion of history, I was shocked by the way in which many words, many concepts had been abused and misunderstood," says Traverso. Now we are facing a paradoxical situation in which the perpetrator is Hamas and the Palestinians, and the victims are the Israelis. And this is a reversal of reality."

Concerns are mounting over Trump's pick to lead the Pentagon, Fox News host and military veteran Pete Hegseth. Hegseth is a vocal opponent of the military's multiculturalism and decision to allow women to serve in combat, promises to purge the military of generals disloyal to Trump and sports tattoos connected with neo-Nazi and white nationalist movements. Here's a man who wrote a book declaring his intention to wage, not metaphorical, but actual war within the United States," says Jeff Sharlet, an expert on the rise of far-right extremism in the United States. Sharlet explains how Hegseth and Mike Huckabee, Trump's choice for U.S. ambassador to Israel, have Christian nationalist and Christian Zionist views that ultimately work to whip up animosity toward domestic enemies of the far right.

Public health officials are decrying President-elect Donald Trump for selecting Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to head the Department of Health and Human Services. If confirmed, Kennedy would head a sprawling agency that oversees drug, vaccine and food safety, as well as medical research. Kennedy is one of the nation's most prominent vaccine skeptics and has spread numerous public health conspiracy theories. Kennedy has claimed HIV may not cause AIDS. He claimed COVID-19 was designed to spare Ashkenazi Jews and Chinese people. He has claimed chemicals in the nation's water supply are leading more children to be gay and transgender, and he's publicly spoken about removing fluoride from drinking water. I can't think of a darker time for public health in America and globally than now," says Lawrence Gostin, professor of global health law at Georgetown University. He has no fidelity to truth, to science. ... He will make America sick, certainly not healthier again."

Trump Taps RFK Jr., Vaccine Skeptic and Health Conspiracy Theorist, to Lead HHS, Trump Names Oil and Gas Industry Ally Doug Burgum to Oversee Interior Dept., Trump Elevates Personal Lawyers to Top Gov't Roles, House Dems Call for Release of Ethics Probe into Matt Gaetz, Israeli Airstrikes Devastate Beirut, Baalbek, Killing Dozens of People and Forcing 100,000s to Flee, Rashida Tlaib Calls on Blinken to Resign for Violating U.S. Laws on Aid and Arms Trade, Netanyahu's Aides May Have Doctored Phone Records on Israeli General's Pre-Attack Warning on Oct. 7, NYT: Elon Musk Secretly Met with Iranian Ambassador in NY; IAEA Visits Tehran over Nuclear Program, Sri Lanka's New President Receives Mandate for Leftist Economic Agenda After Parliamentary Victory, Biden in Lima for Last APEC Gathering as Peruvian Police Crack Down on Protests, EU Fines Meta over Facebook Marketplace Monopoly, Norway Apologizes to Indigenous Peoples for Forced Assimilation Policy, Thousands March to New Zealand's Capital to Oppose Rollback of Mori Rights, Gov. Kathy Hochul Revives NYC Congestion Charge Program Before Trump Comes into Office, The Onion Buys InfoWars in Bankruptcy Auction, Plans to Turn Conspiracy Outlet into Parody Site

A federal jury in Virginia has ordered the U.S. military contractor CACI Premier Technology to pay a total of $42 million to three Iraqi men who were tortured at the notorious Abu Ghraib prison. The landmark verdict comes after 16 years of litigation and marks the first time a civilian contractor has been found legally responsible for the gruesome abuses at Abu Ghraib. We discuss the case and its significance for human rights with Baher Azmy, the legal director for the Center for Constitutional Rights, which represented the Abu Ghraib survivors. This lawsuit has been about justice and accountability for three Iraqi men - our clients, Salah, Suhail and Asa'ad - who exhibited just awe-inspiring courage and resilience," he says.

We go to Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip, where we get an update from Arwa Damon of the humanitarian organization INARA on deteriorating conditions" as Palestinians are slowly exterminated" by disease and starvation caused by Israel's brutal siege. A special U.N. committee has found that Israel's actions in Gaza are consistent with the characteristics of genocide." Palestinians in Gaza feel that they are living through their own annihilation," says Damon. There is actually a real sense that the worst is yet to come."

President-elect Donald Trump has nominated far-right Florida Congressmember Matt Gaetz to serve as his attorney general. The selection of Gaetz, a staunch Trump loyalist, appears to signify Trump's intent to weaponize the Department of Justice to target political enemies. Gaetz has no appreciable law enforcement experience," says Noah Bookbinder, the president of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, which has sued the federal government for access to a DOJ investigation into allegations that Gaetz was involved in the sex trafficking of an underage girl. That investigation was not made public, and no federal charges were filed, but the House Ethics Committee launched its own inquiry into Gaetz, the status of which is now up in the air after Gaetz resigned on Wednesday. If approved as attorney general, Gaetz is likely to take an ax to the nonpartisan functioning of the Justice Department," warns Zack Beauchamp, a senior correspondent at Vox. His chief qualification ... is his willingness to do whatever Donald Trump needs to be done." We also discuss the status of various other legal issues swirling around Trump and his supporters, including the Justice Department probes into Trump, the potential pardoning of January 6 insurrectionists and if Trump will abuse the presidential power of recess appointments when he takes office.

U.N. Report Finds Israel's Assault on Gaza Consistent with Genocide," Including Starvation Campaign, Israeli Airstrikes Pound Beirut; WaPo: Israel Planning to Offer Lebanon Ceasefire as Gift" to Trump, U.S. and U.K. Carry Out More Airstrikes on Yemen, Senate GOP Pick John Thune as New Leader as PA Recount Could Extend Republican Majority to 53, Matt Gaetz Tapped by Trump to Head DOJ, Resigns from Congress Ahead of Damaging" Ethics Report, Trump Taps Democrat Turned Trump Loyalist Tulsi Gabbard for Nat'l Intelligence Director, Trump's Pick to Lead U.S. Military Has Tattoos Linked to White Supremacists and Nazis, House Democrats Introduce Bill to Clarify Trump May Not Run for Third Term, Death Toll from Sudan's Civil War Is Far Higher Than Previously Known, Ambush on MSF Ambulance Kills 2 in Haitian Capital Amid Worsening Violence, Climate Activists Demand Wealthy Polluters Pay Up" to Fund Adaptation and Resilience, CIA Officer on Trial for Leaking U.S. Documents Detailing Israel's Plans to Attack Iran, Airman Jack Teixeira Gets 15 Years in Prison for Leaking Classified Pentagon Documents, A Toxic Media Platform": The Guardian Stops Posting on X, Citing Elon Musk's Influence

The U.N. climate summit known as COP29 is underway in Baku, Azerbaijan, where negotiators are trying to make progress on reducing emissions and preventing the worst impacts of the climate crisis. Many activists, however, have criticized the decision to hold the talks in an authoritarian petrostate. The host country is also facing accusations that it is using the climate talks for business, after the head of the talks, Elnur Soltanov, was caught in a secret recording promoting oil and gas deals. That sting was organized by the group Global Witness, which put forward a fake investor. In exchange for just the promise of sponsorship money, that got us to the heart of the COP29," says Lela Stanley, an investigator at Global Witness. We need the U.N. to ban petro interests from sitting at the table, from influencing the COP."

Environmental defenders are raising alarm over Donald Trump's pick to lead the Environmental Protection Agency, former New York Congressmember Lee Zeldin, who has a history of opposing critical environmental protections and clean energy job investments. Zeldin's nomination comes as Trump is reportedly discussing moving the EPA headquarters outside of Washington, D.C., which could lead to an exodus of staff and expertise from the agency. I really don't think this is about government efficiency. I think this is about terrorizing the career staff," says Judith Enck, who served as a regional administrator of the EPA in the Obama administration.

Arizona voters on Election Day approved a sweeping ballot measure that would allow state and local law enforcement to arrest immigrants suspected of crossing the U.S.-Mexico border outside of ports of entry, while empowering state judges to order deportations. Proposition 314, which creates a series of state crimes targeting immigrants, is modeled after a similar measure in Texas known as S.B. 4 that is currently under review by the U.S. Supreme Court. Only certain portions of Prop 314 are scheduled to go into effect later this month, while the most harmful parts won't be enforced until the Supreme Court rules on the constitutionality of the Texas law. The measure has drawn comparisons to Arizona's controversial S.B. 1070, a 2010 law that also gave local police authority to arrest immigrants suspected of being undocumented, though large parts of it were later struck down by the Supreme Court. For more, we speak with Tucson-based activist Alejandra Pablos, who was targeted by Immigration and Customs Enforcement for her activism and has been facing deportation proceedings for years. People who are speaking out are the first to feel the chills," Pablos says of Trump's looming anti-immigrant crackdown. She urges the Biden administration to do what it can to mitigate the harm, including by closing deportation cases against people like her.

Immigrant rights lawyers are preparing to fight back against Donald Trump's plans to carry out the largest mass deportation in U.S. history once he takes office again in January. The president-elect has already named some leading anti-immigration figures for his incoming administration who will lead the plan, including former ICE head Tom Homan and his longtime aide Stephen Miller. Trump's picks were central in family separations, the Muslim ban, attacks on Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, and other anti-immigrant policies during the first Trump administration. Trump is also reportedly planning to greatly expand immigrant detention in private for-profit prisons, and during the campaign he spoke of invoking the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 to speed up deportations. We have been preparing nearly a year for this," says attorney Lee Gelernt, deputy director of the ACLU Immigrants' Rights Project, who argued some of the most high-profile immigration cases during the first Trump administration. He stresses that while groups like the ACLU will challenge the Trump administration in the courts, it needs to be a national effort" to prevent abuses. We are not opposed to basic immigration reform, but this cannot be a situation where we're just going after immigrants left and right."

Gravest International Crimes": U.N. Aid Chief Blasts Israel's Deadly Siege on Gaza, Biden Won't Enforce U.S. Law Requiring Halt of Arms to Israel Despite Clear Human Rights Abuses, Israeli Strikes Kill Dozens in Beirut Suburbs and Mount Lebanon Governorate, National Press Club's Press Freedom Award Goes to Wael al-Dahdouh for Gaza Coverage, Mike Huckabee, Who Declared There's No Such Thing as a Palestinian," Named U.S. Ambassador to Israel, Trump Nominates Fox News TV Personality Pete Hegseth as Defense Secretary, John Ratcliffe, Who Defended Trump During Impeachment Hearings, Nominated as CIA Director, Trump Picks Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy to Lead Drastic Overhaul of Federal Bureaucracy, Senate GOP Meets to Pick New Leader; House Freedom Caucus May Challenge Speaker Mike Johnson, House Fails to Pass Bill Granting President Sweeping Powers to Target Nonprofits, Jury Orders Military Contractor CACI to Pay $42 Million to Abu Ghraib Torture Survivors, Climate Campaigners Ask Scottish Court to Halt Development of Rosebank Oil Field

American Coup: Wilmington 1898 premieres tonight on PBS and investigates the only successful insurrection conducted against a U.S. government, when self-described white supremacist residents stoked fears of Negro Rule" and carried out a deadly massacre in Wilmington, North Carolina. Their aim was to destroy Black political and economic power and overthrow the city's democratically elected, Reconstruction-era multiracial government, paving the way for the implementation of Jim Crow law just two years later. We feature excerpts from the documentary and speak to co-director Yoruba Richen, who explains how the insurrection was planned and carried out, and how the filmmakers worked to track down the descendants of both perpetrators and victims, whose voices are featured in the film.

Incoming President Trump's vow to deport millions of undocumented immigrants when he starts his term has sent private prison stocks soaring. Immigrant rights advocates, including our guest, the executive director of Detention Watch Network, Silky Shah, are preparing for the Trump administration's threats of mass deportation, a central tenet of his presidential campaign. The first Trump campaign was defined by the border wall, and this one is really defined by mass deportations," says Shah. If the Biden administration wants to protect immigrants' rights before Trump takes office, she adds, it must begin reducing detention capacity by shutting down facilities now."

President-elect Donald Trump reportedly plans to appoint his former senior adviser Stephen Miller as his deputy chief of staff for policy. Miller will play a key role along with Trump's border czar Tom Homan and South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem, who will reportedly be the secretary of the Department of Homeland Security. Miller is the architect of Trump's anti-immigrant agenda, an avowed white nationalist and a man who is spurred by his animus to the notion of the United States as a multicultural and multiethnic democracy," says author Jean Guerrero, author of Hatemonger: Stephen Miller, Donald Trump, and the White Nationalist Agenda. Guerrero says the Trump administration's obsessive deportation" attempt to radically reengineer the racial demographics of the United States" will backfire" on the U.S. economy and destroy the United States' global reputation as a safe haven for the persecuted."

Israel Fails to Meet 30-Day U.S. Deadline to End Starvation Campaign in Northern Gaza, Israel Bombs Beirut Suburbs as Defense Minister Rules Out Ceasefire with Lebanon, Israel's Smotrich Lauds Trump's Victory, Orders Preparations to Illegally Annex West Bank, GOP to Retake House Majority, Cementing Party's Control Over All Branches of U.S. Government, Trump to Nominate Florida Sen. Marco Rubio as Secretary of State, Trump Taps Rep. Elise Stefanik as U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, Trump Nominates SD Gov. Kristi Noem as Homeland Security Secretary, Trump Selects Foreign Policy Hawk GOP Rep. Mike Waltz as National Security Adviser, Ex-VA Secretary Robert Wilkie to Head Pentagon Transition Despite Mishandling Sexual Assault Report, White Nationalist Anti-Immigrant Adviser Stephen Miller to Return to Trump White House, Trump Taps Former Rep. Lee Zeldin to Lead EPA, Considers Moving the Agency from D.C., Trump Refuses to Sign Presidential Transition Ethics Agreement as Required by Law, House GOP Bill Would Grant President Power to Target Nonprofit Organizations, Alix Didier Fils-Aime Sworn In as Haiti's Prime Minister, Promises New Elections, Firefighters Battle Blazes Across the Northeast as the U.S. Faces Record Drought, 2024 Was a Master Class in Climate Destruction": U.N. Issues Dire Warning at COP29, Dutch Court Overrules Landmark Decision That Required Shell to Accelerate Emissions Cuts

Dutch Palestinian analyst Mouin Rabbani discusses the violence that broke out last week between visiting Israeli soccer fans and pro-Palestinian protesters in Amsterdam. The Dutch authorities made over 60 arrests, and at least five people were hospitalized as a result of the clashes, which local and international leaders were quick to brand as antisemitic, even though observers in Amsterdam have said it was Israeli hooligans who instigated much of the violence. Rabbani says that while it's common for rival teams' fans to get into skirmishes, what happened in Amsterdam was different. What we're talking about here in Amsterdam is not a clash between the hooligans of two opposing sides, but rather these Israeli thugs attacking people who, in principle, had nothing to do with the game, and then afterwards being confronted by their victims," Rabbani says.

We speak with Dutch Palestinian analyst Mouin Rabbani about the latest developments in the Middle East as Israel continues its deadly assaults on Gaza and Lebanon. Qatar recently announced it will no longer act as mediator for ceasefire talks, saying the two sides were not serious about reaching a deal to stop the fighting. This entire process from the outset has been a complete charade," Rabbani says of the U.S.-backed ceasefire negotiations, urging Egypt to follow suit and also stop acting as a mediator. Rabbani also discusses how a second Trump administration could deal with the region, saying Trump's erratic" behavior makes predictions difficult, but that signs point to a more aggressive posture toward Iran.

Thousands attended a Palestine Festival of Literature event about America and the War on Palestine" at the historic Riverside Church in New York Sunday, featuring conversations about U.S. complicity in Israeli human rights abuses. The literary festival, known as PalFest, aims to raise awareness of the Palestinian struggle through arts and letters. The acclaimed author Ta-Nehisi Coates moderated the conversations, including one featuring the Palestinian human rights attorney and scholar Noura Erakat. This is about all of us," says Erakat. The fact that Palestinian children have been evaporated, beheaded, killed in NICU, their NICU system, rotted in NICU beds, right? And their parents have had to collect their flesh to weigh it in rice bags in order to bury them, right? At this point, there should have been mercy."

The FBI is investigating a spate of racist text messages targeting Black Americans in the wake of Donald Trump's election victory last week. The texts were reported in states including Alabama, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Virginia, addressing recipients as young as 13 by name and telling them they were selected to pick cotton at the nearest plantation" and other messages referencing slavery. For more, we speak with Robert Greene II, a history professor at Claflin University, South Carolina's first and oldest historically Black university in Orangeburg, where many students were targeted. Initially when I heard about the texts, I thought it was a bit of a hoax, but ... it quickly became clear that this wasn't just a Claflin problem, it was a national issue, as well," says Greene. We also speak with Wisdom Cole, senior national director of advocacy for the NAACP, who says this is only the beginning," with a second Trump administration expected to attack civil rights and embolden hate groups.

Ex-ICE Dir. Thomas Homan, Trump's Pick for Border Czar," Says U.S.-Born Children Could Be Deported, Trump Poised to Sweep Swing States; Democrat Gallego Defeats Trump Ally Kari Lake in AZ Senate Race, Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor Not Resigning Before Biden Leaves Office, FBI Probes Racist Text Message Campaign Against Black Americans Referencing Slavery, Israel Kills Dozens of Members of the Same Family in Jabaliya as Genocidal Attacks Continue, Israel Kills at Least 4 More Palestinian Journalists in Gaza, Israeli Strikes Kill Dozens in Lebanon, Including 10 Paramedics, Kremlin Denies Reports of Trump-Putin Call as Ukraine and Russia Both Launch Drone Strikes, COP29 Kicks Off in Azerbaijan; Summit Leader Secretly Filmed Negotiating Fossil Fuel Deals, Greta Thunberg Shuns COP29, Calls for Protests Against Azerbaijan Human Rights Abuses, Amsterdam Police Crack Down on Pro-Palestinian Protesters After Israeli Hooligans Wreak Havoc in City, Haiti's Interim PM Ousted by Transitional Council as Violence, Humanitarian Crisis Worsens, Train Station Blast Kills 26 in Pakistan; Thousands Rally to Demand Release of Former PM Imran Khan

Top U.N. officials are again warning that the entire Palestinian population in north Gaza is at imminent risk of dying from disease, famine and violence." At least 1,800 Palestinians have been killed, many of them children, since October, when Israel imposed a draconian siege and began an intensified campaign of ethnic cleansing on northern Gaza. Jan Egeland of the Norwegian Refugee Council recently spent several days in Gaza. He describes what he saw as devastation beyond belief," as Palestinians face the most intense and most indiscriminate bombardment anywhere in the world in recent memory," coupled with the utter depletion of aid. Egeland pleads for the United States, the largest supplier of military funding and equipment to Israel, to condition its weapons to Israel, enforce the provision of aid and commit to ending Israel's assault. It's not in Israel's interest to destroy its neighborhood in Gaza and in Lebanon. It will create new generations of hatred," Egeland says.

In the wake of the reelection of Donald Trump, some of the richest people in the world saw their net worths soar as stock prices rapidly shot up. What was different about this election was how central billionaires were in the entire political discourse," says The Lever's David Sirota, who joins Democracy Now! to discuss the outsized role of the super-rich in U.S politics, pointing out that both Trump and Kamala Harris campaigned heavily with billionaires, including Elon Musk and Mark Cuban. These people are not giving money simply out of the goodness of their hearts. They want things. They have policy demands," Sirota says. The investors, the donors, like billionaires, are looking for a return on their investment." Sirota, who previously worked as a communications adviser and speechwriter for the Bernie Sanders presidential campaign, also explains how Elon Musk's influence on Trump's campaign is a preview of the power he could wield if he ends up appointed to the Trump administration.

Why is it that the issues that most of the public agrees with - healthcare, living wages, voting rights, democracy - why is it that those issues weren't more up front?" We speak to Bishop William Barber about Joe Biden and Kamala Harris's failed election campaigns, Donald Trump's election as president and the urgent need to unite the poor and working class. Barber is the national co-chair of the Poor People's Campaign, president and senior lecturer at Repairers of the Breach and a co-author of the book White Poverty: How Exposing Myths About Race and Class Can Reconstruct American Democracy. He urges the Democratic Party to recenter economic security and poverty alleviation in its platform and draws on historical setbacks for U.S. progressive policies to encourage voters to get back up" and continue to fight."

Trump Taps Campaign Co-Chair Susie Wiles as Chief of Staff as His Electoral College Tally Hits 301, House Control Undecided with Republicans Leading Dems, Expanding Senate Control, Project 2025 Is the Agenda": Trump Allies Gleefully Flaunt Far-Right Plans in Wake of Election, Judge Tosses Program That Would Allow Undocumented Spouses to Stay in U.S. During Legal Process, We Are the Solution": New Yorkers Vow to Fight Trump's Anti-Immigrant Agenda, Israel Attacks Another School Shelter, Killing 12 Palestinians, as North Gaza Remains on Precipice, Israel Acquires 25 Boeing Fighter Jets, Paid For by U.S. as Part of Aid" Package, Spain Rejects Arms Ships Headed for Israel; Canadian Palestinians Sue Trudeau Gov't over Genocide, New York Activists to Launch Hunger Strike for Gaza Outside U.N., Joining Global Protest Movement, Israel Kills More Civilians in Attacks on Lebanon, Levels Historic Structures, U.N. Report Finds Wealthy Nations Have Given a Pittance Toward Climate Finance Pledges, Unprecedented Wildfires in Bolivia Scorch 75,000 Acres of National Park, Mozambique Police Kill 5, Wound Scores in Latest Crackdown on Protests over Contested Election, Australia Poised to Restrict Social Media Use for Children Under 16

Donald Trump has made the mass deportation of immigrants a centerpiece of his plans for a second term, vowing to forcibly remove as many as 20 million people from the country. Historian Ana Raquel Minian, who studies the history of immigration, says earlier mass deportation programs in the 1930s and '50s led to widespread abuse, tearing many families apart through violent means that also resulted in the expulsion of many U.S. citizens. These deportations that Trump is claiming that he will do will have mass implications to our civil rights, to our communities and to our economy, and of course to the people who are being deported themselves," says Minian. She also says that while Trump's extremist rhetoric encourages hate and violence against vulnerable communities, in terms of policy there is great continuity with the Biden administration, which kept many of the same policies in place.

With former U.S. President Donald Trump returning to the White House for a second term, we speak with Pakistani author and columnist Fatima Bhutto. Bhutto is an award-winning author and writes a monthly column for Zeteo on world affairs. She criticizes Kamala Harris's campaign for relying heavily on celebrity endorsements and vague appeals to joy" while silencing dissent on Gaza as the Biden administration continues backing Israel. You don't need to be a man to practice toxic masculinity, and you don't need to be white to practice white supremacy," says Bhutto.

We speak with historian Robin D. G. Kelley about the roots of Donald Trump's election victory and the decline of Democratic support among many of the party's traditional constituencies. Kelley says he agrees with Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, who said Democrats have abandoned" working-class people. There was really no program to focus on the actual suffering of working people across the board," Kelley says of the Harris campaign. He says the highly individualistic, neoliberal culture of the United States makes it difficult to organize along class lines and reject the appeal of authoritarians like Trump. Solidarity is what's missing - the sense that we, as a class, have to protect each other."

Kamala Harris Concedes to Trump as Data Show Majority of U.S. Voting Groups Swung Right, Democrats Lose Montana Senate Seat, Hold On to Nevada & Michigan as Fate of House Remains Unknown, Puerto Rico's Third-Party Leftist Alliance Appears to Narrowly Lose Governorship to Trump Ally, Elon Musk Becomes Even Richer After Trump Win; Trump Reportedly Taps Brian Hook for State Dept., Special Counsel Jack Smith Winds Down Cases Against Trump, Who May Also Avoid NY and GA Trials, Immigrants Waiting Near U.S. Border Could Face Even More Treacherous Conditions with Trump in Power, Israeli Strikes Kill 27 Palestinians; Military Says It Won't Let Northern Gaza Residents Return, 40 Killed as Israel Bombs Lebanon's Beqaa Valley and City of Baalbek, North Korean Troops Enter Combat in Russia as Moscow and Pyongyang Agree to Mutual Defense Pact, German Coalition Government Collapses After Olaf Scholz Fires Finance Minister, Toxic Smog Shrouds Pakistan's Punjab, Leaving Hundreds Hospitalized with Respiratory Ailments, Thousands Ordered to Evacuate Southern California Wildfires, Hurricane Rafael Collapses Cuba's Power Grid, Made Vulnerable by U.S.-Led Embargo

While Democratic candidates suffered major losses in this year's U.S. elections, elsewhere on the ballot voters supported liberal positions. In the wake of tightening federal and state restrictions on abortion, historic ballot measures enshrining the right to an abortion passed in seven states, while other initiatives to raise the minimum wage and codify marriage equality also won by wide majorities. We're joined by Chris Melody Fields Figueredo of the Ballot Initiative Strategy Center to examine the role of ballot measures, a form of direct democracy, in elections, and why this powerful tool" may be at risk as conservatives flood elected office. Because we are resisting, we are winning on these progressive issues, they are trying to take that power away from us."

Shortly after Donald Trump was announced as the winner of the U.S. presidential election, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu took to social media to enthusiastically congratulate him. Meanwhile, the Israeli military continued its violent assault on Gaza, killing multiple Palestinians in strikes on apartment buildings and homes. We speak to Palestinian American journalist Rami Khouri about what we know of Trump's pro-Israel policies and how Trump beat Kamala Harris for the presidency. Trump out-dramatized Harris, and that's how he won," he says.

Donald Trump's performance in the 2024 election surpassed expectations, with the candidate winning the key battleground states of Pennsylvania, North Carolina and Georgia and picking up larger shares of more diverse segments of the electorate, including Black and Latino male voters. Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor, a professor of African American studies at Princeton University, says the blame lies squarely on the Harris campaign, which refused to differentiate itself from unpopular incumbent President Joe Biden. The problem here is with the leadership of the Democratic Party," adds John Nichols, national affairs correspondent for The Nation. Nichols and Taylor discuss how Democrats demobilized" young voters and grassroots organizers, to their electoral detriment. Donald Trump, as a president who has very few guardrails, has the potential to take horrific actions," says Nichols. For those seeking to oppose him, says Taylor, There's a lot of rebuilding that has to be done."

In the Arab American-majority city of Dearborn, Michigan, Donald Trump beat Kamala Harris by over six percentage points, with third-party candidate Jill Stein capturing nearly one-fifth of the vote. During the primary elections, a majority of Democratic voters in Dearborn selected uncommitted" over then-presumptive nominee Joe Biden, citing disapproval of the president's handling of Israel's aggression in the Middle East. Uncommitted" voters continued to press the Harris campaign to shift its Israel policy as the election went on, but were routinely ignored. Democrats made a calculation that they did not need Arab American, Muslim American and Palestinian American voters," says Palestinian American organizer Linda Sarsour, who was in Dearborn on election night. We speak to Sarsour about the Harris campaign's failure to secure the support of a previously key part of the Democratic base. We are going to be in big trouble, and I blame that solely on the Democratic Party and one of the worst campaigns I have seen in my 23 years in organizing."

When Donald Trump reenters the White House, he will be met with a newly Republican-controlled Senate, consolidating power in the hands of a party now dominated by supporters of Trump. We take a look at the results of down-ballot races for the Senate and House, and the possibilities for congressional opposition to Trump's agenda with John Nichols, The Nation's national affairs correspondent. Nichols notes that losing Democratic Senate candidates missed opportunities to highlight working-class voters and economic issues, likely to their detriment.

This is a collapse of the Democratic Party." Consumer advocate, corporate critic and former presidential candidate Ralph Nader comments on the reelection of Donald Trump and the failures of the Democratic challenge against him. Despite attempts by left-wing segments of the Democratic base to shift the party's messaging toward populist, anti-corporate and progressive policies, says Nader, Democrats didn't listen." Under Trump, continues Nader, We're in for huge turmoil."

Donald Trump has been reelected president of the United States. Ahead of Kamala Harris's expected concession speech, we speak to professors Carol Anderson and Michele Goodwin to discuss Harris's historic campaign - and historic loss. The Confederacy won," says Anderson, a professor of African American studies at Emory University. It paints a picture of what Americans are willing to embrace," says Goodwin, a professor of constitutional law at Georgetown and an expert on healthcare law, who warns of the public health dangers of a second Trump administration and discusses the election's implications for reproductive rights.

Donald Trump Wins Presidency After Kamala Harris Underperforms in Swing States, Republicans Win Senate Majority for First Time Since 2020, House of Representatives Remains Up for Grabs as Vote Counting Continues, Voters in 7 States Approve Abortion Rights Measures; 3 Others Fail, Protests Erupt Across Israel After Netanyahu Fires War Chief Yoav Gallant, Palestinians Condemn Biden's Support for Israeli Military as Assault on Gaza Continues, Israeli Raids on Occupied West Bank Kill 8, Wound Child and Photojournalist, Israeli Strike on Residential Building Kills 20 in Beirut Suburb, NGOs Ask U.N. Human Rights Council to Probe Israel's Assault on Lebanon, U.K. Authorities Drop Terrorism Charges for Retired Academic Who Advocated for Palestinian Rights, Rudy Giuliani Empties Prized Possessions from Manhattan Home Following $148M Defamation Judgment

As Latino voters are a key voting bloc in the 2024 presidential election in battleground states like Nevada, Arizona and Pennsylvania, they have been targeted by a rise in Spanish-language misinformation. Most of the false messaging disparages Kamala Harris and supports Donald Trump, says Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Maria Hinojosa, host of Latino USA, which investigated the phenomenon in a new episode called The Misinformation Web." She interviewed some of the content creators in this blob" of online vitriol and says there is almost no effective content moderation online, nor many reliable fact-checking sources in Spanish to counter the lies.

In a major piece for Mother Jones magazine on Why Ballot Measures Are Democracy's Last Line of Defense," voting rights correspondent Ari Berman discusses abortion ballot measures in 10 states, important downballot races in Wisconsin and elsewhere, and the movement to abolish or reform the Electoral College.

Ari Berman, the voting rights correspondent for Mother Jones, details how pro-Trump forces may try to throw out the results of the 2024 election if Kamala Harris wins, with a focus on the swing state of Georgia, the epicenter" of Trump's failed efforts to overturn the 2020 election results. It's very dangerous to imagine what people who don't believe in free and fair elections can do when given the power to oversee those very elections," says Berman.

As voters across the United States head to the polls, we speak with New York Times writer Jim Rutenberg about how Donald Trump may try to preemptively declare victory and challenge election results. The former president has ramped up claims Democrats are a bunch of cheats" and preemptively cast doubt on a win by Vice President Kamala Harris, following a similar playbook as 2020 when he baselessly claimed the election was stolen. Rutenberg spoke to pro-Trump election officials in battleground states of Arizona, Georgia, Nevada and Pennsylvania who say they are ready to refuse to certify local election results as part of a wide-ranging effort to throw the system into disarray. Rutenberg says after the failed insurrection of January 6, 2021, many in Trump's orbit had a clear goal for 2024: We have to go local." He also discusses the Electoral Count Reform Act of 2022 that makes it harder to stop the final certification of results.

As voters across the United States head to the polls on Election Day, many face a choice between two unsatisfactory candidates," says Democracy Now! co-host Juan Gonzalez. This choice is especially excruciating" for those who are outraged by our government's continued support for Israel's yearlong genocidal assault on Gaza." He says the 2024 election has echoes of 1968, when many progressives sat out the election because of anger over Vietnam, but Richard Nixon's victory and ultimate expansion of the war proved to be disastrous. It would take many years for some of us to realize we had made a big mistake in sitting out that election. ... Making these decisions at the time of election may be difficult but sometimes necessary to do to open up the way for possible change in the future.

Harris and Trump Make Final Pitches in What Could Be One of Closest Elections in Modern U.S. History, PA Judge Allows Elon Musk to Go Ahead with $1M Daily Giveaway Scheme for Swing State Voters, Israel Kills 70+ People in Gaza over Past Day, Launches More Attacks on Kamal Adwan Hospital, Aid Entering Gaza at Just 6% of Pre-Genocide Deliveries as Israel Severs Ties with UNRWA, Not the End of the Semester": State Dept. Says Too Early to Grade" Israel on North Gaza Actions, At Least 4 West Bank Palestinians Killed as Israeli Soldiers and Settlers Continue Deadly Attacks, Death Toll from Israeli Assault on Lebanon Tops 3,000 After More Deadly Strikes This Week, Syria Blasts Israeli Airstrikes Near Damascus, Which Killed at Least 2 People, Putin Hosts Pyongyang Officials as NATO Calls North Korean Troops in Ukraine War an Escalation", White Ex-Cop Found Guilty of Murder in Andre Hill Shooting, Two Ohio Officers Charged with Reckless Homicide in Killing of Frank Tyson, Boeing Workers Approve New Contract with 43% Raises Over 4 Years, Ending Costly Weekslong Strike

All eyes are on Michigan as Donald Trump and Kamala Harris battle over undecided voters in the crucial swing state, including many of the state's 200,000 Arab American and Muslim voters who reject both the Republican and Democratic parties' stance on Israel and Palestine. We speak to Dearborn, Michigan's Lebanese American Mayor Abdullah Hammoud, who is the first Arab and Muslim mayor of the city, about many of his constituents' loss of support for the Democratic Party and how the Arab American vote could impact the presidential election. Hammoud, like many Dearborn residents, has lost extended family to Israel's attacks on Lebanon, and describes the climate in the city as a blanket of grief." Having called for a ceasefire and arms embargo on Israel, he refused to meet with Trump last week, but has also declined to endorse Harris. Hammoud calls on voters to not sit out the election entirely, but to vote their moral conscience, and says the citizens of Dearborn are willing to put people over party, first and foremost."