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AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org. I’m Amy Goodman, with Juan González.

Indigenous leader Leonard Peltier is coming home after nearly half a century behind bars. Just minutes before leaving office, former President Biden granted Peltier clemency, ordering his release from prison to serve the remainder of his life sentence in home confinement.

In a statement shared by the NDN Collective, Leonard Peltier responded by saying, quote, “It’s finally over — I’m going home. I want to show the world I’m a good person with a good heart. I want to help the people, just like my grandmother taught me,” Leonard said.

Biden’s historic decision came after mounting calls by tribal leaders and supporters, and a community-led campaign that fought for Peltier’s freedom for decades. Biden’s order goes into effect February 18th. Biden, however, reiterated his action was not a pardon for Peltier.

Leonard Peltier is 80 years old, has spent the majority of his life in prison. For decades, he has maintained his innocence over the 1975 killing of two FBI agents in a shootout on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota. Many have said his conviction was riddled with irregularities and prosecutorial misconduct and that the federal government failed to prove its case against Leonard Peltier. Democratic Presidents Bill Clinton, Barack Obama rejected Peltier’s clemency requests. He was also denied parole in ’93, 2009 and 2024.

For more, we go to Sumterville, Florida, where we’re joined by Nick Tilsen, founder and CEO of the NDN Collective. He just visited Leonard Peltier in prison after news of his release yesterday.

Nick, welcome back to Democracy Now! Can you share with us Leonard Peltier’s response? It was minutes before Biden left office.

NICK TILSEN: Leonard is elated. Leonard is excited. He is deeply, deeply honored. When he — like, I talked to him on the phone last night after the actual order was given to him and the papers for executive clemency were given to him, and he read it out loud, and he said, “I’m finally coming home.” And he’s excited to be coming home in this moment. And one of the biggest things of the message that he has is deep gratitude for the five decades of organizing and everybody who’s ever helped fight for his freedom. And so, he is elated. He’s excited to go back to his homelands in Belcourt, North Dakota, on the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And, Nick, could you talk about the movement to get Leonard Peltier released? There was a large group of congressmen, led by Raúl Grijalva, who appealed to the president. But at the same time, the FBI Director Christopher Wray on January 10th wrote to the president urging him not to do it?

NICK TILSEN: Yeah, this was an unprecedented effort of both community organizing and advocacy. You know, we had two secretaries of the administration weigh in. Secretary Deb Haaland was weighing in, and Secretary — or, HHS administrator Becerra was weighing in. Senator Schatz of the Senate — the chairman of the Senate Indian Affairs Committee, was weighing in. And there was opposition. There was opposition, led by the FBI and the Department of Justice, to try to keep Leonard Peltier in prison.

But the reality is that we had fought so hard to be able to bring this issue to light. And I think that one of the tipping points in this entire issue was the fact that Leonard Peltier was a boarding school survivor, and that this was really about righting a historical wrong. And I think all of the work that went in to bring to light what the United States government did to Indian people during the boarding schools, and all of that effort and organizing and healing work that happened, was one of the huge contributing factors, along with so much political advocacy of people championing this. And we were able to close the gap, from the frontline Indigenous communities to the decision-makers right to the president of the United States, that led to this. And so, it was a historical organizing effort and a day of victory for Indigenous people.

AMY GOODMAN: Absolutely amazing, Nick. We talked to you right after you talked to the pardon office. You were in South Dakota then, after you went to Washington, D.C. Finally, on the issue of Leonard Peltier going home, how is his health?

NICK TILSEN: He needs to see a doctor right away. We’re a little bit concerned that he’s not going home until the 18th, that the order doesn’t go into effect ’til the 18th. He needs to see a doctor immediately, and they don’t have the medical facilities at Coleman prison, federal prison, to meet his medical needs right now. So, we will be asking this current, the incoming administration for relief for medical purposes to try to get him home a little bit sooner. And they do have the ability to do that at the Bureau of Prisons level. And so, we’re going to be asking for that, so we can get him to see a doctor. But realistically, we also understand that there’s a good chance that he’s probably not coming home ’til the 18th, even though we’re trying to get him home sooner. But we really want to get him home sooner because his health is continuing to deteriorate. And he’s excited to come home, but we’ve got to make his health and his safety number one priority.

AMY GOODMAN: Nick Tilsen, you’ve also worked on climate issues for years. On Monday, Trump signed an executive order to withdraw the U.S. from the Paris Climate Agreement again.

TRUMP AIDE: The next item here is the withdrawal from the Paris climate treaty.

TRUMP SUPPORTERS: Yeah! …

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: Save over a trillion.

TRUMP AIDE: We’re going to save over a trillion dollars by withdrawing from that treaty.

AMY GOODMAN: So, you hear him signing this in the Capital One Arena with 20,000 people cheering. The significance of this, Nick?

NICK TILSEN: It’s terrible. It’s terrible for everybody around the world, because not only the Paris Climate Agreements, but the agreements to — for the most powerful countries in the world to come together to fight climate change and set bars for it, to force corporations and force countries to be able to, you know, have regulations in place, and to pull these back is to put our environment at risk and to put human rights at risk and to put — and these decisions are going to expedite climate change, and at a time when climate change is a global crisis issue affecting all of humanity.

And with Indigenous people, it means a direct threat to us and our homelands, because we are maintaining — we’re 5% of the world’s population but steward 80% of the world’s biological diversity on behalf of all of humanity. And so, that means, when — him pulling out of the Paris accords, it means that he’s going to make Indigenous communities and Indigenous homelands sacrifice zones. And we’re going to be on the frontlines having to fight these corporations, because now they’re going to end up into our territories completely deregulated.

AMY GOODMAN: Nick, there’s so much to talk to you about, but I want to quickly — I mean, it’s a firehose of executive orders. President Trump also signed an executive order Monday calling for North America’s tallest peak, Denali in Alaska, to be renamed Mount McKinley after President McKinley, he said, showing respect to Ohio and to the president. Can you talk about the significance of what Obama renamed in 2015?

NICK TILSEN: Well, renaming these — you know, we have been in this effort to rename our territories after what we called them as Indigenous people. And this effort to try to erase Indigenous people and erase our identities, that’s what this is. It is manifest destiny in its modern form. It is colonial rule, and it’s trying to control the narrative, and it’s trying to erase Indigenous people.

And so, we are going to continue to fight to hold onto our names. We’re going to continue to fight to hold onto our identity. And we’re going to use this energy that we have in Indian Country right now, that we have gotten from this victory in fighting for Leonard Peltier, to protect our homelands and to protect the names and to make sure that they won’t erase us. And you can guarantee that Indigenous people, that we’re going to be on the frontlines fighting this administration and making a way for our people and fighting for human rights everywhere.

AMY GOODMAN: Well, Nick, we want to thank you for being with us. Nick Tilsen, founder and CEO of the NDN Collective. You can go to Democracy Now! to see all our coverage of Leonard Peltier, including interviews with him. Again, at the age of 80, Leonard Peltier is going home after almost half a century in prison.

That does it for our show. Democracy Now! is produced with Mike Burke, Renée Feltz, Deena Guzder, Messiah Rhodes, Nermeen Shaikh, María Taracena, Tami Woronoff, Charina Nadura, Sam Alcoff, Tey-Marie Astudillo, John Hamilton, Robby Karran, Hany Massoud, Hana Elias. Our executive director is Julie Crosby. Special thanks to Becca Staley, Jon Randolph, Paul Powell, Mike Di Filippo, Miguel Nogueira. I’m Amy Goodman, with Juan González, for another edition of Democracy Now!

AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org. I’m Amy Goodman, with Juan González.

On his first day back in the White House, President Trump also moved to roll back protections for transgender people. He outlined part of his plan during his inaugural address.

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: It will henceforth be the official policy of the United States government that there are only two genders: male and female.

AMY GOODMAN: To talk more about Trump’s executive actions, we’re joined by Chase Strangio, co-director of the American Civil Liberties Union’s LGBTQ & HIV Project, recently became the first openly transgender lawyer to argue a case before the U.S. Supreme Court.

Chase, it’s great to have you with us on this day. Explain what Trump is doing.

CHASE STRANGIO: Yeah, so, obviously, you can hear from the rhetoric — that was one of the centerpieces of his campaign — that he is targeting trans people by focusing on retrenching this notion of a fixed gender binary at the time of conception. So, that came out in his inaugural address, and then, last night, he signed an executive order, quote-unquote, “defending women” and “restoring biological truth to the federal government.” Now, the audacity of having this administration come in, claim to defend women, while defining women as “the adult human female,” which means the sex that produces the large cell at the time of conception, while simultaneously attacking abortion, contraception, and, you can see in this language, beginnings of fetal personhood. Now, this is one of the central problems that we’re going to see in this administration, is the claim to be defending women by targeting trans people through a slew of policies that just seek to both eradicate trans people from civic and public life and also push trans people out of federal government in a myriad ways.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And one executive order also includes a directive that forces the secretary of housing and urban development to submit a policy for, quote, “protecting women seeking single-sex rape shelters.” Can you talk about this potentially putting trans people at risk?

CHASE STRANGIO: Yeah, so, there are many, many instructions in this one executive order, including this directive to HUD to issue proposed regulations to, in essence, exclude trans people from various forms of shelter system, under the auspices that a trans person is an inherent threat to nontransgender women. Obviously, that just enhances the risk that transgender people face in society, if we are deemed as a threat to others simply by existing. And the order also includes directions to, for example, the secretary of state and Department of Homeland Security to possibly revoke the passports of transgender people because those passports do not reflect this, quote-unquote, “biological reality” that sex is only binary at the time of conception.

AMY GOODMAN: Let me ask you about the executive order also requiring all government-issued identification documents, including passports, visas and Global Entry cards, to be biological classification as either male or female. The significance of this, Chase?

CHASE STRANGIO: I mean, it’s hugely significant. Already last night, we saw from the Department of State’s website that a possibility to update your gender marker on passports has already come down. We know that people rely on accurate identification to move freely through the country and around the world. This will put trans people at risk of violence. It means every time you have an encounter with the government, the likelihood that you will be outed is significantly increased. And then, with that outing comes the risk of discrimination, harassment and potentially violence. So trans people are bracing themselves for a lot of negative outcomes here, not just symbolic, but really material ones.

AMY GOODMAN: Your final thoughts?

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And, Chase, talk about the significance of the 2020 Supreme Court case Bostock v. Clayton County and how it could potentially lead to more workplace discrimination.

CHASE STRANGIO: Yeah, so, Bostock, in essence, ruled — the Supreme Court said federal laws prohibiting sex discrimination cover LGBTQ people. Last night, the Trump administration rescinded President Biden’s executive order implementing that decision. So this is just another way in which we can expect this administration not to protect trans people, but to target us. I know the community is scared. I know people are confused. And in this chaos, we just have to come together and build all of the forms of resistance that we know how to. But it is scary and it is alarming to read those executive orders last night.

AMY GOODMAN: Well, Chase Strangio, we’re going to be talking to you a lot in these years. Chase Strangio, co-director of the American Civil Liberties Union’s LGBTQ & HIV Project.

AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now! I’m Amy Goodman, with Juan González.

As immigrant communities around the country are bracing for President Trump’s imminent raids and mass deportations, the future of thousands of asylum seekers at the U.S.-Mexico border is also uncertain. On Monday, Trump issued this slew of anti-immigrant executive orders, including one that would require undocumented immigrants to register and be fingerprinted. Trump also reinstated his “Remain in Mexico” policy, which forces asylum seekers to stay in Mexico as they wait for their hearings in U.S. courts. Trump first implemented the program in 2019, leaving tens of thousands of asylum seekers stranded in Mexico, living in squalid makeshift camps and facing horrendous conditions. As Trump took office, his administration immediately shut down the Biden-era CBP One mobile app used by Customs and Border Protection to manage asylum requests at ports of entry. Thousands of asylum seekers lost their upcoming appointments, many after waiting for months.

We go now to Santa Ana, California, where we’re joined by Guerline Jozef, co-founder and executive director of Haitian Bridge Alliance, which has been hosting workshops nationwide, as well as other immigrant rights organizations, to train communities on their legal rights and how to respond to ICE raids.

How are people, how are communities preparing? Can you talk about the fear in these communities, Guerline?

GUERLINE JOZEF: Good morning, Amy, and thank you so much for having me.

The fear is outrageous. People are afraid, especially now with the new executive orders. We are already seeing how it’s impacting people, even when it will be taking a long time to put certain things in practice, but just the belief that this can happen is detrimental to extremely vulnerable populations. People are afraid. Their lives are uncertain, especially those who have children, those who have fled extreme conditions. Now their lives are once again at risk.

AMY GOODMAN: You were just in Springfield, Ohio. Of course, Ohio is the home state of the vice president now, JD Vance. And we all know what they both said about Haitians eating dogs and cats — to say the least, an absolute lie. But President Trump repeatedly said that it would be ground zero for these mass deportations.

GUERLINE JOZEF: We were in Columbus and Springfield, Ohio, where we wanted to make sure that the community had the support that they need. I will be honest with you, Amy. What we witnessed in Springfield, Ohio, over the weekend was a mix of, really, the people of Ohio, people of Springfield and Columbus, coming around the Haitian community, coming around immigrants, to let them know that they are welcome and that they will continue to support them as they deal with these extreme conditions.

We clearly saw, as well, where people were planning to potentially not be able to leave their homes. So, what we were able to really talk to them about is how to prepare, to make a plan, to make sure that they have emergency contacts in case something were to happen to them, because the reality is, with the new executive orders, they are not safe. We already see the ending of CBP One. We already see the ending of the CHNV Parole Program, and how that will impact a lot of people who are in Springfield, in Chicago, in Massachusetts, in California, in New York, around the country, who have made the United States their adopted homes.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And, Guerline, what about Trump’s vow to end TPS, especially for Haitians, but for other migrant groups, as well?

GUERLINE JOZEF: As of right now, Juan, we have TPS for Haiti specifically until February 2026. But we also know that when the first administration, they did terminate — try to terminate TPS for Haiti and many other countries. So we stand ready to take that to court to really push back to make sure that people are protected. But we are worried that after February 2026, there will be no more ways to really make the provision to protect people. TPS is really a lifeline to many immigrants who have been in this country for 20 years. We have our nurses, our doctors. We have people who have invested their entire lives here, homeowners, people who have — business owners, especially in Springfield and other places, where we have many people really creating opportunities for others within the community by having businesses, restaurants and providing the support that is needed. Our farmworkers, who are currently making sure that we are fed, are also at risk.

So, this whole idea of really punishing people who have made the United States their homes, people who have given back, paying their taxes, and really be the fuel behind the economy, as well, is very, very scary at this moment. And we stand ready, committed to push back against the policies that are being created to criminalize people of color and people of immigration — immigrant background.

AMY GOODMAN: And let’s be very clear: In Springfield, in Ohio, it was the Republican governor himself, Mike DeWine, who invited in so many of the thousands of Haitians who now legally reside there. Guerline Jozef, we want to thank you for being with us, co-founder and executive director of the Haitian Bridge Alliance.

Coming up, Donald Trump moves to roll back protections for transgender people. Then, Indigenous activist Leonard Peltier is going home, after President Biden commuted his sentence. Peltier has been in prison for almost half a century. Back in 20 seconds.

AMY GOODMAN: On Monday, President Trump signed a number of executive orders on immigration. One such order aims to end birthright citizenship, which is protected by the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. Trump also declared a national emergency at the southern border.

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: First, I will declare a national emergency at our southern border. All illegal entry will immediately be halted, and we will begin the process of returning millions and millions of criminal aliens back to the places from which they came. We will reinstate my Remain in Mexico policy. I will end the practice of catch and release. And I will send troops to the southern border to repel the disastrous invasion of our country.

AMY GOODMAN: To talk more about Trump’s decision to declare a national emergency at the southern border, we’re joined by Elizabeth Goitein, co-director of the Liberty and National Security Program at the Brennan Center for Justice, her recent piece for The Atlantic headlined “Emergency Powers Are About to Be Tested.”

Elizabeth, thanks for being with us. Can you lay out what it means to declare an emergency, what it means for the military on U.S. soil?

ELIZABETH GOITEIN: So, the National Emergencies Act authorizes the president to declare a national emergency. When he does that, that declaration unlocks powers that are contained in about 150 different provisions of law that span the entire range of things that a government might do.

In this particular case, the powers that Trump invoked include a power that he invoked before, in 2019, when he declared a national emergency at the southern border. And that’s a power that allows him to essentially reallocate Department of Defense funds for military construction projects. And once again, he’s going to use that, essentially, to try to build the southern border wall. So we’re right back where we were. Now, all of that was litigated in the courts, but before there could be any final resolution, President Biden took office and terminated the emergency declaration, which mooted all of it.

The second thing that President Trump is going to do is invoke a provision that allows the secretary of defense to call up reservists, including the National Guard, in order to make them available to provide support to the Department of Homeland Security at the southern border. Now, this actually is not new, either. The military has been serving this role — namely, providing support, logistical support, to the Department of Homeland Security at the border — for 20 years. And Biden himself used emergency powers in 2023 — he was relying on a 2021 declaration of emergency for international drug trafficking — to call up reservists, to make more manpower available to help DHS at the southern border. Now, this kind of logistical support is very different from having the military participate directly in the apprehension and detention of migrants, which is something the president could only do by invoking the Insurrection Act. And he did not invoke the Insurrection Act yesterday, but he did direct the attorney general and — I’m sorry, you have the Department of Homeland — secretary of homeland security and the secretary of defense to submit a report in 90 days recommending whether or not he should invoke the Insurrection Act.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And, Elizabeth, he also mentioned that he would invoke the Alien Enemy Act of 1798. Could you talk about what provisions of that act are still in effect and what it means?

ELIZABETH GOITEIN: So, the Alien Enemies Act is the last remaining vestige of the notorious Alien and Sedition Acts from back in 1798. And what this law allows, it applies during a declared war or a proclaimed invasion or incursion or a threat of invasion or incursion by a foreign government or nation. And when those conditions exist, at least in theory, the law allows the president to summarily detain and deport any non-U.S. citizen over the age of 14 who is a citizen of or was born in the enemy nation. So, I know that’s a mouthful, but, basically, what it does is it is a wartime authority that means that the president can detain and deport people who were born in the enemy nation, without going through the hearings and the procedural protections of immigration law, and it can even be used against lawful permanent residents, people who are lawfully in this country and who have been lawfully in this country for decades. So, that’s what makes it such a potent and frightening and, frankly, we believe, unconstitutional law.

And so, what the president has said he is going to do — well, he asked various Cabinet members to prepare, essentially, for an invocation of the Insurrection Act. He gave them 14 days. And he says he’s going to use the act against drug cartels in the United States. The obvious problem is that drug cartels are not foreign governments. They are not foreign nations. And they are not perpetrating an armed invasion of the United States. That is not an act of war, which is what the Alien Enemies Act was clearly intended for.

So this is a massive abuse of emergency power. And I should say, because I didn’t say it before, the declaration of a national emergency is also an abuse of emergency powers, because these emergency powers are intended to address sudden, unexpected crises — that’s the definition of an emergency — that are moving too quickly for Congress to be able to address. That is not unlawful immigration at the border. It is not sudden or unexpected, and it is something that Congress can and should be addressing through comprehensive immigration reform.

AMY GOODMAN: Elizabeth Goitein, we want to thank you for being with us, co-director of the Liberty and National Security Program at the Brennan Center for Justice. We’ll link to your piece in The Atlantic, “Emergency Powers Are About to Be Tested.”

AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report. I’m Amy Goodman, with Juan González.

During Monday’s inauguration, Donald Trump repeated his threat to retake the Panama Canal. The U.S. controlled the waterway since the early 20th century, but in 1977 President Jimmy Carter signed a landmark treaty to give Panama control of its canal. This is Trump speaking Monday.

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: We have been treated very badly from this foolish gift that should have never been made, and Panama’s promise to us has been broken. The purpose of our deal and the spirit of our treaty has been totally violated. American ships are being severely overcharged and not treated fairly in any way, shape or form. And that includes the United States Navy. And above all, China is operating the Panama Canal. And we didn’t give it to China; we gave it to Panama. And we’re taking it back.

AMY GOODMAN: That was President Trump in his inaugural address, standing in the Capitol Rotunda, where Jimmy Carter just lay in state, who had given control of the canal back to Panama. I believe it was the first time in a century that a president in an inaugural address talked about seizing more land. Juan González, can you talk about the significance of this?

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Yeah, Amy. I think not only was it audacious of Trump to claim he’s going to take back the canal, but he was — his statement, just before that clip, that 38,000 Americans died building the Panama Canal is grossly false. The fact is that during the construction of the canal, from 1904 to 1914, a far smaller number of people died, about 5,600. But most of those people were not Americans. They were Black West Indian laborers who were imported by the Panama Canal Company. Only about 350 white Americans died in the construction of the canal. That’s about a hundred times less than what Trump claimed in his speech.

And most importantly, very few Americans are aware that the federal government, specifically Teddy Roosevelt, had to engineer and bankroll the creation of the country of Panama. Panama was then a province of Colombia. But Colombia was refusing to grant the United States sovereignty over the Panama Canal Zone, which it demanded, and so Roosevelt actually bankrolled an uprising to create the country of Panama. And the first thing that the new puppet government of Panama did was to sign the Hay-Bunau-Varilla Treaty of 1903 that gave the United States everything it wanted.

So, from the beginning, the Panama Canal was created at gunpoint by the United States. And it was only after massive protests in the 1960s by the Panamanian people demanding an end to that imposition that finally President Carter and the Senate agreed to return the land to Panama and allow Panama to actually operate the canal. So the entire myth that Trump has created is totally false and needs to be challenged.

AMY GOODMAN: And, of course, we’ll continue to cover this issue, but right now we’re going to turn to, well, perhaps a related issue.

AMY GOODMAN: President Donald Trump was sworn in Monday as the nation’s 47th president. The inauguration took place inside the U.S. Capitol, the same spot where Trump supporters staged an insurrection January 6th, 2021, in a violent attempt to keep him in power after he lost the 2020 race to Joe Biden. Hours after Monday’s inauguration, Trump granted “full, complete and unconditional” presidential pardons to over 1,500 people involved in the January 6th insurrection. He also commuted the sentences of 14 members of the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers, many of whom had been convicted of seditious conspiracy. Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes had his 18-year sentence commuted. He was freed earlier today. Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio received a full pardon. He had been sentenced to 22 years in prison. Trump signed the pardons Monday night.

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: So, this is January 6th, and these are the hostages, approximately 1,500, for a pardon. Full pardon.

REPORTER: Full pardon or a commutation, or both?

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: Full pardon. We have about six commutations in there, where we’re doing further research.

REPORTER: OK.

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: So this is a big one. Anything you want to explain about this? We hope to get them — we hope they come out tonight, frankly.

AMY GOODMAN: The scope of Trump’s pardons surprised many in Washington. Just last week, nine days ago, Trump’s Vice President JD Vance told Fox News people who committed violence on January 6th shouldn’t be pardoned.

SEN. JD VANCE: If you committed violence on that day, obviously you shouldn’t be pardoned. And there’s a little bit of a gray area there, but we’re very much committed to seeing the equal administration of law. And there are a lot of people, we think, in the wake of January the 6th who were prosecuted unfairly. We need to rectify that.

AMY GOODMAN: We’re joined now by Jeff Sharlet, journalist, author, professor of English and creative writing at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire. His latest book, The Undertow: Scenes from a Slow Civil War.

Jeff Sharlet, take it from the top for us. Explain what just happened yesterday, the blanket pardon of 1,500, even though you have JD Vance — in fact, Trump himself — saying that they were going to weigh these one by one.

JEFF SHARLET: What it is is the worst-case scenario. And I think what you emphasized, the expansiveness of the pardon, the glee with which the pardon was issued, is striking. And I think it’s easy for people to say, “Well, he had been talking about this. We knew this was coming.” But it’s important to remember that the first lie of fascism is always its own inevitability. And we heard JD Vance wavering. And if you were following Trump on the campaign trail, there was always these nods. We now know, of course, that the nods were not to any actual belief that violence against police, that led to the death of police, was a problem. It was Trump feeling out how far he could go. And yesterday he shows he felt he can go all the way with this complete, total pardon and framing of what happened on January 6 as, in fact, a part of the sacred violence, the part of the noble myth of American history, one of his so-called liberation days.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And, Jeff, the order begins with a roll call of heroes, calling out the leaders by name, 14 of them. Could you talk about that and what that signifies, in your view?

JEFF SHARLET: I read the executive order. You see me laughing, but it’s this sort of — again, how far will the fascism go? The 14 — it begins with a list of 14 names, men like Joe Biggs, Ethan Nordean, very — some of these guys on that list are very, very violent people. And these were the planners. These were the planners of a coup. These were the people who had the idea of overthrowing the United States government, or so the old conviction held.

But what’s notable is that number, 14. And perhaps it’s a coincidence that he chose only 14, but that is a clear echo and is being heard in white supremacist circles as an echo of the so-called 14 words. This is this kind of slogan about saving the future for white children that is kind of a motto of the far right. So, it’s a little bit like Elon Musk’s ”sieg heil” salute yesterday. You can argue over whether or not it was intentional. What I can’t help but notice is Elon Musk not saying it wasn’t intentional. And I haven’t seen any pushback from the White House to the neo-Nazis who are celebrating the 14 leaders, symbols to them of the 14 words.

AMY GOODMAN: Just to ask you something, before Juan asks another question, just on the ”sieg heil” salute, and you have Nadler and others, the congressmember saying this is a clear ”sieg heil” salute. There was a meme going around that shows him in that salute, his hand and his arm out. And it says, “You’re going to hear from people that Elon Musk did the Roman salute here. And that’s true. He’s done it before. But that’s not exculpatory. The Roman salute was adopted by Mussolini and Italian fascists. It was then adopted by Hitler and the Nazis.” Professor Sharlet?

JEFF SHARLET: It is true. And I think, in some ways, though, this is the kind of — the trap that’s being laid out for us. And I think it is — as ugly as the 14 words and this salute are, it’s important for us to focus on the content, not the cosplay. The reality is: Was that number 14 intentional or not? Was that salute meant as such or not? We can argue over that. That gives them a chance to deny it and to persuade some, “Well, this is all overstatement,” while we’re overlooking the fact of the pardon of 1,500 violent people who attacked the Capitol. You know, we had people bringing guns. We had people, explosive devices. Pardoned yesterday was a man who essentially attempted to tear a cop’s head off. He had the cop’s head trapped in a door, and their idea was to pull it off.

Now, look at what some of these people are saying today. Again, this is the content; this isn’t the cosplay. They’re saying, “First thing I’m doing now that I’m pardoned is” — because some of them are already out of jails — “I can get my guns back.” One prominent January 6er who was pardoned, a reporter for the far-right website TheBlaze, said, “Time for some ex parte communication” with the judge in his case. They are free to do that now. And so, 14, accident or not, it’s certainly being received as such. But what we can’t debate is that other number, 1,500.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And the significance of Ed Martin, the interim U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, the jurisdiction that oversaw many of these cases, himself a January 6th activist?

JEFF SHARLET: Yeah, Ed Martin is now put in a legal position overseeing — the position that was sort of overseeing these cases. You know, it’s like the old Hair Club for Men: He’s not just the president, he’s a client. He was there. He gave a speech on January 5th. He talked about being there on January 6th. He was not charged with anything, but he did talk about being there. And he since became an activist, and not just an activist, a really ardent activist. In fact, he went to one of Trump’s resorts to present an award to one January 6er. You might have seen the pictures of him. This is a guy who liked to style himself with a Hitler mustache and a Hitler haircut, who blamed COVID-19 on a Jewish conspiracy. Ed Martin, now this now government official, described this man as an extraordinary leader, and this is the kind of person who we want to give awards.

But again, we look at — that’s the outrage. But we look at the content, not the cosplay. And we look at the structure of this executive order, combined with the executive order supposedly putting an end to weaponization of politics. You have one saying crimes that are committed on behalf of the leaders — and, you know, tasering a cop ’til he has a heart attack, this is not a gray area — are unprosecutable, and, in the other, saying we’re going to go after those people who have prosecuted them. And it’s expanding. Already you’re seeing calls on the right for an investigation of politicians who weren’t preemptively pardoned by Joe Biden, for instance, D.C. Mayor, Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser, who they are accusing of now holding hostage those January 6ers who have not yet been released. And it’s gone right into this kind of sort of white power narrative: the Black mayor of a majority-Black city holding hostage their mostly white American heroes.

AMY GOODMAN: Jeff Sharlet, we want to thank you for being with us, journalist and author, professor of English and creative writing at Dartmouth College. His latest book, The Undertow: Scenes from a Slow Civil War.

When we come back, we look at Trump’s threat to retake the Panama Canal and to declare a national emergency at the southern border. Are we going to see detention camps and military bases around the country? Stay with us.

AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now! We end today’s show with the words of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. on this federal holiday that honors the birthday of Dr. King. On April 4th, 1968, he was assassinated at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee. He was just 39 years old. He was in Memphis supporting striking sanitation workers as he built momentum for a Poor People’s March on Washington. This is an excerpt from Dr. King’s last speech, which he gave on April 3rd, 1968, known as the speech “I Have Been to the Mountaintop.”

REV. MARTIN LUTHER KING JR.: You know, several years ago, I was in New York City autographing the first book that I had written. And while sitting there autographing books, a demented Black woman came up. The only question I heard from her was “Are you Martin Luther King?” And I was looking down writing, and I said, “Yes.” And the next minute I felt something beating on my chest. Before I knew it, I had been stabbed by this demented woman. I was rushed to Harlem Hospital. It was a dark Saturday afternoon. And that blade had gone through, and the X-rays revealed that the tip of the blade was on the edge of my aorta, the main artery. And once that’s punctured, you’re drowned in your own blood; that’s the end of you.

It came out in The New York Times the next morning, that if I had merely sneezed, I would have died. Well, about four days later, they allowed me, after the operation, after my chest had been opened and the blade had been taken out, to move around in the wheelchair in the hospital. They allowed me to read some of the mail that came in, and from all over the states and the world, kind letters came in. I read a few, but one of them I will never forget. I had received one from the president and the vice president. I’ve forgotten what those telegrams said. I had received a visit and a letter from the governor of New York, but I’ve forgotten what that letter said. But there was another letter that came from a little girl, a young girl who was a student at the White Plains High School. And I looked at that letter, and I’ll never forget it. It said simply, “Dear Dr. King, I am a ninth grade student at the White Plains High School.” And she said, “While it should not matter, I would like to mention that I’m a white girl. I read in the paper of your misfortune and of your suffering. And I read that if you had sneezed, you would have died. And I’m simply writing you to say that I’m so happy that you didn’t sneeze.”

And I want to say tonight — I want to say tonight that I too am happy that I didn’t sneeze, because if I had sneezed, I wouldn’t have been around here in 1960, when students all over the South started sitting in at lunch counters. And I knew that as they were sitting in, they were really standing up for the best in the American dream and taking the whole nation back to those great wells of democracy which were dug deep by the Founding Fathers in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution.

If I had sneezed, I wouldn’t have been around here in 1961, when we decided to take a ride for freedom and ended segregation in interstate travel.

If I had sneezed, I wouldn’t have been around here in 1962, when Negroes in Albany, Georgia, decided to straighten their backs up. And whenever men and women straighten their backs up, they are going somewhere, because a man can’t ride your back unless it is bent.

If I had sneezed — if I had sneezed, I wouldn’t have been here in 1963, when the Black people of Birmingham, Alabama, aroused the conscience of this nation and brought into being the civil rights bill.

If I had sneezed, I wouldn’t have had a chance later that year, in August, to try to tell America about a dream that I had had.

If I had sneezed, I wouldn’t have been down in Selma, Alabama, to see the great movement there.

If I had sneezed, I wouldn’t have been in Memphis to see a community rally around those brothers and sisters who are suffering.

I’m so happy that I didn’t sneeze.

And they were telling me — now, it doesn’t matter now. It really doesn’t matter what happens now. I left Atlanta this morning, and as we got started on the plane, there were six of us. The pilot said over the public address system, “We are sorry for the delay, but we have Dr. Martin Luther King on the plane. And to be sure that all of the bags were checked and to be sure that nothing would be wrong on the plane, we had to check out everything carefully, and we’ve had the plane protected and guarded all night.”

And then I got into Memphis. And some began to say the threats or talk about the threats that were out, of what would happen to me from some of our sick white brothers. Well, I don’t know what will happen now. We’ve got some difficult days ahead. But it really doesn’t matter with me now, because I’ve been to the mountaintop. And I don’t mind.

Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place. But I’m not concerned about that now. I just want to do God’s will. And he’s allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I’ve looked over. And I’ve seen the promised land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight that we, as a people, will get to the promised land! And so I’m happy tonight. I’m not worried about anything. I’m not fearing any man! Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord!

AMY GOODMAN: Dr. Martin Luther King, April 3rd, 1968, the night before he was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee. The federal King holiday, which started in ’83, was first observed in ’86, has overlapped with Inauguration Day just two other times, first with Bill Clinton in 1997 and then again with President Obama in 2013. Obama also took his oath of office using a Bible that belonged to Dr. Martin Luther King. The King family has been extremely critical of President Trump, but the youngest of the civil rights leader’s four children, Bernice King, said of Martin Luther King Day coinciding with the Trump inauguration, quote, “It’s wonderful this occurs on the King holiday, the inauguration, because it reminds us of King,” she said. You can see all of our Martin Luther King programs by going to democracynow.org.

Special thanks to the Democracy Now! team in Washington, D.C. Democracy Now! is produced with Renée Feltz, Mike Burke, Deena Guzder, Messiah Rhodes, Nermeen Shaikh, María Taracena, Tami Woronoff, Charina Nadura, Sam Alcoff, Tey-Marie Astudillo, John Hamilton, Robby Karran, Hany Massoud and Hana Elias. Our executive director is Julie Crosby. Special thanks to Becca Staley, Jon Randolph, Paul Powell, Mike Di Filippo, Miguel Nogueira, Hugh Gran, Denis Moynihan, David Prude, Dennis McCormick, Matt Ealy, Anna Özbek, Emily Andersen, Dante Torrieri, Buffy Saint Marie Hernandez. To get a copy of our daily newsletter, you can go to democracynow.org and sign up or text the word “democracynow” to 66866. That does it for our show. Happy Dr. Martin Luther King Day! I’m Amy Goodman. Thanks so much for joining us.

AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org. I’m Amy Goodman.

On Saturday night in Washington, D.C., Busboys and Poets hosted the 2025 Inaugural Peace Ball, which first started in 2009 with the inauguration of President Obama. The theme was “A Gathering for Positive Change.” While the event had once been held at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture, this year Busboys and Poets founder Andy Shallal was quoted in The New York Times saying that the museum had complaints about, quote, “the tone of the event,” even though some of the featured speakers are also featured in the museum, including the abolitionist, the author, the professor and longtime activist Angela Davis. The event did proceed, however, at the Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater. This is Angela Davis.

ANGELA DAVIS: A lot more is happening in the world than the inauguration of someone who represents fascism in this country and the world. And if we look back at struggles for justice and equality, we find that there aren’t often propitious moments for those struggles. We’ve always confronted waves of conservatism. And while we cannot create the conditions for the struggles in which we engage, we can bring our determination. We can bring our vision for a better future. And even as we express the deep disappointment — and I’m not going to try to enumerate all of the things about which we are collectively disappointed, but we can’t find ourselves so ensconced in that disappointment that we don’t create the kind of hope that will allow us to move forward and pass legacies to the next generation of people who are struggling. And we do — we do — we do want to join that celebration that Linda Sarsour talked about on the sands of Gaza. We want to be able to look forward to that moment.

Now, I guess I should at least mention the fact that the conditions of struggle today are horrendous. And when I try to imagine what it might mean to confront, you know, all of those who are the billionaires, who once were opposed to Trump, who are now offering themselves up to him, but when I think about the move toward fascism, I also celebrate the fact that we have never seen as many people stand up for the freedom of Palestine. People who were dissuaded in the past by Zionist propaganda are standing up and powerfully demanding a free Palestine. Free, free Palestine. And that is what we are celebrating this evening. That is what we are celebrating.

Now, I think it might be propitious — I’ll use that word again — that the inauguration is happening on the same day as we celebrate the birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King. And in that context, I want to remind us that it was Dr. King who said that we cannot capitulate to finite disappointments, and what we do is we confront those finite disappointments with infinite hope. And that is what we are in the process of doing.

AMY GOODMAN: That was Angela Davis, the abolitionist, the author, the professor, the longtime activist, speaking at the 2025 Inaugural Peace Ball at the Arena Stage on Saturday night. Special thanks to the whole Democracy Now! team and to Guy Warner.

AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, “War, Peace and the Presidency.” I’m Amy Goodman.

Ahead of President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration today, thousands marched in protests across the United States Saturday. Democracy Now!‘s team, we were in Washington, D.C., when thousands came out to join the People’s March.

PROTESTERS: We won’t go back! We won’t go back! We won’t go back! We won’t go back! We won’t go back!

AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now! I’m Amy Goodman. We’re at the People’s March in Washington, D.C., two days before the inauguration of Donald Trump. People are carrying banners that say, “We will not be silent,” “Together we can, together we will,” “Your power, our power, people power.” There are many people. One person was holding a sign that said ”MAGA: Morons Are Governing America.” And there are many other issues. The people are talking about women’s rights, trans rights, LGBTQ rights, talking about the rights of Palestinians, D.C. statehood and much more. We’ll talk to people in the crowd.

PROTESTERS: Trans Black women! Trans Black women! Trans Black women!

HOPE GISELLE: How are you doing? I’m Hope Giselle. I’m the executive director of the National Trans Visibility March, and I’m out here because all of us deserve the space to feel like we have a voice in democracy. All of us deserve to feel like human beings, and all of us deserve to have our rights respected. And so, without a democracy, without a true democracy, we all fall to the wayside of a corruption and a government that does not see us as human beings, and I refuse to allow that to stand.

NICOLE: My name is Nicole. I come from Garfield, New Jersey. And my sign says, “If you’re not angry, you’re not paying attention.”

RENÉE FELTZ: What does that mean to you?

NICOLE: It means that you have to join the fight.

ENOVA: My name’s Enova. I came from Oregon. My sign says, “Liberation for all of us,” and “The people are stronger than fear.”

CALEB: My name is Caleb. And my sign says, “I am mad, very mad.”

PROTESTERS: Free, free Palestine! Free, free Palestine! Free, free, free Palestine! Free, free, free Palestine!

ANN WRIGHT: My name is Ann Wright. I’m a retired U.S. Army colonel and a former diplomat. I resigned in 2003 in opposition to the War in Iraq. Therefore, I’m here for the People’s March and a march for peace.

AMY GOODMAN: And you’re standing in front of the Free Palestine contingent. Talk about what you want to see and what you hope for Trump.

ANN WRIGHT: I hope that Trump will stop the aid, the military aid that we are giving to Israel, that is so complicit in the genocide of Gaza. We hope the ceasefire will hold, so that no more Palestinians are killed. But we, the people of the world, have to put pressure, continue to put pressures on our governments so that they put pressures on the Israelis to stop this genocide.

PROTESTERS: Free, free Palestine! Free, free, free Palestine!

BETH MILLER: Hi. My name is Beth Miller. I’m the political director with Jewish Voice for Peace. And we’re here today as part of the contingent with the Palestinian Freedom Movement, that is part of the broader antiwar contingent. And we’re here because we are showing up as part of the broader resistance to this incoming fascist authoritarian regime. And we’re here to make clear that all of our liberations, from here in the U.S. to Palestine and everywhere in between, are connected. And we understand that fascism here, fascism in Israel, requires a big, broad united front.

PROTESTERS: When teachers are under attack, what do we do? Stand up! Fight back!

TEXAS WOMAN: I’m originally from Texas, but we came from Florida. We drove here from Florida to come to attend this. It’s been on my bucket list for a while, and I just am really passionate about the government staying out of my body. And everybody should have right to their own body and rights for — the same as everybody else. And I just don’t think that that’s happening right now. And I think that this country was founded on protest and fighting for what you believe in.

RENÉE FELTZ: And could you read your sign, please, and describe it?

TEXAS WOMAN: It’s a naked woman with — it says, “Keep your policies off my body.”

PROTESTERS: People power! People power!

CRISTABEL: Hi. My name is Cristabel. I’m from Delaware. I’m marching for my mom today. She is currently in Mexico and can’t return. She went for forgiveness and then was denied. This is my stepdad. He actually lives in Mexico with her, and he came all the way here to march for her today.

AMY GOODMAN: And what message do you have for President Trump?

CRISTABEL: My message to Trump is: “F.U. If you can have Melania, I want Imelda.” That is my mom. Let her back in.

LESLIE CAGAN: Hi. I’m Leslie Cagan, and I’m with a fairly new group called Time to Act. And I’m here because where else would one be today? It is — now is the time to stand up as loudly, as boldly and in as big a numbers as we can, to say we’re not going away. We’re not sitting at home quietly. We are committed to resisting what the Trump administration, the MAGA Republicans, the Heritage Foundation, the billionaires, what they’re going to bring to us, the horrors that they’re going to rain on our communities. So we’re here to say we’re not going away. We’re fighting back.

AMY GOODMAN: And do you feel that the resistance is strong enough?

LESLIE CAGAN: We’re strong in our commitment, in our understanding of the problem, in our willingness to take bold action. We need more people. Honestly, we need more people in every community of this country to be speaking out. Some will come to marches. Some will make calls to their elected officials. Some will organize community defense and protection of immigrants and other communities. So, people will do it in different ways. We’re not as strong as we need to be, but we can get there.

PROTESTERS: End war! Save the planet! End war! Save the planet!

ANDREA PASKIN: My name is Andrea Paskin.

RENÉE FELTZ: And where did you come in from?

ANDREA PASKIN: Eastern Pennsylvania.

RENÉE FELTZ: I see. And were you here in 2017?

ANDREA PASKIN: Yes.

RENÉE FELTZ: Could you tell me about that? You came together then, too?

ANDREA PASKIN: Yes, we did. We’re sisters. And we came then for the exact same reason we’re here today. And that is — 

ANDREA’S SISTER: Even more.

ANDREA PASKIN: More so, because you have to resist and resist and resist and resist. I don’t know what else to say. There are just too many things to say that are going wrong. And we thought we had hopefully corrected them in 2020, and then we had an insurrection, and then we never had any peace.

ANDREA’S SISTER: Yeah, sure. All our children and grandchildren need to see that you have to do something. You can’t just wait around and let it happen to you. So, that’s why we’re here.

PROTESTERS: Tell me what democracy looks like! This is what democracy looks like! Show me what democracy looks like! This is what democracy looks like! Show me what democracy looks like! This is what democracy looks like!

AMY GOODMAN: The People’s March in Washington, D.C. This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report. The People’s March culminated in a rally in front of the Lincoln Memorial with thousands gathered around the reflecting pool looking up at Abraham Lincoln.

BEN JEALOUS: Well, good morning!

CROWD: Good morning!

BEN JEALOUS: It is great to be here with you. My name is Ben Jealous, former national president of the NAACP. I’m proud to serve as the seventh executive director of the Sierra Club.

Now, I’ll tell you, this crowd today touches my heart. My mom is in a People’s March in California right now. When I was 12, she took me to my first march. It was a march against rape in our community that my father organized.

And so, today we come here from many movements. We come here for many reasons. We also come here as human beings who are clear that we must do everything in our power to create a greener, healthier Mother Earth for all of us. And that’s what my vice president, Shruti Bhatnagar, and I do at Sierra Club every day. And I’ll tell you this: January’s off to a wild start for the Sierra Club. Woke up one day, and Exxon was suing us. Woke up a few days later, and that Twitter troll-in-chief Elon Musk was attacking us. … You know, somebody up there has a sign that says, “Deport Musk and Murdoch.” …

Y’all are too much this morning. But I’ll tell you this: They only attack us because they fear us. They know that last time this man who comes back into office on Monday, last time that man was in office, we sued him hundreds of times, and we won hundreds of times. They know that last time that man was in office, we saw him install corrupt Cabinet members, and then he saw us run them out. They know that last time this man was in office, he said that we would burn more coal, and we shut down more coal-fired power plants than we had in either of Obama’s first terms. No, we are powerful enough, in other words, to keep making progress, no matter who is president. The people of this democracy, we don’t — we don’t elect politicians to make change for us. We try to elect the best politicians to make it a little easier for us to make change. But, you know, when the hill gets steeper, when the weather gets colder, we don’t cancel our gathering, and we keep climbing up that hill.

AMY GOODMAN: Ben Jealous, executive director of the Sierra Club, before that, head of the NAACP, addressing the People’s March in Washington, D.C.

ANALILIA MEJÍA: Y’all, I believe that we will win together! My people! All right, y’all, as you heard, my name is Analilia Mejía. I know that’s a lot of vowels. So, all you’ve got to hear is “Resist Trump.” That’s how you spell it. All right, y’all. Now, Popular Democracy, which is an organization of 50 organizations across the country who are like, “Hell no! This is our government. This is our country. It is our responsibility. We defend the 14th Amendment, and we are here to stand up and fight back.” Are you with me? …

Now, I know. I know. I’m pushing 50, so I feel it in my knees. I know that some of us, we’re weary. We are so tired. We cannot believe that we have to do this [bleep] again. Oops. I know that we are in disbelief and, frankly, in disappointment for the 90 million who stayed. But it’s all right, because, y’all, that even though we find ourselves in this moment, we’ve got to know that freedom, that justice is not a final destination, y’all. This is a practice. Every day, we need to make the decision: Are we going to uphold a democracy and the kind of government that is for the people, or are we going to sit it out? For me, I’m going to stand up. How about you?

CROWD: Yeah!

ANALILIA MEJÍA: Are you going to stand up, fight back?

CROWD: Yeah!

AMY GOODMAN: That was Analilia Mejía, co-executive director, the Center for Popular Democracy, speaking at the People’s March in front of the Lincoln Memorial on Saturday, addressing thousands.

When we come back, we’ll hear Dr. Martin Luther King on this federal holiday honoring Dr. Martin Luther King. But first, the Inaugural Peace Ball. Stay with us.

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AMY GOODMAN: “Ella’s Song (We Who Believe in Freedom Cannot Rest Until It Comes)” by Sweet Honey in the Rock, performing Saturday night at the 2025 Inaugural Peace Ball.