Caucus, no candidate will theive support from culinary unit. We will go to las vegas to speak with allegra reporter and a member of the Culinary Union who besti have some of the health i insurance a union membr can get, but i would change it today for medicare for all. A new study in the medical journal lancet shows medicare for all will save americans more than 450 billion and prevevent 68,000 deaths every year. A study was published by a group of epidemiologists from Yale University i medicare for all. This is not Bernie Sanders. Publishing. Scholars prestigious medical journal. We calculate that a Single Payer Universal Health Care system is savingso lead to a 13 and National Healthcare expenditure equivalent to more than 450 billion annually. Amy we will speak with the lead author of the report. Then Latinx Organization mijente gives its firstever presesidential endorsement. This moment demands a historic mobilization. Our members agree e the best pah to d defeating trump iss electig bebernie. Amy we will speak with executive director of mijente marisa franco. All that and more, coming up. Welcome to democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman. President trump falsely called himself the chief Law Enforcement officer of the United States tuesday. This is trump speaking about the Justice Departments abrupt decision to withdraw an earlier sentencing recommendation for trumps close friend and former Campaign Adviser roger stone, who was found guilty of seven counts of lying to congress. Pres. Trump just how you understand, i chose not to be involved. Im allowed to be totally involved. I am actually, i guess, the chief Law Enforcement officer of the country. But i have chosen not to be involved was not amy the attorney general is the United States top Law Enforcement officer, not the president. Trumps claim comes as more than 2000 former Justice Department officials have now called on attorney general william barr to inign after he intervened stones sentencing. As a result, four federal prosecutors withdrew from the case, one resigning from his job actions. Over barrs the federal Judges Association is holding an emergency meeting today amid growing concerns about trumps intervention in the stone case and in the Justice Department overall. Roger stone will be sentenced thursday despite trump demanding a new trial. President trump issued a wave of pardons and commutations tuesday to a group of his political allies, circumventing the normal Justice Department process. Among the 11 people granted clemency tuesday were former illinois governor rod blagojevich, who had been jailed for attempting to sell Barack Obamas u. S. Senate seat, former new York Police Commissioner bernie kerik, who was convicted of tax fraud and lying to officials, and investment banker mike milken, who was convicted of securities fraud and conspiracy and was best known as the junk bond king. The clemency comes amid speculation trump might also try to pardon his longtime friend and former Campaign Adviser roger stone. Six democratic president ial candidates will debate tonight in nevada, only days before the states caucus saturday. Tonights debate is the first time former new york city mayor billionaire Michael Bloomberg will be on stage, although he is not on the ballot in nevada. Heading into tonights debate, vermont senator Bernie Sanders has surged to a large lead in a new National Washington postabc news poll, which now showsws sanders with 32 support, followed by former Vice President joe biden who has only 16 support. Sanders has also doubled his support among black voters and is overwhelmingly the preferred candidate of voters under 50 years old. A separate poll by the Public Policy institute of california shows sanders with a considerable leading california with particularly favorable support among latino voters. This is sanders speaking in reno, nevada, tuesday. We are going to win this election not because we are buying the airwaves as mr. Bloomberg, we are going to win this election because we are putting together the strongest grassroots movement. Amy tonights debate comes as a newly resurfaced video shows mayor bloomberg calling for cuts to medicare and Social Security in an interview with cbs while he w was new york city mayor. It is a way to slowly decrease the benefits or raise the eligibility age for medicare and for Social Security. There is a way to have marco pay on medicaid which will lead to things. One, the users of the service will pay a little bit more but they will think twice before they use services so the services they use will be those that are really needed and not stop that would be nice to have. Amy the resurfaced video comes as a new study published in the lancet finds that medicare for all will save americans more than 450 billion and prevent 68,000 deaths s every year. Wewell have more on the lancet study and saturdays nevada caucus after headlines. In china, the death toll from the coronavirus has surpassed 2000 people with more than among infected worldwide. The latest victims in china wass the director of wuchang hospital in wuhan, china, who died after contracting the coronavirus. About 800 passengers of the quarantined cruise ship the diamond princess were allowed to disembark to japan today. Thousands more remain trapped on the cruise ship, where over 600 people have e tested positive fr the virus. In afghanistan, president t af ghanani has been d declared thee winnerer of last yeaears president ial election after the results were delayed for five months. But ghanis main opponent, abdullah abdullah, has also declared himself the wininner ad says he will form a parallel government. The political chaos comes amid breakthroughs in the peace negotiations between the u. S. And the taliban, with a peace plan expected to be announced in the coming days. In cameroon, the United Nations says at least 22 people were killed, including 14 children, in a massacre friday in the anglophone region of the country. An Opposition Party has blamed the killings on the army, which the army denied. The massacre comes amid a conflict between the Cameroon Army and englishspeaking separatist fighters, which has killed thousands of people and has forced more than half a million civilians to flee their homes. Somali broadcast journalist Abdiwali Ali Hassan was shot and killed by gunmen near his home outside somalias capital, mogadishu, earlier this week. He was a freelance correspondent for the londonbased universal tv and local radio kulmiye. No group has claimed responsibility f for his assassination. And in north carolina, an Appeals Court has temporarily blocked the state from using its voter identification law in elections after ruling the policy was enacted by the republicancontrtrolled state legislature in 2018 specifically to discriminate against African American voters. The ruling is the latest battle against discriminatory voter id laws in north carolina. An earlier version of the states voter id laws was thrown out after a federal judge said the law targeted African Americans with almost surgical precision. And those are some of the headlines. This is democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman. Juan and im juan gonzalez. Wewelcome to all of our listenes and viewers from around the country and around the world. We begin todays show in nevada, where the third ststate president ial primary vote takes place, the nevada caucus Company Early voting ended tuesday, and saturday. Polling stations reported long lines with more than 36,000 residents of the state opting to vote early. Amid growing fears the vote counting debacle in the iowa caucus could be repeated, the chair of the Nevada Democratic party has said they will not be using the same vote reporting app or vendor and have developed backup reporting systems. Nevada is the first state in the west to cast its vote in the democratic race for the president ial nomination and d ao the first diversrse state to b e heard from so far. One of the states most coveted endorsements is from the Culinary Workers Union, which represents some 60,000 workers in the restaurant and Hospitality Industries in las vegas and reno. Its membership is 54 latino. Last week they decided not to endorse any of the candidates. This is geoconda arguellokline, secretary treasurer of the Culinary Workers Union, speaking thursday outside the unions headquarters in las vegas. The official announcement is were going to endorse our goals, what were doing. That is what were going to endorse. Youre not going to endorse a candidate, a political candidate. Amy nevada is a socalled right to work state and the Culinary Workers Union has attracted members by offering them health care. It says it supports choices in health care. Mobilization of Service Employees could be critical to winning the nevada caucuses, so the unions lack of endorsement for any candidate could be a setback for former Vice President joe biden and an opening for moderate candidates like Pete Buttigieg and amy klobuchar. The culintary Workers Union also decided not to endorse a racedate in the 2016 during the primary race between sanders and hillary clinton. More, we go to las vegas where four were joined by two guests. Marcie wells is an activist, waitress, single parent, and a member of the Culinary Workers Union local 226 in nevada for 16 years. She wrote an essay for commondreams titled i have some of the best Health Insurance a union member can get, but i would trade it today for medicare for all. Also with us is hamilton nolan, labor reporter for in these times. Welcome both of you to democracy now hamilton, give us a lay of the land in nevada, why the Culinary Workers Union is so significant and the story of the health care they provide and why they have chosen not to support medicare for all. The Culinary Workers Union is one of the best unions in america, no doubt about it. There are about 60,000 members. Unionizedsuccessfully the Casino Industry in las vegas, and there really a role model for building power in a single industrfo and for elevating people in to the middle class that otherwise would not have been able to have middleclass jobs. So they are a great union. They run their own health care center. Health care is a big benefit of being in the Culinary Workers Union. I think that is the reality that is running up against the issue of medicare for all in these primaries. And the idealism of medicare for all that a lot of people in the Democratic Party and in the world of organized labor would like to see is running up against unions that do run their own health care and use that as a benefit to help attract workers, especially in a right to work state like nevada where it can be harder to attract and maintain numbers. Course, hamilton, that issue runs up against the reality that unless youre going to be a member of the Culinary Workers Union f for life and ner leaves you go to another job, that you will have Health Insurance but obviously, if you move to some other occupation, face the reality that the health care you get may not be for the Health Insurance you have may not be may be far inferior. Do you know what the debate has been, your sins within the union, on this issue . There definitely is a debate. There is a debate not only within the Culinary Workers Union, but within the union world at large and within every major union in america right now. And progressives do want medicare for all and really if you talk to lead people and then union world, if you talk to people who have negotiated union contracts, they will tell you if unions do not have to bargain over health care, they would have so much more Political Capital to use to make other gains for workers wages, and things like that. In a big picture sense, i think medicare for all would be a great thing for unions and for organized labor. It is sort of this transition period where you have all of these different unions that have their own Health Care Plans that they have expended a lot of Political Capital on over the years, and they are extremely nervous, i think im about the bridge between what we have now and what medicare for all would be. Faithl require a leap of on the half of the desk behalf of the Culinary Union workers and organized labor as a whole. Amy marcie wells, you are with local 226 in nevada and have been a a Proud Union Member for Something Like 16 years. Tell us your story. What kind of health care you have. How does the Health Care Work go down to union hall, sign up for the health care at the beginning and join the union at the same time . Absolutely. Specifically for the place i work, it was being opened when everyone started when i started. It was automatically union. So signing up for the union get to the health care. You do have to work 360 hours to qualify for the health care. So if youre just starting out as a steady extra or something along those lines, you have to meet minimum requirements. Once you meet those requirements, you have to work 240 hours within a two month period or you do not qualify. In that case, for each hour you are short, can pay five dollars per hour to keep your insurance. So that is kind of how the insurance works. It is not exactly free. For someone like me, i suffer with chronic illness. There are flares and moments when i cant work. In addition to that, there are moments when im not able to get into the specialist i need to see in a timely manner so i end up missing a lot of work, not qualifying for the insurance, and sort of not even having the resources from work to pay for that insurance. But for someone with chronic illnesses, it is not really thee best insurance. Do have fulln you coverage, what are some of the copayss or the requirements outofpocket for workers . Are there any . To theoure going Culinary Health center, there are not copays. At the same time, there are not any specialist there. A person like me would have to go outside that location. It is 15 for regular doctor visit 20 to 30 per specialist visit. If i need an mri, which i do frequently, it is 125 each time. Is 150. There are outofpocket costs, just like with any other private insurance because that is what it is, private insurance. Amy talked about the debate within your union about whether to endorse medicare for all and how your coworkers feel. Well, i would not even say it is much of the debate as it relates to coworkers, especially for people that have been working in the industry for a long time. We have this sort of local lure about Culinary Union and good insurance, but also the idea that these golden handcuffs that sort of keep you tethered to an industry that you may not be physically or emotionally invested in anymore and theres not really a way out. So the debate is more centered around democracy and people feeling like their voices are not being heard by the union that represents them. We are paying dues at the same Time Culinary has a political pact that a lot of us donate money to. It is kind of disheartening to get to this moment and see that we are not being heard and we are also being intentionally or unintentionally misled. Because for everyone that is a person that looks like me in america, are more likely to be uninsured than someone who is white or asian. And that is not any different here in nevada, so it is kind of sad to think that in nevada you will only be protected under the umbrella of the Culinary Union. We happens and family here that are not in the union. It sort of projects this false image of elitism and a workingclass town. 1 the union in the past has mobilized members to participate in caucuses, if im not mistaken, some caucusers were even held on the grounds of some of the hotels . What has been the mobilization effort to get out members to vote, even if the unit is not endorsing any candidate this time around . Same as any Political Organization depressed that side is mo