Amy democratic president ial candidates Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton face off in the first democratic debate since sanders decisive victory over clinton in tuesdays New Hampshire primary. We will play highlights and get response from new york congressman Gregory Meeks, chair of the Congressional Black CaucusPolitical Action committee, which has just endorsed Hillary Clinton, and Jeffrey Sachs, leading economist and director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University. His recent article for Huffington Post is headlined hillary is the candidate of the , war machine. Then we continue our conversation with acclaimed writer Tanehisi Coates, who made headlines around the worlds week when he said on democracy now that despite his criticism, he would be voting for Bernie Sanders. If i could have anything, and this is across the board for any president ial candidate, i would have a greater acknowledgment of history in our policy. Amy all that and more, coming up. Welcome to democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman. Last night, democratic president ial candidates Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton faced off at a pbshosted debate in milwaukee, wisconsin. It was the first democratic debate since vermont senator Bernie Sanders decisive victory over former secretary of state Hillary Clinton in tuesdays New Hampshire primary. At the debate, Bernie Sanders drew a sharp distinction between him and the former secretary of state on issues of Foreign Policy by highlighting clintons close relationship with another former secretary of state, Henry Kissinger. Where the secretary and i have a very profound difference, in the last debate, i believe in her book, a very good book, by the way, in her book and in his last debate, she talked about getting the approval or the support or the mentoring of Henry Kissinger. Now, i find it rather amazing because i happen to believe that Henry Kissinger was one of the most destructive secretaries of state in the modern history of this country. Amy Hillary Clinton, meanwhile, cast herself as the candidate with more experience, and she deflected criticisms of her support for the iraq war by reminding voters that president obama picked her to serve as secretary of state. As we all remember, senator obama when he ran against me was against the war in iraq. And yet when he won, he turned to me, trusting my judgment, mikes rants, to become myretary of state experience, to become secretary of state. I was very honored to serve with him. Amy we will have highlights of the debate in response after headlines. The debate comes as the Sanders Campaign says it has broken its own fundraising record by raising more than 6 million in just one day. The Campaign Says it brought in more than on wednesday, the day average and the amount for the day was 34. U. S. Secretary of state john kerry and other World Leaders have announced theyve made progress toward a cessation of hostilities in the ongoing conflict in syria. The announcement comes amid a twoday meeting in munich of the International Syria support group, whose members include the u. S. , the european union, the arab league, china, egypt, russia, saudi arabia, turkey, and other world powers. The meeting does not include the Assad Government or any of the Syrian Opposition groups. A different set of u. N. Hosted peace talks that including the Assad Government and various members of the opposition were fell apart last week. During the meeting in munich, World Leaders agreed to work to ease the fighting within one week and to allow humanitarian aid to reach besieged areas. Syrian opposition spokesperson salim almuslat welcomed the announcement. Whats we welcome the effort of friends are making to relieve the syrian people. It must be for all syrians. We must see action on the ground. Once with the implementation, we will be ready for the political process. Amy the meeting comes as intense fighting continues in the northeast city of aleppo. The Assad Government, backed by russian airstrikes, has been carrying out an offensive on aleppo, syrias secondlargest city, forcing tens of thousands of syrians to flee to the border with turkey. On thursday, however, the Russian Defense minister accused the u. S. Led coalition of also launching airstrikes on aleppo on this week. U. S. Officials deny the allegations. In turkey, the offices of two daily newspapers have been firebombed. On thursday afternoon, attackers shot at and threw firebombs at the offices of progovernment newspapers. No one was hurt in either attack. Pentagon Officials Say theyve stepped up airstrikes against isil in afghanistan, launching about 20 airstrikes in the Eastern Region of afghanistan over the last three weeks. This comes after president obama expanded the pentagons authority to conduct airstrikes against isil in afghanistan. Meanwhile, the pentagon is sending 500 u. S. Soldiers to Helmand Province in southern afghanistan to fight the taliban. Its the largest single deployment to helmand since president obama declared an end to the u. S. Combat mission in afghanistan in 2014. The deployment does not increase the overall troop level in afghanistan, which remains at just under 10,000 soldiers. In new york city, a Police Officer has been found guilty of seconddegree manslaughter in the Fatal Shooting of 28yearold unarmed African American akai gurley. In nypd officer peter liang shot 2014, gurley in the darkened stairwell of a brooklyn housing project. Akai gurley was walking down the stairs with his girlfriend because alec later was broken elevator was broken. The officer first texted his Union Representative before making a radio call for help. On thursday, a brooklyn jury found liang guilty of seconddegree manslaughter and official misconduct. He now faces up to 15 years in prison. He will be sentenced on april 14. After the verdict was announced, akai gurleys mother, sylvia palmer, spoke out. I was very happy with the verdict. First, i want to thank god and then i want to thank the district attorneys office, the entire staff at the district attorneys office. They did an awesome job presenting the evidence to the jury and the court. I just want to say thank you. Thank you to everyone for all your support. Amy in more news from new york city, public records obtained by the new York Civil Liberties Union show the nypd has tracked civilians cellphones more than 1000 times without a warrant since 2008. The aclu says the nypd tracked peoples movements via their cell phones by using devices called stingrays, which mimic cell phone towers to obtain a cell phones location at a specific time. The new york police does not have a policy guiding the departments use of stingrays. Meanwhile, a new report says 70 of the worlds population will have cell phones by 2020. The study by Cisco Systems estimates 5. 4 billion people will own mobile phones within just 4 years time. Thats nearly double the number of people worldwide who are estimated to have Running Water by 2020. After 41 days, the occupation at the oregon wildlife refuge has ended after the remaining four antigovernment militia members surrendered to the fbi. On january 2, the militia members took over the wildlife refuge in support of two ranchers sentenced to prison for setting fires that burned federal land. The ranchers later turned themselves in to authorities. But the militia members continued their occupation. For weeks, local residents and the paiute tribe, which has treaty rights to the land, have called on the militia to leave. On january 27, the fbi arrested militia leaders ammon and ryan bundy in a traffic stop that left Group SpokespersonRobert Lavoy Finicum dead. This week, the fbi also arrested cliven bundy, their father at , the Portland International airport, on charges of conspiracy and assault on a federal Law Enforcement officer during Cliven Bundys standoff with authorities at his nevada ranch in 2014. In total, more than a dozen people are now facing federal charges related to the oregon occupation. Democratic lawmakers have introduced new legislation that would ban new coal, oil and gas extraction leases on u. S. Public land. The introduction of the socalled keep it in the ground act in the Congress Comes after a coalition of more than 400 organizations have called on the white house to stop issuing new fossil fuel leases on public lands and oceans. A similar version of the bill has already been introduced in the senate by president ial candidate Bernie Sanders. Thursdays introduction of the bill, which has 16 democratic cosponsors, is largely seen as a symbolic gesture, as the house is controlled by republican lawmakers. In news from wall street, banking giant Morgan Stanley will pay 3. 2 billion to settle a slew of federal and state charges that the bank lied to investors about the value of residential mortgagebacked securities, which played a role in triggering the Global Financial recession that began in late 2007. This is the latest in a series of financial settlements by banking giants charged with lying about the value of the toxic mortgagebacked securities. President obama set up a working group in 2012 to investigate wrong doings in the Mortgage Market in the leadup to the financial crisis. So far, this working group has led to bank of america paying out 16. 6 billion, jp morgan paying out 13 billion, and citigroup paying out 7 billion in settlements. The investigations have not led to criminal charges or jail time for any banking executives involved. In news from flint, michigan new , emails obtained by the Flint Journal suggest michigan Governor Rick Snyder told the department of Environmental Quality to withhold information about the results of lead tests for nearly a week as snyders office tried to determine the best way to present the information to the public. The emails obtained though a freedom of information request show that the department of Environmental Quality withheld the lead test results from Genesee CountyHealth Officials for at least six days. Agency officials later apologized to the Health Department officials for the delay, saying the Governors Office had asked them not to disclose the information until a scheduled press conference on october 8 of last year. This News Conference was when snyder announced that flint would reconnect to detroits water system. Under the direction of an unelected emergency manager appointed by the governor the , city had switched the source of its Drinking Water to the corrosive flint river, which caused the citys lead pipes to corrode, spiking the level of lead in the Drinking Water. Snyders office has denied it withheld the information about the results of the lead test. In australia, two women hung from a bridge and unfurled a giant banner over a melbourne freeway reading, let them stay, as a protest against the governments plans to relocate 267 Asylum Seekers from australia to detention camps on nauru. A group of Asylum Seekers who may be relocated include 37 babies who were born in australia, as well as 54 children, the majority of whom are now attending australian schools. On thursday, Katherine Woskett spoke out before she lowered herself down from the yarra bend bridge over the eastern freeway. Sanders and clinton drew sharp distinctions between them on everything from Campaign Finance reform to Foreign Policy to how they plan to pay for the programs theyve proposed. Secretarys and t super pac received 15 million from wall street. 27average contribution is and im very proud of that. I debated then senator obama numerous times on stages like this. And he was the recipient of the largest number of wall street donation of anybody running on the democratic side ever. Mattered, he stood up and took on wall street. He pushed through and he passed the dodd frank regulation, the toughest regulation the 1930s. So lets not in any way imply here that either president obama or myself would in any way not take on any vested interest, whether it is wall street or Drug Companies or Insurance Companies or, frankly, the gun lobby, to stand up to do what is best for the american people. [applause] insult thes not intelligence of the american people. People are not dumb. Why in gods name does wall street make Huge Campaign contributions . I guess, just for the fun of it. They want to throw money around. Why does the pharmaceutical industry make Huge Campaign contributions . Any connection may be to the fact that our people pay the highest prices in the world for prescription drugs . Why does the fossil fuel spend hugey amounts of money on Campaign Contributions . Any connection to the fact that not one republican candidate for president thinks and agrees with the Scientific Community that Climate Change is real and that we have got to transform our Energy System . And when we talk about wall street, lets talk about wall street. I voted for dodd frank, got in the portman important commitment in it. In my view, does ago far enough. But when we talk about wall street, you have wall street and major banks have paid 200 billion in fines since the great crash. No wall street executive has been prosecuted. Amy for more on thursdays debate and the overall democratic race, we are joined by two guests. Joining us from capitol hill, new york congressman Gregory Meeks, chair of the Congressional Black CaucusPolitical Action committee, which has just endorsed Hillary Clinton. And here in new york, Jeffrey Sachs leading economist and the , director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University. Hes the author of many books, most recently the age of , sustainable development. His recent article for Huffington Post is headlines, hillary is the candidate of the war machine. Welcome to democracy now congressman meeks, can you talk about the significance of the endorsements of the Congressional Black CaucusPolitical Action committee . It is, as we believe, the campaign is really starting as we move into states that are more reflective of america. It is important and significant that we have had two senators. When she was a senator here in the United States senate, had worked with on the house and on the senate side, who has been a partner, particularly, democrats in getting democrats elected so that we could have a majority in the house and in the senate. Because whoever is the president , you know, president obama has substantial obstacles because no longer after the first two years did he have any democrats. The person that has been a partner to get democrats elected to the house and to the senate, the person who has worked to make sure that there is a difference in the country and has partnered with the cbc pack has been Hillary Clinton. We think it is