Horsing Vice President michael the deciding vote. We will speak to california congresswoman Maxine Waters about devos and why she is already talking about the need to impeach donald trump. Your words, your actions have shown us that you dont respect us, that both you and all of your nominees for your cabinet us andre dangerous for all of our families. Amy plus, we will take a look at Donald Trumps foreign russia tom iran to mexico. Pres. Trump we are taken advantage of by every nation in the world virtually. It is not going to happen anymore. It is not going to happen anymore. Amy we will speak to harvard professor stephen walt author of the recent piece, trump has already blown it. And we will also talk to an iranianamerican doctoral student who has just returned to School New York after being blocked from reentering the country thanks to trumps muslim ban. All that and more, coming up. Welcome to democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman. On capitol hill, Senate Democrats are in the middle of a 24hour debate seeking to delay the confirmation of billionaire betsy devos for education secretary. Devos is perhaps trumps most contested pick among a group of controversial cabinet nominees, who are overwhelmingly white male millionaires and billionaires. Devos is a longtime backer of Charter Schools and vouchers for private and religious schools. She and her husband have also invested in a student Debt Collection agency that does business with the education department. On monday, Senate Democrats took to the floor of the u. S. Senate to begin the 24hour debate in efforts to convince a third republican to join them and vote against devos, which would sink her confirmation. This is washington senator patty murray. Madam president , this nomination is dead even right now, on the razors edge. 50 senators, democrats and republican, will vote to reject betsy devos. In we need just one more republican to join us, to stand on the side of students and parents and Public Education in america and say no to betsy devos. Amy last week, two republican lawmakers senators Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski announced plans to vote against devos, leaving Senate Republicans one vote short of confirming her. If the senate vote is 5050, Vice President mike pence would then cast the deciding vote, an event that has never happened to any other president ial nominee in history. Parents and teachers have been flooded the senate phone system calling republican lawmakers to demand they oppose her confirmation. Nearly all Democratic Senators are expected to also vote against the nominations of tom price to head the department of health and human services, Jeff Sessions for attorney general, Andrew Puzder for labor secretary, and Steven Mnuchin for treasury secretary which the Washington Post call historic rebuke of a firstterm president s cabinet selections. Well have more on the Ongoing Senate debate over betsy devos after headlines. A federal Appeals Court will hear arguments today on whether to restore president Donald Trumps executive order banning people from iraq, syria, iran, sudan, libya, somalia, and yemen from entering the United States, the hearing is to review an order by a lower court judge to put trumps directive on hold. On monday, more than 100 companies, including text giants apple, facebook, google, microsoft, netflix, twitter, and uber, filed augments with the coursing they oppose the ban. Top former officials including john kerry and Madeleine Albright also filed documents with the court monday saying they oppose the ban. Over the last two weekends, tens of thousands of people have protested in nationwide demonstrations against trumps muslim ban. In one of the latest about 20 rabbis were arrested monday night blocking the street near trump tower in manhattan in protest of the ban. President donald trump falsely claimed monday during a speech to u. S. Central command at Macdill Air Force base in florida that the media is intentionally covering up terrorist attacks. Pres. Trump you have seen what happened in paris and nice all over europe, it is happening. It has gone to a point where it is not even being reported. In many cases, the very, very Dishonest Press does not want to report it. Amy the claims appear to be part of a wider push by the white house to increase fear about potential, and even imaginary terrorist attacks in , order to justify President Trumps crackdown on immigration, including his muslim ban. Later on monday after pressure from media outlets, the white house released a list of what it claims are 78 terrorist attacks since 2014 that it says have not received sufficient coverage. Many of the attacks on the list caused no fatalities and almost all were carried out outside the United States. The list includes attacks that received such an onslaught of media attention, they are still recognized by only one word, such as nice or orlando. The list also included multiple misspellings, including misspelling the name of san bernardino. In response, cal 20 congressman pete aguiar tweeted not you cannot even spell san bernardino, but you exploit our community to justify your muslim ban . Meanwhile, new information meanwhile new information has , emerged showing that counselor to the president Kellyanne Conway has repeatedly made false claims about a nonexistent terrorist attack called the Bowling Green massacre. Conways comments first sparked controversy after a february 2nd interview with msnbcs chris matthews, in which she attempted to justify President Trumps muslim ban by citing a terrorist attack in Bowling Green, kentucky, which never happened. I bet it is brain of information to people that president obama had a sixmonth ban on iraqi Refugee Program after two iraqis came here to this country were radicalized and were the masterminds behind the Bowling Green massacre. Most people do not knoy after , conway said she misspoke when she said massacre, and that she intended to refer to the case of two iraqi men living in Bowling Green who were arrested in 2011 on charges of having attempted to send money and weapons to alqaeda in iraq. Their arrests led the Obama Administration to implement a more extensive screening process for iraqi refugees, but not to impose a ban on iraqi resettlement. However, its now clear that conway did not misspeak at all, as video and quotes of her making the same claims in two previous interviews have surfaced. In an interview with cosmopolitan on january 29, she falsely claimed two iraqi nationals came to this country, joined isis, traveled back to the middle east to get trained and refine their terrorism skills, and come back here and were the masterminds behind the Bowling Green massacre of taking innocent soldiers lives away. This is not true. On that same day, conway did an interview with tmz in which she made the same false claim. Obama and the congress who identified these seven countries. President trump is just following president obama divinity Refugee Program for six months and no one covered it. I think nobody noticed. He did that because i, ison, there were two iraqis who came here, got radicalized, joined isis, the were the masterminds behind the Bowling Green attack on our brave soldiers. Amy Senior Adviser to the Democratic National committee zac petkanas said in response the Trump Administration was so desperate to sell their increasingly unpopular and likely illegal antimuslim ban that they actually made up a terrorist attack to scare people into acceptance. Media watchdogs have called on Cable Networks to stop booking Kellyanne Conway for interviews. In britain, speaker of the Commons John Bercow says he will refuse to invite donald trump to address the British Parliament during trumps upcoming state visit, citing trumps racism and sexism. After the imposition of the migrant ban by President Trump, i am even more strongly opposed to an address by President Trump in westminster hall. That ourry strongly opposition to racism and to sexism, and our support for equality before the law and an independent judiciary, are hugely important considerations in the house of commons. Amy more than 1. 8 million brits have also signed a petition seeking to stop trumps state visit entirely, arguing he should not be allowed to make an official state visit because it would cause embarrassment to her majesty the queen. The British Parliament is slated to debate the petition on february 20. Back in the u. S. , new England Patriots tight end Martellus Bennett says he will not visit the white house with the rest of his Super Bowl Winning Team because of his opposition to donald trump. President trump has acknowledged his plans to dismantle the dodd frank financial reforms are inspired, in part, by a desire to help his banking friends. Dodd frank is a set of financial reforms implemented after the 2008 financial crisis. This is President Trump speaking at a dinner that included Jp Morgan ChaseCeo Jamie Dimon on friday. Pres. Trump and to do what we have to do in terms of regulation we have some of the bankers here. Or is nobody better to tom udall. Frank then jamie. We expect to be getting a lot out of dodd frank. They cannot get any money because the banks wont let them First Lady Melania Trump is suing the owner of the media outlet the daily mail, over an article that falsely reported melania once worked for an escort service. The lawsuit, which seeks 150 million in damages, claims the article hurt melanias chances at making millions of dollars by selling a brand of beauty and fashion products while she is one of the most photographed women in the world. Her lawyer is charles harder, who also represented hulk hogan in his 140 million lawsuit against gawker, which caused gawker to shut down. President george w. Bushs white house ethics counselor richard painter told the Washington Post the lawsuit appears to suggest Melania Trump sought to profit from her role as first lady, saying there has never been a first lady of the United States who insinuated that she intended to make a lot of money because of the onceinalifetime opportunity of being first lady. In a shocking new report on syria, Amnesty International says as many as 13,000 people have been hanged in a Syrian Government military prison between 2011 and 2015. Amnesty calls the hangings part of a deliberate policy of extermination. The group says the majority of the 13,000 people hanged were civilians opposed to the assad regime. This is Amnesty Internationals lynn maalouf. The new findings in this report are about a Systematic Campaign of mass hangings, whereby every week, usually on mondays and wednesdays, groups between 20 to 50 detainees would be taken from their cells, told the would be transferred to civilian detentions, but instead of that, they were taken to a cell in another building where they would be hanged. Amy the Israeli Parliament has approved a highly contentious bill to retroactively legalize jewishonly settlements built on private palestinian land. Its passage was celebrated by far right politicians who called monday an historic day for the settlement movement. The legislation is uniformly opposed by palestinians, and is highly divisive within israeli politics. Israels attorney general calls the legislation unconstitutional and a violation of international law. This is Opposition Leader isaac herzog. To thist give your hand and saying all that threatens to destroy israeli democracy. Israels International Standing threatens id of commanders and threatens leaders of the state in sensing complete opposition to the opinion of the attorney general. Amy and breaking news from afghanistan, at least 19 people having killed in a suicide bombing outside the Supreme Court building in the capital kabul. At least 40 more people were wounded. The death toll may rise. No one has come responsibility for the attacks so far. And here in new york city, high school and College Students are planning a walk out today to protest President Trump and his executive order seeking to ban people from seven majority muslim nations from entering the United States. Its the latest in a series of student walkouts and protests nationwide to oppose trumps immigration crackdown. In recent weeks, students have also held mass demonstrations demanding their universities become sanctuary campuses, calling on the administration to refuse to cooperate with trumps plans to speed up deportations. 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. Welcome to all of our listeners and viewers from around the country and around the world. The senate is scheduled to hold a full vote today on the confirmation of Donald Trumps nominee for education secretary, billionaire betsy devos. Devos is perhaps trumps most contested pick among a group of controversial cabinet nominees. Devos is a longtime backer of Charter Schools and vouchers for private and religious schools. She and her husband have also invested in a student Debt Collection agency that does business with the education department. On Senate Democrats took to the monday, floor of the u. S. Senate to begin 24hour protest opposing her appointment. This is Michigan Senate democrat debbie stabenow. Devos nomination is very personal to many people who live in michigan because betsy. Evos is from michigan and her vision of education and her actions have, unfortunately, played a major role in undermining our Public Schools. Families all across our state can tell the story of her work with michigan schools firsthand because they have seen it firsthand. They have lived it firsthand. And they all say the same thing democrats, republicans, independents, people who live in cities that are big and small, parents and teachers and principals and Community Leaders across the state overwhelmingly, they have told me that betsy devos should not be our next secretary of education. Juan last week, two republican lawmakers, senators Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski, announced plans to vote against devos, leaving Senate Republicans one vote short of confirming her. If the senate vote is 5050, Vice President mike pence would then cast the deciding vote, an event that has never happened to any other president ial nominee in history. Amy if only one more republican senator decides to vote against her, Betsy Devos Confirmation will be rejected. For more on devos and other nominees in the trump cabinet, as well as a call for impeachment, we are joined by congresswoman Maxine Waters of los angeles. Welcome to democracy now can you start off by talking about what is happening with this with betsy devos and why you are opposed . Certainly. I am delighted to be here with you this morning. I started talking about betsy devos when i was at the womens march. Wase of his nominees, one Jeff Sessions, one was betsy devos, and the other was Steven Mnuchin because they stood out as unqualified, unfit, and should not be heading these important agencies of government. Betsy devos ha