As he did in the primaries. I i would rather not go the on november. That is s going to make my brain hurt too much. Amy donald trump has described him as a third rate talent, and a sleaze ball, a jerk, and a total loser. Today well speak with Garry Trudeau, creator of the popular comic strip doonesbury and the first cartoonist to win a a Pulitzer Prize. He has been writing about donald trump and a possible run for the presidency for decades. Making fun of everything from his hair to o his ego to his rampant use of insults, and his cartoons have just been collected in a new book titled, yuge 30 years of doonesbury on trump. Then the 2016 summer olympics open tonight in maracana stadium in Rio De Janeiro, brazil. More than 10,000 athletes across the world have convened in rio olympic city for one of the most widely watched sporting events of the year. Not a deephuge crisis. Thistheless, you see managed this city has to transform a city and to put Olympic Games on the stage. Amy we will get the latest from the Nation Sports editor dave zirin. All that and more, coming up. Welcome to democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman. Republican president ial nominee donald trump has repeated a claim he watched a video showing iriranian officials s receiving money from the u. S. In exchange for r five prisoners, even after one of his staffers admitted no such video exists. This is trump speaking on the campaign trail on wednesday in florida. Mr. Trump i will never forget the scene this morning and remember this. Iran i dont think you have heard this anywhere but here. Iran provided all of that footage, the tape of taking that money off that airplane. Right . 400 million in cash. How this the president do that . Repeated therump claim on thursday in maine for tweeting the plane i saw on television was the hostage plane in geneva, switzerland, not the plane carrying 400 million in cash going to iran some republicans, including trump, have said the money was a ransom for five Prisoners Released by iran, including Washington Post reporter jason rezaian. The Obama Administration said on wednesday that 400 million in cash paid to iran in january was a preplanned transfer that was part of the landmark nuclear deal. The money has been owed to iran since the 1970s, when the u. S. Refused to send weapons iran had already paid for following the iranian revolution. 10,000 people have signed a petition circulated by california congresswoman karen bass calling on Mental Health professionals to determine whether donald trump is fit to be president. Bass says trump exhibits all the symptoms of narcissistic personality disorder. The petition r reads it is entirely possible that some individuals with npd can successfully function in many careers, but not the presidency of the United States. We deserve to have the greatest understanding of mr. Trumps Mental Health status before we head to the polls. Meanwhile, a group of military veterans is calling on senator john mccain to withdraw his endorsement of donald trump after trump attacked the khans, the parents of a u. S. Army captain who was killed in iraq in 2004. Mccain served in the u. S. Navy and was held as a prisoner of war in vietnam. The veterans announced their initiative at a News Conference thursday in washington, and said d. C. This is marine veteran alexander mccoy. Center mccain, you served and sacrificed in ways donald trump cannot begin to understand. You must have heard enough, too. Now i am joining, and im proud to join, hundred 100,000 veterans, military family members, and voters across this country in demanding that you, john mccain, act. We cannot afford donald trump to be our commanderinchief. Amy donald trump has previously attacked senator mccain and his military record saying, i like people who werent captured. Mccacain has so far refused to retract his endorsemenent of trump, but he becacame evasive n wednesday when asked by a reporter about the idea of trump having control of nuclear weapons. The clip starts with the reporter. Are you comfortable with donald trump possibly having control of the Nuclear Arsenal . Anyone that the people of this country choose to be the commanderinchief and the president of the United States, therefore, can leave this country and will lead and responsible fashion in one who is elected president fairly in this country. And that is the way that our democratic system works. Amy multiple polls suggest Hillary Clinton has gained in popularity over donald trump since the conventions last month. A new nbc news wall street journal poll has clinton leading trump by nine points in novembers election. Meanwhile, a mcclatchymarist poll that had clinton leading by three points before the conventions, now shows her leading by 15 points. The owners of the trump taj mahal casino said wednesday the Atlantic City landmark will close after a 34day workers strike. Donald trump opened the taj mahal 26 years ago, but it now belongs to trumps friend and fellow billionaire carl icahn. Icahn said the strike was costing him millions of dollars a month. Even after the closing was announced, workers continued to picket. They are demanding Better Health pension and other benefits eliminated during the 2014 bankruptcy proceedings. This is Diana Hussein from the ununion unite here. The plan is t tcontinue t to hold dowown the line and f fighr what wasas taken away. Continue to fight for r the heah care and c continue to figight d stand up to the billionaiaire bully carl icahn. Amy the summer Olympic Games begin today in rio de janiero against a backdrop of political turmoil in brazil. A Brazilian Senate committee voted thursday to put suspended president Dilma Rousseff on trial for breaking budget laws. The entire senate will vote tuesday on whether to move forward with a trial, which could lead to rousseffs impeachment. Lawmakers voted to suspend rousseff in may in what many consider a coup by her rightwing opponents. Leaked transcripts show at least one official plotted to oust rousseff in order to end a corruption investigation that was targeting him. This is rousseffs lawyer, jose eduardo cardozo. It is equivalent to accepting total impunity, which instead of dissuading crime, consecrates it as champion and makes an example for more, newer violence. Amy a jury has recommended a sentence of 2. 5 years for Virginia Police officer stephen rankin, who was convicted of shooting an unarmed black man he suspected of shoplifting. The killing of William Chapman was officer rankins second Fatal Shooting of an unarmed man. In britain black lives matter , Movement Demonstrators have blocked a road leading to Londons Heathrow airport and held protests in other cities. In addition to drawing attention to British Police discrimination against communities of color, demonstrators were marking the fifth anniversary of the Police Shooting of mark duggan, a killing that sparked protests across the u. K. The officer who shot him claimed he had pointed a gun at police, but a jury decided duggan was unarmemed when he was shot dead. These really government has accused a representative of the u. S. Evangelical Christian Charity of providing millions in aid money to hamas. Israel arrested the world visions manager of operations in gaza last month. He is been held incommunicado by israeli authorities since then and accused of funneling more in his0 million to hamas decade working for world v visi. World vision has denied the allegagations and said the amout of money is given to hamas exceeds their total budget for gaza dururing that time. Hahamas has also denied thee s governments claim. Meanwhile the american clear the 39yearold yemeni man and get a was accused of having plotted the 9 11 attacks and have a consider when of the prisons forever prisoners. Those least likely to ever be released. 34 of the remaining 76 detainees at guantanamo have now been cleared for relelease. Some havave been cleleared for years. Some for more than a decade. Meanwhile the american , Psychological Association will vote today on whether to roll back some of its new rules prohibiting its members from participating in interrogations that could lead to torture. The apa is the Worlds Largest professional association of psychologists. It banned its members from such work last year after an independent investigation documented how the apa leadership actively colluded with the pentagon and the cia torture programs. To see all of our past coverage of the american Psychological Association, including the historic 2015 vote, go to democracynow. Org. And tomorrow is the 71st anniversary of the atomic bombing of hiroshima. The bombing g killed 140,000 people and seriously injnjured anotheher 100,000. Three days later, the u. S. Dropped a second atomic bomb on nagasaki, killing another 74,000 people. In may, president barack obama became the first sitting u. S. President to visit hiroshima. He spoke at a memorial for victims s the attacack but disappointed some by failing to offer a formal apology for the bombing. The u. S. Ithe only c country to ever have dropped an atomic bomb. And those are some of the headlines. This is democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman. We turn now to a man who has been described by donald trump as overrated, a third rate a sleaze ball, a jerk, and a total loser. He has been writing about donald trump and the possible run for presidency for nearly 30 years. We are talking about the cartoonist Garry Trudeau, creator of the popular comic strip doonesbury. He is the first cartoonist to win the Pulitzer Prize. In September Trudeau published a 1987, series of comic strips that now seem propophetic. In one strip, reporters are asking trump a series of questions. Mr. Trump, your denials notwithstanding, dont the ads you took out suggest a testing of the political waters. Trump responds, as i have said before, i was simply acting as a concerned citizen. At this time, i have no, repeat no, political ambitions whatsoever. A reporter then asks, ok, but if you did run for Congress Trump then responds, president , think k president. T. Another strip from 1987 features trump being asked, mr. Trump, as a developer of luxury condos and casinos, do you think youd have any rapport at all with voters of modest means . Trump responds, are you kidding . Ive spent my whole life working with people of modest means. In what capacity . He is asked. Trump says, evicting them ive seen how these people live trump has remained a frequent character in doonesbury ever since giving trudeau a chance to , make fun of everything from trumps hair to his ego to his rampant use of insults. These cartoons have just been collected in a new book titled, yuge 30 years of doonesbury on trump. Garry trudeau joins us now. Welcome to democracy now it is a pleasure. Amy it is great to have you with us. Are you surprised at everything ththat has unfolded in this past year . Clucks yes. Im no smarter than anyone else in underststanding where this ws all going to go. My session after 2012 when he was attacking the president , and he got his first taste of doubledigit poll numbers, tht he would make a run this time around. But i thought it would be just as part of his normal brand enhancement. And once you got the maximum promotional value out of a run, he wouould step out. Who knew he would catch on like this . Certainly, not me. Amy talk about when you first started covering him in doonesbury. For people who dont know doonesbury, white at you start off by explaining this comic strip. I dont know if theres anyone that doesnt know, but goahead. It began life when i was in college as a oneoff. It was a sports strip about particularly outstanding Football Player on my college campus. It caught the eye of the syndicate chief who wrote me in my junior year and said, how would you like to do this fofora living . I did not have a particularly long period of paying dues. I jumped in right after graduation and ive been writing this daily comic strip about collegiate life, but him about the broader world and all the many issues i am interested in. Amy how often did your comic strip get banned or dumped for a week it is impossible to say how often. In the early years, it was every other week or so some newspapers would decide to remove it from the pages. But ive never regarded it as censorship, it is simply editing. Editors decide everyday about dozens of things that dont make it into their papers. I never took it seriously. The problem was, it would generate local news. Their reporter would call me. He became a very selfconscious thing for me to write because i had to be prepared to defend it after he was published to multiple clients. Back fromstepped that. I was not on shows like yours for many years so i could focus on the work. Now it is all hands on deck, right . Im delighted to be here to talk about the work. Amy you have been following donald trump for decades. Tell us when he first became a character in doonesbury. He bebegan a character in a kind of prophylactic response to his series of ads you took out in the boston globe and New York Post and we learned for the first time the rest of the world was laughing. There were a few trial balloons that went up along with that from others, his friends, and i thought, wow, i do respond to that because we e have been livg in the city with discovered 10 years. His grandiosity is over the top. This is laughable. I just put h him in the strip. It was an early transfer easy transfer. You is more like a natural born toon. I took them ouout of the box, tk off the tax, and put him right in the strip. He is like a version of daffy duck in terms of his appearance, the silly way in which he talks, the overthetop self regard all of these things just made him a perfect cartoon character. I had him interact with the other characters. They interact with him as a comic strip colleague. I did not have to make any adjustments. I would take things he said and reframe them in a way to maximize the satiric purpose of it, but i did not have to do much in terms of exaggerating the way you normally do in a parody. Amy i want to go to 1999. You have a cartoon with donald trump thing a lot of people have been asking what this election is really about. Well, its not about the economy, stupid and its not character, stupid and its not authenticity, stupid its not even about the issues, stupid you want to know what this election is about . Someone then says, you, stupid . Trump replies, exactly. People are begging me to run. Begging me they are always begging him and always hundreds of calls. What is astonishing is these things are obviously made up. What is most astonishing about his lack of truth is that he wields it out as the most trivial of reasons. I was talking to a crew member on cnn who said he was in his Office Setting up a camera this was a while back. You overheard trump talking to his daughter in the outer office and he said, well, there are five cameras in my office. He said, five . There was one. Whilili do your r daughter about how many cameras. Why lie to your daughter about how many cameras . Insignificant things get lied about. Up to last night amy fabricatiting . Secret. I missed that detail. Amy now tweeting out and one of corrections,et it wasnt 400 million being brought into which he described vividly. Amy and said the iranian government did this to embarrass the u. S. , released this video. I want to go to 2011 will stop this comic strip begins with donald trump saying novelty , candidate . Whatre you talking about . Have you seen my polls . Theyre extraordinary. Im polling 41 against obama 41 and im not even running yet this was 2011. That was i think he thought it was possible. He had a brief interest inin runnnning for governor but that did nothing grand enough. So he started making his early last toward the presidency year. Amy were going to go to break and then come back with Garry Trudeau, the Pulitzer Prize cartoonist, creator of the comic strip doonesbury which appears daily in over 1400 newspapers. In 1975, Garry Trudeau became the first comic strip artist ever to be awarded a Pulitzer Prize for editorial cartooning. He has been described as the most influential editorial cartoonist and over a quarter of a century. His new book is titled, yuge 30 years of doonesbury on trump. Stay with us. [music break] amy its the right time to be rich, from the 1983 broadway production of doonesbury. Yes, our guest today is Garry Trudeau, the Pulitzer Prizewinning comic, the creator of the comic strip doonesbury which appears in over 1000 newspapers. Can you talk about a Broadway Musical . It was called doonesbury and it was a song that was sung roland hedley, junior. Ive not heard it in yearsrs. Always a good time to be rich, but im glad you dug that one out. Back and your go history. Since you do not come out and talk to the world very much except in your comic strip doonesbury, your grandfafather n a tuberculosis sanatotorium of state . My greatgrandfather. He opened the first sanatorium for the treatment of tubercrculosis. That has been a tradition that my family has had free three generations. Amy my grandmother went to a tuberculosis sanatorium when she was like 50, she