Senate, president elect donald Trump Nominee for attorney general republican senator Jeff Sessions, was to reap reputedly interrupted by protesters. We will get response from whorend dr. William barber led a protest of hundreds on monday in the capital and with democratic commerce member Luis Gutierrez. Let me tell you where i will not be on inauguration day. I will not be here or outside at the ceremony. Event im going to is on generate 21st. The womens march on washington. Amy we will get response from president obamas farewell address in chicago tuesday night. Pres. Obama after my election there was talk of a Postracial America. In such a vision, however well intended, was never realistic. And often divisive force in our society. Amy we will speak with dr. William barber and congressman to tears about how white supremacist and convicted murderer dylann roof has received the Death Penalty for murdering nine black worshipers. We will talk about the push for president obama to grant clemency to Oscar Lopez Rivera. All that and more, coming up. Welcome to democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peacace report. Im amy goodman. Potentially explosive news surfaced yesterday of unsubstantiated reports which have already been presented to president elect donald trump, president obama, and the nations top lawmakers, and have now been published online by buzzfeed that claim russia has compromising information onn trump p and that trumps the new about alleged leaking of Democratic Party emails during the 2016 president ial campaign. The allegations were summarized in a twopage appendix to a report on russian interference in the election, which trump was briefed on last week. The summaryry is babased on thes compileded by a former British Intelligence operative. The information,hich is nonot been independently verified by the f ei, nor any major media alleged, includes claims that trump representatives met multiple times with russian officials during the 2016 campaign and discuss the hacking of the dnc. The memos allege russia has a sex tape of trump from 2013 involving sex workers. Cncnn is reportiting some of the allegations s were reported to p wmakakers ringng claifiedd briefings last fall. In october, then Senate Democratic leader harry reid sent a letter did the fbi director writing it has become clear you possess explosive information about close ties and coordination between donald trump, his top advisors, and the russian government, a foreign interest openly hospital to the United States. The guardian is reporting the fbi applied for warned over the summer from the secret fisa court in order to monitor top Trump Campaign members who the fbi suspected of being in communication with russian officials. The guardian reports the fisa court rejected the fbis initial applicication. Mother jones wasas the first outlet to report some of these allegations in an article the week before the election. In response to the publication of the unsubstantiated t them i, journalist Glenn Greenwald expressed skepticism tweeting in anonymous person coming to be a next British Intelligence and working as a dem oppo researcher said anonymous people told him things. Following the news reports tuesday, comedian seth meyers question trump adviser Kellyanne Conway about the reports. Conway was recently named by trump to the position of counselor to the p president. This clip begins with conway. We should be concerned that intelligence officials leaked to the press and wont go until the president elect or the presesidt of the united ststates himself now, mr. Obama, what the information is. But the report the press report and delegation. About them going to the president. And said that they never briefed him on it. I believe it said they did briefed him on it. He has said he is not aware of that. Ok. That concerns me. No. No. I understand it is not true. What is not true, that im concerned . I assure you i am. Amy trump tweeted donald trump slated to give his first News Conference in nearly six months today. Trumps last News Conference was july 27 when you called on russia to hack Hillary Clintons imo servers. President elect Donald Trumps nominee for u. S. Attorney general, republican senator Jeff Sessions of alabama faced more , than nine hours of testimony before the Senate Judiciary committee, during which he denied being a racist and tried to distance himself from trumps most extreme positions. The hearing was repeatedly disrupted by protesters who chanted no trump, no kkk, no fascist usa. During one interruption, protesters wore white, hooded robes and pretended to be members of the ku klux klan. Thank you so much for being here, folks. Wait, you cannot arrest me. I am white. White people dont get arrested. Wait a minute. What do we have to do, wait for the inauguration . I am a white man. You cannot take me out of here. Amy during his two decades on capitol hill, senator sessions has opposed legislation that provides a path to citizenship for immigrants, questioned if the constitution guarantees citizenship to anyone born in the United States, criticized the courts for interpreting the separation of church and state too broadly, and has declared samesex marriage a threat to american culture. He also voted against reauthorizing the violence against women act, opposed the Voting Rights act, and has history of making racist comments which included reportedly saying he thought the ku klux klan was, quote, ok until i found out they smoked pot. In 1986, Coretta Scott king wrote a letter opposing sessions for a federal judgeship, writing the irony of mr. Sessions nomination is that, if confirmed, he will be given a life tenure for doing with a federal prosecution what the local sheriffs accomplished 20 years ago with clubs and cattle prods. I believe his confirmation would have a devastating effect on not only the judicial system in alabama, but also on the progress we have made toward fulfilling my husbands dream. Sessssions w was not c confirmer the federal judgeship in over 1986 concerns about his history of racist comments. We will have more on senator s confirmation hearing after headlines. Confirmation hearings are continuing on capitol hill today with day two of questioning for sessions, along with a hearing for trumps transporortation secretary pick elaine chao, and another for his choice for secretary of state, longtime ceo of exxonmobil rex tillerson. Tillerson step down from his position in december. He could face questions about his ties to russian presidenent Vladimir Putin and his position on trumps vow to canancel the paris clclate accordrd. Opponents also want tillerson to respond to allegations that under his leadership, exxonmobil had a policy of promoting human rights, but continued to work in Close Partnership with repressive regimes. A handful of the confirmation hearings scheduled for this week have been delayed after concerns the nominees had not been vetted by the office of government ethics. As of monday afternoon, the ethics disclosure reports for four Trump Nominees slated to go before the senate this week had not been made public at all. The hearings have now been delayed for betsy devos, trumps education secretary nominee, kansas congressman mike pomeo for cia director, billionaire wilbur ross for commerce secretary, and Andrew Puzder for labor secretary. Workers at carls jr. And hardees the t two fast food chains run by trumps labor secretary pick Andrew Puzder spoke about widespread wage theft and abuse at his restaurants on tuesday during a forum hosted by massachusetts senator Elizabeth Warren and washington senator patty murray. A survey by Restaurant Opportunities Center united has found a shocking twothirds of women working at puzders restaurants experience Sexual Harassment at work. One third of puzder workers said theyve had some of their wages stolen or not received required breaks. The report also called into question the food Safety Standards at puzders restaurants, with nearly 80 of puzder workers saying theyd prepared or served food while theyey were sick. President obama gave his farewell president ial address at chicagos Mccormick PlaceConvention Center tuesday night. In the sweeping, and at times emotional speech, president obama spoke about everything from the Affordable Care act to his love for his wife and best first Lady Michelle obama. He also offered veiled critiques of president elect Donald Trumps antiimmigrant and xenophobic campaign proposals, and invoked what he called the countrys call to citizenship. Pres. Obama for 240 years, our nations call to citizenship has given work and purpose to each new generation. It is what led patriots to choose republic over tyranny, pioneers to trek west, slaves to brave that makeshift railroad to. Reedom it is what cold immigrants and refugees across oceans and the rio grande. It is what pushed women to reach. It is what and powered workers to organize. Liveswhy gis gave their on omaha beach and iwo jima. Iraq, and afghanistan. And why men and women him selma to stonewall were prepared to give theirs as well. Amy during president obamas thech tuesday night, he, first United States black president , also spoke about racism. Pres. Obama after my election, there was talk of a Postracial America and such a vision, however well intended, was never realistic. Potent and oftenn divisive force in our society. Amy we will have more on president obamas there will reach later in the broadcast with reverend william barber. As well as congressman Luis Gutierrez. In South Carolina, white supremacist and convicted murdrderer dylanann roof has received the d death penenalty r murdering nine black worshipers, including pastor clementa pinckney, at the h historic Emanuel Ame Church in june of 2015. During the trial, prosecutors quoted excerpts of a racist manifesto o written by roof whie he was helelin a charlestoton jail. Roof wrote i would like to make it Crystal Clear i do not regret what i did. I am not sorry. I have not shed a tear for the innocent people i killed. On monday, after about three hours of deliberations, the jury returned with the unanimous decision that roof should be put to death. Reverend sharon risher, the daughter of one of roofs victims, ethel lee lance, said i dont believe in the Death Penalty, but im my mothers child and with everything thats happened sometimes i want him to die. Its like, you know what, this fool continues to just be evil. Well have morere on dylann roos death sentence later in the broadcast with reverend barber. More allegations of Sexual Harassment has surfaced at fox news, this time against the networks top anchor bill oreilly. The New York Times has rereported that in the weeks afr fox chair roger ailes was ousted over allegations of Sexual Harassment by more than 20 women, fox news paid juliet huddy a six figure sum to stay quiet about allegations bill oreilly repeatedly sexually harassed her. A letter by huddys lawyers says oreilly called her all the time and sometimes sounding as if he were masturbating. The letter also accuses oreilly of trying to kiss ruddy, and once opening the door to his hotel room where hed asked her to return a key in his boxer shorts. The letter sayays that when rudy rejected oreillys advances, he retaliated against her both on air and at the office. Fox news and bill oreilly have rejected the allegations. In afghanistan, at least 30 people have been killed in two bombings near the parliament buililding in kabul. Another 70 people were wounded in the two explosions. The taliban has claimed responsibility for both attacks. In yemen, a u. S. Backed saudiled airstrike has killed five people near an Elementary School in northern yemen. At least two children were killed in the bombing. Despite concerns about being implicated in possible war crimes, the United States has continued to sell warplanes and munitions to the Saudiled Coalition throughout its bombing of y yemen andnd u. S. Made munis have been found at the scene of saudiled bobombings where civilians have been killed. And rita lasar, cofounder of the september 11 families for peaceful tomorrows, has died at the age of 85. Her brother Abe Zelmanowitz died on the 27th floor of the World Trade Center during the 9 11 attacks after he refused to leave until emergency workers came to help rescue his best friend, ed, a paraplegic. Lasar went on to become a peace activist who traveled to afghanistan to meet with the families of those killed in the u. S. War there. This is a clip of a remarkable conversation on democracy now in 2002 between rita lasar and masuda sultan, an afghan woman living in new york at the time of the 9 11 attacks, who soon learned that 19 members of her family had been killed by the u. S. Attacks on afghanistan. This is rita lasar. Himresident bush mentioned in the National Cathedral speech and cited him as being a hero. And i realized that i government was going to use my brother is justification for killing other people. And that had a tremendous impact on me. I did not want that to happen. Not in my brothers name. So i wrote a letter to the times which they printed him asking our government, please be cautious and do not do something they could not take act. Asked to speak at a peace rally and i did it. Just before i went on, i was told they had started bombing afghanistan. And i realized something i have never realized before. I had heard the term Collateral Damage all my life. It was always used about people far away from us. And i realized now what it meant because my brother was Collateral Damage in a war he mazudas people do not want. On democracy lasar now she died of cancer at her 2002. East Village Apartment on sunday. And those are some of the headlines. This is democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman with juan gonzalez. Juan welcome to all of our listeners and viewers from around the country and around the world. On tuesday, president elect Donald Trumps nominee for u. S. Attorney general, republican senator Jeff Sessions of alabama faced more than nine hours of , testimony before the Senate Judiciary committee, during which he denied being a racist and tried to distance e himself from trumps most extreme promises. The hearing was repeatedly disrupted by protesters who chanted no trump, no kkk, no fascist usa. This is republican senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina questioning sessions. You as a try to label racist or a biggest or whatever you want to say, how does that make you feel . And this is your chance to Say Something to those people. Good. L, it does not feel [indiscernible] cox no trump, no kkk, no fascist usa. No trump, no kkk, no fascist usa. Juan during his two decades on capitol hill, senator sessions has opposed legislation that provides a path to citizenship for immigrants, questioned if the constitution guarantees citizenship to anyone born in the United States, criticized the courts for interpreting the separation of church and state too broadly, and has declared samesex marriage a threat to american culture. He also voted against reauthorizing the violence against women act, opposed the Voting Rights act, and has a history of making racist comments which included reportedly saying he thought the ku klux klan was ok until i found out they smoked pot. On tuesday, sessions described allegations of bigotry that have dogged his career as damnably false charges. And what it thelan represents and its hateful ideology. The Southern Poverty Law Center of his lawsuit that led to the thekolanl c collapse of , at least in alabama, the seizure of their building, at least for that time. A Civil Rights Division attorneys hahave testified befoe the committee, ive supported fully their his doric cases that the Justice Department filed to advance civil rights and that i supported, including cases too desegregate schools, abolish ,tlarge elections for cities county commissions, and school boards. These atlarge collections were mechanisms used to block africanamerican candidates from b