Argues this could be trump at his most dangerous. Her book in progress is titled, strongmen from mussolini to trump. We will also get response from socialist city Seattle CouncilmemberKshama Sawant. Then we speak to one of the lawyers leading the charge against trumpps muslim ban. If you look at it and say, how in the world can he be trying to tie this to national barring when he is children from coming in to be reunited with their parents . Their parents are already living here, who are United States is distance and lawful permanent residents . Amy we will speak with matt adams. He is fighting an order from the department of justice that instructs his group to cease and desist from assisting unrepresented immigrants facing deportation. And the department of energy has declared a state of emergency at the Hanford Nuclear site here in Washington State. Storingfter a tunnel radidioactive material collapse, forcrcing hundreds of workererso tatake cover in place to avoid potential exposure. The excxcavator here that throughout the d day will place scoop full after scoop full of soil into the c collapsed portin of the tunnel, which is approximately herere. Important anoka again, were doing this focused on employee safety. There has been no reports of radiological intimidation so far. No employee injuries. All of that in more, coming up. Welcome to democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman. More details are coming to light about President Trumps firing of fbi director james comey. The New York Times is reporting comeys dismissal came just days after he asked the Justice Department for more resources to expand the bureaus investigation into russias meddling in the president ial election. Comey made the appeal to Deputy Attorney general Rod Rosenstein, the same official who wrote the memo trump later used to justify comeys firing. Meanwhile, the Washington Post reports rosenstein has threatened to resign after the white house cast him as the main instigator in the firing of comey. The white house has given conflicting explanations as to why comey was dismissed. Privately, white house aides say trump was infuriated by comeys recent congressional testimony about the fbi probe into russia. But during a press briefing on wednesday, Deputy White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee sanders accused comey of committing atrocities wile while investigating former democratic president ial nominee Hillary Clintons use of a private email server. I think also having a letter like the one h he received and having that conversation that basic atrocities in circumventing the chain of command in the department of justice. Amy on capitol hill, Senate Majority leader Mitch Mcconnell has rejected calls from Senate Democrats for a special prosecutor. Meanwhile, Senate Minority leader Chuck Schumer warned comeys firing is part of a troubling pattern. Heart of a deeply troubling pattern from the trump administration. They fired sally yates. They fired prover are a. And now they fired director comey, the very man leading the investigation. This does not seem to be a coincidence. Amy in his first Public Comment since his dismissal, former fbi director james comey urged agents at the fbi to remain a rock of competence, honesty, and independence. In the letter comey went on to , say i have long believed that a president can fire an fbi director for any reason, or for no reason at all. Im not going to spend time on the decision or the way it was executed. I hope you wont either. Meanwhile, the Senate Intelligence committee has issued a subpoena to Donald Trumps former National Security advisor general Michael Flynn for documents regarding his interactions with russian officials including russias ambassador to the u. S. Sergey kislyak. Senate investigators have also sought documents from trumps former Campaign Chairman paul manafortrt, formerer Campaign Foreign policy adviser carter page, and former adviser roger stone. These developments all occurred on the same day that President Trump hosted Russian Foreign minister Sergey Lavrov and russias ambassador Sergey Kislyak at the white house to talk about syria and other issues. Politico reports trump invited lavrov after a request from russia president vladimir putin. A white house spokesman said he chose to receive him because putin asked him to. Putin did specifically ask on the call when they last talked. The white house faced some criticism for allowing the russian state media agency tass inside the white house to take photographs while barring all u. S. Media. Trump also spent part of the day on wednesday morning with henry kissinger, who served d as president t Richard Nixons secretary of state. Education secretary betsy devos was repeatedly booed and heckled wednesday when she addressed graduating seniors at the historically black college Bethunecookman University in flororida. Many students turned their backs on devos. Jackson, board of trustees, thank you so very, very much for this great honor and privilege. [boos] i am honored to become a wildcat. [boos] and it is a real honor and privilege to be with you as we celebrate the bassoon Cookman University class of 2017. Louder,the booing grew School PresidentEdison Jackson interrupted her commencement address to issue a warning t to ststudents. This if this behavior , your degrees will be mailed to you. Amy despite the warning, many students get booing with our backs s turned to dedevos. More than 60,000 people hadd signed petitions opposing selection of devos as Commencement Speaker at the university. Devos was widely criticized in february when she said historically black colleges and universities real pioneers when it comes to school choice. Health and Human Services secretary tom price has defended the recent arrest of a journalist in West Virginia who attempted to ask him a question in the hallway of the West Virginia state capitol. Dan heyman of Public News Service was arrested and jailed on 5,000 bail after he repeatedly asked price whether Domestic Violence would be categorized as a preexisting condition under the new republican healthcare plan. On wednesday, price said the arrest was justified. I want to commend the West VirginiaCapitol Police as they felt was appropriate him a we thank them for the work they do. It is important to appreciate that tournament was not in a press conference. We were walking down a hall. The Capitol Police acted as they felt necessary and i would refer any questions to them. Amy in other news from washington, the head of the Census Bureau has unexpectedly resigned just as the Department Prepares for the 2020 census which will determine how many seats each state gets in congress. John thompson had served in the post since 2013. In a surprising victory for environmentalists, the senate has rejected a resolution to revoke an obamaera rule to limit methane emissions from oil and Gas Production on federal lands. Methane is a powerful Greenhouse Gas directly linked to global warming. Three republicans voted against the bill john mccain of arizona, Lindsey Graham of south carolina, and Susan Collins of maine. In other environmental news, and North Carolina house has voted 74 to 40 to override governor roy coopers veto of a bill that would have shielded factory farms from damages brought by was evidence residents sickened by hog farms. The bill now goes to the North Carolina senate. Residents have long complained about pork producers who collect billions of gallons of untreated pig feces and urine in cesspools, then dispose of the waste by spraying it into the air. You can go to our website democracynow. Org to see an extended discussion about factory hog farms in North Carolina. A new study is predicting Glacier National park will be glacierfree in the coming decades. In the late 19th century, the park, which is in montanas rocky mountains, had 150 glaciers. Today, the number is down to 26 and many of those are rapidly shrinking. In south korea, moon jaein has been sworn in as the countrys new president. In his inanaugural address thehe former human r rights lawyerer d to bring peace to the kore peninsula. I will urgently try to solve the security crisis. I i will always be in the mood r peace. Ifif necessary, i will fly straight to washington. I will go to beijing and tokyo. If the conditions allow, to pyongyang as well. Amy the United Nations is reporting as many as 245 refugees died last weekend in a pair of shipwrecks off the coast of libya. So far, more than 1300 people have died this year trying to cross the mediterranean from libya. On wednesday, the libyan coastguard intercepted nearly 500 refugees packed onto a wooden boat t and returned themo tripoli. The refugees were attempting to reach a boat operated by the european ngo seawatch. One of refugees had fled the violence in syria. I have been trying to migrate to europe for the past six months to rejoin my children. I left the war in syria and went to jordan where i did not benefit from anything, as it is still an arab country. I then went to lebanon where i was not accepted. Egypt was the same and sudan was the same. I want to libya, also in a were similar to syria. Im now tried to go to europe for my children. Because europe respects human rights. Arabs do not have human rights. Syria, theis from syrian observatory for human rights is reporting u. S. Let air have killed at least 11 people, including four children, in a Village North of the syrian city of raqqa. In new york, hundreds of students and faculty at Stony Brook University held sitins and demonstrations wednesday to protest the proposed 1. 5 million budget cuts to the humanities and language departments. The cuts would particularly affect the hispanic languages and cultural studies. This is one of the students speaking at wednesdays protest. I am a grad student. We can here to prorotest against thee irratational cuts against r department. We stand for the highquality quality of the research and for diversity. We think these cuts are discriminatory measures taken against the latino community. Protests wereday held across mexico on wednesday. Mothers held up portraits of their missing children and demanded the government do more to find their sons and daughters. Amnesty international estimates that more than 27,000 people have disappeared or gone missing in mexico in recent years. Marchers included delia garcia, whose son was kidnapped more than seven years ago. Tell us where our children are. It is a feeling of desperation. With the passing of time, the pain is more unbearable. We will l keep coming untitil we die. Amy and in new orleans, city officials have rememoved a state this morning of former confederate president jefferson davis. This marks the second coconfederate monument to comeme down in the city a after a city council votete in 2015. And those are some of the headlines. This is democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman. We are broadcasting from seattle, washington. More details are coming to light about President Trumps firing of fbi director james comey. The New York Times is reporting comeys dismissal came just days after he asked the Justice Department for more resources to expand the bureaus investigation into russias meddling in the president ial election. Comey made the appeal to Deputy Attorney general Rod Rosenstein who wrote the memo trump later , used to justify comeys firing. Meanwhile, the Washington Post reports rosenstein has threatened to quit after the white house cast him as the main instigator in the firing of comey. The white house has given conflicting explanations as to why comey was dismissed. During a press briefing on Deputy White House press wednesday, secretary Sarah Huckabee sanders said comey committed atrocities when investigating former democratic president ial nominee Hillary Clintons emails, and cited the letter from rosenstein as having contntributed to trumps decisn to fire cocomey now. I think also having a letter like the one that he received and having that conversation that outlined the basic just atrocities in circumventing the chain of command in the department of justice. Amy when huckabee was asked when President Trump lost confidence in comey, this was her response. I think that director comey has shown over the last several months, frankly, t the last yea, a lot of missteps and mistakes, and certainly, i think, as you have seen from many of the comments from democrat members, including senator schumer, they do not think he should be there. They thought he should be gone. Frankly, i think it is startling that democrats are not celebrating this since they have been calling for it for so long. Amy meanwhile, on wednesday, President Trump met with former Sergey Lavrov. Among those participating in the meeting were Russian Ambassador to the u. S. Sergey kislyak, whose contacts with trump advisers are under investigation by the f fbi and former secretay of statete henry kissinger. After trumps opening remarks, a reporter asked himhy he firered fbi director comey. Dr. S. T trump Everybody Knows kissinger. We are talking about russia and various other matters. But it is an honoror to have hey kissinger with us. He has been a friend of mine for a long time. They give very much for being here. Why did you fire director comey . Pres. Trump because he wasnt doing a good job. He was not doing a good job. Amy as a candidate, trump cheered comeys tough stance on clintons use of a personal email and private internet server while she was secretary of state. Trump is the first president since Richard Nixon to fire a Law Enforcement official who was overseeing an investigation tied to the white house. President bill clinton dismissed william sessions amid allegations of ethical lapses in 1993. As the developments fueled concerns trump is trying to undermine a probe that could threaten his presidency, capitol hill Senate Majority leader Mitch Mcconnell rejected calls for a special prosecutor into the russia investigation that came from outraged democrats like Vermont Democratic senator , patrick leahy. This is not just a scandal. The president s actions are neither republican or democratic. They are authoritarian. This is an effort to undo the ties that bind our democratic form of government. All of us, both sides of the aisle. We must now put country over party. Amy in his first Public Comment on his firing, former fbi director james comey wrote a letter to agents at the fbi urging them to remain a rock of competence, honesty, and independence and noting i have long believed that a president can fire an fbi director for any reason, or for no reason at all. Im not going to spend time on the decision or the way it was executed. I hope you wont either. All of this comes as the Senate Intelligence committee on wednesday subpoenaed former trump National Security adviser Michael Flynn for documents related to its investigation into russias election meddling. Former fbi director comey was supposed to be a star witness for the committee, but acting fbi director Andrew Mccabe will now testify instead. For more, we go to new york. Were joined by Ruth Benghiat a , professor of history and it