Higher Learning with Van Lathan and Rachel Lindsay - A Conversation Across the Aisle With Tamika Hamilton, and Joe Biden’s Pledge

Episode Date: January 28, 2022

Van Lathan & Rachel Lindsay react to Joe Biden’s pledge to nominate a Black woman to the Supreme Court (9:37), before Republican candidate Tamika Hamilton joins to discuss her congressional bid as a Black woman in the GOP (24:38). Then, a breakdown of Joe Rogan’s problematic conversation on blackness (1:09:56).  Hosts: Van Lathan and Rachel Lindsay Guest: Tamika Hamilton Producers: Trudy Joseph and Donnie Beacham Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Yo, yo, yo, thought warriors. What is up? Higher learning is on and is I, Van Lathan, Jr. And it's me, Rachel and Lindsay. Rachel is in here coughing, guys. Lies. Don't do that. Don't do that.

Why you always bring it information that happened outside the podcast into the top of the show? So tell them my business. I'm just making sure that everybody knows that we still got to keep Rachel Covenant in Prayer. That always. Always. I receive that.

We have a very fascinating interview coming up later. you guys that we would we'd have Tamika Hamilton on. She is a black lady Republican. Who? That's quite a softness. She's running for the, for Congress out of the 6th District

up there in Sacramento. She's going to be joining us. We talked about it all. We talked about the police. We talked about CRT. We did. We talked about Joe Biden. We talked about police reform. Do you say I said police?

Okay. Oh. Excuse me. Excuse me. So anytime you say the police. This is a great conversation because we have said, how many times in this podcast if we said we are going to bring in a conservative voice? Guess what, guys, the day is here. We finally did it.

Well, we brought in Camille, Camille, and you didn't like Camille. Like, you rolled your eyes. You roll my eyes all the time. You roll my eyes all the time. That's so crazy when people say stuff like that. But I do. I roll my eyes all the time. Donnie, did Rachel not just roll her eyes when I brought up Camille?

Yeah. You did. You rolled your eyes. You don't like Camel. Done. Trudy, help. Help, Trudy. She didn't roll her eyes.

Y'all lying. Oh, come on. All right. Get out of here. Both of you. Shut your mics off. Producers don't talk. Camille grew on me by the end of the podcast.

He grew up. And I told him. Yeah. Did he hit us with the I'm not black thing? But that's what I was going to say. We promised a black conservative. And Camel, according to him, it's not black. So, you know, we welcome, we welcome this, this voice to make a Hamilton.

All right. So we got to clean up. couple of things real quick in terms of like the fallout from Trudy's corner last week. What happened? I thought people were happy to understand Trudy a little bit better and the root of the reason why she thinks

she does about certain men. Now see, people not fucking with that. People don't like the idea that Trudy is saying all of this stuff that she's saying just because one guy hurt her. Trudy, I know you can hear me. You can jump back on. Now everyone knows. You know what I mean? Everyone knows that it all comes from a place of a place of hurt, you know?

Doesn't it always? Yeah. You ever see, you guys ever see Rushmore? Did you ever see Rushmore? Come on now. Come on now. Trudy, did you see Rushmore? No.

Donnie, did you see Rushmore? Yeah, Rushmore is a classic. Okay, Rushmore is a fucking classic. I don't understand how y'all just like never saw Rushmore. We were drawing a line on this podcast. It's you and Donnie versus me and Trud. I just. don't say how you like you just okay whatever i've never heard of it i'm not even heard me either so

west anderson movie it's got bill murray and it's good jason swashmore is a very good movie have you got to see this is higher learning not the rewatchables have you seen any any west anderson movie perhaps but i wouldn't know have you seen the world tending bombs i've seen pieces pieces of little tin bombs have you seen you i know you haven't seen ball rocket have you seen I know you didn't see the life Aquatic. You don't see his movies. You don't know, you live the whole life and Russ Anderson just doesn't fucking matter.

Similar to the way Trudy has a reason as to why she thinks the way she does about men, I have a reason as to why I've never seen any movies. I was not allowed to. That's true. The judge. Anyway, in Rushmore, Jason Schwarzen-Schwartzman plays a kid

who puts on all of these plays, right? And they're really elaborate, like, crazy plays and he bases them off like movies who, like, do, you know, like, Rambo the play, but they'll do it at school. He's like, he does everything well except for go to school.

And it's the Scottish kid that has a disarming the cast that's always picking on him, right? It's always fucking with him. And at the end of the movie, you know, they go back and forth

the whole time, you know, and at the end of the movie, he goes to him and he gives him a script and says, I think this role is for you. And then he looks up and he goes,

I've always wanted to be in one of your forking plays, you know? And then the whole movie, your shit changes because you realize that everything that this guy was doing

was out of her. hurt. I got you. You thought that he had a point, right? You thought that it was going on, but it was all just coming from a place of hurt. I thought Trudy had really salient points on love and dating, but now I know it only exists some nigger hurt you. Okay. That's what happened. Trudy, let's keep it guessing. I really just have to say, though, so the boy that I was referring to, that is my villain, my villain origin story. I will admit that. Um, he was not deficient in the hair department. Like he didn't even wear hats.

He actually had locks. So was this, were people upset about this? No, what the hell are you talking about? What does that matter? My whole villain origin story is based off of not liking men that wear hats. And I feel like people were equating the two. What people were saying was that you used to be someone who went into a relationship, see mutual sharing with an open heart,

And now a digger can't even wear a fucking Yankee hat around you. That's not true. Trudy's just raised their standards. It's not true. Period. All right. Okay. We all change.

We all grow, Trudy. It's okay. Let you guys know. Everybody and that's that. Trudy's corner isn't going anywhere. Let them know. That part.

We'll be back on Monday. I've seen more people sending stuff to the Reddit. I had a good Trudy's corner question. And I really wanted to know. Can we ask this question? Of course. can't. Okay.

I don't know if we were going to save it. I don't know if we were going to save this for my name. Okay. This is really for you, Trudy, because you're out in the dating world, unlike me, Donnie, and Van. Hold on. I wrote this. I wrote this down because I could not believe this. I was talking to a friend and she was telling me that her friend is on the dating apps

and she's dating people. And she is always concerned whether or not the guy that she is dating might be a part of the LGBTQ plus community. Okay? This is problematic already. Off to a bad start. So she asked the guy on a date flat out if he was gay. Is that okay?

Is that allowed? Is that what people do? Flat out. To his face on a date and she said, are you gay? Oh. So. And is it okay for him for guys to do that too? Van's face.

What is the face right? What the fucker we had? Like, what do you know? No, nigga? You can't do that. What's wrong with y'all? I'm not saying it's okay. I'm obviously not saying it's okay.

My point is I was shocked that people are doing this. So I'm like, is this a thing? Is this what people do now? I think I think if you feel a certain way, you should just not go on a date with someone. Why would you sit there, go on a date with someone? and then flat out, ask them the question. I think, I don't know, is this what people are doing now? I just want to point out that some of the thought warriors think I'm crazy, let, let the record

show. There are people that are far crazier that I am. I would never. And it's like, I just would never, I just feel like this is like not appropriate. And like if that was a problem for them, if they were, like if they didn't want to date somebody that was part of that community or that was by or whatever, because that is a discussion that a lot of women have whether or not they would, they feel comfortable dating a man that's by. And I guess,

I guess maybe guys also have that conversation. I don't know. But I would never, I don't know. What? What? And this should be a last person. Is it okay?

Wait, wait, wait, wait. You guys are so precious. You guys were saying that guys have a conversation. I don't know if they do. Hold on. This is hilarious. That guys would have a conversation. about whether or not it's a turnoff if your girl likes girls?

No, I don't think that that's what Trudy was saying. You just said maybe guys have the conversation about whether or not they would date somebody that's by. I don't. I don't know. Trudy, we don't. As a matter of fact, it opens up a whole new level of possibilities. Right. But I have a friend that had a similar situation like that, not the male, but the female, I'm friends with both of them.

and he wasn't comfortable with it actually. So I don't know if it goes both ways. All right. Yeah. You're assuming. I would never ask. And if I did have those feelings and if it was a problem for me, then I feel like I would probably need to check myself.

I just thought it was extremely disrespectful. And I thought, is this what people are, is that okay, an okay question to ask these days? Like they did it. And apparently they do it all the time. Do it all the time. Oh, I think. Her.

Be black. Hurt. Yes, the black. Yes, they're black. All this is coming from a place of hurt. Trudy's Corner is going to be on fire now. Now everybody's going to be asking that question. Okay, we are going to get into the podcast, but first we're going to take a little break.

The playoffs are here, and you can predict the action all the way to the finals with Fandul Predicts. Predict the spread, total points, and even the game winner. Sign up and get a $25 bonus. Offered by Fandul Prediction Markets LLC, a registered futures commission merchant, 18 plus. Bonus is non-witraubdrawable, and it's, Fire seven days after receipt. Trading derivatives involve significant risk and may not be suitable for all investors. Manage your activity with our consumer protection tool. Restrictions apply. See terms at fanduil.com slash predict slash bonus dash offer dash terms. Did you know about one and three people with plaques psoriasis

may also develop psoriatic arthritis, which causes joint pain, stiffness, and swelling? Does this sound like you? Listen to what it sounds like to be a million miles away. Trimphaya, guselcomab. Taken by injection is a prescription medicine for adults with moderate to severe plaques psoriasis, who may benefit from taking injections or pills or phototherapy, and for adults with active psoriotic arthritis. Serious allergic reactions and increased risk of infections and liver problems may occur. Before a treatment, your doctor should check you for infections and tuberculosis.

Tell your doctor if you have an infection, flu-like symptoms, or if you need a vaccine. Imagine being a million miles away. explore what's possible. Ask your doctor about trim Faya. Tap this ad to learn more about Trim Fia, including important safety information. Okay. Joe Biden is once again in a corner.

Joe Biden stays in the corner longer than Jake Lomata. Do you know who that is, Rachel? No. That's funny. What's the last thing? I figured it was a boxer. He's a boxer from a movie. Yeah, so Joe Biden has pledged

to appoint a black woman to the Supreme Court. He did that back in a long time, a long time ago. But now he might have to put his money where his mouth is because Justice Stephen Breyer is planning to retire. And black people looking at President Biden like, hey, you better deliver. You said you wanted a black one on the Supreme Court. There might be the opportunity for a black woman to be on the Supreme Court. So a couple questions from this.

Number one, the backlash is coming from this. of people like the Candace Owens of the world are saying that justice should not be picked based upon race. That's not what he said. What he said was he would look for a qualified woman to put her on the court. Number two, people are balking about whether or not Biden will stick to this pledge. Do you think that he will? And if he does, how far does that go with you in terms of his presidency not being a complete waste of time? Well, here's a mind I thought, and please correct me if I'm wrong, I thought he has since come out since Justice Breyer came out and said that I thought he has since now confirmed that he will

definitely nominate a black woman for that seat. Donnie said it. He said it before. I don't said before, but I thought he has since definitely confirmed that that's exactly what he plans on doing. Is that, is that correct, Donnie? Yeah, he did. He had a press conference today where he reiterate at that point. Okay, so he's going to do it. So the first part of the question is moot. The second part of the question is how far does that go with you? I mean, I think it's fantastic. It's obviously long overdue when you think about it. How has a black woman not been able to sit in that seat at this point? Listen, it's a positive step, right? But it doesn't make me forget other promises that were made. What I want Biden, what I want from Biden,

is if he says he's going to do it, I would want to see him do it or at least make a huge attempt to try to make it happen. So this is one of the things that he said he would do if he was able to under his presidency. Great. He said he was going to do it. I'm not going to stop there. I'm still waiting for you to do other things. But thank you for following through with that promise, right?

So here's the thing. I don't want to get skewered for this. Don't say it's nothing. Van. It kind of doesn't. It depends how you're how you're making that comment. Please explain. So this is why.

Okay. So if the Supreme Court is what now, 6.3, right? It's 6.3. Justice Breyer is one of the liberals, right? Yes. So you replace a liberal with the liberal. The court remains 6.3. Still 6.3.

So that means anything functional that the court can do is not change because there is still a huge conservative majority. Correct. Correct. One of the things that is important for me, to me, for the growth of Black America, is the move past symbolism. So the reason why I relitigate Obama's presidency all the time is because what I really want to know is, just listen, just let me make my little problematic case. What I really want to know is what did Obama do for black people? that's really what I want to know. Like what actually happens is kind of what I want to know.

It's very important that there's a black Supreme Court, black female Supreme Court justice. It means something. I'm not, it means something. It just don't mean actually anything. It means something. It means a lot in the symbolic realm.

But it means at this point, if we're just being honest and looking at it realistically, it means absolutely nothing. Wow. in the realm of actual governance and things that actually need to happen because it's not a consequential choice for the Supreme Court. It's like a, you know what I mean? It's, I don't know how to say this.

It's not a consequence of the court. It changes really nothing. It's still a conservative court. Things that go like affirmative action, potentially abortion. No, having a black woman there does not change the way that that. court is most like more than likely going to vote absolutely but the reason that is so problematic for you to say nothing just for that those words to even come out of your mouth even if you're only speaking in regards to the dynamic of the court is because representation does mean something

for a I'm sorry it does because it might not mean something in the moment as far as it's going to change the way the court makes decisions but for people who are coming up for people who see themselves, I'm sorry, I strongly believe this. For people who see themselves, say, hey, I can do that or, hey, I'm going to remember her in the future, it might change something. Like, I get it. Your frustration is what Biden's doing is it going to change anything

right now, but you can't take away from the fact that something that has never been done is going to happen. And it also shows that Biden promised something, and he's making an attempt to deliver on it. You can't take that away from it, too. Sure, but I can't sit here and say, well, okay, in the grand scheme of things, it's really

nothing because the court's still going to decide to say, way. History is about to be made and it's history for somebody who looks like me. I understand and I and I am trying my best to talk about this with the lightest touch that I can. But the reality is this. If this selection buys Joe Biden any goodwill for the African American from African American, why I'm saying African American? I don't know. If this selection buys Joe Biden any goodwill from the black community, it's a shame. it's a shame that it does. It really is.

I forget that. Because the justice, we got to stop with the feel good shit. I got to be honest with you. So, Rachel, I'm agreeing that this is significant. Yes, I get you. It was significant when they put

Clarence Thomas on there, well, not really because he was the second. But it was still, it was still significant to have. It was significant to the other side. Well, no, it was significant to, well, no, it was still significant to have,

a like a black member to the Supreme Court. It's significant. It's significant. I'm sorry. Now that I will disagree with because why. So if it's already been done and he, no, it's so disrespectful that Clarence Thomas took their good Marshall seat. I like, they want, but, but. But obviously, see, see, so here's the thing, no. I just, I just, I, I just, I, placing a black with the black.

Well, having a, having a black member of the Supreme Court is better than having an all white Supreme Court, right? You, it, it was. So, okay, but look, but look at the point that you're making, but look at the point that, look at the point that, look at the point. And I hate to do that to black. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, but wait, but wait, but listen, but listen, if you're saying that having Clarence Thomas as a black member of the Supreme Court actually doesn't mean anything because Clarence Thomas doesn't have any policies or doesn't believe any ideology that could actually change anything for black people, you're kind of. making my argument right now. And the reason why I'll say that is because what I'm saying is having a black woman on

the Supreme Court, sure, it's symbolically meaningful. But in a grand scheme of things, it just doesn't mean very much right now. And I think that it would be a shame if when it was time for us to decide on whether or not we're still caucusing with the Democrats wholesale and giving them a free pass, we say, well, he did put a black woman on the Supreme Court. I get it. But at the same time, where are we on voting rights? Where are we on the bill back better plan?

Where are we on the justice and policing act? Where are we on any of the things that we're supposed to get better? Is anybody giving Biden a pass just because he says he's going to follow through? I don't think so. There's a danger that some people will, though. That's what I'm speaking to. I don't think that that's majority. But you're right.

Sure, somebody will say it. And here's my question to you. If this court was 6'3 in the other way and you were replacing. On the sixth side, it's a liberal side, and you were replacing that person with a black woman, would you have the same argument? Would you still say it doesn't mean anything? No. What I'm saying is, this is not what I'm saying. What I'm saying is over. Oh, is that Amber Alert?

Yeah, Amber Alert. Did it go off on your phone? Did not. Wait a minute. So that means the phone people don't think you give a fuck about kids. I'm going to be honest with you. The Amber Alert went on. Can you turn off the Amber Alert?

If you turned off the Amber Alert on your phone. I'm literally asking, can you? You didn't get the alert. You didn't get the alert. Well, I'm not in the same place. They don't think you care. I'm not in the same place as you. You ain't that far.

I could walk to your crib. Like, I could, I could walk, I could walk to your crib. You think that they didn't see you the Amber Alert. You should ask, why am I going to get the alerts? why wouldn't Rachel get an Amber alert? That's really crazy Trudy did your phone go off? Trudy did your phone go off?

See, they know I'm the only person that cares about kids on this whole podcast anyway. Look, my point is this. I'm glad you're clear about kids because you don't care about black women. Oh, Jesus Christ, here we go. I said it. Look, it's historic.

It's monumental. It's amazing. Whatever adjective that you want to put to it. it's all of that. But it's just not very consequential right now. Correct. Correct. That's all I'm saying.

But I will say putting a black, the first black woman liberal on the Supreme Court is not like when Clarence Thomas took over. They're a good marshal. It's not the same thing. It's not the same thing. Oh my God. They are turned off. You turned them off. Whoa.

They are turned off. Whoa. You really don't give a fuck about it. kids. I didn't even know you can do that. I'm not going to lie, man. Somebody did it. I'm not going to lie.

What you mean somebody did? It's your phone. I must have reset the settings on my phone. She turned off the Amber Alerts on. You know, that probably means all y'all turned off the air blurters on your phone. You can learn a lot about a person about whether or not they have the Android on the phone. So there are a bunch of women who are in contention for this. Judge Katani,

Brown Jackson, California Supreme Court judge, Leandro Kruger, South Carolina, U.S. District Judge, J. Michelle Childs, lawyer Sherilyn Eiffel. I've heard of her before. It's heard of her. I wonder why. North Carolina Supreme Court, Associate Justice Anita Earls. Minnesota District Judge Wilhelmina Mimi Wright,

Eunice Lee from the Second Circuit Court, And the Seventh Circuit Court judge, Candice Jackson, Akwami, a Kiwomi. Akawomi, Akawomi. I don't know. I don't know. It's very, very important. Very important. So we'll see what happens with that. Real quick, there's an all-black group of kids that are going to climb Mount Everest. Oh. Have you seen this? I did. This is the group. They're called themselves

Full Circle. They're a group of black climbers and mountaineers. Great. This is what they say. They say it's an expedition that is certainly about climbing. It's also about spending time in the mountains, but it's also about building community, global community,

and it's about changing the narrative to the black community, particularly the United States and how we interact with outdoor spaces. It says Rosemary Saul, a member of Full Circle. Great. I've never been more desperate.

for to talk to a group of black people. What's the first question you would have for them, Van? Why? Why? It's why. Well, if I'm piggybacking on what I said before, it's all about representation. Do we need to be represented on Mount Everest? I'm just kidding.

Mount Everest is a white place. It's both white and the people who climb it and it's actually white. And I'm okay with that. We're not going to not full circle. If they want to normalize black climbers, God knows I would never, never participate. That's not my thing. It's not my hobby.

I'm not that daring. I'm not daring enough. But if they want to normalize it, that's great. Maybe climbing changed their life. Maybe it's therapeutic for them. And maybe they want to spread that message for other people. Good for them. Full circle.

They're being respectful to the local Sherpas and the people that are up there when you climbing. Because I saw this thing when you're climbing up, Mount Everest. You climb up there. There are people that help you out when you're. you're climbing up there. I didn't know that. Yeah, they help you out when you're climbing up to the top of the sun.

You've already started the research. Well, it's not true. I saw this movie and the movie was called Everest. You ever seen that movie? Of course you haven't seen. Thank you. You haven't seen the movie Everest, but it's actually about some people that got fucked up when they tried to climb up there

because you can get fucked up. That happens a lot, though, I feel like. And see, that's my point. My point is we don't really have niggas to spare in terms of, white people can go up there and they can climb up Mount Everest you know what I'm saying? Like they got they got their own country

like they can climb up Mount Everest I don't feel like we can spare we like we can't spare people up there getting frostbite and shit like that you know what I'm saying for no reason but go for it. That's fine. All right, we'll take a break.

On the other side of this break, we're going to give you our interview with California. Congress candidate, Republican conservative black lady. To be Camilton around the other side of his break. This episode is brought to by WeatherTech. Everyone knows winter is the MVP and make it a mess. You don't need weather tech floor liners in the summer unless you hit the beach or go camping. Then you'd want a cargo liner. Or a road trip goes sideways, ketchup goes rogue, ice cream drips.

Yeah, you'd be pretty happy about those weather tech seat protectors. So just to be clear as the mud, you're inevitably going to step into the summer. You don't need weather tech unless you plan on doing summer. Visit weathertech.com today. Did you know about one in three people with plaques psoriasis may also develop psoriotic arthritis, which causes joint pain, stiffness, and swelling? Does this sound like you? Listen to what it sounds like to be a million miles away.

Trimphaya, Guseocomabab, taken by injun. is a prescription medicine for adults with moderate to severe plaque psoriasis, who may benefit from taking injections or pills or phototherapy, and for adults with active psoriotic arthritis. Serious allergic reactions and increased risk of infections and liver problems may occur. Before a treatment, your doctor should check you for infections in tuberculosis. Tell your doctor if you have an infection, flu-like symptoms, or if you need a vaccine. Imagine being a million miles away.

Explore what's possible. Ask your doctor about trim Faya. Tap this ad to learn more about Trimfaya, including important safety information. Okay, so thought warriors, you know, we're liberals. You know that we're liberals.

We talk about it every single day, how liberal we are, the liberalists of the liberally, but we also did tell you that we were going to make a very conscious decision to make sure that we give conservative voices, particularly black conservative voices,

some space on higher, learning. Earlier this week, we talked to my great friend, Bacchari Sellers and Rachel's great friend, the host of the Bacari Sellers podcast here on the Ringer Network, and he is a liberal, Democrat, always have been, but it was brought to my attention that there's somebody that I might want to have a conversation with by my good friend, Kenny Hamilton, earlier this week. And that is Tamika Hamilton, who is a black woman who is running for Congress out of the sixth district of California. There is a huge gulf right now. now it seems like between liberals and conservatives.

And we wanted to talk to Tamika because my good friend, Kenny, told me that you represent somebody that might just be able to bridge the gap. So we are happy to have you on higher learning today, Tamika. Thank you so much. Thank you so much. And I am not related to Kenny. We just met on a flu through another friend. And we just hit off and he's just been such a great support.

And so I was like, I want to talk to Van and Rachel. And he was like, let me send a text message. And so that's how this all happened. We are happy to have you. Very happy to have you. So I told her earlier, before we did the podcast, I told her that I have a bone to pick with Sacramento and I'll tell you what that bone is. You guys poisoned Kobe.

I don't think we forgot. Kobe Bryant, if you guys don't remember, Kobe Bryant ordered room service. He ordered a hamburger. Back in the day, I think it was definitely the Western Conference Finals. Lakers versus Sacramento Kings and Kobe got sick from a hamburger that he ordered in a hotel of Sacramento I know that the people in Sacramento Poisoned Kobe

I know you guys did Van look I was not here I had nothing to do with that There you go So you know Rachel I'm going to need you to help me out on this If I wasn't here there was nothing that I could do Don't even respond to that mess Don't even

You want as we continue this podcast you will learn Not to do that. We know what happened. I thought Van was going to give me, you know, he was going to help me out. But no, he won't start off something. I can't do enough about. All right. So let's talk about this.

Obviously, we're dealing with a constituency, which is black Americans, that tend to vote heavily Democrat. Now, me, I am not a Democrat. I'm a liberal. I'm one of those far left wackos that they warn you about, Tamika. All right. So I guess my thing. But you don't have blue hair. See?

See? Stereotype. Okay. But here's the thing. I guess my thing is I as a black man haven't seen any reason, any reason to vote for the right. And as much as we hear blexit rhetoric from, you know, Officer Tatum, from Candice Owens, from even my friend, Mosh Torrey, I haven't seen the Republicans give anything to black Americans that really is compelling that would make me want to vote for a Republican in state or. in a national election. If you were selling that to me,

black guy from Louisiana, why should black people trust or invest into the Republican Party? So what I will say is that, one, I totally understand what you're saying. That is a sentiment that I have heard for the past three years when I started running because I ran for the first time in 2020.

That was my first one out the gate. And a little bit about me is that I am an Air Force sergeant. I've been in for 20 years. My husband's a police officer. We have five children. And I am a transplant from on the East Coast. And we came here almost 10 years ago.

And, you know, I was raised by my grandparents. My grandparents were veterans. My grandmother's cleaned houses for a living. I was as young as I remember in cleaning floors of some of my classmates' houses, some of these rich people's houses. And one of the things that I always go back to was that we don't see Republicans.

We did not see them growing up. They didn't come to our neighborhoods. They weren't asking us for their vote. And so what you're saying is that, you know, you don't have a relationship. And then on top of that, they're not giving you anything to make you think that they're the right choice. And when it comes to politics and you voting their way. But what I will say is that, and one, I'm sorry. And two, that's why I'm coming here to make up that difference.

I can't speak for the Republican Party. I can only speak for Tamika. And one of the biggest things that I've done is everything that I could, to show that I care about the everyday life, everything that affects our everyday life, you know, like from the gas that's so high in California, making those life decisions at the supermarket. I'm on one income like so many of those moms in our area that are just trying to make it. And right now, if you look at what's happening in California, it is a direct reflection of what's happening in America where Democrats have totally taken over and they're not showing

they're not giving us a utopia that they promised. And we don't have balance. And that's why it's important for people like me to exist in this space so that we can bring balance to politics. And one of things that I always talk about is like this district was 29% registered Republican. I got 46% of the vote because I wasn't afraid to go and talk to people. I've never I met a stranger. My grandmother always has on the road helping people. And I put 100,000 miles in my car. And I think that we're doing something really special here

and showing that there's an opportunity here for change and that you can trust someone that's going to bring you transparency that's just like you, that is trying to make it just like everybody else. And I think that that's the starting point for Republicans and bridging that gap. So to piggyback on a little bit of what Van was saying about being black, being a Republican, if you are elected, you will be the only black woman Republican in Congress.

So I guess with that, a lot of people don't, a lot of black people don't vote for Republicans because they don't feel like Republicans help the community. If you are elected and you are representative as a black woman in Congress, that's a Republican, what do you want that presence to represent? And then what will you do to represent, I guess, black women, black people? and how will you help the black community? So I'm already doing that. I'm already doing that by reaching across the aisle,

talking to people that normally wouldn't vote for Republicans, because we get everything towards the independent and Democrats. Because for us, I think that we're all on the same page. We just want to be able to send our kids to a good school, be able to go on a vacation, be able to make enough money to take care of our children's future, like the basics, the basics. And that's what I'm going to champion when I get there.

You know, right now, people are making life decisions at the gas tape. And that's under the Democrats. Right now, what's happening in our nation is that people are being outpriced in home, not being able to buy a home and here in California. And it's getting worse and worse and worse with the economy. This, the biggest thing is that we have to see freedom from a different lens. Is it right that we get a taxes taken out of our paycheck, but then we can't see where it's going to.

Our children should have school choice. California is dead last almost every single year when it comes to education. Who is that affecting? That's affecting us. It shouldn't be this thing where it should be like if you are in a, it shouldn't be, you're going to school according to your zip code. If you can get to the school, you should be able to go. And we're falling behind an education.

That's why I want to push. I want to talk about police reform. My husband's a police officer. We talk about it all the time that they're not. needs to be some changes made. We need to have more community involvement. People shouldn't be strangers that are policing your area. These are things that are so important that I believe that my presence would bring a change and a difference because I'm not afraid to talk about it. You know, I've no one tapped me on my shoulder and said, oh, Tamika, go and run. This will be a good thing.

No, like, I was sitting in my house with my husband. We were talking over for months. I was 14 years active and I decided to get out. But then the policies that were happening here in California to drew me out. And I was just like, I got to do something because I have five kids. And anyway, long story short, the biggest thing is that I'm already doing it. I'm showing that there's a that there's somebody that they can trust. I mean, I'm already black so I can't like escape that. I'm already black, so I can't escape that. But, you know, I was raised by my grandparents. I have a story that resonates with a lot of people. I mean, you already know grandma say vibes. I mean, gosh, I mean, sorry, my grandma died.

like a week before the primary. And so she knew what I was doing and she was just always encouraging. Sorry for your love. The biggest thing is that black people have the power to shift and move things in this country. We saw it in 2020. And all they need to do is get more informed.

They don't need to get tired. I do not think that it would do us any justice to stay quiet in these midterms and even in 2024 because of what's happened this year. This year should have been a way. wake-up call. Joe Biden's administration tricked us into thinking that he was going to do something that was different than last time, than the last administration. And I think that the black people have an opportunity to show their strength and vote another way. And again, it just, it just starts

with making those relationships. I always tell people, people like, oh, to make you, you're a black Republican. I won't you get out. I was like, won't you get out there? I'm already doing my part. I'm already doing my part. They need to see you. So I'm going to come back to school choice and a couple of things a little later on. And we're going to come back to Joe Biden in a second, too. But I want to ask you something. Your husband is a police officer. And you talked about everyday issues that affect black Americans when I was growing up.

And everyday issue that affected me was policing. I am not a criminal. I've never in my life been arrested. You know, I came from a very stable home. I didn't have to take those penitentiary chances. And I didn't. I have, however, Tamika, been handcuffed. on four different occasions.

Once, when I was standing in the driveway of my very own home, doing homework, police handcuff me. So I understand it needs to be police reform. Reform to me is a word that has been defanged. I don't think it means anything anymore. So what I would ask you is there are ways to hold police departments accountable for some of these things, and one of them is qualified immunity. Qualified immunity is something that we've talked about, a lot of

this podcast that will let a police officer be directly responsible for any mistakes that he or she might make on the job. If you want to see police held accountable for the wrongdoings that they have, if you want to see something more than oversight, if you want to see actual punishment, if you want to see police officers held to a standard, where do you stand on qualified immunity? So what I would say is that qualified immunity is something that my husband and we talked about before. and, you know, one of the things he said to me is that, you know, police officers, if they felt, if they felt that they were going to, especially the good officers, they need protection as well. I, and I'm an advocate for police being able to be held accountable. Like, I think people should be held accountable. But I also think that we need to really understand like what it means to scale back on qualified immunity and what that really means. And I think it's like just paying with the broad brushing, like, oh, like we just need to get rid of it. When there are police officers do need protections.

But we need to maybe go back and tweak what those protections are and make it easier for us to prosecute police officers that do the wrong thing. Just like in the military under the VA, you know, there was a time where you could, it would take the act of Congress to get rid of somebody in the VA. But then when President Trump came into office, he took some. of those, what do you want to say, like, he allowed it to where you could get protections out so that we could get those bad people out because, you know, as much as I do, that veterans deserve to be supported and protected, but at the same time, if they're not doing that job, if people are not doing their job in the VA, then they don't need to be there collecting a pension and being off for 30 years. And so that's what I want to do. I want to see what those protections are

and I want to make it to where, you know, if they do something wrong, that they are prosecuted. And one of the things I do want to add, if it's okay, is that I want to build that relationship. And my husband always talks about, like, police officers should, because he was a D.C. cop, too. And he was always talking about how, like, he would go into the neighborhoods because he was in 6D, which is one of the worst at the time. It was like just 10 years ago, like one of the worst, like, you know, from a crime perspective, the districts in D.C. And he's always saying like, if you just talk to the kids, if you just talk to people get to know them, it makes the difference. But when you don't come in there, you don't know them and you don't know grandma up the street, you know, that's where the problems come in. So that community, and now everything's so polarized, it's like, oh, my gosh, we just got to get back to people like you and I being able to have these conversations and actually take these conversations and put them in an action.

You know, it's one thing for us to sit and talk about it, but then I'm going to go out and say, I'm saying this on a world stage. I'm saying this in my community. I say world stage, but, you know, like when I go talk on other shows like this. Rachel, will you allow me one follow up? Sure.

Real quick. Okay. So I actually disagree with your husband. I'll tell you why. For a couple of reasons. Number one, because I knew a lot of the cops in my neighborhood. And I think that knowing the cops helps, I think it helps them more than it helps us.

Because I think the police officers knowing who we are, I think it helps them get leads to cases. I think it helps them get stats. I think it helps them understand where the safe pockets in the neighborhood are. I think it helps them understand the later. It's definitely better for police officers to know the community because it helps them in policing, right? So I think that's very important. There was a guy on Instagram a little while ago, and I made the mistake of champion this guy.

What he would do is he would go into places in Ohio and he would rap with the kids. He would rap with him. He would rap and he would dance and he would go in there. He would do all this stuff. I'm like, that's great. A year and a half ago, something like that, there was a video of this guy showing up to the scene in the altercation and straight up walloping someone, punching him dead in the face.

You see, all the rapping stuff was cool. That actually is important. And I want to, like, in any way minimize that. My point is there is no such thing as a profession that doesn't have guard rails or consequences when they make grave mistakes. Doctors have very, very intense, necessary, high risk, high stress jobs, doctors who keep us alive. But see if you go into a doctor and he puts your brain where your heart is, you can sue that guy. there's something that he can be he can have his stuff taken away from him so my very my very direct question to you or anyone who's against taking away qualified immunity is why what type of

protection does a police officer need that allows him to dance around culpability when we're talking about people's lives these guys have guns yes they've seen before that like they that there's really no way to control what it is that they do. So what I'm asking is, where's the hesitation in qualified immunity? The people we're talking about protecting our Americans. Right. Well, my thing is that my husband, and I'm not saying because he's my husband, but my husband is one of the good guys.

And there are people out there that will want to sue police officers for every single thing under the son. He's encountered him as, you know, on his time, you know, oh my gosh, I'm offended, you know. And then, oh, boom, let's just do a lawsuit. I'm not saying that's not what we're talking about. I know that's not what we're talking about, but we're talking about qualified immunity. Yeah. That's what we're talking about.

You're talking about this guy. And one thing I want to say is that we live in TikTok, Instagram world. Tim bouncing around, I'm just adding commentary to what you said. I don't know this, I've never seen this cop. But one thing I will say is that just because somebody

bebopping on TV or on the internet does not move a relationship with the community. And one of the things that really needs, needs to be addressed and overall is like de-escalation and how we decide to talk to people. And that goes across the board. And my husband talks about that too. And maybe one day you could have them on it and you might like them. But, you know, you might. But and I'm really sorry that that happened to you going back to your story. But anyway, let me answer the question. I get what you're saying. And I still, and we're going to disagree. And that's fine. But I do

think that we need to look at what it is that's under those provisions for qualified immunity and things that make it hard to hold cops accountable, then those are things that we need to talk about. Those are things that we need to discuss. Those are things that we need to make a conscious effort to change. And I don't know if you remember. Remember Senator Tim Scott? He wanted police reform, put forth a bill, and then the Democrats wanted to leave with it. Because of qualified immunity. Because of qualified immunity. We just got off to Scott, you should listen to the last podcast. Tim Scott's one of the biggest obstruction is out there in terms of, in terms of police reform.

Tim Scott didn't do it anything. Tim Scott doesn't want police reform. Tim Scott ain't with us. I'm going to let Rachel go, though. We'll come back to that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, I don't know every single thing in the bill. So I'm clear.

But what I'm saying is that when you put something forth as a bill, you know, we're going to, people are going to go through it. They're going to try to make their changes. But there was at least something out there that said that, okay, let's try to make a change. We hear the outcry of America. and let's try to make a difference. That's what I'm saying. I'm sorry.

I don't mean to interrupt you because. You're fine. Because Tim Scott did put out a bill, but it was in response to the George Floyd Justice and Policing Act, which had qualified immunity in it. Tim Scott's bill didn't have that in it. And that is the question that I was going to follow up with you on because I did see a retweet that you did in reference to that

and saying that the reason that the Dems didn't want that bill to pass and they used the filibuster is because they didn't want the Republicans to get credit for a police reform bill during an election year, which we can get into that, into that later. But because you are running for Congress in California, I want to be more specific. I want to know, would you support, if you were in Congress, would you support the George Floyd Justice and Policing Act? And you speak that you're for police reform. What does that specifically look like for you?

Okay. So for me, the George Floyd bill, I don't know everything. I don't know the bill. So I'll be honest with you. Like, I don't know the bill. So I'm going to have to, we can, I can come back and we can talk about the bill. I actually appreciate that answer, by the way. Just like there might be people that just before just just. So listen, there might be people that bang on you for that. But for me, hearing a politician say, the, the, Bill Clinton one time was asked during an MTV form, what, he thought about gangster rap music. And the most powerful answer he could give was, I don't know. He's like, I'd have to look more into it and really give you an example. So I actually appreciate the answer that you're not quite sure on what's going on. At least you're being honest. Right. So, and the other, so like I said, I'll come back.

If you ever want to have me back on, we can talk about it. The second part of your question was what I wanted to do with police reform. And one of those things that I always think about is, one, these stories that I've, I've I've been watching a lot of documentaries and reading a lot of stories about situations just like Van was talking about where police officers are just coming up to people handcuffing them. No, you know, you look like somebody or we think, you know, this happened. Yeah. And that's wrong. I mean, I'm sorry, it just makes me, because I've been watching these, I've been watching these stories where people are just getting locked up for 20 years and they didn't do anything wrong.

You know? Right. And so they did not do anything wrong. Life gone, life loss. And it's our black and brown brothers and sisters, like mostly men. But so for me, it's retraining. It's community. It's, and I understand what you're saying, you know, you don't agree with the community part of it.

But for me. I do, but I just think that we have to have the other part too. But yes. Yeah. Yes. And I understand that part. But it's going to be retraining, you know, in some areas where people lack. It's going to be that de-escalation.

And again, like these are things that I believe that if we are, but that goes back to community as well, it goes back to that training. It goes back to that human side of it. And actually right now, I really feel that because the polarization, because people aren't talking, we have to make an effort to push. And this is something I do here. I have talks. I, like, do town halls.

I've done town halls in the past few years talking about talking like police officers in the community coming together to have a conversation so that we can start. breaking the ice and so we can stop being against each other or even appearing to be against each other. So for me, it's the de-escalation, it's the retraining if we need, need it, you know, and that goes back to, because people are like, well, they want changes, but a lot of changes cost money. And then we have to also, the biggest thing is retraining. I'd be honest. What about taking the money away from? What about changing their budget, decreasing their budget? Depending on what you're taking it from. When you're taking a budget away from the police,

you're also saying that what if there's underserved communities that are going to be affected by that? Like in my husband's district, for example, there's only five police officers. They want to hire more, but they don't have the money to do it. You know, it's not affecting their salaries. What it does is takes away from, you know, training or resources that they might have. You might lose a school resource officer because of it. And right now, schools need it now more than ever. I can't tell you how many death threats or bombs or whatever, you know,

I've been called into schools and they need police presence. you're taking away from communities. And who has the money for police protection? Not black communities? Let me ask you a question now. Down here in L.A. And then I'll move on to something else because we're staying on policing a little long,

but this is kind of getting into the school choice economic thing that we talked about. Down here in L.A., there was the L.A. USDA cut the police budget about $25 million and redirected that money into a $36.5 million black student achievement plan. See, to be transparent with you, I think it actually sells communities short by saying that what they need is more police necessarily. I think these communities, if they had more investment into them and some revitalization could actually do with less police, more people to work mental health, more people to work social aspects and things like that.

They don't need to be police. They need a little tender loving care. I don't think that it's not a story about being police. I'm saying that when you're taking the money away, are we taking away from those underserved communities? Well, you said less police, they're going to have less police officers. Yes, they will be.

And I don't think less police officers is necessarily a bad thing. If you're- LA right now, look at LA right now. LA right now, when you look at LA right now, first of all, we had Series Castle on this podcast to talk about that. The crime in LA might be slightly higher this year than it was last year, but the reality is overall crime in LA has been trending down for a very, very long time. And crime in LA overall is down pretty much.

I think that we're overstating a little bit how safe it is to be or to not be in Los Angeles. But what I'm telling you is that I think there's a difference of opinion fundamentally that what you need to make sure these communities have any type of harmony is policing. They need a lot more things. They do. They need environmental changes. They need nutritional changes. They need mental health changes.

Right. Right. They have food deserts and all that. Food deserts. Right. But there's food deserts. But all that. But I don't think that, I think that that also should come back with, what is the

city doing? What are our local leaders doing with the money that they receive and helping make those changes in the community? I understand that's, I don't want to say the word symbolism. I don't think that's the right. word, but I understand like, okay, we're going to take from this because we're saying that we're hurt from because police did X, Y, Z, and it could be very valid, right? Some police officers made some bad decisions, and so we're going to pull away and we're going to give to this. But at the same time,

if you have less police presence and, like I said, we'll disagree on this. We're still going to have issues in communities as a whole. If there's things that are happening in this less time response, right? Then I go back to budget. We in California, we have a surplus. We have billions of dollars of surplus. And I'm like, hold on, that means you took more taxes. That money could have gone into education. That money could have gone into those communities that we know that need, that are underserved

and they need help. And they need those community centers. They need to be able to have after school programs. They need to be able, like, I always dreamed of like being able to set up something to where, and I know for me, like, when I was going up, I would love to learn how to swim, you know, younger at a younger age. I learned how to swim as an adult. But can imagine if those YMCA's, those community centers were fully funded and had people

there to teach our kids how to swim or tutoring and the parents didn't have to pay. My parents couldn't afford to pay for that stuff. My parents couldn't afford music lessons, you know. I was just, you know, none of that stuff. That's what needs to happen in those communities. And a lot of that goes back to putting the local leaders on the spot with where's the money going. You know, that's why people, I always encourage people.

to get involved in your local politics because you will see where the money is going. Just like when we talk about the homeless problem, we have the highest homeless veteran population here in California, highest homeless population in California. And why is that we're throwing all this money at it and nothing has changed? We need an audit on how the funds are being allocated. And if these programs are working, that we need to make a change. Because who wants to walk down the street with their children? and someone's defecating in the streets.

That is happening in San Francisco. I go down there often. It is happening. Oh, sure, yeah. Yeah. So I think that, like, I'm with you that we need, we, we need a balance of the two for sure. And I'm all for it.

But I also believe that less presence hurts us as a whole. And, you know, I just, when we see the smash and grabs, there was not enough, enough people to respond to that. I don't know, you know, I don't know. Well, they wouldn't, they might have not been smashing it. if they have money in their pockets. You know what I'm saying? We're going to go round and round and round.

Of course they're smashing and grabbing. They might have not been smashing and grabbing if they were options for them. But let's get off this real quick because I want to change it to CRT, something I know that you love talking about. If you do win your race up in Sacramento. I will win my race. If you win your race, when you win your race up in Sacramento, I'm not going to hear about you keeping Tony Morrison books out of schools of

there, right? I'm not going to hear that George Johnson, all boys aren't blue, can't be taught. I'm not going to hear that you're against Americans learning the ends and outs of the racial dynamics in schools, right? I'm not, no, you're not, you're not. I am not afraid. I don't think that we should be afraid of my history at all. I don't think we should be afraid of my history. Where's the butt? Where's the butt? I didn't say a butt. Oh! No, she's got to say something. No, no, no. She's going to say something. Okay. I'm just, he's like,

I'm trying to, Tamika, I want to be friends. And so, we already are friends. I know. So I'm looking for something that we're going to completely agree with.

And I'm looking for me. I do not think that we should be afraid of our history. The only thing for me is that we should not be making our children. Look, I don't think that children should be taught that they are, they are bad people. because of such a sex. No,

To bego. You lost us. Tomego. Tomego. Tomego. We were almost there. We were ready. Go ahead.

Finish your point. Wait. Okay. Look now. Look now. I don't think we should be afraid of our history. I think that is one of the biggest missteps that Republicans have done in the past year.

Because I'm going to be honest with you when I see somebody's interviews and they're like, I don't even. know what CRT is. And I'm like, well, well, okay, so then what are we actually for? Okay. All I'm saying is that, and that you guys are so funny, and you don't have me back on, is that I just, I just want to make sure that, and you already know that there are some teachers out there and don't try to act, try to say that that's not true. There are some teachers out there that are trying to make white children and black children become divided

over this issue. And I'm not saying that there's all perfect and I'm talking about how we present this. I'm talking about how we present this. Right. We can talk about slavery. We could talk about the founding fathers.

We need to talk about how black people built this nation. Came from a country. We did not know and built this nation. We need to talk about that. Yeah. And I'm sorry that is something that people don't want to talk about

because of the polarization or they felt like I wasn't, I wasn't the slave owner, you know, that rhetoric. Like, oh, I was. wasn't the slave owner, you weren't the slaves, so let's not talk about it. No, we do need to talk about it. And it's okay to talk about it, but I don't want to talk about it in a way that makes somebody feel like, oh my God, I'm, I, I'm the direct reason. That's what I'm talking about. That's all I'm

talking. That's just like, you are not the direct reason. That's just like me trying to black, me and Van Dayton and direct, direct, direct reason why I don't like black men. Like, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, We talked about this on the podcast. You talked about this on the podcast. That's what I'm saying. Is systemic racism a thing of the past or the present? I think it's, I believe that we, I believe that we have people that do not do the right thing. And that has caused there to be an inequality in some of this.

some institutions. I do. I do. Like, I'm the only black woman on the Republican side. I will tell you that running, running has been quite a story because people will sit there and try to tell me that racism does not exist. And it does. It does exist.

Do I think that America is a racist nation? No. Like, America is a racist nation. not a racist. Do I think that they're a racist? How, how, how are we not a racist nation? Van, are you racist? Huh? No, no, no, no. Actually, I don't know. I'm not sure.

I don't think I am, but I can't be sure. There are bad people in all walks of life, all walks of profession, trying to pull people down. I know, but when we say America isn't a racist nation, the way I define whether or not something to something is from its present and its inception, right? So right now, right now. So from its present and its inception, right? So if I look at America right now and I see tons of inequalities that are based upon that are racially based, I look at that and I go, oh, well, that country right there has a race problem.

Now, if it just developed a race problem, I wouldn't necessarily say that that country is a racist country. hey, maybe there's the wrong, like, maybe there's the wrong regime that's taken hold, or maybe there's the wrong, whatever that's taken hold. But if a country has always, Tamika, always had a race problem. I mean, like racism in America is older than America. There was slavery ruled in America before America was a country. So if a country has always had a race problem, I just have a problem. I'm saying it's not a racist country.

Right. Tamika was like, Tamika asked it in an individual way, but it's talking about the institutions that are in place, the things that run this country from its inception to now are. It's racist. We have, no, hold on.

We have race issues in America. I'm, we are literally living race problems in America right now. Yes, I do agree with that. We're not, we're not going to disagree on that. But guess what? you and I, all three of us,

we can make a difference. There is still hope. I agree. I agree. For me, for me, and so for me, like, we're talking about we got Joe Biden sitting up in the White House.

My mom said, sitting up in the White House, made these promises for us. Right. Was it last week he was asked a question about if he was going to, what is he done? What is his, you know, next thing for us, right?

And I think he was like, has he talked to, like, leader. I want to paraphrase. I'm going to paraphrase. So I'm not quoting him verbatim. So don't be trying to come back. Look,

to me. Right. And he said, he got to talk to some more people. 50 years. What else does he have to talk about? He knows, he's supposed to know what needs to be done.

He has all these people to make the difference. And what I'm getting to is that the Democrats have said that they have the answers. they have the House, they have the presidency, they got all, they got presidency, they got the Senate,

they got the house, they got everything. And here in California, they have, they have it, they have it all. You do not need to pass a law here in California

with the Republican. I don't know if you know that. I don't know if you know that. In California, we do know. Okay. And what changes have been made in education for black people?

What, you know, I don't know if you've seen those articles where black children can't pass a standardized test, and instead of them making the effort to make those changes and to help them, they want to lower standards, get rid of Ds and Eps versus saying, let's come in and help.

That is like the express definition of forgetting about us. Yeah, they're too busy buying tanks for the police. Now, look, look, that I think school choice is not going to help those black schools either, by the way. I think telling all the black kids that would be going to Hamilton, just go to Beverly. I definitely don't think school choices to answer there. But I'm going to ask you one last question because, Tamika, you've been an amazing sport.

And although we disagree, I'm going to tell you something. I get the sense that you're a good human being, which I cannot say for a lot of the people that I'm running across right now on the right, I'll be honest with you. I think we have some disagreements, some fundamental disagreements that might allow me have you over for dinner before I punch for, before I voted for you, but I think You would vote for me and you would have me over.

I think that we could work. I think that you're the type of person I feel like I could work with. So this That's what it's all about. So the interview is success, but I'll ask you one last thing. You've mentioned Joe Biden a couple of times. Joe Biden ran on a couple of things. Number one, Joe Biden

ran on voting rights ensuring voting rights for black people. Joe ran on the violence, the Justice and Policing Act. Okay. Joe Biden ran on the Build Back Better Plan, the Bill Back Better Plan, which has several provisions in it,

especially the $3.5 trillion version of the Bill Back Better Plan, of course, as soon as it got trimmed down to the, like, the, you know, those two versions of the Build Back Better Plan. It was like the Al Roker before and after. The big Bill Back Better Plan, the big Al Roker plan had all kinds of things. Big Luther. Little Luther.

Big Luther. Little Luther. That's what was. The little one, they had to trim a lot of stuff. that would have helped people out. All three of those things that have provisions in them, one that has provisions in there for black people. And I'm not a huge fan of the president. I've said people that listen to this podcast know this.

One, two, there are specifically for black people are being blocked by your party. They're being like, Manchin isn't allowing some of the stuff to go forth. But the Republicans are filibustering, voting rights. And police reform. You are a Republican. And black people look at that and can't help but feel like the Republican Party is at cross. And we haven't even gotten into reproductive rights.

We don't have enough time. We haven't gotten into reproductive rights. I need to come back. We haven't gotten into the tax code. We haven't gotten into any of these stuff. There's a lot. Immigration, health care. There's a lot.

Immigration, health care, all of that stuff. But just on these issues that. that they campaigned on that were specific for black people, the Republicans don't want voting rights legislation. How in the world are we supposed to, how are we supposed to make sense of that? How can we reconcile that as black people? Okay.

So let me, I got, I need to, we need to come, I need to come back. I need to come back. Because that's like another, that's another 30 minutes. And I'm going to send you some stuff too, okay, if that's okay. I'm down with the literature. This is higher learning, baby. Okay, okay, okay.

And then you send me some stuff too. You send me some stuff. I'm going to see you some stuff. I'm saying some stuff by my favorite author, Carl Marks. Rachel, how do you deal with this man? I don't. See, I have learned the art of tuning band out, and you come back, Temeca, you will soon learn that as well. Look, I would say one of the biggest things that I really appreciate.

about both of you is that this opens up dialogue that America is missing. You guys are, it really is. I know you probably think, I'm just my little podcast. Well, I don't say a little, because you know, black people would get something people call it a little real quick.

Right, right. Like, why are we doing that? Like, no, this is my podcast. Like, but we have an opportunity to talk about, like, the things that matter most. And for me, it's like getting back to the basics, getting back to what is the essence of who we are and that's our freedom that's believing in God.

And I apologize if you know for those that don't. But it's about the family structure. It's about getting back to, you know, being able to live a life and be free. And being free looks different for everybody. But right now we're at a point right now in our nation that Americans cannot live a life that they want to live because of the overreaching government. the high freaking taxes, gas prices are through the roof. I'm making life decisions at the gas take because we got $5 gas out here.

And there's so much it needs to be worked on. And I just want to be a part of the solution. And I'm just a regular person. I'm a mom of five. You know, I'm just a regular woman just trying to do the best that I can for people. And these kinds of moments are special because it's bringing us back together. And so, and this was so desperately needed, even, you know, though we might not always agree. And, you know, one of the things I will say, and then I'm a look, and then I know you guys got to stop, you know, stop the recording.

But when you find out new information, I think that it's so important to come back and be like, look, my mind is changing. There's so many things about me have changed in the past three years because of what I've learned. And one of the biggest things of politicians, I feel like, instead of them saying, you know what, you know, I was wrong on this, they double down, you know, Yeah, of course. They do their heels. And so that's, I'm trying to bring, I'm, I'm bringing the leadership that I've learned that as a leader, you have to be able to move and change as you get new information and do the best you can to help people.

And for me, it's making those conversations with people that on the other side, but I don't really think Van, you and I are that much, that much different. Oh, to make. Oh, no, no. No, I think we'll think more like than he probably won't admit. But anyway, I just really, really appreciate all of you, both of you, excuse me, for giving me its opportunity. And I do want to come back on because like all that, the latter end of the conversation, that's like another 30 minutes. Sure.

No, we'll be looking to have you. Happy to have you come back on because, you know, a lot of times we get tired of just saying, hey, blah, blah, blah, like scaring. It's good to have conversations. Absolutely. where you don't always agree so you can, you know, see just how much more rights you are than the other side. Now, for anyone that is captivated by you, tell them where they can come and get more Tamika Hamilton. Okay, so you can go, he said get some more Tamika Hamilton. Vote tamika.org.

You spell my name, T-A-M-I-K-A. It's not with no C. It's not with a bunch of E's, you know, Mohampton-Spelling. And was it vote at Tamika for Congress on Instagram Tamika Hamilton on was it on Twitter and that's where you and I

chit chatted. But yeah so I just like again thank you so much it's just all about having those conversations Yeah thank you Thank you so much for joining us Tamika That is Tamika Hamilton You guys she gave you all of her information

Put your thing caps on And make sure you go out there and learn more All right we're going to come back Transport your senses with Sol de Janeiro's limited edition perfume mist collection at Sephora. Sprits on lush notes of rainforest orchid and crisp sea breeze with have fresco paraizzo. Embrace a floral and fruity scent inspired by Rio's nude beach with chiqui bikini or capture sun-kissed bliss with immonada gelada jolada, where zesty Brazilian lemonade accord meets coconut milk and golden brown sugar. Don't miss Sol de Janeiro's limited edition perfume mist collection only at Sephora.

This episode is brought to by Paramount Plus. Beth and Rip are back in a new series. Dutton Ranch. Kelly Riley and Colehous are returned, and this time they're taking on Texas. As Beth and Rip build a future together, peace will have to wait as they face corruption, danger,

and a ruthless rival ranch, willing to protect its secrets at all costs. Legacy is a beautiful thing, but only if it survives. Dutton Ranch starring Colehouser, Kelly Riley. Annette Benning and Ed Harris, now streaming on Paramount Plus. All right, she was good.

What did you think about Tamika? Would you vote for Tamika? No. No, I wouldn't vote for her. But Tamika's nice and she's more than welcome to come back. And we can hash some of this out. But yeah, she's lovely. She was lovely.

Look at it. Here's the thing. Is there a chance? How about this? At this point right now, I couldn't vote for Tamika. But if I was a politician, Tamika is the type of person on the other side of the aisle that I would love to have the opportunity to work with. because you don't think that you would at least be able to get something done with somebody

that was willing to listen to your argument. I don't think, I don't agree with a lot of the ideas and you don't either, but maybe we work together, you know? Yeah, I could see why you would think, you know,

you could at least have great conversations with her, but her hesitation in answering some answers lets me know that she would stand on the party line. Yeah, sure. And, and you know, I say I would have her over for dinner, but only her,

you know. I just can't have to post. The kids? Go to the crib. Nah, the kids could come, but a husband, the police. I don't know, like, you know, I mean, everything around here is legal, I think. But he seems like a very nice guy, but I can't have him around here looking through shit. He might plant him.

That's what he would do. That's what he would do. You can't trust the police. He might plan something. He's from Sacramento, too. They really, I'm serious about that. We don't know if he's from Sacramento. They poison Kobe for real.

Okay. That's a true story. Okay. You don't believe me. Joe Rogan. We got to name it. When you laugh about something ridiculous that someone says, we got to name this segment.

Wait, wait, wait, wait. I want to name this segment. I want to name this segment. I knew it. The name of this segment is, is it fucked up? Okay. So Joe Rogan was on his podcast, Joe Rogan, who is the second most notable podcast here at Spotify,

second to higher learning, of course. Clearly. he was talking to Jordan Peterson, who I'm not going to explain who Jordan Peterson is, either you know who he is or you're not, he's a big, big deal. And this conversation was had between the two of them. Donnie wrote the sound. Depending on who you ask, either you're a voice of reason and rationality and personal responsibility, or you're a voice of intolerance and bigotty.

and anger and hateful, sexual oppression, prejudice. Eric Dyson call you and mean, angry white man. Yeah, and a mean angry white man. Yeah, yeah. You're not mean at all. That's what's dumb about that statement. You're not mean at all. I am white. Actually, that's a lie too.

I'm kind of tan. And he was actually not black. He was sort of brown. Because I'm darker than you. Yeah, yeah. That's ridiculous. But neither of us are white. Well, I'm Italian.

And he was brown, not black. Wow. Isn't that weird? Yeah, it's really weird. The black and white thing is so strange because the shades are so... Tanned and brown. There's such a spectrum of shades of people. Unless you're talking to someone who is like 100% African from the darkest place

where they're not wearing any clothes all day and they've developed all that melanin to protect themselves from the sun. You know, even the term black is weird. And when you use it for people that are literally my color. Donnie, that's enough. Is it fucked up, Rachel? Absolutely. Two white men talking about what it is to be black is something that I never want to hear. I never want to hear that again. Just listen. Like my skin was crawling, just listening to them define what, like to talk about, to talk about the meaning of black and you don't even have a black person sitting at the table. Now, I mean, granted, they could have had a Camel and he might have jumped in on the conversation and been like, you're absolutely right. I'm not black. I'm a father. Is he father? I don't know how I was about to.

A father. A father. A human being, whatever it is. A man, whatever it is, he says. Anyways, it's absolutely fucked up. I don't listen to Joe Rogan. I don't know if you do. But it seems like lately he is constantly in the media

for saying something problematic. And this one really got to me talking about, what did he say, unless you're from Africa, the darkest. What did he say? What did he say? The darkest part of Africa where people have to have melanin to survive. And they're walking around naked. I mean, just the way that he's talking about the African people describing what it is to be black,

not even acknowledging that maybe I should have to talk to someone who is black and they can explain to me why they like to be called black rather than assuming for themselves and saying what they want to be called. Okay, that's great for you. But can you understand the meaning of the word black? We literally had a conversation about African American and black on the last podcast, and we talked about what we would rather be called and why. Being black is more than just the color of my skin. It's symbolic.

It connects me to my history, my heritage, my culture. And I would explain that if I had a seat at the table. And I would hope that he would be open-minded enough to hear it. But instead, he wanted to speak on behalf of black people and tell and say, quote, it's weird that we want to be called black. So offensive. So, you know, Joe Rogan is the biggest podcaster in the world. And it's by, it's like when comparing podcasts, when you're talking to other

podcasters and people who are talking about podcasts, like they throw Rogan out. Like we don't even talk about the numbers are so crazy on the Joe Rogan podcast that it's such an anomaly. It's like Neo, right? If you're fighting everybody in the Matrix, you're thinking, we're not going to get a fuck about Neo because if Neo shows up, over. I fight Morpheus. I fight Trinity, all the agents, stuff, need, whatever. So he's that big. He's huge. He's, in a way, I've heard a comedian say

that he is there Johnny Carson for this generation. Now, people don't remember Johnny Carson, your career as a comedian used to be made when you went on Johnny Carson's The Tonight Show and his bit. And it carried on a little bit into Jay Leno was a little bit less significant, but they say that now that Joe Rogan is a career maker like that. For of mine went on Rogan, Jason Wilson from the Cave of Vidalum, the Transitional Training Academy down there up there in Michigan. After we went on the Rogan show, his followers went up 150,000. So Joe Rogan, like Joe Rogan is a gigantic, huge, huge thing.

The reason why I say that is because we're having an ongoing narrative in America about how much cultural education the country actually needs, right? An ongoing dialogue about that. We're talking about CRT. We're talking about certain books being taught in schools. And there's a faction of Americans that would say to you that we don't need any more, that we get the point. We understand we got it. When I look at the biggest communicator in the landscape of podcasting, the largest communicator in the landscape of the podcast game, be so complete.

completely out of his depth when discussing race, culture, and even actually present day Africa. When I listen to somebody who I can get the top part of that started off pretty good. These guys, this is the, that's the complete American blueprint of ignorance, right? They don't think they're racist. They don't think they're sexually repressive. They don't think any of that, right? That's what they said at the beginning. All that stuff is dumb.

It sucks. It's bad. And then they go in. to put those comfortable ethnocentric pajamas on and wear them as if they never took them off, right? Like they always are in them, right? And I'm less mad about it than I am just vindicated. I'm like, okay, for people that wonder why we are so adamant about having this education begin when kids are young, having this education begin where their minds are still malleable and pliable.

still get in there, it's because it is. So now being black is actually about whether or not you're from the deepest, darkest part of Africa where people don't even wear any clothes anymore. Exactly. Like, so all of the history that I connect to being a black man, what that word actually means. We're talking about pan-Africanism, the black power movement worldwide. We're talking about people who have defined black as, black is beautiful. I'm black and I'm proud. All of those things. All of that stuff has to do with like now they're saying it's the color of this iPad and if you're not that you don't agree with that it's weird it's a weird thing to do on its face if you're saying hey black people aren't actually black there's something different than that well no shit doc my

sister like my sister looks about the same as you guys but the word means more to us and like exactly and by the way that might not be historically the best thing it wasn't a word that we came up with. But at the same time, it carries a lot of way now. And you would think that a guy that, like Joe Rodan, would show some sort of understandings or maybe even a little cultural deference to that. And the fact that they didn't was pretty telling. Well, and that's what I thought. It's like, is that what happens on the show? Because you were just spewing this, this type of information out there without trying to understand a whole other side of it. Just talking just to talk as two white men when you can relate at all to the black experience or why people even want to be called that.

That wasn't even a question. It wasn't even a, hey, I wonder why black people call themselves black. Maybe I should bring somebody black on to talk about it. Well, and see, Rogan has, so I got to, so the thing about Rogan is, and I think one of the things that makes this podcast fascinating is, I just told you that Jason Wilson was on the podcast. who runs a transitional training facility for black and brown boys. And if you talk to Jason, I'm not sure how he felt about this. He's one of my mentors. I'm not sure how he felt about this particular clip.

But going on, Rogan was one of the biggest moments in his life because it allowed the message that he had and support for the cave of a dome to go through the roof. So, I mean, you know, if you're familiar enough with Rogan, he has black people on there all the time. him and Dave Chappelle are like best friends. I'm not saying he doesn't. No, but the only thing I'm saying is that he's kind of like water a little bit. Like he has like if he's on there

with with Jordan Peterson this is kind of what you get. If he's on there with Jason Wilson, it's kind of going to be a little bit. And I think that's one reason why people like he's had Cornell West on there before. Like him and Cornell West had like an hour and hour now. I listened to it. It was like an hour and a half, two hour conversation

on the Joe Rogan podcast. So this was insanely ignorant, though. So he said he's like water. So does he just adapt to whatever the conversation is depending on what he's talking to? Kind of. He's not about it's not a podcast where he's going to necessarily challenge you. He's trying to make sure that the conversation stays on a certain wavelength. For example, he had Candace Owens on there.

And there were times that he disagreed with her several times that he disagreed with her on the podcast. but he did it in a way that was that made her comfortable to continue to talk about he never wants you to like clam up and stop communicating that's kind of not how he runs this podcast in this situation right here though this was a very collegial a very polite really really racially insensitive and fucked up convoy that he was happening right now and the most the as far as to limit our culture to our skin color number one you're not really black. And then what he said about the continent of Africa is hovering around

shithole country territory. Right. A little bit. Like, Yep. Yep. Yeah. Not the finest moment of the Joe Rogan podcast right there.

All right. Look, let's go to Mailback. You know, we got a lot of other stuff we could talk about. But our conversation with Black Republican, Tomika Hamilton was so good. Yeah.

I think it's time to go to Melbaq. Mel back. Donnie, like run the song. Mailback time. Time to read your letters And then we'll reply To them Oh

It's mailback time Write us with your queries And we'll Chime in Okay Look, don't have a lot of time Get the questions out, go, go, go, go Melbaq time, go, go, go

Real fast. Lola.Aanthonia asks move to a city with more black people, but it's cold or move to a city with no black people, and it's always warm. Okay, obviously we're going to be around black people. We can keep each other warm. We'll be fine.

That's you. I live in a cold for nobody. Okay, okay. Straight like that. You know what I'm saying? You won't last long. I'm not living in. the cold for no one.

You're going to be living in a cold world being the only black person there. I figure it out. At least, look, at least out. Look, look. Not in true. How many days y'all get mad in this world? I'll figure it out.

I'll figure it out. I literally will be Lisa Turtle for the rest of my life if it means living in the cold place. I'm not doing it. I'm never moving to the cold again. I was Lisa Turtle. You were Lisa Turtle. I'll be Lisa Turtle for the rest of my life.

I am, I'm not, bro. I look at you. I judge y'all. I judge y'all for wrapping your fucking necks up in scarves and like putting on all those layers. I judge you guys. Okay. Like to go outside, you mean to tell me, you may tell me you want to go to the grocery store. Think about this.

You live in the cold. You want to go to the grocery store. That's all you want to do. There's a coat to the grocery store. You got to put on an Aver X jacket or Norface. You got to put on a fucking scully. You got to put on a fucking sweater. You got to put on lawns just to go get some UDRAS.

Those and noodles. I'm not doing all that. Instacart. Whatever. I'm from Louisiana. I'm not, I came from here and I moved here. I'm not going to live in the cold, man.

Okay. Not for me. All right. Well, I'll make it work with them. Them. What's the next question? All right. Total underscore K.O.

underscore 57 asks, did Rachel let her ex-boyfriends know she was going to talk about them in her book? The ones I talked to I did. Absolutely. I'm still cool with a couple of my exes. Now the one, the last one I had, we don't talk at all. So no. But I changed their names.

Okay, there's a, there's a blurb at the top of the book that's like the names have been changed to protect the identities and some characteristics that have been changed as well. So I changed nobody's name in my book. Okay. I changed nobody's name in my book. Like, so you, so me tell me, you like, you pulled a Corinne Steffens? No. You did, you did confessions of a video of Disney. No.

But our stories are not the same. They're not the same. I told stories of past relationships, sure. Same thing she did. She told her truth to the whole world. And that's what I did. And that's what you're going to do later this year too. Yeah, but I don't have any like what, see, I haven't read the book yet.

Do you have like juicy ex-boyfriend stories in there and shit? Yeah. And you didn't tell them you were putting them in there? Yeah. One of them was like, good. The one I'm cool with was like, great. I'm glad I could help you. Did you?

So there's one guy who's going to pick it up and like read about how much of the The way that he is, he was like, do you not ever mention my name in public? Don't talk about me. He's never going to read it. He's always, yeah, no. Did he go to the NFL? His sister might. His sister might.

Did he go to the NFL? Yeah. How many years did he play? You're not going to be able to deduce who this is just by. You're out of your mind. He played at Texas. He played three years. I don't say he played in Texas.

Oh, okay. if I don't know the school, I can't do it. If I do the school, I can definitely do it. I'll give you Texas in three years and that's it. He played at Texas and he played three years in the NFL. I'm going to figure this house. Actually, I think that's in the book, though. I actually think that's in the book.

I don't know if I said the three years. If you figure it out, wait, wait, wait. And you say, let's bet. If you figure it out. I could easily, and you say you like big guys, right? So he was on the, he was either on the D line or he was on the O line. It's going too far. Johnny asked the next question, but seriously, I want to, I can figure it out.

I want to, if you figure it out, we're good, there, we got to have, we got to put something on this. We got to put something on it. Oh, I don't know. We'll figure it out. We'll figure it out. Let the thought warriors come up. Come up with what we're going to put on this bet. I will figure it out, though.

But I will never, I will never publicly say who it is. That's fine. That's fine. That's fine. The thought lawyers don't even try it. All right. Forever underscore yours 422 asks, will we, ever get an episode with Brian and Kalika.

Sure. Whenever. Yeah. We just got to plan it. I got to be honest with you. Forever yours 422. That's like not that's really not what we're looking for in Melbaq. No. That's a good question. We're not really looking. No. That's a good question. We've had family day.

We said we're going to do sibling day. We got to do significant other day. So it's a good question. But like that's too. It's not introspective enough for what I would consider Melbaq to be. You are really being picky today. I'm saying. That's a question. Next question.

This is a more introspective question. Caitlin underscore R underscore Kent asked if y'all met as kids, would you be friends? Absolutely. Absolutely, we would have been friends. I think so. I think so. I was always friends with the girls like Rachel in like when I was a kid. Whoa, whoa, whoa.

Who are the girls like Rachel? describe the girls like Rachel. Tramika Johnson. No, no, no. Don't name them. Okay. Melanie. Tramika Johnson. Melanie Johnson.

Melanie Johnson. Angela Flowers. You know, the girls that came, they came from good stock. You know what I mean? They came from like a, they had like, Rashaonda Moncrief.

You know, they came from a good family. Rashonda Moncrief's dad owned the radio stations. I always knew how to be friends with those girls. You know what I'm saying? So you use, you use, not use them because it wasn't nothing like that it was all it was almost like you know it's like

yeah your dad's sidney mawkrieve he owns the whole radio station joint you got like a lake in the back of your crib hey man i tell you what don't nobody fuck with her i always be friends with you your dad is a federal judge like do you know what my family like do you know what knowing a federal judge would be worth to my family what my uncle ray did 10 years straight fed time imagine if i could tell my uncle ray yo actually i know a federal judge that might actually be able to make a couple of calls on your that you want my dad to lose his position. Oh, I want your dad to have a pen out.

You want him to be impeached. You sound like, no, whenever we go to family unions, my cousins are always asking questions like that. That's so funny. You know what? That's crazy, though. You know why that is? It's because we don't know no judges.

Like, we don't know no judges. Like, really, we might know one judge in the whole time. That was Janice Clark was a judge in the whole town. Every black person knew the same judge. But your daddy was a judge. We're going to use that. I call him over parking tickets. You know, he's a federal judge.

Should Joe Biden, should Joe Biden choose not to appoint or nominate a black woman, you know, Sam Lindsay's always available. You can go ahead and. Would that be nuts if your dad went to the Supreme Court? So probably when the Senate was figuring out to confirm him, they probably bring up all of my shit. Oh, that's your daughter. That's your daughter?

Never mind. You have an unexpected ally of the week? I'm going to go ahead and give it to Bravo for them getting rid of old Jenny. Because what's Jenny's last name? Is it Jenny when? I watch. I watched Real Housewives of Salt Lake City. I like Jenny on the show, but you never know the secret lives of people.

And if you don't follow this, She is new to season two of Real Housewives of Salt Lake City. They unearthed some problematic social media behavior where she talked about Black Lives Matters. She called them thugs. She talked about running over rioters. The list goes on and on and on. Bravo made the right decision.

I feel in removing her as a cast member because it became problematic with her and the other cast members that were offended. And the viewers fit about what she said. So, you know, Bravo to Bravo. Yeah, I actually had to. the same thing. I didn't know anything about her, but I thought that taking that step was necessary. I think sometimes, you know, I'm not the biggest fan of people losing their jobs

for things that they said, but I wouldn't want to be around her. Fuck all that. Yeah. All right. That is enough for today. Thank you for Tamika Hamilton for joining us today. Thank you to our producers, Donnie Beecham Jr. and Trudy. No, Trudy Joseph. Thank you. Thank you, Trudy. Trudy. Trudy Joseph. Tell you thinking caps off, but do not stop learning.

I am Van Lathen, Jr. I'm Rachel and Lindsay. Bye, guys.