Higher Learning with Van Lathan and Rachel Lindsay - The Epstein Files, AIPAC and Gerrymandering with Rep. Ro Khanna

Episode Date: September 2, 2025

Rep. Ro Khanna returns to talk AIPAC’s role in politics, the release of the Epstein files and what he thinks of the gerrymandering debate.  (0:00)  Intro (0:46)  AIPAC’s influence (6:07)  Releasing the Epstein files (15:14)  The gerrymandering fight (25:29)  Israel and Benjamin Netanyahu Host: Van Lathan Jr. and Rachel Lindsay Guest: Rep. Ro Khanna Producer: Donnie Beacham Jr. and Ashleigh Smith Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

We're delighted to have Representative from California's 17th congressional district, someone who is really increasing their public platform as of late. That's because you mentioned me. Deputy Assistant Secretary in the United States Department of Commerce

under Barack Obama, 2009 to 2011, it seems like 1,500 years ago. Congressman Roe Kana joins us today on Higher Learning. How are you doing? Great. I'm honored to be here. This is where it happens. This is where the magic happens. We're happy to have you.

I want to talk to you about a couple of things. Of course, we're going to talk to you about your ongoing efforts, transparency as relates to Jeffrey Epstein. But I do want to bring up something I just saw on Twitter earlier today, a back and forth between you and APEC. Yeah. We have been having a conversation here on our show about the power of AAC as a foreign lobby and just how many of the elected officials.

on both sides seem to be beholden to APEC. Right. They accused you of some stuff. You said some stuff to them. I would have let it slide. Then I heard your hole, I don't want fighters, I want killers spill. Right.

We need to push back on principle. What are you pushing back against when you push back against APEC? I mean, here's their standard tactic. All I said is that we do not need to be giving military weapons to Israel right now to kill civilians. 27 Democratic senators voted with Bernie Sanders on that. And I said, and I'm leading, and they don't like this, the letter to recognize a Palestinian state.

No Hamas, but a Palestinian state. 147 countries have done that. France has done that. UK is doing that. Canada is doing that. Australia is doing that. You ask, why do we need to do that now? Because Ben Gavir, Netanyahu, Smokr, are trying to erase the people.

Palestinian identity. They are trying to expand settlements. They are expanding settlements in the West Bank, and they are pushing people in Gaza out of Gaza. That's their stated goal. And so we don't recognize a Palestinian state now. There's not going to be a hope of having a Palestinian state. And because that is crossing the red line for APEC, they say, well, I'm reciting Hamas talking points. Why would Hamas be for a Palestinian state without Hamas? Obviously, it's not Hamas. talking points, but they smear you, they intimidate you. Now, why are they trying to intimidate me? Because they're saying, if you're in Congress and you get on this kind of letter, we're going to come after you. If you have higher aspirations to run for the Senate or governor or you're even

thinking about 2028, we're going to come after you. You may have a secure seat, but if you have higher aspirations, we're going to come after you. So you know what? Just keep your head under the table. Don't speak out. Why risk your political career over this? You know, okay, you don't agree with us. Just don't make noise. Go fight Trump. Go talk about something else. Just don't get your hands dirty with this. And we'll give you a pass. And they're basically trying to give any future Democratic leader, they're instill fear in them. And that's why they need to be pushed back against. When we look at the list of people that are, that have taken large monies from AIPAC, it is a lot of the biggest names in the party. And that's on both sides. It's a lot of biggest names of the party.

It's like the gentleman from Missouri, Wesley Lowry, is $12 million from APEC in order to win that race there. The money seems to be insurmountable. And it seems that everyone is basically wrapped up in this. So the question is, how does someone like yourself or other people, how do they get past that lobby that has a stranglehold, it seems, on American politics? One, by calling for no super PACs in Democratic primaries. The DNC should pass this resolution, no super PAC money in Democratic primaries of any kind. They took out Cory Bush. They took out my friend, Jamal Bowman by pouring in millions of dollars. Second, the politics have changed, even from 2024. Now there is a grassroots mobilized group of people who are willing to support you

if you're willing to show that you're not beholden to super PAC money or special interest money. That's how Zoran won in New York. And more people will see that overcoming big money through a grassroots mobilization effort is possible. The third thing is you don't have to demonize every individual person in APEC. What we're saying is no super PAC money. And there are a lot of people who used to be part of APEC who don't agree with their defense of Ben-Givir's Motritch, Netanyahu, and where APEC made a mistake, where they made a mistake, and where Netanyahu made a mistake, is they picked a fight with the greatest president, modern president

in this country, Barack Obama, and they made it personal, and they made it partisan. They did not have to undermine President Obama. They did not have to undermine the Iran nuclear deal. They did not have to pick a fight with the first African American president in this country. And they were, you know, presidents' hands were tied back then. Politics had changed. But some of us have a long memory. And people think that that Yahoo's made, is also killing thousands of people. That's it. I know how you feel about SuperPax, but should anybody be taking money from APEC because of the influence that they have any politician? Well, it's certainly not SuperPAC money.

Now, if someone is affiliated with APEC and they're giving someone money because they agree with them on gun violence or on other issues, I mean, I don't think, you know, we should be defining someone just because they're part of an organization. but they should not be taking money for any cause that is related to Apex advocacy for the policies that they're advocating right now. 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-withdrawable and expires seven days after receipt.

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doctor about trim fire. Tap this ad to learn more about trim fire, including important safety information. Let's talk about Epstein. This is an issue that seems to be a thorn in the side of President Trump. Maybe getting a little less thorny now. He's been able to significantly fuck up the country enough so that maybe people are paying attention to other things. You have latched onto it and seemed to be ratcheting enough the pressure on it.

Why is it so important to you now? when some would say that it wasn't an issue that had really motivated you in the last couple of years. With Elijah Cummings on oversight in 2019, I had called for an investigation of Epstein and the victims. And Elijah Cummings was leading that in 2019. That's on X. And under President Biden, there were two times that the court ordered release of documents took place. Then Donald Trump comes into power. And he says, look, we're going to release all the Epstein files. You don't hear anyone criticize him on the Democratic side. Pam Bondi goes on TV, says we're going to release the client list.

And then they do a release and there's no client list and they say, let's just move on. Well, this goes to transparency in government. This goes to the idea of trust in government. Why does it matter to me? Because we can't have trust in government be further eroded. If you want to do things like I do with Medicare for All and free public college and trade schools and raising the wage, you need people to believe in government. So what I said is I teamed up with Thomas Massey and I said, let's just release all of the files.

But I talked to the lawyers for the victims. I said, what do they want? And what Thomas Massey and are doing on September 3rd, on the steps of the Capitol for the first time, 10 of the victims of Epstein are actually going to talk about what they want. And what they're going to ask for is the release of the files without any victim's identity. And they deserve that closure. This is about transparency. We have 12 Republicans, by the way, on the bill. Marjorie Taylor Green, Lauren Bobert.

It's not partisan. It's about disclosure. I think you should keep your foot on their necks when it comes to this. But I also understand the sentiment from some people who are like, look, are we focusing too much on this? Because there's so many other things that they're doing and it feels like a bit of a distraction. What would you say to that? It's not a distraction to get people to trust government again. The whole Trump campaign, in my view, was that this country wasn't working, isn't working for a lot of people. They see the wealth in my district, five companies over a trillion dollars, 14 trillion of wealth.

And they're like, our kids can't get a house. Our kids can't get a good job. Jobs left. And so they see this Donald Trump. He says, I'm going to blow the whole system up. The system isn't working. And they say, yeah, let's blow the whole system up. Now, how are we going to overcome that kind of nihilism, that kind of despair, that kind of anger if we don't restore trust?

The Epstein Files has become a symbol for trust. Are you going to basically have a government captured by rich and powerful men who've abused young girls, or are they going to be brought to justice? And people are saying, what hold do these rich and powerful people have on the most powerful country in the world that they're preventing somehow the release of the these files. Why? What is the power that has taken over our government? And so the release of these files is not a panacea. It's a first step to restoring trust. And trust is a predicate to standing up for Medicaid, Medicare, Social Security, the role of government in American life. Do you think there's any chance that President Trump's involvement with Epstein is in any way do you think that the president of the United States himself has ever engaged in the activity that some of the other people in these files have engaged in?

Do you think that President Trump in any way at any time with Jeffrey Epstein has ever abused young girls, subjected young girls to abuse by Maxwell and Epstein? Do you think he's hiding past behavior or do you think he's embarrassed because his name is associated with that behavior? I have no idea because I haven't seen the files. That's the truth. And we should get the files. My guess is that he's more concerned about embarrassment, which he said to him or his buddies, about, you know, why if they've shown up at parties or other things. And he doesn't want this to be out.

But he campaigned on it being out. He campaigned on letting that information come out. And I think the more they hide it, the worst off it is for him. Oh, go ahead. Well, I was going to say how useful do you think it will be if, because it's been reported that the FBI has redacted Trump's name from some of the files. I don't know for all the files. I know you haven't seen it. So how useful will it be if Trump's names already redacted from these files or is this beyond him at this point?

It's beyond him. I am not doing this to go after Donald Trump. The American people have made up their minds about Donald Trump's character. Like I don't think there's some silver bullet smoking gun, bombshell that's going to come out of the Epstein. that suddenly there's going to be a revelation in this country that someone who's convicted of 34 felonies and has had all the scandals that somehow people are going to think differently. The issue is that there are hundreds of other men, rich and powerful men, who abused girls and have had no consequence.

And the question is, why are they being protected? What is there? Why is this information not coming out? Now, if there's Trump's name in there, that should come out, everything should come out. everything should come out. But the point is that, and you wouldn't have 12 Republicans on this, you won't have Comer subpoenaing if this was some kind of anti-Trump issue. And that's why this is such an effective issue for the American people and for Democrats, because it's not partisan. It's not anti-Trump. It's pro the American public. It's getting us on the side of the American

people who were suspicious of government, who felt government wasn't working for them, and saying, you know what, the Democrats are actually for you, along with Republicans, and this is how we're going to win back trust from the American people. Do you think there's any chance that Jeffrey Epstein was a foreign intelligence asset, as some people speculate? And that might be some of the reason why he's received some of the protection he has by so many powerful people? Again, not seeing the files, I don't know, but what I will say is this. I don't dismiss people who say that foreign governments could have been involved,

that funding could have come from foreign governments. Those are legitimate questions. And people saying, oh, this is conspiratorial. Well, release the files. Get the information out there. How does this guy go from becoming a schoolteacher to having the kind of money he did? Who funded him? Where is the money?

Those are very, very legitimate questions. And what is the role of foreign governments in this? I don't want to prejudge it. But I also don't dismiss people who are raising those questions. Why on earth? Does it make President Trump so uncomfortable? It has been almost impossible to make him uncomfortable. It's the one thing I'm going to talk about Gavin Newsom in a second about how you feel like.

It's the one thing that it seems like Gavin Newsom and his antics are doing now. We're seeing maybe some cracks in it. But this has been the thing that has most obviously kind of got Donald Trump on the back foot. And if there's no involvement, if he's clean, then I don't. understand why that would be the case. I don't either because this is so central to his base. What other issue in the last 10 years since Donald Trump has been on the scene have you had people in MAGA like Marjorie Taylor Green, Lauren Bober, Tim Burchardt, Comer criticizing Donald Trump on and calling for Trump to do something other than what he's doing? I honestly can't

think of one. I mean, maybe there's some other issue that I'm not thinking about, but this is the first time that the MAGA base has turned on. You would have thought they would have turned on him when he wanted to cut health care for the working class. You would have thought they would turn on him when he wanted to give tax breaks to the billionaires. You would have thought they would have turned on him when he didn't stand up to Putin and just wanted to give Ukraine's land to Putin. Now, they've basically gone ahead with everything he's wanted to do. This is the first time. And I don't understand for the life of me why he doesn't release the files unless there's something that's embarrassing either to him, to his family, to his buddies.

And, you know, the reality is he's gotten away with breaking so many promises. He probably thought, I'll just break this one too. You know, it's like, let's move on. They'll come around. But for this reason, he hasn't been able to. Did you know about one in three people with plaques psoriasis may also develop. up 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, gusalcumab 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 trimfaya. Tap this ad to learn more about trimfaya, including important safety information. This episode is brought to you by Sweet Cream. The date doesn't ask for permission. Lunch

window? Gone before you saw you. coming. You deserve a break that actually satisfies. Sweet Green's new wraps have got you. Real ingredients, zero shortcuts, everything you love in one hand. Think green goddess chicken, garlic aoli, crumbled bacon, corn salsa, 40 grams of protein made to keep up with whatever comes next. New sweetgreen wraps hit different. Order now at order.com. We had Nina Turner on the podcast. I love Senator and we talked a lot about gerrymandering. And she has a totally different stance in regards to what. She called me.

And that's where I'm going with this question because she doesn't agree with what Governor Newsom wants to do in California. She doesn't like the reactionary move. Where do you stand on that? I support the governor. I put out a video supporting what the governor is doing and saying that progressives like me who voted for Bernie Sanders. I supported Bernie in 16 and 2020 should get behind the governor's effort. Look, I supported the independent redistricting when Schwarzenegger put it forward. I broke with my party back then.

I wasn't in elective office, but it was around the time when I was involved with Obama, and I thought it was right to support independent redistricting. But people have to understand the stakes. If I can just summarize it in 45 seconds of what they're trying to do, they're not just trying to have partisan gerrymandering. They're trying to go back before 1965. Jim Clyburn's seat, which they're trying to eliminate in South Carolina, he won that seat in 1992. You know the last time there was a black person in South Carolina before Jim Clyburn?

It was 1895. After the 1965 Voting Rights Act in 1970, they diluted the black vote so that South Carolina, even though it was 30 to 40 percent black didn't have a single black representative. In the 1980s redistricting, they diluted the black vote, not a single black representative. 1982, the Voting Rights Act gets strengthened to say you can't dilute the black vote. And the first time we have a black representative from South Carolina is when Bill Clinton gets elected 100 years after Reconstruction. And you're telling me that you want us to sit by and watch them eliminate people's seats like Jim Clyburn and Emmanuel Cleaver and the Black South and go after black majority

districts that we fought for in civil rights? Hell no. We're going to fight back. And that is all the governor is saying that this moment, we have to fight back. And yes, we'll go back to the Independent Commission after this moment, but we can't give them control of the Congress. Let's talk about the left a little larger here as we stay on the conversation that we had with Senator Turner. A lot of our audience was pissed off. They were mad. They were mad.

I know that. I respect Senator Turner. They were mad at our conversation with Senator Turner. I thought the idea that she had was interesting to talk about because a lot of times we have conversations, deep conversations about some of the fractures and ideology on the left. But it seems to me that what I got back from a lot of people who watched the show was that they are actually sick of a fractured Democratic Party. And they don't want to hear from anyone who they feel like is putting themselves before what the goals of the party and the left actually. are, which is defeating Trumpism, erasing MAGA and its influence on American politics and getting ice off the street, returning people to dignity, like getting the military

off the street. If you are talking about anything other than fighting directly that, they're not fucking with it. So I guess my question to you with that framing would be people like Senator Turner, who have, they have seen to have lost faith in the power establishment of the Democratic Party, people on the left who seem like

they have more smoke for Kamala Harris, Joe Biden, people like that, rather than for Trump. What do you do with them now? How do you re-engage people? How do the Democrats make people like Senator Turner, other people like that, the

far left wing, of the progressives, how do they get them back? What do you do to make people believe that you are a whole again that are working to end the problems that they are having and seeing right now on the streets? So I agree that the highest priority is a unified Democratic Party to fight this lawless president who is shredding the Constitution and destroying American institutions and American democracy. I mean, just last night, I was on Lawrence O'Donnell talking about what he did with the CDC, firing the CDC director. Kennedy basically has a edict that you can't have MRNA funded.

I mean, it's crazy. But, and that's why I went all over the country for President Biden in 2020, even though I was co-chair of the Bernie Sanders' campaign. That's why I went all over the country for Vice President Harris and I did whatever I could. And that's why I am supporting enthusiastically what Governor Newsom is doing on the redistricting. But the question is, if we want to do more than just stop Trump, if we want to actually build credibility to build a majority in the House, to win back the Senate, to win back the White House, is the status quo going to cut it? We've tried that. It's not. Right. The old

guard has got to go. People are part of the old establishment who've been in politics for 20, 30 years. You got named some names, bro. You got to name some names, bro. You have to, because let me tell you something. Shumer, we start with Schumer. Right. If you don't name some names, it's going to sound like the same blessing that we heard before. Look, look, we start with Schumer.

But here's my point. Have you been in a Democratic elected politics for 20, 30 years? And all you're offering right now is anti-Trump. I'm saying thank you for that fight. At least it's better than being status quo. But are you talking about the fact that this system was so broken the NAFTA hollowed out communities, that China and the World Trade Organization hollowed out communities, that we've got massive income inequality. Are you talking about taxing the billionaires in my district?

Are you talking about taxing the centi millionaires in my district? Are you talking about Medicare for all in universal health care? Are you willing to fight for free public college? Are you willing to fight for a thousand trade schools? Are you willing to fight for a Marshall Plan in communities that were deindustrialized? Do you have anything new to offer? Or are you going to run on, I am the best anti-Trump voice and we're going to have the same outcome that we had since Trump came down the escalator. You think we weren't anti-Trump enough? You think we didn't mock him enough? No, we didn't have enough of a vision for the people who said this country wasn't working for them. So, yes, we have to be unified. But some of us are saying that more in addition to being unified against

Trump is going to take a fresh vision. It's going to take new ideas and an understanding of a working class agenda. And if people feel that that, is being critical of a Democratic Party? Well, I think that they're resistant to the kind of reform and introspection that this party needs at 24 or 25% approval. I think you're completely right. And I think that's one of the reasons that our audience was disappointed with Nina Turner in the sense that she was saying these things, but then there was no, okay, so what's the plan? What's the action of it? What's the vision? So I would direct that question to you because I know, you're right. The status quo isn't going to work. It's why people were so upset with what Pete

Pete Buttigieg said when he was on a POD Save America because his answer was the status quo. People want more from that. People want killers, as you said at the top of this podcast. I'm quoting. I'm quoting. We want kids. Sorry, sorry. Don't put that all right. We want that. The people want that. That's what they need more. So what I'll ask you specifically. We asked you to name them. I get it. What specifically is the plan? Who is going to lead the vision? Who is going to organize? Is it you? Well, first of all, killers in my view, and we could have a conversation, does not mean, of course, and you clarified this violence. It also does not mean insult or anger. I believe Dr. King was a killer of a outdated, horrific ideology. He did it by inspiration, appeal to principle and intellect.

So the question is, when you say a killer, it means how are you going to win and how are you going to win and defeat? movement of extremism, despair, and nihilism. My belief is you not only need a new vision, you need specifics. Yes. You need a concrete specifics. Now, people disagree with me. They agree with me. But one thing I don't do is hide what I think. I'm very clear. I don't think Israel should be getting military weapons that killed civilians. I'm very clear that we should be recognizing a Palestinian state with no Hamas. I'm very clear that I'm for Medicare for all. I'm very clear that we should be taxing billionaires more in my district, that we should be taxing anyone over 100 million more with a wealth tax, that we should be having free public college,

that we should have child care at $10 a day, that we should have a thousand trade schools, that we need a White House Economic Development Council that looks at every community and says, how are we going to invest in new factories, new jobs, new industries in communities that have been hollowed out? You disagree with that. Put forward your own plan. Put forward your own ideas. just say, oh, we need new ideas. We need a new direction. We need no status quo. What? What are you going to do? What do you stand for? And then let's have that debate. And those people who say that the Democratic Party shouldn't have that debate are wrong. Yeah. We need to have a robust debate in the party so that we don't have the same stale ideas. You know, I'm tired of people being like, well, we need more roads, bridges and,

you know, how many times that we heard that speech? And then you go to like Johnstown, Pennsylvania. And they're like, those politicians have been talking about roads, bridges, and highways for the last 40 years. And my kids, they don't have a future. And Rose family, they just got here. And all those folks that we see in Silicon Valley, they're making all this money. What happened to us? What happened to our capital? That's what we got to be real.

Can you add canceling student loans to that place as well? I afford cancer. This episode is brought to you 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 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.

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Services not available in all areas. I got a couple more questions. The first thing I want to name something, you said that there should be a Palestinian state free of Hamas. I think most would agree with that, right? Should there be in Israeli state free of Nanyahu smotrish and Bingavir? Well, yes, but Israel should have democratic elections that they should elect whoever they want, just like Palestine, should have democratic elections without Hamas, which even the PLO has agreed that there should be a Palestinian election without Hamas.

So the reason why I'm asking you this question is because we understand that there are elections in Israel. But I'm talking about rhetorically here because if we're asking a rhetorical question, then the question we have to ask ourselves is, what does a society look like when the most extreme views in that society are elevated to power? And for better or for worse, that's what you have. Not for better or for worse. for worse, that's what you have in Israel. You have the far right wing of the government making the decisions with the capture over the top guy. And if anyone were to listen to Smolchrit or Bingavir or watch the way they, or the involvement in the settlements in the West Bank, how they view the Palestinians in Gaza, what their aims for. Their aims are to ethnic kings Gaza and to expand

settlements in the West Bank all the way until there are no more Palestinians there, to recapture Judea and Samaria. Those are their aims. So for me, I understand that they're elected. Yeah. But it seems that if there's going to be a lasting peace there, that voices like that shouldn't be around. Well, absolutely. We need more people in the tradition of Rabin, Perez, Barack, and people who wanted peace. So you say, well, we could talk about whether or not those people actually want to peace. Well, they made peace at least with Jordan and they made an effort with the hostile course. Yeah. But the point is, you're saying, what can the U.S. do?

Right. So we can insist that there's a free and fair elections in Palestine with the 22 Arab states and that that not include Hamas in the government. And I think the United States can actually facilitate that. We can also say to Israel that we are, if you want to have the United States support, you've got to be part of a process that recognizes a person. Palestinian state with the Arab countries, and you've got to stop the killing of civilians. Now, it's then Israel's decision who they want to elect. My guess is that they will understand

that it is not in their interest to be having a government of Gavir and Smokritch that has isolated them from the rest of the world. But they have to make that decision electorally. Gotcha. You know who we haven't talked about with Roe Conna? All of this. So, we haven't talked about black people, man. Ro. We did Jim Clyburn.

We did. Yeah. He's black. King counts. So you seem to be, let's be honest with you, seem to be gearing up to have a bigger presence in the party. Okay? I'm hearing Rochana's name everywhere.

Yeah, yeah, don't know, whatever. I'm hearing Rochana's name everywhere. The disparities that exist for me. black people in America continue. They're persistent. Wealth disparity, income disparity, job disparity. 300,000 black women have left the workforce, been forced out of the workforce since Donald Trump has taken over. What are you going to do as a national voice in this party to address specifically and intentionally the needs and concerns of the black Americans who's

lineage in this country is tilling the soil to make America into the richest country in the history of the world. What would Rokana do to address wealth disparity, to address food deserts, to address black maternal mortality, to address the fact that we're easier to kill, easier to keep poor, and easier than incarcerate in America? It's not just what I would do, it's what I have done. Because you can't say what someone will do if you don't know what they have done. I fundamentally believe that the Indian American community has a huge debt to the civil rights movement and the African American community in the South. My parents wouldn't have been allowed to come to America after 1965 if it weren't for the civil rights movement that led to

the Immigration Reform Act. Before the Immigration Reform Act of 65, basically if you were from India, China, Africa, you couldn't come to the United States in terms of who we allowed. And then when the Indian immigrants came here, Harvard and Stanford, Sanford, where I taught Yale, where I went to school, they didn't hire the Indian Americans. You know who hired them? The HBCUs. And you know where the civil rights movement got some inspiration? It was from people like my grandfather who spent four years in jail alongside Gandhi fighting for India's independence. That inspired people like Mordecai Johnson, who was president of Howard, who gives this speech where Dr. King, is in the audience in Philadelphia, and King has with him everywhere he carries a Gandhi

reader in the Bible. Now, why do I share that history? Because it inspires my work. What do I think I can add to it? We will never overcome the racial wealth gap if we don't overcome the racial wealth generation gap. We have a historic opportunity right now with the technology revolution. Either we're going to see the economic disparity grow from 10 or, one to even further, or there's a chance in one generation to start to make a dent on the racial

wealth gap. So I have facilitated partnerships with NVIDIA in my district, over a trillion-dollar company and HBCUs like Claflin and South Carolina State. I have facilitated with Google and Jackson State and Mississippi, a partnership of $5,000 scholarships where kids getting $30,000, I mean, $65 to $80,000 jobs. I facilitated partnerships with HBCUs in Zoom in terms of investments of $5 million in the HBCUs and programs for over 40 HBCUs of kids getting new technology jobs. And I believe that we need to make the digital economic revolution possible for people in the Black South to build wealth, to build economic prosperity. Now, is that the only thing? No.

But if you miss, if we excluded the black community from the agricultural residential, revolution from the industrial revolution. Shame on us if we exclude the black community from the digital revolution. That's where the wealth is going to be generated. You don't believe me, there are five companies over a trillion dollars in my district. Apple, Google, Nvidia, Tesla, and Broadcom. East of the Mississippi, there's one company, J.P. Morgan, that's 800 billion. There's not a single trillion dollar company. If we provide the digital wealth generation tools to the Black South and to broader black community, we will start to make a dent on the racial wealth gap. Of course, we need more policies. We need to have investments in

communities that don't have grocery stores or local food to be able to build those kind of co-ops. We need to make sure that we have universal health care access and we understand the impact of race on maternal mortality and infant mortality. But the place where I can move the needle the most is on the economics and on the economics of the future. Roecona, thanks for joining us on Higher Learning. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.