Higher Learning with Van Lathan and Rachel Lindsay - Yodit Tewolde on the Legal Affairs of Fani Willis, and the Cancellation of Black Shows

Episode Date: January 23, 2024

Van Lathan and Rachel Lindsay welcome trial lawyer and judge on ‘Hot Bench’ Yodit Tewolde to discuss accusations of a possible affair between Georgia DA Fani Willis and the Trump case prosecutor (...7:05), before checking in on the state of the GOP (38:38) and reacting to the cancellation of HBO’s ‘Rap Sh!t’ (1:03:32). Hosts: Van Lathan and Rachel Lindsay Guest: Yodit Tewolde Producers: Donnie Beacham Jr. and Ashleigh Smith Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript
Discussion (0)
Starting point is 00:00:01 Yo, yo, yo, thought warriors. What is up, Highland is on and is I Van Lathen Jr. And it's me, Rachel and Lindsay. Donnie, jump in. Well, we already know what we're going with this. I'm in. I'm jumping. Donnie! Oh, yeah.
Starting point is 00:00:16 Here we go. Here we go. It feels good. Yeah. Here we go. Here we go. Now, here we go now. Let me tell you something right now.
Starting point is 00:00:26 You predicted that the Cowboys would go to the NFC championship game. Little did we know that you. Actually, we're pressing it. Only you were talking about the Detroit Lions. Who I'm rooting for, Donnie. I think they're an exciting team. I definitely don't want to see the 49ers go. Is Debo going to be activated or not?
Starting point is 00:00:46 I'm not sure. Let me look that. If he's 50-50. Then you, if he's not, y'all are good to go. Yeah. Adam Schaeffer says he's 50-50 as of this morning. And I mean, even if you plays, I don't care. We're not scared.
Starting point is 00:00:58 We ready. We ready. Okay, let's not get cocky, Donnie. Donnie, will you be trying to make a trip to Vegas? Oh, man. Times is tight, and I think I've learned my lesson trying to make a trip to Houston. So I'm going to keep my ass at home and watch this with the fan.
Starting point is 00:01:15 Wait, hold on, hold on. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. First of all, we should not jump ahead past NFC championship game. Like the 49ers are some fucking slouches that the Lions are going to run crazy all over. We're not. Donnie, if your team makes a Super Bowl, you have to go. You have to go. Oh, my God.
Starting point is 00:01:30 I know. but you're not expensive that's going to be. Them tickets are not going to come cheap, especially with it being the first line's been there period. I'm telling you straight enough right now. I'd be willing to put in.
Starting point is 00:01:40 We'll make something happen. If they go to the Super Bowl, we'll make something happen. We'll see. Because we got connections and we know people will make something happen if they go to the Super Bowl.
Starting point is 00:01:49 And it's not just being in Vegas with all the festivities is going to be a lot of fun. I'll be there, but not for the game. Yeah. Yeah. Look, I mean, It's crazy.
Starting point is 00:02:02 Bro, why are you? Why are you? Why? Like, you have to, don't act like this. Now, y'all haven't, no one has given a fuck since Barry Sanders ran the ball. No one has cared. Man, shout out to Detroit, man. I want to say something right now. I love Detroit. Jason Wilson, my homie up there, Garland Gilchrist, the lieutenant governor of Detroit. Great guy, Bacari Sellers, introduced me to, like, I got love in Detroit.
Starting point is 00:02:28 Street Lord Juan fucking Royce the 5-9 I love Detroit I fuck with Detroit so heavy I'm happy for the city of Detroit I am too I'm happy for them man
Starting point is 00:02:41 I'm happy I'm happy for Donnie but it's gonna make me change my mind if Donnie doesn't commit and actually go to the fucking We'll get it we'll get it He just needs a little encouragement Yeah I need to marinate on it It's just that that Houston experience is so
Starting point is 00:02:58 recent and I felt like, oh, that hurt, that hurt. So it would be so much amplified if that happens again in Vegas. It won't. It won't be bad weather. It's not going to be bad weather. You're right. Let's jump to the other side. The other side of what?
Starting point is 00:03:12 AFC. Okay, let's talk about it. Chiefs or Ravens. Oh, the Ravens. I think the Ravens are going to win. That's who you want or you really think they're going to win. I think the Ravens are going to pull it off. I think the Ravens have stuck in defense. And I think that they're playing at a level that haven't played
Starting point is 00:03:24 before. Who will you have? I'm so rooting for the Ravens. Yeah. But also because. I cannot watch the Chiefs anymore. I have to take like 48 hours off of social media. The way the media jumps on anything that has to do with the Kelsey family and Taylor Swift, it's overwhelming. I can't.
Starting point is 00:03:42 I'm so sick of it. You're talking about Jason Kelsey now? Took a shirt off and it was very funny. It was everywhere. It was everywhere. And I'm not knocking him. Great. You were celebrating.
Starting point is 00:03:52 You're happy for your brother. You should be able to do that. It's the media, the way they jump on it. You don't like Taylor Swift. I don't like the way the media treats Taylor Swift. How is that? They're obsessed. They're obsessed because people are obsessed.
Starting point is 00:04:07 Taylor Swift is good for ratings. It makes it even worse. It makes it even worse. I'm not saying they just chose Taylor Swift, but I think it's just an overkill. And people would be excited just we could just see her walking into the game. That's it. We got to see Jason Kelsey.
Starting point is 00:04:23 We got to see the pictures. We got to see him picking up kids and showing their signs. It was just so much. I get annoyed. I'm running for the Ravens all the way. Did you see Gerard Carmichael? At the gang? With Taylor Swift.
Starting point is 00:04:36 He was in the suite? With Taylor Swift. See, I guess I tapped out. Odd. Why? Don't know. Odd. Are they friends?
Starting point is 00:04:44 I guess they are. I feel like she's friends. Why didn't it rub me the wrong way? I don't like it. I don't know why I don't like it. I don't know who's in. So you don't like that Gerard did that. I'm mad of because you don't like Taylor Swift.
Starting point is 00:04:56 I actually like Taylor Swift. I have, you know what the funny thing is? I should want a shirt. The more this Taylor Swift thing annoys other people, the more I like it. Because you're a troll. I like the fact that everybody is so bothered by something that's really not that big of a deal. It's not a big deal.
Starting point is 00:05:15 You don't like her. It's not, no, that's not true. I have a shirt. Did you go to the Eros tour? I did not. And I didn't go to Renaissance either, so. You're not fucking with it. No, it's just a lot.
Starting point is 00:05:25 But it was a four. hour concert. I don't have the patience. You like Taylor Swift, but you're not a Swift. I actually do like her music. Yeah. I'm not a Swifty. But it's not her. It's just the way she's just living her life at the game, having the best time. I get it. It's exciting. But I don't want to see
Starting point is 00:05:40 everything she does. So because of that, you're wanting to see the Chiefs lose because that just continues to Taylor Swift narrative. I'm also tired of the Chiefs keep going to the Super Bowl. I like the change up. And the Ravens, I've been wanting to see the Ravens, Lamar Jackson and the Ravens do this for a while. So I'm
Starting point is 00:05:56 rooting for. I think Ravens in Detroit is a really, really exciting Super Bowl. Ravens Lions would be a great Super Bowl. Although I do for some reason have a soft spot for the 49ers. Get out of here. They've been knocking on the door for so long. They've been knocking on the door. They've been knocking on the door. Yeah, they get ahead of us, but not like us. The Cowboys haven't been knocking on the door. We've been tapping.
Starting point is 00:06:19 The Cobblers are getting outside yelling. You know, like, say anything when John Cusack holds up the fucking radio. That's what the cowboys are knocking on the door of anything. They're like, hey, play off Super Bowl. This is us. And the girls up there like, fuck you. Let's get you. All right, big deal of the day, wow, has the dick messed up the case in Georgia against Donald Trump?
Starting point is 00:06:51 That pesky, pesky penis. Is it messed up the case? We're going to talk about it. and bring in a special legal guest. Unity Tewaldi is joining us. On the other side is break. The playoffs are here, and you can predict the action all the way to the finals
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Starting point is 00:08:30 Tap this ad to learn more about Trim Fymey. including important safety information. Okay, before we get to our guests, let's run this down pretty quick what's happening in, in down there in Georgia, in Atlanta, Ford County now. The question is,
Starting point is 00:08:46 is the case against Donald Trump in jeopardy? Why would the case against Donald Trump be in jeopardy, Rachel, what's going on down there in Georgia? Well, to answer your question, legally, is the case in jeopardy? No. But morally, when it comes to a jury hearing this case and all this information that's out there, and the jury hasn't been picked in the case at the moment, so all this information that's out there at this point is affecting the minds of people. Everybody's developing their own personal opinions and thoughts. You have them, I have them as well.
Starting point is 00:09:23 When you look at this case for what it is for the fact that Fannie Willis historically is elected as the DA there in Fulton County in Georgia, runs on this campaign of integrity, talks about specifically not having relationships with people in her office, then to come to find out, and then takes the bold move, not even in office a month, before she steps in and says, hey, I'm going to establish this RICO case. I've been successful in using this RICO case in Georgia for such a long time. It's kind of how she built her name. And I'm going to use this case against Donald Trump. I'm going to charge all these defendants. Some have already flipped. Like she's been very successful in the way that she's been, been able to navigate it and has built a really strong case against President Trump. All of that, all that attention, people championing, championing her when it comes to that.
Starting point is 00:10:13 And then, did I not get it right? I still didn't get it. One second. One time. It's a hard work. Championing. Championing. Championing.
Starting point is 00:10:24 Championing. Yeah, because this happens to me all the time. A couple words give me like this. Championing is one of them. Okay. But we got championing. Like, ideological sometimes used to get me. I had to really break down ideological.
Starting point is 00:10:37 It was like ideological. And now it's like I had to go idealological, ideological. Championing. Championing. That's it. Yeah. Okay. You got it.
Starting point is 00:10:48 So many people have been championing. So many people have been behind. By the way, by the way, I just be honest, it's not easy. Like, it's a heart championing. Championing? I'm done with it. That's it. That's it.
Starting point is 00:11:00 That's it. That's it. It's done. So many people have been behind her for what she's been doing. Then for this to come out and in the way it is. Okay. So then you have a co-defendant in the case who brings this motion that basically is attacking, which we expected with Fannie Willis, attacking her as a person, as a prosecutor,
Starting point is 00:11:18 basically saying that she is not equipped to handle this case. He offers absolutely no evidence. But then it comes out that she does have an alleged relationship with Nathan Wade, who's a special prosecutor. And that is causing people to question her judgment, her integrity, and whether or not she should continue on this case or whether or not this case can continue in court. Yeah, yeah. So the improper relationship, all different types of things that's been from that, we're going to bring in somebody right now that's going to help us figure this out. We've had it before on the show.
Starting point is 00:11:58 She's on a new show Hot Bench, which is Emmy nominated. Her name is Yodi Tewaldi. And we're just going to ease her into the conversation. You're getting two legal eagles for the price of one, guys. I'm going to try to figure this out. Will this case in Atlanta be torpedoed by the recent allegations against Fonnie Willis? Yodi's going to help us out right now. Is the case against Donald Trump in Georgia involving his alleged fake elector's plot in
Starting point is 00:12:30 jeopardy could be due to rising allegations of impropriety aimed at Fulton County DA Fonnie Willis, whose salacious relationship with a subordinate in our office is raising questions. We're going to talk about this today. Now, we already have a legal eagle here, but we have to bring in two legal eagles. Two legal eagles. No legal stone will be left unturned here. We brought in Yota Towaldi from Hot Bench. Okay, tell us about Hot Bench real quick.
Starting point is 00:13:06 Oh, gosh. Okay, so we are an Emmy-nominated. Talk your shit. Judge Show on CBS, created by the goat herself, Judge Judy. And we just wrapped our season 10. We are going into season 11. What can I say? We're the first show that has had three judges,
Starting point is 00:13:26 real lawyers, real cases that we pick up from Small Plains Court. across the country. And yeah, we tape here in Los Angeles, and I have been fortunate enough to join the show in its ninth season. So I'm now two seasons down. Wow. Ready? So, yeah, yeah, I can't believe it.
Starting point is 00:13:45 And, you know, the funny thing is someone had asked me in an interview, if I'd ever do a judge show, and I was at me. My answer quick, no, we'd never do it. Then fast-and-that was 2019. And then fast-forward to 2021. And I'm like, Judy, Judge Judy? That changed my mind. That pandemic hit.
Starting point is 00:14:07 I had a job. That pandemic hit. And it started to be like, oh my God. No, no, no. It honestly is. Slowing up. You're right. It's Judge Judy.
Starting point is 00:14:18 It was Judge Judy. She's got the Midas touch. I trust her. The problem with Judge shows that I found, and I enjoyed a lot of them. I mean, Judge Mathis was one of my favorite, but they seemed exploitive. And there were real people. real issues. They wanted some, you know, real solutions. And it seemed like it was more of an entertainment show than really, you know, a dual, what I call edutainment, right? Like to really educate
Starting point is 00:14:42 not only the litigants, but the viewers. Like, how do you not find yourself here? And if you do, how, bring evidence. Like, people who come to court bring zero evidence. I'm like, do you not watch a judge show at all? But, um, they think it's TV. They think it's Judge Steve Harvey. That's my family. Oh, my God. Let's get into it before we roughly need more feathers. Okay. Big trouble down there in Atlanta. I'll just ask you straight up.
Starting point is 00:15:08 How much trouble is the case actually in? Okay, so Rachel had texted me about this. And I was being dramatic. I'm like, oh, my God, she torpedoed this case. I was like, ooh, come up a podcast. I was being dramatic. Okay, so let me just say this. Donald Trump is the first former president in U.S. history
Starting point is 00:15:25 to face criminal charges. And this case out of Georgia is potentially the most, damaging case against him, right? The interference in the last election, pressure in state officials, all of that. But now, instead of talking about what Trump allegedly did, we're now having to talk about DA Fannie Willis.
Starting point is 00:15:44 Her relationship or alleged relationship, right? Well, let me talk about how to get a prosecutor disqualified on a case and what a prosecutor actually needs to do in a case and why it is important for a prosecutor to never,
Starting point is 00:15:59 ever have an appearance of impropriety, ever. Because I don't really quite understand why she would appoint someone who allegedly she has a relationship with when you are dealing with the magnitude of this case, when you're dealing with a former president,
Starting point is 00:16:20 when you are dealing with the public scrutiny that comes with being a DA in and of itself. You know why? What's she trying to put it? Why? The dick makes you do that. Tell him off the day. The dick makes you do crazy things.
Starting point is 00:16:33 Are we going to talk like that? Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Okay. Yeah. We all see. The dick makes you real crazy.
Starting point is 00:16:39 Everybody's been there. Everybody's been there. I've never been there. I've never been there. No, no, no. No, no. But Fonnie ran, she ran against the incumbent DA on this I'm ethical platform. Right.
Starting point is 00:16:55 And when you're dealing with a former president who has multiple charges against him, in multiple criminal cases who goes out into the public and literally will rail on the judge, the prosecutor, anybody in that courtroom should have the court reporter could get it, right? You are going to make sure that everything is buttoned up.
Starting point is 00:17:13 And so I don't understand. And he accused her of dating a drug dealer is what he said. Before that. Before that. So you think, you think by paying your alleged lover more than $650,000,
Starting point is 00:17:26 no one is going to find out? Nobody? And then on top of that, he is in the middle of a divorce. Right. And you've got his now estranged wife who's saying, hey, you, I want you to come testify in my divorce. And she's thinking, Fannie is thinking, oh, this is a collusion, sort of a plan. She's working with the Trump team to embarrass me. No, she's saying you.
Starting point is 00:17:50 A scorned woman. She's saying you had something to do with, you know, the breakup of my marriage. And I want you to come testify to that. So what do I think? What is the question again, Van? You threw me off. The question is, how much trouble is the case actually?
Starting point is 00:18:04 Okay. Are we talking legally or politically? Because legally, not so much. Politically, completely different. I can care less about the political modifications of it. Like, I don't care how it appears. I care what actually happens substantively to the case.
Starting point is 00:18:18 Okay. So in order to remove a prosecutor from a case on the basis of a conflict of interest, there has to be some sort of a finding that the prosecutor's conflicting loyalty is going to be prejudicial to the defendant, which could result in a wrongful conviction. So, for example, if a prosecutor dealt with a defense lawyer on the same case,
Starting point is 00:18:37 if law enforcement was dealing with a witness. So to put things in perspective, if we were dealing with cases involving married attorneys on opposing sides of a case, right? So you and I are trying a case. We're married. You're a defense lawyer. I'm a prosecutor.
Starting point is 00:18:54 Right. Okay. The Georgia Supreme Court has found, that there is no conflict of interest. Interesting. Even though a marital relationship may be one of the most intimate relationships of a person's life,
Starting point is 00:19:08 it doesn't mean that professional people will allow that intimacy to interfere with their professional obligations. So the conflict would arise, you would think, between spouses on opposing sides of the case, more so than if you were on the same side of a case working toward the same outcome.
Starting point is 00:19:25 So there's no reasonable argument to be made here in this case that non-married attorneys in a romantic relationship serving as prosecutors together on a case would create a conflict for a defendant. Can I have one follow-up? Yeah, go ahead. What about the fact that the other side of this is saying,
Starting point is 00:19:43 okay, she paid him $654,000? The office did. The office did. Correct. Paid him $654,000 to be a prosecutor on this case. Then they went on trips together. Then he paid for those trips. maybe with the money that she paid him.
Starting point is 00:20:02 Maybe. And then that constitutes a kickback. So here's the thing. They've got to prove that before this money, this salary is a special prosecutor, he couldn't afford to take on a trip. Because he already has his own law for him. Because he's got his own practice.
Starting point is 00:20:15 He has his own law firm. Yeah. So that's a far reach. Now, the motion that was filed by one of Trump's co-defendants, Michael Roman, I think. She's making that argument, right? I want this. disqualified and kicked off this case and ultimately dismiss because there's a conflict of
Starting point is 00:20:34 interest. He raised at best an ethical concern. A legitimate issue, but that's one that the prosecutor's office is going to have to handle. A legal one under Georgia law, this is not going to get Fonnie Lewis and Nathan Wade. Fonnie Willis. Fonnie. What I said? Fonnie Willis. You said Fony Lewis. Fonnie Lewis. Damn, we don't call it Fony. It's not going to get them disqualified. Now, putting that aside, what should happen, what should happen in order to avoid any further debate of an appearance of impropriety is for Wade to step down because he's going to be an ongoing unwelcome distraction. Now, she was elected. She's an elected official. She still has a continuing obligation to serve her constituents and the show must go on. He needs to step down.
Starting point is 00:21:21 You earned a little $650,000. Go home. Call it a day. Well, see, that's what I was going to say. Okay, should he step down? I was going to say, should she step down? No. Because if this goes in front of a jury, do you really believe in your experience, obviously you can't speak to exactly what's going to happen, that they can separate what it looks like?
Starting point is 00:21:41 Because, like, you broke it down so well. But juries don't know, aren't informed. No, here's the thing. She is the DA of the office, but she's appointed three special prosecutors, one white guy, one white woman, and Nathan Wade, a black man. The other two would be inquiries.
Starting point is 00:21:56 She may sit in the back, but she's not the one that's going to be running the prosecution. She's not going to be the one trying the case against Donald Trump. But he would be sitting there. He's been in court during motion hearings. He's been in court for just, you know, random things concerning the case. So his face would be out there. He is leading the team.
Starting point is 00:22:16 She's the one that hired him, but he's the one leading the team. So he would be the public face, and that is going to be a distraction. But doesn't call the entire office? into question. And I think that's what people are looking at. And that is going to be determined. So she's got to respond to the motion that Roman Roman's attorney filed by February
Starting point is 00:22:36 2nd. And then the judge is going to have a hearing on February 15th. Now whether he finds grounds for disqualification or not, that trial that was scheduled for Trump to happen in August and going to happen. It's not going to happen.
Starting point is 00:22:52 So this is already causing a delay. But if they they do find that there is Browns for disqualification, then you're right, they're going to have to find a new prosecution team and find another DA in a different county to try this, or find a private attorney in private practice to be a special prosecutor. But at the end of the day, this alleged, it's alleged relationship really has nothing to do with whether Trump is guilty or innocence. It doesn't change the overwhelming evidence justifying the decision to prosecute Trump. I mean, we all remember the infamous recorded phone call.
Starting point is 00:23:25 You hear Trump telling the Georgia Secretary of State, find 11,780 votes, the exact amount he needed to win that state. It doesn't change the fact that there are already four co-defendants who have already pled guilty and agreed to flip on Trump. You don't get flips unless you have solid evidence. So their relationship aside doesn't change the facts. Some of that were done by Nathan Wade, to be honest with you. I mean, people have tried to make, they've tried to talk about the fact. that he maybe wasn't competent, but when you read, I mean, look, when you
Starting point is 00:23:59 did you see the experience? No. Are you, okay, because I'm not trying to call him the question anybody's, you know, experience, knowledge. But he doesn't have RICO experience. He doesn't have experience. It is a lofty title, but really no substantive, like experience.
Starting point is 00:24:14 So it does beg the question, why did you hire this person? That, again, ethical concern. Well, I mean, I looked into it, and there have been people who've talked about that, his prowess, maybe not as a front-facing prosecutor but like talking to people.
Starting point is 00:24:33 They're talked about the fact that he's got, he's been able to pressure a lot of people into flipping and he's kind of a bulldog and he's been doing a pretty decent job on the case. Well, the flipping part, the evidence is solid. Right, right? I'm not claiming that it's a slam dunk. I'd never do that.
Starting point is 00:24:48 But any contribution he is making to this prosecution is hard to tell because it may be happening behind closed doors. You're not seeing it full. frontal. When they have briefs motions are being argued, he's not the one that's doing. He's not authoring these briefs. He's not arguing these motions
Starting point is 00:25:03 in court. So I don't know what his contributions are. You just got to trust that Fannie is saying, no, he's experienced. But here's also the other thing in favor for her, she tried to get two people prior to him to take the job. Yeah. And they said no.
Starting point is 00:25:19 So that helps her. Right? It's not like I just went straight to my alleged lover. I tried to get two of the people they didn't want to touch this. How could she have done something like this? How could she have done something like this in a case of support?
Starting point is 00:25:37 That's not your question. No, no. I answered the question in the beginning. No, I answered the question in the beginning, but I answered the question. We know that that's the answer at the end of the day. But at the same time, shouldn't she have known?
Starting point is 00:25:51 Absolutely. That this was at the very least unethical monumentally stupid and put her entire reputation into peril. Shouldn't she have known that? She should have. She probably did
Starting point is 00:26:07 and maybe thought she can get away with it. Maybe no one's really looking that closely, which again is baffling. There have been campaigns that have been trying to discredit her. You saw it happen in New York? He went after who she could possibly be dating.
Starting point is 00:26:22 That alone. I'd have been like, he said I'm dating a gangbanger. he's probably, yeah, not going to touch this, right? I don't know. I don't know. It's just, and here's another thing. I was talking to someone else about this,
Starting point is 00:26:33 and they were looking at the list of places that they allegedly went to. And they were like, it could have been a work-related, you know, but he was like, what got me is the cruises. You ain't doing no damn mark on a cruise? Yeah. How many? No kids are. I saw Miami, San Francisco.
Starting point is 00:26:47 Napal Valley. There was some Caribbean cruises as well. So, you know. Man, he took him on a cruise. You ain't doing no work. he was not going to bottom out that shit, man. Just on a boat for like a whole just... I'm not touching that.
Starting point is 00:27:00 I'm just saying he was. Because like the cruise... Don't look at me like I'm a close side. A cruise is not even a nice vacation. It's not... Don't be stuck up. Wait. It's not nice vacation.
Starting point is 00:27:11 Don't be stuck up. There are like luxury cruises. Some of the Mediterranean. You stop being all like... You're thinking of like from Galveston. That's probably what they did. they probably was having fun on casino night and all of this shit and the cruise
Starting point is 00:27:27 it's just, but the cruise is just like a, that's just for them to be in a confined area just going ham on each other. All right, so back to the topic at hand. No, but here's the thing. We're going to see after this hearing whether Trump's team is going to join in on that motion, right? And say, hey, we're also going to be filing
Starting point is 00:27:46 because what they're trying to do is throw everything they got at these prosecutions that he's facing in order to delay, you know, delay. derail because what they want to do is ensure that he wins in November so that he can be afforded the immunity from prosecution that is afforded to the sitting president. But not for this, not for state, but as many as he can, right, federally. So, yeah. Nathan Wade's ex-wife, do you, Jocelyn is her name, Jocelyn, do you think she's being used?
Starting point is 00:28:16 Nah. So I think it's a far stretch to say, I'm going to be working with. with Trump allies in order to take her down. All she has to do is say, I think she wants to take her down and she just happened to be prosecuting a former president, right? So it looks bad, but no, I, if what she's saying is true and there's some merit,
Starting point is 00:28:39 I mean, that has a lot to do with her divorce proceedings. I don't know if they have a pre-up. I don't know if there's a clause about cheating and she's trying to prove that that is the case. I need you to come in and testify. It has absolutely none. I don't care what you do in court. I need you were involved in my marriage
Starting point is 00:28:53 and I need you to come to court in order to testify to this whole thing and the silence is deafening from fine. Now she's going to want to probably respond via motion but I think she's going to be making more of a legal argument than really on the facts. I think she's going to say nothing
Starting point is 00:29:10 about whether it's true or not but say it doesn't even matter because legally this is what's important. But and this is where like so you have that her case that she's doing and whether or not a judge is going to say later, I think you said February 15th,
Starting point is 00:29:23 whether or not they can continue in the way that they have been. But then you have the divorce proceedings. So this morning, the judge just said that she does not have to testify right now, but doesn't mean that she'll have to testify in the future or be deposed, I should say, in the future. That would cause her to speak
Starting point is 00:29:41 towards some of the personal issues. Do you think, so the judge is saying, we're going to wait for Mr. Wade to be deposed first and then determine if Fonnie's going to be deposed as well, how much do you think that that could potentially impact the other case? Well, see, she already has receipts. Yeah, she has receipts. She has their names on tickets.
Starting point is 00:30:01 So it's like, you could come in here. I don't, maybe there were, you know, there was more that she wanted to, you know, a probe. But the receipts are there. And that's what Michael Roman, when he filed his motion, he had no receipts. But he was saying, we want to get that divorce proceeding unsealed so we can get those receipts to support my claim here. It's messy as hell And Fannie should have known better
Starting point is 00:30:23 So then I guess in your estimation The best outcome From the Trump wing of this Is to muck this up enough They don't, it's already mucked It's mucked up to muck it up enough To where politically She looks so bad
Starting point is 00:30:40 That they have an axe to grind And they can spin that for the American people What has he said about every case so far So which hunt This is what are you going to say about this? And now there's actually some, like, there's legs there. Sure. Right.
Starting point is 00:30:54 Why would her fucking elite prosecutor make this a witch hunt? But none of what Trump says actually makes sense. Right. Right. But now the allegations that are out there could be true. Right. Because he just makes up things. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:31:08 So now it just makes it seem like they're not lying all the time. Exactly. Exactly. Exactly. Also plays into some tropes here. Yeah. Also plays into some black lady tropes, some black people. some black people tropes.
Starting point is 00:31:20 It just makes the whole, hypersexualized. It makes a whole thing look a little untoward. And by kind of calling it into question in that way, it just takes a little bit of the pristine nature that you would have needed, that you really wanted this to be watched with politically off of it a little bit. And is that fair? No.
Starting point is 00:31:39 But because we know that you have to work twice as hard, then I don't understand why, and that's my question, do you think she should step down? Should she, because Wade, I get, we talked about that, but should she say, I need to remove myself from this case because I'm a distraction? It's already going to be delayed at this point. And if you have other qualified prosecutors in her office,
Starting point is 00:32:02 I know that some left came back when she was elected. You have the other two special prosecutors that you said, should she just say, I'm going to let this one go? I'm not focused on YSL. No. She shouldn't worry about the political fallout. That's not her money, right? But she hasn't done anything illegal.
Starting point is 00:32:21 I know. She's human. We all mess up. We all have lapses in judgment. This is one of them for her. But she was fairly elected to the DA post. And so she needs to ride that out. I think election for her re-election is this year.
Starting point is 00:32:35 She needs to... Stop. Her whole office on integrity. She read her whole office on... We're here. And even said she wouldn't date anyone. in her office. It just looks so bad.
Starting point is 00:32:52 Wait, wait, when she said that? This is the first time, Rachel's the first time in the history of the podcast, Rachel's ever been disappointed. What? This is the first time. Rachel has ever been disappointed in the black woman. I cannot believe this is happening. You feed the trolls.
Starting point is 00:33:07 You are such a troll. Farnie broke higher learning. But I'm serious. She really should step us. I get it. It's not anything. And yes, if she steps aside, people will say, oh, she must have done something
Starting point is 00:33:19 that was illegal. But you ran on this platform. You said flat out, you didn't believe in dating someone in your office. He's not. But you brought him in. He's not. You brought him in. You brought him in.
Starting point is 00:33:31 And when she made that statement, they allegedly were already fucking around. Yeah. So it's just like, Fannie, you got a, you got to, it's not, she's done a lot. She has an amazing history in what she's been able to do with Pace and using the law. I don't even agree with her prosecutorial style. Oh, with the RICO? I don't go that way. I don't.
Starting point is 00:33:51 Well, just in her outlook in prosecuting folks is a little more conservative than my take, my like. But that's a whole other separate conversation. But I just, I'm looking at it from, it's easy to say, okay, this was the biggest fuck up. You know, what else are you fucking up within the office, right? Your judgment, we can't necessarily trust. But just looking at it from this one. isolated case, she really didn't do anything other than something ethically questionable. And within the legal framework, she didn't do anything wrong. She was involved with someone.
Starting point is 00:34:35 Now, the married part, I'm not here to judge, but she was involved with somebody. So that's, that's her mistake. And it could be argued that Wade is actually qualified. Some would say no. So that's sort of subjective too, right? So we can't necessarily say the appointment was all that wrong based on qualification. I just think it was stupid as hell. It was so dumb. We are watched always. And right now we're being questioned in terms of whether we're good enough to do our jobs alone, right?
Starting point is 00:35:06 So I just think that when you're dealing with someone like Trump who has no problem going to the media and lying about you, I don't understand why you would give him a morsel of truth to run on. Yeah. And stuff. It's hard. So Wade, I think, is in a position that's easier because he's not a prosecutor. He was appointed. He has a practice outside of the office.
Starting point is 00:35:32 Go back to that. You will. You've made your money. And that's it. And she just needs to like let the other two handle the prosecution, which, by the way, One of them is a RICO expert, and the other one has been a prosecutor for two decades prosecuting really high-level felony. So it's in good hands. And Wade is doing traffic.
Starting point is 00:35:51 But I'm saying in comparison to him. He wasn't doing traffic tickets. He was doing traffic tickets. He was doing traffic tickets. He was doing a municipal judge. And he also was a municipal judge. I know, so what? He tried to get to another court.
Starting point is 00:36:07 And he kept losing. I think he ran like four times. Four times. And he kept losing. He has his sight on politics. He said, you know what? Can you help a brother out?
Starting point is 00:36:15 Because she did. This is his white horse. This was the case of a lifetime. This would have catapulted him, right? Damn. And so he lost four different elections. Why? Maybe based on experience or lack thereof.
Starting point is 00:36:26 It's true. I'm back to Be on the Black Man. Hot Bench, when can they watch it? Oh my God, every day. Weekdays on CBS. Weekdays on CBS. Yes. Well, give me a case from Hot Bench that you liked,
Starting point is 00:36:38 that you remember. Give me something. Oh, my God. They're nuts. Give me a morsel. We need a more so hot bitch. So I, you and I are on a bowling team. And I overhear you talk about how you broke up with your boyfriend and you're now homeless.
Starting point is 00:36:52 You have nowhere to live. I have a trailer. You could crash on my couch. Nothing romantic. I'm not trying to hit on you or anything. Yeah, yeah. You go, cool, cool. So she moves all her stuff.
Starting point is 00:37:02 And she's like, I'm going to move some of it in your trailer, but not so much. And then some of it in the store on the outside of the trailer. Right. And then, you know, two weeks go by. three weeks. Okay, it's a little cramped. She finds a place. And she's like, I'm going to move and I'm going to surprise him as a thank you. Just get all my stuff out while he's at work. And I'm going to, surprise him. I'm going to give him his face back. She thinks it's easier instead of hiring movers and getting all her stuff into a truck. Well, it's a trailer. It moves. Right?
Starting point is 00:37:35 So my stuff is already in there. I can just put whatever remaining stuff on the outside inside. like inside the trailer and it's already ready to go. So she's driving this trailer and doesn't realize that it becomes unhooked. Oh. There was something wrong. It was supposed to not actually be drivable. Mm-hmm. And crashes his man's house.
Starting point is 00:37:57 Broke his house. Into a tree. And guess who's suing who? Who? She's suing him. Oh, I love hot bitch. I love hot bitch. Because that was the goddamn twist.
Starting point is 00:38:10 No, that that could happen and it should have fixed a latch. Yeah, it's his fault. I love it. Hot bitch. I'm representing her. Hot bitch. Thank you for joining us and making sense of all of this stuff going on down there. Thank you for having me.
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Starting point is 00:39:45 away. Explore what's possible. Ask your doctor about trim fire. Tap this ad to learn more about Trimphia, including important safety information. Okay, so let me tell you, before we move on, this is what I think here. I mean, most people that I've seen talk about this on various shows have echoed her sentiments. Basically said that there's not much that'll happen in terms of the actual substance of the case against Donald Trump. However, this is just another cudgel that will be used by Magal World to reduce Fonnie Will. Should I say, to minimize her as professional and as prosecutor. And to just, like I said, muck everything up and make it look like something other than it is,
Starting point is 00:40:39 which is a lawful prosecution against someone with a shit ton of evidence. of their improper property, impropriety, should I say, and illegality. So it's just, it's, it's more than anything, it's sad. And I am disappointed in DA Willis, for such an important case, such an important case to be mucked up in this way.
Starting point is 00:41:02 I think she deserves, I think she owed it as better. I'm sad too, and I'm also sad that this is going to be a stain on her reputation from here on out. And I'm not trying to discredit anything that she's done did, continues to do, but we're always going to remember
Starting point is 00:41:17 the personal side of it, the messy side of it. Yeah, so. You're saying that Nathan Wade left the stain on Fannie Willis. That's tough. All right. So. Should we want a happy news? You want a happy news?
Starting point is 00:41:34 What do you want to, like, happy news? Your boy got engaged. Who? Senator Tim Scott. Oh. Did you send him a gift? Congratulations. They're in order.
Starting point is 00:41:46 Congratulations. Senator Tim Scott, he got engaged. To what's her name? What's her name? What's her name? Julie? Julie?
Starting point is 00:41:56 What was, what was Terry? I think it's Mindy. Hold on. Mindy. Mindy. They got engaged. They got engaged and he
Starting point is 00:42:03 endorsed Donald Trump. A lot of movement over there with the Republicans. A lot of stuff. You got a Tim Scott endorsement for Donald Trump. You didn't just get an endorsement. Can we play it?
Starting point is 00:42:13 Play it. You didn't just get an endorsement. Donnie. One Tim Scott endorsing Donald Trump. You're Tim Scott King, Jr. Because that's what he was trying to sound like. Hempshire! Let me see.
Starting point is 00:42:35 Is this Donald Trump country? Oh, yeah. Whoa. That's it. I can't hear you. I can't hear you. Wait, we haven't gotten to. You to get to my favorite part.
Starting point is 00:42:56 What's your favorite part? Where he's like, and like my mama. And like my mama. Donald Trump is even embarrassed by that. When you see Donald Trump saying there, like, Donald Trump is like, yo, I expected an endorsement. I didn't know this nigga was going to eat my whole ass right here in front of everybody. Donald Trump, he actually made Donald Trump. And Donald Trump is like, all right, Tim.
Starting point is 00:43:17 That's enough. Like, that's a, that's a man at you to go to that song. Tim Scott had more enthusiasm for his, for Donald Trump's campaign than he did his own. It's so sad. He's angry for a VP. situation. That's, he did more than angle, like you said. Well, he did all of that. He, I mean, he had shined his shoes. He was tap dancing like crazy. His voice was different. He really thought he was given his version of an I-dream speech. Yeah, it was a big moment for Tim Scott
Starting point is 00:43:39 because I think that, look, we should also say that it was a very significant moment in South Carolina politics. Because remember that Nikki Haley is the governor that appointed Tim Scott to his Senate seat before he then ran. And, um, achieved an election of that Senate seat. So he broke with her with a longtime friend with someone that was from his state to go over to Magalworld. I guess the question is why would you do that? One is because he's hitching his wagon to
Starting point is 00:44:11 who he thinks is going to be the next president. I mean, surely Donald Trump is going to be the nominee, but he thinks Donald Trump is going to be the next president. Either he wants, none of these people that are involved in all of this see this as the end of their career in national politics. Right DeSantis dropped out. I don't think he sees that as the end of his career in national politics. That's why he's going to move back towards MaguWorld to either set up for 2028 or down the road, right?
Starting point is 00:44:41 These people still are putting their personal political careers over relationships like one might have with Nikki Haley, if you're Tim Scott, over actual real. that Ron DeSantis might have with Donald Trump. Mm-hmm. And really over anything else. Like, they have to. They have no choice. Trump's hold on the GOP is so strong that if you want any type of future in the GOP, at least right now, you have to bend the knee. You have to kiss the ring.
Starting point is 00:45:12 You have to shine the shoes. You have to do all of that stuff. And Tim shine the fuck out of the motherfuckers. And so did DeSantis. Everybody else will too. Desanis didn't endorse him as badly with as much enthusiasm as Tim Scott. He basically said, I took a vow and promised that whoever is elected in the primary, I will put my, you know, vote behind. And that's going to be Trump for the Republicans.
Starting point is 00:45:34 So that's who he's going to vote for. And that's all he simply said. He's going to go back to Florida, like you said, and stay where he's safe. Because him trying to, you know, run on a campaign of running the country like Florida, people did not like and did not like it. He needs to go back and, like, do a whole revamp. Yeah, I think he probably thinks that he has a career in national politics. politics, he does it. And I'm not so sure if he has a career being the governor of Florida now. I don't know who they would run. I say they run Duane Wade. I don't know who I'm serious,
Starting point is 00:46:08 man. I think they should run DeWan Way. Fuck it. It's all a bunch of bullshit anyway. Just run a guy who you think could win. Run Wade. Number three for Florida. Just run Wade, man. Just run them. Run Dwayne Wade. I'm not even joking. Does he have an interest in politics? Yeah. Run. He does? Yeah.
Starting point is 00:46:27 Run Duane Wade for governor of Florida. Run them. Why not? Why not? Just run somebody to come. Because think about this. And shout out to reason choice media. And Andrew Gillum took Tiffany Cross and Angela Rye, who were over there doing the Native
Starting point is 00:46:41 Land podcast. Think about how different. Everything would be right now had Andrew Gillum been elected governor of Florida. Now, the brother had some trouble. after that. Some. Yeah, he has some. Okay.
Starting point is 00:46:58 Shit happens. You know what I mean? Fannie Willis, and you guys, shit happens. Brother has some trouble out there, so we don't know what would have happened if that same thing would have went on. But nationally,
Starting point is 00:47:09 politics are in a much, much different place. Sure. If that would have happened. So if you can wrestle Florida away from Rhonda Sanchez, who is certainly weakened, certainly weakened,
Starting point is 00:47:21 as a political figure right now, I think he's vulnerable now is the time to really put up some strong opposition down there to go get him. And I'm saying Dwayne Wade, I don't know who they would run, but fuck it. I mean, no one's serious anyway. So run the fucking basketball player. Well, apparently there's two. Donnie just said an article. It's not just Dwayne Wade.
Starting point is 00:47:40 They're also looking at Grant Hill. Okay. I just wanted, I want, I want, Grant Hill has to make it to the end of the campaign now. It's injury prone. I know what you were referring to. I don't just saying, like he, you never know. There's no bearing. I fuck with Grayhill.
Starting point is 00:47:57 I'm joking. I love you, Grant. I fuck with Grant Hill, but you don't need this nigga that's like popping Achilles on the campaign trail. Didn't matter. Give him some crutches and keep it moving.
Starting point is 00:48:04 Yeah. He'd be fine. Gray Hill would be, look, and by the way, people are going to listen to this and they're going to be like, we don't need that.
Starting point is 00:48:12 We don't need people from outside the political sphere to come into politics. And guess what you're right. There is some public servant in Florida. Some person somewhere. I don't know who this is. Mm-hmm.
Starting point is 00:48:24 It's not Mayor Suarez, who I despise. There's some public servant somewhere in Florida who would do a fantastic job as the governor of Florida. True. You should be teed up to be the governor of Florida. Maybe I'll go look and try to find out who that person is. Things are so wacky right now that the only thing I'm talking about is who could beat a wounded dissantis. And if you have to run Grant Hill, if you have to run. Duane Wade, if you have to fucking run one of these people, fucking run them.
Starting point is 00:48:57 If you have to run Ross, who I think lives in Atlanta now, but it's from down. If you have to run flowrida. No, no, no, I like, I like Duane Wade. Let's just stick with him. Out of Duane Wade and Grand Hill, if they're going to run, who would you vote for? Probably Duane Wade, just because I feel like I know a little bit more. Duane Way would be the popular choice. I bet Grant would be a better governor, though.
Starting point is 00:49:21 Well, maybe we'll see. Maybe we'll see. It doesn't really impact us because we're not there, but, you know. I will say this, though. So I looked at all of this and the way all of this stuff shook out. I know everybody's scared. You mean with Trump? With Trump.
Starting point is 00:49:35 Are you afraid of another Donald Trump term? We should ask this question. Absolutely. And not because people are dropping out, like you said, there's been a lot of activity on the Republican side. It's not because people are dropping out. It's not because people are endorsing him. It's not because there's been a fallout with some of his, we've muddied the waters with some of his cases.
Starting point is 00:49:52 It's on the liberals are disenchanted. And I was just having a conversation in my group chat. And like one of my girlfriends was like, her man is voting for Trump, flat out. And there was a whole, they're black. Okay. What's the smile? What, man? What's the smile for?
Starting point is 00:50:14 I'm just saying. No. Why is it funny? So you have a group chat with Trump supports. I can't stay at you. you're really on your troll today. No, I don't. But she was talking about it
Starting point is 00:50:28 and she was just explaining why he wants to vote for Trump. And so the more I talked to people, I was with someone the other night and they were like, you know Trump, and they were black and they were like, you know Trump's gonna win, right? And I was afraid to even ask
Starting point is 00:50:42 if they were gonna vote for Trump because I just didn't want the conversation to turn in that way. That's why I feel like Trump may win. It's pulling from the other side and then just other people just not even caring to vote. What scares you most about another Trump term?
Starting point is 00:50:56 You asked me this. Before. I mean, I just think he gives a voice to hatred. And he's only looking out for himself, his money, and how everything falls out after that is just how it will be. Also, the fact that he wants to be a dictator and the way he wants to run this country. All of that is scary.
Starting point is 00:51:20 I think it's going to affect us outside of our own. country. We're going to have the Civil War within the country. It's just going to be that, I mean, we're already, I feel like, in our downfall, it's only going to just put the Nell in the coffin. I am going to come from you right now. Donald Trump is not
Starting point is 00:51:38 going to win. Please, tell me. Talk to me. He's not. This wave of calm came over me. Okay. Like yesterday. Yesterday, Kulik, and I had like a clean day, you know, I'm doing all of this. You cleaned?
Starting point is 00:51:56 Clean all the time. Don't do it. I'm just asking. I clean all the time. I don't know if you had like a clean eating day. Maybe you were cleansing in some other sort of way. I clean all the time. Yeah, what's your, what were you cleaning?
Starting point is 00:52:14 What was your chore? What do you do? Well, I cleaned out my office. Oh, so selfish. No. I clean all the time. I'll come in there. I'll clean the dishes.
Starting point is 00:52:23 I'll wipe the kitchen down. I clean all the time now. It's very important to know this about me that I clean all the time. I'm not, I didn't used to, but I've been broken. And so now I'm like an old nag. I'm like an old dependable nag.
Starting point is 00:52:39 I get up in the morning. And I'm going there and I clean up the dishes. Then I shuffle off to the gym, the work, come out, clean again. I clean all time. I clean, not a lot, but I clean when it's there to be cleaned. Okay. Clean it and I thought about this.
Starting point is 00:52:53 Trump is actually doing to everybody that cares about party politics, which I don't anymore. I don't care about party politics. I look at politicians basically like prostitutes. Okay. Makes sense. You should not like them too much.
Starting point is 00:53:12 You know, you should judge them based upon what it is they do and how well they do the job. They get you there. You go back, go back, go back, go back. But the minute you fall in love, it's too much. You want to maintain that. You don't want to fall in love with your politicians. And I see a lot of black people out there.
Starting point is 00:53:36 Black people, more than any group, falls in love with their politicians. Why do you think that is? I know why it is. I think it's because of this. Black people fall in love with what they think isn't trying to kill them. So if you have a politician that's out there and you have a group or any group out there, it's not so much about what they're trying to do for you. Black people tend to love what they feel confident isn't trying to kill them
Starting point is 00:54:09 because everything in America seems so pernicious. Everything seems so ah, ah, ah. So when you're asking them, well, why do you love Democrats so much? it's because the Democrats gave us a place to live. The Democrats, even though they don't pay any attention to us, even though it doesn't seem like they're working on our behalf, they gave us shelter. They gave us a place to live.
Starting point is 00:54:35 They're not trying to kill us. They're ignoring us. They're taking us for granted. It's a bad relationship, but at least it's not a relationship. I guess we could argue the merits of that. whether or not that's true, right? We could argue the crime bill.
Starting point is 00:54:54 We could argue all kinds of other initiatives and things that Democrats have been a part of, policies that Democrats have been a part of that have had negative effects on the black community, and I think there would be no shortage of them. However, with the way their narrative towards black people is, come on in, you're safe here. Come on in, you're safe here.
Starting point is 00:55:09 And black people will always drift towards safety in a country, perceived safety, in a country that's made them feel so unsafe. So that's the reason why, in my opinion. as it relates to Trump right now Trump is neutering the Republican Party he's neutering them he's making all of these people
Starting point is 00:55:32 he's unearthing all of their deepest flaws Tim Scott looks like a feckless weakling after a run through this whole thing Mike Pence looks totally unsirious Ron DeSantis who was actually a strong political figure prior to him running for a president has been decimated by this experience.
Starting point is 00:55:58 Now look, people don't remember. Maybe he'll be fine, right? He will. Nikki Haley is about to be beat to a pulp for the next six, eight, 12 weeks or however long she stays in. All of that will happen and Donald Trump will still lose in the fall.
Starting point is 00:56:16 And then the Republicans will be scrambling if you care about party politics. The Republicans, the right, will be scrambling for someone new to take hold, right, for someone new to run. And a lot of the people that they have put a lot of faith into will really have been beat about the head by this one guy. I don't think he wins in November.
Starting point is 00:56:39 I really don't think that Donald Trump will win. I don't. But I think there's a silver lining in how he's cannibalized. the rest of his party. Only when he's running. I do think the reason I said, you said, oh, maybe DeSantis will be okay,
Starting point is 00:56:56 he will be. In comparison to Trump, this is how they all look. When Trump's out and they have the opportunity to have their own platforms free of Trump, the way that he has beaten them down to the perception that we all have of them, I think that
Starting point is 00:57:12 once he's gone, that goes away. A new leader will rise because they'll need to rally around someone. They'll forget the thing. Tim Scott's never going to go anywhere in the Republican Party past where he is unless he joins the cabinet or something like that. He's not going to be president. Maybe he'll be. You think he'll
Starting point is 00:57:28 be VP? It's interesting. It's between him, JD Vance. I saw that. Jaydy Vance is not going to be the VP. And as a representative of New York I saw. At least the onic. She was the lady from Capitol Hill
Starting point is 00:57:44 who got Claudine Gay and the UP and President Fire. So Lee Stefanic, some people still think Nikki Haley, um, my,
Starting point is 00:57:55 things are getting so bad. Then there is a governor from North Dakota, South Dakota, someplace, a female, a lady governor that they were talking about. Tim Scott is
Starting point is 00:58:08 one of the leaders in a clubhouse. The four years is a long time to forget what happened and to have a totally different interpretation or opinion on the person who's going to run the political or the Republican Party in the future, four years of a long time. It could be somebody we haven't even named yet.
Starting point is 00:58:26 Republicans are, they're really into their new constituency. You see this? Matt Gates was talking about some of the new people that are joining the Republican Party. Donnie, Matt Gates said this on OANN or Newsmax or one of these channels. Donnie, run what Matt Gates had to say. And I met with a lot of those folks. This is the blue collar realignment of the Republican Party. And what I could tell you is, like, for every Karen we lose, there's a, there's a Julio and a Jamal ready to sign up for the MAGA movement.
Starting point is 00:58:57 And that abodes well for our ability to be more diverse. Julio's and Jamals. You didn't laugh when you heard that. It's, I was sorry. You like that. He said it. He didn't stutter, stammer in any way. he had this one geared up ready to go.
Starting point is 00:59:19 And he didn't even stop and smile or laugh when he said it. I thought this was funny. I'm sorry. Black and Latino men, the GOP is welcoming you into the tent. And also making a joke out of you. Yeah, making a joke out of you, of you, of course. But hopefully that they recognize that as well. You know, do you want to go be a Jamal in the Republican Party or a Julio?
Starting point is 00:59:40 Do you think that Democrats, see, you like that? it's funny to you it's funny it's going to be niggers out there to make shirts I'm a Jamal I guarantee you there's going to be
Starting point is 00:59:53 there to make shirts like I'm a Jamal I'm a Julio Julio and Jamal they're going to lean into it I will say this though I looked a little bit at this phenomenon
Starting point is 01:00:04 of a black man black men and Latino men teaming up with the GOP it's racialized, right? Because when we're talking about voting blocks, we tend to racialize these voting blocks. But there's something else that's going on as well that I think is actually almost more fascinating.
Starting point is 01:00:25 The GOP in the last, excuse me, the Democrats in the last eight to ten years have widened their appeal with white college. educated people. Okay. They got a pretty good hold on white college educated people. Mm-hmm. Whereas the GOP is increasingly becoming viable with non-college educated voters. And something that we're not paying attention to is that black men are increasingly not going to college. So the amount of of non-college educated black men
Starting point is 01:01:13 are running parallel with the GOP's appeal to non-college educated voters. And I saw a lot of stuff. There's some stuff on Vox, read some other places. Newsweek had a good article on it. I haven't thought about it in a way. We're racializing this,
Starting point is 01:01:28 but we're looking at how, we're not looking at, at least I haven't spoken about, I'm sure somebody has that's smarter than me, on this particular podcast about how black women are increasingly becoming more college educated. which is making them more likely to be liberal, not just politically but also socially, right? Black men are in comparison becoming a little less college educated. And I'm not saying that they're becoming less smart overall.
Starting point is 01:01:59 I'm not saying that they're becoming less useful because they're picking up trades out of high school. Brothers are barbering, plumbing, doing all of this stuff. They're looking at other ways other than that. to move ahead in America. I mean, there's a lot of cultural reasons why that is too, right? You have prevalent voices, cultural voices that are saying, hey, man, college is not necessarily the way you need to go. You need to get out.
Starting point is 01:02:24 You need to own your own business. You need to do this. And a lot of people are endeavoring into entrepreneurship and doing different things coming out. They're just going straight to college. And with Trump in office, a lot of them saw tax breaks for these small businesses. They saw tax breaks for these small businesses. things they were trying to do.
Starting point is 01:02:41 And they said that under Biden, they haven't received the same amount. They haven't seen the same thing. So that's a lot of thing of it. According to Newsweek from, and before anybody jumps on me and says I'm pulling this out of my ass, according to 2019 to 2021,
Starting point is 01:02:56 male undergraduate enrollment dropped by 10.2% in black men, according to the National Student Clearinghouse, compared to 7.8% among women. So, back men outplacing women, black women and not going. Oh, excuse me.
Starting point is 01:03:14 I'm sorry. That's the wrong stat. Actually, among black men, enrollment fell by 14.8%. That was the regular number. 14.8% overall. 23.5% among those that were enrolled in two-year schools. So the community colleges and the associate degree people,
Starting point is 01:03:36 they were, it's 25 basically percent less black men enrolling. 14.8% overall. So you're seeing less brothers go to college. Because you're
Starting point is 01:03:47 seeing less brothers go to college, you're seeing people that are already socially conservative, if we're being honest,
Starting point is 01:03:57 socially conservative, not really feel that much of a kinship with the Democrats. We could have a whole hour and a half podcast about why people that go to
Starting point is 01:04:05 college, that are college educated or more liberal. I mean, we could talk. about that and we probably should at one point. But I think, you know, we racialize this and it's important to look at it through a racial lens, but it's also important to look at it through trends that are happening in society writ large, because when you do it that way, it allows you
Starting point is 01:04:23 to be more targeted in who you need to serve in order to get those people back and what it is that you need to do. If we just like wash our hands and say, hey, black men aren't voting for liberal candidates anymore and what does that mean for America? I think there's a tad bit of laziness that's going into this now as we have this conversation every two to four years. The conversation needs to be had about, okay, what's actually going on? What are some of the things? It's not just that. That's just one of the things. What are the things surrounding that? And like, and, you know, how do you remedy it if it's something that needs to be remedied? What do you think? No, I mean, I think that you're absolutely right. And I think
Starting point is 01:05:02 that you need that statistic is, I don't know if it's alarming to me, but it's definitely shocking. I wouldn't, if you had said it, I'm glad you actually quoted it. Because if you said it, I'm like, do you get those numbers right? The fact that that's the case and that they're moving more towards the other party, I think that you're right in the assessment of we can't just say it. We have to understand why this is happening so that you can bring them back and we can speak directly to them. We talk a lot about, we talk a lot on this podcast about, oh my God, I just lost my whole train of thought.
Starting point is 01:05:32 We talked a lot about this podcast about. I just lost my whole train of thought. stops. Don't do that. Pork. I'm going to stop, stop, stop, stop. We talk a lot about, oh, we talk a lot about this podcast about just how disenchanted voters are. Right.
Starting point is 01:05:49 But so it's important to know who those disenchanted voters are and why they're disenchanted. And a statistic like that speaks to it. So it's important for the Democratic Party to understand that so they can figure out how to remedy it and bring them back to it. And by the way, pork chop. You're robbing back. Yeah. The Porsche out, it's like smelling soft skeed. Jesus Christ.
Starting point is 01:06:10 Rachel just got like big joke right there. Like, whoa. But no, seriously, it's not just about getting them back for political reasons. It's about figuring out if they're being underserved. Like you said that they're trying to start businesses and they're trying to do all of this other stuff. So if they're inroads to be made there, then you need to kind of like figure that out. This episode is brought to you by Spectrum Business, fast, reliable, internet means everything for your business. And even this podcast, that's why I trust Spectrum
Starting point is 01:06:41 Business to keep companies of all sizes connected with internet, advanced Wi-Fi, phone, TV, mobile services, plus 24-7 U.S.-based support. Millions of business owners already trust Spectrum Business. So visit Spectrum.com slash business to learn more. Restrictions apply. Services not available in all areas. This episode is brought to you by Sweetgreen. The day doesn't ask for permission. Windch window? Gone before you saw it 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.
Starting point is 01:07:31 Black rap shit got canceled. Did you see this? I'm so upset by this. I was an avid rap shit watcher. You like it. I got into it because I did an interview with them and I watched it. I got a screener before and I was like, this is really good. And I just love the actors. I love the storylines. I love that it was loosely based off the city girls.
Starting point is 01:07:51 I love that they were speaking to about black women in the South and black women rappers and how they have to come up through this industry. They kind of called out the music industry and the way that they analyze black women as rappers. I just loved seeing all of it. There were so many different moving parts. They were struggling artists. It gets into all of that. This was so good.
Starting point is 01:08:14 And the way it ended, it's like, well, what happened? There's like five different things that were happening, and now we'll never know what happened. And it's a lot of people watch the show. I don't know the exact numbers, but I was shocked by this, especially because HBO seems to be a big fan
Starting point is 01:08:30 of Issa Rai, and this is an Issa Rae show. So I'm just shocked that and do we have that much content coming out to where you needed to cancel this show? Well, studios only keep shows for one or two reasons. And that is. Either a show
Starting point is 01:08:47 is making money or the show is creating prestige. So if you have a show and why people are watching the show. Right. Shows making you money. You keep the show on here, obviously. Doesn't matter how good the show is or how bad the show is. A show could be terrible
Starting point is 01:09:03 but if people are watching it for whatever reason, you keep the show on because the show is making money. Now, if the show is a little bit of a better show and people aren't watching it, however, that show gets you nominations at the Emmys, Golden Globes, all of that type of stuff, then you might keep that show around a little while because those things are valuable.
Starting point is 01:09:30 You can say, hey, we are HBO Max or hey, we're Amazon and we won four Emmys. We won four Golden Globes, four Critics Choice Awards. That's valuable. But if a show is not either, your show's going to keep your show. So the show's not making money.
Starting point is 01:09:42 I don't know. I tried to look at the ratings and it was hard to find it. But I don't know. I don't know. So I'm not sure. But I do know that this led a lot of people to talk about a specific subject
Starting point is 01:09:53 in this white, and it was black shows getting canceled. Right. And I looked. Love Life. This is just in 2023 and 2024 so far. of life, grownish, Z-way, the Gossip Girl reboot,
Starting point is 01:10:07 which was very black. There's a lot of blacks. Not black people in the show. Okay. Everything's trash. 61st Street. Legendary. South Side, which I love.
Starting point is 01:10:17 Yeah. Damascus, written by, with an incredibly, incredibly talented show runner. That show was very good. The black, a black lady sketch show, Sweet Life, L.A.,
Starting point is 01:10:27 rap shit, winning time, which had a black lead and a lot of black people in it. A lot of people are wondering. I don't consider that black show, but yes. Why all of these black shows are getting canceled? Are you comparing that to, and I'm not trying to play devil's advocate,
Starting point is 01:10:42 but are there just a lot of shows at HBO Max that, or Max is it's called now, they got canceled? Hmm. This is the question. And this is why some people get mad at me when I say this, but you should have violent cultural support for black. It's the only way for them to survive. Violent cultural support.
Starting point is 01:11:08 I mean, you got to watch. You have to watch. You have to watch. You got to watch. You got to watch the shows. You got to go to the movies. You have to watch if you care. Because the streaming crunch is upon us.
Starting point is 01:11:23 Yeah. Okay. Half of those shows you name that I had never even heard of. So what's that? Well, I mean, that has new boss. I want to, I want to, I want to. You can't support if you've never even heard of the show. So you've never heard of the show.
Starting point is 01:11:36 Some of those shows you named I had never heard of. So I want to let people know something real quick. Okay. The streaming crunches upon us. And let me tell you what I mean by that. Is that the streamers overall are in trouble. A lot of the shows that we're talking about only exists because of streaming. Okay.
Starting point is 01:12:00 we talked about for a long time that was difficult to get black shows on both networks and sometimes on cable right because they would say audiences weren't there for black shows outside shows like blackish and stuff like that you never had too many of them on at the same time what streaming was able to do
Starting point is 01:12:20 is it was able to find content or direct content at more niche audiences right? Because there's so much stuff, so many hours to be taken up on a streamer. You find someone, if they can take up a little bitty portion of what you need in terms to make the money back on the show, it's worth it to put it out there. So you're going to have more diverse shows, the more shows that coming out because you're trying to thread the needle into what people want to see.
Starting point is 01:12:51 Do you want to see a black witchcraft show? Do you want to see a black sci-fi show? Do you want to see a black show Like survival of the tickets With a great Great show A fucking fantastic show With an amazingly
Starting point is 01:13:06 Talented cast But with people who maybe years ago Maybe not wouldn't have gotten their own shows With everything that's going on out there Is there a market for a show like that right Now when the streamers start failing Those shows will go first And the streamers my friends
Starting point is 01:13:24 Are starting to fail So I'm looking at it right now. The streamers right now are making up 35.9% of the overall market share of watching stuff. But it's unbalanced. Like when you look at this right here, HBO Max or Max itself, 1.2% of that, of that 35%. 1.2%. They cannot compete with your YouTube. your Hulus, your Netflix's, which is really a battle between YouTube and Netflix.
Starting point is 01:14:06 It's weird that YouTube is even considered a streamer because, but it is. It's a streaming video platform. So when things are that small for a network, when the amount that they're getting back in, when their viewership is that small, there's going to be a crunch. and black shows are going to be treated just like black people in a horror movie. They're going to die first. So if you want these shows to succeed,
Starting point is 01:14:32 if you want, you have got to watch them. And I see a lot of people that are talking about, oh my God, why does mine and my show go away? Why do my stuff go away? And I see this all the time. People talked about how important the color purple was. Yo, the color purple flopped. Y'all did not go see the color purple flop.
Starting point is 01:14:48 Did it really? Yes, it did. The color purple flop. Y'all didn't go see the color purpose. And it was so good. And we're talking about how much taraji you should be making and all of that stuff. And obviously, Charlemagne said this on The Breakfast Club, but it's facts, right? It's like we're talking about how much the movie should be making.
Starting point is 01:15:06 And everybody is so upset about that. And it's something to be upset about. But then when you look at the movie that she came out and you also have to wonder if all of what she did kind of maybe undercut the color purpose roll out a little bit. I don't think so. You don't? No, I don't. You don't think it's at least a possibility. Why would that?
Starting point is 01:15:25 Just because she talked about the fact, so people are going to boycott the movie now because she talked about that the circumstances were subpar. Not boycott, but she made it look like the movie didn't treat her right. She made it look like Oprah didn't treat her right. No, man. I'm just being for real,
Starting point is 01:15:42 she made it look like the movie didn't treat her right. That didn't deter me from wanting to see it. I mean, to me, I looked at them as two separate issues, I looked at it as, oh, Taraji's really speaking out on behalf of other black actors and requiring people who are like an Oprah who have authority over a black set to do better. That's how I looked at it. It had no bearing on whether or not this was a fantastic movie. I don't know why, maybe because it was Christmas. I don't know why people didn't go see the movie.
Starting point is 01:16:12 Well, the movie. Because it was a musical. The musicals don't typically do as well. The budget was between $90 and $100 million. It's made $60 million up to this point. So it's not like when I say, it's not like nobody would see the color purpose. $60 million is,
Starting point is 01:16:27 but revenue to budget, the movie flopped. You know what I mean? And I hate to use such a harsh term when we're talking about it, but it just seemed like the cultural uproar about how she was treated
Starting point is 01:16:40 and about how black actors is treated were louder. It was louder than people actually going out to support the movie. And so when I see all, when I see everybody talking about, man, this didn't make this much money, this didn't make this much money, man,
Starting point is 01:16:54 you have to be an advocate for what you love. You have to be, you have to fucking go out there and evangelize the shows that you love and put them out there and if it really matters to you. Well, but again, you named shows that I had never even heard of.
Starting point is 01:17:10 And I'm someone who, no, but I'm someone who works, no, no, no. I'm someone who worked in the media. The reason rap shit got on my radar because we were doing a junkie for it. So a lot of these shows come through Winning Time. I had the Winning Time Junkett. I'm familiar with them because they come across my table.
Starting point is 01:17:27 Some of these shows, they weren't even on our Junkett list. I never even heard of them. So that goes back to the studios and the networks, not properly promoting these shows for us to even be aware that we need to watch or support them. I also don't subscribe to the narrative of we, the fact that, well, I think you said something along the time of like, we don't watch shows, or when we have shows,
Starting point is 01:17:47 we weren't watching them. When you look at the 90s, it was all black shows. What we're talking about? Fresh prints. Family Matters. Moesha, the game. That's 2000s. Girlfriends, that's 2000s.
Starting point is 01:18:01 Martin, living single. Different. But people, I guess, and you can explain, but my point is that there were black shows. They had multiple on multiple seasons. People watched those shows. They were invested. So this whole narrative of,
Starting point is 01:18:16 we don't watch our shows isn't true. That's why they had some. so many seasons. So why could we watch the shows then, but we don't support these shows now? So a lot of the shows that you're talking about from back in the 90s
Starting point is 01:18:26 were on network television. Yeah. So those shows had much bigger audiences just by just by the just because of where they were on. Right, the reach they were on.
Starting point is 01:18:43 But they were watching it as my point. They were watching it because by the time, and by the way, there were other shows that maybe that didn't work. right. They were watching it because by the time a show gets to that place, but it's on Fox, it's on NBC. Fresh Prince is on NBC, right? So on Fox is on NBC. The audience for those shows,
Starting point is 01:19:00 just by virtue of those shows being on those networks, UPN, it still was still network television. It was a fledgling network, but it was still network television. We talk about Alicia and the partners and then later on girlfriends and stuff. And I'm not saying, I'm not saying in those situations that black people weren't watching those. They were watching. What I'm saying is they're obviously not watching these shows. And then they're not watching them. And then they're also complaining when
Starting point is 01:19:28 they get canceled. So what I'm saying is I'm not blaming the audience. I'm not blaming the audience. I'm trying to create the value for the audience and saying, if you want black art on, you have got to make it a specific goal of yours to support it. If you want a specific goal of yours to support it. if you want it on, not just hey, I like this. You got to say, what's the next black shit that's coming on for me to try to like? Because if not, I mean, we could talk about the promotion and all of that stuff, but to be honest with you, no studio, I mean, I'm not going to say that because that's not true at all. But any of the places that greenlit, any of this content,
Starting point is 01:20:11 would have loved for it to be the next succession. They would have loved for it because it makes them money. They're looking at this stuff. What they hear is they hear this. They hear everyone wants diverse stories. Black Panther made a billion dollars. So much black shit was greenlit off the back of shit like that. That's why it's important to go see those movies.
Starting point is 01:20:27 It's important to go see those movies, right? Because when a movie like that makes a billion dollars or a moonlight that comes out and does all of this, they think, hey, we're living Bill Street. They think, hey, we're living in a time where we can get money or prestige off of content that features diverse casts and diverse voices. Well, let me also say that studios and networks and whoever is the PR behind it, I think they need to do a better job
Starting point is 01:20:57 of putting like a rap shit should be, if it's up to the black community or it should be up to the black community to be supporting these shows or to even know that they're out there and how they can watch them and when they can watch them, then you've got to be putting them on platforms
Starting point is 01:21:11 with black audiences. Not a knock-to-extra, but like rap shit was doing all the, media rounds with like, you know, access and E.T. and extra. And that's great. And it's great that they were getting this national attention for this show that is all about black people. But if it's up to us to be supporting it, were they necessarily doing it? So this is what I'm saying. I mean, it's not just up to us. Everybody should, everybody should and just watch and enjoy black stories. Because black history, black stories, they're American stories.
Starting point is 01:21:44 Black stories are stories that have the same resonance and the same sort of importance of anybody else's stories. So if we can watch fucking Seinfeld, you should be able to watch live a single.
Starting point is 01:21:57 If we can watch fucking curb your enthusiasm, you should be able to watch Black AF, right? If you can watch, hey. You're the one over here making faces and laughing. You're saying like, no, what's like, can you? But like if... So I'm not saying that it's only us,
Starting point is 01:22:13 but I'm saying if we're going to specifically care when black shows get canceled, we have to specifically endeavor into supporting those things. Speaking of that, will you be watching the new Wizard of Oz that's based in Englewood? I'm going to check it out. Look, you know, it's tough, man.
Starting point is 01:22:37 That's a tough one for me, man. Because I just ask why, you know? That's the only question. I'm not saying it's going to be why. I don't think it's, you know, I'm just asking. why, man. It's just, to me, and I do,
Starting point is 01:22:53 I actually feel like a lot of the criticism that Kenya has gotten over the time has been like, over time, should I say, has been unfair. Agree? I really do. You know? But
Starting point is 01:23:07 that's one that you make, and I'm like, my nigga, you just kind of set yourself up for people to kick you and you're nuts about that. Because that just don't seem like it needs to be You know, the jokes is flying. Maybe it'll be dope. Maybe the shit will be dope.
Starting point is 01:23:24 I'm not, you know, the joke, but the jokes is flying right now. People were like, I saw one tweet that said, he going to make Dorothy biracial and called it whizzish. It's just, you know, it's like, that's a, you know, did you like you people? Did you like a movie? I think we've talked about you people. It wasn't what I thought it was going to be. Right. It's a tough one, you know?
Starting point is 01:23:50 It's a tough one. But it's, look, it's not, everything's not for everyone. Everything, I'm not saying you have to watch a black show and you like it. I'm not saying you have to watch. I didn't like you people.
Starting point is 01:24:01 I didn't like it. You don't have to like it. But what I'm saying is give it a chance. You have to want to like it. You have to show cultural sort of allegiance to that as well. If you care that it gets canceled. Because what will happen is, man, why all these black shows getting canceled?
Starting point is 01:24:18 it's like, well, how many of them did you watch? Right. Update real quick. I have a to give an apology to. I apologize to celebrity, to celebrity. Mental health advocate. Her name is Daphne Sutton.
Starting point is 01:24:36 Is her a real name. She's a mental health advocate. And she was the sister who, I say sister very, very directly in the Tim. She was the sister who was, who first, outed row, the brick lady who was on top of it calling out the inconsistencies in the story and we talked about it. When we were on the podcast last time, I had seen this TikTok from
Starting point is 01:25:02 this white lady some time ago who was calling out the inconsistencies in her story and doing all of that. I think we even talked about it or whatever. And for some reason, without me going to do my due diligence on it, I thought that those two people were the same people. Gotcha. And so I said that she was a white lady. I, as Van Lathen, would never want to be confused with somebody other than the black man that I am. It happens to you a lot.
Starting point is 01:25:31 That's not true. I get confused with Van Jones. No, that's what I'm saying. Just the wrong person. So I said she was white. It changed the tenor of the story a little bit because it made it look like some white woman was out to get a row. And that was irresponsible on my part. I apologize to her on, on Twitter and on Instagram.
Starting point is 01:25:48 Instagram. So I apologize to her right now. It was not my intent at all. It's no ax to grind, no bone to pick with you in any way. So I do apologize. But I have a question for you. Quick update on the brick lady. The brick lady continues to maintain her innocence. Okay. She maintains her innocence. She says that a lot of this stuff is being made up to make her look bad and she's a victim. And she said she's not on the run because people had said that she was on the lambs. she will whammy and she says it's not on the run. It seems to me pretty clear that she lied. About which part?
Starting point is 01:26:26 About getting hit? No, that she lied about, that she framed that the entire thing in a dishonest way. And that she had multiple opportunities. It seems pretty clear to me that she owes an apology. Well, wait, wait, wait. It's clear to you that she lied about the circumstances surrounding how she got hit,
Starting point is 01:26:47 like what she was hit with, where she was. Is that what you're referring to? Or did more come out that I'm just not aware of? Okay. So she struck the guy first. Yeah. The guy hit her back. Mm-hmm.
Starting point is 01:26:58 The guy was not held accountable or held accountable. The DA says that's mutual combat. Mm-hmm. Framing it as, hey, a guy asked for my number. I said, no, he hit me with a brick. And a bunch of people stood around and didn't do anything. Mm-hmm. is to me insidiously disingenuous.
Starting point is 01:27:23 It's a lie. The entire concoction of that is a lie. And so it's not what she said it was. What she tried to incite by specifically going black men this, black men that, she said a bunch of black men did the entire thing. So she has an apology to who? She just owes an apology, not necessarily to black men, just to me, the same way I said, hey,
Starting point is 01:27:49 Jesse Smolet should apologize. Jesse Smolet should apologize. Not that we have to throw Jesse in a cultural dungeon and leave him there. He's done a lot for his community. And I hope that he continues to do a lot for his community, right? But just as I said, hey, the thing is,
Starting point is 01:28:05 you said it was about this, you said it was about MAGA and about all of that stuff. That stirs up some of the deepest fears that we have. You use those fears to further something, that wasn't true, why not just be like, I had a bad moment,
Starting point is 01:28:22 I'm going to try to be better, I apologize and then move on. It's the same thing I feel from her. I don't think I care enough. I don't care to get an apology from her. This is my question. Okay. No, go ahead.
Starting point is 01:28:36 No, I was, and the only thing I was going to add is, if anything, it's like, listen, I messed up the details of what happened that night because I was drunk or whatever. Okay. This is my question.
Starting point is 01:28:46 This is the question. Are black men and black women in a healthy enough position to ever ask black women for accountability? Yes. Are you sure? Yeah. I mean, are you making it in general? Of course. What I'm saying?
Starting point is 01:29:10 What is the hesitation? I've had conversations with, I was on Ole's podcast. Shout out to Ola. I was on OLE's podcast, OLA and Friends on Saturday, right? Even when you have people who intellectually can understand that a black lady, for whatever reason, is in the wrong for a situation, they have a problem, it seems like, come into terms for the fact, with the fact,
Starting point is 01:29:43 that that woman should be accountable. Rather than just say, in this situation, I asked you, I'm like, hey, shouldn't she just say I'm sorry? It's obviously lie and you're like, I don't care enough to get an apology. Well, as a black man, like... That's what I said. And I asked you, who does she's an old apology to? I'm not saying she doesn't necessarily have to apologize just to black men, just an apology, period.
Starting point is 01:30:06 So what I'm saying is, is it to the point I'm asking as... No, I don't think it's to that point. Then why? Then what's so hard about it then? Then why is it? I've got to be honest with you. This is, like, this is the worst scenario for me. for you to ask that question for me.
Starting point is 01:30:21 I really don't care a lot about it. And it's not because it's a black woman that's at the center of it and is being asked to be held accountable. She hit him and he hit her. I'm disgusted on both ends. She was clearly inebriated, even from what the prosecutor is saying
Starting point is 01:30:38 or the police are saying at that point. I just feel like the details are so messy. I don't think she remembers what happened and I'm not excusing her for what she said. Like she got it wrong. That's not true. there was no brick. Now he still hit her
Starting point is 01:30:51 with something in his hand, but I feel like to completely just say, hey, this woman owes him an apology. Not him. But he's a black man, just in general, the public for lying, it almost absolves him
Starting point is 01:31:04 from the responsibility of hitting her. It's just the wrong situation for me to be able to answer that question. But if you're asking me flat out in general, no, I don't think that that's the case. Let me tell you why this scenario.
Starting point is 01:31:18 Like, I watched a bunch of videos, with her and I'm just like, I'm just... Let me tell you why this scenario made me think of that question. Because if she were white, I don't think you would feel the way that you feel. If she were white...
Starting point is 01:31:31 If she were white... And that black guy hit her. If she were white, if she was a white woman that got into an argument with a black guy, maybe she knew them. Maybe they were in some kind of, maybe it's her boyfriend or she knew them.
Starting point is 01:31:49 They're in some kind of back and forth, right? All right. They were hanging out before, whatever. She hits him. She hits her back. Then she specifically talks about black men when she's leveling her allegations. Her use of race and her specification of black men in that situation, I feel like a lot of the sisters in this situation would not be as protective of her.
Starting point is 01:32:19 They would not say they don't care. They would say they care very deeply. And it would be different. Let me just say this. It would be different because then that echoes with white women in their history of doing this to black men and all that stuff. He also would have been arrested. Yeah, he would be in jail. But it would be different.
Starting point is 01:32:35 But what I'm saying is the feeling from some people of wanting accountability and just saying, hey, you know what? You said black men did this. You said black men did that. It's okay to say, even if you say I don't recall, I didn't. I didn't recall. I was drunk. Hey, how about I unfairly threw you guys into this? I'm sorry about that, but this still happened. But it seems like a lot of the black women I talk to. I'm saying black women just specifically because I understand, and I'm asking the question sincerely, a lot of the black women I come to, they can't come to that determination. And I think it's because we might be at a point to where black ladies feel so injured by black men. They feel so seen so unprotected that at this point we can't even have a conversation about like we're going to close ranks every time every time there's something we're going to close ranks we know that on the other side sometimes it's not in good faith so we can't have an intellectual conversation
Starting point is 01:33:37 about what it is that we do or what it is that we'll say i don't believe that i'm not i'm not i know people have shocked to think that but i don't believe that i don't think that we've gone past the point of no return when it comes to that type of relationship with black men and black women. I do think people were very mad at my take, of course. Take about what? About this brick lady? They were like, you know, like they were like, oh, Rachel will bend over backwards to support a black woman.
Starting point is 01:34:05 I will say that the only videos I watched were, you know, her saying these people are standing around me. I saw her say that in like the video in the hospital of her face. I didn't see the continued narrative about black men and black men do this and all of that. I didn't see all of that. And so I will say, once you learned, let's just say, let me say I'll give it to her. She was drunk blacked out, doesn't even remember. Once you learned that there is evidence that shows what really happened and it does not match up with what you said, you should have said, I do think she should have been like, listen.
Starting point is 01:34:43 I should not, I don't remember what happened or I don't recall, as you said. And I shouldn't have said all of that without recalling. I will say that. But I would still be like, but he hit me with something in my head. I know, but I still think that she hit him first. Yes, I know she had a voice. And I already gave my argument about the power that a man has more than a woman, the strength, the same reason you said you would never do it.
Starting point is 01:35:09 Again, I'm not, she should say like, I miss. I painted a picture and played into a stereotype with black women versus black men that I should not have without knowing the full facts because I wasn't in my right mind. She should say that. But I don't think that's it for me. It stops right there. She shouldn't have hit him, but he definitely shouldn't hit her with something in his hand back. And I'll stand by that. This is what I'm saying.
Starting point is 01:35:39 This is the basic thing that I'm getting at. look if the goal is to foster relationships between black men and black women where we can trust one another or we can rely on one another
Starting point is 01:35:54 there are going to have to be two people at that table two people two groups at that table it's the way we look at each other it's how we deal with one another and that means unfortunately there's going to have to be some
Starting point is 01:36:13 apologies on both sides. Sure. Not in the aggregate. I'm calling upon my brothers to do better by black women. I am. But I tell you what, it is not going to be productive
Starting point is 01:36:26 in my opinion for every single one of the world's problems to be hurled at the feet and in the lap of black men. Okay, that's an extreme exaggeration. I'm just saying every single problem is good. world's problems. That is exactly what you said.
Starting point is 01:36:43 We come back to it and it's like, oh, I can make, if I really was a dick about it, that woman has a violent history. She has a history of domestic violence. She has hit before. She's a violent person. Doesn't mean that that happened in this situation. What? She hit him.
Starting point is 01:36:58 She did hit him. Okay. So I'm saying, I can make an argument that she's abusive and she needs help. You could make that argument. And I'm not saying I would disagree with it. But again, back to what I said when you were like, who does she owe apology to? and you kept dancing around it, you want an apology as black men.
Starting point is 01:37:13 Yes, you do. And let me just say something else. Black men, I love y'all. I love y'all. I know y'all don't think I do. You keep saying that, but I don't. I think I love black men? No, I know that you do.
Starting point is 01:37:24 Well, we'll see. But like, you have a chance to prove it now. I really do. You know they're going to be with me to me. I really do. But look, I'll say this. Oh, we left out some shows that were canceled, by the way. Is it a swagger guy?
Starting point is 01:37:40 canceled after two seasons. That was a good show. I didn't watch that. Lovecraft Country got canceled after one show. Although one season, I will say that Lovecraft Country, maybe though, was a limited. Was that like a limited? I think there was a chance that it could have gotten a second season. I thought that's what people said. All I'm saying is, all I'm saying is this. It's like, I don't, I think, I look at us as a community. So it's not, it's not a, it's not an apology to black men or black women. It's an apology to black people.
Starting point is 01:38:13 Hey, I said black. When you say black, you're talking about all of us. That's what I look at. So if you injure my sisters, they apologize to black people. Apologize to us. Like when the lady said that Oprah couldn't come into the fucking store because she was North African. Remember that? No. You remember when they fucking didn't know
Starting point is 01:38:30 that Oprah was the richest motherfucker around? Who's they? It's like some place in some store or whatever. I'm not saying apologize to black women in that situation. I apologize to black people. Apologize to us. Before we go, I have to say, I have to see this movie. I have to see a movie called the American Society of Magical Negroes. I have to see this movie.
Starting point is 01:38:46 Yeah, I saw the previews for it when I went to go see the color purple, which you all should. American Society of Magical Negroes. So I didn't understand it. Now I've read about it. And I think that this is a movie that we should have a higher learning watch. Oh, my Lord, have mercy. Oh, my God. No, you don't.
Starting point is 01:39:09 I am into that. It comes out in March and just looking and seeing what this movie is about, I feel like it brings up a lot of interesting topics. I think that black people specifically can relate to being a magical Negro. And it sounds, I was reading a review on it because I was trying not to spoil it for myself, but it really sounds brilliant. No? Okay.
Starting point is 01:39:37 I'm into it. I'm into it. seen it yet? I've not seen it. I've not seen it. I've not seen it. It just seems to deal with a lot of the issues that we've talked about on this podcast.
Starting point is 01:39:48 So I feel like it would be a really fun, Higher Learning Watch. I'm into it. I think we should do that. Higher Learning Watch for the American Society of Magical Negroes. I think that we should do that. The movie's very controversial. Controversial.
Starting point is 01:40:02 It's been making a comfortable. It makes people uncomfortable. By that, I mean, white people. No. Black people? Black people. I would think it would make white people uncomfortable. Donnie, have you seen the discourse over this?
Starting point is 01:40:15 I have, yeah. I think a lot of it was people's expectations were one thing after there was like a teaser that like didn't release any of the plot for real. No, it doesn't. And people were kind of excited. And then when the full trailer came out, they felt like they were kind of duped. But what are they mad about specifically? What makes you upset? I think, Donnie, go ahead.
Starting point is 01:40:38 I was going to say, I feel like it's the. The fact that white people or the white characters feel like it ends up being that they're centered in the plot in a way that if you are looking at the teaser, it seems like it might just be a movie that is about magical black people, like wizards or something, when it ends up being about the movie trope, which is the magical Negro, the black man or woman that's there to help out the main character who is white. But that's symbolic of if that is in fact true that white people are centered in the movie, then that goes to the point of the magical Negro. It plays into exactly what the whole movie is about. Yeah, I'm not someone who's upset about it just yet because I feel like we're all going based off of trailers. I'm one who I feel like I get the idea of it not meeting your original expectation after that teaser, but you can't really fully judge it without seeing.
Starting point is 01:41:36 I think the whole movie. But I get the upsetness about like feeling like you're being duped when it's one, you think it's one thing, but it ends up being another, but still not having seen the full movie, it's hard to give like a full assessment on it either. Okay, well, we'll see what happens.
Starting point is 01:41:52 Fuck them. We're watching it. We're watching it. We're watching. American Society of Magical Negroes here at Spotify. We're going to do it. The movie opens when you say?
Starting point is 01:42:01 I think March. Is it March? It looks like March 22nd. Okay, so we'll do it here. We'll do it. it here. We'll see what you guys see. Fuck it. Fuck it. All right. Take the cap so off. Do not stop learning out. Van Lathen, Jr.
Starting point is 01:42:12 I'm Rachel and Lindsay. Bye, guys.

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