#RolandMartinUnfiltered - 10.16 RMU: Spirit of Democracy Awards; Dem debate breakdown; How 2020 hopefuls fare on social media

Episode Date: October 24, 2019

10.16.9 #RolandMartinUnfiltered: NCBCP Spirit of Democracy Awards; Democratic presidential debates breakdown: Who won, who lost and who needs to go home; How are the Dem 2020 presidential hopefuls doing on social media? We'll breakdown some numbers in real-time to show you how they fare. - #RolandMartinUnfiltered partner: Life Luxe Jazz Life Luxe Jazz is the experience of a lifetime, delivering top-notch music in an upscale destination. The weekend-long event is held at the Omnia Dayclub Los Cabos, which is nestled on the Sea of Cortez in the celebrity playground of Los Cabos, Mexico. For more information visit the website at lifeluxejazz.com. Can't make it to Los Cabos for the Life Luxe Jazz Fest? Get your live stream pass at https://gfntv.com/ #RolandMartinUnfiltered partner: Ebony Foundation | Home by the Holiday Home by the Holiday aims to reunite Black and Latino families separated by bail, while challenging racial injustice and mass incarceration. For more info visit https://www.homebytheholiday.com/ Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an iHeart Podcast. Hey, folks, today is Wednesday, October 16th, 2019. We are, of course, here with the Black Women's Roundtable, National Coalition of Black Civic Participation, and their Spirit Democracy Awards. We'll stick out our show. I'm going to be, of course, hosting that a little bit later. Just off the plane from Atlanta, where we have the National Minority Support Development Council.

We live-streamed that event today. But on today's show, we're going to talk about last night's debate, how does Senator Kamala Harris do? Clearly, everybody saw that Senator Elizabeth Warren is the front-runner, because they were all coming after her. And Pete Buttigiegaj he's had to get a little feisty last night so we'll talk about all of that and also what we talk about on social media we'll break all of that down with our panel here lots of little stuff we got going so we're gonna get right to it it's time to bring the funk on roller mark unfiltered let's go. Entertainment just for kicks. He's rolling with Uncle Roro, y'all. It's rolling, Martin.

Rolling with rolling now. He's funky, he's fresh, he's real, the best you know. He's rolling, Martin. Now. Martin. Folks, we're here at the Hamilton Inn, Washington, D.C., where the Spirit of Democracy Awards will be taking place. A little bit later, we'll be talking with Melanie Campbell, of course, who leads the organization behind this. They've got a great group of honorees.

And so we'll actually be also live streaming that event taking place after this. But first, we want to talk about a number of different issues. Last night, of course, a huge debate taking place in Ohio. We now are seeing the real candidates, 12 people on stage, still too many damn people. Three or four of y'all need to get the hell off the stage. Y'all know who y'all are. And, of course, it was lots of back and forth last night between the various candidates. Again, we are now past what I call preseason.

I've always said after October 1st, that's when the real campaign begins. And so you saw that last night, finally, with all of the candidates on one stage together, debating one another, although there was still some issues that took place there that never came up. Stuff that we actually care about took place again in Ohio, Westerfield, Ohio, last night. And so here's a snapshot. What took place last night? Stretch a little bit. Stretch. We have the video in one second again you had folks of course vice president joe biden seen elizabeth warren senator bernie sanders on the stage surprisingly just a couple of weeks after uh he had uh a heart procedure after having a heart attack also senator kamala harris she's some newbies there tom steyer

who bought his way onto the stage must must be great to spend almost $40 million in 84 days to buy your way onto a stage, and still nobody knows who the hell you are. Of course, Julian Castro was there as well, Senator Cory Booker, of course, Beto O'Rourke as well, Andrew Yang. What you didn't have is, you didn't have, oh, the spiritual one, Marianne Williamson. She did not make the cut last night as well, and so many people say that it actually raised the bar even higher to say that it should be at least meeting four percent threshold in the various polls in order to meet uh on the debate stage folks let me know we have a video ready uh again for the for the snapshot so let me just do this here let me introduce our panel right now they of course will play some of the uh from the video joining us right now monique presley of course, a lawyer, crisis manager as well.

Also joining us is Lauren Victoria Burke, NNPA, and, of course, Eric Savage-Williams, host of Savage Politics Podcast. Again, we finally have these folks on the stage together with one debate. Last debate we had one as well, but you still had some folks out there. I still think we're about three or four a little heavy right now who need to get off the stage, who really don't need to be there. So each one of you, I'll start with you, Monique. Any surprises? Anything

that stood out last night? Well, the one thing that I was tweeting about that stood out to me was the seemingly inability, I don't know if it was refusal or arrogance, on the part of Senator Warren to just answer basic yes or no questions. It was supremely frustrating to me because on the one hand, I get, okay, she doesn't want to fall for a gotcha concerning taxes and Medicare. People are going to be doing better.

Medicaid for all helps. It brings costs down overall. But it's a fact. Taxes are going to be raised for any number of Americans. And when you're asked a direct question about it 15 times over three different debates and you can't come up with an answer, I start getting concerned. Because this gig is one where you have to have a position, fight for it, and convince the American people that it's worth it. So that's what I said on

Twitter last night. If my taxes are going to go up, tell me. If I'm going to end up better off overall because of the level of the insurance costs going down, tell me. If I got to take one for the team and the team is the United States of america tell me americans should not be treated as though they're dumb and they can't handle hearing yes your taxes are gonna go up you know and when when you're saying you're using bernie's plan and bernie's standing right next to you saying yeah your taxes are gonna go up so i was concerned yes she's a front runner but she's a front runnerner who seems to want to be living on her own terms. Well, I mean, I do think that obviously, as I switch back and forth, when they did foreign policy, I would be the first to admit I went to the Nats game and came back. But anyway, I think

Liz Warren, you're right. She should have just answered the question. She probably will do that next debate. She obviously got the, as Roland tweeted last night, the frontrunner treatment, because in fact she's the front-runner but I do think this nonsense that we saw with Pete Buttigieg who likely really barely should be on the stage and you know Senator Klobuchar this running to the middle nonsense which is why they were hitting her up on that they want her to admit oh you're gonna raise taxes and now you're not gonna be able to win if you raise taxes it's all nonsense they're they'reting. They're trying to court the middle court, court

Trump voters. It's all nonsense. They're going to win with the base as usual. They're going to win with black voters. So whatever has to happen out there for that to happen is what wins. And this is why Biden is going to lose the nomination of Elizabeth Warren, because this whole game of trying to act like you can please everybody, particularly everybody on the right in this era of politics that we live in with the Trump people around, is nonsense. So even though you're right, she should have answered the question. That entire game, and to have anchors from CNN asking her questions who have investor husbands that make $17, $18 million a year. See, the reason we're talking about that and not income inequality,

and the reason that Sanders was able to hit that home run last night yet again on income inequality is the entire narrative is off because when you have people who are making millions of dollars asking the questions they don't talk about poverty which Booker was right to bring up they don't talk about the issues that affect and impact average everyday people and and and Sanders and and and warren are talking about that okay so it's that all these debates are bullshit no no no all these all these debates are bullshit because you're absolutely right because the issue that first of all hold up i'm gonna go i'm gonna come back to that no because this has actually been pissing

me off for the last several cycles uh and so erica just you're surprised last night and then i'm gonna explain why these debates are bullshit. Sure. Well, I agree with you and agree with Lori, what you were just saying, that we're in an existential crisis. And so for me, three hours of my time for the last question to be about unlikely friendships was a complete waste of time. The field does need to be cleared. Who gives a shit about George W. Bush and Ellen? I'm sorry.

This is a debate. I'm sorry. No, I mean, I'm just, I'm anyway. Yeah, that too. And then it was also an insult to the intelligence and to where we are. We are all adults, and everybody has a real, real clear understanding

of the mediocrity that's leading the country right now. People are ready for change, and so auditions, whoever's the cool kid, all of that needs to be pushed aside and those it and not for me it feels like it's more than three or four people that need to drop out of the race but right now it's decision now i guess cnn has to get their sound bites in which is why biden got questioned about his son that is all nonsense that's right so for all of that

interview so for all of that interviews all the people who are watching at home, so let me explain to you the bullshit game, okay? And I was trying not to cuss these people out, but I'm left with no choice. You're absolutely right. Every single one of these networks, what they are desiring, they're not actually desiring what other issues Americans out there care about, but they actually ask what is the moment that's going to get replayed on all the other networks is the whole branding opportunity so for instance i don't believe health care has to be a part of every debate it doesn't if there have been but this is what the fourth one fourth one and it's been the first three to me you can wait for the next

one you have not had i saw it was a tweet that was sent out by one of the voters, voter, voter, voter experts. He said 31 consecutive debates now, nothing on voting rights, nothing. You're right. You're never going to hear any of these people asking questions about housing. You know why? Because they're all making several million dollars. So they're not going to talk about the home foreclosure crisis and how black people lost 53 percent of all black wealth due to the home foreclosure crisis. And let's what Latinos lost as well and how these banks are selling blocks, 20 and 30 and 40 thousand homes to hedge funds. And now people are renting. No, that's not going to come up.

Right, right. Right. And I think what the candidates. Right. Somebody else had to do it about one of the other topics, but they all would try to treat the ridiculous question and then slip in the, but why, even if you're going to talk about healthcare, why aren't you talking

it doesn't have to have the same treatment it's not the same overall one second, I hear the volume is low on the live stream so we can boost the audio the fact that you've got a guy sitting on stage who's a multi-billionaire, no problem with that, right, he has the right to participate just like anybody else.

So the fact that he has money, the fact that Tom Spire has money is not a bad thing. But the fact that you've got that guy standing there represents the whole problem. And, of course, the anchors don't reflect average American salaries. So you're going to get no questions. We're sitting here with 45 million people in poverty, and you can't get a poverty question. You can't get a vote on my question. First of all, you're never going to get a poverty question property quite a lot of people are going to have a lot of you never had you're never going to get a property question because again uh... that's not

gonna happen you're never actually going to get a public education quite right you're not going to get that on the reason for this came up in the last debate frankly again because you can't cancel brought it up and that's why i think these debates or bullshit which is why you have uh... different groups have in their own town halls to be able to address these issues. But but but but that but that is the deal, which is why you're not hearing these issues on these networks.

OK, because and again, who's deciding it? I'm telling you, I spent six years at CNN. I know the game. I know the individuals who get in the rooms who are deciding these things there are a few people who look like us matter of fact congratulations to emily finally cnn got a black executive producer of the situation room but trust me the people in the room they're not black these issues are not going to come up they're not latino and what's frustrating is when you go when you go outside okay sure sure you're going to have questions talking about Syria comes up. Okay, I would love to hear somebody actually ask one day to the candidates, Africa has seven of the top ten fastest growing economies in the world.

What exactly is your plan for us to actually partner with these African nations as opposed to them having to get billions from china and frankly them raping the continent absolutely one of the problems that we've talked about that i've talked about and people disagree with me about on this show before is this is why i think engagement and following not just these debates but all of the town halls does matter because there are things that didn't get addressed last night. But to CNN's credit, I've watched every single one of those town halls and every one of those topics that people are complaining about that did not get treated last night has been covered with each individual candidate with voters in the room getting to ask questions

to CNN town halls that they've held for each candidate. Well, first of all, they've had an LGBTQ town hall. They had a climate change town hall. No, the ones for tonight with Kamala Harris, tonight with Elizabeth Warren, tonight with Bernie Sanders. And I watched those. But remember, those town halls actually took place in March. It was early, yeah. But here's my point.

In those individual town halls, the difference, though, with the debates is that it's a much bigger and broader audience yeah and again the goal of the people putting these on is exactly what you get and what you're not and also like the whole partner deal so for instance uh the next debate november 20th okay i love how the dnc says it's going to be in georgia no it's not it's going to be in atlanta like where in the hell else you're going to have a debate in Georgia other than Atlanta? Seriously, I'm just saying.

That's first. Here's what's interesting. The partners are MSNBC, the co-host of the debate are MSNBC and the Washington Post. Then they have, as a partner, Urban One, but it's going to be on the radio one stations

on the digital platforms i'm sorry that does nothing for me okay no because i'm sorry urban one if you're not going to have somebody from the company actually asking questions what the hell we don't have a voice what's the point and i think the other one raymo's right sitting at the desk he was as abc debate asking. So it doesn't mean anything to me to have a black media partner. And so again, maybe they're going to have somebody on the stage. I don't know if that's the case. We ain't got

no news. But again, my point is, this is where we have to have, and that's why I keep calling out these eight black networks that are doing 1,344 hours a week. The fundamental problem that we have is here's the piece. You can't convince me why they can't together and say we're going to do the damn thing ourselves. OK, you don't have it doesn't have to always be ABC, NBC, CBS, MSNBC, Fox News.

Well, they're not getting into Democratic debates, and CNN, because they are the ones who are setting the tone. They set the coverage tone, they set the focus tone, and that to me is a problem. Erica, go ahead. I was just going to say, and then also for the Democratic Party, look at who your people are. It made no sense that we went well into almost the second hour mark before there was any conversation around the last police shooting that we have. And not saying that that is all of the black community, but because the lion's share of Democratic voters are black women, are black people, there definitely should be from the Democratic Party leadership more of a push and more of coverage

and more conversations around the issues that directly impact our communities. You know, all of these different town halls, you know, you'll follow it, Monique. I'll follow it as politicals. Like, we'll follow that. But for the American public who have families, they have children, they're tired, they're like, show me, give it to me, and they want it. It needs to be boiled down to these are the bullet plate issues. We hear you, we see you, and then converse about those.

And that's why control matters, because the individual who is controlling the debate, they're the ones who are determining what gets asked. And that is actually what sets the stage. And look, the debate, look, first of all, this is like big debate, one, there you go. But the other issue, again, which goes to who is asking the questions Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday, because that also sets the agenda. And so to me, that's also sort of what's driving this. I think that's also what you see with the frustration there. And the whole point is also, OK, what's the entertainment? Can I get can I get that moment where Biden is fighting with Warren? So Biden got real loud and was talking down to Warren.

And then she said, thank you. It is all designed for the entertainment game as opposed to. No, we're dealing with with what is real. I would have loved to hear. And again, I would hear somebody ask a question. So should Trump have given the farmers $28 billion in welfare? I'm going to call it welfare. Okay? That's free money.

$28 billion, which is twice as much than the bailout was. You can have a farm subsidy question all night at some of these debates. And the fact that they could talk about Syria for longer than we can talk about things that actually impact the United States of America in terms of how the money moves around, how the allocation is, whether it's farm subsidies or affordable housing or food stamps or anything like that is incredible.

Did I miss it? Did NBA and Hong Kong and China come up? Like, how on the hell did you miss that story? I mean, it was kind of a big story in the past week right now that's right that's right well the fact that we got what 10 questions in a row about whether or not elizabeth warren was going to tax the wealthy then we had like eight questions in a row about are you going to tax wealthy people i mean what how much of the population

is impacted by that easy the people who are asking the questions exactly and i'm not a huge bernie fan but the fact that he has changed the conversation about that, I think is really meaningful. But I got to credit some of the other candidates, too. They tried to get in there. You know, Booker tried to get in there with some reasonable discussion about something that wasn't. Oh, so now you're going to be his friend, huh, Lauren?

Be his friend a little bit. Last night, Lauren was talking about how he was acting like he was a front runner, not acting like he only had like 4% of the vote. Because he was. How do you want him to act? How should he be acting? Right now, he should be in Jersey watching the

game. I want one of these candidates to say, I'm sorry, can I get somebody who asked a question who's making $100,000 a year? I know. Or $50,000 a year. How about that?

Because I'm telling you. That's why the audience is a big deal. That's when it's important to have half and half. Okay, but were there audience questions last night? No. Of course not. This structure was off in a number of ways. Because the only reason, I'm telling you, these debates are designed to showcase the network stars.

That's what they're designed for. They're actually not designed. And what they do is, it's no different than the Sunday morning shows. The Sunday morning shows are designed for somebody to say something at the other shows, other media pick up on Monday, the newspapers and the blogs and everything. It's not actually, can we talk about something substantive. You're playing to the same crowd. And that's what drives me crazy and what is frustrating and getting to it. And, again, what I want is I want Castro to go, thank you very much.

I'm going to talk about housing. As a former H.O.S. secretary. And then they go, sir, ask a question. No, because you know what you keep asking the same damn question one thing i will say i'm sorry go roll that was actually a good thing last night is that the the moderators did not force them to answer so they just sort of talked about whatever the heck they wanted to talk about you're right about the sunday talks but that's starting to break down a little bit i happen to be in the vet last night and talk to

chuck todd and you notice that interview he did Sunday with Senator Johnson where he just basically broke fourth wall and said, this is nonsense and I'm breaking out of this. And that's happening more and more. It's about time. That's been long overdue. That has been long overdue, Chuck. That's long overdue. Right, right.

He's like the last man standing here. We're calling him out on that. We see you, Chuck. I got to go to a break. We come back. We're going to talk with Melody Campbell. Also, we're going to talk about, we're going to talk with a group that was actually monitoring social media and to give you guys a sense of what people were talking about on social media as the debate was unfolding.

You're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered. Back in a moment. If you want to check out Roland Martin Unfiltered? YouTube.com forward slash Roland S. Martin. Subscribe to our YouTube channel. There's only one daily digital show out here that keeps it

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Roland S. Martin. And don't forget to turn on your notifications so when we go live, you'll know it. All right, fam, it's almost that time. The holiday season, of course, is for many of us the favorite time of the year. Now, whether you celebrate Halloween, Thanksgiving, Ramadan, Christmas, Kwanzaa, New Year's, all of these, of course, from October to the end of the year,

this is when you think about spending time with the people you love the most. This is also the time to count your blessings and support those less fortunate and look at how you can have an impact on their lives. Well, I have the perfect opportunity for you to be a holiday hero, have a major impact on other families. Here's the deal. Right now, hundreds of thousands of Americans are sitting in jail without being convicted of a crime. Why? Because they lack the financial resources to pay their bail. Now, think about it. If you are arrested for any minor offense, you'll be taken directly to jail. If you don't have bail money, whether it's a few hundred or a few thousand dollars, you will stay there until a court date is scheduled.

Now, that could be days, weeks, or even months. America's bail system is broken and has created a two-tier system of justice, one for the rich and one for the poor. Folks, freedom should be free. That's why the Ebony Foundation is partnering with the Bail Project and is sponsoring the Home by the Holiday campaign. With your help, our goal is to bail out 1,000 people by New Year's Day. How's that for a holiday gift? A donation from you can change someone's life tomorrow, and here's why it is critical. People of color represent upwards of 90% of the jail population across the country. It ranges from 50 to 90% depending upon where you are. Of course,

when they stayed in jail, 90% of people with misdemeanors ended up pleading guilty. However, when bail was paid, 50% of the cases were dismissed and less than 2% received a jail sentence. Sometimes justice needs just us to join the fight. Folks, you can be a holiday hero by donating $25, $50 or more to help the Ebony Foundation bring our brothers and sisters home for the holidays to donate go to home by the holiday.com that's h-o-m-e-b-y-t-h-e-h-o-l-i-d-a-y.com and of course the ebony foundation uh is tied to ebony magazine and so we certainly appreciate the work that they're doing to assist those who are most in need. All right, y'all, 22nd Annual Spirit Democracy Awards taking place here at the Hamilton in Washington, D.C. First of all, why Melanie Campbell going to give me this little bitty ass?

Zoom in, y'all. Zoom in. Zoom in. Melanie actually gave me this. Keep zooming. You can't read. Y'all keep zooming. Y'all see this little bitty ass print. No, keep zooming. That's the thought. See, we can't even zoom in anymore, and you still can't read this little bitty ass print.

I'm like, come on now. I'm just saying. And so Mellie Campbell joins us, National Coalition of Black Civic Participation. A couple of honorees who are with us. Christine Chin, as well as, again, hold up. Damn, I know that, Lonzo Bird. How y'all doing? Glad to have you here.

Thank you. First off, Mellie, I got to ask you, again, debate was last night. Did you hear anything of interest to you? Well, I will say I wasn't able last night, honestly, to watch the entire thing. But from what I did see of it last night, I was listening to your earlier conversation. And what frustrated me was the lack of getting to some other kinds of questioning. And you talked about the whole question around everybody with money. That's real.

And so part of the challenge, I think, that we have to find is to find a way for our issues to be out there. You talked about affordable housing. We did our Essence poll, Black Women's Roundtable, and for millennials, that's like a critical issue, the impact of gentrification. If you want to talk about wealth issues, it is not just about affordable health care, albeit that's important. It's all these other kinds of things that are having a major impact in urban and rural America. And both of you, are you hearing what you want to hear?

Well, for the Asian American Pacific Islander community, a lot of it is about whether or not the candidates and the parties are doing early outreach and engagement with the communities. I will say this round we're seeing a little bit more movement because finally candidates are meeting with the Asian American-american community in nevada and also iowa like they actually finally realized that there are asian-american voters in iowa right um but even in ohio that that's actually my hometown westerville i grew up in there and um one thing i wanted to like really tout with everyone was that Columbus, if you add up the African-American community, the Latino, Asian, the growing Somalian and Nepalese community, that makes up 40% of Columbus. Those are new potential voters that they should be going after. So it's no longer just about white America, like what I used to grow up in Ohio but it's

actually like a lot more diverse. Roland, like you I was watching the baseball game yesterday you know but my but my St. Louis Cardinals My Astros won! First of all, you just said my St. Louis Cardinals? My St. Louis Cardinals. Why the hell would you bring up the baseball game when y'all got y'all asses swept? We got swept but you know

I mean swept! They beat y'all got y'all asses swept. We got swept. I mean, swept. They beat y'all like y'all were named questions. But, you know, there's only two teams that you can really talk about World Series, though, right? The Yankees and the Cardinals. How so? The Yankees got 26. We got 12. See, you sound like them.

You know, I'm just saying. You sound like them. I'm just saying. The Yankee Lakers fans. No. Y'all can't talk about present day. Y'all got to try to go historical. Y'all can lead in one game. Hey. They beat the hell out of y'all can't talk about present day, y'all got to try to go historical. Y'all can lead in one game.

They beat the hell out of y'all. You might want to focus on the debate you didn't see. Things happen. But, hey, we'll be there next year, as we will. The Cardinals. Who else? Come on. You got the St. Louis guy here.

Four straight. Four straight. It happens. What happens? It happens. Don't. You know. Four straight. It happens. You know. What happens? It happens. Don't look at me. My ass goes warm. At least we know how to win a game.

Hey, okay. Well, back to the debate. Yeah, there you go. Hey, I didn't bring up St. Louis. You know, from what little bit I saw, there's still too many people on the stage to really have some really, you know, concrete conversations about the issues of the day. And the reports that I've been seeing in the media and social media is basically about what wasn't asked what questions did not get addressed you know whether it was climate change or and i heard you just talk about you know african-american issues that that pretty much were you know not addressed so um you know those debates when they get down to four or five candidates i think we

can have some real discussion about what's what. Right now it's just a free-for-all. Again, this is still, I would say that this is sort of like the first couple games of the season. Everything changes when you go to November. When you go to December, frankly, I think you're going to start cutting people off who are not serious, who are not serious candidates. I'm sorry, you're polling at 1%. You ain't got a shot.

Why are you there? You don't. I mean, you just don't. I mean, and I get everybody talking about, yeah, but you might. No, you don't. You don't have a shot. And so we can see them and be nice about it. But I think as we get into it, I think you're going to still see the vigorous debate.

But I still think, though, that it will be the external events, the other town halls, the other forms, where that will be issue-specific. That will be able to force the candidates. Like, first of all, I'm working on town halls with different candidates to be specific to black men.

Because, again, there are issues that are there that folks don't want to deal with. And black men are saying, I'm not hearing this stuff. Well, you know, just follow black women. Follow our lead. Do it. And I'm glad you're doing it. I ain't got to follow y'all lead.

Hey, hold on. I ain't got to follow y'all lead. I'm just saying. Oh, all right. Follow your lead. No, no. I got this. I'm good.

I'm good. My daddy taught me how to lead. Seriously, I'm glad that this. I'm good. You know. I'm good. My dad had taught me how to lead. Seriously, I'm glad that you're pushing the issue. It's not something that, as a national issue, we don't understand how important that is. That if you're going to go out, we do know black women, we do drive the vote, but everybody, you need all the black vote. Plus, if you think you're going to win that win the primaries and so when the dust settles and all of these debates get february when you get to south carolina that's when the real deal starts for black folks right and so that's and that's what i keep telling folks it's

like yeah a lot could happen between now and then but you better be talking issues that we care about what i ask each one of you this uh and that is, again, what still drives me crazy, how do you have debate? Voting rights does not come up. I mean, here you have a Supreme Court decision that gutted Voting Rights Act. Now, of course, they're trying to even go up to Section 2. So you can completely obliterate the Voting Rights Act. And it is as if, ah, no big deal. And the problem I have is that what mainstream media does, they focus on the voting issues after the election. Happens every year. And I'm like, ah, you might want to be dealing with that before the election. I mean, we saw

what happened in Tennessee when the law was passed that criminalizes those folks who are actually out there trying to register folks to vote. You see what's happening with Amendment 4 in Florida, same thing as well. That has to be dealt with. And it's going to impact the issues around voter suppression and the fact that this particular administration has not and won't

do anything about voting rights issues. You have a Senate that won't move on what the House already passed as far as trying to do something to get prepared. You have a Senate that won't move on what the House already passed as far as trying to do something to get prepared. You have a Senate that won't put money in to deal with these issues. And so it's part of it says we're dealing with 2020. We know we're going to have voter suppression. Right.

So that means we're going to have to overperform, even as lawyers do what they do. The LDFs of the world, the Lawyers Committee of the world, all these organizations, they're doing their part. We're going to all be out here trying to make sure that folks know what their rights are, but we also know that folks, as I said, the enemy is not sleeping, and we have to be on top of what we need

to do, and on top of the fact that we got to deal with the census at the same time. In the first six months, I keep telling folks, look, in February, you start the primaries. That goes all the way through. In March, you start the Senate. And all of it, as you have said quite eloquently, it's about money and power. Both of them are.

And so a lot is riding on this. And so thank you for all you're doing and pushing and making sure brothers follow the census. Thank you. Yeah, and the media and the community really does need to start talking about the changes in the voting rights, especially state by state because it's so confusing in regards to what's applicable to you. But then it's also true with the census, right? Especially, well for the census, we're supposed to count everybody, right? But then for the primary, some states is like, oh, is it open or closed primary?

Do I have to re-register? It's only for 18 years and older who are U.S. citizens. So we have multiple messages going out there, but it's all happening at the same time. I think the basic issue is about education. What are we doing to educate our people, our young black men

on the importance of voting? Do they know the people who lost their lives for them to have the right to vote? You know, do they know about Bloody Lounge? You know, do they have a perspective about the history and why it's important for them to vote? I'm not sure. You know, does it need to be in some type of hip-hop song that they get the message or something? Where are they getting their information about the critical need to be a participant in today's voting? You know, I'm not sure where they they getting their information about the the critical need to be a participant in today's voting you know i'm not sure where they're getting that well again we got

we got time uh still time running short uh which is uh all of one reason we created this show the opportunity to be able to share these uh issues and share with folks so looking forward to your work congratulations on you being honorees thank you and so uh it's gonna be a good night melody thanks so much thank you thank you roland so it's going to be a good night. Melody, thanks so much. Thank you. Thank you, Roland. Appreciate it. All right, folks, got to go to a break. When we come back, we're going to talk about what folks were discussing socially

with Last Night's Debate with a group out of New York and also we'll be chatting with Leah Daughtry as well as Tommy Dortch. Coming up next, right, Roland Martin Unfiltered, broadcasting live from the Hamilton in D.C. site of the 22nd Annual Spirit of Democracy Awards. Back in a moment. You want to support Roland Martin unfiltered broadcasting live from the hamilton in dc site of the 22nd annual spirit of democracy awards back in a moment you want to support roller mark unfiltered be sure to join our bring the funk fan club every dollar that you give to us supports our daily digital show only one daily digital show out here that keeps it black and keep it real as roller martin unfiltered support the rolling martin unfiltered Daily Digital Show by going to RolandMartinUnfiltered.com. Our goal is to get 20,000 of our fans contributing 50 bucks each

for the 11th. Of course, if you want to attend, go to lifeluxjazz.com, L--f-e-l-u-x-e-j-a-z-z.com but if you cannot be in cabo for those four days 14 different uh amazing artists then of course you could live stream it get your live stream pass at gfntv.com that's gfntv.com. That's GFNTV.com. As I said, amazing artists. Gerald Albright, Alice Bunyan, Kirk Whalum, Donna McClurkin, Shalaya, Roy Ayers. Man, it's going to be an unbelievable three-day extravaganza. So I look forward to you participating. And again, get your live streaming pass to cover those three days, all 14 concerts.

You'll be able to watch right here on your phone, on your iPad computer. It does not matter. Go to GFNTV.com. That's GFNTV.com to get your live stream pass. All right, folks, really glad to be here. So let's have another conversation. We talk about what people are talking about on social media. It's a group out of New York called 30DB.

And what they do is they utilize technology to be able to call all these different thoughts and responses of people and what they have to say. And so we have, of course, Howard Koschansky, president and CEO of 30DB. And so first off, Howard, what is 30DB? 30DB is a unique engine that can identify in real time the sentiment on every topic of discussion in social media. So we have a very unique ability to understand what is trending, how public opinion is being shaped by the different events of the day. And we've also seen a very high correlation to predicting elections based upon discussion

in social media about a candidate. All right, So let's talk about what you found last night. Which candidate's Twitter handle really got the most reaction or attention? For all of the candidates that appeared last night, the ones that received, the candidate who received the most amount of discussion was Elizabeth Warren, significantly more so than the other 11 candidates. Of the discussion around the hashtags for the individual candidates and the Twitter handles for the individual candidates, Elizabeth Warren received over 16% of the total discussion. Bernie Sanders came in second with 11.7%, followed by Pete Buttigieg at 11.4%. So who got the most positive opinions? As far as the percentage of positives opinion on the various candidates, there was a shift in the overall

results. Bernie Sanders and Andrew Yang actually received the most positives, coming in at 69% each positive for the candidates. Interestingly, behind those two was Cory Booker at 68, Julian Castro at 64, Amy Klobuchar at 63 percent. But it's also important to understand the volumes because it was a very significant statistical sort of break in those that received meaningful amounts of opinions versus those that did not. You also looked at sentiment drivers. Exactly what is that and which candidates were really driving that issue last night? So in analysis of the sentiment drivers themselves, it's what we're able to do is identify both the subjects that people talk about in conjunction with each other candidate, as well as the sentiment expressions that they use to convey their opinions.

And so, for example, in just looking at discussion about Bernie Sanders as of midday today, the SWAT's endorsement of him is dominating the discussion around Bernie Sanders. There certainly was quite a bit of a discussion in support of Bernie Sanders talking about his health and vitality during the debate, but definitely the dominating discussion item for Bernie Sanders as of midday today is the SWAT's endorsement. Interestingly, also for Elizabeth Warren, who actually came in much lower in overall sentiment, discussions about Medicare for All really drove the discussions and questions with how she was going to cover the costs of her very robust plan. Lots of discussion last night about Medicare for all, but you saw only 33 percent of the people support that.

Yes. As of today, as of midday today, social media is only 33% positive on Medicare for all, and the volumes are actually very robust. The drivers behind that discussion are questions about costs and the likelihood of raising of taxes and who is going to pay for that. The discussion last or the debate last night obviously focused very intensely on this issue and raised a number of questions. Bernie Sanders acknowledging that there would be raises to the middle class as well, but also Elizabeth Warren's sort of dodging of who was going to pay for that expense has focused the discussion today around Medicare for All. based discussion item, whereas discussion for an individual candidate may be focused a little bit more heavily on this from the supporters of that candidate, especially if that candidate has not yet broken into sort of the national discussion.

A good example of that might be the high positives for Amy Klobuchar yesterday, but she had relatively low volume. In comparison, looking at Medicare for All, that is a topic of discussion that is receiving a lot of discussion across the spectrum of all voters that are out there today. And as our results show as of today, and these are for today, the discussion is actually more negative because of the question of cost associated with the program. This is a meaningful dip. Normally, Medicare for All comes in pretty close to 50-50, but it's a very interesting dip in sentiment today, and it'll be interesting to see if that rebounds quickly after discussion for the debate subsides.

All right. Did you find that people actually gave a damn about all the madness surrounding Donald Trump? So in looking at results for Donald Trump, we find that analysis of his Twitter handle, at real Donald Trump, is the most accurate predictor of how people vote. In the 2016 election, we were actually able to predict Hillary Clinton's margin of victory in the general election based upon analysis of Twitter handles. We also saw in the 2018 midterms, we were able to predict results. It was not only the winner, but actually the margin to victory

for a number of candidates who won, but polling actually predicted were going to lose. With respect to Donald Trump, what we're seeing today is a dip down in negatives. He is currently at 33% positive for his Twitter handle. And the discussion is really focusing around the three major subjects that you raised, impeachment, and obviously Ukraine associated with that, and then the activities in the military withdrawal in northern Syria and the impact on the Kurds and the sort of Russians moving into that space. This is a meaningful drop in positive discussion for the president.

We normally see that sentiment for his Twitter handle covers relatively close to where the overall sort of approval ratings are in the sort of low 40s. But this is a very meaningful drop in discussion because of discussion around these three primary areas. So last question, can you, based upon the research, studying social media, studying with all your algorithms there, can you predict who will win the presidency in 2020? We will be happy to do that once we are able to sort of get into a head-to-head comparison. Right now, we're focused, obviously, on looking at the individual candidates. As you've seen from the overall sentiment as of this

morning or as of midday today, all of the Democratic candidates fared better than where Donald Trump is as of today. Obviously, there's a long way to go before the election, but we're pretty confident that if the results hold consistent to what we've seen in elections, we'll have a very, very good handle on who will likely be our next president. All right, Howard, 30DB, I appreciate it. Thanks a lot. Thank you, Roland. Appreciate the opportunity to be on. our next president all right howard 30 db i appreciate it thanks a lot thank you roland appreciate the opportunity to be on all right folks and so we'll be uh going back to 30 db after each one of the debates to get a sense of what's happening there on social media all right

let's go back to our panel here so let's talk about this here uh so i i literally i i landed about 4 30 uh raced over here and i am am listening to Sirius XM. And apparently crazy land was happening at the White House. And so so apparently the orange one was meeting with Democrats and Republicans over this whole Syria issue. And a fool showed up. And in in fact he literally okay this was not he literally walked around and passed out a letter that he sent to the turkey president okay I I swore I said boy I swore I swore this was from the onion okay y, y'all, I'm going to read. This was sent October 9th. Wait, this is real. Y'all.

It was like SOS. Y'all, wait, this is real. If there's somebody who is voting for this man, they're sick. Okay, this is, y'all, I'm about to read the letter. It was dated October 9th. The whole letter. And it was sent to the president of Turkey. Okay.

Dear Mr. President, let's work out a good deal exclamation point that's the opening sentence you don't want to be responsible for slaughtering thousands of people and i don't want to be responsible for destroying the turkish economy and i will i've already given you a little sample with respect to pastor brunson i have worked hard to solve some of your problems. Don't let the world down. You can make a great deal. General Maslam is willing to negotiate with you and he

is willing to make concessions that they would never have made in the past. I am confident. I'm confidentially in closing a copy of his letter to me just received. History will look upon you favorably if you get this done the right inhumane way it will look upon you forever as the devil if good things don't happen

don't be a tough guy don't be a fool exclamation point i will call you later it's childish it's childish and it's dangerous it's dangerous it's childish. And it's dangerous. It's dangerous. It's childish. It is kindergarten. And you're right. If you're voting for that, then what exactly are you thinking? You're nuts. If that's what you're supporting, if that's what you can defend. And quite frankly, Congress came back this week, and they're running around trying to defend this again.

At some point, some sort of self-esteem has to set in. You cannot defend this again at some point some sort of self-esteem has to set in okay you cannot defend this nancy pelosi walked out of the meeting and she said she's praying for trump's health after a very serious meltdown no no no no so here's where we are family no no but now we need to turn our attention to his health no no so praise worship prayer that's it listen again we are in an existential crisis in of nothing to say about who is or who isn't a Trump voter. Democrats need to talk to the folks that have damn sense, and that is their base. This is how we're going to win elections, by encouraging, by motivating,

by talking to the people who are the bellwethers of this country. Who Donald Trump is, is beyond crazy, but he is in the office because 53% of white women put him there, and so did white men. We need to definitely shift the focus to who the people are that are actually going to push this country in a much better direction. But in the Constitution, we do have the fitness to serve. I mean, there is an argument to be made that he can no longer serve as a coherent chief of this country. I mean, people can make that argument.

And I'm surprised, given the impeachment effort going on, that they have not brought that up. Because that's a serious thing. But that can't be done by the house or the senate that requires internal action through the chain of command of his appointees and every person and they have no guts no it's not that anybody that gets close enough is fired or resigned anybody that gets to that edge where they're like, whoa, this is the one moron too far. The next thing you hear is that it's been a pleasure to serve. And there's a reason for that. And I agree with Erica, but I disagree in that it's not stupid people. It's arrogant, ego driven, care about myself people who don't care anything about how crazy

this man is until it lands at their front door. The Republicans have zero incentive. There's no bottom. They will wallow in pig manure. And I guess what I'm trying to say

is that while that's happening, we're suffering at greater and greater levels every day. No, no, no, but they don't care. They don't care. They don't care. No, but the message has to be to them that it's going to affect the money at the end of the day. So here's what's happening on the Republican side to explain why they have no problem with Donald Trump. First of all, let's be clear.

House Republicans and Republicans in the Senate know he's stupid. They will admit he's nuts. But this is what Donald Trump is giving everybody. Donald Trump is giving the business interest got your tax cuts, we're destroying regulation, we're getting rid of

all this environmental protection stuff. We're going to do whatever y'all want. They're happy. He talks about military industrial complex 700 billion extra given to the military he they they got no problem with him then you have the social conservatives don trump has said look i don't really care about this pick whatever judges y'all want and they like cool so everybody every Republican constituency is perfectly happy. They know he's nuts. They know he's batshit crazy.

They know this, but their whole deal is we getting what we want. Say, dog, we good. But that's not the broad majority of Americans. Like, that's the point that needs to be drilled home. Right. So that except for those people that are in that class, everybody else is going to suffer substantially. And now... They don't care! But they need to. They don't care! No, they have no problem

with four more years of this. Mitch McConnell, and this, I keep, I'm telling you, all you punk-ass Democrats, y'all need to understand the court system. I keep saying this and Republicans vote because of the courts and all end of four more years, if he wins, they will have likely appointed upwards of 500 federal judges who will be there for life.

And none of them are old. No, they are 35 to 40 years old by design. And so all y'all sitting here like, oh, you know, I like the tax cut, but the people have been ruling on civil rights, on the environment, on all these issues in the courts. That's what we're dealing with. And Democrats better start stressing the courts because trust me, Republican voters know exactly why they're supporting this guy. And that's what they don't care they will take madness they will take all of his nuttiness as long as they got the courts long as they can

control the financial sector and get rid of any regulation and as long as the military folks like keep sending all that defense money because we're all happy that's what's going on here. And in the areas where, which I don't know if people know, but like the District of Columbia, where highly liberal of color district, in the areas where they can't get in judges that they want, that they think can be approved, they're holding up the nominations. I have people I know personally who I graduated from law school with who, when they, when the White House runs out of time for approved candidates, then it's the D.C. Superior Court

Board that gets to nominate. And those nominations have been lying vanquished in flux for over a year now. So there are openings on the federal bench for D.C., there are openings for the local bench for D.C., and there are qualified candidates who have been fully vetted who have not gotten a hearing. Right, and they're not going to get that shot. Yes. All right, folks, got to go to a break. When we come back, we're going to have the 22nd Annual Spirit Democracy Awards. When we come back, we'll talk with Leah Daltrey, Reverend Dr. Leah Daltrey, as well as Tommy Dortch, 100 Black Men.

Right here, Roller Martin Unfiltered, back in a moment. You want to check out Roller Martin Unfiltered? YouTube.com forward slash Roland S. Martin. Subscribe to our YouTube channel. There's only one daily digital show out here that keeps it black and keep it real. It's Roller Martin Unfiltered. See that name right there? Roller Martin Unfiltered. Like that name right there? Roland Martin Unfiltered.

Like, share, and subscribe to our YouTube channel. That's youtube.com forward slash Roland S. Martin. And don't forget to turn on your notifications so when we go live, you'll know it. You want to support Roland Martin Unfiltered? Be sure to join our Bring the Funk fan club. Every dollar that you give to us supports our daily digital show.

There's only one daily digital show out here that keeps it black and keep it real. As Roland Martin Unfiltered, support the Roland Martin Unfiltered Daily Digital Show by going to RolandMartinUnfiltered.com. Our goal is to get 20,000 of our fans contributing 50 bucks each for the whole year. You can make this possible. RolandMartinUnfiltered.com. All right, folks, Roland Martin and welcome back. We have the 22nd Annual Spirit of Democracy Awards and so we're going to be, of course, the program is going to be starting.

I'm going to be co-emceeing the event again this year and so we'll look forward to that. We'll be streaming the whole event and so we're looking forward to that. Right now, though, I want to chat with a couple of folks who are not newbies to this of course the uh chair of the board there a time in george 100 black men out of atlanta and

also a reverend leah doughter here a long time top official with the dnc glad to have both of y'all here so lee i want to start with you we had a debate last night um and and the thing that so this is like I get the whole media deal. I get the whole media deal. I believe the DNC needs to needs to needs to take more control of these debates. And the reason I'm saying that is because it drives me crazy literally hearing the same issues every single debate. And it has to be broughtened to speak to what's really happening out here in the country. I agree and you know, first of all it was maddening to me that we spent how much time on Medicare for all.

We keep talking about it. I don't know that anybody's position is changing or getting any clearer. And again, we showed the social media deal. Thirty-three percent of the people on social media think positively about Medicare for All. Okay, I'm just saying. Most people don't even know what it means. And then, you know, the last question, what's your most unlikely friendship? I'm like, really?

We haven't talked about voter suppression. We haven't talked about income inequality. We haven't talked about in any real depth gun violence. And we're talking about what was your most unlikely friendship? It was ridiculous. So I totally agree that the DNC needs to take control. I'm also personally miffed that of the six debates, we've only had one black woman serve as a moderator.

And so we're the base of the party. We're the backbone of the party. Why aren't our voices at the table when it comes to the issues and the questions and the people asking the questions? And that's where Tom Perez needs to say, hey, this is our stuff. This is our stuff. Now, y'all want to pick the moderators? We better see some people of color there, absolutely.

I think also is we shouldn't wait for them. We should have our own party and they have to come to our house. They have to come to our forum because right now the format really is just one of talking heads. And so I think as we talk around with the leadership in this country, in our communities, with our faith communities, with our community-based organizations, with our women groups and youth groups, we need to have our own and say, okay, you come to us and we set our format. We have our Roland Martins and all up asking the questions, but right now they're so scripted. And the other problem is so many people in the room, I really won't really take it serious until sometime in 2020, because with all of this going on around the country,

they ought to have, the party ought to have separate, you can have the televised piece, but you ought to have the community groups coming together in those communities and having those sit-down forums and conversations. Because for me, what are you doing about the prison industrial complex what we've been doing with the 100 trying to address all these challenges of locking up our young boys and locking up all these black men and then taking away their their rights to vote and and to participate in the true democratic process the other issue education

education is a wreck in this nation. We got somebody who calls herself Secretary of Education and education is going down in this country. We can't continue to sit idly by. But black folks got to be united in this. It cannot be

the women over here, the men over here, our millennials over here, our faith community. We've got to come together. We've got to cut out this mess about who's in the lead of this and be one family. But this is where we always talk about having a family conversation. This is where we've got to be real to black-owned media. Right. We got to say to BET, BET Her, TV One, Cleo TV, Aspire, Reboat, Bounce It On.

Right. Damn it, we can be laughing all day. There you go. Okay. You cannot tell me why the eight black networks can't take off one damn night for entertainment. Like, what? This is how people understand. I'm talking about one night every four years.

I'm not saying one night a month. Your ratings are not going to crater if you say, and then here's the deal. I don't understand why those eight black networks can't say, all right, a debate's going to cost half a million. Okay, 50-50, 50-50, and then you err on all

eight. We control who gets to ask the questions, and see, here's my deal. I don't need to actually ask questions. Here's how I would do it. I would say, this is how I would do this, this black debate. If we're going to talk about civil rights, I'm going to have LDF, Lawyers Committee, and a couple others in terms of asking the questions. And then over here, economics, I'm going to have Black Chamber, Inc.

It's going to be that way so now all of a sudden forget the moderate asking the question have the actual experts who do it every day asking the questions have uh young folks asking questions about student loan debt or whatever else and so now it becomes far more interactive but I'm serious we got them to call our own because I'm sorry that announcement that urban one is going to be a partner November 20th and they're going to air on radio one stations and on the digital platforms that's a waste right right I agree I'm sorry it's a waste and that's where black media and and now and the black media's doing this thing. We ask those questions that they're so sensitive about. They talk about President Trump with his racism.

They're dealing with racism past him. What about what's going on in corporate America? What about what's going on in local government? What's going on in community? They just think it's convenient to talk by him and his racial uh tactics but we still aren't getting to the heart of the problems in this country i mean and then even you know we're dealing with this issue right now on the census nobody's dealing with the issue that all of these black folks who incarcerated and you're letting these small communities who used to fight have in go knocking the doors down to get prisons, and now they count out people in those communities,

and they get more money, and they also get, again, more voting among congressional districts. This is what happens when you have a set of moderators who are from the Washington Chattering Class, right? So they're focused on what folks in the Beltway are talking about and not what folks in Brooklyn or Fort Worth or, you know, Harlem or wherever are talking about the real issues that affect real families, the state of our school. We learn about HBCU plans, but what about K-12? A lot of our schools are crumbling. My sister's a middle school principal. She's got classes

happening in closets. This is unacceptable. What about gentrification? What about homelessness? What about all that affecting real life? Until you bring in the actual voters whose lives are being affected by the policies and have them articulate the question and have them articulate the issues, you just have these, know god love them anderson coopers of the world who are just you know asking questions based on what they read in the newspaper

i'll tell you right now i'm gonna go ahead and put it out there if you want to have this black debate this is what you do first and foremost you put it in a black church. Oh, yeah. And I'm telling you right now, okay, I've already laid it out to you. Do it in Chicago at the House of Hope. It seats 10,000 people. They got the stage. Okay, it's black home. Okay, we'll need to create that big-ass stage. I mean, all the part of the building, the whole little fancy stage.

Now, we'll do it at New Birth, too, now. Yeah, but House of Hope bigger, the whole little fancy stage. Now, we're doing a new birth, too, now. Yeah, but how's the hope bigger? How's the hope is bigger? It's cold in Chicago. How's that fine? And in the south. Yeah, but. We can do it.

How's the hope? But how's the hope on the south side of Chicago? There are many options. But I'm just saying, I'm talking about doing it in a place where community folks can attend. Because the real problem is, look, I wasn't the one in Houston. It's limited seating. It's really party folks who are there. No, you want community folks who are there.

To me, that's the challenge. When you watch it on TV, you can see that the audience is not diverse. It's a bunch of white folks who figured out a way to get a ticket. And so you don't really have the community and the real voters in the audience. Right. Absolutely. So that's a throw down challenge. I want to see it happen. All right. Looking forward to the program. Leah, thanks a bunch. Good seeing you. Tommy, thanks a bunch. Hey, folks, we got to go. Don't forget, support Rollerbarter Unfiltered by going to RollerbarterUnfiltered.com. This is black owned, black controlled. We need

your support to make this happen. Okay, this is not about corporate owned. And so we need our folks funding our news as well. So go to RolandMartinUnfiltered.com. You can pay via Cash App, PayPal, Square. That's what we need. I told y'all, if 20,000 of our donors, people who watch this show, gave 50 bucks each for the whole year $4.19 a month $0.13 a day The show is paid for We can travel around the country We can do town halls

We can cover stuff That's what we're trying to do here So we want you to support us With the robotunfilter.com Alright folks, tomorrow we're going to be broadcasting live From the Smithsonian Museum National African American History and Culture Because American Art Association has their

Business Accelerator Program Which I'll be emceeing as well. So we'll be there tomorrow as well. And then don't forget, Friday we'll be at Lewis Carr's Men's Conference in Chicago. So Business Week Plus is Roland Martin Unfiltered. So I got to go. I'll see y'all. We'll be live streaming the Spirit of Democracy Awards.

I'll see y'all on stage in a bit. Holla! We'll be right back. this is an iHeart podcast