#RolandMartinUnfiltered - 10.2 Trump hospitalized with COVID; Breonna Taylor grand jury audio; VRA in danger in SCOTUS case

Episode Date: October 3, 2020

10.2.20 #RolandMartinUnfiltered: Trump hospitalized with COVID, Melania tests positive for coronavirus; Breonna Taylor grand jury audio released; New jobs report is out. Are more African Americans heading back to work? VRA in danger in new SCOTUS case; Texas Gov. Greg Abbott limited counties to one absentee ballot drop off location; Louisiana trooper admitting to beating and choking a black man; Colorado cop admits to ignoring a black woman's cries for help; Dionne Warwick will join us to tell us about National COVID Remembrance DaySupport #RolandMartinUnfiltered via the Cash App ☛ https://cash.app/$rmunfiltered or via PayPal ☛https://www.paypal.me/rmartinunfiltered #RolandMartinUnfiltered Partner: Ceek Whether you’re a music enthusiast or an ultra-base lover. CEEK’s newly released headphones hear sound above, below and from multiple directions unlike traditional headphones where users only hear sound from left and right speakers. Be the first to own the world's first 4D, 360 Audio Headphones and mobile VR Headset. Check it out on www.ceek.com and use the promo code RMVIP2020 #RolandMartinUnfiltered is a news reporting platform covered under Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an iHeart Podcast. Today is Friday, October 2nd, 2020. Coming up on Roland Martin Unfiltered, breaking news. Donald Trump tests positive for coronavirus. After months of acting as if it was no big deal, he now has it. In fact, Marine One is sitting on the White House lawn right now to fly him to Walter Reed Medical Center. We'll give you all of those details.

Recordings of the grand jury proceedings in the Breonna Taylor case were released today, even though Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron filed a court motion seeking an extension. All right, folks, also on today's show, the monthly job report is out. We'll talk about what it means for African Americans. Supreme Court just agreed to hear a case that conservatives could use to end the Voting Rights Act as we know it, and in an attempt at voter suppression,

Texas Governor Greg Abbott limiting counties to one absentee ballot drop-off location. Also, we have the audio of a Louisiana trooper admitting to beating and choking a black man during a fatal traffic stop. And a former Aurora, Colorado cop admits to ignoring a black woman's cries for help

when she fell face down in the backseat of a car. And in California, a police officer involved in the 2019 shooting of a local rapper is fired. And Dionne Warwick will join us to tell us about National COVID Remembrance Day taking place this weekend. Folks, it is time to bring the funk

on Roland Martin Unfiltered. Let's go. He's got it. Whatever the mess, he's on it. Whatever it is, he's got the scoop, the fact, the fine. And when it breaks, he's right on it. Whatever it is, he's got the scoop, the fact, the fine. And when it breaks, he's right on time. And it's rolling. Best belief he's knowing. Putting it down from sports to news to politics. With entertainment just for kicks. He's rolling. Yeah, folks, breaking news coming out of Washington, D.C.

President Donald Trump and his wife, Melania Trump, both have tested positive for COVID-19. It was about 17 hours ago when this tweet was sent out confirming the diagnosis. Tonight, FLOTUS and I tested positive for COVID-19. We'll begin our quarantine and recovery process immediately. We will get through this together. But there's been a lot of things that have been happening since that particular announcement. First of all, we now know that it was Hope Hicks who tested positive for coronavirus. That came down yesterday,

but Donald Trump still went to a fundraiser at his mansion in New Jersey. The folks who were there did not know about this positive test. Then they came forward with this. What also happened is we now know that a number of people, a number of people, a number of people have also been testing positive. First of all, the GOP chairwoman, Rola McDaniel, she was at the Supreme Court announcement in the Rose Garden on Saturday. She has tested positive. Senator Mike Lee of Utah, who was also at that particular event, he has tested positive. The White House also has sent a statement out showing that several White House reporters,

they have also tested positive for coronavirus right now. And then, of course, we got we saw the information that went out where the White House was announced that Donald Trump had been given a particular treatment, not hydrochloroquine. He had been given a particular treatment. Then the announcement came out that he is going to be going to Walter Reed, they say, for evaluation. Lots of speculation going on. Here's what is happening right now. Again, Marine One is sitting on the White House lawn waiting to take Donald Trump to take Donald Trump to

Walter Reed. This this right here is a live shot from the Periscope feed of ABC News. That's what this particular shot here is. And so, again, Marine One has been sitting there on the lawn for at least, at least the last 45 minutes waiting to take Donald Trump to Walter Reed Medical Center, which, of course, is the preferred destination where the president gets treated. Folks, this is absolutely stunning and shocking news. We do have a variety of guests, medical experts. Folks, let me know when we have those folks on. Right now, I want to bring on our panel, Rob Richardson, host Disruption Now podcast.

Quentin Young is host of Poppin' Politics podcast. Folks, let me know when we have Dr. Ebony Hilton and the other guests on. This is a huge story. We're going to get to the unemployment folks later, not right now. This is a huge story here. And Rob, this is, again, here's a guy

who has been completely ignoring coronavirus, refused to put on a mask, mocks Joe Biden at a debate on Tuesday. Did not require masks to be worn at the White House. Would tell reporters in the White House, take your mask off so I can hear you. And then when one reporter said, no, I prefer to leave it on, then he would just shrug and shirk. Then tried to say that Dr. Anthony Fauci agreed with him

when it came to mask wearing on Tuesday's debate. Fauci came up the next day saying that was not the case. And now Trump is positive with coronavirus. First Lady positive with coronavirus. Hope Hicks positive with coronavirus. Other Republicans positive with coronavirus. He now gets a treatment. Now is being taken to Walter Reed.

I think he might now realize COVID-19 is real. Well, you would hope he does now. You know, I'll just say this, Roland, really three thoughts went through my mind. The first thought, I mean, and I hate that I even thought this was, is this true? Here we go. Here we go. Sorry. Sorry. One second here. Go back to my iPad, folks. So clearly Donald Trump is now walking out. They are shielding us from seeing what he looks like and wearing. And again, this is the ABC News feed. You see the Marine Marine right there. He's already saluting on the far right. You see the White House photographer taking photos there. We can't see normally when the president goes out to Marine One, normally what they do is you have White House reporters who are assembled cameras of their

live. They have prevented the media from being able to show live from there. I don't see who those folks are on the left-hand side. If that's the pool report. We don't know. We cannot see if Donald Trump has a hazmat suit on, if he has on a mask, a face shield. We don't see any of that because the White House is blocking that view. We can see right now, because they changed the shot, the Marine who stands at attention, Marine One, has now moved out of the way, which means that Donald Trump is now on Marine One. And just in a few seconds,

we're going to see the helicopter blades start whirring, and then you're going to see them take off. The fact, Rob, that they have not been really forthcoming with information. Kayleigh McEnany, when she came out earlier, did not spend lots of time talking to the media. It was about four minutes or so. Mark Meadows, he spent talking to the media. Now you see Marine One is about to start up in a second. And then in a moment, you're going to see liftoff. The fact that they are flying him to Marine One

as opposed to driving him to Walter Reed, again, this white house, I can't trust anything that they say. This Rob is serious. No, I completely agree. I mean, but going to my first thought, you know, I didn't believe anything initially because it's just hard to know because there's so much misinformation, direct lies. But then I went to the second point to think that this is not something that he would want to fake, I don't think, because he wants to be in front of crowds. And then you see what, and then we have a lot of information that's confirmed it. The third thought that came to my head was a hopeful one. I hope people understand that this is real. I hope they will take precautions. As you said earlier, the president was encouraging

people not to wear a mask as late as the debate one day before he tested positive. He's talking, he's telling people, no, we don't need to wear a mask everywhere. We don't need to be that. Like, this is serious. Listen to the scientists. Listen to the people that have been saying this. This is how viruses spread pretty simply. Once you get around other people, they come.

So what I hope people realize, Roland, is that we are all connected, just like Dr. Martin Luther King said. It's not an isolated thing. We are connected. We're connected more than we ever have been. If we ignore these things, it hurts all of us. First of all, Dr. Ebony Hilton, she is on the line right now. Dr. Hilton, she, of course, is an anesthesiologist, University of Virginia. We've had her on the show for months now talking about this whole issue of coronavirus. When you see this here, when you see the president again now being flown to Walter Reed,

look, Ebony, I hope his folks, the anti-mask people, the folks who have been sitting here trying to rally and blast the people, now realize your boy got it. Yeah. Yeah. And, you know, it's actually it's unfortunate to me. I want to start off this conversation by saying we should never wish ill on someone because I do believe that we should wish the very best for all. But it is unfortunate that it will take most times for things to land on your doorstep

before some people take it seriously. And this comes at the tail of 210,000 Americans have already lost their lives to this. As you're talking, Marine One is now lifting off from the White House on its way to Walter Reed Medical Center. Dr. Ebony, keep going. Yeah. This is a very surreal image right here. And it's unfortunate because it's one of those things that we could have prevented. We're seeing these cases increase daily of people being

diagnosed with COVID-19. It's not only the old and not only the sick, it's children as well. And like I said, we've crossed as a nation 210,000 people that we know have died from COVID-19. And by the end of December, we're expecting another 200,000 Americans to have died from COVID-19. This is real.

And I think in this moment, we should take a note that the president has the absolute best health care that is available. He has stringent testing protocols where anyone that's going to be around him is screened to see if they have any signs and symptoms of COVID-19. They're literally tested to make sure they don't have COVID-19. And yet he and his wife are both now infected. And he is so sick to the point that he needs to be flown out to get medical care at Walter Reed. Now, let's speak to that. You have been on the front lines dealing with this, battling with this here, as people have been trying to deal with this here. And you've had to treat people, you've seen it there,

you've been in the ICU, you're an anesthesiologist. And so here's what we know. They announced that he had mild symptoms. They said low-grade fever, cough, things along those lines. Then all of a sudden, he got this particular treatment. Can you explain what that treatment was? Right. So for one, it's unfortunate, but we don't know exactly if his symptoms were mild or what he has. Right. This administration has been feeding lies to the public for so long and downplaying this virus that we can't trust what's being said.

But what we have been at least told is that he had mild symptoms for COVID-19. And it was just now released by his physician that he was treated with Regeneron, which is a monoclonal antibody. It's a cocktail of an antibody that targets the S-protein. Now, we know there's been talks all along about vaccines and whether or not antibodies can be a potential way that we can help treat patients. This antibody, this monoclonal antibody, has just been in trial here recently. I think they had a total of 275 patients that have undergone treatment in an outpatient setting. And they did have actually promising results with this new drug. Now, granted, it is new, and it has not gone through all the phases of what we do to definitively say that this is a drug that we should use.

So in this time, you know, it is one of those things of, is it the COVID-19 that's causing him to go into the hospital? Is it a reaction to the medication? Is this something altogether different? We don't know. And like I said, unfortunately, I'm not sure if we can trust all the reports that come out, but we do pray that he is going to be well because this is our country,

and at this point, it is a national security risk. And on that particular point, again, so many people, here's a guy security risk. And on that particular point, again, so many people, here's a guy, 74 years old, obese, two of the biggest risk factors you see right there. This is ABC has a video of him walking out moments ago, walking to the helicopter. That particular video there is. And the thing that people have to understand is this is not something you play around with. This is simply not,

204,000 people have already died. Seven million Americans have been infected. And the callousness by which he has acted in terms of not caring about masks, telling people don't wear masks. Now we know White House reporters are testing positive coronavirus. Staffers around, he acted as if he was invincible and that he couldn't get it and that no one else should really worry about it. He encouraged these folks, these anti-mask people having their rallies, bringing their guns to the state capitol in Michigan, storming the capitol in Idaho,

other different places. And now, now he tests positive. The governor of Missouri and his wife tested positive. We know a Republican. We know, of course, the governor of Virginia did so as well. It does not matter what your what your status is. You can get COVID-19. Right. And, you know, from the very beginning of this pandemic, we've been talking about the three T's testing, tracing and treatment. And unfortunately, that second T is going to be a absolute nightmare in this situation because Donald Trump has held rallies in multiple cities across our nation where tens of thousands of Americans have been in attendance. So exactly where did he pick it up? You know, right now the media is concentrating on Hope Hicks, and I actually, in a way, feel bad for her because although she is negligent and although

she should also be ashamed of the number of people that she potentially infected due to ego, we don't know and we cannot say for sure that she was the reason why Donald Trump was actually infected. And it is impossible, actually, to trace out the number of people he's been in contact with and the number of people they've been in contact with at this stage. And so we as a nation have to buckle up. What we know is during this fall, our numbers are already expected to increase. And now with this growing number of people that we see kind of close to the home of the center of the safety of our nation, that's a very scary place

for America to be. Yeah. So we got to start taking this seriously and hopefully his followers now will take it seriously and we'll start to wear their masks so we can all be safe. And one of the points that you made there, we talked about contact tracing. I saw a video earlier of folks there in the White House Rose Garden. There was a Saturday for the announcement of Amy Coney Barrett. They were just there hugging, kissing, no mask. In fact, here is a video right here. This is from Saturday.

This is from Saturday. And it shows you the nonsense, if you will, Dr. Hilton, and the sheer arrogance, the sheer arrogance of these folks, the sheer arrogance of these folks, acting as if COVID is no big deal. Watch this here. Look at this video here. They're just sitting here hugging, no mask, talking to each other.

That's Senator Mike Lee. He now is tested positive. Chris Christie, hugging, close. He was on ABC News on Tuesday night next to other staffers as well. This is a mess. This is a mess. One thing, as far as Senator Mike, was he in Utah? Yeah, Utah. Senator Mike Lee from Utah.

Right. And one of the statements he made was that he tested negative at the White House and tested positive back home. And this is a very important distinction to make. For one, the tests are only as good as the amount of virus that you're actually shedding. So we've talked about before that you can actually be infected and not necessarily test positive because your viral load is not high enough yet to be detected by that test. The second thing is we know that not all tests are created equal. So at the White House, they've been using the rapid test, the AVID now, and that test has been shown that three out of every 10 times that is saying that you are negative, that is not true, that you actually are positive. And so people rely heavily on this test that I'm

negative, this test that I'm negative. We have to do better at recognizing what the experts are trying to tell everyone, that you should treat everyone as if they are positive, that you should wear your mask at all times, that you should socially distance, that you should treat everyone as if they are positive, that you should wear your mask at all times, that you should socially distance, that you should wash your hands and not touch your face. We have not changed that since beginning of March, right? And it still remains today, if not more so. We have to be hypervigilant as we're heading into this flu season. As you're talking, this is video from C-SPAN of Marine One landing at Walter Reed Hospital.

This is a live look here. The point that you just made that, again, that people don't seem to get about coronavirus, who don't seem to understand its impact, is that it doesn't just show up immediately. It takes a while for it to show up. And, you know, the thing I like to kind of compare it to for women, and I think everyone can understand this, pregnancy tests.

Think of COVID-19 tests like a pregnancy test. You can test negative for a pregnancy test Monday morning, but if you and your significant other, your spouse, if you are engaging in activity where there is a lack of protection, you can be pregnant by Monday night. It literally is that fast of exchange of bodily fluid in the form of respiratory droplets that can lead you to have a different life path. And what we know with COVID-19 is that for the most part, yes,

a good 80% of us will have mild to no symptoms at all. But we know that there's a subset of people that it doesn't give you a warning and it can trigger this severe inflammatory response within your body. And the thing that we have to recognize, too, is that we're praying that Donald Trump, that he does survive this. What we know is that we've had 4% of all the closed cases in the United States have passed away from COVID-19. But the remaining people, the ones who have actually recovered, they've had massive strokes. They've had massive heart attacks. They've had their limbs amputated because of blood clots.

They now have dialysis requirements because their kidneys are no longer working. They have permanent oxygen requirements because their lungs are no longer working. This is the truth of what COVID-19 is. And the progression to that, from the time you get infected to the time you start to show symptoms, is typically five days. The time you get to start showing symptoms

so you need to be in the hospital is typically right around five to 10 days, right? And then unfortunately, the time that you get infected to the time of actual death is about two weeks. So Donald Trump was just tested positive within the last few hours. He has a long road ahead of him. And these next couple of weeks may feel like the longest two weeks of his life. We also need to need to as we talk about this thing, also expand this and to get people to understand. And again, a Marine

one has landed at Walter Reed Medical Center. And you see he's getting off, first of all, not wearing any gloves, just simply has a cloth mask on. He doesn't even have an N95 mask. Earlier today, we saw Vice President Joe Biden give a speech and he was wearing an N95 mask the entire time. This is one of those things, again, where at least he has a mask. But it's one of those things where I cannot imagine any expert has told him to come out with a cloth mask on. And he was on an airplane in enclosed space with many people who also look like they just have on cloth masks. And they have every resource at their fingertips they could be using. So why are they

not? And so to give people an example, you know, you do have the different type masks. You have the cloth masks that you can buy. There are many vendors online that people have these cloth masks. You have the cloth masks that you can buy. There are many vendors online that people have these cloth masks. The next step up is going to be a form of surgical mask, and we have the three-layer surgical masks that are also really good if you have any other option. You then have the N95 mask, and these are the ones that we've talked a great deal about that help to filter out the virus somewhat. We're showing the video here. This is Joe Biden earlier, and again,

giving a, you know, he gave the speech with his mask on the entire time, okay? Everybody show us his other mask. Is that the monstrosity you wear when you're in University of Virginia Hospital? Yes.

This is a P100 mask because I don't play with COVID. And so, you know, there's different levels of safety that you can take if you're going to be in close proximity with COVID-19 virus. This one clearly fits over my entire face. But in the case of Donald Trump, when you know you have tested positive, at this point, his body has the virus, but everyone else is on the plane. Protect yourself. And it's one of those things of, I don't know what else it will take for this administration. Herman Cain died from COVID-19 and that wasn't enough. Now the president and the first lady of the White House have COVID-19. And that wasn't enough. Now the president and the first lady of the White House have COVID-19.

And clearly, the chief of staff came out today earlier to talk about the fact that they were positive without a mask on. Right. In fact, another White House official stated that a mask is still optional in the White House. I'm like, what the hell is wrong with you people? I don't know what the bottom is. You know, I oftentimes ask people that. What is your

bottom? What will it take before it wakes you up? And, you know, initially I thought that this would be one of those things of, if we have a hundred people die in the United States, and then it came to well, if a thousand people die, surely.

And then it was 100,000. And now I'm thinking, you know, will it take half a million people? Will it take a million? And I for sure thought if the president, the leader of this campaign, if this is a hoax and this is nothing, if he gets it, then surely that will be an end to all this. And the last 10 hours of me knowing this, I've seen zero change out of some people. And so, yeah, I'm not hopeful that this will stop. But I'm praying that Donald Trump after this will change his tune and hopefully help to save hundreds of thousands of American lives by just telling people to do what is basic and simple to keep everyone safe. I'm going to bring in Benga Adjolori. He's a senior economist at the Center for American Progress.

Benga, the jobs report came out earlier, but this is going to have a direct impact on the economy, obviously, because, look, anything happens with the president, it happens when we talk about the stock market today. How did the stock market perform today? We know last night, overnight, it was down. What happened? So one of the things is the stock market is not the economy. Right. No, no, no, I got you. I just got, but what often happens, it obviously always has some sort of immediate reaction. So I just want to get a sense of what happened today. That's going to set up my next question though. So initially the stock market went down because there was concern that anytime there's any

sort of risk or uncertainty, that stock market is always going to react to that. And then there's the Pelosi and Mnuchin are still working on this deal. And they're sort of getting closer. I mean, it's much better than it was earlier this week. And so the market reacts positively to that. But a lot of times I don't really focus on the stock market because it is, again, not a good measure of the economy. And with today being Jobs Day, you know, my sole focus was on what's happening with black unemployment, what's happening to the gap between black and white unemployment rates. But the reason I raised the question, because you talked about the level of uncertainty and look, the reality is this here. We don't know really his condition.

We don't know other staff as well. Now, all of a sudden, those things begin to have immediate impacts across this country. It impacts the negotiations because all of a sudden, Steve Mnookin and this administration and the Republicans in the Senate might realize, oh, damn, we've been sitting here playing games. We better get serious because the one guy who was like I, who was trying to actually forget COVID-19 as part of the election strategy, now can't forget it. That is true, but it's I have a really hard time trying to figure out what's going to get policymakers to the table, because we go back to July when they had the $600 a week to UI. And when that expired, I expected action to happen. Then when the jobs number a week later came out and they still weren't good, we still had double digit unemployment, I expected policymakers to do something. And then came Labor Day. And now we're in October. We're less than this is the last jobs date that we've had till the election. And we still don't have a plan. And even the plan that they're debating, they're not talking about state and local aid.

They're not really talking about doing the $600. They're stuck at $400. I really can't predict what they're doing because they're still making, our economy is still struggling. And so many people are still struggling and policymakers are not coming to the table. And so it's really hard to predict because even then the stock market is still gonna do well. People are, you know, rich people are still gonna do well, and that's not gonna spur them. So I'm hoping something will happen this week or next week. And that's why I raised the point about the stock market,

because the problem is, you know, too often mainstream media every day reports to the stock market as if that is an indicator. And the reality is more than half the country isn't even of the stock market as if that is an indicator. And the reality is more than half the country isn't even in the stock market. And so if you're rich, you're not sitting here worried about COVID-19 and these things because you're living a whole different life than everyone else. But the thing that also jumps out again, the Trump folks wanted today to be all about unemployment going down at 7.9% and 600 plus thousand jobs added.

That ain't the story. But what does it look like for black America? Last month, unemployment was what, 13%? What is it now? So it's down to 12.1% and it's gone down for black men. It's gone down for black women. But the reason why it's gone down, it's not because they're doing better. It's because they're not participating in the labor market. A lot of people have dropped out of the labor market, both black men down 1.2 percent, black women 0.8 percent. Same thing for white women and women in general. And the big story of today's job number is the lack of people participating in labor force. And that has to do with the fact that we're still stuck at home. There's no child care.

People have to make the decision of staying home with their kids and helping to do remote education so unemployment went down but not because it's not a good number because participation went down and that's the key story uh and so again they're touting that but but and i saw what they said some 800 000 women just dropped out of of the uh of the labor market yeah so about so about 100,000 women, 200,000 men, but that is just, and that's because they can't, they have to make the choice of taking care of the home, helping out with remote education, things like that,

and that's harming our economy. All right. Bingo, agloria, I truly appreciate it, man. Thank you so very much. Thank you. I'm gonna go back to, I'm gonna go back to Dr. Ebony Hilton, bring her in, also bring my panel in. Ebony, yesterday, actually two days ago,

the governor of Mississippi, he decided to lift the state's mask mandate. Also, yesterday, the governor of Texas chose to tell the big counties they can only have one mail drop box. I think what is going to happen, I would hope, and all of these idiots out here who've been playing games with COVID, who've been playing games with politics, are now going to realize, hello, y'all might want to cut the nonsense out

because if you're a guy, Trump got it, everybody's at risk. And for sure, and I think one important thing, too, with Trump that we need to notice, with this attack on politics, we know necropolitics are policies that directly influence whether or not you live or die. That's going to be on the line with this

election this year, and I do encourage everyone to vote. But we noticed that, Trump, you have free health care. You were not only you have free health care, but you were actually given a treatment in your home and then flown to another hospital for immediate care. That's socialized medicine. And that's the thing that you've been touting about, that we don't need that in America, that Biden is a socialist. But health care, we should not be debating whether or not if someone is sick and they're on their deathbed, whether or not we should be able to help them in that moment. And hopefully he will

now be the champion for that changing. But yeah, the changing around of ballots and where someone can go and vote, that is all a tactic to disenfranchise people. And I'm hoping that people don't fall for it, that we show up early and make your voices known. Quentin Young, I want to pull you in right now. Again, all of these folks are sitting here. Conservatives are talking about folks should be praying for the president and pulling through. And first of all, we don't want to see anyone be seriously ill or die from COVID-19.

But I think about Herman Cain. I think about Herman Cain, who goes to the president's rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Shortly thereafter, gets coronavirus. Less than one month later, he's dead. And all of these people who play games with this don't want to do social distancing. He kept having rallies again for his senior aide, Hope Hicks, to actually get test positive. And he still go to a fundraiser in New Jersey like it's no big deal. And no one at that fundraiser knows that she had tested positive.

And at that very point, he was carrying coronavirus. That shows you the absolute disregard that Donald Trump has for other people, health and well-being. The issue that I have here is we where does it go from here, right? We see that it's serious, because I don't believe Donald Trump would want to go to the hospital if it wasn't, right? I'm sure they almost had to drag him there. So at this point, what does his surrogate say? What happens with him now? Because he has to get some amount of treatment. It has to be a big issue, right? And I kind of don't believe that they're really going to shift their stance on coronavirus that much. They're going to still downplay this issue.

Julianne Malveaux, there are a lot of people out here who are saying this isn't true, it's false. And this is part of the deal, part of the reason why when your administration and you lot of people for the last three and a half years, no one believes you. There are people who are going, we don't know if this guy actually has it. We don't. We think he's lying. We think this is all about getting attention. We think this is shuts down the whole white supremacy QAnon as well as Proud Boys whole deal. This is what happens when people don't have trust in government because you haven't earned the trust. And that's why you're already seeing folks say, hey, we think this is all a charade. Well, he has set the foundation for lying. He's told more than 20,000

lies since he's been in office. I've heard people say either they don't believe he has it or others say it must be worse than they're even putting out there when they first said mild symptoms. We don't go to the hospital for mild symptoms. So people are just all over the place because they don't know. And because, you know, Mark Meadows, that little thing he did, the press conference, whatever he did, it was so shallow. It was ridiculous. And again, as the doctor said, and without a mask. How do you do this without a mask? Well, you do it if you basically you're sending mixed signals. This is serious. It's not that serious. I don't have to wear a mask.

You know, last week, he went to, Trump went to Jacksonville, Newport News, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. He went to Cleveland. He went to Duluth, Minnesota. He went all over the place. Minnesota, Missouri, one of those. He went all over the place. Minnesota, Missouri, one of those. He went all over the place. So who knows? I mean, the issue of tracking is very important here because who knows who was close to him? Who knows who touched him or who he coughed on? And he doesn't have to cough. All he has to do is open his mouth and start spewing. And those droplets are falling. So, you know, don't nobody believe, everybody has some skepticism about what's going on because he set the foundation for this skepticism.

Ernie Hilton, I want to bring you back in. You and I were on the phone. We were talking when, before he was having the rally there in Newport News. And you were like, let me pull up the stats here. And the folks in Newport News were begging him not to come. And again, the sheer arrogance to keep having these large rallies. And then he was like, well, we had them outdoors. No, you lie, because you had a couple indoors as well. And these idiots

are just standing there right next to each other. And they're just and no mask. And then when somebody comes on stage about wearing a mask, it happened in Ohio. The lieutenant governor was on stage about wearing a mask and his fools start booing him. Right. I mean, and that's not the only the only lie. Right. I hope his supporters notice that initially he said it was a hoax. And then it turned from being a hoax to I am now promoting this drug, hydroxychloroquine, right? And one thing I want everyone to notice is that in the report that his physician released in the treatment that was given emergently to Donald Trump in the White House, it did not contain hydroxychloroquine. Now, this is a drug that he's been pushing for the last seven months, telling the American

public that the reason why they don't want to give you this drug is just to make me look bad. And that's why I hope his supporters see that when he himself has been diagnosed with COVID-19, did he ask for that drug to be given? And the answer is no, because it is shown to have increased mortality with that drug. And so this is just a number of his lies that he continues to tell. And the wool has been lifted from everyone's eyes.

I'm hoping everyone saw the helicopter have to take him to Walter Reed. And so we can get on with the next phase of how do we deal with this pandemic and have it based in truth and in science. Also, Dr. Hilton, I certainly hope also the people who keep playing games with this, the people who keep going, having events

and having parties and going to clubs and going to restaurants and bars and having all these massive get togethers, not wearing masks, realize that this thing is real. Again, you and I have talked about young folks, 19 years old, 25 years old, dying because of coronavirus, people who are in great shape. The problem is doctors still do not know what this thing does to different bodies. It'll hit somebody who's in their 40s.

The guy who was in Massachusetts, I believe, who was a triathlete. I mean, they fought for this man to live. And it was unbelievable that they said they tried every single thing. And then other people impacted them a whole different way. Doctors simply don't know. And so when people go, it's no big deal. You don't know how this thing might impact you. You might be the fittest person in the world, but all of a sudden it gets in your body and just other stuff happens. Right. And it's one thing for adults. I have a special place in my heart for children. Children have no choice and adults have made choices for them to now be placed

into schools where they can be potentially put at risk of contracting this. And how many have at this point? Well, we know that over half a million children have been diagnosed with COVID-19. It's been an increase of over 720 percent as far as the cases from early summer to now. When you look at hospitalizations, we've had an increase in over 346% of children now having to be hospitalized for COVID-19. And of those, one in every three are required to be admitted to the ICU. And of those, you're five times more likely to be admitted to the ICU if you're a Black child. You're eight times more likely to be admitted to the ICU if you're a Hispanic child.

And we've even seen an increase in the number of children that are dying from this disease. And that's where I have, you know, the major problem is that the children, they don't have a voice. And then when we're looking at even the age group of people who, again, don't die, we're seeing, for instance, at the University of Pennsylvania, I think, the athletes who tested positive for COVID-19, 15 to 30 percent of them, when they had a scan, even if they had mild to no symptoms at all, they were shown to have inflammation of their heart. There was another study in Germany where of 100 people who had no symptoms or mild symptoms related to COVID-19, 78% of them had inflammation of their heart when there was a scan performed. And what does that do

for the long-term effect? Does that mean that in 15 years from now, are we going to see a great increase in the number of people who have heart failure? And instead of you having heart failure at the age of 60, 70 years old, you're you having heart failure at the age of 60, 70 years old, you're not having heart failure at the age of 40. That's what we need to be real about in the United States, is that we are learning things every single day, and we cannot afford to infect the mass of us with something that we don't know what the end point looks like. Rob, Rob, I want to go to you This is, and again, when we start looking at how we move forward,

what this just, I guess for lack of a better phrase, folks have been talking about karma. They've been talking about how things come at you real fast. I mean, look, this is the deal. This administration has played games with coronavirus. They have ignored scientists, they've ignored doctors.

The CDC has altered information. They've stopped them from giving different directives. They've done all these different things. They wanted to play this thing down like it was, hey, let's just put it out of sight, out of mind. That was their strategy. And now it's front and center. Now they've canceled all campaign events. Now they're going virtual. I dare say right now,

Senator Kamala Harris and the Biden campaign should come out and say no to a debate in Utah. We're not getting on a plane. Have it in Washington, D.C.? No audience is there, but no, damn going to Utah. I mean, to me, they don't even have to have a debate at this point anymore. I think after the first debate, for a lot of reasons that you've already discussed, they don't need to have it. This is another reason why they don't need to have it. There's nothing that we're going to gain from a debate.

But I want to go back to something that the sister said that I think is really, really, really important that really needs to be emphasized, that the fact that we don't know the long-term effects. He already talked about the health effects. But what are going to be the long-term effects of really the economics of the whole situation? What about our healthcare companies? I don't know if they overrule Obamacare. Are they going to say this is a pre-existing condition? You're no longer covered. Is your insurance company, when they see maybe you've had COVID, will you not now be able to get life insurance even though you're 40 because they don't know the effects of the future?

So they don't want to give you life insurance. I mean, there are so many things that we don't know. And I hope that this is a turning point really for our nation and how we do health care, how we invest in each other. I mean, we have one or two ways. We can keep going the way that we were going, and the way that we were going, we were really literally killing each other. Because people did not want to believe that this virus was there, because it was politically inconvenient,

it was economically inconvenient, but the facts are facts, data is data, and science works. And I really hope that we can come together and actually start solving problems and moving forward as a nation, and not go back to this stupid way and this emotional way of just

reacting just because it's comfortable for us in the moment. Dr. Ebony Hilton, your final word. Yeah, I guess my final word is that at the end of the day this is not political. These are people. At this stage, literally one in every thousand black

people who were alive in January has died from COVID-19. That's a crazy number. And we're seeing that, again, with the inflow of the fall season, I'm really afraid because we have crippled the trust of the community into the medical system. There's been criticism of the CDC

and the World Health Organization, and people don't know what to trust anymore. So I'm hoping people will trust me when I say this. What I fear is that the combination of getting the flu and COVID-19 at the same time, that is an overwhelming inflammatory response, and that that's what caused so many people early on to pass away from COVID-19.

And we haven't made much advancements as far as treatment options. We haven't, we don't have a vaccine at this point, right? So if you will do me a favor and just go out and get your flu shot as early as you can get it. I got mine three days ago, two days ago. Get your flu shot so that you can best protect yourself and then wear your mask, stay at home as much as possible. I know it's tough, but we're going to have to buckle down

these next few months. And by a few months, I mean well into 2021 until we get our finger on the pulse of this thing because we all want to live. And at this point, we've lost too many of our family and friends. Yeah. So let's try to make it together and we can do this. All right then, Dr. Ebony Hilton, University of Virginia, we truly appreciate it. Thank you so very much. Folks, the Supreme Court just agreed to hear a case that conservatives could use to end the Voting Rights Act as we know it. The Ninth Circuit struck down two Arizona voting restrictions. It ruled that both laws had a disproportionate impact

on racial minorities and that one was motivated by racist intent, all in violation of the Voting Rights Act. Joining me to break it down is Barbara Arnwine, president and founder of the Transformative Justice Coalition. Barbara, explain how this is targeting Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act and how this could be the final nail. Some are describing it as the final nail in the VRA. Well, you know, everybody knows or should know that in 2013, the Supreme Court in the Shelby v. Holder case did significant damage to Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act by basically holding that section, that Section 4B that designated which states had engaged in past acts of racial discrimination

and therefore should be subjected to harder scrutiny whenever they wanted to pass a new law, a new voting rights law or a new voting procedure that they had to be, quote, pre-cleared and approved in advance by a federal court, the designated federal court, or by the Department of Justice. Well, they said that wasn't no longer necessary because there wasn't proof that there was present-day discrimination that warranted those states being treated differently than any other states. Well, that then meant that Section 5, for all practical purposes, has been out. So people haven't been able to challenge discriminatory actions and events.

We always said, okay, at least we have Section 2. Section 2 is the liability standard for any state or jurisdiction that engages in racial discrimination and voting. And we've always said that that would at least allow us post the act to challenge it or to give an injunction when we saw that the act was gonna have a huge impact, negative impact on voters.

So we've been using Section 2. All these cases that people are seeing around the country where people are challenging discrimination in voting has been based on Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act and, of course, various clauses of the Constitution and federal or state constitutions, wherever we can use them. But what we're seeing now is a direct frontal attack on Section 2, where they're trying to limit Section 2 to only redistricting cases, which means that all these vote denial cases, such as is raised in the case of Arizona Republican Party versus Democratic National Committee, which is the case in chief that we're talking about here.

This would in fact mean that all these practices, such as eliminating election day registration if you think it's gonna benefit blacks, or getting rid of early voting, all of these kinds of things that have been done to hurt African-American voters, to hurt Latino voters, would no longer, under this theory, be challengeable under Section 2. So what's at stake here in this case were two issues that people are familiar with. One is

what they call correct precinct voting, meaning you got to know, Roland, your correct precinct. And if you're at the wrong precinct and you vote, even if you vote a provisional ballot, it will not be counted, period. And be very clear, we dealt with this in other states, they don't tell voters when they come in to vote that you're at the wrong precinct. They won't tell you where the correct precinct is. And they don't tell you that when you vote that provisional ballot that they're going to vote that you're at the wrong precinct, they won't tell you where the correct precinct is, and they don't tell you that when you vote that provisional ballot that they're gonna throw it away.

So when we look at the 1.9 million tossed ballots in 2016, and when I say tossed, I mean they were discarded and not counted as part of that election that was decided by 80,000 votes. When people look at that, you got to understand that's because of vote spoilage and out of precinct ballots accounts for thousands and tens of thousands of those tossed ballots. The other thing is that in this case, the issue of ballot harvesting came up. And ballot harvesting is where you are able to, let's say, if you're like me and you got people in your household who don't go outside because

they say they are too susceptible to COVID and they get their vote by mail ballot and they want somebody to come by and pick it up and take it to the voting place for them, or they're in a residence hall, or let's say where there are several people, assisted living, who need their ballots taken, then some of these states don't allow it, period. And other states limit you to like three, when there could be 10, 20 people need. Other states like Maryland allows you to take as many as necessary as long as you, you know,

people want you to. So there's all these restrictions. In this case, you know, what the issue that the court is going to decide is whether or not, not only does it apply, the Section 2 applied to vote denial cases versus just redistricting cases, but they're going to look at whether or not the state has the right to use these kind of practices and have these laws when they know the people who are going to be hurt by them are black people and brown people. That's who are going to suffer the most. Rob, Supreme Court Justice John Roberts, Chief Justice, he's actually been trying to do away with the Voting Rights Act. If you read that Shelby decision, that's the deal. Republicans have been targeting this. This is also why all these people out here, this is why Democrats need to get control of the United States Senate,

because if they do, they can actually pass a law. See, when people don't understand Supreme Court rules on the existing law, they can then pass a law that, first of all, strengthens the vote, addresses the issue in Shelby v. Holder, strengthens the VRA, and get rid of a 25-year sunset provision that was put in place by the Southern Dixiecrats, those white supremacists, and then say, no limit. It's the law, period. Well, you know, it's the fiction. Hold on, Bob. Hold on. Rob, go ahead.

No, I mean, they sure can. And we talked about this before. What has to happen? We're assuming that Biden wins and they take over the Senate. There has to be they can't be business as usual. They have to they have to get rid of the filibuster and they have to make these moves that you're talking about and really be bold. Absolutely. They should do that. They should do it unequivocally. Second, they need a real strategy when it comes to judges. You know, the right they start off. They start off, they make sure everybody in law school, I know this, they go to the Federalist Society,

they start recruiting you in law school to make sure that they know what your ideology is going to be. So they know who they want to pick, not only for the Supreme Court, but all the district court, the Court of Appeals. Those actually hear more cases. I mean, Republicans have played the long game and they understand because there's actually more power and more legacy in the court. We know

as black people, we've had our rights reversed more from the courts than we have from anything else. So we need to make sure as really the most functional part of the Democratic Party, that when we talk about judges, the conversation just can't be about Roe v. Wade. It also has to be about voter rights. It also has to be about voter rights. It also has to be about the Fourth Amendment. It has to be about black lives. Those things have to be in the equation when we talk about judges,

that we need to start being strategic and recruiting the long-term as well. But Julian, the reason Republicans have been so strategic and focused on the long game when it comes to judges is because of things like the Voting Rights Act and the Civil Rights Act and the Fair Housing Act, because they do have not have not liked what those laws have actually produced, which is why I'm saying I get the whole deal with the strategy with judges.

What I'm saying is short term right now, Joni or Jody Ernst, Joni is down 12 points in Iowa. Democrats are leading in Arizona, leading in Colorado, leading in Maine. They're leading in North Carolina. They're leading in Iowa. That's five seats. They only need four seats to take control. You pick up those five seats. You pick up, you get a miracle with Mike Espy in Mississippi.

If they, Democrats, if y'all put money in the race. If you also pick up, pick up the seat, North Carolina, that's seven seats. What I'm saying is the Democrats should be saying, Chuck Schumer should be saying, we get control of the Senate in the first 60 days, we are going to completely strengthen the Voting Rights Act. Absolutely, Roland.

The fact that if we look at the history of our people and our rights and the courts, Fair Housing Act, et cetera, good stuff. But we go back, look at Plessy, look at the ways that the courts have been manipulated with law. So we do have to have a long game and a short game. The short game is as soon as Biden is elected, he's a dude, just like the Republicans do and have a list, a long list and a short list. Who are these people? Start vetting them now. I mean, we know they know who some of the people are, but we don't know who they all are. When 45 won, he already had a list. The Federalist Society gave him a list. There were some 30 or 40 names on it.

So who on the progressive slash left side is doing the same thing? I mean, I know Barbara Arnwine has a list. I'm sure of it. But, you know, they get us with future planning every time. But the revolution worked. It took a long time, but it worked. You look back to 1980 and look at now. Many of the deregulation, you know, freer markets, all but it worked. You look back to 1980 and look at now, many of the deregulation,

you know, freer markets, all that stuff worked. So we have to think about a long game also, because we're not only talking about our rights today, but we're talking about the future of our children and our grandchildren's rights moving forward. Quentin, what I want these people to understand, all of these people who yell out here, say, leave the top of the ticket blank because Biden is the same as Trump. Let me remind people in 2016, Quinton, 90,000 people in Detroit left the top of the top position blank. Donald Trump won Michigan by 11,000 votes. 70,000 of the 90 were African American. What people don't understand is what I'm talking about here is that if Biden Harris wins, Democrats take control of the Senate. If you then fix the VRA for all y'all folk who say I'm going to focus on local issues and not national, the Voting Rights Act impacts local races. It impacts all elections. I don't care about Biden, Trump. I don't care about the U.S. Senate race or the congressional races.

I'm going to focus on DAs, judges, mayors and state senators. What you're also realizing is that if you lose preclearance, section four, if you lose section two, then you do not have a way to combat these Republican-led states, Texas, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, Tennessee, Georgia, South Carolina, and on. So, folks, stop acting like what happens nationally don't impact you locally, Quentin. But, and see, this is a conversation that I actually have all the time with my followers on my social media and just really in general. But it starts in education, right? A lot of people don't know about the judges. A lot of people don't know that Donald Trump did the second most judges of any president in history.

A lot of people don't know that Mitch McConnell had planned this all along and wrote a whole book about it. I mean, it starts there. Right. And then the thing about it is when people think like, oh, Joe Biden is a racist and then they think, oh, Donald Trump is a racist. So I'm just not voting. What does that help? Right. But people really need to understand that these policies matter in your everyday life. But we have to make sure that people know. And that's precisely why I launched this show, because we could not depend upon mainstream media to do so. Final comment, 30 seconds. Barbara Arnwine, go. Yes. Listen, today we're doing these John Lewis Good Trouble voter awareness marches all over the country and we're taking people to polls because we're about voting. And we just did that in Chicago yesterday. We did it in Richmond today and we're going to do it in Philly on the 10th and we're coming to D.C. on the 12th.

We're just doing these marches, 25 of them all over the country where black people are including milwaukee etc but i just want people to know that when you vote vote for judges because this is the kind of stuff this fiction that somehow everything's race neutral this fiction that they have voter fraud to work with and that this is you know the more important than the truth that there is no voter fraud i mean all of these things are at stake in this case and this court. So when you're watching the fight over the Supreme Court right now and you're looking at, you know, hurt the candidate and you're saying to yourself, well, that doesn't involve me.

Yes, it does. Got it. Everything about it involves you. Barbara Arnwine, Transforming Justice Coalition. We certainly appreciate it. Thanks a lot. Thank you, sir. Got to go to a break, folks.

Groups are suing Texas Governor Greg Abbott over his decision to limit counties to one voter drop box. We'll discuss that next. Also, we'll talk to Dionne Warwick about this event this weekend, National COVID Remembrance. So all of that, folks.

Got a lot more left to do on Roland Martin Unfiltered. Don't change. We'll be right back. Martin on the field. Like, share, 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. Be wise as a serpent, be harmless as a dove. And in moments like that, you know, you know, it's like when you're dealing with politics and you're dealing with different people who have different agendas, part of it is sometimes before you even get in the room or before you're going to meet with somebody, you've got to do your prep. You've got to say, okay, this person is working an agenda.

They have a certain degree of power. They have constituents, whatever it may be. Let me do my prep before I get in the room so that I'm prepared to handle it. Because when you're going to someone else's turf, they control the environment. Right. So that is one of the biggest turfs in the world. Oh, yeah. So part of it is like, okay, I'm being invited to whatever the situation may be.

I'm being invited. Okay, let me spend some time. Let me get my team together. Let me get my talking points together. Let me get some strategy in place so that when I'm in the room, I prepare myself to maneuver and to handle and to respond. Right. Greg Abbott limited the number of mail drop boxes in counties

to accept absentee ballots being dropped off. Why is he doing so? Because Republicans are desperate to hold onto the Texas House there. They have seen Democrats do extremely well in the suburbs of Texas. Democrats are nine seats away from taking over the Texas House, which means that they will have a hand in government and leadership, but also setting up the districts, gerrymandering. That's really what this is all about. And so what these groups have done, there are several groups who are suing Texas as a result of his decision.

This here is the story in the Houston Chronicle. I'm going to pull up in just a second. A day after his decision, three groups have come together, and that is the Texas and National Leagues of United Latin American Citizens, the League of Women Voters of Texas. They have joined together to do so. This is important, Julian, because, again, what I keep trying to explain to people, you got to understand what is happening here in our political game, and that is this here. You can't just look at what's happening on the national level. If Democrats are able to pick up those nine house seats in Texas for the first time in almost two decades, they will control

the Texas house, which means do you take this census? Then what happens is when it's time to set districts, Democrats now have power. Before, Republicans controlled the Texas House, the Texas Senate, and the governor's mansion, and that's how they were able to draw all of these red districts. Now they're going to have to negotiate with Democrats because they now are going to be in power. So this is the governor trying to thwart that from happening. Harris County is larger than Rhode Island. Harris County, where Houston is, is larger than the state of Rhode Island. This, some 2,200

square miles. This is the game Republicans play when it comes to voter suppression, hopefully. And this is why also, Julianne, federal judges matter because they filed the case in federal court. Exactly. I was stunned. Well, not really stunned, but I was astonished that Governor Abbott would pull such a stunt as to have just one drop box per county. That means that Houston and Harris County, people may have to drive dozens of miles to get to a drop by. But look, Republicans did this in Ohio. And then the A. Philip Randolph Institute challenged them. A federal judge overruled Secretary of State and says, no, you can't limit it to one in the county. This ain't just Texas. It's Republican strategy, Julian.

Well, yes, it is. I mean, the strategy that Republicans have is voter suppression. They want as few of us to vote as possible. They want to make it as difficult as possible. And the whole thing with voter harvesting, they want to make it difficult. As I think Barbara said, you're an apartment building assisted living. If you could only bring three ballots, there may be a hundred people in there. And this, of course, goes to the Trump narrative about ballot stuffing, which is just ridiculous. It's really wrong. But we know that they want to suppress the vote because if everybody votes, we win. Democrats win when more people vote. We know that younger people have very little patience. They're not going to go through with so many changes. But even here in the District of Columbia, we're pretty democratic.

I just got my absentee ballot, and it is not crystal clear. Of course, you've got a secrecy sleeve, you've got another sleeve, and you've got another envelope. And if your thing is not submitted properly, the vote will not even count. So there are all kinds of schemes out there to keep people from voting and to keep their votes from counting. And as you say, Roe, that's why you have to vote the whole ticket. Vote from the top to the bottom. Biden's not perfect, but he's, guess what, a whole lot better than Trump. Well, and again, the issue is not Biden being perfect, Rob. The issue is who will the people Biden put in charge, put in departments, put as federal judges. This is the quote from the lawsuit in Texas.

The impact of this 11th hour decision is momentous. Targets Texas's most vulnerable voters, older voters and voters with disabilities and results in wild variations in access to absentee voting drop off locations, depending on the county a voter resides in. It also results in predictable disproportionate impacts on minority communities that already hit hardest by the COVID-19 crisis. Rob.

Yeah, I mean, this has been, as we've talked about, it's been a long-term strategy of, I would say conservatives. It's been a long-term strategy of Republicans for the last 30 years. When Democrats used to be conservative, it was a strategy then. The strategy is about how to hold on to power and how to keep us out of power. We have to fight back harder. And the only way to overcome voter suppression is mass voter turnout. They are going to do this. We know they're going to do this. But I actually have faith that people are

going to push forward. They shouldn't be doing this, but we know they're going to do this. And they're doing this because they are frightened. You know, I know here in Ohio, I think they say that the numbers are approaching record levels in terms of registration. And I think that's everywhere across the country. Now we've got to make sure those people get out and they go to vote. And when Democrats win, right, they have to do, I want to just emphasize this point, they have to end the filibuster. None of this stuff can happen. Changing the Voter Rights Act, anything we're talking about, any type of progressive policy,

none of that happens with the filibuster. They have to end it. And when they end it, they can't worry about, well, what are the Republicans going to say if we do this? What are they? They're already going to do it. They've already done it. Now there has to be a response by Democrats.

When you have power, use it. Act like you know what to do with it. That's all I want to see happen. Quentin, on the same day the lawsuit was filed, this is also the other story in the Houston Chronicle, 1,083 cases, COVID-19 cases added to the Houston region rolls, bringing it to nearly 200,000. In Harris County alone, cases increased by 849, totaling 143,530 people. That's why you need multiple drop boxes as opposed to making the entire county drive to one location in all of Houston. That is idiotic. I mean, we could just call it what it is. I mean, it's racist. You know, I mean, when they want to suppress the vote and I mean, they know it's a perfect storm with coronavirus.

People are worrying about evictions. People are worrying about jobs. People are worrying about money. People are worrying about their kids at school. And then now you're going to make it so they have to drive all the way across the county to go vote. Or have to take public transportation all the way, which further puts you at risk if you have to take multiple buses to get across town and then go back. And who's willing to do that? Let's be honest. If you got work, you're trying to save money, can you really take public transportation? Especially if you're elderly.

And go across there to drop it off at the one. And it's sure going to be public transportation? Especially if you're elderly. And it's sure going to be a line. Especially if you're elderly. Especially if you're elderly. Right, and then another thing that I read, they also said that the parties can appoint poll watchers. Yeah, first of all, that's always been the case.

Appointing poll watchers. The difference is that this is the first election where in the last 20 years where a consent decree has not been in place to keep Republicans from intimidating folks at the polls. And so that's also part of the problem we're facing. Quentin, go ahead. Right. And and I just want to relate it to it to the things that Donald Trump said at the debate. He wants people to be there. He wants people to watch the polls. He wants people to intimidate. Right. So when you put all these things together, I mean, it's just a gumbo of suppression. And it's crazy that it's allowed. But I mean, in the end of the day, all we can do is try to vote these people out of power to get some fair rules. No, no, no. But hold on. I don't want to run past that. When you said all we can do is vote them

out of power. That's the point that we got to keep pounding. If see again, I think the problem here is that when people say just vote, they don't connect the dots. And what I'm trying to argue is that when you vote for who is president, that person chooses federal judges. When you vote for who controls the Senate, they control who confirms federal judges. In the final year of Obama's presidency, guess what? He was able only to get through eight district judges because Mitch McConnell blocked them. So when Trump, the other night in the debate, was like, Obama just left me a hundred open positions. Why did he do that? He didn't do it because he felt he was lazy. He did it because Mitch McConnell blocked. And so for the people who are listening, the amendment four case out of Florida, what, the drop box there in Ohio, where Rob is, when we talk about my native state of Texas,

the role that federal judges play, not all cases go to the Supreme court. So those district judges are often the final arbiters of what people have to say. And so I need people to understand, stop this nonsense. And let me just be as clear as possible. Ignore all of these idiots who y'all follow with these YouTube channels, people who got these fake economic universities, the people who got time on a foundational blacks and Adolf and all these people ignore these fools who say don't vote. Oh, because what I'm trying to explain to y'all, there is no issue that you care about that is not impacted by elected officials. Now that does not mean that we vote for them and then disappear.

No, we give them and then disappear. No. We give them hell when they win. But if you, if anybody who you follow on YouTube, on Twitter, on Instagram, on Facebook is telling you don't vote, unfollow and block them immediately. Unfollow

and block because they are stuck on stupid. They are because you can do nothing without political rights. You have no economic rights. The two are tied together. So like, yeah, yeah, Roland, I mean, that's a really great point. And I want to get to your second point. We should then hold them accountable.

And I do believe the Democratic Party and the state that it is right now, they're not going to just settle for, oh, well, let's just go back to the way we were. Again, they're going to have to get rid of the filibuster because even if we win and we get all this, and I think we will, none of that's going to pass because, to your earlier point, part of the reason, I just have one little different point on that, part of the reason we had those openings is that when Obama and the

Democrats had power, they wanted to go along and play the same, they wanted to get along with Republicans, and they blocked them even when they didn't have the power. First of all, that's why Harry Reid lowered the threshold when it came to those, because he said, look, y'all are substructionists

with 60, I'm lowering it. And he said he lowered it not for Supreme Court justices. Republicans were like, oh, damn that. They kept it for Supreme Court justices, and they got rid of the 60 vote threshold. That shows you how they use power. Again, talk about judges.

The recordings of the grand jury proceedings in the Breonna Taylor case were released today. Why? Because a judge ordered it. They revealed what evidence Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron presented to jurors. Among the information presented to the grand jury, there was a neighbor's account. An investigator with Cameron's office relayed an interview with a neighbor who lived directly next door to Taylor, who said he knows for a fact nobody announced themselves as police. A different neighbor said she heard police say, reload, reload, let's do what we need to do. Sergeant Jonathan Mattingly, who was shot during the raid, told the public integrity unit that our intent was to give Taylor plenty of time to come to the door because she was probably there alone.

The recordings are approximately 15 hours long and cover the grand jury was considering. And the only reason we have this now because a grand juror filed a motion to get these tapes released. When I saw him at the Republican convention, I knew what was going to happen then. I mean, they wouldn't have him come there if he was going to say anything or do anything that was going against their platform or what they wanted to do. That whole convention was anti-Black Lives Matter. And this is one of the top topics in Black Lives Matter issues going on right now. And one thing that I found in the tapes that was really interesting to me

nobody had on the body camera and they had no for it said they had no formal plan for entry so what i mean what were they there to do julianne uh this is important uh the lawyers excuse me the largest committee still runs under law i saw the naacp legal defense fund they said they're going through those tapes other lawyers as well ben crop and Fund. They say they're going through those tapes. Other lawyers as well, Ben Crump and others. And so we're going to get an indication of more of that. You know, it's a blessing that Breonna's boyfriend was there because otherwise there would be no witnesses.

I mean, the neighbors, but no one who's right in this house. He said he didn't hear anything. Cameron is a very deceptive young man, extremely deceptive. And what we know is that he did not, as her parents, her mother said, did not present evidence that favored Breonna. He just presented evidence that basically attempted to exonerate the police officers. If someone gets convicted of reckless endangerment for shooting into a neighbor's house, why did they not get reckless endangerment or something else for shooting into Breonna's house?

This is nonsense, but it does go back to your point about the judges and voting for the judges. And let me just say this. Voting is not the most you can do. It's the least you can do. And I think we haven't learned anything else in the last four years. This has been reinforced for us. We have a completely irresponsible president who has essentially been single-handedly in charge of this virus killing now 207,000 people. We have an irresponsible president who's also basically lined his own pockets, lined his friends' pockets, doesn't pay taxes. This is going down the list. But the fact is that now we know what the implications of having a crooked president are. We have labor secretary who doesn't know anything about labor.

We have EPA secretary who doesn't like the environment. Just go down the list. Again, folks, we're going to get more details on that in just a second. Got to go to a break. We come back. Dionne Warwick is going to be participating in a national remembrance of COVID. The folks who passed away from COVID-19. We'll talk to her next on Roller Mark Unfiltered.

You want to support Roll Roland Martin Unffiltered.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. I think wearing a face mask, I don't know, somehow I don't see it for myself. Can you take it off because I cannot hear you. I'll just speak louder, sir. Okay, good. You wanna be politically correct.

Go ahead. No, sir. I just wanna wear the mask. Go ahead. It affects virtually nobody. It's an amazing thing. I don't wear masks like him. Every time you see him, he's got a mask. He could be speaking 200 feet away from me,

and he shows up with the biggest mask I've ever seen. Funny news. The president of the United States now confirming to the world that he and the first lady of the United States have both tested positive for the coronavirus and they will quarantine. It is what it is. The CDC has identified a case of coronavirus in Washington state.

Are there words about a pandemic at this point? No, not at all, and it's going to be just fine. Whatever happens, we're totally prepared. We, the scientists, knew what to do for the pandemic response. The plan was in front of us, but leadership would not do it. It is time to lay our careers on the line. And push back. It's clear the United States did not perform to the best of its ability with the coronavirus. What went wrong for us?

The truth is that political leaders caused avoidable death and destruction. The scientists sounded the alarm every day. The US government was doing nothing. One day it's like a miracle, it will disappear. It'll be wonderful, it'll be a gift from heaven. It's complete bullshit. He has no idea what he's talking about.

I decided to break protocol and alert Americans. A key government scientist was removed because he wouldn't climb on the president's bandwagon. They'd started to blame other people, and it was frightening. There was real fear of retribution, and we were watching the number of deaths in the U.S. tick higher and higher. Do you take responsibility?

No, I don't take responsibility at all. We've never had a failure like this. The truth is finally coming out. There's so much to expose. We have it totally under control. Those are some of the viral ads that were dropped in response to Trump and coronavirus really from a debate on Tuesday. Today, Joe Biden, he spoke in Grand Rapids, Michigan, where he talked about coronavirus, but also he talked about health care. Hey, folks. Good afternoon. Before I start, let me explain the delay. We wanted to make sure that we're doing everything by the numbers. And so I got two COVID tests this morning, one in Delaware and one by the former White House doc who came up,

and everything is clear. We wanted to make sure everything was clear before I came. We were supposed to have an event after this at a headquarters, but based on the crowd size and an indoor, it was concluded by the docs that best not to do it. But I want to thank all of you. I want to thank Matt. And. I want to thank Matt. And Matt, you're dead right. You were putting yourself on the line, and a lot of other people did all across this country in your union.

And I want to thank David Way, Secretary-Treasurer of Local 951, for having me here today. Look, I'd like to start by acknowledging. The reason I wanted to show that is because we talked about folks who are just joining us because Donald Trump is now at Walter Reed Medical Center after testing positive for coronavirus. It is important there for Donald Joe Biden to give that speech wearing his mask because this in moments like this, you need leadership. He talked about at the opening there

in terms of how they involve in testing as well. He's wearing that N95 mask. People follow leadership. And then when leaders disavow mask and disavow social distancing, the rest of the public is like, well, what the hell? If it's good for them, it's good for me. This is exactly the kind of leadership we need right now. Yep. Well, so goes the leadership. So goes the culture. So goes the culture. So goes an organization and so goes a nation. So we absolutely need a leader that understands that what you say matters, what you do matters. And people do follow what other people do. And we've seen people follow, unfortunately, this current president off a cliff. And the president's fallen and got himself in trouble.

And so now I hope people can step back, breathe, and not let their emotions or not just be totally irrational and see that science works, data works, and this is about protecting other people. Because had we done this earlier, we didn't have to have 207,000 people dead. And however many others are going to be affected in the future now, this could have came under control. And I think would have had Donald Trump done the same thing that Joe Biden is doing. It is not political to wear a mask. It is about being safe. Hard stop. And so I hope people get back to that. And we can actually get back to focusing on issues that matter. We can come together as a country and just really get off this stupidity because this has really hurt us. Not only stupidity, but this dangerous attitude that science doesn't matter. Facts don't matter.

The only thing that matters is what makes me feel good. Quentin, go ahead. I mean, at the end of the day, if if Donald Trump comes out and then he really just pushes the coronavirus issue, then I think we'll see a change. Other than that, I really don't think we will. In the end of the day, like you said, the leadership matters. And right now he's the leader of the country. He sets the time. Right. So at this time, we have a leader that still says that it's not important. If we come even even him going to the hospital, I feel in fact, hold tight one second.

In fact, the White House has released this. Kayleigh McEnany has released this statement. President Trump remains in good spirits, has mild symptoms and has been working throughout the day out. I'm going to see if I can pull this up. Folks, this tells you that this is more serious than they keep trying to let everybody believe. I agree. If y'all see it, this is the, let me know if y'all actually see it here. This is the statement. President Trump remains in good spirits, has mild symptoms, and has been working throughout the day. Out of an abundance of caution

and at the recommendation of his physician and medical experts, the president will be working from the presidential offices at Walter Reed for the next few days. President Trump appreciates the outpouring of support for both he and the First Lady. That's from Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany. Quinton, again, you don't work from the presidential office at Walter Reed for the next few days if you have mild symptoms.

Right. I mean, for sure, it's more serious than what they're putting off. But at the same time, it's the narrative that they're going to put out in the coming days. Right. Because I don't think they can make a hard switch as far as they've been pushing. I mean, it's at the point that people are storming state houses and everything, just saying that it's a hoax. And even though he has it, unless something serious happens to this man, I just really don't see them changing their platform. Well, they're going to have to change their platform. It's projected that another 150,000, 200,000 people will die before the end of the year. President and First Lady have it.

I mean, so many people have had this virus. Many of them have survived. Some have not. I certainly don't expect him to reverse himself on mask wearing, but I do expect him to put something on. And I bet the doctors at Walter Reed will tell him the same thing. And now that we know that how highly contagious he is, let me repeat that, how highly contagious he is. If he walks out of the white house without a mask on somebody ought to arrest him. That's hyperbole. That's hyperbole. But I mean, it's just, it's really absurd.

Not that much. Got it. But, you know, I understand. No, no, no. I look, I understand your point. Bottom line is this here. Again, the games that they played, it should be no games. And this is where if you were the chief of staff, Mark Meadows, you would have some guts and say, look, he's in the hospital. Mandatory mask in the White House. You completely put in real rules. You listen to a Dr. Anthony Fauci. That's what they should do. I want to thank our panel today. Rob Richardson, thank you so very much. Quinton, thanks a lot. Julian, thanks a bunch as

well. Y'all have an absolute great weekend. You too. Folks, I told you that Joe Biden spoke today in Grand Rapids, Michigan. I want to just give you a sense of some of the rest of that particular speech. He talked about health care in his speech. He talked about the economy in his speech as well. And so here's what he had to say. They've been looking to work for at least six months and haven't found it. And in the past, that's a sign for permanency for them. We're still down 647,000 manufacturing jobs nationwide since the crisis started. All told, we are now 30 million workers who have either lost hours, lost paychecks, or lost their jobs entirely.

Participating in the labor force, participation fell last month and remains sharply down since this crisis began, especially for women. There's another roughly 700,000 people who've dropped out of the labor force, stopped looking for a job. The vast majority were women, demonstrating once again how this economic crisis has been especially tough on women and families in this country. This will be the first presidency in modern history to leave office with fewer jobs than when it came into office.

Michigan has lost more than 361,000 jobs since the beginning of 2017. In fact, factories were already closing before COVID. Like the Knoll Plan here in Grand Rapids. They announced back in January they were shutting down and cutting 210 local jobs. Manufacturing has already slipped into a recession last year. The net loss of auto manufacturing jobs you saw here in michigan and that economic pain was only amplified by the pandemic

your schools and local businesses are closed like all places around amer. More than 26 million unemployment claims were filed by Americans last month. 46 million Americans have exhausted their emergency savings. And essential workers here in Grand Rapids won't forget how the UFCW members saw their jobs turn suddenly into a life and death task. Folks, today, today's report reinforces another painful trend, the continuing of what economists call a K-shaped recovery. The K means that letter going up, that's those on the top that keeps going up. While everyone else in the middle is going down and below, we're seeing things get worse. It means essential workers, UFCW workers, who sacrificed to keep us going through the pandemic and continue it are being left behind by the most unequal recovery in modern history. Because while workers are struggling,

this is a fact, the top 100 billionaires in America have done pretty well, just the top 100 of them. They've made up more than $30 billion this year, in the last nine months. And everyone else, though you get, you keep hoping, you get the bottom of that K-shaped recovery. You get the downward slide. You're left to figure out how you're going to pay the bills and put food on the table,

how to balance doing your job with being a teacher to your kids because their school has gone remote. You're asked to risk your neck because you can't work from home or the risks for COVID are kept outside. Because you work at a meatpacking plant or an assembly line or at a checkout counter. You know, I do understand this is a scary time, an uncertain time. I understand and I see you because I see the world from where I grew up in Scranton, Pennsylvania, a lot like Grand Rapids. It's filled with an awful lot of good people busting their neck every day, doing the right thing for their families.

In Scranton, my mom used to have an expression. She'd say it not just in Scranton, but from the time we left there. She'd say, Joey, nobody's better than you, Joey, but everybody's your equal. My dad constantly refrained after he lost a job in Scranton when there were no more work and he had to move to Delaware. He moved away for a little over a year, come back every weekend to see us. By the time we finally, a couple of years down the road in Delaware, got to finally be able to buy a home. My dad used to use this expression. He said, Joey, a job's about a lot more than a paycheck.

It's about your dignity. It's about respect. It's about your place in the community. All right, folks, this weekend is going to be a huge event taking place to remember the more than 200,000 Americans who have passed away from coronavirus. Of course, the news of Donald Trump having coronavirus puts a different focus on this. It's going to be hosted by Grammy Award winning singer and former U.S. Ambassador for Health, Dionne Wark. The National COVID-19 Remembrance will unite Americans to honor the dead and call on leaders to do more. We will be live streaming it right here on our Roland Martin Unfiltered platforms. Dionne, welcome to Roland Martin Unfiltered. How you doing? I'm doing good. How you doing? It is always great to see you. It's been a bit, but it's always great to see that smile. Why did you want to participate in this event? How important was it to you? Well, you know, my thing is about health has always been.

And can't get any bigger than this COVID-19. It's just been devastating. Not only us, it's devastating the entire world. And something has got to be done. We've got to get our leaders to know, hey, get on that horse and start riding. You know, we've got to get good information out to people, and we've got to follow through with it. We've got to also continue to let them know the importance of the things that we've been told to do. You know, simple things.

Wear that mask. Yeah. Wash your hands. Yeah, because you're touching everything you can. And also, stay the distance from people. You know, we've been told how this is contracted now. It's an airborne disease. And if we don't pay attention to it, I guess that that means that you might want it. You will turn 80 on December 12th. And how have you let your family and others know that you ain't playing with this coronavirus? I've been sitting at home.

I got to know my house very, very well. I don't have to get up and run through no airports or anything of that nature. And for these past seven months, I must say, I've been treating it almost like a vacation. You know, I've been on the road for almost 60 years now. And to say that I can sleep in my own bed without having a maid knocking on the door trying to get in my room, to eat my own food, I can cook my own stuff now, you know. And I get on the phone. I talk to a lot of my friends.

It's been kind of a blessing for me. Well, you're absolutely right. I mean, look, this is the longest I've not flown in 16 years. I haven't been on a plane since February. I am because I was going to vote by mail. I wasn't trusted. I'm still registered in Texas. So I'm actually, I haven't seen my parents since Thanksgiving. They're both 73.

So I'm going to fly home next Saturday. Not looking forward to it. I mean, I am not trying to get on a plane but i got a hazmat suit uh i got a shield i got an n95 mask because i'm not trying to pick up something on a plane and get them sick i understand i totally understand yeah i'm not i'm like you know so it's like like so i don't want to get sick, but also I certainly don't want them to get sick. And that's the way that that really has to be our mindset, that we can't be so arrogant and selfish when we're thinking about ourselves without realizing that our decisions, we could in fact, in fact, children, husbands, wives, cousins, friends, because we choose to be careless. That's for sure. Absolutely. For sure. You know, God has blessed my family.

Nobody has gotten sick. Everybody's healthy. They have been obeying the rule, you know, to stay safe. And, you know, it's it's it's something that we just have to start thinking that, how can I protect me? And when I do that, I am obviously protecting you, too. I mean, it's common sense. It's all it takes. Just a bit of common sense. And we all have it.

Now we've got to start using it. This event taking place tomorrow, what all is it going to entail? Well, there'll be people who unfortunately have lost, we're talking about 200,000 lives that we have along with us. There's a setting of 20 chairs representing one in 10 of every family. Everybody has lost their lives to COVID. We have speakers from people who unfortunately are suffering at this moment, grieving the loss of their family, friends, or spouses.

And it's about time that we now say thank you. We've got to say thank you to the frontliners, those doctors, those nurses, the grocery stores, the bus drivers, all those people who have been keeping us in a surviving mode. It's time to say thank you. And I think this is going to be one of those times that we can say, and also it's a time that we let folks that have and are suffering

from their losses with this COVID, that we grieve with them, that we do feel their pain. And we have to know that we've got, it's a time to unite, really, truly unite and say we're here for each other. We got to know that loving, giving, and caring is what we are all about. My grandfather, who was a minister, told me many, many years,

I was an infant when he told me this. He said, we were all put here for one purpose, and that is to care for each other. And that's so simple to do. It doesn't take nothing but, hey, can I be of some service to you? What can I do? How can I help you? That's all it takes. You talked about getting on your home very well, but you did get out for a moment to participate in the Versus with Gladys Knight and Patti LaBelle. I was watching it live.

It was awesome to see you step out there in that white suit to come out there. How was it for you to spend a little time with your two longtime friends and music mates? It was a hoot. I had the best time. I was their surprise. They didn't know I was going to be there. Oh, they didn't?

No. Awesome. So I mean, it was like, and they kept me hidden. And I loved every minute of the show. I watched them, you know, conversing and singing. And what really impressed me about the show was how they allowed those two ladies to give some wonderful, wonderful information to our babies who are out here now in show business. You know, just giving them a few ground rules of how they did it and why they did it and look at them now, you know, icons. I want to do this here.

I just want to share for our folks just a little of that. So let's go ahead and turn it up, y'all. Thank you. We're apart. Up, up. Close your eyes and know these words are coming from my big old heart. Hey, hey, hey. Remember. Keep smiling. Keep smiling.

Keep shining. Keep shining. Knowing you can always count on me. Count on me for sure. You're absolutely right. I mean, it was great to listen to the stories. You know, people love the music, but all those backstories about the business, what they endured, cooking on the road, all the stuff like that.

I mean, that's the beauty of when you get two folks together and they can get to share those memories that we ordinarily don't get to listen to. Because you go to the concert, you want to hear them sing. Well, I mean, in concert, that's what we do. It's nice to

hear that it wasn't all peaches and cream. We went through some pretty rough times with going down south when people didn't want us to be there. But we did it anyway. And in the long run, now they can't do without us. You know what I'm saying?

So, like I said, I was enjoying every minute of their conversations because it took me back, too, to all those wonderful memories. I was sitting here thinking as you were talking. I was looking on our YouTube channel and our Facebook page, and there were some people who were talking about some of your hits. And I remember we were on CNN together with Soledad O'Brien. And I forgot which song it was.

It might have been a San Jose song. I can't remember. And you said, you know, I really didn't never really like that song. That's true. And it was so funny because we were sitting there and Soledad was like, huh? And the artist was like, you're like, look,

you're like, look, I know people like you, but I ain't really like that song. I didn't. You know, I didn't want to record that song. If it hadn't been for Hal David, who I happen to have adored, miss him terribly to this very day. He was stationed there, fell in love with San Jose, wrote this song. And I just, I told Hal, as in fact, I said, you know, you did not write this song.

And he said, yes, I did. I said, you know, you did not write this song. And he said, yes, I did. I said, well, you could not have written this song. Because, I mean, you've written Walk on by, Say a Little Prayer, Anyone I Had a Heart, Don't Make Me A Wife. How are you going to write a song that said, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa? You know? But, hey, I got to tell you, in the long run, I cried all the way to the bank. What can I tell you?

Well, that's one of the things that, just like the Temptations, they did not like. Papa was a Rolling Stone. I've talked to other artists as well. It's always too funny. Again, when you hear that back story, they're like, man, I don't want to do this song. And then 30 years later, they're like, I'm so glad I did that song. Yeah, I fiddle-faddled with it a bit. And I had the pleasure of doing it as a duet.

And I can't tell you, Celia Cruz. And as a matter of fact, I'm the only American artist she's ever thought about recording with. Wow. And so we took it into a salsa. And it is so hot now. I don't mind singing it now. I was

listening to the three of y'all when y'all were singing. I could not help but think, man, listen to the three of y'all and y'all were singing, I could not help but think, man, listen to the three of y'all and what if we can listen to that amazing voice of Luther Vandross? Oh my, how much I miss him, I can't tell you. That was my real buddy.

Luther was more family than friend. I mean, I miss those three and four o'clock in the morning calls from him talking about, did I see the last wrestling match? What? Wrestling match? Yeah, he was an avid wrestling person. He loved that sport.

And, you know, of course, his music and being able to sit in a studio with him and record with him was my blessing. It truly was. Well, it's funny, as you talk about that three or four o'clock in the morning calls and missing it. I could not help but think about missing. It's been two years since we lost her. Getting one of those phone calls from Aretha Franklin, who was a notorious night owl.

And I remember just, I'm literally in the bed, asleep. My TV One show came on at 7 AM, so I got up like 4.30 in the morning. And it's almost 1 AM, Roland. I see this 248. I'm like, and the queen changed. I think I had like eight phone numbers for her. I said, look, you need to stop changing your number.

And she was, she's like, I saw you on the TV, on the news, baby. She started talking and my wife was like, who is that calling? I was like, that's your Sarah Aretha. And she's like, well, I guess you got to take that phone call. So yeah, I didn't say queen, I was sleep. I had to let her go ahead and talk.

And so same thing, losing, losing her as well. Yeah, I certainly agree with you. There will never be another Aretha Franklin ever. It was only one God drew them all the way. Well, the, it's going to be, it'll be, it'll be a reflective somber moment this weekend, but certainly an opportunity for people to be able to come together, heal, and hopefully with music, soothe the souls of those who have, not just those who have lost loved ones, but the people who also,

who have, you know, look, we've lost 200,000 Americans, but 7 million have been infected, and people are still having serious health issues even after the fact, so we can't lose sight of those folks as well. That's for sure, no doubt. I mean, come on folks, get it together. It's very easy to do.

That's all you've got to do, is to take care of you and taking care of yourself, and taking care of so many others. Well, we're going to be so many others. There really are. Well, we're gonna be live streaming it on my platforms. We certainly look forward to it. Thank you so very much for joining us.

I can't wait, hopefully when this COVID thing passes, so our paths can cross again and we can hug, chat, and enjoy some music. We have to do that. We must do it. And thank you so much for inviting me. All right, Dion, thanks a lot. You take care. You do the same, Don. All right, Dionne, thanks a lot. You take care.

You too. Same, Don. All right, folks. The great Dionne Warwick, don't forget to show the graphic again. This weekend, they'll be having the National Remembrance for Coronavirus. We want you guys to check it out, nationalcovidremembrance.org. That's the website. And this is the graphic here, October 4, 2020.

It'll be streaming again on that site. But we'll be streaming it on our YouTube channel, our Facebook channel as well. So looking forward to that. All right, folks, it's Friday. We always have a little good time with our comedians. It's been a few weeks since we've done so. We've been so busy with so much news and politics. It's always good to get away from all of this. We were supposed to have her on the show Wednesday, but Lord, politics hit us then as well. That's what happens, y'all. It always happens when we are on this show.

Breaking news happens, and so we got to push, folks. And so right now, welcome to the show. I want us to welcome. She's a comedian, folks. She is, again, Sugar Shea. S-U-G-A Shea. Sugar Shea, how you doing? I am good, and it is Shea Sugar. Oh, Shea Sugar. I'm sorry.

They had Sugar Shea down here for me. So my bad. Shea Sugar. Where that name come from? Well, my middle name is LeShea, and I love sweets. So they put it together, honey, LeShea Sugar. Well, that certainly makes some sense there. Oh, my goodness.

This has been, I mean, first of all, it's so much stuff going on. Is stuff too serious where you can't really get to crack some jokes and make fun of yourself? You know, it's really hard. I'm glad that I'm naturally crazy because I go through a lot and I just, you know, you know, it's like tears of a clown. So I am a clown. And even though I am fighting depression as we speak, honey, I can still smile and be a fool. Look, that's been impacted by a lot of folks with COVID-19. They've been impacted by depression. COVID-19, you know, I'm in the Bay Area.

These fires, you know, the riots, these Karens walking around here. It's a lot going on. You know, my kids at home all day long. These Karens messing with people, black folks in Oakland, not letting them barbecue. They're losing their mind. Ooh. They're losing their mind.

I'm serious. We got a whole segment called Crazy Ass White People. And trust me, these Karens are truly, these Karens, these Patties, these Margarets, they really, you know, Trump has just emboldened these fools. Baby, and they be trying me.

Oh, they do. But I got two kids at home. I can't go nowhere. But I want to shout out to, you know, the white folks that are, you know, they be trying me. Oh, they do. But I got two kids at home. I can't go nowhere. But I want to shout out to, you know, the white folks that start, you know, they good people. We ain't going to just, you know, say all Karens. But yeah, there's some good Karens too. I have a good friend named Karen, and she just as white as cocaine.

And she's a good people. And you told her you ain't going to be in one of those videos. No, I hope not. Now, have you gotten back out on the road? I see some other comedians, they've been back out touring. Yes, I have, and it's a good feeling. You know, I'm not really afraid of COVID. I've had some infections that's way worse than COVID,

and I got over those. So if I could get over those, and we don't even talk about it on your show, because that's a whole other show, but I'd be all right. But really, I just performed at Tommy T's with the hilarious Tony Roberts and Lance Woods, and it was really, really good. And it was

outside, but just to be on the stage, it's amazing. It's just a wonderful feeling. All right, then. Well, look, that sounds great. Where are you performing next? I'll be in Phoenix, Arizona this next weekend. Phoenix. Look,

dry land. I wish I could get out there to play some golf because I love to do so. But like I said, I ain't been going nowhere. Again, I don't play around with COVID. I ain't trying to chance nothing. You ain't going to catch it. Baby, look, I ain't trying to sleep in nobody else's hotel room. The absolute safest place

for me is my damn house. You know what? You ain't going to catch it. You just carry your book bottle of Lysol and you're going to be fine. Don't let COVID be the reason. No, I got that too, but let's just be real clear. The safest is my own bed.

I ain't got to wipe down my stuff, so I'm sitting there. And then folk want to get together? Hell no. I ain't got together with nobody. I'm serious. I ain't met nobody. I've had folk hit me and make me get together for lunch. Hell no.

I know. That's depressing. No. Actually, it's not. Look. You just got that personality. What's your sign,. Actually, it's not. Look. You just got that personality. What's your sign, Ronnie? I'm a Scorpio. Look, for 16 years,

I've been on the road, going to events, meeting people, going to this, that, speaking, whatever. Look, now everybody and mama want to be on these damn Zooms. I don't do them. Look, when they hit me to be on Zoom, I'm on the audio. They're like, we can't see you. I'm like, I'm going to want to be on these damn Zooms. I don't do them. Look, when they hit me to be on Zoom, I'm on the audio. They're like, we can't see you. I'm like, I know.

But you know what? Scorpios love solitude, so y'all fine. I'm going crazy. No, I ain't going crazy. No, you ain't. I am. I haven't had any... Look, I got two nieces and then my third niece, she go to Howard. She's a sophomore.

And I'm still trying to figure out why in the hell is she at my house. Because, no, seriously, I'm trying to figure that out. Because they all online. So my deal is to my sister and her husband, why in the hell y'all daughter ain't at home with y'all in Houston?

She ain't got... Look, my Wi-Fi is the same as y'all's. But that say a lot about you. You fun. You uncle. Hell no. Look, I need people to realize I ain't running to bed and breakfast. That's how I am.

I'm that fun auntie. They get on our nerves but we love them. Tell the truth. Me and my wife, we ain't got kids, but there's three kids in my house. So, I'm like, look, okay, I'm a fine uncle too. Me and my wife, we ain't got kids, but there's three kids in my house. So I'm like, look, okay, I'm just saying. So I'm having a conversation with my sister like, um, your daughter need to be back at the crib. I mean, because she going to school online.

She ain't got to be here. Tell the truth. You know you love that baby and you enjoy her. No, I love her, but she can go home. I mean, I'm just saying. All I'm just saying, I'm just saying. You don't lie. It's the same.

You can be in Houston, be my parents in Dallas. You can be in that. She can come to Bay Area with you. Tell that baby to come home. Okay, I'm going to do that. I'm going to do that. All right, now send a little check with her now because, you know, groceries is high. Hey, look.

Especially these day and times. Look, all I'm saying is I just need people to understand I'm not running the bed and breakfast. I ain't running a boutique hotel. So that's the way it is. A boutique hotel. No, I ain't doing that. Uh-uh.

Look, I guess folks figure I got five, six bedrooms. We might as well fill them. No, no, I can walk past an empty bedroom all day. That's fun, too. And you home with your wife and no kids? Yeah, she needs to go home. I just thought about that. Girl, please.

My wife a Delta. Them damn Deltas on Zooms all day long. I'm talking about, they have... Really? No, you don't understand. They got, like, retreats. They got meetings. They got...

They got teas. And they all dressed up in hats and stuff. I'm sitting there... Now, which one are the Deltas? That's the ones in red, right? Yeah. She said, did you guys say which one of the Deltas? Which ones?

You know, you got the AKAs and the bougie ones. Okay, AKAs, pink and green. Yes. The Deltas are red and white. That's their color. Right, okay. That's their color. All right, so.

Yeah. You know, I just made it. I didn't make it past high school. I'm sorry. Well, look, they sit here, and I'm talking about they are forever on some damn Zooms. I told the Delta National President, y'all

meet too much. Give that baby some attention. No, they meet too. I'm an alpha. We don't meet that damn much. I said, I'm going to play golf. So she told me they got some all day meeting them up. In fact, here we take this one of them photos right here. Uh, look, they had a tea. They had a tea.

They got all dressed up. All of them had... All of them had them big-ass hats on. I was like, what is wrong with y'all? Stop all these meetings. I love it. Oh, my God. Is that how y'all met? What? Uh-uh. We met at church. We met at church, baby. Uh-uh.

We was... She, uh... She... And look, they had a tea right there. Uh-uh. They meet too much. Yes, she did. They meet too much. Mm-mm. We met at church. We met at church, baby. Uh-uh. She, uh, she, uh, and look, they had a T right there. Uh-uh. They meet too much. Yes, she did. They meet too much. Mm-mm. They meet too much. That's too much. I'm talking about all day. One day, I ain't see her all day. Oh. No, she was in the room. How long y'all been married?

Uh, 19 years. But the point is, I'm like, how y'all on Zoom all day? But you know what? That says a lot about your wife, honey. Because if y'all been married for 19 years and you looking for her, pretty much she got it.

And you sitting in the house, you're like, uh, I ain't seen her ass all day. I'm talking about got up before I did, was in the room on the Zoom, and i did my show came home then i looked up her ass was asleep because i didn't realize they even finished the zoom past like midnight i'm like look y'all meet too much i'm i'm telling right now so all these people i and then now the problem uh uh now the problem shane everybody thinks that you at home then you got time to be on a zoom and then when you go on their Zoom,

it's nine people on. Have you had... Have you had people ask you to come on their Instagram show? And then you like... But then you tell them, you don't have a show. You know it's not a show. It's not.

It is, but it ain't. No, it's not. It's not. Don't say it is. It's not. Unless your ass but it ain't. No, it's not. It's not. Don't say it is. It's not. Unless your ass got a show open and some graphics, that's a show. This is a show. It is. But if you on a show like with somebody, I mean, if you

on Instagram Live with somebody like Luenell or, you know, one of the big No, you still on Instagram. You ain't on they show. It's that Instagram show. It's an Instagram show. It's not a show. It's an Instagram show. They now think, come do my Facebook Live show.

You don't have a show. You got a Facebook page. You don't have a show. So stop asking me to do your show. And then, have you done somebody's Instagram live and it's 11 people watching? You're like, why in the hell am I sitting here for an hour and it's 11 people watching?

Because it ain't shit else to do. Well, I got stuff to do. I can go play golf. I can go do something else. But look, I'm just letting you. You can't hustle with your wife on Zoom. I'm just letting you. You know what on zoom. I'm just about zoom. What people be talking at the same time and you just cannot get focused and

it gets on my nerves. I don't like confusion. That's why you need to be like, they need a director of zoom. No, no, it's called a moderator. Yeah, they got moderators. They can, they can mute everybody. That's what everybody needs,

but they don't always have that. Well, that's why you need to demand that. See, again, I got rules. I got rules. I agree. Look, people, hey, I'm just going, all y'all people out there

trying to invite me to do your Instagram show and your Facebook show, and if I go to your page and all I see are 89 views, I just want to let y'all know. You being bougie. No, I ain't being bougie.

Yes, you are. It was a time you only had 89. Don't you do that? Actually, it wasn't. Actually, it wasn't. Actually, it wasn't. That is bougie. No, I ain't never had 89. I had more than that. I said, I know, but that ain't nice.

These people coming up. No, no, no. You know what I'm taking it personal. No, but they act like you ain't got nothing else to do. OK, follow me here. This is a two-hour show, OK? This is a show. Like, OK, you know how I know this is a two-hour show. Okay? This is a show. Like, okay, you know

how I know this is a show? Henry. Henry, roll the show open. See? Everybody else in the show, they can't call a Henry to roll a show open because they ain't got no control room. See?

If I say, turn the audio up, they ain't got no audio board. They ain't got no show. Okay? Okay, but when you just called on Henry, he sounded like he was asleep because I didn't hear no response. No, Henry in there, he probably like, what the hell he calling me for? Come on, roll the show open. See, that's a show.

Roll the show open. Come on. This is the show open. Right here. This is called a show open. And it's rolling. Best believe me. This is a theme song. Show is opening, honey.

This is a show theme song. Let the people have it. Turn it up. It's on go, go, go, yo. It's rolling, honey. It's rolling, my champ, yeah. D-A-T-E-R, turn it up! See? Look, look, Sugar Shay. That's a show got a show. That is a show.

That's all. I gotta give it to you. I gotta give it to you. But let me ask you this. What would you say to these inspiring comedians and folks that want a show like Roland's? What would you say to them? Because, you know, we're trying to come up just like you.

No, no, no, no, no. I'm saying, if you say, come do my Instagram, fine. Don't call it a show. Okay. It ain't a show. That's all I'm saying. It ain't a show. That's all I'm saying.

Amen. And here's the deal. Last one. Don't ask my ass to come on your Instagram for an hour. it ain't a show that's all I'm saying and here's the deal last one don't ask my ass to come on your Instagram for an hour or two hours and it's 11 people

on your Instagram but those 11 people is just as they just as important and just as special Shay we can FaceTime Shay

we can FaceTime 11 people I can't argue with you Shay that's a FaceTime, Shay. We can FaceTime 11 people. I can't argue with you. Shay, that's a FaceTime group. I'm sorry. That ain't no Instagram. That's a FaceTime group. That's all I'm saying.

That's all I'm saying. All right. Tell people where they can cash app you. Y'all can cash app me. You know what? Today is a special day. Cash app somebody that you know personally that might need it. Girl, you better take this cash app. Give your cash app.

Oh, Shea Sugar then. Dollar sign Shea Sugar. Dollar sign Shea Sugar? Yes. Girl, you better stop being so damn humble. Better ask for that money. Somebody going to see this. I'm just a giving person. I love to give. How them give you the money and you give it to somebody else. Somebody else. I will do that.

Yeah, right. You're going to keep that money. All right, Shay Sugar, thanks a lot. When are you going to call me back? Huh? When are you going to call me back? I don't know. We'll think about it.

OK, well, think hard with your bougie self. I love you. I ain't bougie. I'm just being black. All right, Shay Sugar, thanks a lot. I appreciate it. Thank you. Hey, y'all. Somebody sent me this shirt. I don just being black. All right, Shake Shaker, thanks a lot. I appreciate it. Thank you. Hey, y'all, somebody

sent me this shirt. I forgot who the hell it was. Drop it low a third. I am a man.vote. I don't know who sent me this shirt. Henry, go to the iPad. This is their website. They're encouraging men, especially black men, to vote. The I am a man was assigned to the Black

Sanitation Workers War in Memphis when Dr. King went there in 1968. And so, again, they're trying to get a million men registered. And so, again, I appreciate whoever sent me this shirt. I don't know the name, but I just had it. And so I decided to wear it today. I am a man. Vote, folks.

Don't forget. Pull the election graphic up. Y'all look, we do not have many days left. Next week, we got voter registration deadlines coming up next week. Okay? You can pull those up for me. Here's the deal. 31 days.

31 days until Election Day. But next week, we've got voter registration deadlines. I need y'all to make sure you register. Alaska enrolls October 4th. Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Ohio, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Texas. Your deadline is on Monday. On Tuesday, Illinois, Nevada, New Mexico, Missouri.

Your deadline is Wednesday. Idaho, New York State, North Carolina, Oklahoma. Your deadline is Thursday. Delaware, your deadline is Wednesday. Idaho, New York State, North Carolina, Oklahoma, your deadline is Thursday. Delaware, your deadline is Friday. Folks, I need y'all registered. Also, in Ohio and Michigan, Democrats pick up one seat on the state Supreme Court. They now control the state Supreme Court. I keep telling y'all, judges, judges, judges, judges, don't act like judges do not matter.

All right, folks, we got to go for that. You know we always end the show. Support us now. Don't bring the funk fan club. Go to Cash App, dollar sign RM Unfiltered. PayPal.me forward slash R Martin Unfiltered. Venmo.com forward slash RM Unfiltered. NuVision Media, send us a money order. NuVision Media Inc., 1625 K Street, Northwest,

Suite 400, Washington, D.C., 2006. And, of course, your dollars go to support this show. Yes, a show, a real show, with graphics, with show open, with staff, with cameras. We're always in the show every single Friday, folks. With our charter fan clubs, we got more than 13,000. Our goal is to get 20,000 by the end of the year. Y'all, more than 6,000 being watching on YouTube, y'all can get right there on YouTube as well. I will see y'all guys on Monday.

Ha! Ha! Ha! Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. This is an iHeart Podcast.