#RolandMartinUnfiltered - 10.9 RMU: Trump won't cooperate w/ impeachment inquiry; Questions about Joshua Brown's death

Episode Date: October 10, 2019

10.9.19 #RolandMartinUnfiltered: Trump won't cooperate w/ impeachment inquiry; Joshua Brown's family call for an independent investigation into his death; Montgomery Alabama has elected its first Black Mayor; Sudan is in the midst of a political crisis since long-serving ruler Omar al-Bashir was overthrown; HBCU Law Schools are in danger of being eliminated, but why? + More from Tyler Perry's new studio grand opening. All that and more today on #RolandMartinUnfiltered - #RolandMartinUnfiltered partner: Life Luxe Jazz Life Luxe Jazz is the experience of a lifetime, delivering top-notch music in an upscale destination. The weekend-long event is held at the Omnia Dayclub Los Cabos, which is nestled on the Sea of Cortez in the celebrity playground of Los Cabos, Mexico. For more information visit the website at lifeluxejazz.com. Can't make it to Los Cabos for the Life Luxe Jazz Fest? Get your live stream pass at https://gfntv.com/ - #RolandMartinUnfiltered partner: 420 Real Estate, LLC To invest in 420 Real Estate’s legal Hemp-CBD Crowdfunding Campaign go to http://marijuanastock.org Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an iHeart Podcast. Thank you. Today's Wednesday, October 9th, 2019. Coming up on Roland Martin Unfiltered, the Trump administration will not cooperate with an impeachment inquiry they basically said to the Congress, the hell with y'all. You don't even have the authority to tell us to respond. Really.

The family of Amber Geiger key witness Joshua Brown not convinced the Dallas Police Department or tell them the truth about his murder. They want an independent investigation. Montgomery, Alabama, folks, has elected its first black mayor after 200 years. We'll talk about Stephen Reed's historic win. Sudan has been in the midst of a political crisis

since long-serving ruler Omar al-Bashir was overthrown in April. Why are the protests and killings still going on? We'll discuss it with the bishop from Sudan. Also, HBCU lawsuits are in danger of being eliminated. That's according to a lawyer who has worked at many HBCUs. He will explain exactly what is going on. Plus, more from Tyler Perry Studios opening

in Atlanta over the weekend. Lots of photos and videos. We got more for you. It's time to bring the funk and roll them out on the filter. Let's go. He's got it. Whatever the piss, he's 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, yeah. It's Uncle Roro, y'all. Lots to news to politics With entertainment just for kicks He's rolling It's Uncle Roro, y'all It's Roland Martin Rolling with Roland now

He's funky, he's fresh, he's real The best you know, he's fresh, he's real, the best you know He's rolling, Martin Martin All right, folks, out of Chicago, breaking news. Mayor Lori Lightfoot has released the documents that show numerous Chicago police officers straight up lied when it came to the death of Laquan McDonald. A story that dropped. She promised, first of all, during the campaign to release all documentation related to the shooting of Laquan McDonald. What we now know is that Chicago police commanders

knowingly submitted reports that were absolutely lies. In fact, this is going to trip you out. One of those commanders actually presented a report after actually looking at the video, knowing full well it was a lie. This is a story from WB Easy Radio in Baltimore. Go to my iPad please. Lightfoot releases records on police cover up

for officer who killed Laquan McDonald. The story says the record consists of reports from Inspector General Joseph Ferguson recommending discipline for 16 officers based on his office's 2016-2017 probe into the police department's handling of the shooting. Now, the 16 officers investigated, including 11 officers that Ferguson recommended for dismissal in the alleged cover-up. Now, check this out.

The officers included David McNaughton, a deputy chief of patrol at the time of the shooting, Eugene Roy, a commander in the Bureau of Detectives. Both of them retired before any discipline. This story says that McNaughton, according to a 28-page summary, approved false police reports by officers even after he had watched the video, which contradicted key aspects of those reports. Also, another commander let stand reports containing materially false statements and conclusions despite viewing video of the shooting within hours of its occurrence and possessing ongoing knowledge of the investigation as it unfolded. I want to bring in my panel now to talk about this. A. Scott Boland, former chair of National Bar Association Public Action Committee.

Also, Lawn Victoria Burt, NNPA. Monique Presley, legal analyst and crisis manager. Scott, his, first ofPA, Monique Presley, legal analysts and crisis manager Scott. His, first of all, was interesting here. And to me, again, this is a problem when you have these sort of these contracts. For the officers to retire before any discipline, I believe, you know what, if all of a sudden you're facing discipline charges, it's like you should be forced to stay on the force. There should be some way where they are impacting

the pensions of these officers when they lie. For these commanders to have seen the video and then still lie, it also is an indictment of former Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, who fought the release of the Kwame Donald video because they knew what it was going to show. They were willing to allow these cops' lies to stand.

Yeah. You know, the thin blue line is alive and well. You often hear me talk about my days as a prosecutor in New York. But the thin blue line is alive and well. The release of these documents, not for the new mayor, you'd never even be talking about this because it usually doesn't get released. One way to keep the police honest and the police unions

is to reduce their ability or their success in lobbying for these state rules in 50 states because they are one of the strongest lobbyists ever to protect themselves. But the way you would fix what you just described as staying on the force for discipline is at the end of each police report, internal or otherwise,

make them feel that out on the penalty of perjury. And if they leave the force because they know the hit or the hammer that's coming, then you can either prosecute them internally or prosecute them publicly, vis-a-vis the state's attorney's office, for approving something that they knew was false.

You clean up most police departments in a heartbeat, big or small. Lawren, that's the issue. If those officers know their pension is going to be affected, their money is going to be affected, their job is going to be affected, I think overnight you're going to see a lot

of this crap cut out. But they know right now they can lie on reports unless somebody else reports them, unless somebody else says that that's false. In fact, that was one of the newspapers, sometimes the Tribune did an analysis, where there was a judge who reported officers

to the body that investigates cops saying, I know for a fact that these cops are committing perjury. The judge said they lie on the witness stand, reported them, nothing was done, and then when the report came out, oh, now we'll look into it, and even that review board was not going to, the accountability board wasn't going to do anything.

These officers, when they know they can lie, they will do it to get away with it. Yeah, I mean, like I said, law enforcement is effectively a protective class, I mean, in most jurisdictions, particularly large jurisdictions like Chicago and New York and these big departments. Oh, the smaller ones are worse. Well, small ones to me is like less training, too, is also involved in the smaller ones

and less qualifications to become a police officer. And until you change that, obviously we've talked about this a lot of times, and until you make the individual officers accountable or, in fact, somebody over them accountable, it'll never change. And we'll just have these large payouts to individual people that are, you know, are killed or harmed in some other way by police, and the taxpayers end up paying for it over and over again.

And that's the cycle. And really, it's a political cycle, because, of course, they have so much political power over our politicians. Politicians generally do not want to get crosswise with law enforcement in any way or the unions. So it continues. And you know what? The reason they

sell these cases before the 1983 actions get fully involved and the lawsuits even filed is because they don't want to create a pattern and practice of abusive behavior like this so that the ones that do get filed will get dismissed. Monique, there's one detective, Detective David March,

according to this story here, helped, approved, and helped craft March's conclusions. There's one lieutenant who was in the chain of command, helped craft the detective's conclusions, backing Van Dyke, who, of course, was found guilty of killing Laquan McDonald. The Audie's report accused this officer, Wojcik, Anthony Wojcik, quote,

of bringing discredit upon CPD, overseeing and participating in an untruthful and properly documented and unprofessional investigation of the shooting by improperly disposing of material evidence during the investigation. Now, one, the only reason we know about this ID's report being released is because Lori Lightfoot became mayor. Again, Ron McDonald was going to cover for these cops

like he did by fighting the release of that videotape. Ron Emanuel. The only reason, the only reason this man got convicted is because that tape was forced out in the public and Emanuel did not want that to ever happen. On a FOIA request. Right, and I'm sure that the lawyers who are in a similar position to one I was in

for over a decade did not want that to come out either. It's not just former Mayor Rahm out there by himself. Listen, when you do something like those officers did, that's a crime. It's not an administrative matter. So while I understand why people may want to try enforcement through pension, pension is something like your retirement or mine that's gained over time. And the people who actually end up suffering are their families. So I don't know if that is an adequate first line of defense. It is.

I think if you commit a crime, then the first line of defense is you being prosecuted for the crime that you committed. Dubow. I think that, well, but that's the thing. Why not charge him with conspiracy? But that's what I said. Charge him with conspiracy.

Dubow. I said if you commit a crime, then what's supposed to happen is you get charged with a crime, whether the crime is per don't just hold somebody's pension in advance and say because we think you did something we can't prove or because we have this unofficial report or because we have an investigative report that is not part of an official process, we're going to take from you what you earned

for 20 years prior. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. First of all, that's not what I said. What I said is if somebody is facing an disciplinary hearing, you allow that process to go forward, but you don't allow them to retire, and then when you retire, it shuts down the whole hearing. It's like, well, they've retired.

We really can't do anything. So, for instance, General Kip Ward, who's over the African command, four-star general, there was an investigation in the Pentagon where they concluded that he took improper flights to Germany, brought his wife along on different trips or whatever, when he was forced to retire and was bumped from a four-star to a three-star in retirement. That had a direct impact on what his pension was. So he lost one of his stars. What I'm saying is, if these cops know that if I lie on reports,

if I make stuff up, I can't just easily retire and get all of my pension, if they know that their pocketbook is somehow impacted, that changes. This is America. If you want to get somebody's attention,

mess with their money. As long as it goes both ways, because what if it's the case that they're accused of lying, did not, and are fired a day before their pension like just happened in the federal system with, what's his name, who's suing Trump and the Trump administration

for it? McCabe. So you can't get fired the day before you're due to earn your full retirement based on contract charges. I know, I'm saying, the Office of Inspector General in Chicago could prosecute Van Dyke. Yeah, why wouldn't they?

Because they're cops. So what? But I mean, they can't, the city of Chicago could actually prosecute Van Dyke. This is blatant perjury and a blatant cover-up. I'm telling you, I'm telling you. Conspiracy, aiding, prosecuting. I agree, but that's the fundamental problem. That, again, you don't see that happen, and that to me is why folks don't trust these cops

when they sit here and lie. And that, again, that is a huge issue that we constantly see all across this country. All right, folks, when you talk about also what's happening across this country, let's talk about the Joshua Brown case. The family of Joshua Brown, a witness to the murder trial, Dallas police officer Amber Geiger,

the family was asking for an independent investigation into his murder. Now, Brown was found shot to death two days after Geiger was sentenced to 10 years in prison. Dallas Deputy Police Chief Avery Moore said that he was killed in a drug deal gone bad. Authorities confiscated 12 pounds of marijuana, other drugs, and $4,000 in cash from Brown's apartment. A lot of people are questioning this entire case. Folks on social media are not buying it. Joining us right now is the family attorney for,

actually in a minute, it's gonna be Lee Merriwood in a second, he's the family attorney for Botham Jean. Wanna go to our panel here. Scott, what do you make of this? Again, a lot of people, I mean, trust me, you all over social media, folks are saying, wait a minute, all of a sudden this guy's a drug dealer. And it never came up during the case. It never came up in the cross examination. all over social media, folks are saying, wait a minute, all of a sudden this guy's a drug dealer. They're nuts.

And it never came up during the case. It never came up during the cross-examination. Black people love a conspiracy theory. They love it. They got conspiracies about everything and everybody. I swear to God. Give me one piece of evidence, empirical data, something that links him to him being shot

by the undercover police or the undergirding police or some conspiracy other than the fact that he dealt drugs and marijuana. First of all, the conspiracy folks will tell you you're not going to see that if it's a conspiracy. It's a real conspiracy. If you investigate it, show me where the two killers

that they arrested for killing this boy, that they aren't drug dealers, that somehow there was some conspiracy to hire them to make it look like a drug deal gone bad. They planted the $4,000, and they planted the drugs in his apartment, and oh, he was just such a good boy. He was such a good boy.

He was a drug dealer. What do you make of so many people being, saying, I'm not buying this story from Dallas Police Department? I'm not a big believer in coincidence. I mean, the woman, just let's lay out the facts. The facts are she was sentenced on a Wednesday, and he was dead on Friday. I mean, the guy is such a big drug dealer,

and he just happens to get killed on Friday. Just happens to get killed on that Friday? If he's such a big, notorious drug dealer, why was he dead two years ago? Nobody said he was big. He just went to buy drugs. The other thing about this idea of Joshua Brown is coming out in court. Why would he come out in court? It's not part of the case.

It has nothing to do with the case. What do you mean, coming out in court? No, no, no. Why would it be relevant in the court case? Folks are saying... The conspiracy people are saying, wait a minute, this guy was selling drugs. There's no way in the world it would not have come out

during the trial under cross-examination longer than Monique. My thing is, it should just be checked. That's all. Investigate. Look into it. Check into it. Check into who killed him. Come on, Monique. It can't be that difficult. Actually, Monique, hold on, hold on.

First of all, I want to go to Lee Merritt, who's the family attorney for both of us, John. Lee, you say because people don't trust the Dallas Police Department, you believe there should be an external or independent investigation into the death of Joshua Brown. Yes or no?

Yeah, yes, that's exactly it. What we have to remember, this is not people with tinfoil hats who are making these accusations. These are serious, fairly uninvested people who are saying something doesn't add up here. And they're not pulling it out of thin air. There's a common theme. There's a large

contingency of people who says, well, why was this person, why would anyone target Joshua Brown three days after he testified in one of the biggest cases in the country? And those people are not, I get that they are promoting a conspiracy, but these aren't the usual suspects for conspiracy theorists. These are serious people, And their concerns are legitimate. There is some nexus between how quickly he was killed as it relates to this trial. And this is a corrupt police department, one that was exposed as corrupt. You got one cop convicted of murder.

You got a partner who's destroying evidence. You got the president of the police officers association who is actively covering up her crimes, so it's natural for people to trust her. The system needs to take steps to ensure that the community can rely on the investigation. I think the best way to do that is to bring in an outside investigative agency. Monique?

Hi, Lee. Hey. Was he a drug dealer? I can't confirm that. I don't know that. Okay. What did it mean when you said he was an entrepreneur? That he was buying property and using them as Airbnbs. Okay. Did the prosecutors have information about his prior record at the time of the trial of his instances of contacts with the law? No, they would have had to turn that information over under Brady if they

had evidence that he was somehow not credible because of his criminal background. The only thing that they knew was he was shot last year. Did the defense outside of the hearing of the jury try to bring in evidence that would discredit him and get overruled? Not at all.

None. So, no, but I mean, Lee, obviously, I mean, you know, you know the ropes, so do I. I know what you're answering. I know what you're not answering. I don't blame you. My problem is that everyone is hinging now

this young man's, to me, heroic act of testifying, and rightly so, based on whether he was or was not selling drugs on that night or prior. And it seems to me like you're saying the police department is suspect, and you're saying that the people who are accusing

the police department and calling for investigation are not ones with tinfoil hats. But what about you? Because I know you know what needs to be known. Are you saying that this is something of merit that taxpayer money should go towards and that people like us of goodwill who want to see justice for Joshua Brown and his family,

should we be fighting for this? Or is this one where we need to accept what the facts are and watch as this investigation unfolds? I was having a conversation with Roland about this earlier, and I said I have a vested interest in the community accepting that they can testify in court against a police officer and not be murdered for it. So I'm not part of the group of people

who are anxious dependents to law enforcement because it would have a chilling effect on future cases where I call people to testify against cops. I want this investigation to reveal the truth. And I want that truth for people to find this truth reliable. And people are never going to believe the department that's implicated in the case. They're not going to rely on their conclusions. But the person who they're saying got shot before Joshua Brown died, that person really did get shot, didn't he?

I mean, I haven't seen him. The one who landed in the hospital, Lee. I mean, the police are not making up these facts, are they? There is somebody in the hospital who gave the law enforcement this narrative. And he got shot? Yeah, he's in the hospital who gave the law enforcement this narrative. And he got shot? Yeah, he's in the hospital because he was shot. In his abdomen, right? Yes, ma'am. Okay. And so, and the information that they uncovered, the drugs, the gun,

the money, all of those things are things that we can test, right? I mean, these aren't things that come poof out of the air. These are traceable documents, right? So if you have an independent investigation, that will come out. No, no, no. But you don't need an independent investigation. You just need an investigation. If Dallas is so pure, that will come out in an independent investigation?

Dallas doesn't have to be pure. Hold on, Mark. One second, one second. Hold on one second, one second. Monique finished, then Lee, then Scott. Lee, my final question isn't really a question. It's more a plea, Lee. If you don't have any reason at this point

to doubt the way the investigation is unfolding, please say so, because then that will help people of goodwill to settle this in their minds. I mean, you've done this for a long time. So has Scott. God knows I have. And the way this unfolded, I was quiet when he died for a reason, because to me, it's not preposterous that somebody would drive from Alexandria, Louisiana to Texas in order to buy that amount of drugs. You know, I got former clients who are sitting in jail for going East

Coast to West Coast right now. So these are things that people who aren't involved in this part of the underbelly of the world don't know. I just wish that somebody would be very candid and say, hold on, y'all. Let's see all the facts. There's no reason to jump to conclusions. Lee, this was all a fraud. Lee, so all the facts that people will rely on, the real evidence that people should be considering when they make up their mind as to whether or not this story is believable or not, all those facts are going to have to be provided for and presented by the Dallas Police Department,

who have already lost credibility. So I'm saying, yes, let's get to the evidence. And why not bring in a neutral party that says, we will now present the evidence. We don't have a dog in the fight. Because, Lee, the police department needs more than just, and I'm preaching to the saved here, the police department needs more than just, and I'm preaching to the saved here, the police department needs more

than just the suspicion from the community. Because think about it. If there was something to this, you, not you, but the community would have me and others believe that as a result of his testimony and the police officer getting 10 years, that the police or the community or someone some nefarious figures Hired these two drug dealers to sell drugs to this witness

There was a dispute he met them. He was killed another part One of the bad actors was shot and then they went to his apartment or someone went to his apartment planet money planet drugs And then they went to his apartment or someone went to his apartment, planted money, planted drugs, and then came up with this narrative that basically made sense and made him a criminal. I agree conceptually that's possible, but I don't think it's probable. Lee, go ahead. You can tell me something else which would trigger the police doing a further investigation. Lee, go ahead. You can tell me something else which would trigger the police doing a further investigation. Lee, go ahead. I can tell you that I had a conversation with the Dallas

police chief, Chief Hall, asking her, begging her really to bring in another agency to do this. And she says, Lee, the facts are the facts. We can't go off the suspicions of the community and stop doing our job. And what I said to her was the facts were the facts in the case of Amber Geiger, but you called in the Texas Rangers anyway because you were concerned about public opinion

and you wanted this investigation to be credible when it went to trial. It's something that's commonly done. Why are you so resistant? Your resistance here makes it even more suspicious. Okay, but Lee, my factual scenario is very practical. And I understand what you're saying, and she could easily do that if only to comfort the community and give some level of perceived credibility or additional credibility. But the facts remain the same, and what's practical about all of this is that it's a drug deal gone bad. There's empirical data and evidence to support that.

And so the community needs something else to put before the police to say okay something here doesn't make sense other than a time frame that says he testified the white woman got convicted and now he shot and killed three days later I just think you need more not you but the community or those who are looking at this need more to do more but the facts would not change if another investigative agency entered the scene and two two two words two names Ramsey order, right? So Ramsey order takes the video of Eric Garner and then all of a sudden all of a sudden he gets arrested He's involved with the police. That's very he's in a he's in a correctional facility right now gets out in December, right? and it's all a big coincidence that Ramsey order is suddenly a

criminal now because the connection is short. Because he got on the wrong side of one of the most powerful entities in the United States, which is the police department. Lee, let me ask you this question. Do you know if at any point Joshua Brown asked for protection before doing or after the trial? Do you know? Joshua Brown and his mother apparently directly told the state that he didn't feel safe testifying in this case. And it wasn't because he was concerned about police retaliation. It was because he was concerned that people were after him.

People were after him because of this case or other stuff? Because he was shot less than a year ago on the club. So he was shot, right, because there was a shooting in November where he was shot outside of a strip club. And so his fear was not, I'm going to be targeted by Dallas police. His fear was that by me going public because of that shooting that took place, the altercation, that's what he was fearing. That's what his was fearing.

That's what his concern was. Okay. All right. Well, Lee Merritt, we'll certainly see what happens next. First of all, have they apprehended the two guys they announced yesterday? They've apprehended two of the three suspects. Well, first of all, one guy was in the hospital. So that's one.

He's apprehended. Right. And so there were two they announced. And so of the two they announced yesterday, one of them has been apprehended. That's right. He's apprehended. Right. And so there were two they announced, and so of the two they announced yesterday, one of them has been apprehended. That's right. Okay. All right. Well, we certainly will keep following this case. Lee Merritt, thanks so much. I appreciate it.

Thanks, guys. All right, folks. Going to a break. When we come back, we'll chat with Stephen Reed, the mayor-elect of Montgomery, Alabama. The first time Montgomery, a predominantly black city, has had a black mayor in its 200-year history. That's next. Roller Martin Unfiltered. If you want That's next. Roland Martin Unf the field. Like, share, and subscribe to our YouTube channel. That's youtube.com forward slash Roland S. Martin.

And don't forget to turn on your notifications so when we go live, you'll know it. All right, folks. Right here, of course, we're always trying to keep you updated on what's going on, some investment opportunities. You heard me talk a lot about marijuana stock.org. We know that, of course, the global cannabis industry is worth $340 billion as we speak. It is a growing industry,

and things are changing quite rapidly, of course. It used to be illegal to grow hemp in the United States, but now the 2018 Farm Bill has been passed. It is now legal to do so. Of course, hemp is the cousin to CBD, and you can't get high with it, but again, it is just as powerful and strong. So our friends at 420 Real Estate have a great idea, and that is they want to buy land in order

to grow hemp. And so that's where their crowdfunding campaign comes in. Folks at 420 Real Estate have a deal for our Roller Martin Unfiltered family. That is the crowdfunding campaign. You could have gotten in for 500 bucks. They've lowered it to $200. So you can give as low as 200 bucks all the way up to $10,000 to be a part of this crowdfunding campaign. All you got to do is go to go to marijuana stock.org. That's marijuana stock that org to get in the game and get in the game. Now, last night in the city of Montgomery, Alabama. We know Montgomery, of course, from the Montgomery bus boycott. It lasted 381, 382 days.

And, of course, it launched the modern day black freedom movement. Well, last night, Stephen Reed became the first African-American ever elected mayor in Montgomery. What that means, folks, that right now in Montgomery that there are black mayors in Alabama, there are black mayors in Montgomery, in Birmingham, in Selma, and I believe there's also a black mayor in Huntsville. So that is a huge accomplishment there. Lauren I was talking with some folks they said there was 42% turnout of the highest there being. What still was interesting though is that black folks have been the majority in this city for a very long time and have

never had a black mayor because what you had is you had eight and ten and twelve folks running in fact in the primary they were like nine other black candidates who were running and then went to a runoff and of course Reid got in and dusted his opponent yeah oh I know I know nothing about this particular jurisdiction or this race other than that it's a historic win. His opponent was wealthy. Was his opponent wealthy? But it's Alabama and there's a mayor there.

That's all I know. It's great. It was interesting, though, what happened here was that Montgomery Monique is the state capital of Alabama and the Secretary of State decided that, oh, we're going to be watching this election. Oh, right. Secretary of State decided that, oh, we're going to be watching this election. Right. For no reason whatsoever, like, why do you

need to have monitors watching this election all of a sudden? It's an uprising, obviously. I mean, it is odd, as you say, that all of these years, we couldn't get ourselves together enough to at least narrow it down to three candidates of color as opposed to, like, nine black folks running for the same position and splitting each other up

and giving it to the minority majority person. We can all lead better than each other. It's our season. Negro political problem. But I am, again, as Lauren said, thankful and congratulations, Mr. Mayor. Now, we got to put our arms around this brother and support him. You hear me? And make him successful.

Black people got to leave the inauguration and dig in and support Montgomery. It's one of the fastest growing cities. They need technology help. What else? They're doing some real estate development stuff. I was reading about this brother who I think went to more hours and is a capper I think I can't say for sure but buddy because of his success. He probably is rolling. I know that bothers you but the reality Help him and so you need to go there and help

Help him first be successful in anybody right let's move on to the next story let's just be real clear steven if you're new from my house let me know let a brother know let's just be real clear here we go if we're talking about uh great black mayors in the history of america oh here we go we're talking about maynard jackson yeah yeah we're talking about Maynard Jackson. Yeah. We're talking about Andrew Young, Alpha. We're talking about Mary and Barry, Alpha. I mean, we can go on. No, we're talking about right now, Sylvester Turner in Houston, Alpha. I mean, we can go on.

If you would like to continue, we can talk about Dutch Morial in New Orleans, Alpha. Of course, your son, Mark Morial, Alpha. So we'll give y'all a couple. It's about time y' in New Orleans. Alpha. Of course, his son, Mark Morial. Boulay, man. Alpha. So we'll give y'all a couple. That's fine. It's about time y'all had the come up. Joining us right now is the mayor-elect of Montgomery, Stephen Reed.

Stephen, how you doing? Is that it? Do I get a chance to respond? I'm doing well, Roe. How about you? So Scott's over here. So Scott is claiming you as a Morehouse man and as a cap. Are those two things correct?

He's half right and half way wrong. And he's wrong on which one? Well, let's half right and half way wrong. Oh! And he's wrong on which one? Well, let's start with what's right first. Well, he's right on the Morehouse part. He's got the year right. He's got the year right on the frat part, but he doesn't have the colors right.

So I'm with Omega Psi Phi Fraternity Incorporated. Incorporated! Now, how embarrassing is it? How embarrassing is it to claim somebody in your frat and they're not in your frat? I'm batting 500. I'm batting 500. Which means your research is bad. I know.

I got it right on Morehouse. First and foremost, congratulations. What is your goal? What's your focus when it comes to be mayor? We want to be the best mayor that the city has ever had. And we want to do that by investing in public education and by making sure that we are taking a 21st century approach to crime and public justice and really playing

a more active role in our criminal justice reform movement from the municipal level. We think that's very important, and we think it's an economic issue as well. And certainly, we believe we have to diversify our economic base and kind of come from a government standpoint to one that is more technologically driven and one that is more knowledge based in the economy itself. And obviously, when you talk about the major cities in Alabama having black mayors. That is something that is significant. How do you also begin to work together to ensure that your cities are getting the appropriate resources from the state as well as from the federal government?

Bro, I think we have to do some knowledge sharing. I was just talking with Denver Mayor Mike Hancock a little while ago about, you know, pinging him a little bit on some things that they're doing in Denver and making sure that I'm not just kind of thinking from a local perspective, but we're thinking from a global perspective. And I think for those of us here in Alabama, you have Randall Woodfin in Birmingham certainly is doing some great things. So we have to talk about what's working, what's not, and what things may be able to be utilized in our city that we can't utilize maybe in theirs. Obviously, when you look at the changes that are required, when

you look at how things are moving in Montgomery, I was there more than a year ago. Your school system, is it still under state control? That's correct. Yes. And we were there, of course, trying to deal with my initiative, school choice is a black choice. Black folks there were saying, look, they want their kids educated, but to have the state in control of the school district, that certainly is a problem. No, it is. And I think as mayor, we can work with our State Department of Education

to help change the intervention and get our school system from state control. Right now the issue is rolling is we have to make sure we're hitting those benchmarks. And we also have to make sure that our community is investing in public education. And right now in Montgomery County, we have some of the lowest property taxes in the state and in the nation, and we have the lowest revenue going to our public schools. Now, that's not to say that money is a panacea for everything education-related, but it is helpful when we're dealing with a high-poverty school system to help these students and their parents with wraparound services,

high-quality pre-K programs, and apprenticeship programs that really help young men and women who may not want to go to college, but certainly want to develop a new skill or trade. All right then. Well, Stephen Reed, congratulations on being elected mayor in Montgomery. When is the inauguration? The inauguration is November 12th, and you're invited. The whole show is invited. We'd love to see you down here. Come down. Let's have some discussion about not what's happening in Montgomery, but what's happening across this country. Love all that you do. And I want to thank you for bringing us on the time to join the morning show before anyone else did and bringing this attention to the national perspective. I

really appreciate that and really appreciate all your work. Well, you know, it's always something happened with Justin Fairfax. It's always amazing how these national media outlets don't call black candidates before the election, but then all, but I'm sure they've been blowing your phone up trying to get you on today. And so, and I appreciate you coming on and not telling us, hey, I'll get to y'all later in the week because again, I'm a firm believer of those who were with you before the camp, before the victory, are still there with you after the victory. So we appreciate that. Thanks a lot. Absolutely.

Thank y'all. Take care now. All right, then. Congratulations again, folks there. Montgomery, Mary Lett, Stephen Reed in Alabama. Going to a break right now. We come back. We're going to talk about the crisis in Sudan, giving you an inside look in terms of what is happening there.

And then also we'll talk some Trump impeachment. What the hell wrong with his crazy people? You got Trey Gowdy, a former congressman who's now joining Trump's legal team. Oh, wait till we play the video when he was declaring, you should not withhold documents from Congress. Boy, they forget so easy. You're watching Roller Mark Unfiltered.

Back in a moment. For support Roller Mark Unfiltered, be in a moment. Support Roland Martin Unfiltered. Be sure to join our Bring the Funk fan club. Every dollar that you give to us supports our daily digital show. There's only one daily digital show out here that keeps it black and keep it real. As Roland Martin Unfiltered, support the Roland Martin Unfiltered daily digital show by going to RolandMartinUnfiltered.com. Our goal is to get 20,000 of our fans contributing 50 bucks each for the whole year.

You can make this possible. RolandMartinUnfiltered.com. All right, folks, that's my friend Gerald Albright there. We're going to be in Cabo November 7th through the 11th for the second annual Life Luxe Jazz Experience. It's an unbelievable lineup of folks there, 14 different acts, including Gerald Albright, Alex Bunyan, Raul Madon, Shalaya, Roy Ayers, Ernest Quarles, Johnny McClurkin.

It's going to be an unbelievable gathering there. Of course, if you want to be able to go, go to lifeluxjazz.com, L-I-F-E-L-U-X-C J-A-Z-Z dot com. But if you can't make it there, you can still get your live stream pass, courtesy of G-F-N-T-V dot com. That's G-F-N-T-V But if you can't make it there, you can still get your live stream pass courtesy of GFNTV.com.

That's GFNTV.com. Live stream pass, $10.99. You'll get access to all three days, 14 different acts performing at the Life Luxe Jazz Festival. Again, the website you want to go to is GFNTV.com. We'd love for you to check it out. I'll be broadcasting Roland Martin Unfiltered from there on Thursday and Friday. And again, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, you can check out all of the fantastic concerts there at the second annual Life Lux Jazz Experience, L-I-F-E-L-U-X-E-J-A-Z-Z-Z.com.

And, of course, to get the live stream past, GFNTV.com. All right, folks, let's talk some international news. Even after forcing out President Omar al-Bashir, who ruled Sudan for 30 years, thousands of pro-democracy protesters are still out in the streets. The humanitarian crisis triggered by the legacy of civil war and chronic underdevelopment continues to intensify in South Sudan, and a new wave of violence has left at least 4 million people displaced from their homes and 5 million that lack basic survival necessities like food, water, and shelter. We're now joined by Bishop Eduardo Gilbrow-Guzala, a humanitarian, peacekeeper, and a church leader

from South Sudan. Bishop, glad to have you here. This is one of those stories that when you look at international news in the United States, does not get lots of attention. So how dire is this situation in the Sudan? Thank you for having me here. And I apologize for my voice. I almost lost my voice these last days. But I'm happy to be here and bring with me the stories and the pains and the worries of the people of South Sudan.

South Sudan became a country in 2011. I went to secede from Sudan after a long war of conflict. And you have to know these two countries, since time immemorial, especially South Sudan, never had its own government. And so the process of liberation were in many ways, including armed struggle. But above all, there was so much that was carried out by the church in advocacy for the rights of the people of South Sudan. And I want to take this opportunity to thank the people of United States. If it was not because of you, we would not even have the South Sudan that we have at the moment. And so we were able to vote in 2011

to secede from Sudan as an independent country. That is to say, Sudan was predominantly Arabs, Muslim, and then South Sudan, African Christians. And so now we got our independence. Like any other country, we were very happy, and also our friends, the United States and those who helped us, they were so happy for us. But from nowhere, we got into conflict immediately after the independence,

one year after, and which continues up to now. So this conflict is actually a civil war. And we are ashamed about it, actually, because the war is between the people in the area, and it's all about leadership. Let me also tell you that the people of South Sudan, nearly 90% of them do not know how to read and write. And so if you have to talk about constructing a country with all those necessary values that can make a country a country,

it takes a long time. In fact, it's interesting when you make that point when I interviewed Wendy Mandela. One of the things she talked about was when blacks in South Africa got their freedom, she said what people didn't realize was the high illiteracy rate because those who were children who were fighting

the anti-apartheid forces, they weren't in school. And she said so all of a sudden they become adults and then she said we're sitting here and we're dealing with folks who can't read, who can't write, who can't get any of these jobs. And for a lot of folks in this country, not understanding that this is still a young democracy when you compare it to other countries. And then when you talk about only being a country for a handful of years, Colin Powell made this point.

He said it takes time to actually develop a country and a handful of years. Colin Powell made this point. He said it takes time to actually develop a country and countries need help. How is this administration, are they helping South Sudan? Yeah, well, I have to say the United States government helped us to get independence. And that was under what year? Under the administration of George Bush. And I have to say that... They did or did not? So what year was that? No, 2011.

But the process towards getting the independence began around the time of George Bush. Right, Bush was president, but then you got independence in 2011 when Obama was president. Exactly. Got it. Yeah, and then what actually the issue of South Sudan Bush was president, but they got an impendence in 2011 when Obama was president. Exactly. Got it.

Yeah, and then what to do with the issue of South Sudan was handled contextually. I mean, it was like a government handing the situation to another government. It was not more like Democrats and Republicans, but I think it was a foreign policy to help the people of South Sudan. It's only after recently when South Sudan got into problem, so the United States government in a diplomatic level pulled back and could not get closer in terms of diplomacy and help in the country. And on the basis that they say, you people are confused, we helped you and you are not showing up to what actually you fought for and that's why in fact I'm here to say no you know there's no need to give up on your son or your daughter when he or she goes wrong because you this is your daughter I mean such as United States in the

still needs to be happy that this country has been a bond and as you have said correctly these these guys who are now ruling the country were commanders in the bush. And they came out, they are now ruling, you get a guy who was fighting for 20 years and he's a minister of foreign affairs, he's a minister of finance. What do you do? It is not easy to construct the country. Right. So anyway, I'm not saying this to defend the malpractice of the people in the government, but I'm saying that there's a need, a level to support, to be closer to this government. And one thing that is so clear, when United States absents itself on this platform,

other nations come in like China. And when they come in, they come in in the interest of business, and like we have the natural resources, so we find ourselves going into deep depths. The generations to come, 100 years to come, will continue to pay the debts for which they are not responsible. But that's the point I raised. So when Hillary Clinton was Secretary of State under Obama

and when she was warning African nations not to accept Chinese investment, I was saying, well, hell, if U.S. investment is not there, look, nations need roads. Nations need bridges. They need telecommunications. They need infrastructure. And China's saying, hey, we are more than happy to provide those loans for you to build it, but what does China do?

They want to bring in their workers. They don't want to employ the folks in those countries. And so, but the country is sitting there saying, we need the resources. And so, is the United States offering a level of assistance to South Sudan? And how significant is it? I mean, in terms of what is being provided each year? Yeah, I think the level, the thing that supports is the humanitarian. I must agree, consider this.

We get humanitarian support from the United States. Right, but the problem there is there's always humanitarian support. What South Sudan needs is they need infrastructure support. That's what they need. Exactly. And that's the real effect. As I said, where I come from, and, you know, we as a church, we find ourselves not only preaching the word of God,

we try to provide basic services. And in all this conflict, we have managed as a church to bring out many young men, over 10,000 men who are fighting. We have to go to the bush to bring them out of the bush. But the question is, when you bring them out of the bush, then you need to give them something in return. Right. And if you don't engage them in a substantial way,

they still go back and take their arms. And therefore, there is that need of providing education and the livelihood and the skills that they need in order to provide for themselves necessary support. Any questions for our panel? I have a quick, well, I hope a quick question. What are the top three things, in your opinion, the South Sudan needs to continue to make it a better democracy,

to continue to help it grow and be better versus, you know, the civil war that's going on there right now? I think one of the first things it needs is the provision of skills. The closeness of the government of the United States to the government of South Sudan will be able to pass on the skills of governors without, in effect, running away or when they don't do well, to keep on informing the leaders

and passing on the values that make this nation a greater nation. And the second to that is connected, is, of course, education in all sectors. Because if we are talking of 90% of people who know how to read and write, then we need to empower these people through all forms of education. Together we did this sustainable development.

Because I've seen the young people who went to the bush, when I was interrogating them, they told me, Bishop Bishop I went because one of the men said if I go I will pay you $100 as a boy you went only for $100 to risk your life and the life of your family and everybody it is because of poverty so then I think if the camera United States can be able also to invest we don't have the investors for me from the United States I know because there are values that THE UNITED STATES CAN BE ABLE TO INVEST. WE DON'T HAVE INVESTORS FROM THE UNITED STATES. I KNOW THERE ARE VALUES THIS COUNTRY NEEDS, THE SECURITY, THE ENVIRONMENT IN ORDER TO INVEST INSIDE THE COUNTRY.

WHAT ABOUT THE NGOS THAT ARE THERE? ARE THEY WORKING THERE TO GIVE YOU THOSE THREE CATEGORIES OF SUPPORT? I THINK MOST OF THEM ARE MORE ON HUMANITARIAN. THEY CALL IT SUSTAINABLE IN THE SENSE THAT YOU GIVE AND TOMORROW YOU CONTINUE TO GIVE. I think most of the angels are more on humanitarian. Right. And it's more, they call it sustainable, in the sense that you give and tomorrow you continue to give. You need the U.S. government to invest in those three areas to support the South Sudan. Yeah, but the government of the United States, like now,

there's one success story that had actually happened where I come from, that we started the process of peace building peace among the people and where we brought out these thousands of young people fighting and then we were also able to rescue over a thousand chair soldiers and women who were actually abducted were in the in the rebel group now what has happened that we brought peace in the area usid found that the places become peaceful and they've come in and they've started a program which they call a recovery and resilient program. And this is already a sign where they would need to invest in

the activities that can make the people sustainable. The problem is that they need to trust the local bodies. There's a high bureaucracy. You can't access the funds. Right. And it is so high that you will see... They will talk to your millions, but you don't feel it because the bureaucracy is so high. They need to encourage them to come down to the grassroot to help the people who are actually doing something already successful.

And I must say, like, I'm being supported by one of the small organisations here, but I don't call it small, because what they do is Sudan Relief Fund. It's a non-profit organisation, very credible. They've been able to help us in emergency and support, relief for the people, but also education and a process of peace.

And this organization is credible in the way they do their work, and I've seen the result. One of the schools I'm running, which is a secondary school, two years back got the best result in the country, and I have four of those students here in the United States. Somebody got their result, and then I don't know I even I don't know who is that but pick those kids here to be to learn these are success history among many which I think there's a need to support us to help us right I'll come

out of the problem I got a couple of organization? It's called Sudan Relief Fund. Yeah. All right, then. Any questions, Lauren? No. So if folks want to assist, help, where can they go? If they need to help, there is this organization. The website is... Yeah, the website which they can use of Sudan Relief Fund is... I just lost it even.

The Sudan Relief Fund? Yeah, it is sdnrlf.com. sdnrlf.com. All right, then. And again, all right. Henry, I'm pulling up in a second. Go to my iPad, please. Give me one second. It's loading. This is the web page right iPad, please. Give me one second.

It's loading. This is the webpage right here, folks. SDNRLF. SDNRLF.com if you want to help Sudan Relief Fund. Bishop, we certainly appreciate it. Thank you so very much. Good luck in trying to build a young nation.

Thank you very much. Don't you want to invite Roland to visit you in South Sudan? I invite you to come a young nation. Thank you very much. Don't you want to invite Roland to visit you in South Sudan? I invite you to come to South Sudan. And to bring the panel with him? And bring the panel with you. Trust me, Scott won't be coming. I'll come. Go ahead.

Because he is believing, really, in the fact we need your help. And I'm talking of that kind of number of people who do not know how to support themselves. And it's not only South Sudan You know, I bought a Congo in Central Africa It's a jungle and people come in and exploring only minerals and and the people are many Extremist own age poverty you can't believe and I think tears will fill your eyes You see that in this century people still live the kind of life that we are going through

I appreciate your time. Thank you for allowing me to come, and I'm sorry my voice was... So good. You're fine. And I hope I come again. Thank you so much. Thank you so very much. I appreciate it. Our folks are going to go to a break.

Real quick break. When we come back, we're going to talk Trump and impeachment. Did they just not give a damn about the Constitution? Nope. You're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered. You wanna check out Roland Martin Unfiltered? YouTube.com forward slash Roland S. Martin. And subscribe to our YouTube channel.

There's only one daily digital show out here that keeps it black and keep it real. It's Roland Martin Unfiltered. See that name right there? Roland Martin Unfiltered. 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. Hey, folks. All right. Trey Gowdy, former congressman of South Carolina, is now joining the outside council of Donald Trump in his impeachment inquiry. Now, of course, the Trump administration has

basically said, the hell with Congress. We're not giving you any documents. Ain't nobody testifying. In fact, we just find this whole process to be illegitimate. But, here's what Trey Gowdy had to say. When he,

when Obama was president, when it came to withholding documents from Congress, Trey. The notion that you can withhold information and documents from Congress, no matter whether you're the party in power or not in power, is wrong. Respect for the rule of law must mean something irrespective of the vicissitudes of political cycles. The notion that you can withhold information and documents from Congress, no matter whether you're the party in power or not in power, is wrong.

You know what? Roll that back. I'm going to play you out one more time. This is Trey. Go ahead. You can withhold information and documents from Congress no matter whether you're the party in power or not in power is wrong. Respect for the rule of law must mean something irrespective of the vicissitudes of political cycles. The notion. Vicissitudes.

Right now. Go ahead on, Kirk. Now, my man Derek McGinty, long-time journalist, shared with me a few thoughts that he had when it came to Donald Trump and impeachment. Here's what Derek had to say. President Trump's been getting away with so much for so long, people have begun suggesting that he's some sort of political genius for whom the old rules no longer apply.

We should have known better. The reason Trump can do what he's done is that many of what we thought were laws governing our leaders' behavior, turns out they were mere customs, unwritten rules that everyone pretty much followed, mostly because they'd be too ashamed not to. But Trump, of course, is completely without shame.

So he's been completely free to indulge his maniacal selfishness. The reality is that if something would be good for Trump, well, Trump can rarely see anything wrong with it. Pay off a porn star? Sure thing. Make use of oppo research from a foreign country? Who wouldn't? Pressure an ally into investigating a political opponent? Well, that makes for what Trump called a beautiful, warm, nice conversation.

I believe that's why Trump seemed a bit nonchalant about releasing the transcript of that warm conversation. He literally had no idea there was anything wrong with what he said. In fact, he seemed to think a quick look at that transcript would clear everything up. It's a crippling blind spot that just may have finally caught up with our president. You know, Shakespeare said, your greatest strength begets your greatest weakness. And while utter shamelessness is a superpower I think most of us would rather forego, make no mistake, it has served Trump well.

But at the same time, it just might topple his presidency, even if he can't see it. But Lauren, they were like, ah, Congress, you're irrelevant. Congress schmungus. Constitution doesn't even say you can do these things. Yeah, okay. When it does.

Yeah, yeah. Right. They have a huge problem. They have a huge problem with his approval rating, and they have a huge problem with a poll that just came out, I think it was today, actually, that shows that 51% now, and this is a Fox News poll, 51% now believe that Trump should be removed from office. That's a first. That has not happened before. And, you know,

the only thing that can derail and mess this up is the bad comms job of the Democratic Party, which is typical of, you know, a problem that they keep sort of having, which is that they get something served right up on a silver platter, and they can't execute it. You saw that bad execution when Corey Lewandowski appeared before, uh, the House Judiciary Committee. You saw then, uh, Jerry Nadler disappear and Adam Schiff appear out of nowhere.

Because Nancy Pelosi, who's not the best at comps, but she's a lot better than she used to be, uh, realized that there needed to be somebody who's the face of this effort, in the same way Peter Rodino was the face of the effort during Watergate. And it has to be somebody who can articulate these things really well.

Now, of course, the Trump administration serves things up well, but that trade galley video, they just got to run that thing over and over and over and over. You found a better one, didn't you? This is the statement from the press secretary, Stephanie Grisham. I love this one.

Not the general counsel for the White House. These partisan proceedings are an affront to the Constitution as they are being held behind closed doors and deny the president the right to call witnesses, to cross-examine witnesses, to have access to evidence, and many other basic rights. We'll get there. Stephanie, about the eighth grade, maybe it was the seventh grade,

after taking Texas history, we were taught the Constitution. We were actually taught that impeachment is written in the Constitution. We were also taught that the House conducts impeachment and the actual trial is in the Senate. I'm just saying that was eighth grade. That was a little while ago. I don't know what school you went to, but to say that these partisan proceedings are an affront to the Constitution,

it's in it. It's actually in it. But that doesn't... Like, do they need a Constitution with pictures? No. It doesn't matter. They don't care what the document says. Oh, no, I know they don't care!

But the reason... It is much simpler than this. The reason why I knew my mama had the authority to whoop my tail if I talked back is because if she said to me, the next time you do that, I'm going to whoop your tail. And I did it, and my tail got whooped. Now, my Dems love them. Subpoena means if you serve it and the person doesn't come. And ignores it. Then what happens next?

We go to rest show. Madam Marshal, Madam Person, Madam Chair, bam, bam, bam, dear judge, marshals, step them back. But they have to do it. They have to do it. But we've waited so many times now. Right. And to the point, no, I release him from all responsibility for this foolishness

because if a bully gets to keep being a bully, a bully is going to do what a bully does until what we say is in that Constitution, they find out because that document is only paper if there's no authority behind it. So what Pelosi wants to do, Pelosi wants to say, okay, we issued subpoenas.

She then wants to go to court. No, no. No, no, no, no, wait, wait, wait. No, no, no, wait, wait. No, no, no, no. I'm telling you. Her strategy is we're going to go to court and the courts are going to affirm

that we have these rights and I'm like you don't have to go to a court to affirm rights that are clearly stated in the U.S. Constitution. This is not like... No, but she has to go to the court

to enforce the subpoena if they didn't show up. That's why he didn't show up. If he had shown up and refused to answer, they could have stepped him back. I'm just talking about parliamentary procedure. I understand that. But I'm disagreeing with you. Because you're not wrong.

They could do that. But if you don't show up, pour it into an obstruction charge, put it in the articles of impeachment. That's obstruction. Hold on. Hold on. Put the articles of impeachment. That's obstruction. Hold on. Hold on. Put the articles of impeachment together, add that, and vote. They have the taxes.

They have the summary of the call. They have the whistleblower. They have more than enough witnesses. And if they don't show up and they obstruct, then that becomes part of your articles of impeachment and voted up and down. And by the way, Article 2 gives them complete authority and power to define how they're going to do the impeachment. They don't tell you the procedures, but they define.

And that's why she's saying they don't have to vote. But I agree with Lauren. It's getting added into the articles of impeachment. Everybody knows that. It should be done by the November and December. The poll is what's going to into the articles of impeachment. Everybody knows that. It should be done by the end of December. The poll is what's going to make the difference. They don't have enough will. You can have all of the authority.

The political gangster in the White House is not going to comply. They need the will of the people. You can have all the authority and all the constitution you want if you don't execute it. And Corey Lewandowski should have been in handcuffs. That was all nonsense. That was all nonsense. And there's nothing stopping them, except them.

The fear of the Trump voter, the fear of the red states and the swing districts. They have to let that go. I know that they have to let that go. And they have to pull the trigger. Lewandowski punked him. Right. But he showed up and he answered the questions.

He just gave foolishness answers. But my point is, this today is different. That's what I'm saying. And again, this whole idea that Nancy Pelosi has, if we just keep waiting and the public's going to come around, I go back to Nixon. They've come around. The public is coming around.

No, no, no, no. It's not wrong. Follow me. My point is this here. Nixon started with the impeachment proceedings at around 65%. Right. Everybody forgets he was re-elected in 72. They started at 65.

When that got down to the end, my man was in the 20s. Drip, drip, drip. High 30s. You know why? Because the public watched testimony after testimony after testimony after testimony. And you're right. Every time one of his folks, when he says,

oh, no, this person, executive privilege, who didn't even work for me. And it's like, you refused? Guess what? Cameras, y'all come with us. We're going to drive to their damn house in Virginia. We're going to drive to their crib in Maryland. for me and it's like you refused guess what cameras y'all come with us we're gonna drive to the damn house in Virginia we're gonna drive to the crib in Maryland we're gonna visit them the Republican National Committee Club and

gonna walk in with some cuffs and do a damn perp walk and it's real simple you defy the subpoena you gone here's the deal if I am subpoenaed by the DA, and I release a statement saying, I do not recognize your authority as a district attorney, I find this process to be unfair. I find the proceedings to be wrongheaded. I find this to be shameful. By the time my ass hits sins, their ass will be at-headed, I find this to be shameful. By the time my ass hits sins,

their ass will be at the door, and my black ass will be led off to jail. Damn right. In cuffs. They will take my cufflinks off, my damn belt, my watch and everything. They would wait till your show started. They would come in and do it. They'll get your shoestrings.

That's what they would do. If I had shoestrings in these shoes, they would take those. And I'm sitting here and I'm like, and they keep saying, this is just doggone shame. This is just doggone shame. This is just shameful. Another damn tweet by Nancy. The level of gangster is deep, right?

You've got DOJ, you've got the Attorney General involved in this, right? But they have to meet them. You've got the Department of Justice who told a federal judge. Unbelievable. You know what the federal judge is like? Unbelievable. Let me translate where the federal judge went. Y'all trying that bullshit?

And let me tell you where it's going to get real. It's going to get real in the Southern District of New York. Because that thing with the taxes... First of all, the Southern District of New York does not care about Donald Trump and his gangsterism, okay? But the other thing is... No, no, that SDNY is still governed by Bill Barr, okay? They still govern by Barr.

Trust me. They don't always act like it. What's going to happen in New York, the Department of New York, is the State Attorney General and the Manhattan DA, which they don't have act like it. What's going to happen in New York, the problem in New York, is the state attorney general and the Manhattan DA, which they don't have any DOJ. But getting back to Pelosi, they've got to pull the trigger. They've got to pull the trigger.

All you need is the right judge. I know, right? The right day with the right subpoena. Who's going to be Judge Sirica? I know, Sirica. Who's going to be Judge Sirica? We all know who it is. You just got to make sure that they there. We know who the judge is for this. gonna be judge? Oh, I know sir We know who the judge is for this I'm not gonna say but

I'm saying is You talking about a bully when you punch right bully. That's right. You need one person That's right. Just gonna bust his ass in the mouth and I don't know why why they want the damn... You need to arrest one damn person. And you go, oh, y'all gonna keep... Is this the way we're gonna do this? You gonna keep playing me small? Okay, all right. Watch I do a perc walk with your boy and see what happens.

Let me slap some cuffs on Hope Hicks. But they have people cooperating. No, they would never do that to her because she's cooperating. Because she has fully cooperated and she's continuing to cooperate. She fully cooperated and she's not she didn't to cooperate No, she the Democrats Believe in

Do is stay cool. I'm gonna sit the bailiff right behind your ass right And they work they need to make an example of someone. That's what I'm saying. It should have been a good asking. Make an example of somebody. No, because he was there in the chair answering the questions. You need someone who is refusing the subpoena like today. Fine, fine, fine. Arrest somebody. That's not going to happen to the Dems.

Let their hands go. You're like, well, I got all day. You know the boxing term? Let your hands go. Start punching. And for whatever reason, they won't. Or as I say, if you're going to swing, swing. Swing, right.

Why is there so much hesitancy? I'm going to hit you. Yeah. I'm going to hit you. Yeah. Okay, here I come. I'm going to hit you. And he's slapping you with...

He's slapping you saying, hit me. Hit me, and she won't swing. Swing. He likes your punk ass. That's right. His punk ass ain't going to hit me. He's going to swing. No, that's what he's doing.

Exactly. This man, this man. Well, they don't have any choice, though, because it's a fait accompli. She's going to swing. They're playing their last hand. But the point, Lauren, is he just said this score. You ain't going to do a damn thing.

They like, OK. Yes, I am. Yes, I am. Here it comes. Here it comes. She's going to swing. It's a matter of when. When.

It's when and who are the only things rushed. When and now. She's going to swing. When and now. I don't care for that. Who, whomever. Let's gonna swing. It's a matter of when and who are the only things fresh. When and now. She's gonna swing. When and now. Who? Whomever. Let's do it. Figure it out. That judge at Judge Judy Meen.

She's gonna swing. Hurry up! Mm-hmm. Hurry up. Make an example out of this thug. He is the thug in chief. All his fellow thugs know it. And they run around like a gang and just running amok.

It's time to put them in check. All right, folks. It's unbelievable. Tyler Perry opened his studios over this weekend. Huge deal, of course. We talked about it on Monday and Tuesday as well. And he's been dropping photos and videos of the huge celebration.

There's so much stuff. I said, look, every day we're just going to show y'all more stuff. And so here is more photos from, we're just going to show y'all more stuff. And so here's more photos from Talapear Studios' grand opening this weekend in Atlanta. Thank you. We'll be right back. Ava DuVernay's Instagram stories. I would have shot some video, but let me tell you something. Tyler told everybody on Saturday, you can only take pictures on the red carpet. You couldn't take pictures anywhere else.

And that's why on the inside, folks didn't take photos. So when we got on the trolley on Sunday, nobody would know what the hell the rules were. So we were like, we ain't taking the damn thing. So, you know. Right, right. It's called owning your content. Like, nobody would.

I'm like, everybody on the bus was like, I ain't shooting the damn thing.I want to, but I ain't." -"I ain't trying to get escorted off." -"That's right." Because they were real clear. And so you figure, like, if Oprah or Ava shot something, you know, they might get a pass. Everybody else was like, we ain't getting no damn pass. So that's what happened there.

There are many other photos, of course, that they're releasing. But it's... So the houses you saw there, if you see the show, the Has and the Have Nots, uh, and, uh, another one of the shows. So when you see those homes, normally when you watch a movie, they have the outside of a house, but it's really just, it's just the external shots.

And then normally the inside is actually shot on the set somewhere. Well, actually, what they did is, those were actual homes built to code in the land. Those are actual homes. Bedrooms, I mean, they're actual homes. And so that's a neighborhood. And then also on the property, that's also part of the National Register,

so they could not destroy a number of the other homes that are on this property. It's a former military base. Right, right. It was a Confederate Army base and then became a military base. Then it got decommissioned. And so they could not tear down these older homes,

but they were able to go in and completely gut the inside. And so I was talking to Terrell Whitley, my frat brother, CEO of Liquid Soul, and Oprah stayed at one of the homes on the property. And so when Pastor Shirley Caesar, when she spoke at the Gospel Brunch on Sunday, she said, this ain't a movie studio. She said, this Tyler Perry city.

She's like, this is a city. And when you go, just like when I went to Fort Knox, I mean, Fort Knox is actually Fort Knox. It's not like there's a city Fort Knox. It's the fort. And so it's the same thing. You go in this place and they've got store, they got a grocery store,

they got a beauty salon, they got a beauty salon, they got homes. Tyler announced he's gonna build a compound on that acreage for LGBTQ teens who've been run out of their homes and women who've been involved in sex trafficking and create a place for them to be able to get their lives back on the property. So, I mean, it's just an amazing...

How big is the property? Landmass? More than 300 acres. So it's larger... It's larger than the Disney, 20th Century Fox, uh, and I think Paramount. Larger than their lots combined. So if you go to Los Angeles and you go to the Paramount lot, you see this big sound stage and everything. But, look, L.A., landlocked.

But bottom line is, you could take those studios and put them on this land and still have 60 acres left. Wow. You know, I was listening to some interviews that he did, one with Gayle King on CBS, but also in some print media, where he talked about how for years, and even now, Hollywood ignores him. And so what is kind of... I'm paraphrasing now. He said, Hollywood ignores me. So when you get

ignored, you build your own, if you will. Yes. And this testament, this build-out, this opening was just a real testament to what he's built and will continue to build, doing good in the community, yes, but also it's kind of his thumb in his nose at

Hollywood saying, I can build my own. And there are a lot of lessons in that. Well, I would say a thumb, but I would also say, you can call it an F-U, but you can also call it a- I was trying to clean it up. No, but you also say that I'm not going to spend a whole lot of time begging you. I keep telling people this story.

People keep talking about his TV shows and TBS deal. Everybody forgets. Tyler Perry had a development deal with ABC. He was shooting a pilot for ABC. They sent notes back saying, hey, we really think that you're using Jesus a little too much. So could you just take all those extra Jesuses out of the show?

And Tyler was like, okay, I'm just gonna leave. He literally walked away. Now, you're told, are you crazy? You had a development deal with ABC? And he was like, yeah, but I wasn't gonna let somebody sit here and tell me. Yeah, because you spent all your time arguing

instead of creating your own thing and controlling your own content. Well, because of Issa Rae. When she had a development deal initially, I think it was with ABC. What happened there was there were so many notes being given. And she's like, okay, okay, okay, that her original vision completely was gone.

And guess what? She never got picked up. So she said she went, when I interviewed her, and folks, y'all go to our YouTube channel, you can watch this interview. And she went back and she regrouped and she's like, you know what, I'm not doing that again. Right.

And so when she did Insecure, her deal was she was more secure saying, no, no, no, this is my vision. This is what I'm going to do. Right. And it should become successful because she adhered to the original vision. And I think what's important, your point about if they are not going to say, you know, come to our table.

I mean, I tell people straight up, when News 1 Now got canceled, when I said, I'm going to do this here, when we did the State of Our Union, so what happened was Now got canceled, when I said, I'm going to do this here, when we did the State of Our Union. So what happened was, we get canceled December 2017. Trump gives his State of the Union address in January. Frederica Wilson announced she wasn't going to attend.

Maxine Waters announced she wasn't going to attend. And I'm like, no, we got to do something. We got to do something. So what I decided was, I said, I'm going to launch this show. I did. I was in makeup, and an hour from going live at Shiloh, my phone rings.

And it's Tyler Perry. And Tyler Perry calls, and he said, man, I'm watching you on YouTube, bro. You are the absolute truth. He said, please, he said, man, you're our voice who's speaking truth in this way. He said, please tell me you're planning something I said matter of fact, I am now mind you

Tyler Perry had my number. I have his number. I was sitting here, you know, we would see what you're on the red carpet we never even had a conversation longer than five minutes and He's then I told him he said he and I love it, that it's independent. Right. And so, even now, when people come up to me and they say, man, why don't I see you on MSNBC or CNN or Fox? I say, guys, look... It's all about content control, narrative control.

I have to wait for them to call me. Right. And they... So I said... So, like, there was a point in 2017, in 2015, MSNBC was calling me constantly for Morning Joe. And all of a sudden, call stopped. Trump gets elected. All the shows are blowing me up for four months.

Four or five times a week. And all of a sudden, call stopped. And then it's been intermittent since then. Like, I might get a call. I might... It might be two months. It might be one month. It might be three, four months.

And so, why am I to sit there and just like, man, I got all this stuff to say, we can do this here, but I'm waiting on them. I'm waiting on them to give... Look, I got the TV One show because I was sitting in John Klein's office at CNN and they had promised me a show. And then after I filled in for Cameron Brown in 2009,

they said, we're not going to launch a show. And they claimed it was about advertising. Well, I know that was BS because Southwest Airlines, the guy who was over Tom Callahar over their budget, had already said, we're going to be your primary sponsor. I brought the advertisers to the table. So the point there for people who need to understand,

we could have easily sat there and just waited. For them, like, well, hopefully they'll come around. No, we're going to build this. And then we're going to keep building it. We're going to keep building it. And that's what you have to do.

And I think for a lot of people, they're looking for, let me be real clear. Validation. White validation. I got to say that. A lot of people are looking for white validation. They're looking for validation from these other networks. And I told y'all the other day, and I sent the commentary to Tyler, and he loved it.

Black people. Tyler Perry's commitment to black people and the black consumer built that studio. Those were black... He didn't worry about crossing over. They said, no, no, no, Madea is for this audience. And the rest of y'all like it too, that's fine. And that shows the power of the black consumer.

And I just hope black people, the reason I keep showing y'all these photos and these videos, I need black people to see that it was not a black creative, talented businessman who built the studio. It was the dollars he earned from black people that built the studio. Yeah. That's right. That's right.

And that's the thing that... And he remained committed to his black audience on top of all of that. So he didn't walk away. He didn't take the money and walk away. He took the money and reinvested it in them and continued to put out product and content. Instead of being a small fish in a big pond,

he created the pond. Right. He said, I'm gonna build a big pond, he created the pond. Right, right. He said, I'm gonna build my own pond. And he can do the... Gotta believe in yourself to do that. It's about the content and the control of the narrative and the control of the content and the ownership. That's it. No, I mean, that's...

If you don't have that, you are always on somebody else's playing field, no matter what. That's it. And that's why, that's why, and all of y'all who are watching, I keep trying to tell you this, and y'all think I'm crazy, and y'all sitting here saying, oh, my goodness, you know, here it goes again.

But no, here's the reality. The reality is, if we don't construct our own show, then we're asking them, can y'all talk about the Joshua Brown story in depth? Mm-hmm. None of these networks, not one of them are gonna have that conversation about South Sudan in that amount of time.

Ain't gonna happen. Not one of them are gonna have the conversation that we had in depth yesterday with a brother who was a state representative in Missouri who left because of PTSD. And so we have to understand that, but you got to fund it. I'm not selling you a movie

so you bought tickets to go see Madea. What we're selling right here is a daily news show that nobody else is doing. I'll do the roll call. TV One ain't doing it. BET's not doing it. Aspire's not doing call. TV One ain't doing it. BET's not doing it. Aspire's not doing it. Cleo's not doing it.

BET Her is not doing it. Own is not doing it. Revolt is not doing it. They're airing the Breakfast Club, but that's not the same. And you have Bounce. They're not doing it. Eight Networks are not doing it.

Essence is not doing a daily show. The Source is not doing a daily show. Black Enterprise is not doing it. The Griot is not doing it. The Root is not doing it. Worldstar Hip Hop is not doing it. Media Takeout is not doing it. Boss Up is not doing it. We can go down the line.

So what's the problem here? We do not have daily access to information that's targeted to us in the way that we're presenting it. We don't have a place where African-Americans who they have not already decided, oh, we're going to use you to come on and hone their voices. That's why this matters. Tyler dedicated, it's not just those studios, people at those sound stages, he created his own walk of fame for the people who he first gave them their movie shot. So when you go to his studio,

he has his own walk of fame. So Denise Boutte, Zla Hanano, and many others, they have their own stars, people who got their shot by being in his movies. And so the same thing. And so we have to think that way. And to Lauren's point, it's the content, and do you own it?

Do you control it? I'm going to end this this way. What y'all need to understand is how we're going to close the show out. When I was at CNN, Winnie Mandela came to the United States. And you got to remember, she was not allowed to roam freely in the United States because she was still on the United States watch list.

So she was in Birmingham at a black church in Birmingham. And CNN calls me. They couldn't get any, all those anchors and reporters and correspondents, nobody wanted to go interview Winnie Mandela. So they asked me. So I fly down to Birmingham. I couldn't get any... All those anchors and reporters and correspondents, nobody wanted to go interview Wendy Mandela, so they asked me. So I fly down to Birmingham. We're waiting forever. I got a flight to catch.

I'm like, man, when's she getting here? So she comes in. We have 15 minutes. So she sits down, and we do the interview. And interview's over. Great. I fly out. Police escort to the airport. I get out of there, it goes to Atlanta. I get a phone call a couple days later.

We're watching the interview, and why didn't you ask her this question? Why didn't you ask her about the tire, what she got, convicted tires around the neck? I said, why in the hell y'all knew the interview? I asked her what I wanted to ask her. If y'all wanted her to answer a certain question, one of y'all should get the interview.

They said, we're not going to run the interview. I went, fine. I hit John Klein, who was the president of CNN in the U.S., and I said, John, I want the tape. They're not going to run it. They're not gonna run it. I'm gonna run it on my TV One show, Washington Watch, this weekend. I got the tape, took it to the CNN Washington DC Bureau.

It was a big-ass reel, y'all. It was like a, like a big... It looked like this. A big blue, blue box. I said, I need y'all, I said, to, uh, pop this sucker onto a digital file and give it to me. We ran that on Washington Watch. When Wendy Mandela died last year,

we were in Memphis doing interviews for MLK 50. And I was interviewing Randall Robinson, Reverend Jesse Jackson Sr. We live-streamed that interview. The only reason you saw an interview of Wendy Mandela and me discussing her legacy was because I said, give me the tape, and we ran it on TV One. The point is this. We can't ask somebody else, will you please tell our story? You got to create your platforms first, and you got to control the content,

which means you got to fund it. So if you're buying two tickets to go see a Madea movie and it costs you 20, 25 bucks, all I'm asking you to do is spend the equivalent of two tickets or four tickets at 50 bucks to support Roland Martin Unfiltered because it also has to remain independent. That is the difference. Tyler is not controlled by a single studio, by a single television network. He's able to create the product in his vision in terms of how he wants to do it to serve the consumer. And that's what our goal here is, RollerMart Unfiltered. So go to RollerMartUnfiltered.com, folks. We want you to, of course, utilize a Cash App,

PayPal, Square to do so. This is what this is about. I'm not interested in asking any other network for permission to talk to and about black people. We can do it ourselves, but we can't do it without you. If you're watching for free, understand this ain't free. Staff don't work for free. This equipment is not free.

That $5,000 encoder I just bought, that sucker was not free. We need your support to make it happen, so please do so, rollermartininfiltrator.com. Tomorrow, another example of what happens when you are free. You can cover your people. I will be in Atlanta tomorrow.

Reverend Dr. Joseph Lowry turns 98 years old. Three years ago, we were there for this big awards ceremony. He told his daughters, I don't want no awards ceremony. I want a party. And so tomorrow night at the Depot in Atlanta, I'll be broadcasting live not only the show from there, but we'll be broadcasting the program as well from Atlanta tomorrow. Friday, I'll be in Denver at the Potter's House, Denver,

for our school choice is the Black Choice Town Hall. So, folks, that's what happens when you control your own platform. And as the first black newspaper said, we wish to plead our own cause to long have others spoken for us. We don't need nobody speaking for us. Support us in what we do.

I got to go. Holler! I got to go holler this is an iHeart podcast